Sabrina The Teenage Witch – The Complete Animated
Series (1971/Filmation/Genius
DVD/Archie Comics)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C Episodes: C
Supposedly
witches are extraordinary and magical, but Sabrina is just average. In the 1970’s TV execs wanted an animated
rival to Bewitched without exactly
being Bewitched. After the enormous success of the Archie
comics and cartoon series, Filmation creators turned to another Archie Comics
favorite with Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
The plot
behind the 31 episode Sabrina the
Teenage Witch: Complete Animated Series is nothing out of this world, but
is cute and to the point. After too many
recent years of being beaten over the head with the lackluster Melissa Joan
Hart series, we now return to where it all began. The series concept is mostly the same, but a
tad different than the live action series.
Sabrina is a teenage witch (I know, I know) that is trying to get
through the struggles of high school, all while trying to conceal her identity
as a witch.
What
makes the animated series different is that whereas her crazy aunts Hilda and
Zelda are still around, in the animated version they still dress in their
witchly garb and enforce upon Sabrina that witches do not do good deeds. Sabrina struggles to find her place in the
world all while trying to balance her powers of magic with the powers of
puberty. The series is funny at times
and brings to the table many lovable characters, tons of magic, and even Salem
the cat. Samantha wiggled her nose on Bewitched and Sabrina tugs on her
earlobe, but the question is will the sassiest girl in Riverdale pull on your
magic heartstrings?
The
technical features on this 3-Disc set are not so magical and definitely leave
much to be desired. The picture is
presented in its original 1.33 X 1 full screen aspect ratio and seems very soft,
not looking as good as previous DVD sets from this series. The picture throughout has skewed colors, a
degree of blurriness, contrast issues and overall appears to simply be from bad
transfers. The sound is also lacking in
its Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono presentations, most of the time sounding very low
with a degree of background fragmentation noise. The extras are few and the few that are
present are nothing exciting. Extras
include an additional episode that features both Archie and Sabrina together,
as well as a boring art gallery.
In the
end, the Sabrina the Teenage Witch
animated series was never fantastic to begin with when comparing it to other
Filmation series, but it sure as Hilda beats the live action version. For more of the original Sabrina of this era,
see these DVD sets:
Groovie Goolies (aka Sabrina & The Groovie
Goolies)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4476/Groovie+Goolies
Archie’s Funhouse
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/6602/Archie’s+Funhouse+(1971/Filmation
- Michael P Dougherty II
