Ben
10 Versus The Universe
(2020*)/Steven Universe:
The Complete Collection
(2013 - 2020/box set/*both Warner DVD)/Tex
Avery Screwball Classics Volume Two
(1942 - 1957/MGM/Warner Archive Blu-ray)/World
Series Champions 2020: Los Angeles Dodgers
(MLB/Shout! Factory Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
C/C+/B/B- & C+ Sound: C/C+/B-/B- & C+ Extras:
D/C+/C+/C+ Main Programs: C+/B/B/B-
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Tex
Avery
Blu-ray, like the first volume, is now only available from Warner
Bros. through their Warner Archive series and can be ordered from the
link below.
Next
up are our latest family releases, all in time for the holiday
season...
Ben's
old villain - Vilgax - returns more powerful than ever and threatens
the entire universe and only Ben can stop him, but just as Ben goes
interstellar, he is suddenly whisked away to a universal trial and he
has been mistaken and he is accused of being a villain. Without Ben,
Gwen, Grandpa Max must team up with Kevin 11 and must save the Earth
until Ben comes back, but can Ben save himself and clear his name?
In
Ben 10
Versus The Universe
(2020,) Ben
is a young ten-year-old gifted with an alien device that allows him
to morph into various aliens and fight monsters and villains.
However, he has a 'hero complex' in which, he is over confident and
totally bored in his usual enemies because he always wins and is
looking for a villain which actually will give him a challenge. And
when the universe is threatened, he finds a way to power up even
more, but when he is suddenly teleported away, he must first prove he
is a hero and not a villain. Gwen and Grandpa Max must team up with
one of Ben's old rival Kevin and stall Vilgax until Ben returns. Ben
must learn to control his new forms and must combine all of them to
save the Earth and stop Vilgax.
This
series is about your usual super powered boy with an alien device
which basically allows him to do almost anything. But for some
reason, in the cartoon series Ben 10 is a teenager, for the movie
they decided to make him 10-year-old again. The plot was way too
simple and predictable. It seemed like the company wanted to remake
the Ben 10 series for a younger audience.
There
are no extras.
In
speaking of universes, another Cartoon Network hit is now entirely on
DVD as it has ended its long, successful run. Steven
Universe: The Complete Collection
(2013 - 2020) has five, long healthy seasons, a Movie
version continuation and a sequel series: Steven
Universe Future,
where he is older.
I
had hardly heard of the show, but it was a big hit for the makers and
is vaguely a superhero genre show, but he (being the only male part
of the group on the show, the Crystal Gems) has a jewel (in his belly
button?) has only just received his potential powers and is not
exactly able to control them all. In all this, his new friends can,
to most of an extent and together, can they have a better life and
take on any challenges (or threats?) that face them?
It
is a good show, if not a great or particularly memorable one, but it
is also remarkably well thought out and consistent, so I can see why
fans like or even love it so much. The animation is not bad (though
it uses CGI, could not have the detail of a Tex Avery/MGM animated
short and does try to have different visuals here and there. I am
able to admit that I am not necessarily the audience for this show,
but I am impressed that the creators (especially original creator
Rebecca Sugar) and the vision pays off. Wish more shows were this
consistent. Also, this box set has its discs in a thick paperboard
book-like booklet that is very high quality down to its
illustrations. Well done.
Extras
include various Animatics, several Music Videos, Steven
Universe Minisodes, Steven Universe The Movie:
Sing-A-Long and Audio Commentary for Select Episodes. Some of
these are on a bonus DVD disc.
Next
up is Tex
Avery Screwball Classics Volume Two
(1942 - 1957) collects 21 more animated shorts, many classic, that
the groundbreaking animator made at MGM and is a worthy addition to
the first volume we reviewed (elsewhere on this site) that offers
often remarkable upgrades to shorts we reviewed before on the older
DVD format. With new 4K scans (see more tech coverage below) and
remarkable color accuracy, the set starts with some great one-off
shorts, shows Avery and company trying out some new characters,
includes some of the best Droopy cartoons ever made and ends with
several looks at 'the future' at the time it meant modernism, the
look we now associate with malls, now themselves crumbling.
