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I have, and love, the Gargoyles Season 1. I got it the day it came out! (Actually, 3 days before it came out, I snuck it out of the store where I work and paid for it on release day.) It's just glorious. The care was put into this that made the show so great in the first place. I love the commentary, I only wish there were 5 times more. This site provides the best commentary of all, but to have Greg's rants right over the scenes grounds the observations very well. I've been watching these with my wife and it's like torture. Even the smallest things have a deeper meaning and greater significance (see that boy Tom, he's not just a throwaway character, he'll be back later; that's not the last we'll see of Hakon; you'll never believe what becomes of Jackal; and Owen...my Lord!) and I want to connect all the dots, but it would be cruel to blow the surprise. What would be even crueler is if we never got a chance to share the surprises, so I'll get down on my knees now and beg Disney to put together Season 2. And don't worry, my money will be where my mouth is. Such beautiful storytelling shouldn't be buried in a vault. Such wonderful wisdom should be allowed to touch people. I had a woman today in the book store where I work ask for a copy of the Jeffrey Robbins quotation on books I have posted: "The written word is all that stands between memory and oblivion. Without books as our anchors, we are cast adrift, neither teaching nor learning. They are windows on the past, mirrors on the present, and prisms reflecting all possible futures. Books are lighthouses erected in the dark sea of time."
Beautiful.
Thanks
It's cool you posted that. I can't remember if it was Lydia or Brynne who came up with that (or both). It's pretty keen, huh?
My DVD Review
First let me tell you of my "fun" search for the DVD. I had pre-ordered it through my local Blockbuster 2 weeks ahead of release date. All seemed well enough. I went there December 7th and they couldn't find my order, my form, nothing. And they weren't even selling it on the shelf. I'd have to wait for another 2 weeks to get it. So I rushed over to my Wal-Mart. They didn't have it either. It was 2 days later before I got a chance to go to Daytona. Circuit City didn't have it. But Best Buy did. One last copy. Then 2 days later, Wal-Mart in my town got about 20 copies. Frustration!
Anyways, onto the review...
I had seen the coverart online and loved it from the moment I saw it. I was suprised Disney didn't print their name on the front cover though. I liked how the gold banners pointed out it's anniversary and it was 2-discs. Which is often an eye catcher. And the cover itself is beautifu;. The purple-gray Goliath was great. Unlike the VHS Heroes Awaken cover, this DVD cover did not soften the look of the show. The VHS cover could have been decieving to some who figured it for a light-hearted children's show. This cover respected the show. The back cover too was nice. I was expecting screenshots of the show, but it was respectful in a way. And it listed the bonus features, critic acclaim, and a little summary. Very nice.
I liked the insert, using the old pictures from The Hunted and Force of Goliath VHS. And it fit well with the cover art. The DVD discs themselves were all nice. And nice to have the episodes listed straight on the discs.
Pop in the DVDs, skip the previews, and go right to some great menus. Again, respectful of the series. They looked great. And the sound was perfect too. I was shocked frankly at the menus. Most menus don't jump out at me, I really don't care to look at them. But these were perfect and eye catching. I also like the moments when you choose and you get a little bit of different characters. The video itself for each episode was crisp and beautiful. Better then I ever saw on TV even. The sound was great as well. It was wonderful to have each episode uncut. Disney had originally cut the egg scenes out of the Heroes Awaken VHS, because they never planned to release season 2. Seeing the egg scenes again, gives me hope that they will. Even for those who never saw the series before have to wonder about the eggs. Even though Xanatos said they were gone. He lied a lot afterall, so it's only natural to think he lied about the eggs. It just gives me a lot of hope since they included stuff that would come out later in the series, perhaps they may just bring season 2 out.
I LOVED the Gathering feature. That was so well done. The interviews intercut with the show were excellent. And again, respectful of the series. They taped a lot of stuff. They included so much. It was great! I wasn't expecting them to go that far with it.
Greg's pitch was also fun. Nice to see the history some more. And be refreshed on stuff I had forgotten. I also never saw some of that concept art. Very interesting and neat!
Commentary was great! Most of the stuff I knew, but it was nice to hear them talk about it again.
All in all, one of the best, if not THE best DVDs I ever have owned. I plan to buy more copies for Christmas gifts and to donate to local organizations. :)
Thanks, Siren. I'm glad you liked it and that you went to so much trouble to get it. It is frustrating how hard it can be to find the disks.
