The Passion Of Greg The Bunny: Best Of The Film
Parodies Volume Two (The IFC
Original Series/Genius DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: A- Episodes: B
The
puppet void in your life will be filled with felt and buttons once again as
Greg the Bunny returns for round two with The
Passion of Greg the Bunny: Best of the Film Parodies Volume 2. The series returns to DVD once more with the
same hilarious format of committing sins of puppet satire. The films under puppet scrutiny this time
around are not necessary the world’s best films, but completely parody worthy.
The sex,
drug and violence crazed puppets manage to stuff a ton of hilarious content
into just a few parodies. The parodies
on this release include:
Wumpus the Monster (Monster)
A very
funny parody starring Wumpus that explores why no one wants to work with
monsters. The Patty Jenkins sketch is
executed very well, but the best part of the episode occurs at the beginning
where the crew is just finishing up a Clockwork
Orange sketch that this reviewer can only imagine would be more than
amazing to see in its full glory. Wumpus
dressed as a droog is just amazing.
Sockville (Dogville)
Greg gets
injured on set and in a chalkboard set world and somehow manages to get himself
into a sexually oppressive situation in his strange dream world. The exploration of Lars Von Trier’s work is
actually done quite well and funny at that.
Blue Velveteen (Blue Velvet)
Another
sexually graphic puppet satire occurs with the parody of David Lynch’s Blue
Velvet, with Warren ‘the monkey’ uncannily doing a good job playing Dennis
Hopper’s part. Some of the scenes in
this parody even made this reviewer want to ‘spit out his water.’ Let’s just say this blue velvet is not so
soft.
Side
Note: The crew is
finishing up a Dune sketch at the
beginning of this parody; this reviewer is more than sure a Dune parody would be simply amazing.
Plush Behind the Seams (VH1’s Behind the Music)
Though
this parody has been done a million times before by series such as The Simpsons and Family Guy; Greg the Bunny
puts an intelligent, yet grotesque spin on an over used concept that makes it
seem fresh. The parody airs out the
dirty laundry of Greg and Warren’s once popular 80’s band, Plush, as they
attempt to make a new album. A special
guest arrives in the form of Skuzz, who Warren carelessly and seemingly
unregretfully paralyzed. Hilarious.
Wacky
Wednesday (Freaky Friday)
Greg and
Warren switch bodies in the classic (and maybe overused) plot. The parody ends in side-splitting
consequences where Warren is trying to land Greg a Cadbury Egg commercial and
Greg is trying to keep Warren out of jail as he testifies in court; neither of
whom are doing a very good job.
The
Passion of the Easter Bunny – Fabricated American Movie (Passion of the Christ/American
Movie)
In
probably the best Greg the Bunny
parody to date, Greg, inspired by Mel Gibson, decides to make his own religious
film of the life, crucifixion, resurrection, and abduction of the Easter Bunny
(yes, I said Easter Bunny). The parody
is just pure chaos and hysteria as it concurrently is parodying Mark
Borchardt’s American Movie, who
arrives on set along with Mike Schank to help Greg make the supposedly
inspirational film. The parody is pure
blasphemy and does it well. Even the big
JC might have a laugh at this one.
As an
overall evaluation of this set, this reviewer would have to call it an amazing
venture in puppet pandemonium. The
creators’ ability to intermix the completely inappropriate with an intelligent
level of film satire is admirable and insanely amusing.
The
content remains impressive on this second Greg the Bunny set even though the
material has been cut down by more than half, now only being 6 episodes on a
single disc, but the length has remained the same at 200 minutes; the episodes
are just longer now. The picture was once again shot in High Definition
and remains presented in a 1.78 X 1 Anamorphic Widescreen. The picture is
bright, clean and crisp throughout with little to no issues, but would look
better on Blu-Ray. The sound is
presented in a Dolby Digital format that adds nothing too exciting to the
presentation, but gets the job done.
The
extras once again impressive offering fans of the series a puppety plethora of
fun. The special features amazingly
include such gems as commentaries by the series creators, a hilarious and
sexually charged Gag Reel, a photo gallery, Deleted Scenes and Outtakes, Greg
and Warren’s first music video (a throwback to the ‘Plush: Behind the Seams’ sketch), an uncut version of ‘Supper with Friends,’ a Greg the Bunny
reunion special, a behind the scenes with Greg
the Bunny featurette, and best of all a look back at the beginning of Greg
the Bunny with ‘Never Before Seen Clips
from Greg the Bunny’s Early Days on Public Access TV.’ The look back at the start of Greg the Bunny
as he trolls the streets of NYC and interacting with the public is pure fun
with hysterical consequences. It just
seems impressive to this reviewer that in an age when the studios skimp on DVD
extras and release ‘special editions’ that are still not so special, a nice and
small release like Greg the Bunny is overflowing with extras.
Greg the Bunny is a great series that this
reviewer truly enjoys. The parodies are
just as good as the ones found on Volume
1 (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and in some cases even better. The series is definitely meant for film buffs
and a more mature audience. As this
reviewer has said in the past, Greg, Warren, and the rest of the crew may seem
like cute, lovable, furred creatures, but they drink and swear enough to make a
sailor blush. The parody infused
episodes are full of quick movie and director references that if you blink you
may miss; so the series has a great rewatchable quality to it that could stump
even hardcore film addicts. They may not
be the Muppets, but this button eyed crew could drink the Jim Henson lot under
the table (sorry Fozzy).
- Michael P. Dougherty II
