HTF REVIEW: The Simpsons - The Complete Third Season (Highly Recommended!) (1 Viewer)

[Adam_Reiter]

Adam... great review. I'm not a fan of the show but it appears as though you spent a great deal of time covering the product for those who are. Thank you.

Thanx Herb. Fox did to me what WB did to you. They dumped a whole box of stuff on me. However, only 3 of my items that I recieved haven't hit the streets yet, so I am going to concentrate on those.

 

[TedT]

They were starting with Episode 300 (this past season).

 

[Ben Crouse]

Warning: RANT forthcoming...

With the exception of that one Halloween episode PDI did for the Simpsons where Homer gets trapped in the "3rd Dimension", the Simpsons is not "DIGITAL ANIMATION"!

recently yes, they've begun doing ink and paint digitally, but this show has always been, and still is HAND DRAWN.

hey guys, don't expect less from 2D animation just because it isn't computer animation. 2D animation can, and should! look just as good on DVD as anything else.

 

[JeanSSullivan]

Well what the do is draw sketch on cel's, scan them, paint them digitally and assemble them for animation, it's then store Digitally. That want i meant by Digital Season. Just like Futurama, it's sketch scanned and painted in a computer (same as disney since Lion King)

Back in THE TIME, they would paint directly on the cel then PHOTO them on a tape... most of the time this process cause grain and you can see more "dust" on the print.

 

[Britton]

They were starting with Episode 300 (this past season).

It figures that the crappy episodes would look better. I used to love the Simpsons, but I really can't stand the new shows they've been doing for the past 4 (maybe even longer than that) years. As a matter of fact, instead of watching it and then being disappointed, I just don't tune in anymore. For those of you who still like it, that's great.

To get back on the subject, I'm looking forward to the classic Season 3, and it's great that a PLAY ALL option is included.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Question about a favorite episode of mine.....

Inside Burns Manor, Burns and his kiss-ass
sidekick rev into action, going down the batpole,
doing eye and hand scans and going into the most
secret and crack-safe area of the mansion -- that
is -- until they find the side door has been left
open (which gets kicked close).

I laugh my ass off every time I watch that scene.

What episode and which season is that from?

Adam, don't worry about the review. For a guy
just getting his feet wet, this review was awesome
if not just for the fact that it looked as
if you poured your heart and sweat into it.

 

[Jeremy Allin]

Ron:

Always glad to help out a Simpsons fan in need:

The episode is called Last Exit to Springfield (9F15) from Season 4. It's the episode where Homer becomes the Power Plant's Union Leader and in the scene you described, Burns & Smithers go through a series of high-level security measures to get to the plant's main shutoff only to find a rickety screen door and a dog wandering into the room.

It's also one of my personal favorites!

Burns: Fifteen minutes from now I will wreak a terrible vengeance on this city. No-one will be spared. NO-ONE!
Brockman: Heh, heh. A chilling vision of things to come.



BTW, Adam, a truly fantastic review that shows a lot of passion.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Oh my god, a smiley-face "bug"???

 

[Jeremy Allin]

Oh my god, a smiley-face "bug"???

Yeah, it's Teletoon here in Canada.

 

[WillG]

"For those of you who still like it, that's great."

Sub Par Simpsons is better that no Simpsons at all (My own opinion of course)

 

[Ronald Epstein]

That's the episode! Thanks! The screenshots
were a surprising bonus.

 

[Jeremy Allin]

I've got every episode on VCD that I painstakingly recorded off cable/satellite, cut out the commercials and burned to CD. It was about a 21/2 year project. A labour of love that will satisfy my Simpsons urges until all episodes are out on DVD or HD-DVD.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Ok, gotta say that the occasional typo doesn't phase me a bit. IMO, our reviews are "works in progress". I know I've edited mine about a zillion times since they were first posted!

AWESOME review IMO. Exactly the type of detail about picture and sound that I love and no shortage of details about any aspect of the DVD production. Also--I just have to say it--those screen-catpures ROCK. Would love to know what software you used/how you got them off the disc. And please check the 'hits' to your webhosting service because you know I'm gonna be beggin' for you to host a few of mine for some of my future reviews (maybe a few extra free DVDs thrown in to compensate?)

Those screen-caps do a great job of illustrating what you're talking about in your review.

Really sharp. In-depth and well-laid out. I like the use of HTML to enhance the look and provide a nice sense of flow...it makes it easier to read and follow.

I think people are just getting lulled into complacency around here with so many great reviews lately by all the reviewers. If this review had hit early on (in other words, if FOX had sent you DVDs when you started) I can assure you that there'd be a long steady stream of posts of people ooohhing and aahhhing over it...so don't let the lack of feeback send you the wrong message.

This review deserves serious praise.

 

[Adam_Reiter]

David, I definately have you to thank for the formatting. You came up with the best method I think. I just need to incorporate the Stars. I think Michael started using the stars first. I am just gong to try and take all the best ideas and use them. Your formatting, Michaels stars, my screenshots. hehe. Yippe Kai Eh!

I did everything in Front Page. It took me 3 hours to fix my formatting. Every single line was messed up. What did you use to type yours up? I need a better way. I need to develop a rock solid template.

As for the screen shots. I just took some screen shots for my next reviews of From Justin to Kelly (bleh) and Chasing Papi. I noticed that the screen shots from "Power DVD" were not turning out how I wanted. So, I used ALT+PRTSCN (Alt + PrintScreen) buttons (works in Windows 2000 and XP) and so far that has givin me the most accurate screen shot. But I have a window box around the image. I might just crop that out so it doesnt look like it came from a computer.

I used Power DVD's screen shots for the Simpsons, but it wont work for a real movie. You can see degredation. However, the Simpsons screen shots look better than when you are actually playing the dvd so I left them in. hehe.

 

[Gregory William]

How is the packaging, is it the same as the first two seasons, or did they package it like Futurama and Family Guy?

 

[Colin Jacobson]

How is the packaging, is it the same as the first two seasons, or did they package it like Futurama and Family Guy?

Same as the first two - cardboard fold-out, no slimcases...

 

[Adam Tyner]

I used Power DVD's screen shots for the Simpsons, but it wont work for a real movie.

How do you mean? Images have to be resized in either case because Power DVD's screen shots have an aspect ratio of 1.5:1, but Power DVD's caps seem to be fairly unremarkable regardless of the material. I'm not sure why a movie would suffer from more distortion than other material, and that hasn't been my experience with the software.

 

[MichaelBryant]

So the picture quality is bad? What a shame. With a year between sets there is no excuse for this.

 

[WillG]

"So the picture quality is bad? What a shame. With a year between sets there is no excuse for this."

Didn't Al Jean, or someone else involved with the production come out earlier this year and say that the delay had something to do with problems with the authoring company? Mabye the alleged lousy transfers were the reason behind those problems

 

[Scott_J]

So the picture quality is bad? What a shame. With a year between sets there is no excuse for this.

Not to second-guess Adam's great review or anything, but I got my set in the mail today and have already watched the first 5 episodes. Granted I'm not watching on any type of extravagant TV and am not watching with a critical eye, but I think the picture is fine. Definitely isn't any worse than what you would see on TV. I definitely wouldn't call the PQ bad. Of course YMMV.