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"Say
no MORE!"
Yes, that's
right, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" is out on DVD! All of
the classic sketches are here: "Nudge Nudge," "Funniest Joke
in the World," "Musical Mice," "Crunchy Frog," "Scotsman on
a Horse," "Secret Service Dentistry," "The Lumberjack Song,"
"Hell's Grannies," "A Man With A Tape Recorder Up His Nose,"
"Pet Conversions" and of course the classic "Dead Parrot"
sketch.
Most of
the sketches are funny. Very funny. But there are a few that
either fell a bit flat or just didn't do it for me. But being
a milestone in British comedy, of course, they were allowed
a few duds. I never laughed as hard, though, until the "Johann
Gombolputty" sketch when John Cleese walked off screen after
the interviewee died - and returned a moment later with a
spade and started to dig. Perhaps it was the Nyquil, but I
found that to be one of the funniest things I had seen that
day.
If you don't
like the Python's unique brand of groundbreaking off-kilter
humor, then I seriously doubt you will enjoy these DVDs. But
for those who have had any enjoyable exposure to the Pythons
- whether it be their films, their record albums, or bit of
the "Flying Circus" television show, you are bound to find
something you like on these DVDs, and probably some things
you never knew existed.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
All of the
transfers are 1.33:1 maintaining the original broadcast aspect
ratio. As "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was a sketch show,
there tended to be a mixture of video and film sources. All
of these sources were ultimately broadcast from video, so
there were no direct film telecines to work from. The images
are generally clear, with little or no artifacting. In fact,
I was quite surprised at how good some of the images look,
considering they are over 30 years old.
Of course,
being that old, the broadcasts are a tad on the soft side,
but it's not distracting at all. The film segments were, as
I previously indicated, telecined for the original broadcast,
so they have the same quality as the video segments. Some
of the filmed segments have some dirt or speckling (at times
quite a bit), but that is exactly what they saw 30 years ago,
so can one really complain? There are nicely "Gilliam-esque"
animated menus which fit very well into the whole theme of
the DVD. Overall, this is a very nice looking disc, and I
was quite impressed with the way it looked.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
Considering
that these segments were recorded 30 years ago, the audio
sounds rather good. It's crisp and clear, with very little
noise. It's presented in English mono, and limited in frequency
response. Occasionally, when things get louder, there is a
bit of distortion. There are some subtitles included, but
once again, only in English.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? What goodies
are there? More goodies than you can shake a stick at! Let's
break it down. In each Complete Set volume, there are 2 separate
Amray-encased DVDs (also disc is also available separately).
Each DVD contains (on average) three complete episodes of
"Monty Python's Flying Circus," each with an average running
time of 30 minutes. In the first four volumes, there are 13-episodes,
each with plenty of sketches to keep you smiling. But that's
not all. Each episode contains the ability to jump to a specific
sketch, and a "Useless Tidbit" about that episode. The original
airdates are also listed for your information. It would have
been nice, however, to include a listing of the chapter stops
as a hard-copy, as opposed to forcing the viewer to go to
the menu to see what chapter corresponds to which sketch.
On each
disc, there is a section called the "Loony Bin." This section
allows you to "Meet the Pythons" - showing you a small clip
from a sketch showcasing that particular cast members' talents,
and then you can read their biography. "Py-thon-isms" is a
Sniglet-type dictionary that defines certain words you might
have heard during the course of the episodes. A section devoted
to Terry Gilliam's animations is also included, as are additional
video segments of various sketch moments, and a web link to
the official Monty Python web site. But what is really great
is the inclusion of an "alternate" version of one of the sketches
as it appeared when Python played the Hollywood Bowl. (The
sketch they show varies from disc to disc.)
Parting Thoughts
There is
truly a wealth of information and entertainment presented
on these DVDs. For those who are true Python fans, or merely
casual watchers, there is probably something on these discs
that warrant buying them. There are more episodes and DVDs
on the way, but unfortunately once you buy one, you'll probably
have to buy them all.
(Dan
Goldwasser is a special guest reviewer, and you can visit
him at Soundtrack.net,
a great resource for news and reviews of film scores on CD.)
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