Angry
Birds Toons: Season One, Volume Two
(2013/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture:
A Sound: B- Extras: B Episodes: C
When
I first heard about this animated Angry Birds Toons release, I
was puzzled how it would even be possible to derive a story from the
challenging iPad game. Is it a simple cash in to capitalize on the
popularity of the video game? Absolutely! While it's done in a
Looney Tunes-esque fashion, with cue cards at the beginning of
the end of each short episode (ranging between three and five minutes
a piece) and over the top cartoony violence and sound effects. The
animation is actually quite good as is the overall production value
of the show. I just think its appeal is limited really only to small
children and not really any age range higher due mainly to the
ineffectiveness of the stories and the punch lines at the end of the
show. The characters never mutter a word of dialogue, just weird
grunts and groans and childish laughter (not unlike the Minions from
the Despicable Me Movies) and like the video game no
characters have arms or legs.
Welcome
back to Piggy-Island, where the Angry Birds survival is at stake!
Join Red, Chuck, Matilda, Bomb, the Blues and Terence as they
continue to hatch up schemes to foil the sneaky Bad Piggies who plot
to steal their eggs. Will our heroes defeat the evil Piggies once
and for all? Find out in these 26 Angry Bird Episodes!
The
picture is crisp and clear with a 1080p High Definition transfer
capturing the original 1.78.1 aspect ratio of the original broadcast.
The audio is still crisp with lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo audio
tracks, though lossless sound would have been nice. Sony did a great
job with this Blu-ray transfer.
Special
Features include Meet the Characters: Bomb Bird, Terence Chef Pig,
and Corporal Pig. 4 Never Before Seen Behind the Scenes Featurettes
where you can discover how your favorite characters came to life, and
the Easter Holiday Special entitled Easter Egg Hunt.
While
this release wasn't for me, you may enjoy it if you like wacky
cartoons or are a big fan of the Angry Birds videogame
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.vimeo.com/jamielockhart
