Shout! Factory Jem DVD Release Question

[Zobovor]

So, purely by chance I noticed that Walmart was selling the entire Jem and the Holograms cartoon series on DVD for twenty bucks. This is, of course, outstanding. It's especially nice considering that the official Shout! Factory web site is selling it for something like $53.99. This is, of course, outrageous. Truly, truly outrageous.

So, my question, to anyone who might know... is the Shout! Factory the same release as the Rhino DVD's? I know the Rhino release had both 5.1 audio and 2.0 audio channels, but they pulled a switch on us with G.I. Joe (Rhino is 5.1, Shout! Factory is 2.0) so I'm trying to figure out if they did the same with Jem or not.

Man, that's a lot of exclamation! points.

The main reason I want to know, of course, is because if it's a 5.1 audio release, I can rip music from the DVD's for the Transformers Music Restoration Project. There's a "romantic" theme used in a couple of Transformers episodes ("The Big Broadcast of 2006" and "Money is Everything") that was borrowed from the Jem music library and it would be ideal if I can find the entire theme and rip it from Jem.


Zob (yes, I'm still working on it)

[banzait...@gmail.com]

You busted me. Hello, my name is Banzaitron and I am an owner of the Shout Factory Jem and the Holograms boxed set.
If you tell me what to look for, I will verify for you. (I checked the box and there is no mention of anything audio related).

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Wednesday, October 14, 2015 at 9:05:40 PM UTC-6, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> If you tell me what to look for, I will verify for you. (I checked the box
> and there is no mention of anything audio related).

Well, I just bit the bullet and bought the series. I was hoping there was 5.1 audio but evidently the Shout! Factory release is 2.0 only. That's okay, though. It means I can still screen the series as time allows, hunting for Transformers music, and once I find the episodes in question, at least I'll know where to go from there.


Zob (not hating the show so far, but the "music videos" are nearly unwatchable)

[banzait...@gmail.com]

> Zob (not hating the show so far, but the "music videos" are nearly unwatchable)

Eric is a fu*&ing badass!!!

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Tuesday, October 20, 2015 at 6:29:19 PM UTC-6, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> Eric is a fu*&ing badass!!!

He's so sinister. Like an evil Silverbolt.

I think my favorite character right now is Stormer. I keep waiting for her to defect and leave the Misfits though I suspect it's not actually going to happen.

It's funny how the Jem and the Holograms songs are usually in a major key but the Misfits songs use a minor key and discordant harmonies to make them sound "evil."

When I was growing up, my sister mostly had Barbies, but she did have one or two Jem dolls. I liked that they had more articulation than Barbie dolls (they could pivot at the waist and their wrists could move), but they were so oddly-shaped. Huge heads, tiny boobs.


Zob (she wanted my Transformers to go out on dates with them, but Blaster was the only one tall enough)

[Travoltron]

I didn't really watch this show as a kid and tried watching it several
years ago as adult, but I recall the first season having poor animation.
(Indeed, I remember the music videos looking especially bad.) I heard
it got better later. True?

[Zobovor]

Most of the episodes I've watched so far were animated by Toei, so it's typical Transformers/G.I. Joe fare. I've noticed a few instances of characters with the wrong-colored hair, but nothing overtly terrible.

There is an early episode where they meet an African-American film producer, and Jem immediately offers Shayna up to him. Because she's black, apparently. Not because she'd been grousing earlier about how she never meets new people, not because she was pining for a boyfriend. "Oh, you have dark skin? Look, we have a Hologram with dark skin. You guys will get along great!"

I get that this was the 1980's and in some ways progress is slow, but... wow.


Zob (just wow)

[banzait...@gmail.com]

I've watched pretty much the entire series in the last two years, some episodes more than once. I would say it's largely unwatchable. The only way I survived is because I watch it with my daughter, who absolutely loves it. There are some decent episodes and good character development, but, the videos....
Then there are the occasional interesting items, like when "written by Michael Charles Hill" splashes on the screen, or when in an episode there was a fictional band called "Nirvana" (no kidding!). Overall, I wouldn't encourage anyone to run out and buy the box set.
I did buy the recent comics for my daughter, which she really enjoyed. The new movie looks terrible though. I heard the misfits aren't even in it.

-Banzaitron

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, October 29, 2015 at 9:09:02 PM UTC-6, banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

> I've watched pretty much the entire series in the last two years, some
> episodes more than once. I would say it's largely unwatchable. The only way
> I survived is because I watch it with my daughter, who absolutely loves it.
> There are some decent episodes and good character development, but, the
> videos....

Oddly, I tried to watch it a couple of years ago when I first found it on Netflix. I gave up after maybe a half-dozen episodes.

Having spent actual cash money on the series, now, perhaps I feel compelled to seek some kind of return on my investment. It's not a terrible show. It's certainly more watchable than She-Ra (which I also tried to sit through once while hunting for voice actors) or any of the recent CGI Barbie videos (got them for my three-year-old daughter).

