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
Wednesday, January 27
The Goldbergs - "Cocoon" (ABC, 8:00PM ET/PT)
Beverly enlists the help of Erica, who has recently declared pre-law as her major, to sue her cookbook publisher after finding her book in the bargain bin at a bookstore. Meanwhile, Adam and Pops bond while taking a trip on the wild side after Adam convinces Pops to fall back into some youthful adventures.
American Housewife - "Under Pressure" (ABC, 8:30PM ET/PT)
Greg ropes Katie into a double date with Principal Ablin (Jerry Lambert) and Maria (Julie Meyer) in an attempt to further his political aspirations. Meanwhile, Anna-Kat’s new found popularity at school proves to be overwhelming.
The Conners - "Promotions, Podcasts and Magic Tea" (ABC,
9:00PM ET/PT)
Darlene earns a promotion at Wellman Plastics, while Ben decides on a new career path. Meanwhile, Jackie tries an herbal tea leading to an emotional revelation.
Call Your Mother - "Quaran-Jean (ABC, 9:30PM ET/PT)
After the secret gets out that Jean came to L.A. to check on Freddie but not Jackie during quarantine, Jean plans a girls’ night for just her and Jackie to bond, but it doesn’t go as smoothly as planned. Meanwhile, Celia grows frustrated with Freddie always counting on his mother to take care of him and confronts him for taking Jean’s advice over hers.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of January 25)
Wednesday, January 27
- Leslie Odom Jr. (Central Park/Big Day) - Watch Leslie on Jimmy Kimmel Live! at 11:35pm on ABC.
- Rami Malek (The War at Home) - Rami appears on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Billy Crystal (The Comedians/Soap) - Billy is a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert at 11:35pm on CBS.
- Stanley Tucci (Central Park) - Stanley will be on Late Night with Seth Meyers at 12:36am on NBC.
- Adam DeVine (Workaholics/Modern Family) - Adam appears on The Late Late Show with James Corden at 12:37am on CBS.
- Kyra Sedgwick (Call Your Mother) - Kyra chats with the ladies of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- Ted Danson (Mr. Mayor/The Good Place/Becker/Cheers) - Ted appears on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, so check your local listings.
- Drew Carey (The Drew Carey Show/The Good Life) - Drew plays fan-favorite Clock Game for members of her VFFs for a chance to win cash and prizes on The Drew Barrymore Show, so check your local listings.
- Nico Santos (Superstore) - Nico talks about the new season of Superstore on Rachael Ray, so check your local listings.
- Yara Shahidi (grown-ish/black-ish) - Yara talks about Freeform's grown-ish on Access Daily, so check your local listings.
- Gina Yashere (Bob Hearts Abishola) - Gina talks about Bob Hearts Abishola on The Wendy Williams Show, so check your local listings.
New on DVD/Blu-ray (September-January)
09/01 - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Season 14
09/01 - What We Do in the Shadows - The Complete Second Season
09/01 - Young Sheldon - The Complete Third Season (Blu-ray)
09/15 - Mom - The Complete Seventh Season
09/15 - South Side - Season 1
09/22 - Brockmire - The Complete Second Season
09/22 - Brockmire - The Complete Third Season
09/22 - Brockmire - The Complete Fourth Season
09/22 - Man with a Plan - Season Three
09/29 - The Bob Newhart Show - The Complete Series (2020 Release)
10/13 - The Jetsons - The Complete Series (Diamond Collection)
10/13 - Our Cartoon President - Season Two
10/23 - Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em - The Complete Collection
10/27 - The Flintstones - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
10/27 - Head of the Class - The Complete Second Season (WBShop.com)
11/10 - Letterkenny - Seasons 5 & 6
11/10 - The Office - The Complete Series (Blu-ray)
11/10 - Schitt's Creek - The Complete Collection
11/17 - Carol's Second Act - The Complete Series
11/17 - Robbie - Season 1
11/24 - Corporate - Season 1
11/26 - Man with a Plan - Season Four
12/01 - The Neighborhood - Season Two
12/15 - Avenue 5 - The Complete First Season
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