PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
The Simpsons-Dark Secrets (1989)

The Simpsons-Dark Secrets (1989)

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Released 31-Mar-2004

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Trailer-The Simpsons Complete First And Second Seasons
Trailer-The Simpsons Film Festival & Backstage Pass
Trailer-The Simpsons Treehouse Of Horror & Risky Business
Rating Rated PG
Year Of Production 1989
Running Time 86:23
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4 Directed By Neil Affleck
Bob Anderson
Mikel B. Anderson
Wesley Archer
Studio
Distributor

Twentieth Century Fox
Starring Dan Castellaneta
Julie Kavner
Nancy Cartwright
Yeardley Smith
Hank Azaria
Harry Shearer
Marcia Wallace
Phil Hartman
Tress MacNeille
Pamela Hayden
Maggie Roswell
Russi Taylor
Doris Grau
Case ?
RPI $24.95 Music Alf Clausen
Ray Colcord
Danny Elfman


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.33:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English for the Hearing Impaired
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Norwegian
Spanish
Swedish
French Titling
German Titling
Italian Titling
Spanish Titling
Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    The Simpsons – Dark Secrets is a collection of four classic episodes chosen by the Fox Home Entertainment executives for a little marketing on DVD alongside the full season releases. On this disc we have:

    I, like many others, love this wacky dysfunctional family, and have been watching this series for however long it has been since they were first introduced to Australian TV. Personally, Homer Badman is my favourite amongst these four, with some truly hilarious moments, but they all bring out the chuckles.

    For anyone who is a fan, these are four great episodes collected together for one easy viewing experience. My only question is - why get just these four when you can get a whole season in a boxed set? You see, a Simpsons DVD is like a fridge, about 6 foot tall, 180 pounds. No, wait. A Simpsons DVD is more like a beer. You crack her open and drink down all that fizzy goodness. But you can’t stop at just one – you have to have them all!

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

    Presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, which is the original broadcast aspect ratio, the picture quality is a bit of a mish-mash.

    Colours are fairly rich, but the image is prone to cross-colouration in closely cropped lines.

    Otherwise, the image is fairly well defined and (unsurprisingly) dirt free.

    MPEG artefacts are absent, and film-to-video transfer artefacts are minimal with only the mild cross-colouration I mentioned earlier and some minor aliasing and dot-crawl in the background.

    Subtitles are available in English for the Hearing Impaired, regular English, Danish, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish. They appear as white with a grey/black border and are easy to read. They do not convey the dialogue word for word, but the general gist of the dialogue is kept.

    The dual-layer pause is in between the episodes, with two episodes per layer.

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

Audio

    Audio is available in the original broadcast English 2.0 Dolby Surround as well as in French, German, Spanish and Italian.

    This is a fairly front-driven experience with a few left-right directional cues.

    Dialogue is always clear and easy to follow. The music gives a little life to the rears.

    There is no subwoofer use.

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

Extras

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.33:1 Full Frame. They are static and silent.

Trailers

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    From what I can tell, this compilation was not released in R1 – they went straight for the complete season DVD releases.

Summary

    The Simpsons Classics – Dark Secrets of The Simpsons is a nice little collection of episodes.

    Good video, though not fantastic.

    This audio is fairly standard but gets the job done.

    The extras are promotional.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Edward McKenzie (I am Jack's raging bio...)
Saturday, June 05, 2004
Review Equipment
DVDPanasonic DVD-RV31A-S, using S-Video output
DisplayBeko 28" (16x9). This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver.
AmplificationMarantz SR7000
SpeakersEnergy - Front, Rear, Centre & Subwoofer

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