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Tick Vs. Season One (The)
R1 - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (3rd October 2006). |
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The Show
 Based on the comic book of the same name developed by Ben Edlund in the 1980's this Saturday morning cartoon enjoyed three seasons on the air and continues to play in syndication today. Arguably one of the best cartoons on television during its run it managed to harness the tone and themes of the comic book and still maintain a kid friendly appeal (one element that wasn't written into the show was that Tick was an escaped mental patient, as seen in the original comic book). Considering that creator Ben Edlund not only helped develop the series but also wrote many of the episodes some direct ports from their comic book incarnations it's not difficult to see that this series is faithfully adapted. It's also not hard to see why this was one of the most popular cartoons of its time, the witty and often satirical humor was a hit with both kids and adults, the kids can enjoy the stupidity of the show's comedy and the adults enjoyed the stabs at modern pop culture and also on the comic book industry as a whole (with characters that take off "Batman", "The Punisher" and "Fantastic Four" just to name a few). The first season included 13 episodes (however only 12 have been released on DVD, episode 11 entitled "The Tick vs. The Mole Men" has been removed, Buena Vista cited "creative considerations" as the reason why it was not included). As often with shows and films revisited the memory always wins out, many times I have been disappointed with something that I cherished as a kid (in the case of "The Tick" I was in my teens and had only recently discovered the comic book) that I have viewed again as an adult, in this case the show was exactly as I remembered it, a lot of fun. However not every episode was pure gold, some in fact felt like a formulaic mish-mash. While the first several episodes of the series not only do a decent job of introducing you to the characters they also throw you into the crazy world of "The Tick" and his city of ill-adjusted and often bumbling superheroes. As I neared the middle of series the episodes tended to feature segments that went off in strange tangents, one in particular entitled "The Tick vs. Pineapple Pokopo" took our beloved hero out of his city environment which felt unnecessary and in fact that episode is one of the weaker ones. Overall there is enough here to keep "The Tick" fans happy, considering this series has been one of the most requested shows to be released on DVD and finally we have them available to us...finally indeed!. However not only have fans had to wait an extraordinarily long time but Buena Vista has given us not a single shred of supplementary material to accompany these episodes. Only all Season One episodes sans episode 11, I'm excited and slightly annoyed at the same time. "The Tick" Vs. Season One includes 12 of the 13 Season One episodes, below is synopsis for each episode included on this DVD release: Episode 1: "The Tick vs. the Idea Men" The Tick arrives in 'The City' and shortly after meeting ex-accountant Arthur, his soon-to-be side-kick, finds himself fighting against the 'Idea Men' a band of criminals who robbed a bank and plan to destroy 'The City's' dam. Episode 2: "The Tick vs. Chairface Chippendale" The Tick, Arthur and American Maid crash Chairface Chippendale's birthday party. Chairface, a ruthless criminal plans to laser-etch his name onto the surface of the moon and he must be stopped. Episode 3: "The Tick vs. Dinosaur Neil" Dinosaur Neil, a mild mannered tour guide accidentally eats some dinosaur DNA that causes him to turn into a giant human-dinosaur hybrid that rampages across the city, Tick and Arthur must stop him before the entire city is destroyed. Episode 4: "The Tick vs. Mr. Mental" Villain Mr. Mental disguises himself as an infant in order to get inside The Tick's mind which he manipulates to his own feindish ways. Episode 5: "The Tick vs. the Breadmaster" The Tick and Arthur must fight against Breadmaster who plans on swallowing the city in a giant bread roll! Episode 6: "The Tick vs. El Seed" El Seed has brought to life an entire corn crop at his command to take over the world. The Tick and trusty side-kick Arthur must stop the army before it's too late. Episode 7: "The Tick vs. The Tick" The Tick, Arthur, Die Fliedermaus, and Sewer Urchin drive out of their way to 'The Comet Club' a club for superheroes. While inside The Tick discovers Barry, another super-being that uses 'The Tick' as his name.Meanwhile Arthur hangs out with the side-kicks as he's not allowed entry into the club. Episode 8: "The Tick vs. the Uncommon Cold" Thrakkorzog, an alien from a different dimension devises a plot to clone Tick, but his mucus is the only sample he can get and creates a gooey Tick clone to help take over the world. Episode 9: "The Tick vs. Brainchild" Brainchild, a kid from the suburbs plans to use his mega-multi-devastator cannon to make his mark on the earth, with the moon. Episode 10: "The Tick vs. Pineapple Pokopo" Pineapple Pokopo, an Island dictator captures smart NASA monkey that was shot into space. He plans to use the monkey's super-intelligence to help take over Hawaii and Wyoming, The Tick, Arthur and American Maid are sent in as secret agents to rescue the monkey and thwart the dictator's evil plan. Episode 12: "The Tick vs. The Proto Clown" A mutant clown terrorizes the city and is near unstoppable, the clown knocks out The Tick who has a journey of discovery through his own mind. Episode 13: "The Tick vs. Arthur's Bank Account" The Tick must stop The Terror from taking over The City.
Video
Presented in the show's original broadcast ratio of 1.33:1 this full screen transfer is disappointing, from what I can tell these are direct ports from the broadcast master tapes, so aside from transferring them to a digital format for this DVD I'm surprised that no additional care was taken to remaster and clean the overall image. Some colors aren't as bright and lush as they should be, but the most annoying aspect of this transfer is that there were many drawn lines that were pixelated and exhibited a moire effect, I also noticed some compression artefacts and sharpness was not always consistent. As far as these episodes go they are no better than broadcast quality.
Audio
Two audio track are included on this DVD, and English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround as well as a French Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. For the purposes of this review I chose to view these episodes with their original English soundtrack. Considering this track lacks depth and adequate use of the surround channels this 2.0 surround number is as good as can be expected from the format and is probably as good as we're likely to get for this cult favorite TV series. The dialogue is clear and distortion free and is in sync with the animation, the music cues are also loud but never overbearing. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired and French.
Extras
Buena Vista Home Entertainment have released this Season One DVD without a single substantial extra, in fact the only thing we do get is a series of bonus trailers on the first disc that start-up before the menu, these can be skipped and are for: - "The Wild" which runs for 1 minute 47 seconds. - "Lost: Season 2" which runs for 1:27 seconds. - "Cars" which runs for 1 minute 8 seconds. Also included is a "lithograph" which is a insert card with a Tick drawing by Edlund on it...that's it! I'm extremely disappointed that Buena Vista did not take the effort to produce some extras for this release, I'm sure a series of commentaries could not be that hard to arrange?
Packaging
This 2-disc set is packaged in an amaray case that is housed in a cardboard slip-cover.
Overall
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