Glad to see that we can post again . . . I got the DVD on Tuesday Premire!!!!
I was so happy!
Went over to Best Buy to buy it. Turns out, my little brother, 10 years old, today, was the won to find it. They were in a box somewhere in the 'TV Shows on DVD' aisle.
We politely asked a worker there to properly display the boxed set in all it's glory. Unfortunatley, I don't know if they ever did. :I
I read the back cover for the first time. It said it all, surprisingly. "The victems of Human betrayal" Humans? Betraying Gargoyles? To the unwise ear, that sounds ridiculous, and that those who read it must surely see how could perfect humans do evil to 'monsters.'
Hey, that's just who I am.
I saw the commentary in the Pilot episodes. (Isn't cool that "Gargoyles" has more than one pilot episode?) I loved how you (as in Greg, Frank, and Keith) mentioned every little thin we loved about the show, and the quirks that cam ealong with it. "Bronx kicks A**, or tail, as the case is!"
Loved it.
I also never truly realized the TRUE signifigance of Goliath asking to join the others in stone sleep. I never knew that he meant to commit suicide, but now that makes it all the more meaningful. It also reminds me of the Demona's anguish when she sees Goliath that way in City of Stone Part I, where she cries and kisses Goliath, not even trying to find a way to wake him.
Sad indeed.
I also loved the dog joke. Once an actor, now on the streets . . . cliche', huh?
I am glad that Carl Johnson also got the recongition he deserves. I mean, hard not to, right? Everytime the comentary began, you gave praise to the man who came up with that "BUMMMMM!! BUMMMMM!! BA BU BU BUM BUMMM BA BA BUMMM!! Epic indeed.
But it was truly a rewarding thing to see the show on DVD at last.
"I always survive" -- Demona, "Temptation" That is how this fandom is. No matter how hard we hit the ground, we always come back alive!
AND WE LIVE AGAIN!!!!!
Onward to Season II !!!!!!
We do indeed live again!
And thanks for mentioning Carl and his amazing score!
DVD Review
My first reaction to the little box from amazon.com arriving was a childish giddiness of having some great prize finally in my grabby little hands. My first disappointment was opening the container up and seeing that the first disk had come loose either in shipping or sometime prior and had been rattling around inside. On closer inspection of the case itself, I'm a bit disappointed in the construction of it, as it is very easy for the discs to slide loose and get damaged. Luckily for me, there wasn't any trouble with it, even if the first disc did get a few scratches.
The gathering footage was a great addition, and really interesting for someone like myself who has never gone. Of course, I went through the special features first, and then went back and re-watched the entire show. It probably would have been better to have some chapter breaks within the episodes, as I had to fast forward through the intro each time. I did encounter a technical glitch of some sort while playing the DVD on my laptop. There was quite a bit of jumpiness to the opening of the DVD, but a good cleaning of it seemed to fix it fine. Perhaps a balance issue?
Away from the more technical aspects, Gargoyles was very close to what I remembered of it. Seeing it again was very much like seeing it for the first time. With the DVD quality and my laptop, I was able to see a lot more details, especially differences between various animation companies that did different episodes. The sound was amazing, and I was able to pick up on a lot of little sounds that I missed as a child.
Overall, I'm very happy with the DVD, although not so happy with the quality of the discs or their packaging.
Sorry about the technical problems. I haven't had any of those problems with my copy, but...
The sound work is great, isn't it? We used a number of different animation studios on the series, with differing levels of quality, but we always used Advantage Audio on the sound, and the folks there -- particularly Music Editor Marc Perlman, Sound Effects Editor Paca Thomas and mixers Bill, Jim, Melissa and Ray -- all did amazing work, which I'm glad the DVD brings out.
My DVD Review.