As for the music videos... my current theory is that many of them are hallucinations. Some of the things that happen in them cannot possibly be taken literally, and some of them relate directly to the Jerrica/Jem dual identity, which obviously would not be kept secret if it were broadcast all over MTV. Kimber is credited with writing all the songs, so I suspect what we're seeing is the product of her deranged, possibly drug-addled imagination.

> The new movie looks terrible though. I heard the misfits aren't even in it.

Everything I've read about the movie suggests that nobody associated with making the film had the slightest idea what made the Jem cartoon a success. It's like they were just trying to remake Hannah Montana or something. Christy Marx wasn't even consulted. That's like making a Peanuts movie without any input from Charles Shultz.


Zob (oh... wait)

[No One In Particular]

On 10/29/2015 10:36 PM, Zobovor wrote:

>> The new movie looks terrible though. I heard the misfits aren't even in it.
>
> Everything I've read about the movie suggests that nobody associated with making
>the film had the slightest idea what made the Jem cartoon a success. It's like they
>were just trying to remake Hannah Montana or something. Christy Marx wasn't even
>consulted. That's like making a Peanuts movie without any input from Charles Shultz.
>
>
> Zob (oh... wait)
>

That is pretty much the impression I'm getting. Their idea of an update
seems to have been "take a name from an eighties property and pin it on
a Justin Bieber style story".

Charles Schultz is dead. I would really hate it if they DID get input
from him at this point... :)

Brian.

[banzait...@gmail.com]

well, that sucked...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jem-and-the-holograms-two-weeks_56411700e4b0b24aee4b7401

-Banzaitron (Paradoxically, the peanuts movie is minting money)

[Shin Hibiki]

banzait...@gmail.com wrote:

>well, that sucked...
>
>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jem-and-the-holograms-two-weeks_56411700e4b0b24aee4b7401

Is there anybody that did not see this coming?

- Shin Hibiki, I mean, even before the trailer came out

----
The race ain't over yet, baby
It's only just begun
They thought they had it won, baby
But soon we'll have 'em on the run

[No One In Particular]

On 11/11/2015 6:12 PM, Shin Hibiki wrote:
> banzait...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> well, that sucked...
>>
>> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jem-and-the-holograms-two-weeks_56411700e4b0b24aee4b7401
>
> Is there anybody that did not see this coming?
>
> - Shin Hibiki, I mean, even before the trailer came out
>
> ----

Well, I assumed it was going to flop. But I would not have guessed that
it would only last two weeks.

Brian

[Zobovor]

On Wednesday, November 11, 2015 at 5:12:20 PM UTC-7, Shin Hibiki wrote:

> Is there anybody that did not see this coming?

The filmmakers, for one.

They say that it's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster. Clearly, Jem was the artsiest movie ever made.


Zob (now I have to watch it just to see what a train wreck it is)

[Shin Hibiki]

No One In Particular <brianc...@yahoo.com> wrote:

>Well, I assumed it was going to flop. But I would not have guessed that
>it would only last two weeks.

It actually did better than I thought it would... I genuinely
thought it would be lucky to clear a million, but it doubled that.
(And still took a loss.)

- Shin Hibiki, did not contribute to that total

[Zobovor]

On Sunday, October 11, 2015 at 6:43:48 PM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:

> There's a "romantic" theme used in a couple of Transformers episodes ("The
> Big Broadcast of 2006" and "Money is Everything") that was borrowed from the
> Jem music library and it would be ideal if I can find the entire theme and
> rip it from Jem.

Except I have now watched every episode of Jem and it's NOT IN THE SHOW ANYWHERE.

This is really frustrating for me. The theme I mentioned above clearly and distinctly uses a Jem leitmotif. I guess it's just a matter of Rob Walsh using that sequence of notes to evoke a romantic element, sort of like John Williams sneaking the Harry Potter theme into Revenge of the Sith when we see baby Luke Skywalker for the first time.

I do not consider watching the show a waste of time, though I'm disappointed that the music I was looking for wasn't there anywhere. I enjoyed it a lot more than the DIC episodes of G.I. Joe, certainly.

I love how the show makes you feel sorry for all the bad guys. Stormer, of course, is pathetically lovable, but one by one, they show you this horrible sob story about how none of the bad guys are really "bad guys" after all (Roxy is mean to hide the fact that she can't read; Pizzazz is desperate to gain her father's approval; Clash just wants to be accepted by someone; etc.) And yet, I still know nothing about Aja or Shana.

As I've said recently, Riot is the Rat King. I don't just mean the voice, I mean he's literally the Rat King. I seriously think after the Stingers broke up, he just wandered the sewers aimlessly, wearing bandages on his face...

I love the episode where, instead of the regular titles and writer credits popping up on the screen, Kimber breaks the fourth wall and goes, "Sorry, there won't be an episode today." And later when Riot takes his turn addressing the viewer, Jem is all, "Wait, who are you talking to?"

The final episode sucked. All these loose ends (will Rio ever choose between Jerrica and Jem? Will Rio ever find out the truth, and how will he handle being lied to for three seasons?) and instead they devote an entire episode to Ba Nee, the girl with the stupidest name in the world. I do like that Jem waves at the audience at the end.


Zob (guess I'm gonna have to start watching Dungeons & Dragons now)