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RIPOSTES 2006-09 (Sep)

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Chad writes...

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!!!

Greg responds...

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.

Response recorded on September 25, 2006

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I'm POD-CASTING...

Believe it or not...

I'm pod-casting at http://www.catchdacraze.com/

Tried to listen to it myself, but couldn't make it work. But theoretically one of you might be able to manage it.

Can't hurt to try, right...


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Greg Bishansky writes...

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.

Greg responds...

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.

Response recorded on September 22, 2006

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Lord GargFan writes...

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.

Greg responds...

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.

Response recorded on September 22, 2006

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Thom writes...

I am so sorry the last post was meant to read "Thank you for helping to stop them from driving the clan apart in the final episode" not for "not helping".
Once again thank you for an amazing series, forgive me for the mistake in the previous post.

Greg responds...

Yeah, I got the gist of it. Thanks.

Response recorded on September 21, 2006

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Thom writes...

More a comment than a question. I am new to this forum but have been a fan of the show for a long time now. I just read the posts about the third season and am relieved to see that it was not under the same direction as the first two seasons which explains the extremely different feel to those eps as apposed to the first two seasons. I am sorry that the series was taken from you ( I cannot believe that they felt the need to do so seeing the job you had done with the previous eps.) but I am happy knowing that these were not your works. You are an extremely talented person to have done so much with this series and the overall feel of the series was increadible. You are amazing!
P.S.- Thank you for not helping stop them from driving the clan apart by the end of the third season. I can't believe that was even considered!
Thank you again for your time. I still look forward to seeing the rest of the series on dvd and have purchased season 1 already ofcourse, but I now have a whole new outlook on the Goliath Chronicles. Once again I am sorry you were unable to complete the series the way you had invisioned.

Greg responds...

Thanks for the kind words.

Response recorded on September 21, 2006

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Thom writes...

I was wondering how sales have been to date thus far for the season 1 set? I work for a local retailer here in Toronto Canada and our sales have been modest so far. I'm hoping that sales have been better than I've been seeing as I am hoping and praying for seasons 2 & 3 sets. Please when you find time let us know. I'm sure everyone else would love to know. Thank you for your time.

Greg responds...

I recently answered this question. 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.

And if you think I never get tired of typing "SPREAD THE WORD", you're wrong.

Response recorded on September 21, 2006

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Ryan writes...

Hey maybe if I post this now you'll read it in time for the 2nd season on DVD release.

Anyway I was just wondering, since you later came to regret how much info you gave away in the "previously on Gargoyles" segments, did you consider taking these out of the DVD or reediting them? I notice they are still on there. But I'm thinking you probably had no input.

Taking them out would sort of be like editing the episode I guess, which some people would view as bad, but really I think packaged as the entire complete season you really don't need the "previously" or "next time" tags. They could be eliminated entirely. Or, you could put breaks in the episode so that someone with a remote for their DVD player that lets them skip chapters could easily fast forward to the meat and potatoes of the episode. It gets really old watching the opening over and over again for every single episode, but the only breaks on the season 1 DVD are between episodes so there is no easy way to skip it you just have to scan forward like the ol' VCR days. I hope on season 2 maybe you can put some chapter breaks in right after the opening and before the ending credits. Maybe even at each commercial break if you want to go all out.

Anyway... my 2 cents..

Greg responds...

I had imput, and I chose very consciously to keep them on. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. The "Previously" segments were an integral part of how the series was originally presented. I never considered cutting them.

Chapter breaks, on the other hand, as much as I would have liked them, were not presented as an option. More than BVHE wanted to pay to include them.

Response recorded on September 21, 2006

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Ryan writes...

I've watched the DVD now (twice most of the way through), plus all the bonus features... ready for season 2 now. :) To comment on the little Gathering bit on the DVD, at the risk of making myself unpopular here, I'd just like to say, jesus, I hope I never have to go to any of these things. Brought back some really bad flashbacks to the several BotCons I attended, because my girlfriend at the time was a HUGE Transformers freak. oh my god, the people there, biggest dorks in the universe. Just.. plain... SCARY. They make the most inane esoteric jokes in the world (typically obscure references to fanfiction charcters or comic geek lore or whatever, frequently interspersed with sophisticated penis humor or whatever infantile thing is on their mind at the time), stuff no normal person would find funny, and then laugh hysterically like it's the funniest thing in the world. The get SO passionate about the weirdest things, having debates over the most meaningless asinine thing in some episode of the show. Then there's the cosplaying and the role-playing and ... ugh. I didn't know it was possible but it looks like the average person at the Gathering is even geekier than your typical BotCon attendee. Why is it none of these people seem to know anything about personal grooming? You can't even go to pick up chicks because most of the girls there are borderline not-doable. I noticed two exceptions on the Gargoyles DVD. One girl who spoke frequently on the DVD though she REALLY looked out of place with the rest of this crowd... she was totally hot... ambiguous ethnicity... Indian? Pakistani maybe? She said she was considering getting in to voice acting. Then there was another girl who was pretty cute, said that she got picked on a lot in high school and the Gargoyles fandom became her family, she reminded me a lot of my first girlfriend and also looked a bit like Anna Paquin. She was hot too.

Anyway, sorry for the negative rant. Just... ew... bad flashbacks, like I said. Keith David is cool tho, isn't he?

Greg responds...

Ugh, I had a long negative rant of my own about your rant, but I just deleted nearly all of it in the interest of diplomacy. Here's what's left:

--Speaking of "infantile"... reread your own words above. You've topped the infantile list on anything ever posted here in the history of ASK GREG.

--You've never been to a Gathering. And whether or not it's your cup of tea, you have no idea how much fun it is for those who attend -- including myself and Keith David...

[Again, that's the DIPLOMATIC edit of what I originally wrote.]

Response recorded on September 21, 2006

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HurleyBurleysDone writes...

Mr. Weisman,

I have noticed talk of possible ideas for the return of gargoyles, and i was just wondering if this is the site where we could find out first if one of the ideas have been approved for continuing the story of gargoels? Thanks.

Greg responds...

This is a good site for that. I've never been shy about using it to promote my stuff -- especially GARGOYLES.

And you have picked up the Gargoyles comic book, right?

And both DVD sets, right?

And you've made plans to attend the Gathering, right?

See. It works.

Response recorded on September 21, 2006


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