Adult Swim DVD Sampler Review

Given to no less than 50,000 people at Comic Con 2003 and probably through other means, a DVD sampler (pictured above) was distributed to promote the release of Space Ghost Coast to Coast and Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume One DVDs in November. I got one of these DVDs. On this DVD is the Space Ghost episode Batmantis, the ATHF episode Mooninites, and a bunch of retarded unfunny black and white messages. I can honestly say that this is the greatest thing I own for the next 109 days. Here's my review of the content of these DVDs (oh btw, there might be spoilers, as if you haven't seen these episodes 2000 times):

Space Ghost Coast to Coast- Batmantis- Like all episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, this is one of the greatest things ever created. If you have a soul, then you love this episode. I got this sampler DVD about 10 days ago, I watched Batmantis at least 30 or 40 times and I'm not even remotely sick of it at all. And it still holds up as one of the greatest episodes of anything ever. This is a truly classic episode of Space Ghost. Along with Banjo this was one of the more story-driven episodes that came out of the first year. And there is plenty of hilarity to be found here. Like "Do you know the Muffin Man?", or the really long pause interrupted by Adam trying to plug his book. Genius. I remember watching this episode when I was a kid, and for some reason it really bothered me that Your Mother's lip synch didn't match up with what she was saying. Why the hell did I care?

Aqua Teen Hunger Force- Mooninites- Easily the most overrated episode in ATHF history, although it's still awesome and classic and hilarious. And overrated. Yeah. I actually re-discovered how great the Mooninites are with this DVD. When the Mooninites episode first aired, I, like everyone else, thought it was the best thing ever. Then 12-year-old fangeeks across the world started quoting everything the Mooninites said and IMing me with Mooninite-isms and I started not liking this episode. But now that I have it on DVD, I watch it at least once a day thanks to being too lazy to turn off the DVD player after Space Ghost is done, and I realized that it really is a great episode with plenty of laughs. Like Batmantis is for Space Ghost, Mooninites was a turning point in the series for ATHF showing people just how rofl this show can be. So, while I hate the geeks who ruin this episode, I still like watching it. Err cracks me up (if you get that you win a prize).

As for the quality of the DVD, Space Ghost looks great. All the bright colors are bright, dark colors are dark, everything is clear, and it looked good enough for me to read the entire Theory of Evolution. It doesn't look totally pristine, but this is Space Ghost Coast to goddamn Coast, not Lucasfilm, you dumbass. Any artifacts or whatever are probably in the source material. This DVD definitely looks as good as if not better than broadcast quality. ATHF on the other hand, looks pretty awful, much worse than it looks on Adult Swim. All the colors look washed, and there's a lot of compression. Ignignokt and Err blend into eachother. Also, the bad video quality ruins some jokes, you can barely read what they say when the Mooninites key Carl's car. But then again, this is just a sampler DVD, hopefully the final product will look better. As for the audio quality, I don't know, everything sounds good I guess. I don't even have stereo sound on my TV. :(

Also, the Space Ghost episode is pretty much unedited, but there are some small edits. First of all, the Ghost Planet Industries tag is replaced with a Williams Street tag, and for some reason there's no clang noise on it. Also, they cut out the "Contact Ghost Planet" thing and the Cartoon Network accordion thing that's usually at the end of these episodes. Hopefully that will be fixed on the DVD. Yeah I know it's not important but I really think it's important to have the old episodes on DVD exactly how they first aired.

Here is where I'd tell you to buy the DVD, BUT GUESS WHAT, YOU CAN'T!!! HAHAHA IT IS ONLY FOR ME AND A BUNCH OF OTHER PEOPLE LOL. Oh wait, there's Ebay, I guess. Anyway, this DVD is good to tide me over until the actual DVDs come out. So what you should do is, buy the real DVDs when they come out. Or else. At least buy Space Ghost. Please? I guess what I'm trying to say is, Space Ghost Coast to Coast is the greatest show ever. I've been waiting for Space Ghost on DVD since before DVD was invented. I love Space Ghost and I want to marry this DVD.

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