Adventure
Time: The Complete Seventh Season
(2016/Cartoon Network/Warner DVD Set)/Bunnicula:
Night Of The Vegetable
(2016/Season One, Part
One/Warner DVD Set)/Tom
and Jerry: Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
(2017/Warner DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C/D/C Main Programs: B-/C+/C+
Here
are three new releases from the Warner Bros. family of animated
entertainment...
Adventure
Time: The Complete Seventh Season (2016) continues the
(mis?-)adventures of Finn and Jake against the background of Candy
Kingdom and all kinds of the usual oddball and otherworld happenings
the big hit Cartoon Network TV series that may be coming to an end
soon. The makers are still on top as these shows have the same fun,
tone, feel and energy of the previous season we've covered over the
years, but unless you are a diehard gan, you mighty get lost. Still,
it is consistent and true to the series, so fans should still be
happy, but it might start to get thin soon.
Bunnicula:
Night Of The Vegetable (2016, aka Season One, Part One) is
a newly launched series spoofing horror monsters a bit
(Quackbustrers, Duckorcist or Night Of The Living
Duck anyone?) with a new title character who giggles and hardly
talks, loves carats and Warner hopes with be the next big hit
character. The show is good and can be amusing, but there is nothing
special to separate it from past attempts to do such things, nor does
the show try to be as witty or clever as The Groovie Goolies,
so it is aimed at an even younger audience and might work. However,
they've got to come up with more than this. Still, it is just
child-friendly enough, but concerned parents should review it before
letting theirs see it.
Finally
we have Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
(2017), a new and short at 79 minutes attempt to put the fun cat &
mouse duo into the world of the classic 1970 Warner fantasy musical
originally with the great Gene Wilder. As the studio owns the film
and its rights, they squeeze (sometimes too awkwardly) as man of the
songs from the film they can (including ''Candy Man'' which was a
surprise #1 hit for Sammy Davis Jr. after he sang over the song from
the film!) so it can look and sound like the film, but this needed
more time and even more new ideas to integrate the two worlds more
effectively.
Yet,
with the Disney remake a hit, you can see why Warner wants to
re-promote the original and put it into their child line of film and
video. They've already done a decent Blu-ray release (though a 4K
2160p Ultra HD blu-ray is needed to capture the color and detail
better) and this is not a disaster, but it just feels too rushed and
uninspired.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on all three DVD releases look
fine for the format, but the Time
Blu-rays are among those that have shown us again and again never to
underestimate seemingly simple animation. They'll do, but they are
HD productions and we hope to see them all that way soon. Wonka
is the only release here with a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, but it
is not as full as it should be as the old codec has compromised the
new soundmaster, especially the music. Thus, the lossy Dolby Digital
2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds on the other releases can more
than hold their own.
Bunnicula
has no extras, Wonka has assorted episodes of newer Tom &
Jerry TV shows, leaving Time with minsodes, animatics, art
galleries, song demos and two Behind The Scenes/Making Of
featurettes.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
