Xavier: Renegade Angel-Seasons 1 & 2 (2007)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-Fan Commentary Bonus Episode-Fan-made Episodes Music Video-Xaviercise
Rating
Year Of Production	2007
Running Time	230:28 (Case: 240)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Vernon Chatman John Lee Marco Bertoldo
Studio Distributor	Williams Street Madman Entertainment	Starring	None Given
Case	Custom Packaging
RPI	$34.95	Music	Chris Anderson Jon Philpot Brittnell Anderson

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Xavier: Renegade Angel is part of the Adult Swim line of short cartoons aimed at adults (more specifically "adults" who live up to the title in age only). Each 12 minute episode follows the journey of Xavier, a meditative wanderer with all the characteristics of a stoned surfer and a body like a wookie with a chicken's beak and a snake for one of his hands, who travels the earth far and wide pondering such metaphysical absurdities as "What doth life?" and occasionally seeking to avenge the murder of his father (who he, in fact, killed as a child). Xavier's wanderings and philosophies play out like a ridiculous version of a Native American vision quest and often feature flashbacks to a Native American shaman who raised him (sort of) after he was abandoned by his mother.

    The humour employed by the show is quite dark, twisted and incredibly surreal (assuming you consider orphans molesting catholic priests dark and twisted), featuring large amounts of blood, guts, dismemberment and sexual content along the way. It manages to get away with its extreme nature thanks to its equally ridiculous animation style, which more or less looks like computer-game alternate realities Second Life or The Sims. A number of celebrity cameos are featured, some as voices and some inserted in live action paste-ins, including Vincent D'Onofrio, Bill Hader, Snoop Dogg, Judah Friedlander and one of the guys from They Might Be Giants.

    Xavier: Renegade Angel is one of the better recent Adult Swim series. Though far more extreme in its content, the show features a similar dynamic story flow and absurd internal logic to the ever-popular Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The episodes are a bit hit-and-miss, although each will usually have at least a few ridiculous moments that will bring a smile and a handful are out-and-out hilarious.

    This 2-disc set includes the 20 episodes of the show that make up its first and second seasons.

Video

    The show is presented in its original 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The video looks perfectly adequate for the show, although that isn't much to crow about given that the show looks like a computer game from the late 1990s. The image is sharp and clear, with no sign of grain. The colours are bold and garish, as intended. Interlacing artefacts are visible is you pause the show, but the animation is basic enough that they don't noticeably affect its fluidity.

    There is no sign of compression artefacts in the video.

    No subtitles are available.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The show features an English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kbps) audio track.

    Like the video, the audio is perfectly adequate for what it is but nothing more. The dialogue is clear and easy to discern. The audio is as well synchronised to the video as you could expect from a crudely animated show.

    The show features little in the way of music other than occasional "shakashuri" music (Xavier's mystical flute), which sounds well mixed amongst the other audio.

    There is no noticeable surround or subwoofer usage.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

     The extras are almost all a "by the fans, for the fans" affair.

Fan Commentary

    Audio commentary is provided by fans of the show for two episodes. Forgettable stuff.

Fan Episodes

    A dozen "episodes" made by fans. Some live action, some animated in a variety of ways. Each runs between about 30 seconds to a minute and a half. In many cases that's up to a minute and a half too long. One or two are actually pretty good, but barely worth sifting through the lot for.

Xaviercise

    Xavier doing exercise moves to a techno beat. Could have been so much better if it was a little more than just off cut animation to a beat. Skip it.

    The Region 4 release is identical to the Region 1 release, save for PAL/NTSC differences.

    One of the funniest recent Adult Swim series, each episode of Xavier: Renegade Angel blends mysticism and junk philosophy into absurdly dark and twisted self-contained plotlines.

    Audio and video are fine. The extras are a waste of time, but may appeal to die-hard fans.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall