Gregatron's Season 3-4 DVD Review
Gregatron
it.
I haven't gotten through every episode yet, but I also haven't noticed
anything amiss in terms of alternate/incomplete animation. And the
original audio is there, so that's great. However, one episode
("Nightmare Planet", I believe) has *two* historical traliers at the
end (the Quintesson and Decepticon trailers). Is this right? Did the
episode originally have two trailers added to the end? Huh.
That aside, it's nice to see the trailers attached to the end of each
episode as they should be. The PSAs in the GI JOE season 1 box set do
*not* appear at the end of each episodes, but are instead clumped
together as extras.
The interview with David Wise is excellent, as he actually *remembers*
the series in detail, and has many intersting, never-before-heard
tidbits of info to reveal. Cool. The Rebirth was originally going to
be a five-parter, and Wise laughs about what a pain it was to cram all
the new charcters in. He also states that he was pleased about being
able to end the story (and the series) with the revitalization of
Cybertron.
Even better, Wise says that Megatron was originally going to blast off
Orion Pax's arm in "War Dawn" and then decapitate him with it. Hah!
(And those who claim Megatron's violent acts in the movie were out of
character take heed! The only thing holding him back in the series was
Broadcast Standards and Practices!).
Another extra is The Rebirth, edited together into one giant episode,
without recaps/intros, etc. They call this an *extra*????
All in all, I'd say this is the best of the Rhino sets. Now, all they
need to do is go back and fix/re-release the previous sets.
- Gregatron
Rik Bakke
> However, one episode ("Nightmare Planet", I believe) has *two*
> historical traliers at the end (the Quintesson and Decepticon trailers).
> Is this right? Did the episode originally have two trailers added to
> the end? Huh.
That's right, pal. NIGHTMARE PLANET featured both trailers in its
original run, no doubt used for padding because it was a very short
episode--probably the shortest episode of them all.
> The interview with David Wise is excellent, as he actually *remembers*
> the series in detail, and has many intersting, never-before-heard tidbits
> of info to reveal.
Seeing that he was the one with the highest number of TRANSFORMERS
scripts--15, off the top of my head--I can certainly believe he would have a
good knowledge of the show. Great to hear that he retains much of it. :-)
--
Rik Bakke
silverbolt [at] c2i [dot] net
THE CYBERTRON CHRONICLE
http://cybertronchronicle.freewebspace.com/
Transformers Fan Code
G++ G1- BW++ MW++ BM+ Rid Arm+ FR FW+ #75 D+ AA+ N W++ OQP BC98-02++ CN- OM+
Derik Smith
>without recaps/intros, etc. They call this an *extra*????
I call it a HELL of an Extra. Rebirth has always given me headaches to
watch and put me to sleep. I watched the one giant ep version,w here it goes
directly from 'to be continued' to the begining of the next episode, no 'next
time, closing redits, opening credits, previously...' and it's REMARKABLE how
much more watchable it makes Rebirth.
-Derik
"Yeah, that was an attack on Armada. Poor little plastic toys
are weeping poor little plastic tears.." -Zob
"If I was Orson, I'd be purposely assigning names at random to
get back at people like you." - Chris Funaro
Need new tagline
Gyumaoh
>need to do is go back and fix/re-release the previous sets.
Agreed 500%
"Bloodmonkeys... everywhere!!!"
Ethan Hammond
>
> The interview with David Wise is excellent, as he actually *remembers*
> the series in detail, and has many intersting, never-before-heard
> tidbits of info to reveal. Cool. The Rebirth was originally going to
> be a five-parter, and Wise laughs about what a pain it was to cram all
> the new charcters in. He also states that he was pleased about being
> able to end the story (and the series) with the revitalization of
> Cybertron.
That's cool I haven't watched that yet.
> Even better, Wise says that Megatron was originally going to blast off
> Orion Pax's arm in "War Dawn" and then decapitate him with it. Hah!
> (And those who claim Megatron's violent acts in the movie were out of
> character take heed! The only thing holding him back in the series was
> Broadcast Standards and Practices!).
Hee hee.
> Another extra is The Rebirth, edited together into one giant episode,
> without recaps/intros, etc. They call this an *extra*????
Yeah that kind of pisses me off.
> All in all, I'd say this is the best of the Rhino sets. Now, all they
> need to do is go back and fix/re-release the previous sets.
This is the first set that actually has original broadcast audio as the
default. Which is too bad that it took them until the end of the series
to get that right.
Maybe it is just me, but I think the CGI of Rodimus(Hot Rod?) all
beat up is kind of an odd thing for the menu.
Oh and in Ghost in the Machine I noticed Sky Lynk has a Decepticon
symbol ahhh the joys of animation errors.
--
All Purpose Cultural Randomness
http://www.angelfire.com/tx/apcr/index.html
Derik Smith
>default. Which is too bad that it took them until the end of the series
>to get that right.
>
>Maybe it is just me, but I think the CGI of Rodimus(Hot Rod?) all
>beat up is kind of an odd thing for the menu.
Plus he's an odd-lookng Rodimus. they changed his colors around from last
time, I think.
Was it just me, or is that Soundwave to the right of the door as he comes
in?
Ethan Hammond
>
> Plus he's an odd-lookng Rodimus. they changed his colors around from
last
> time, I think.
That's why I almost wonder if it is supposed to be Hot Rod.
> Was it just me, or is that Soundwave to the right of the door as he
comes
> in?
Heh.
Rik Bakke
> > This is the first set that actually has original broadcast audio as the
> > default. Which is too bad that it took them until the end of the series
> > to get that right.
> >
> > Maybe it is just me, but I think the CGI of Rodimus(Hot Rod?) all beat
> > up is kind of an odd thing for the menu.
Huh. And here I was--apparently stupidly--expecting a CGI Galvatron. Oh,
well... I guess if we can't have a CGI Megatron, we can't have an attendant
Galvatron, either.
> Was it just me, or is that Soundwave to the right of the door as he
> comes in?
Well, I haven't seen the set yet, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't you. ;-)
Gregatron
Trilogy.
Although the episodes are the 35mm master versions, I didin't notice
anything in the way of alternate/incomplete animation (except in the
closing credits, where Kup just jitters a bit instead of running in
place). That, combined with the original audio (Woo-hoo!), and this
set is the most broadcast-accurate of them all. A preliminary glance
at Rebirth makes me think that this DVD set contains the same versions
(1" broadcast masters) as the "Heroes" DVD.
All in all, concerning these DVD sets...
The Rhino sets have nice exterior packaging (each set gradually leads
to the formation of the Autobot symbol...except it's purple and orange
on the Season 3-4 cover. Huh.), but the interior artwork is lousy, and
the liner notes are replete with spelling errors.
In terms of the episodes themselves...
1. They're not quite in either production of chronological order.
2. The alternate/incomplete animation problem is a *big* one. Rhino's
butchered "Heavy Metal War" is by far the worst DVD version of a G1
episode there is.
3. The sound problem was finally fixed...when the DVD releases were
3/5 complete. *Sigh*.
4. The DVD menu designs are stylistically inconsistient from set to
set.
5. The extras are either useless/mislabeled (Esp. in season 1), in the
wrong set (the unaired PSAs should have been with one of the season 2
sets), or badly dated (the Botcon documentaries). The interviews,
however, are very good and interesting.
This website has excellent info/comparisions of the DVD errors and
oddities:
Recently, a fan asked a friend who works for Rhino to question a
production supervisor on the matter. Here's the reply:
"Rhino Home Video makes every attempt to present the best possible DVD
packages and programming content to our fans. It is the mantra of our
company and is at the very core of what we do.
However, Rhino does not own the programs we sell on DVD. We license TV
shows & movies from the production companies who originally created
them. They, in turn, provide us with "masters" from which we create
our DVDs.
We do our best to work with what is provided to us, but our DVDs can
only be as good as the source elements that they are created from. In
this instance, the post production is done by a lab in New York at the
behest of the owner of the series, and we have no control over what
they deliver us.
We appreciate all of your comments, and as fans of the show ourselves,
empathize your disappointment."
It would seem Rhino blames the post-production lab for all the errors
and problems. Hmmm.
Still, There are some pros to these DVDs. However, I still feel that
they could have been done *much* better. If only some fans had been
brought aboard to help out with the quality control in a major way
(Zob did a fine job as a consultant, but Rhino didn't bother to mine
even 1/10 of his resources and knowledge).
Perhaps the series will be released again on DVD someday, and this
time, it'll be done right, with:
1. Stylistically uniform menu designs, themed specifically to each
season.
2. Interesting packaging, with *good* art and well-written liner
notes.
3. Extras that are placed in the correct season sets (for example, the
unaried season 2 PSAs should be in the season 2 set, *not* season 3).
4. Extra-special pains should be taken to insure that the audio/video
are consisten with the versions of the episodes we've known for 20
years, even the errors (such as "A Deceptacon Raider in King Arthur's
Court").
5. Next time, have separate audio tracks for *both* endings of "Dark
Awakening".
6. Put the episodes in the correct chronological order, but provide
lists in the liner notes of the production and airdate orders (or make
those viewing options on the DVDs).
7. Provide extras that celebrate each season individually, and the
series as a whole, as well as putting things in historical
perspective. Advertising upcoming products (which will date the extras
very quickly) via a Botcon documentary is not the way to go.
Well, it's been quite a ride. We'll see what the future holds.
- Gregatron
Rik Bakke
> The Rhino sets have nice exterior packaging (each set gradually
> leads to the formation of the Autobot symbol...except it's purple
> and orange on the Season 3-4 cover. Huh.), but the interior artwork
> is lousy, and the liner notes are replete with spelling errors.
I'll say. Notice the Ironhide art inside the second SEASON TWO
set? Well, the top half of Ironhide is all right, I guess, based as it
is on a scene from THE SEARCH FOR ALPHA TRION, but let's
take a look at his legs, shall we? They actually slapped him with
Megatron's legs, which themselves are based on a scene in THE
KEY TO VECTOR SIGMA - PART 1. Neat, huh?
> In terms of the episodes themselves...
>
> 1. They're not quite in either production of chronological order.
I can see why they changed the order of the SEASON THREE
episodes, which as we all know was pretty messed up to begin
with, but I still would personally have liked it to be the way it
was. As it is, it feels like just another instance of the show being
"tampered with."
But that's still a minor thing.
> 2. The alternate/incomplete animation problem is a *big* one.
> Rhino's butchered "Heavy Metal War" is by far the worst DVD
> version of a G1 episode there is.
This one really bothers me, too. They even used this episode to
illustrate the "Before & After" appearance, which should've been
such blaring proof of its low standard that I don't see how they
could have done that and not been bothered by it.
I bought the first part of G. I. JOE - SEASON ONE the other day,
and it looks quite good. It's got three audio tracks, including the
original broadcast audio, and the extras seem attuned to the time
covered by the set. It gives me the feeling that TRANSFORMERS
is the victim of being the "prototype" for Rhino's DVD releases of
this format, basically learning as they went along. But that's really
no excuse for not bothering to listen to the people they consulted
about show authenticity.
I mean, really--it couldn't have been HARD to get it right from the
very beginning, could it?
Thylacine 2000
I'd say get all the sets, but make sure you have "SOS Dinobots," "Fire
in the Sky," "Heavy Metal War," and "Dark Awakening" on videotape
right beside them.
Gyumaoh
>and it looks quite good.
I'm not a G.I. Joe expert by any means, but I think they may have put the wrong
opening credits on all the episodes.
Characters like Sgt. Slaughter and Serpentor are in the Opening, yet I believe
they are Season 2 characters.
"Bloodmonkeys... everywhere!!!"
David Minter
I've not seen them either, but, someone I know who got them had
e-mailed me about the incorrect season openers on the Joe set. But,
who here remembers Rhino's VHS releases of Transformers? :) Missing
title sequences, incorrect title sequences, missing title cards,
missing closing credits text, the replaced scene from Forever Is A
Long Time Coming...
Rik Bakke
> > I bought the first part of G. I. JOE - SEASON ONE the other day,
> > and it looks quite good.
>
> I'm not a G.I. Joe expert by any means, but I think they may have
> put the wrong opening credits on all the episodes.
You're partly right--they've used what must be the SEASON TWO
opening, featuring Sergeant Slaughter and Serpentor, but not on
all the episodes. Off the top of my head, they at least retained the
older opening for the five-part PYRAMID OF DARKNESS.
That's the only error I know of, though--and it's still a much better
production than most of the TRANSFORMERS DVD sets.
ShadowWing
"Rik Bakke" wrote
>
> You're partly right--they've used what must be the SEASON TWO
> opening, featuring Sergeant Slaughter and Serpentor, but not on
> all the episodes. Off the top of my head, they at least retained the
> older opening for the five-part PYRAMID OF DARKNESS.
