Starring: J.G. Quintel, William Salyers, Sam Marin, Mark Hamill
Created by: J.G. Quintel
Studio: Cartoon Network
Release Date: July 16, 2013
Run Time: 440 minutes
Seasons: 5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 5 out of 5 stars
I have to thank Mark Hamill for getting me into this show. When I interviewed him last October (read the interview here), he really pitched me on the show and since then I have been a HUGE fan. I think I might actually quote this show every single day from screaming OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! to my wife’s favorite, which is HAMBONING!!!! (which I actually hear might save your life one day). Fans of this show will finally get a Blu-ray release for not one but two seasons of this amazing show. That’s right we get all 40 episodes from the series’ first and second seasons. Count me in!
This show has also won the Emmy® Award for animated series last year and is only getting more popular as the series progresses. It is created by J.G. Quintel (“The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack”, “Camp Lazlo”), who also voices the lead character Mordecai on the show. This guy is a complete genius. This show is not only funny, it is also ridiculously clever and sharp. There is not one episode that passes that I am not dying laughing at some point. William Salyers (“Morel Orel”) voices the other lead character, Rigby. (Click here for my interview with him from earlier this year). The two of these guys are a fantastic combo and really play off each other so well. If you are a fan of other Cartoon Network shows like “Adventure Time”, I highly recommend this series.
Official Synopsis: Sarcastic blue jay Mordecai (voiced by J. G. Quintel) and somewhat responsible raccoon Rigby (William Salyers) are best friends. They even work together at a park owned by Pops (Sam Marin), a big lollipop-headed guy. Which seems normal enough. They’ve got a cranky gumball machine for a boss (Martin) and they work alongside a Zen-like yeti named Skips (Mark Hamill). Yep. Everything is as regular as can be.
The episodes from the first season included are: “The Power”, “Just Set Up the Chairs”, “Caffeinated Concert Tickets, “Death Punchies”, “Free Cake”, “Meat Your Maker”, “Grilled Cheese Deluxe”, “The Unicorns Have Got to Go”, “Prank Callers”, “Don”, “Rigby’s Body” and “Mordecai and the Rigbys”. The episodes from the second season included are: “Ello Gov’nor”, “It’s Time”, “Appreciation Day”, “Peeps”, “Dizzy”, “My Mom”, “High Score”, “Rage Against the TV”, “Party Pete”, “Brain Eraser”, “Benson Be Gone”, “But I Have a Receipt”, “This Is My Jam”, “Muscle Woman”, “Temp Check”, “Jinx”, “See You There”, “Do Me a Solid”, “Grave Sights”, “Really Real Wrestling”, “Over the Top”, “The Night Owl”, “A Bunch of Baby Ducks”, “More Smarter”, “First Day”, “Go Viral”, “Skunked” and “Karaoke Video”
The 1080p transfer for each episode is awesome with an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. I have watched this show is various formats from online to satellite TV and this was a real treat. The animation looks crisp and the colors are very vibrant. Although the back of the packaging tells us that there are both a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, neither of those are actually available. In fact the only track available for the episodes is a Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 kbps) track. It is not terrible but a little bit disappointing when you consider how great this show would have been in TrueHD. HMMM HMMM!
The special features on this release are absolutely amazing (especially compared to “Adventure Times” recent Blu-ray season releases). There are two hours of bonus features along with an audio commentary track for literally every single episode with creator J.G. Quintel and the show’s storyboard artists. This is literally worth the purchase of the Blu-ray alone! 40 commentary tracks! Hello!? Count me in! Great way to revisit the show and also learn new things about it as a fan straight from the creators mouth. Highly recommend these tracks.
There is the unaired pilot episode, which is awesome, as well as an animatic for it also. There is also an animatic for the episode “The Power”, along with a video of J.G. Quintel pitching the episode. There is an interview with J.G. Quintel chatting about this unique and amazing series and also his student short, “The Naïve Man from Lolliland”. Tired yet? Well there is still some more “Original Pencil Tests from Saerom”, “CG Test for Hodgepodge Monster”, “2010 Comic Con Teaser Trailer”, Party Tonight Music Video” and “Original Regular Show Commercials”. Any fan of this show will be left exhausted after all these great extras!