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Ben 10: The Complete Season 1 (TV)
R1 - America - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and TJ McDonald (31st March 2007). |
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The Show
 "Ben 10" is the story of Ben Tennyson (voiced by Tara Strong), a ten year old boy who discovers a watch while camping in the woods with his grandfather, Max (Paul Eiding) and cousin, Gwen (Megan Smith). Only, this is no ordinary watch! It is, in fact, the Omnitrix : an alien device capable of turning Ben into any of ten different ass-kicking alien heroes. Armed with this amazing new power Ben, his cousin and his grandfather, travel around fighting various super villains from Earth and beyond, and occasionally grappling with the forces of Vilgax (Steven Jay Blum) : an interstellar warlord bent on harnessing the power of the Omnitrix to further his dastardly plans of world domination (personally, I think he's probably just misunderstood). This is a neat little action cartoon. Animated in a similar style to the popular "Teen Titans" (2003-Present) series that lends itself well to the fight sequences that inevitably take please between the villain-of-the-week and one of Ben's hero forms, while at the same time keeping the caricatures simplistic enough to capture the younger audience that this is obviously made for. The voice work from the three is solid, if not particularly outstanding. The supporting and guest casting also perform well. Perhaps the greatest letdown of "Ben 10" is that because the hook is so good : both the idea of the Omnitrix and its execution in the animation of the ten different alien heroes : one expects a little more from the plot line. Instead it is a very simple villain of the week, only occasionally stretching to the overarching storyline when the bad guy happens to be associated with Vilgax. Indeed, these guys really do turn up in the most unlikely places! Ben can barely make it through a school day or overnight camp without some sort of mad doctor disrupting the proceedings with his mutant-whatever. Older viewers do have to remember, however, that this show is pitched at a younger age bracket that probably isn't seeking the same depth of story that you are. From the family friendly perspective, "Ben 10" definitely passes muster. More fainthearted parents may be slightly put off by the violence, but rest assured that is very tame compared to the standard fare, and every episode comes with a good healthy dose of moral righteousness. The dynamic between Ben, his cousin and grandfather is wholesome and Ben often seeks their wisdom and guidance in problem solving even though he has a watch that can turn him into several tons of mad doctor-pounding mayhem. As long as you don't question too much why a grandfather lets his ten-year old grandchildren battle freakin' monsters, you'll be fine. In the end, "Ben 10" is a worthy addition to any kids cartoon collection. It may not rank as one of animation's finest moments, but it will certainly keep the kids out of your hair for a few hours on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
Video
Presented in the show's original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1 this full screen transfer is very good indeed although sharpness does tend to fluctuate mainly with backgrounds but this is never distracting. Colors pop off the screen in vivid fashion, blacks are bold and deep and I cold not find any problems with compression. There really isn't much else to say about this transfer other than it presents this series suitably well.
Audio
Three audio tracks are included all of which are in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, they are in English, French and Spanish. For the purposes of this review I chose to view this series with its English soundtrack which is most likely the show's original broadcast sound track. While this series has a lot of action and adventure elements it would have been advantageous to include a 5.1 mix, however this stereo track also does a fine job, with crisp and clear dialogue to occasionally aggressive action sequences (as aggressive as a stereo track can get), little is made by way of ambient sounds but this is an animated series and more is focused on dialogue, music and action effect sounds. Overall not a bad effort from Warners. Optional subtitles are also included in English, French and Spanish.
Extras
DISC ONE: The only extras you'll find on this disc are some bonus trailers for: - "Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends: Season 1" which runs for 32 seconds. - "The Batman: Season 3 / Teen Titans: Season 3" which runs for 1 minute 29 seconds. - "Ben 10 Mattel Hyperscan" commercial which runs for 32 seconds. DISC TWO: On this disc we have an episode audio commentary on episode 13 with creator Duncan Rouleau, supervising producer Alex Soto, executive in charge of production Tramm Wigzell and writers Tom Pugsley and Greg Klein. The participants reveal production information for the episode "Secrets", they comment on everything from the opening credits sequence to story elements for this season finale episode. They talk about the show structure as well as the creative opportunities it provides them, but a lot of the time they spend commenting on how cool the animation looks or focus in a particular shot they all seem to like. "Ben 10 Drawing Lesson" is a featurette that runs for 2 minutes 51 seconds, in it storyboard director Scooter Tidwell shows us how to draw the title character, Ben. Nothing much to this clip, other than the fact Tidwell draws really quickly, kids might want to watch this a few times to get the hang of it. Finally a "sneak peek at what's to come" is next, this featurette runs for 1 minute 57 seconds and is a look at what fans can expect in the second season of the show. Rounding out the extras is an insert that folds out into a poster.
Packaging
This 2-disc set is packaged in an amaray case that is housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
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