Storm Hawks – Hawks Rise Again + Tales
From The Atmos (Sony DVD)
Picture:
B- Sound: C+ Extras: C Episodes: C
Trying to
pronounce the slightly Animé style of Bruce Timm’s hugely successful DC Comics
style of animated television as a new fantasy franchise, Storm Hawks is a good looking new TV series (appearing on the
Cartoon Network channel) that ha some ambition, effort and sadly settles for
bring an imitator instead of innovator.
As a result, it looks like everything we’ve seen before, no matter how good.
Sony has
issued two single DVDs (versus a complete season) with five episodes a piece
(one of which is oddly dubbed a “bonus” show) under the tiles Hawks Rise Again and Tales From The Atmos. They feature as many bad jokes and gag lines
as any action, meaning the whole thing seems somewhat bored with itself. A mystic battle is happening again on Atmos
(how’s that for a hard to come up with name?) with our hero Aerrow (love those
misspellings) needing to rebuild the Sky Knights (what a responsibility) to
take on new evils.
Unfortunately,
it does not take on many new ideas and wears thin very quickly, like the
thousandth Star Wars knock-off. I do not know if it is a hit, will stay one
or will gain a cult following, but there is nothing more annoying than a “new”
show that reminds you of every other show and film you have already seen. For pre-teens and animation fans at best, the
rest of you can skip these.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image looks good as I said, with good,
consistent color, animation (somewhat simple as it is) and even some
depth. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has
no real surrounds but is definitely a new recording. Too bad it can sound forward often. Extras include a mini-comic book on the back
of each package, the same one on the copies we received, as well as brief
explanations of the characters and their gear on each disc.
- Nicholas Sheffo
