Monday, December 26

Jem and the Holograms Truly Outrageous Complete Series DVD Review

I have been waiting for this in a long time, I got it for Christmas. I have spoke about Jem before, the series based on the Hasbro toyline running from 1985-1987. The DVD set has all three seasons, the first season has 4 discs--26 episodes, second had 4 discs--27 episodes and third season has 3 discs--12 episodes. It is about Jerrica Benton who poses as Jem, lead singer of the all-girl band known as the Holograms thanks to her dad's super-tech computer Synergy. They have a rival group the Misfits who are competition and a thorn on their sides. Misfits are more beloved by fans other than the 'goody goodies' but these girls were mean-spirited, selfish, lazy and greedy. I have the first season on DVD thanks to Rhino back in 2003. They released season 2 but I didn't get it, it was too much money at the time. The original set has commentary from Christy Marx, these dvd sets don't have the commentary but some great featurettes, one including the male producers and Christy Marx. 

 (The Rhino DVD to left and the Shout! Factory to right)

Some great insights such as the opening sequence was rotorscoped, that the music videos were intentionally made to be animated better, the animation was done by Toei Animation (famous for Sailor Moon) and originally they did Anime eyes for the Holograms. Also, the music videos were inspired by music videos of an now-old Anime, whose name is said but i can't find the spelling for. Anyway, the quality isn't that great for the episodes. Some episodes of Season 2 have a darkness and weird tint that makes Kimber's red hair look hot pink. I personally believe that the Rhino Season 1 DVD had better quality. But anyway, I think it is the only time we will get this, so it is a good set. It also has the cool Jukebox option. As for the episodes, I hadn't seen Season 3 in a long time and it was pretty good, the new bumpers were amazing, it is a shame it is the shortest season but Sunbow/Marvel/Toei had a commitment only for 65 episodes and the toy line was already canceled (because the dolls were too tall--boxes didn't fit on shelves and barbie clothes didn't fit them and the prices were too high), plus they introduced lots of characters that were to be released but never were released like Riot, Minx, and Rapture the Stingers and also fashion designer Regine and magician Dazzle.