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
Monday, May 23
The Neighborhood - "Welcome to the Ring" (CBS, 8:00PM ET/PT)
As Marty prepares to propose to his girlfriend, Calvin and Tina work with party planner Chika (Gina Yashere) to throw a celebration that properly honors their future daughter-in-law’s Nigerian heritage.
Bob Hearts Abishola - "Beard in Her Pulpit" (CBS, 8:30PM ET/PT)
When a new charismatic pastor joins their congregation, Abishola is thrilled that Bob has renewed interest in church, but less so when her mother takes a new interest in the pastor. Also, when Dottie gives out bonuses to upper management, Bob must make sure he doesn’t lose his best employee.
Breeders - "No Body" (FX, 10:00PM ET/PT)
Ally and Paul learn the truth about a thing that has been terrifying them; for Ally, her job and for Paul, his MRI result; Ava and Luke both feel frozen out by the people they care most about.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of May 23)
Monday, May 23
- D'Arcy Carden (Barry/The Good Place) - Watch D'Arcy on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Billy Crystal (The Comedians/Soap) - Billy appears on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory/8 Simples Rules/Ladies Man) - Kaley is a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
- Glen Powell (Scream Queens) - Glen will be on The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
- Max Greenfield (The Neighborhood/New Girl/Modern Men) - Max appears on The Talk on CBS at 2pm ET/1pm CT-PT.
- Howie Mandel (Good Grief) - Howie is a guest on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
- Jennifer Lawrence (The Bill Engvall Show) - Jennifer will be on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
- Sherri Shepherd (Mr. Iglesias/Trial & Error/Sherri/Less Than Perfect/Suddenly Susan) - Sherri guest hosts The Wendy Williams Show, so check your local listings.
- Paul Rudd (Living with Yourself/Wild Oats) - Paul appears on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
- Jean Smart (Hacks/Samantha Who?/Center of the Universe/In-Laws/Style & Substance/Designing Women) - Jean is a guest on The Kelly Clarkson Show, so check your local listings.
- Carl Clemons-Hopkins (Hacks) - Carl will be on Tamron Hall, so check your local listings.
- Jennifer Aniston (Friends/Muddling Through/Ferris Bueller/Molloy) - Jennifer appears on a repeat of The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
- Susan Kelechi Watson (Louie) - Susan talks about This Is Us on Access Daily, so check your local listings.
- Jay Ellis (Insecure/The Game) - Jay talks about Top Gun: Maverick on ABC's GMA 3: What You Need to Know at 1pm. NBC's Today catches up with Jay in the 9am hour.
- Ron Howard (Arrested Development/Happy Days/The Andy Griffith Show) - Ron talks about We Feed People on ABC's Good Morning America sometime between 7-9am.
New on DVD/Blu-ray (February-May)
02/08 - Last Man Standing - The Complete Ninth Season
02/22 - Everybody Hates Chris - The Complete Series (2022 Release)
02/22 - Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. - The Complete Series (2022 Release)
03/08 - Brooklyn Nine-Nine - Season Eight
03/08 - Brooklyn Nine-Nine - The Complete Series (Blu-ray) (DVD)
03/15 - Head of the Class - The Complete Fourth Season
03/15 - The Proud Family - The Complete Original Series - Anniversary Collection
03/22 - The Honeymooners Specials - The Complete Collection
03/29 - Rick and Morty - The Complete Seasons 1-5 (Blu-ray) (DVD)
03/29 - Young Rock - Season One
04/05 - Up All Night - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
04/26 - The Danny Thomas Show (aka Make Room for Daddy) - The Complete Fourth Season
04/26 - Jackie Gleason TV Treasures - 70th Anniversary Collection (including Honeymooners Rarities)
05/03 - No Activity - Season Three
05/31 - Becker - The Complete Series (2022 Release)
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