“Pinky and the Brain: Volume 3” DVD Review
Well, this is it—the final volume of Pinky and the Brain. While this series is nowhere near as large in disc count as Animaniacs (which has reached fifteen discs and still has a few volumes left before it finishes), the content is just as good. Pinky and the Brain round out their final volume with a set of four discs and a single bonus featurette.
For this last volume of the show, Pinky and Brain continue their efforts in taking over the world before finally wrapping up the series in an episode that covers how Pinky and the Brain came to be in Acme Labs. This volume is full of great episodes, many of which I’d never seen. There’s no greater treat than watching and old cartoon you love on DVD and then discovering you never saw a few of the episodes—it is quite possibly better than getting a new batch of episodes.
The brilliance of Pinky and the Brain lasts from the very first episode from the first volume to the very last of the last volume. There’s no shortage of laughs from this series and to have the entire series on DVD finally is wonderful. While the release of the sets was slow at first, the speed at which Warner Bros. Animation put these sets out at once production got rolling is to be commended. Now lets just hope that with Pinky and the Brain now complete, they’ll bring out Freakazoid and Tiny Toons.
While it’s sad that there is no more Pinky and the Brain to look forward to on DVD, be sure to pick up this set—the episodes, animation, writing and music is as brilliant as ever in this set and animation fans owe it to themselves to rewatch these episodes in DVD clarity and to share the DVDs with friends and family. Like Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain’s appeal isn’t limited to the young ones and adults around the world to this day proclaim their love for Pinky and the Brain…Brain…Brain…Brain.
The DVD
As with the previous sets, Pinky and the Brain comes in a beautiful, dual layer digi-pak four disc set with an embossed slip case. The set matches perfectly with the previous volumes in terms of art and style, with the colors being a bit more vibrant (noticeable only when the spines are lined up on a shelf—Volume 3 stands out with sharper and stronger colors). Menus are non-animated and match the packaging and disc art.
Pinky and the Brain has definitely been treated like the less popular brother or sister when compared to the Animaniacs DVD sets. While the sets have simultaneous release dates, the special features have been of a lesser caliber and this is even more evident on this volume than it was on past volumes. The only special feature we get on this set is a fan appreciation discussion with Maurice LaMarche and Rob Paulsen. With a runtime under fifteen minutes, it would have been nice to get something else on this set (the special feature makes mention of a SDCC panel promoting the first volumes DVD release—surely something of interest had to have been said there about the show!). Either way this featurette is worth watching, but seems kind of a weak conclusion to the special features we got on the other volumes.
Video and audio on this release is also identical to the past releases. The video is a bit grainy and dirty at times, but is clean enough for a show of its age and the audio once again comes in a strong 5.1 transfer. The video does have a bit of interlacing/ghosting in it, more than the third volume of Animaniacs anyway, and can get a bit ugly at times, but for the most part the episode transfers are satisfactory. The special feature is 16×9 in a 4:3 frame, which makes no sense as past releases were optimized for 16×9 in anamorphic. In addition the audio is a bit low (not nearly as bad as the Animaniacs set, however).
Overall this set is well worth picking up and adding to your collection. As the final release in the series I had expected a bit more from Warner Home Video, but in the end the episodes are what matter and this set features some true gems. Buy it, love it and share it—this set comes Highly Recommended.
Pinky and the Brain: Volume 3 arrives on DVD on June 19th.