'It stinks!' - wait...no it doesn't! by Gord Lacey (All reviews)
2/19/2004
The critic, one of the most feared people in Hollywood. These are the people that can make or break a movie. This is the story of a critic named Jay Sherman. He isn't very popular, and he doesn't like many movies, but he's a critic none-the-less.
After starting to develop a slightly different show, Mike Reiss and Al Jean (two of the people behind The Simpsons) thought the show should focus on the critic. They got Jon Lovitz on board and sold the show to ABC. The show premiered in January, 1994 and only lasted 13 episodes before it was canned. Fox decided to pick the show up, and aired it as a mid season replacement in March of '95. Various aspects of the show were tweaked, including giving Jay a slightly new, friendlier look. The show lasted a meager 10 episodes on Fox before they tossed in the towel. Five years later the show reappeared as a series of webisodes on the 'net, all of which are included in this set.
Video
This was a tough one...6, or 7...6, or 7... I finally settled on six but the set probably deserves a 6.5, but we don't award half marks. The picture quality wasn't as good as many other animated shows I've seen, especially not as good as the newer (2000+) shows which are mostly colored on the computers. The colors tend to shift, and the picture is soft. There's a bunch of debris and dust in the picture - more than I was expecting.
Audio
Columbia TriStar has provided an English Dolby Surround track for our listening pleasure. The track doesn't make very good use of the surround capabilities and might have been better suited as a stereo track. Looking over my notes from watching the episodes I can't see anything about the rear speakers so they obviously aren't used much. Dialog is fine, but directional sound effects are underutilized. No subtitles on this release, but it is closed captioned.
Commentary Tracks
Although there aren't tracks for every episode like there are on The Simpsons releases, we're treated to 8 entertaining tracks for The Critic. Jon Lovitz was busy on another project when they were recording these tracks so he wasn't able to take part in them.
EP 1 - Maurice LaMarche (actor), Mike Reiss (co-creator, executive producer, writer), Al Jean (co-creator, executive producer, writer), Nick Jameson (actor), Rich Moore (supervising director)
EP 2 - Mike Reiss, Al Jean, Steve Levitan (writer), Nick Jameson, Rich Moore, David Cutler (art director), Charles Napier (actor), Maurice LaMarche
EP 6 - Mike Reiss, Al Jean, Maurice LaMarche, Nick Jameson, Rich Moore
EP 7 - Mike Reiss, Al Jean, Jim Brooks, Nick Jameson, Rich Moore, David Cutler, Charles Napier, Maurice LaMarche
EP 9 - Mike Reiss, Jim Brooks, Al Jean, Steve Levitan, Nick Jameson, Rich Moore, David Cutler, Charles Napier, Maurice LaMarche
EP 14 - Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Maurice LaMarche, Nick Jameson, Rich Moore
EP 15 - Mike Reiss, Al Jean, Maurice LaMarche, Nick Jameson, Rich Moore
EP 20 - Al Jean, Mike Reiss, Maurice LaMarche, Nick Jameson, Rich Moore
Trailers (4:12)
Contemporary TV (2:06) and Original Programming TV (2:06).
Animated Storyboards
Storyboards, animatics and finished product can be seen during "A Pig-Boy and His Dog." Just look for the spinning film reel and press the enter key.
Trailer Parodies (4:36)
I had fun watching all the funny trivia bits, until I made the mistake of pressing "enter" on the remote and ending the fun. That's okay because then I was treated to funny film parodies from the show.
Top Ten List (6:22)
Those funny trivia bits are here too, and once they're done you can watch some clips of movies from Jay's show, Coming Attractions.
Creating "The Critic" (11:49)
More fun facts here as well. This featurette traces the creation of the show, the look of "the Critic" and voice acting. Features interviews with Mike Reiss (co-creator/executive producer), Al Jean (co-creator/executive producer), James L. Brooks (executive producer), Rich Moore (original visual designer), Maurice LaMarche (character voices), Nick Jameson (character voices).
Webisodes (34:23)
In 2000 The Critic returned, sort of. These 10 episodes were available online, and now they're available on here in regular DVD format. The picture quality is great, but the frame rate seems a bit low.
Summary
I watched only a handful of episodes when the show first aired, but I remember liking it. If you're at all interested in TV and film (and I assume you are since you're on a DVD site) then you'll laugh out loud at all the film references. One extra I wish they included was the ability to turn on a subtitle track that would give the name of the movie that was being mocked. I knew a lot of them, but there were some I wasn't sure about.
I like that Columbia TriStar is releasing some of their short-run shows in one set. Both Dilbert and The Critic (released on the same day) were great shows and I think fans will enjoy the opportunity to own them on DVD. They should also be commended for including the "webispodes" as a video feature instead of as DVD-ROM material. This is a set worth picking up.
