Saturday, August 06, 2011
Digital Digest: Rocko's Modern Life - Season One DVD Review; The Smurfs - A Magical Smurf Adventure DVD Review
DVD Review - Rocko's Modern Life - Season One
by skees53
Rocko's Modern Life - Season One (Shout!, $19.99) collects the first 13 episodes of the classic Nickelodeon series about a wallaby just trying to make it in America in a two disc set. Along with his loyal canine, Spunky, and dim-witted best friend and neighbor, Heffer, Rocko tries his hardest to confront the trials and tribulations of, well, modern life. The series has been released before through CreateSpace on Amazon.com, but this is the first time the series has been on an actual pressed DVD.
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In the '80s, one of the most popular animated series was The Smurfs. Join them on a DVD magical "smurf" adventure, just in time for the new feature film, that has done big at the box office already! Here is our review of "The Smurfs: A Magical Smurf Adventure."
DVD Review - The Smurfs: A Magical Smurf Adventure
by Pavan
The Smurfs: A Magical Smurf Adventure (Warner, $14.98) brings us ten more episodes from the second season on DVD of the classic Saturday morning animated series that lasted nearly a decade. Handy, Hefty, Grouchy, Brainy, Jokey, Clumsy, Lazy, Dreamy, Smurfette, Papa Smurf and more of your favorite little blue people bring you the greatest show on Smurf are all back in more fun "magical" adventures. For some reason they have gone away from the season sets the past few releases of The Smurfs. The previous three sets were single disc sets of five episodes each from season two. This time they have upped it to two discs with ten episodes. So it is getting better at least! So get your 'smurf on' for The Smurfs!
The first two releases we ever had were a season set of the first season, split into two volumes. Then the next three releases were "volume" releases for season two with five episodes each. For this set we have ten episodes. They are not in any order it seems...just five randomly picked episodes from season two again. The Smurfs was a half-hour series and most of the episodes consisted of two fifteen minute episodes. So, on this set we don't get the full episode, just one of those fifteen minute episodes. There were some half-hours that just had one full half-hour episode and we have some of those on here as well. Each episode on this set has the opening and closing credits even if the other fifteen minute episode is missing from this set. Oh well. Some of the episodes even have a 15-25 second preview of the episode before the opening credits. On this set among the stories see are that Lazy is tricked by the other Smurfs into believing he has slept his life away. A bunch of disgruntled Smurfs try to get even with a human army that has rampaged the village. Johan, Peewit, and the Smurfs search for the magic fountain to energize an enslaved people. Lazy is led to believe that he has only a few days left to live, encouraging him to do some physical feats he hasn't thought of doing before. The Smurfs find a way to douse the flames of a fire-breathing dragon being used by an evil master to capture slaves for his diamond mine.
Here are the episodes and runtimes:
Disc 1
1. Smurf Van Winkle (14:11)
2. Revenge of the Smurfs (14:11)
3. The Magic Fountain (26:04)
4. Smurf Me No Flowers (13:48)
5. The Cursed Country (22:00)
Disc 2
6. The Blue Plague (24:05)
7. The Ring of Castellac (25:43)
8. A Mere Truffle (24:19)
9. Gormandizing Greedy (14:05)
10. Sister Smurf (12:07))
Let's now move on to the packaging. We have a very thin movie-style keep case. The front cover has Papa Smurf and some of the other Smurfs around him as they battle a dragon on the grass. The title of the show is on the top, with a mention below that that this is "A Magical Smurf Adventure." To the back of the case we go, we get a nice synopsis of the series and set, along with a list of episodes and special features. We see five Smurfs, including Smurfette on the green grass at their mushroom houses. When we open the case, on the right side we see the discs. The first disc is in a black little holder that we can flip like a page in a book. The second disc is on the right panel itself. There is no artwork on the panels. Disc artwork is plain gray with green lettering and a Smurf drawn in green.
