The Tick-Complete Series (2001) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Trailer-Ghostbusters, Men In Black II Audio Commentary-Barry Sonnenfeld (Executive Producer) - Pilot Episode Audio Commentary-Bed Edlund (Creator) - 3 Episodes
Rating
Year Of Production	2001
Running Time	200:40
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4	Directed By	Barry Sonnenfeld Mel Damski Danny Leiner Dean Parisot
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Patrick Warburton David Burke Liz Vassey Nestor Carbonell
Case	?
RPI	$44.95	Music	Ian Dye

Video (NTSC)		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, some episodes

"When you get in bed with evil, it always takes the covers"

"Another urban myth dispelled - Ninjas don't bounce"

"Java Devil, You are now my b****"

"I've killed 'The Immortal'"

"Don't be an Adolf Quitler"

    The Tick is a live action comedy TV series from the United States, based on a comic book. Besides some fantastic dialogue (see above), this show is one of the funniest American produced comedies I have seen. It is weird, off-the-wall, quirky, surreal and sometimes just plain silly, but I laughed a lot and will certainly watch this again. I have been aware of this DVD set for some time and was very keen to review it. The pilot episode was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black) based upon a comic book and cartoon series created by Ben Edlund. Both of them were also involved in the series, however different people actually directed the other episodes. Unfortunately, after just nine 20 minutes episodes, Fox (who were paying the bills) decided it was too weird for prime-time television and dropped it. It's a real shame, because given some time to develop, this could have become another Simpsons or better.

    So what's it about? Well it's about a big blue superhero called The Tick (Patrick Warburton in a bright blue rubber suit) who has no back story. He just appears at the beginning of the show fully formed, protecting a bus station from evil. Despite his obviously completely good intentions, he has the ability to annoy people because he is extremely naive and a little too hyper-active. The guys at the bus station make it clear that it is time he moved on, and he ends up in a large city where he meets the man who will become his partner, Arthur (David Burke). Arthur is a frustrated accountant who wants to become a superhero. He decides to quit his job, and dons his white suit, with fold up wings. They meet when The Tick needs to rescue Arthur from some bad guys, because of Arthur's fairly 'undeveloped' super powers. Together, they form a crime fighting duo, although it takes a few episodes for Arthur to be convinced that he wants The Tick around. They also meet up with the two other main characters, at the local diner (one of the few which allows Superheros), The Lonely Panda. The others are Batmanuel (Nestor Carbonnell) a self serving pants man, who at least dresses as a superhero but doesn't really seem to have any powers of note and Captain Liberty (Liz Vassey), a tough, strong and resourceful superhero, who is also quite neurotic. There is one more 'character' that really does have a life of its own, and that is The Tick's antennae. In his commentary track, Barry Sonnenfeld says that Patrick Warburton was very jealous of his antennae as he felt they were funnier than he was. I am not sure about that, but they are certainly very funny.

    The series focuses on what superheroes get up to when not fighting crime, rather than the usual approach of only showing their acts of bravery and heroism. Accordingly, significant amounts of the series take place at Arthur's apartment and the diner I mentioned before. This show takes a completely different twist on the whole superhero thing. The episodes included in this set are as follows:

• Pilot - Introduction to the characters and a battle against a Russian Secret weapon with plans to kill Jimmy Carter. This is a classic episode, with some great dialogue and funny situations. This one episode was directed by Barry Sonnenfeld.
• The Terror - The gang need to defeat an arch-villain called The Terror, who unfortunately is a bit past his prime.
• Arthur - Interrupted - This is probably the best episode of the entire series and features Arthur planning to 'come out' to his family that he has decided to become a superhero. Features The Tick battling with a toilet which sounds surprisingly like Chewbacca.
• The License - The Tick applies for a superhero license but his lack of official identity makes this difficult.
• Arthur Needs Space - Arthur worries that he gets dates just because of his outfit.
• Couples - Arthur & The Tick meet two new superheros, Fiery Blaze (Ron Perlman, Hellboy) and Friendly Fire which causes them to reconsider the nature of their partnership.
• The Funeral - An hilarious episode featuring The Tick speaking at the funeral of a visiting VIP. His reference to 'The word funeral starts with 'fun' does not necessarily go down well.
• The Tick Vs Justice - The gang appear in court against villain Destroyo, however, The Tick finds himself in contempt.
• The Big League - The Tick & Arthur are asked to join the League of Superheroes much to the annoyance of Captain Liberty.

    I thought this series was inventive, original and hilarious and it certainly deserved to get a better go than only 9 episodes. Highly recommended for people who like their comedy off the wall and different.

Video

    The video quality is very good but does have some issues.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio. It should be noted that this set is in NTSC. Please ensure that you system can handle NTSC before purchasing.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise. There was light grain throughout. The shadow detail was very good.

    The colour was excellent, and well saturated with no colour artefacts.

    There was some minor aliasing here and there and some flecks, lines and specks but certainly not to a distracting level.

    There are no subtitles.

    There are no layer changes.
    

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is good.

    This DVD contains one audio option: an English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The music used in this production by Ian Dye is perfectly suited to the nature of the program. It has a slightly over-the-top silliness about it.

    The surround speakers are used for some mild directional effects when the soundtrack is played with Dolby ProLogic II.

     The subwoofer was not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menus are styled after comic books and are quite effective.

Commentary - Pilot Episode - Director - Barry Sonnenfeld

    This is not a bad commentary track and he talks about how the series came about, casting issues, references and influences and some technical details. Worth listening to.

Commentary - 3 episodes - Ben Edlund - Creator

    Ben Edlund provides a commentary on three of the other episodes which do contain some interesting stuff especially about where the ideas came from, earlier script drafts and anecdotes. Unfortunately, he also spends a reasonable amount of time describing what is going on onscreen which becomes a little boring.

Trailers

    Trailers for Ghostbusters (2:11) and Men in Black II (2:09).

    The Region1 version is exactly the same as our local release right down to both being NTSC.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is good.

    The disc has some commentary tracks as the extent of its extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall