It’s silly, it’s crazy, it’s zany, and ultimately worth viewing for anyone who enjoys urbane, off-the-wall comedy.
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"What the hell did I just watch?"
"Home Movies" made its debut on network television to UPN and disappeared after just a few minutes. Featuring animation that looks like scratchy Flash, or a cleaned-up version of "Dr. Katz" and some incredibly dry, almost improvisational humor, "Home Movies never found a crowd and was gone within a month. The show was picked up by Cartoon Network´s cult favorite late-night "Adult Swim," finding a whole new audience of stoners and comedy fans who could appreciate its unique style.
The show follows the story of home filmmaker, young Brendon Small and his young friends Jason and Melissa as they experience life, school, and social interactions including teachers and coaches who are as clueless about life as he is. Brendon´s mother is recently divorced and is learning how to fit back into the real world while raising her eclectic, scatterbrained son.
It took me a while to warm up to the "Home Movies" concept because I didn´t know quite what to expect. The dialogue delivery is extremely understated, to the point that it seems improvised, and that could be a major turnoff to those who are more accustom to the traditional narrative structure of a sitcom with a introduction, setup, climax, and resolution. The show ambles along to a resolution that resembles an after-school special in style, though the content is screwed up.
Brendon is neurotic, talkative and more than a little nuts. His worldview is projected on those around him and it becomes obvious how he has grown into the individual he is. Once I got into the brain of the show, "Home Movies" transcended the barriers of traditional, strictly structured animation into something that´s unique and hilarious. The snappy dialogue that populates the fifth episode, which approaches the world of relationships from an innocent-yet-experienced naiveté perspective began my infatuation with the program and consistently cracked me up.
This DVD set contains 13 episodes that made up the first season, including the 5 episodes that aired on UPN with Paula Poundstone featured as the Brendon´s mother. Although the animation is distracting, the dialogue is brilliant enough to exceed the limitations of the video. It´s silly, it´s crazy, it´s zany, and ultimately worth viewing for anyone who enjoys urbane, off-the-wall comedy.
Video:
It´s hard to judge the quality of the transfer because of the squiggly animation, however I didn´t notice much out of the norm. I did see a couple of instances where the video tore briefly, though it was restricted to the pilot and might have just been the nature of the first episode. I didn´t notice any specks, grain or scratches on the prints, which were contained in their native 4:3 aspect ratio.
Audio:
The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio is very clean and has an excellent dynamic range. The dialogue is clean so much so that I could hear the breath pauses on the recordings. The music tracks have a nice low range and a clear treble and mid. As far as TV-on-DVD goes, this audio track is one of the better ones I´ve come across.
Extras:
This 3-disc set has a ton of material on it from the producers of the show. The first disc contains an interview with Loren Bouchard who is the producer and co-creator of "Home Movies," and he talks about the chance meeting with an old teacher who got him involved in the creation of some comedy shorts that lead to, not surprisingly, "Dr. Katz" and eventually to "Home Movies." Bouchard is very forthcoming about how he got into the animation field and the theory behind the nature of the show. His energy is contagious and love for, and dedication to, the field is obvious and inspiring. He talks about the early days of the show, how it morphed from a program about Paula Poundstone to Brendon Small, the show´s production schedule, and about anything you´d ever want to know about "Home Movies."
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]13658[/release]