Review of Simpsons, The: The Complete First Season

Introduction

I`m sure pretty much everyone on the planet is familiar with Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, right? This is the first instalment of the hugely popular and very successful animated series, The Simpsons, marking its debut on DVD. Here we have thirteen episodes from the first season and from the moment you start watching it you`ll find yourself wanting a little bit more. Matt Groening created The Simpsons universe and populated it with a host of strange and wonderful characters.

The early episodes had slightly different colours and the voices were a little different too so it`s interesting to see how things have evolved and gotten better over the years. Despite some of the rough edges of these early shows though these do retain some charm. Couple this with the superb writing which still stands the test of time and you`ll never fail to sympathise or laugh! They really do have some great storylines and the pacing of these stories has greatly improved. These nice short episodes are extremely easy to digest leaving you to watch show upon show upon show. On a simple level, I have an almost ritualistic need to view the opening title sequence to see what Bart is scribbling on the blackboard or the check out the couch gag. My favourite episode is "Moaning Lisa" where she has the blues and plays that sax!

Video

The show was made in 4:3 so this is the aspect presented here. The video quality for this is quite variable from show to show. For example, there are quite a few scenes that seem a little soft and others appear a lot sharper with good detail and vibrant colour coming through. The episodes do get progressively better in quality with more consistent use of colour, and you can see the characters progress themselves, exuding more style. There are some specks and a little bit of dirt here and there with small minimal signs of compression/artifacting but it`s the DVD showing up the limitations of The Simpsons shows themselves. This is what happens when you create a new cartoon show as you work to improve it all the time. The fact that the video image improves is a good thing and this doesn`t really detract from the storytelling.

Audio

Danny Elfman`s contagious theme sounds good as you gear yourself up for watching an episode and it`s good to hear through all the speakers. The Simpsons however isn`t well known for its digital surround sound effects so what you get here seems to be functional without any noticable rear sound action. The sound and dialogue is pretty clear from the front and centre speakers with the remixed 5.1 sound and if you want the original 2-channel stereo sound this is presented here too. You also get French 5.1/2.0 too.

Features

Fox have given us nice packaging with The Simpsons first outing on DVD, you get liner notes giving an episode breakdown presented with the three discs together with an introduction from Matt Groening. I think this is nicely done, though it would be even cooler to have more than these bare notes.

On disc one, the only extra features are: commentary on all the episodes from the producers, writers and others that are involved in the individual shows, and the scripts for three episodes. These scripts are presented as digitised pages that you can read at your own pace going backwards and forwards. The way the disc is presented with the menu structure, you`re led to believe that there are extra features for every single episode, but this isn`t so. Each episode menu has the `Extra Features` menu option and this is the same set of features for all episodes.

Disc two has just six episodes and no extra features other than the commentary track. While disc three has the final show and a whole host of supplemental features. Here`s a quick rundown: Never Before Seen Outtakes for "Some Enchanted Evening" with and without commentary; Animatic from "Bart the General"; Foreign Language Clips; The Making of The Simpsons: America`s First Family; one of the Tracey Ullman shorts; Audio Outtakes; Art of the Simpsons and finally the "Some Enchanted Evening" script.

Nothing new in the Foreign Language clips apart from perhaps Japanese. I didn`t find this of particular interest but you can select from five languages and watch the same scene being played out. If it played one after the other than it would have been better, but still I didn`t find it of particular interest.

The Audio Outtakes are quite funny. Art of The Simpsons features a lot of the original artwork for the show and there`s some good stuff in here. As for the Tracey Ullman shorts, these are the original animations which featured in Ullman`s show before The Simpsons got the green light for their own show. There`s a big difference between them then and the time they aired in their own series. As for The Making of, I was expecting a longer documentary than the one presented here as I`m sure the BBC made something longer than five minutes! It`s a shame this isn`t available on the region 1 DVD. Can`t say if it`s any different on the region 2 version though. The commentary tracks on all the episodes make for interesting listening too. I watched it from the beginning and I still managed to laugh my way through listening to it. It`s pretty good though I don`t think I`ll listen to it again.

The presentation of the disc menu isn`t bad, though it`s a shame the menu screens are static with The Simpsons music looping in the background. It would have been nice to have animated menu screens here, this would certainly add polish to an already impressive looking set since this is an animated series after all!

Conclusion

It`s not hard to see how The Simpsons have coveted the position of America`s number one family. The characters have become so much a part of pop culture that it`s natural for most audiences to sit, watch and quote with familiarity. Who would have thought that Paul and Linda McCartney, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Kelsey Grammer and more would line up to lend their voices for parts? I`ve enjoyed watching this collection and I`ve genuinely laughed out loud. The only downside to this DVD are the features, it`s somewhat lacking in depth and there`s just not enough meat on these bones to make it a killer package. Having said this however, The Simpsons has mass appeal and what with the impending Christmas period, would make an ideal gift for kids and adults alike.

The Simpsons has a lot of replay value in the episodes themselves, after all, who can resist watching the odd 20 minute show once in a while? The whole first season of thirteen shows with commentaries and some extras make this quite a good collection which I think is worthy of a place in any fans library. I hope future collections will improve upon this and I for one will be looking forward to getting more shows as these become available. Highly recommended!