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Pinky And The Brain: Volume 2 (TV)
R1 - America - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (18th December 2006). |
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The Film
 Pinky: "Gee, Brain. What are we going to do tonight?" The Brain: "The same thing we do every night, Pinky. Try to take over the world!" The Brain: "Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?" Pinky: "I think so, Brain, but how are we going to make pencils that taste like bacon? Or maybe we should make bacon that tastes like pencils. Narf." That's what I remember most from "Pinky and the Brain" the great lines and of course the zany schemes to take over the world! And this DVD collection is full of fun episodes with tons of memorable lines. The mice duo was first introduced on the animated series "Animaniacs" (1993-1998) and became an instant hit among the many characters that were featured in that show, so it didn't come as a surprise that these two would get their own spin-off show all to themselves. "Pinky and the Brain" began in 1995 and ran until 1998. Unlike "Animaniacs" which was structured like a variety show, this series is structured with a narrative that revolves around our two leads trying to take over the world in each episode. And each episode is considerably well written considering that they are basically doing the same thing each time and generally stick to a format: Brain comes up with crazy plan to take over the world and Pinky finds a way to screw things up. However it's in how the writers plot the varied and often humorous schemes to take over the world that allows the show to remain fresh each time. The enjoyment factor certainly stems from this and personally I never tire of watching these two wonderful creations light up the small screen with their attempts that range from time travel to cloning to appearing on a reality TV series to building all manner of contraptions. "Pinky and the Brain" manages to do what a lot of recent animated fluff doesn't...it entertains no matter what age you are. Additionally I also found that the show's characters have a wonderful depth to them, considering many of us have been introduced to them from their appearances on "Animaniacs", they have a rich history, combine that with the brilliant voice talents of Rob Paulsen and Maurice LeMarche who play Pinky and The Brain respectively bring an human and real element to these characters that brings them to life. While the series does have some excellent episodes it does have it's share of duds, so like many other animated shows before it we're not exactly batting a perfect score, but the good outweighs the bad. I also found that a lot of the humour is dated, one obvious joke revolves around then President Bill Clinton, as well as other references to pop culture. If you were a fan of this duo from their shorts featured on "Animaniacs", then you probably already own Volume 1 of this collection and there's no reason why you shouldn't own Volume 2, if you're new to this series I recommend giving it a shot, as it's one of the best animated shows made for television. This 4-disc DVD set includes 22 episodes from the 1997 season and is packaged in a digi-pack case that is housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Video
Presented in the show's original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1 these full screen transfers aren't as good as I had anticipated, while the image is generally sharp, some softness can be seen in certain shots, I also found that many episodes featured some print damage by way of white sparkle as well as dirt and scratches, I also noticed some light compression artefacts. Aside from these problems I found that colors were rich and blacks nice and bold.
Audio
Two audio tracks are included on this release, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 track as well as an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view this series with its 5.1 track. While the image wasn't what I had expected the soundtrack exceeds my expectations for an animated series, the dialogue was clear and distortion free but the shows many sound effects and musical cues were well rendered throughout the 5.1 space, making for an audio experiance that impacts each episodes extremely well. Optional subtitles are included in French and Spanish.
Extras
Warner Brothers have released this Volume 2 DVD set with a featurette plus a collection of bonus trailers. These extras are all featured on the 4th disc, below is a closer look at these supplements. First up we have "The Audition" which runs for 29 minutes 47 seconds, this clip features actors Wayne Knight and Mark Hamill as they audition to play Pinky and The Brain in a feature film version of the cartoon, during their audition they get pointers from the actual voice talent that play these characters, Rob Paulsen and Maurice LeMarche. The clip also features an interview with these guys as they talk about how Paulsen and LeMarche originally auditioned for the roles, the evolution of the voices, working with voice actors and how voice acting differs from on-camera acting among other things. Overall the interview parts of this feature were the highlights of the clip, the beginning part with the audition was mildly amusing at best. Rounding the extras are a collection of bonus trailers, these can be viewed individually or with the option of a 'play all' function, the previews included are for: - "Animaniacs: Volume 2 and Pinky and the Brain: Volume 2" which runs for 1 minute 44 seconds. - "Looney Toons: Golden Collection Volume 4" which runs for 1 minute 20 seconds. - "Thundercats Season 2 Volume 2" which runs for 1 minute 8 seconds. - "Justice League Unlimited: Season 1 and Batman Beyond: Season 2" which runs for 1 minute 25 seconds.
Overall
Again I have to give it to Warner Brothers for continuing to put out quality box sets of classic TV shows but yet again as we've seen with other animated show box sets they still need to work on delivering a collection of decent extras, an audio commentaries on these episodes as well and art work galleries, these should all be prerequisites for a series such as this.
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