Adventure
Time: The Complete Sixth Season
(2015/Cartoon Network/Warner Blu-ray Set)/Beauty
& The Beast: 25th
Anniversary Edition/Signature Collection
(1991/Disney Blu-ray w/DVD)/Charlie
Brown's All Stars!
(1968/Warner DVD)/A Very
Nick Jr. Christmas
(2016/Nickelodeon DVD)/The
Venture Bros.: Season Six
(2015 - 2016/Adult Swim/Cartoon Network/Warner Blu-ray)/We
Bare Bears: Viral Video
(2016/Cartoon Network/Warner DVD)
Picture:
B/B & C+/C+/C+/B/C+ Sound: C+/B & C+/C+/C+/B/C+
Extras: C/B/C+/D/C+/D Main Programs: B-/B/C+/C+/B-/B-
Here
is our latest group of children's reviews, including two major hit
series, an animated classic, a interesting TV gem and a new classic
to be...
Adventure
Time: The Complete Sixth Season
(2015) is back with more fun with Jake and Finn, a huge hit show for
Cartoon Network we have covered before in DVD singles and the
following Blu-ray Season
sets for those unfamiliar to the show...
One
& Two
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12257/Adventure+Time+%E2%80%93+The+Complete+Fi
Five
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/13655/Adventure+Time+-+The+Complete+Fifth+Season
We
get 43 tales of fun and humor this time over two Blu-ray discs and I
give the creators and makers credit for keeping up the energy and
pace. Sadly, we just heard that the show will soon be ending.
Still, If they are quitting soon, at least they'll be doing so while
they're still on top.
Extras
this time includes Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable
and other cyber iTunes capable devices, while the Blu-rays add Song
Demos, Animatics, a featurette and Concept Art.
Beauty
& The Beast: 25th
Anniversary Edition/Signature Collection
(1991) takes the previous Disney Blu-ray w/DVD edition we reviewed at
this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10451/Beauty+&+The+Beast+%E2%80%93+Diamond+E
...and
upgrades it oddly by making all of its extras available digitally,
but NOT on the disc. Add the fact that there is no 4K or 3D version
and this is a mixed upgrade. We get the same various versions of the
film from before, plus Menken &
Friends: 25 Years of Musical Inspiration,
#1074: Walt, Fairy Tales &
Beauty and the Beast,
Always Belle
with Paige O'Hara, The Recording Sessions, 25
Fun Facts About Beauty and the Beast,
a live-action ''Beauty and The Beast'' Sneak Peek for the new film
due in 2017, plus the digital-only access adds more not seen before
on the songs, a couple more Behind The Scenes clips with ones we've
seen before and Beauty Of
Voice Acting featurette.
Everything should be on disc, but is not and that is a problem die
hards fans and collectors will have, so they are not weighed in as
heavily when we consider them as extras as a result.
With
the latest and earliest Peanuts theatrical feature films arriving on
Blu-ray to join some early TV specials in the format issued a few
years ago, Warner has decided to issue Charlie
Brown's All Stars!
(1968) on DVD for the first time in eons. Out of the era of the
early specials, this half-hour romp expands on the gang trying to
play baseball and hitting a wall (no girls or dogs allowed in minor
or sponsored leagues!) as Charlie Brown refuses to sell them out just
to get uniforms. It is as timely as ever, has some funny moments and
is very child-friendly, no matter how much the gals yell at him for
incompetence, even when he is not guilty of any!
The
only extra here runs about 48 minutes-long (for an hour-long TV slot)
called A Charlie Brown Celebration which has the late, great
Peanuts creator Charles Schultz introducing a more abstract special
with vignettes and skits that only loosely connect. Still, it is
well done, unique among Peanuts Specials and is a perfect mate and
choice to add to the main program. The result is a decent set,
though maybe they could have added just one more program?
A
Very Nick Jr. Christmas
(2016) is a new Nickelodeon DVD compilation featuring episodes from
Blaze,
Shimmer,
the teen version of Dora,
Bubble
Guppies
and a few from Wallykazam!
tied to a holiday theme. Running over 2 hours, it is fine and all,
but why is this coming out weeks before Halloween? Odd, premature
and strange, this kind of marketing is just too much, but the disc is
still not bad.
There
are no extras.
The
Venture Bros.: Season Six
(2015 - 2016) is back from Adult Swim/Cartoon Network in what is
another one of their big comedy hits. In this case too, we have
covered many of the Warner Blu-ray Season
sets including...
Three
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8473/Venture+Bros+%E2%80%93+Season+3+(Warner
Four
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10872/Venture+Bros+%E2%80%93+Season+Four+(2009
Five
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/12647/The+Venture+Bros.+-+The+Fifth+Season+(2013/
This
is again more of the same, but the off-beat comedy and satire still
works, the show is still more than up to being different and you
don't necessarily have to see the previous season to know what is
going on.
Extras
this time includes Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable
and other cyber iTunes capable devices, while the Blu-rays add
creator audio commentary tracks, the All This and Gargantua-2
featurette and Deleted Scenes that add up to about an hour.
We
Bare Bears: Viral Video
(2016) is
the newest Cartoon Network series and the adventures of three best
bear friends (one grizzly, one panda, one polar) is absolutely
hilarious and I found huge laughs in the 12 episodes here where the
guys get into crazy adventures as they semi-integrate into the human
world. The show has some sharp satire, great observations and a
knack for comic timing I have not seen in any animated show in a very
long time. This needs to be a much bigger hit than it now is and you
should all go out of your way to see a few shows, especially from
this set. I think it could become a classic.
There
are sadly no extras.
All
three Blu-ray releases offer 1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition
image transfers that look good, have fine color and are very
consistent to view throughout, including both finished cuts of Beast,
which has the most demo moments as expected and offers the same fine
transfers from the older Blu-ray. With three different styles that
work for their narratives, fans and viewers will not be disappointed.
As
for the DVDs, the
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the Beast,
Nick
and Bears
DVDs are also just fine for their formats, yet the 1.33 X 1 on Stars
with its fine color and early, appealing Peanuts
color animation can actually more than compete, so all these discs in
this review perform as well as can be expected.
In
the sound department, the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mix
on Beast
repeats the well mixed and presented track from the previous Blu-ray
and has the most sonic demo moments, but the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio)
5.1 lossless mix on Venture
is filled with solid, more recent recordings than compete, all the
have good soundfields.
For
some odd reason, Time
only has lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, not even 5.1, which is
passable but makes zero sense for the format and how good the show
looks. So all the DVDs sonically tie it including the lossy Dolby
Digital 5.1 mixes on Beast
and Nick,
the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Bears
(which is well-recorded) and even the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on
Stars,
sounding better than I have ever heard it after all these years.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