I wonder if that might have to do with some of the episodes being
released during the period Slaughter hosted, ala Tommy Kennedy. I notice
some of the episodes Cartoon Network aired had, for some odd reason, the
closing credits from when the movie was split into a miniseries format.
Gregatron
>and it looks quite good.
I'm not a G.I. Joe expert by any means, but I think they may have put
the wrong
opening credits on all the episodes.
Characters like Sgt. Slaughter and Serpentor are in the Opening, yet I
believe
they are Season 2 characters.
Yeah, it's the wrong intro. The funny thing is, the scene selection
menus show the *correct* intro, but not the episodes themselves.
That aside, the GI JOE sets seem mostly free of the animation errors
marring the TF DVDs. I also saw a few instances of "Rhino-fixes", and
they weren't very noticeable. The "original audio" lesson has also
been learned (though the mini-series set still has the added sound
effects).
- Gregatron
Rik Bakke
> I wrote:
>
> > I bought the first part of G. I. JOE - SEASON ONE the other day,
> > and it looks quite good.
>
> I'm not a G.I. Joe expert by any means, but I think they may have put
> the wrong opening credits on all the episodes. Characters like Sgt.
> Slaughter and Serpentor are in the Opening, yet I believe they are
> Season 2 characters.
>
> Yeah, it's the wrong intro. The funny thing is, the scene selection
> menus show the *correct* intro, but not the episodes themselves.
Just to reiterate my previous response to Gyumaoh, the introduction
is incorrect on all episodes save for the PYRAMID OF DARKNESS
mini-series.
> That aside, the GI JOE sets seem mostly free of the animation errors
> marring the TF DVDs. I also saw a few instances of "Rhino-fixes",
> and they weren't very noticeable.
As close to a G. I. JOE "virgin"--I only saw a handful of episodes in
the '80s since they didn't appear to be given quite as wide a release
on TV (or frequent) as TRANSFORMERS--the thing that I've taken
most note of is how good the animation is overall compared to THE
TRANSFORMERS. The style appears much more consistent and I
haven't yet seen anything that made me think "Man, that's sloppy."
As for "repairs," nothing on this set even comes close to the poor
reproduction of HEAVY METAL WAR, and given the even bigger
success of TRANSFORMERS, to blame it on the supposed paucity
of original material seems strange. If G. I. JOE was more "obscure,"
how come everything looks as good as it does, indicating no lack
of good-quality masters?
It just doesn't make sense to me that they'd value TRANSFORMERS
production values less than G. I. JOE.
Gregatron
Yeah, the GI JOE DVDs have had an informative booklet on the history
of the toys/series, an exclusive Snake-Eyes figure, etc. Hmm.
Still, aside from a few Rhino-fixes (I don't know the series well
enough to have noticed any alternate/incomplete animation, but I can
tell when Rhino has done something), the DVDs look great.
- Gregatron
Gregatron
>
> > I wrote:
> >
> > > I bought the first part of G. I. JOE - SEASON ONE the other day,
> > > and it looks quite good.
> >
> > I'm not a G.I. Joe expert by any means, but I think they may have put
> > the wrong opening credits on all the episodes. Characters like Sgt.
> > Slaughter and Serpentor are in the Opening, yet I believe they are
> > Season 2 characters.
> >
> > Yeah, it's the wrong intro. The funny thing is, the scene selection
> > menus show the *correct* intro, but not the episodes themselves.
>
> Just to reiterate my previous response to Gyumaoh, the introduction
> is incorrect on all episodes save for the PYRAMID OF DARKNESS
> mini-series.
************************
Yes, that's right. But the correct intro (The P. of D. intro was the
intro for all of season 1, if I'm not mistaken) can be seen in the
scene selections menu for each episode. But the episodes themselves
(exempting the mini-series_ have the season 2 intro.
- Gregatron
Derik Smith
>Yeah, the GI JOE DVDs have had an informative booklet on the history
>of the toys/series, an exclusive Snake-Eyes figure, etc. Hmm.
...remind me again why we're not getting exclusive minicons with the
Armada DVD's?
bets it has somethign to do with Japan's inflated price-points,
-Derik
"Yeah, that was an attack on Armada. Poor little plastic toys
are weeping poor little plastic tears.." -Zob
Semper Idem Excretum, sed Sole Profundum Variat
Hasbro killed Jesus!