I've already posted several thoughts I had on the DVD so I'll be brief here. Decent transfer. Picture not perfect but it looks good enough even blown up on my 103" screen so that's good news. Sounds much, much better than my copy-of-a-copy-from-cable VHS versions, another plus. Commentary was cool but it sounded like you still had stuff left to say even after five episodes.. so why not extend it out to cover the whole series, maybe even bring in some other people on the creative team or some other voice talent on different episodes and have them guest comment like Keith did. A lot of commentary tracks on movies or TV series run out of steam after the first 45 minutes or so and then listening to the rest becomes repetitive and boring but it sounded like you could have kept going so why stop? Extras were alright, I already mentioned the bad flashbacks the Gathering footage gave me, the original show pitch was interesting to see, wish that there was more stuff like that but I realize there may not be more stuff like that. If Disney gets you more involved on the next DVD maybe you can put in some more extras like the Bad Guys thing that you did at the Gathering or whatever else you can come up with to help expand and flesh out either the genesis of the show or the unrealized portion of your Master Plan. Chapter breaks would have been really nice. More extras would have been nice. Better packaging would be nice. "SEASON 2 COMING SOON!" in big bold letters on the back of the box would have been nice. But ultimately I'm just happy that it is out and I own a copy... Season 3 was terrible, season 2 had some great shows but was at times hit-and-miss and the world tour was boring.... but season 1 is solid gold and I loved every minute of this DVD.
I would have loved to have done more commentaries and brought in more of the cast and crew to do it. But BVHE only budgeted (originally) for two episodes worth of commentary. (And that's just the production cost -- all of commenTATORS were commenTATING for free.) I convinced them to do five episodes worth to cover the entire pilot, but I could not convince them to do even one more ep, let alone all thirteen.
My DVD Review
Someone must have taken your advice, Greg, because a friend of mine found out the DVD was being released 2 weeks ago and told me, remembering that I was a fan of the show 10 years ago. Of course, I was thrilled. I remember it so fondly, I was excited to know there would be a DVD released.
I've got to say, I love this thing like the child I never had. After watching, now with the seasoned eyes of an adult, I can say it is easily the finest animated series ever aired on American Television. I'm now doing my diligence and spreading the word. And now that I've found this site, I'll be spending some terribly valubale time reacquainting myself with this series I've fallen in love with...all over again.
The DVD is beautiful, a vibrant transfer with crystal clear sound and fantastic menus. My only complaint is the lack of chapter breaks within the episodes, which does become a bit of an annoyance. I hope they fix that on Season 2. Which, of course, reminds me. I hope we SEE Season 2. I'm trying to spread the word on this DVD set, which brings me to my second complaint.
Why are WE the only ones spreading the word? I see absolutely NO marketing support for this DVD. Family Guy and 24 didn't become instant successes because Fox didn't support them!! Gargoyles isn't even LISTED as a new release on the front page of Disney's DVD section. What's THAT about? Eclipsed by "It's So Raven"? (I mean no disrespect to the fine individuals responsible for the creative and physical production of the previously mentioned project--or otherwise put, "No offence Tracey, but have you seen this DVD?") I'm just angry that Disney isn't giving people a chance to embrace this project, which plays just as well for an older audience as it did when I was a kid. Better, even. And new audiences like it to. I've already shared my disc with coworkers who are suddenly going ape-giggles--and have sent them to buy their own. Honestly, if the sales on this disc are lackluster, Disney can only blame itself. The distribution is even shotty. I TOO went to Target, Best Buy, Borders, Toys R Us, and Circuit City--none of which had the disc. I had to get it at Wal-Mart where I yelled at employees for shoving it behind copies of Spider-Man 2 (so if you read this before the turn of the new Millennium, Greg, try the one on Crenshaw :) That said, if the sales on this are at all impressive, it is truly a testament to the high quality of the show.
In the meantime, while we all wait for the verdict, I'll be scouring this website for more tidbits and memory jogging elements. And ordering TOON DISNEY. Because I've got to get my fix SOMEWHERE! I'm HOOKED!! AGAIN!!!
That's great Chad. I hope you stuck around long enough to learn of and grab ahold of the Season Two, Volume One DVD set as well.
Now... once again... hard truth time...
You and the rest of the fandom can complain all you like about Disney's near invisible marketing strategy for the two DVD releases, but to some extent you are missing the point...
Disney never planned to spend dime one on the marketing. If they thought they had to budget for marketing on this product, they wouldn't have produced it at all.
We -- the fandom and ME, really -- convinced them that these disks would sell without Disney's help. We -- the fandom, the conventions and ME -- led them to believe that we had so many hungry accolytes of the property that they could make money on the DVDs while spending next-to-nothing (on production, manufacture and distribution).
And this worked well enough to get us two releases. But not to get us three. Yelling at Disney may seem therapeutic, but it's completely counterproductive. So what do you want, therapy or DVDs? If the answer is the latter, than it's incumbant on us -- the fandom and ME -- to SPREAD THE WORD, and not wait on Disney to do something that they NEVER intended to do and most likely NEVER will do.
It just wasn't the implicit deal they made with us.
Any word on when season 2 is coming out on DVD? I bought the 1st season the day it came out and I'm anxiously awaiting more!
Greg Weisman says:
"[B]oth the SEASON ONE DVD and the SEASON TWO VOLUME ONE DVD are currently available. Because of mediocre sales on the latter, there are no current plans to release SEASON TWO VOLUME TWO at this time. So we need to SPREAD THE WORD to people. Let them know that the DVDs are out there and available and raise the sales figures so that we can get that next release."
My DVD review.
The powers that be did a terrific job with this DVD. All thirteen episodes of the first season of "Gargoyles" uncut, unedited. Great picture and audio, nice transfer, the menus are great. They didn't let me down.
The episodes all look gorgeous, and after almost ten years of VHS tapes recorded off the TV, it makes a real difference. I'm even hearing sound effects and bits of music I never heard before, it's just wonderful.
The audio commentary on all five parts of Awakening by Greg Weisman, Frank Paur and Keith David was fun to listen to, they're all great guys... and I know as I've met and spoken to all three of them, and Greg I speak to a lot.
But first a little response directed at Greg... Was going through the fifth part of the "Awakening" commentary and when we get to the reveal of Demona's name, you go on about how you're not sure if it played well or not, if it was impressive enough for such a reveal.
Just thought you'd like a little feedback on that. I was thirteen when that episode first premered, and that scene made quite an impact on me, it was about then that she became my favorite character (up till just before Demona starts shooting at Goliath and playing out their 'little drama' Xanatos was the front runner, but as you know I love him too) but damn the reveal was dramatic, red smoke, her silhouette and she steps through it with her eyes flashing red holding the bazooka, and the character animation on her and the way Marina acted, and I knew her name was basically (demon) and that it was both well... demonic and beautiful, deadly and elegant all at the same time. I thought it was perfect.
So yeah, as far as this fan goes, the scene worked wonderfully.
The Gathering extra turned out very well also. It's 15 minutes, but it's well covered. I'm surprised at how much of me they use. And it's official, all these years of being a Demona fan boy, and now it's officially documented and I even appear on screen with her (split screen of me and her), just a little thing but it means something to me. Aaron and Mara are the other two Demona groupies in that part of the documentary. But lots of great stuff, lot of Greg W and Keith David. Sapphire appears just about every other shot (and I'm suddenly picturing the director of this documentary with a big blown up poster of her on his bedroom wall ;)). Everyone looked great, the bit where Aaron and Xanatos say the "Pay a man enough and he'll walk barefoot into Hell" line in sinc was just awesome.
My only complaint was that they didn't show Aaron's Demona tattoo, and that the Gathering website's URL was not flashed on the screen. Aw well.
Overall, I give it a 9.9 out of 10. Would have gotten a gull 10 but no tattoo and no Gathering URL... still, the set is terrific, and overall exceeded my expectations.
Both your complaints are mine as well. There's also one edit of MY interview that makes it sound like I'm taking credit for the entire show, when in fact, without the edit, my point was to give credit to the rest of my development team. And as much as I loved Montreal, the featurette gives the impression that the Gathering is held there every year. I know there was footage that indicated that we are a roving con, but none of that made the cut.
And still, I think it turned out well.
And I'm glad the Demona beat worked for you too.
Here's my DVD review:
First, the Power Rangers commercial made me laugh. Someone brought up how it was like the murderer speaking at the victim's funeral.
The animated menus were GORGEOUS!!! Absoulutely beautiful.
The clarity of the pictures were awesome. Ditto for the audio.
The commentaries, doc, and pitch were enlightening to me. It's a pity that they didn't make the Gathering featurete longer.
Anyway, that's my review. Short and sweet.
Thank you, Mr. Weisman, for creating such a good series.
You're welcome. I'm very glad you liked the DVD. I liked the current length of the Gathering featurette. Like you said, "short and sweet". There were a couple of things they cut that I wish they had kept in, but I've watched ALL the footage they shot that weekend, and I think they got most of the best stuff.
Hey Greg, any word from disney how well the sales for the season 1 DVD are so far?
Greg Weisman says:
"Sales on Season One were decent enough. Not stellar. But good enough to get us Season Two, Volume One. Sales on the latter were not decent enough for BVHE to schedule a release for Season Two, Volume Two. We need more sales. We need to SPREAD THE WORD."
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