The menu screens are very nice in white background. On the main menu, we see the Papa Smurf with two little mushrooms. The catchy theme is playing in the background. Auto trailes play before the main menu comes on disc one only with trailers for Scooby Doo and Snoopy. Options for the main menu are: Play, Episodes, Special Features, and Languages. Languages has an option to turn on English subtitles. Episodes have a list of episodes obviously. And Special Features list the two featurettes and trailers for some Leggo thing.
The video and audio is OK...it is not as good as the first season sets to me. They have cheapened these single disc and two-disc sets ever since they went away from the season set. The packaging doesn't state that the episodes are remastered like they were with the first season sets. I am still disappointed, since the first season sets were remastered. One good thing they have added on this set are chapter stops, but only for the episodes that were the full half-hours. We have five or six chapter stops for those episodes. See the runtimes over 22 minutes above to see which episodes have chapter stops. That 22 minute episodes might be edited as the other full episodes are a few minutes longer. But I'm not 100% sure.
As for special features, we get two featurettes. "Smurf Speak" (2:17) is a comical featurette on how the word "smurf" is used so much in the Smurfs vocabulary. Smurf to it. What the smurf. You can use the word in any sentence. We have clips and a nice narration. It is more fun than informative. The second featurette is "Smurftastic Moments" (4:59) and on this we are again given the same narrator as the previous featurette. On this one though they are counting down the top ten "smurftastic moments." How smurfy!
I do recommend this set for any Smurfs fan, but I just wish we get full season sets instead of these. The set is not Smurftastic, as the first season sets but this set is a little better than the previous three "volume" releases. I hope they are just marketing this for non-fans or casual fans and continue with the season sets soon. I doubt it though since season two episodes are only being put into these best-of sets. The special features are better than the past few releases, but still needs more. I wasn't too pleased with the episode situation being split in two volumes for season one, but now I will take that back in a heartbeat. The episodes on this set are of course great but some don't look or sound great. However, some look and sound really good. I hope the full season two is out very soon, even if it is in two releases, as I'll take two volumes anyway over this best-of releases. So get your smurf on and buy this set to see ten smurftastic episodes! It's pure smurftainment!
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Sitcoms Airing Tonight / Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows
Monday, May 5
The Neighborhood - "Welcome to Pomp and Circumstance" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Tina and Gemma plan a joint graduation party for Malcolm and Grover, on part one of the hour-long seventh season finale.
The Neighborhood - "Welcome to Venice" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT)
The Butlers and Johnsons help Malcolm start a new chapter in a new city that, while just across town, is worlds away from the neighborhood, on part two of the hour-long seventh season finale.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of May 5)
Monday, May 5
- David Spade (Rules of Engagement/8 Simple Rules/Just Shoot Me!) - Watch David on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC. He also chats about his new comedy special Dandelion on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
- Jim Gaffigan (The Jim Gaffigan Show/My Boys/The Ellen Show/Welcome to New York) - Jim appears on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Chloe Fineman (Big Mouth/Search Party) - Chloe is a guest on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Connie Britton (SMILF/Lost at Home/The Fighting Fitzgeralds/Spin City) - Connie appears on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen at 9pm on Bravo.
- Will Forte (The Four Seasons/HouseBroken/MacGruber/The Last Man on Earth/The Cleveland Show) - Will stops by Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen at 9pm on Bravo.
- Hugh Jackman (Human REsources) - Hugh chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Wanda Sykes (The Upshaws/The New Adventures of Old Christine/Wanda at Large) - Wanda stops by to talk about marriage, motherhood, and her latest comedy tour, Please and Thank You, on Sherri, so check your local listings.
- Melissa Rauch (Night Court/The Big Bang Theory) - Melissa talks about Netflix's Night Court on Access Daily with Mario & Kit, so check your local listings.
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02/04 - The Wayans Bros. - The Complete Series
03/11 - Frasier (2023) - Season Two
04/01 - Abbott Elementary - The Complete Third Season
05/13 - The Drew Carey Show - The Complete Series* (missing 4 episodes and some music has been replaced or altered)
06/06 - Shoresy - Season 2
06/17 - Looney Tunes - Collector's Vault - Volume 1 (Blu-ray)
07/08 - Bewitched - The Complete Series - 60th Anniversary Special Edition (Blu-ray)
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