Search - Home Movies - Season Two on DVD

"I stand on land!"

MartialWay | Sherman Oaks, CA USA | 04/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To me it has always been a breech of decorum to review something on Amazon before it has actually been released but to me, "Home Movies" Season 2 is an exception from where I stand. I've seen the second season of Home Movies many more times than I can count.

Adult Swim (for those who don't or can't tune in) can be considered the home of "cutting edge" (though cheaply animated), gutsy, adult oriented animated programming. That's what they, and anyone with low enough standards thinks. What the block really consists of is exhaustively rerun cartoons and every half year something new--- which they will rerun until you can spout out any line of any show on demand.

These days, I change the channel until it's time for Home Movies. I've seen the other programs worth watching on the block a hundred times squared anyway, and Home Movies has always been the one gem to consistently make me laugh, even though I know every line from every show thanks to Adult Swim's lack of up-to-date programming. I can't explain it.

The first season DVD was great, simply because the show is. They could leave the commentaries, Brendon Small's attempts to display his below average musical ability, and the cast's attempts to convince us that they have careers away from Home Movies off the DVD and we'll still have a 5-star boxed set to add to our growing collection.

They did us all a favor and switched from Squigglevision to Flash Animation. The colors are brighter, movements more fluid and the lines hold still, thank God. The shows are less improvised and more scripted, and after hearing Loren Bouchard explain how episodes were recorded in the first boxed set: hours and hours of Jon Benjamin and Brendon Small goofing around, improvising dialogue and then editing the choicest stuff into the episode was probably a huge waste of time and money. One can certainly understand scripting the episodes, and letting the actors go from there and it never once changed the overall feel of the show at the core.

My favorite episodes of Season Two are "Therapy", "Class Trip" and especially "The Wedding" ("I am Elfor, The Landstander! I stand on land!"). The show has so many great moments that choosing a favorite is harder than it looks.

I was happy to read that Melissa Galsky is joining the cast on the commentary track. I missed hearing her cute voice on the first season commentary. It seemed incomplete to have Brendon and Jason on the track, but no Melissa. I am keeping my fingers crossed that they offer more to us than just a goof-off session on the commentary tracks. I hope to learn something about the process, but if I don't I'll still enjoy this.

The show stands by itself, and with or without DVD extras this set is worth the price. I imagine they put extras there just so people wouldn't shell out their money and complain about how the dvd had no extras. I personally could care less about dvd extras, though I harbor some hope that Soup 2 Nuts learned from the mistakes of the last boxed set.

Many thanks to Soup 2 Nuts for continuing to release Home Movies on DVD, and I hope to see the rest of the show on DVD all the way to the very last episode. I'd hate to have to keep tuning to Adult Swim at 2AM to get my "Home Movies" fix. Their new shows, such as "Tom Goes to the Mayor" and "Robot Chicken" are so painfully un-funny and difficult to sit through (even for 15 minutes) that I end up watch reruns of South Park or Chapelle's show. The new stuff Adult Swim Sunday offers aren't fit for streaming video, let alone a slot on a TV network, but I guess there's no school like the old school.

Many thanks for reading my worthless opinion and I hope it helped a little bit.
"

"I Have Spastic Colon!" "Me, Too!"

Robert I. Hedges | 06/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Home Movies" is the best of all Adult Swim shows, and when it was cancelled Cartoon Network instantly lost a large percentage of their more intelligent viewers. The show has the ability to amuse with subtlety better than any other cartoon I have ever seen, and this season is one of the finest. For season two the show changed from Squigglevision to Flash animation, largely for the better. Simultaneously the characters began to develop into more complete entities, yet remain complex and flexible enough to handle many diverse situations.

Of the episodes in season two, I particularly like "Hiatus" (the "jazz fight" is just wonderful), "Identifying a Body" (which has one of the strangest plotlines ever in a cartoon), "Pizza Club" (which features a wonderful scene of Walter and Perry going on about their inability to eat pizza due to lactose intolerance and spastic colon), and "The Wedding," which is perhaps the funniest episode in the set, once again featuring lots of subtlety (the floral arrangements, the rash, and the new minister ["I haven't done this recently...or in the past..."] all come to mind), and perhaps the best exchange of all time from Walter and Perry.

There are many excellent commentary tracks and extras, which fans will definitely appreciate.

I can't recommend this set or this series highly enough. Do yourself a favor and check it out: I can't imagine not loving this show!
"

Oh, thank goodness!

tonyscam | Fort Worth, Texas United States | 05/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was terrified that sales of Season One wouldn't be good enough to justify further releases.

My hope for this set: That they mixed the commentaries properly, so the episode audio doesn't interfere with the commentary hijinks. I would love to be able to hear the commentaries without getting an extreme headache.

Brendan Small is a . . . GENIUS (musical and comedic) . . . and H. Jon Benjamin may be the only performer who can steal the show from him! Janine DiIlulio is admirable for IMPROVING on Paula Poundstone's role (and lending the character sex appeal), and Melissa Bardin Garsky is a witty foil. Not to mention the great guest performers, and semi-regular Jonathan Katz. It's really amazing: "HOME MOVIES" is OVERLOADED with TALENT! No, seriously . . . I think the show would have lasted longer, if there had been less talent.

"

Finally, MORE!

T. Griffin | USA | 05/09/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I became addicted to this show a couple of years back, when my employer had me living out of a hotel room for month. After a 14-hour workday, I'd get back to the room mentally drained. While flipping channels to fall asleep, I happened upon this irreverent little cartoon show that was as hillarious anything I'd seen since the early days of The Simpsons, or the comedy of Jake Johansen.

The smart silliness of this animated show was, for me, the perfect antidote to fried-brain syndrome; and needless to say, I became hooked. Only thing is, I've never had cable at home; so when I got back, I went through withdrawls from no longer being able to see the show every night. FINALLY, I spotted the Home Movies: Season 1 box set at Tower Records and immediately had to get it. And I'm so hyped to know that the second season is about to be realesed!

On days when I come home for lunch, I end up watching Home Movies for an hour--it's way better than Judge Judy--and return to work ready to serve out the rest of the day with a grin on my face. I can't wait to own 13 more episodes of this great show."