Mini-DVD Review: Darkwing Duck - Volume 2 (Aug. 7)

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Mini-DVD Review: Darkwing Duck - Volume 2 (Aug. 7)

Welcome to another edition of the Saturday mini-DVD reviews! Today we take a look at Walt Disney Home Entertainment's Darkwing Duck: Volume 2. The series was very popular in the early '90s on Disney's very popular syndicated block called The Disney Afternoon. Darkwing Duck was a crime-fighting duck who kept the city of St. Carnard safe. As with all of the shows in the Disney Afternoon, it was action and adventure filled! See my mini-DVD reviews of this wonderful cartoon:

Darkwing Duck: Volume 2 (Walt Disney, $34.99) brings the next 27 half hours on DVD on a 3-disc set in this second volume set. So we now have the first 54 episodes on DVD! I believe the series had 91 in total, so we are more than half way done now. Join Drake Mallard turn into Darkwing Duck, along with help from Launchpad (from DuckTales), and Darkwing's adopted nine-year old daughter Gosalyn keep the city of St. Canard safe from villains like Bushroot and Negaduck. Gizmoduck from DuckTales even pops in from time to time to help out. The packaging on this set is similar in style to volume one. We get an outer box holding three slim cases. The box art features Darkwing in a night background holding up two fingers. The back of the box has three screenshots along with a yellow box showcasing info on the series and set. A nice picture of Launchpad is also there. The slim case art is different for each three...first we get Gosalyn, Darkwing and Launchpad falling from a building it seems, the second slim case has Darkwing and Gosalyn on a pirate ship and the third slim case has Darkwing hanging from a rope. The back of each slim case we have an episode list for each disc, three screenshots, a feature photo, and some words describing the series. Inside the slim cases we have no art, just plain white, the discs are on the right side of each. Each disc is blue with an artwork featuring the same art as the cover of each respective slim case.
Like the first volume, the episodes are in airdate order starting with the episode "All's Fahrenheit in Love and War" and ending with "The Darkwing Squad." The episodes all run in the 22:40-45 range or so, give or take a second. The menu screen has Play All, Set Up, and Episode Selection, with the closing theme song with sound effects in the background. Disc one also has a Sneak Peeks option, where see sneak peeks at other Disney movies/DVDs. Also on disc one there are auto trailers before the main menu starts...don't you just hate that? When we go to episode selection, the episodes are listed with a square screenshot from the episode. The Set Up option has Audio Options and Subtitles...Audio can be English or French, and subtitles only in English. We have about 5 chapter stops per episode. The menu is designed quite well and is easy to navigate, like volume one. The video and audio are both very good and on par with volume one. I highly do recommend any fan to pick up this set, especially if you have Volume 1. If you never saw the show, pick it up because it is very fun and they certainly don't make cartoons like they used to! So buy this DVD and start saying, "I am the terror that flaps in the night...I am Darkwing Duck!" But you better hurry before that toy-maker Quackerjack takes all the DVDs!
-- Reviewed by Pavan