When
you can see and hear them this well, they are funnier than ever or
make what you might remember all the more hilarious. A true pleasure
and one of the best animated releases on Blu-ray this year, the
titles includes:
LITTLE
RURAL RIDING HOOD
THE
CUCKOO CLOCK
MAGICAL
MAESTRO
ONE
CAB'S FAMILY [a real gem]
CAT
THAT HATED PEOPL
DOGGONE
TIRED
THE
FLEA CIRCUS
FIELD
AND SCREAM
THE
FIRST BAD MAN
OUT
FOXED
DROOPY'S
DOUBLE TROUBLE
THREE
LITTLE PUPS
DRAGALONG
DROOPY
HOMESTEADER
DROOPY
DIXIELAND
DROOPY
COUNTERFEIT
CAT
VENTRILOQUIST
CAT
HOUSE
OF TOMORROW
CAR
OF TOMORROW
TV
OF TOMORROW
FARM
OF TOMORROW
My
favorite release on this list, it is a must-have for any serious
animation collection and serious fans will not be disappointed.
The
only extra is the fine featurette: Tex
Avery: King Of Cartoons.
Lastly,
we have the latest annual look at the results of The World Series
from Major League Baseball. World
Series Champions 2020: Los Angeles Dodgers
shows how the legendary Brookly... I mean Los Angeles baseball club
finding their way to national victory after a particularly horrid
year, thanks to the evils of COVID-19 and how it ruined everyone's
life (taking a huge amount of lives, still as this posts) and how the
entire sports world had to cope with this.
That
becomes half of the unfortunate story in this installment, but the
players and league overcome the odds and how it lands up being a
final showdown between the Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays (of whom you
hear little about outside of baseball fandom) and somehow get through
it all with hardly any COVID casualties (we did not check on the
well-being of members of either team before we posted, but hope they
are all well) and do get some interesting moments in here as well as
solid baseball. We'll likely never see a year like this one again
and for the most part, that's good, but it makes for interesting
viewing, even if you are not a fan.
Extras
include a ''How
They Got There''
featurette, Clinching Moments and Season Highlights.
Now
for playback performance. Ironic as it is, the 1080p 1.33 X 1
digital High Definition image transfers on Avery
rarely show their age, are from new 4K scans of the well-preserved
35mm original camera elements and can exceed my overall rating a good
few times. MGM was the #1 studio at the time and though they did not
have the animation studio Disney had, was determined to have animated
shorts looking as good as any studio around. Thus, they poured the
money into their studio, plus the use of dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor and expected everything to look first rate.
Built to last, I've seen these films before, some on film (16mm and
35mm film) including brand-new prints and can say the shorts on this
disc look as rich and vivid as those film prints. That says
something. At least as strong a the first volume, they look great
and will stun those who have not seen them in a long time or ever
have seen them.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless sound on all the shorts
sounds as good as old theatrical monophonic sound of the time can,
down to some fine sound effects, sound editing and is as warm, clean
and clear as they ever will sound, so the combination is impressive
and even defies its age at time.
The
720p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the Series
Blu-ray has consistent video quality, but is lacking in color range,
detail and some depth, so only expect so much and the
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mixes use music to fill in on
all the talking-head interview footage, though game moments sound
better. This is on par with past such releases of this series. A
DVD is included with an anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image and
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 sound that is passable, but still not as good
as the Blu-ray version.
Though
it is a new production, the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image
and lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Ben 10 are a bit underwhelming
and disappointing, but the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on
al the Steven Adventure shows look better and more colorful,
more like it, even for this older format. However, all the episodes
are only in lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo and though clean and
well-recorded, are also a bit weak. The Movie that is included is in
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and has a little more detail, but not by
much. I wonder how these would all sound in a lossless format?
To
order the Tex
Avery
Warner Archive Blu-rays, go to this link for them and many more great
web-exclusive releases at:
http://www.wbshop.com/
-
Nicholas Sheffo and Ricky Chiang (Ben
10)
