02.06
DaemonCorps @ 12:25 pm PST — For the handful of y’all who have actually discovered this blog, don’t worry, we haven’t all been killed off by the mob or anything. With Avaitor still working on his review for Freakazoid Season 1, I figured I’d distract you with not only a nice new banner for the blog, but a review of my own for Tiny Toon Adventures Season 1, Volume 1.
If you grew up in the late eighties or early to mid nineties, chances are you’ve heard of Tiny Toon Adventures. At first glance, it looks like WB’s cheap way of appealing to the kiddies by making kid-i-fied versions of the classic Loony Toons. While that’s true to a point, that doesn’t take away from the show’s greatness, making a new generation of Toon-sters fans out there.
PACKAGING:
When we were first shown the box art for both the Tiny Toons and Freakazoid (which has also been released on DVD July 29th) I assumed that it would be similar to the packaging for the Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain Season sets – nice, solid, fancy-schmancy digipacks. So, I was surprised when I go straight to the DVD section of Target to see that both shows are packaged slightly differently. Sure, the basic setup is the same as the A! and P&B sets, but instead of digipacks, we are treated to something else entirely. The DVDs are packaged in a clear standard-sized DVD case, with some funky-looking thingies to hold the four DVDs. They took advantage of the whole “clear DVD box” thing and printed on the back side of the DVD cover the episodes and which disc you may find them on. On top of all that, the DVD itself is given a cardboard sleeve, with the same cover as the one on the DVD itself (Yes, I know that pictures would be a big help right now).
To make things even stranger, the final disc is double sided – you know, that whole dealie with there being stuff on one side of the disc, and then turning it over and there being more stuff on the other side. Think cassette tapes except you can’t afford to get either side scratched up. The front cover said “4 discs” so I assumed we’d get one disc for each main character (Buster, Babs, Hamton and Plucky). Well… I was part right. They had 3/4 of the cast covered. So who got the boot? Plucky, of course (the duck gets no love). Ugh, I don’t really like double sided discs that much. Sure, the save space but they save space at a really crappy price. I feel the need to wear gloves and surround the set with pillows whenever taking out that fourth disc.
Quite the step down from their previous cartoon releases. Perhaps this has something to do with that “WB 30% post-recycled content” icon on the back of the cover…
CONTENT:
Considering that the first season is a whopping 65 episodes long, it makes sense for them to split up the season into (what I’m assuming will be) two volumes. The episodes themselves are not said to be remastered in any way and are the same quality as you would expect a well-taken-care-of VHS tape to be in: pretty clear, but still a tad on the grainy side. We hear from big companies that try to sell their product that they’ve gone back and remastered their footage (ie: Disney’s animated movies) but we still have to deal with stuff like this. It’s no big deal, really, but it just irks me to know that we could have gotten a clearer picture. I could be wrong, but I think it’s safe to assume that the episode masters are being kept by WB someplace just waiting for a nice remastering…
Having finally gone through the entire set, I can proudly say that most of the episodes still hold up. Then again, I could just be biased in that I remember watching these episodes in reruns while they played on Nickelodeon – you always have to consider the whole nostalgia factor. Not to go off on a tangent, but the previous season set I picked up before this was the final volume for Garfield and Friends. While I followed the series back when it was on Nick, as well, I still had no recollection of watching those later episodes, probably because Nick only picked up the earlier ones. With that in mind, I just didn’t enjoy those later Garfield episodes that much.
But even ignoring the whole nostalgia factor, I really think these episodes hold up in that they’re incredibly witty: something most kids’ cartoons seem to just be picking up on. The only thing is that this show was made back in 1990, so there are a bunch of weird references that the kiddies may not understand, like some references to Cher, Roseanne and even the ’89 Batman movie. Heck, I can’t even say that I get all the celebrity references myself! Taking that into consideration, some episodes will definitely be best enjoyed by the older audience, who will most likely be the ones buying these sets, anyways.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The one special feature is on the final disc, and is a short documentary on the series. In a nutshell, I don’t really think it was anything special. It went over a good amount of what lead up to the making of Tiny Toons, but didn’t do the best job of actually covering the show itself. Eh, it was worth a watch, but I wouldn’t go back to it again, any time soon.
An awesome buy overall, though. The packaging may have been an upset on my part, but the episodes still hold up and since I actually remember these episodes, I can actually enjoy them while making dinner or whatnot without the fear of missing anything “new.” Daemon-approved thumbs-up!
Originally posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008.