The Film
You can remember the GI Joe Movie from a variety of different ‘angles,’ if you will. On the one hand you have Sgt. Slaughter and his heroics battling the awesome Nemesis Enforcer. Then there’s the new recruits, including Jinx, Law, Tunnel Rat, and the basketball character that was never heard from again. Of course there’s Lt. Falcon, one of my favorite Joe figures, who was a complete ass in this movie until he wised up. I enjoyed how Roadblock and the mutated Cobra Commander briefly work together to survive the harshness of Cobra-La. And of course, who can forget, Globulous and his famous “Co-bra-la-la-la-la!” war chant.
Growing up, I probably watched the MASS Device and Weather Dominator mini-series’ more than The Movie, but I had nearly the same respect and love for The Movie as those two classics. So many great characters and memorable scenes that lead up to a huge battle, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. For a kid, this was great stuff, and I think that still holds true today. As an adult, it’s a fun trip down memory lane. In years past I was glued to the movie, watching every scene, not knowing how absurd that much of it was (but hey, this is fantasy after all). As I watched the movie again, I noticed slight nuances I never caught before, and I found myself pulling up Wikipedia to read up on other trivia about the film. Whichever audience you may fall in, I think you’re in for a good time here, certainly far better than the awful GI Joe movie we were “treated” to last year in theatres.
On Blu-ray (And DVD)
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting much out of the HD version of this animated film. I mean, what could they really do to it? The scope of this HD rendition was not that of the Star Trek Original Series Blu-rays, in which the creators went back and completely re-rendered some scenes and added extra effects. No, for this HD update you’re really only going to see a slightly crisper picture than the DVD version. I think it was a nice movie by Shout! Factory to not only include a second disc (the DVD) but they also mirrored the extra features from the Blu-ray to the DVD, for the most part.
Having both discs in one box allows for the most compatibility amongst consumers, but for those of us with Blu-ray we can also compare the two versions to one another. Now, I would never consider myself a video or audiophile, but to me the difference is apparent — but just barely. Ultimately if you already own the DVD release of the film that was released some ten years ago, and you’re not a presentation-quality buff, you can probably do without this release from a strictly presentation-based perspective. You can expect a slightly increased sharpness, maybe a bit more color vibrance, but bottom line, the difference is faint. Oh, and it’s also worth pointing out that the DVD disc allows you to set widescreen or fullscreen (and the Blu-ray is widescreen only). Also, each disc has a different menu system, but both are good looking and easy to navigate.
As for the extra features, there are several, and each disc has the same extras with one exception each way. I’ll note the differences here, in the complete list of extras:
-Audio Commentary with GI Joe Writer/Story Consultant Buzz Dixon – If you’ve seen the film a dozen or more times like me, and Cobra Commander’s voice is as grating as ever, this is a nice feature to enable.
-Knowing Is Half the Battle PSAs – The famous PSA announcements from Joe team members. There are eight included here, with two from Flint, Ripcord, Cross Country, and Lifeline, and a few others.
-Art Gallery – A collection of eleven black and white vintage sketches from the movie. These are neat, but won’t take you more than a few minutes to fully appreciate and you probably won’t look at them again.
-Shout! Factory Trailers – The Blu-ray includes several trailers for other Shout! Factory offerings. I don’t consider that an extra feature, but it’s the one difference that the Blu-ray has from the DVD.
-Script – If you put the DVD into your computer, you can pull up the script of the movie, something that isn’t offered on the Blu-ray.
And there you have it. I think this is a nice release from Shout! Factory but a few more extra features, especially modern ones with some of the old voice cast or animators, would have been a huge plus.
To the summary…