Ben 10: Alien Force-Volume 4 (2008)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Teaser Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	114:22 (Case: 110)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Dan Riba Butch Lukic
Studio Distributor	Cartoon Network Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$19.95	Music	Kristopher Carter Michael McCuistion Lolita Ritmanis

    Title of Show : Ben10 : Alien Force

    Title of Disc : Volume 4

    Year of Production : 2008

    Country of origin : USA

    What's included? :  Episodes 14-18 of the show (First 5 of the 13 episodes in Season 2). These episodes were first shown in the US in 2008.

    Episode Length : About 22 minutes each. (114:22 in total)

    Details of episodes : 

This new spinoff from the original Ben10 series is being released in volumes rather than whole seasons. The following episodes are included:

1. Darkstar Rising
2. Alone Together
3. Good Copy Bad Copy
4. Save the Last Dance
5. Undercover

    Style of Production : Animation

    Premise of show : Ben10 : Alien Force is a Cartoon Network production which follows on from the very successful Ben 10 series. It is not so much a spin-off as a sequel due to the original series completing after 4 seasons. There has been a gap of 5 years between the old series and this and Ben is now 15. He has not been fighting aliens for 5 years but suddenly aliens are showing a renewed interest in Earth and Grandpa Max has disappeared. He receives a cryptic message from Max and decides to put the Omnitrix back on. When he does this the Omnitrix changes shape and there are 6 new aliens (including Alien X whose identity is revealed in Volume 4) rather than the original ones available to him. This time Ben teams up with his cousin Gwen again (who is developing her own skills at alien fighting) but also forms and uneasy alliance with his old enemy Kevin Levin. They set out to rescue Max and fight the aliens. It is a bit more serious than the old show and includes little hints of romance and teenage angst.

    Age Group : 5-12

    Related to any other children's shows? : A sequel to the original Ben 10.

    Adult's view : A good show for young boys with a lot of excitement, some suspense, some mild scares and interesting and exciting characters.

    Child's view : Thomas (6) says: 'My favourite episode is good copy bad copy because there is another Ben Tennyson and at the end he gets old. The episodes were a bit scary and violent but they were exciting too.' Rory (5) says: 'I love the show and Ben when he turns into Aliens. The episodes were all exciting.'

    Other Releases of this show available? : All four seasons of the original show have been released along with two feature length movies, one animated and one live action. This is the fourth release of Alien Force. There are also some repackaged releases of the original series being released.

    Overall : A good updating of the concept, my kids have taken to it immediately. Fans of the original series will love it (although some younger viewers may find it a bit scary).

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is probably not the original aspect ratio. I have received advice that this series was made for widescreen and shown that way on TV.

    The picture was clear and sharp throughout, with no evidence of low level noise.

    The colour was very good with deep blacks.

    There was some minor interlacing artefacts but nothing too distracting.

    There are subtitles in English. They are yellow and easy to read.

    There is no layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

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

    The surround speakers were used for quite a bit of atmosphere and music and the subwoofer added bass to music and effects.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu was still but had music and a cool 10 based motif for the cursor.

Ben 10 : Alien Swarm Characters (1:48)

    Teaser trailers for the upcoming live action Ben 10: Alien Swarm movie.

Trailers

    Other Madman released children's shows.

     The Region 1 version is basically the same except for being in widescreen and for the extra trailers locally. Region 1 is the choice for OAR.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    Only one extra which is pretty average.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall