The Powerpuff Girls-Down 'n' Dirty (1998) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Courage the Cowardly Dog Premiere
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	108:25 (Case: 135)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Craig McCracken Genndy Tartakovsky
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Thomas Chase Steve Rucker James L Venable

    If this is the first Powerpuff review you've read, then I suggest you read my review of Powerpuff Girls — The Mane Event first; in that review I introduce the main characters and the format of the show. This disc is simpler than that one. This one contains ten episodes, but nowhere near as much in the way of extras. The episodes on this disc are:

    Unlike The Mane Event, where you could hit Play All and still get the titles, on this one the Play All option leaves out the titles of the episodes. If you select the episodes individually from the Episode menu, then you get the opening and closing credits wrapped around each episode, but you still don't get the title flash. That's a little irritating.

    I note that the warning at the start of this disc says that it is only licensed for private home viewing in Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Hmm — that's a bit of an oops... Does that mean we're breaking the law to watch it? Hope not!

    It just struck me — I wonder if Craig McCracken (creator of the Powerpuffs) knew that there really is a town called Townsville? Maybe the Queenslanders should contact him about naming rights?

    Apart from the violence — the Powerpuff Girls beat up the bad guys quite a lot, and sometimes get beaten up themselves — there's nothing here to be afraid of showing to children. Some of these stories have fairly blatant morals, but they are not controversial ones. You never know, you might be able to get something out of them, too.

Video

    If you don't have the ability to watch NTSC discs, then this disc is not for you. It is NTSC, even though it's Region 4.

    This DVD's transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced. For a TV cartoon series like this one that's the original aspect ratio.

    The image is about as sharp as it can be. Shadow detail is not a consideration for this kind of animation. There is no significant film grain, and no low level noise.

    Colour is bright and cheerful, and well-rendered. There are no colour-related artefacts, except for occasional moments of discolouration adjacent to heavy black lines.

    There is some Gibb's Effect on the black borders of the characters, which are very heavy black outlines. They also show some aliasing, but it's not bad. There is no moire, no shimmer, and no MPEG artefacts.

    There are a few tiny film artefacts, but you really have to watch closely to see them. There are a few more than in the previously-reviewed The Mane Event, but that was very clean. There's a noticeable vertical scratch for a few seconds around 7:12 in Just Another Manic Mojo.

    There are subtitles in English, Spanish and Portuguese. I watched the English subtitles. They are easy enough to read, well-timed, and fairly accurate.

    The disc is single-sided and dual layered. I think the episodes have been arranged so that five episodes are placed on each layer. If you watch an episode individually, then the opening and closing credits will be drawn from layer 0. If the episode happens to be on layer 1, then there will be two layer changes in the playing of the episode; they aren't too much hassle, because we're used to a bit of a wait at those points, anyway.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack is provided in English, Spanish and Portuguese. I only listened to the English. It is a simple Dolby Digital 2.0 mix, with the occasional stereo effect, but mostly front and centre — that's not too surprising for a TV series.

    The English dialogue is mostly easy to understand (Bubbles can be a bit too shrill to understand occasionally, and some of the monsters aren't too clear). There are no obvious slips in audio sync, but animation is difficult to judge.

    The music is well-suited to the show — melodramatic and occasional a bit silly. The score (and opening theme) are credited to Thomas Chase, Steve Rucker and James L Venable. The closing theme is credited to BIS.

    There's no signal for the subwoofer or surrounds in this straight stereo soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There is only one extra on this disc.

Menu

    The menu is static, with music behind the main menu. It's simple enough to navigate.

Premiere

    This is a premiere episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog. It is called Journey to the Centre of Nowhere, runs 11:54, and is just a touch more brightly coloured than the Powerpuff Girls.

    Once again, the disc we get, although NTSC, is not the same as the Region 1 disc. On The Mane Event I thought the reason was to get the disc onto a single layer — even that excuse doesn't apply here.

    According to what I can find, there are a trivia game, character bios, and a preview for a different show on the Region 1 disc. However, it does not appear to have subtitles. Interesting.

    Because this Region 4 disc is NTSC, you need to be able to play NTSC discs no matter which version you choose. Sounds like either version would be fine this time.

    An interesting cartoon series — you will know if your children are addicted to it. Not badly presented, but NTSC.

    The video quality is pretty good. A few more spots this time, but not too many.

    The audio quality is rather good.

    The extra is interesting, but not really relevant.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall