Fighting VENOM All Over the World
The original MASK series ran for sixty-five episodes, all of which are included in this twelve disc set. I should point out that the other MASK series, which ran for merely ten episodes, is not included in this set. This isn’t by mistake — it’s due to a bunch of legal red tape as that particular MASK show was legally and creatively separate from this original series. From what I have seen of the so called ‘racing’ season, it’s pretty awful anyway.
That said, in the original series, Matt Trakker, a wealthy man who likes helping people and keeping the peace, leads the MASK team against the forces of VENOM, who are lead by Miles Mayhem. VENOM may actually be the coolest acronym ever — it stands for Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem, which is both funny and damn cool at the same time.
Anyway, MASK travels all over the world, from one episode to the next basically, stopping VENOM in whatever devious acts they are trying to commit. Locations include Nevada, Venice, Washington DC, New Zealand, Texas, Africa, the list goes on. No matter where VENOM strikes, Trakker and his crew, consisting of dependable operatives such as Bruce Sato, Brad Turner, Alex Sector, Buddy Hawks, and Scott, his pre-teen son with his pal robot T-Bob — are up to the challenge.
MASK has the ability to contend with Mayhem and his VENOM crew thanks to special masks and typical looking vehicles that can transform into sci-fi machines with a variety of cool abilities, such as flight and the ability to fire a variety of weapons. Mask powers varied widely, offering the ability to shrink objects or spewing out oil, and all sorts of other cool things. VENOM has similarly equipped vehicles and masks with powers, but they’re never quite able to defeat MASK.
Each episode follows a general formula of VENOM causing trouble, often by seeking some kind of artifact or object that gives them power, and/or something that they can sell to the highest bidder. What’s kind of funny is how little VENOM is actually trying to earn with some of these artifacts — $15M, $4M, and so on — today’s international criminal organization would probably snub anything less than ten times that amount.
Anyway, once MASK gets wind of VENOM’s latest mischievousness, they drop their day jobs (literally), form up at Trakker’s secret base, and roll out to kick some VENOM ass. In classic 80s cartoon style, it’s violence without violence — plenty of lasers firing, stuff exploding, people jumping and falling — but, no one really ever gets seriously hurt. Done right, and there’s nothing wrong with a show like that, and MASK managed to do just that. The MASK Bible, which is talked about in one of the extras, was followed to a tee. It helped make the show consistent and it gave the key characters a solid background, too.
I won’t clutter this review with an episode list or breakdown that can be easily found on the internet, but suffice it to say that all sixty-five MASK episodes are simple good, old school cartoon fun that feature a lot of cool sci-fi tech and some great characters. PSAs are also at the end of episodes, GI Joe style, which is also a sign of when these episodes first aired.
The DVD Set
I like the packaging that Shout! chose here. A colorful exterior box contains two standard-sized DVD cases. Volumes 1-3, i.e. the first six discs, are in one case, and the other six discs are in the other case. The first case has a picture of Matt Trakker with his hands on his hips and mask on. The second case has his arch nemesis Mayhem in a similar pose. Within each case, the discs are neatly and securely stored in a book-like fashion. Artwork inside the case shows still images from various episodes, which adds to the overall look.
Menus are consistent across the discs, and I appreciated their ‘to the point’ nature, listing all episodes on the disc on the main page, so you can easily make your choice. It’s also notable that Shout! didn’t include any trailers for other releases. As far as image and sound quality, it’s on par for what you would expect for an 80s cartoon — stereo sound, 4:3 image — I was happy with the quality, it wasn’t better than I expected, nor worse.
There are two extra features included in this set. On disc six, ‘Unmasking MASK’ has series writer Mel Gilden and Jina Bacaar talking about their memories of the show. This feature runs fourteen minutes, seventeen seconds and both Mel and Jina talk about how they got started working for DiC and other memories of MASK, including sticking to the MASK Bible and writing PSAs. In the background, still images of old scripts, the MASK Bible, and scenes from the show are displayed. It’s a well produced feature that was informative and interesting.
The final disc has a nearly twenty-one minute extra called Saturday Morning Krusaders. A variety of miscellaneous MASK fans including comedians, filmmakers, and writers — chime in with their memories and thoughts on MASK. It’s meant to be funny, as it features a few comedians, and it does okay for itself. It’s worth a watch, but it doesn’t have nearly the significance of the previous extra feature.
To the summary…