Review of Happy Tree Friends "Double Dose" DVD Set

Happy Tree friends is an insanely funny web flash cartoon series. Now in DVD.. well.. That's another story.. Now on with the review..

Happy Tree Friends Volume #1 - First Blood

packaging
nice artwork and great quality printing

feature film
14 episodes.. 12 of which I had already seen online in the last 2 months, each one after the other, but with the great (yet very annoying after the third episode) intro and credits with music. The intro takes 30 seconds on its own, then the episodes are about 30-40 seconds each, followed by 15 seconds of credits. I found it very disappointing that the intro was not modified for the DVD and only shown once for the entire disc, same goes for credits. The episodes themselves were encoded in stereo with a good quality picture (you cant beat a computer monitor) but things just weren't as funny the 4th time round (I visit their website frequently) so avid fans just wouldn't enjoy it as much. Because of the repeated intro/credits it became almost annoying watching all the episodes in a row.

extras
one maybe two funny ones, the rest were only mildly amusing

overall
only for collectors or those that haven't visited the website much. A fan would have seen all these episodes already. Watching all the episodes in a row it just became a little too much, they really needed to mix it up a little with some side skits or something similar. Not really much of a feature but more of a side show gag in itself. Pretty much the internet experience on a DVD, it just doesn't quite work right.

Happy Tree Friends - Second Serving

packaging

nice artwork and great quality printing as the first.

feature film
17 episodes.. 1/3 of which I had already seen online. Once again, each one after the other, but this time without any intro or credits. I found this curious as the intro is great and it would have been good in some form, but their decision made watching the episodes much easier to handle all in a row. The episodes were encoded in Dolby Digital 5.1 with a good quality picture. The sound was great and they put a lot of effort into it as can be found in the commentary. Still watching all the episodes in a row became boring as it was just too much of the same. Probably best enjoyed in 3-4 episode blocks, have a break and come back to it.

extras
The extras were quite entertaining for the short attention span audience that we are.

overall
A lot more effort went into this DVD than the first and it shows. They obviously learned that keeping the intro and credits in every episode became annoying and removed them, but once again it would of been good to see a special DVD only, longer intro and credits. A fan would have seen most of these episodes already, I hadn't as I only recently started following the series. Even though they learnt from some of the mistakes of the first DVD, this one still has its shortcomings, most notably that it becomes boring after a period of time and the transitions between the episodes are abrupt because of the chopped intro. Because of the shortcomings it lacked a professional feel to the finished visual product, audio on the other hand was outstanding.

Summary
Rating: 6/10 - nice, but doesn't quite cut the cheese.

This may seem like a harsh review, but the online version of the series is done so well that you are left thinking why the DVD is not up to scratch. I still love the series, and undoubtedly will watch it for many episodes more. Its a great break of random violence in my not so violent day.