Spoooooonnn!
Well, season two came out last week and fans are unfortunately left with the same bittersweet feeling. Season 2 is also missing an episode, the one entitled “Alone Together.” There are also no extras whatsoever to be found in this set. Sure you get a ‘collectible’ lithograph included in the box, featuring The Tick climbing up a wall. While that’s appreciated, I think I can speak for everyone when I say I’d much rather have the missing episode, and how about a commentary or anything extra, please? Just like the first season it seems like Disney just tossed these episodes onto a couple of discs and shipped them off. If only more care had been put into this release…
One noticeable improvement to this year’s edition is the menus. While a minor, even moot point in the end, the menus on these two discs is pretty slick. When the menu loads, you see a newspaper like template, and where pictures normally are, running scenes of the episodes included on the disc are displayed. Headlines in large font fill out the image, and this sequence flashes through in about five seconds before a more static menu appears, giving you the choice to play all episodes, choose one, or set your options which are very standard.
The most important part of this set is the episodes themselves, and the twelve included are all very good. The series starts off with “Little Wooden Boy And the Belly of Love.” To me the funniest part about this episode is Blowhole – a gigantic whale in human form who jumps out of the ocean in his boots and overalls and stiff chin, and runs across the United States. He did the same thing ten years ago too according to the local news, but went from West to East instead of East to West. Just that idea, of this massive whale running non-stop across country over the course of like a year, without saying a word, is really funny to me. Meanwhile Swiss Commandos, outfitted with huge Swiss Army knives featuring every tool they could need, are after a notebook owned by a professor, while Arthur goes on a date.
Another of my favorites is “Evil Sits Down For A Moment” – great title first of all, like most of the series’ episodes. In this episode, The Tick and Arthur battle a villain, the Ottoman Empress, who can control furniture, having it do his bidding. Honestly the creativity in the characters is just outstanding across the series. The humor remains constant too, with The Tick’s loveable personality, as well as hilarious views on life.
One of the Greatest…Cartoons, Not DVD releases
The Tick is one of the greatest cartoons of all time. I miss those Saturday mornings when it aired on Fox, I think right before The X-Men. I wish Walt Disney Video would put more effort into this series, it absolutely deserves it. Unfortunately, once again we get a DVD set that isn’t complete to begin with, and features no extras to boot. Then again, The Tick is still a wonderful cartoon; very few cartoons can bridge the gap between kid and adult so well. So, despite its shortcomings, I still recommend this DVD set because The Tick is frankly that good of a show. Spooooooooooonnnnn!