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The Critic - The Complete Series

The Critic - The Complete Series

List Price: $49.95
Your Price: $39.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bout time
Review: I've been waiting for years to see the Critic on DVD. By far, one of the funniest shows of all time which was cancelled in its prime. Fox was completely foolish for removing the show which I've watched faithfully since I was 11 years old. The episodes are very well written, and the characters are voiced to perfection by Jon Lovitz and a great supporting cast, including frequent guest cameos by celebrities such as Milton Berle, June Lockheart, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Ricki Lake, Queen Latifah, and Geraldo Rivera (not to mention every popular film critic under the sun). With film parodies such as "Family Affair: the Motion Picture with Marlon Brando as Mr. French," or "Honey, I Ate the Kids with Anthony Hopkins," and the antics of Jay, Alice, Duke, and the rest of the show's ensemble, this DVD set is bound to be a gem in any collection, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys sarcastic, laugh out loud, and often silly humor. A definite buy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Simply It Stinks, Not!!
Review: It is just so unbelieveable to understand the fades of animation these days. Sincerely, there are just so many cartoon series based for adults that really seem to be overdubbed again and again. That goes with the case of The Simpsons, and King Of The Hill, as them being the most successful of all the animated series for adults. Yet, typically speaking, there is one zany one that is worth seeing all over again. The Critic was one those animated series that truly brought out the best in crude, but laughable humor for all ages, young and old. The story is about a single father, Jay Sherman, who works as a movie critic, and all the weirdness that is around his world, including the basis from his parents, who adopted Jay, and his crazy boss Duke. Still, the sense of humor fits right in.

The complete series DVD of The Critic consists of the only two channels that broadcasted whole episodes of the series, Fox and ABC. Arguably, the series was absoluely brillant and completely funny. Jon Lovitz, from Saturday Night Live fame, portrays the voice of the wacky Jay Sherman. The shows are just enjoyable, but does leave a whole lot of humor, from Jon and his parents who are the loose actual cannons, one of them who is sensible, but the other one that is drunk as a noose. Still, the show does evolve, Jay even more, including his humor as a critic, and some of the most outrageous things ever, including the episode where Duke, runs for president, and just makes so much of an ordeal, he actually controls the whole show, and the episode where Jay celebrates his a milestone show as the host of Coming Attractions, where they only shows clips of the films Jay reviewed. Unfortunately, that was the final episode of The Critic.

Untimately, this was one of the best animation series of its era. The Critic was just full of complete joy. All that I can say is that I absolutely suggest you get this boxed set of the entire series, The Critic. No matter what people think of other series out there, Jay Sherman just brings down the house. It Stinks, Not!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Iron-clad proof the networks no nothing
Review: The Critic is the brainchild of Al Jean and Mike Reiss (producers of The Simpsons) and is produced by Gracie Films, also of Simpsons fame. It was a highly intelligent and very funny show that made fun of movies, Hollywood, TV stations at the same time as giving us a sympathetic hero and the whacky world he lives in.

Jay Sherman is short, fat, bald and dresses like dweeb, his ex-wife hates him, his boss is always on his back, women run from him in terror and his make-up lady humiliates him at every given opportunity. He's also voiced by the increasingly adorable Jon Lovitz and has one of the best catchphrases ever. HOTCHIE MOTCHIE!!!!!

The supporting characters are equally hilarious. Jay's crazy dad is always up to some kind of insanity. His pal Jeremy Hawke (star of the controversial and highly blasphemous Crocodile Gandhi movies) is always featured in some sort of dumb action movie clip. Even his tummy has a 'feed me' voice of its own. Though the honors go to Charles Napier, who is absolutely priceless as Jay's megalomaniacal, all-American hard-man boss.

It's hard to believe ABC ditched this after ONE EPISODE!!! What were they thinking? Even Fox eventually gave up on it. Sad considering how sharp the writing and humor was. How on earth does self-indulgent, over-rated and long, long past prime trash like Friends gets 10 seasons and The Critic gets 23 episodes. You won't find Jay Sherman all but winking at the camera or pausing until the fake laughter dies down.

This complete set comes with a fair amount of extras (the cinema screen trivia cards are great) but the best is fact that we get all the 'webisodes'. In 2000 Jay made a brief comeback on the internet and all those 5 minute shows are featured on the 3rd DVD. My only complaint is, after 22 brilliant episodes, it kind of dies out with an obnoxious and annoying 'clip show' than a proper end-of-season finale. Minor complaint nonetheless.

The shows are all presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen, as drawn with a good Dolby 2.0 soundtrack. If Family Guy can come back through strong DVD sales then let's hope the same for The Critic. Now only if Duckman would come to DVD...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Great DVD For The New Year!
Review: One of the cooler shows from 1994, I was immediately drawn to The Critic back during it's original run on ABC. How could you not be? An animated hybrid of The Simpsons, and Siskel & Ebert featuring the hilarious voice talents of Christine Cavanaugh (Gosalyn from "Darkwing Duck"), Park Overall (Laverne from "Empty Nest"), Charles Napier (Z from "Men In Black: The Animated Series"), and of course SNL's Jon Lovitz as the hapless, lovelorn, milquetoast critic Jay Sherman - from the producers of The Simpsons. The neverending source of hollywood media material (no film is spared) coupled with Simpsons-like humor, and Lovitz's instant catch-phrase of "It stinks!" should have more than solidified the series a fitting place alongside The Simpsons in terms of longevity, but alas the show was bumped from ABC's schedule, then cancelled altogether after a season of floundering on the air. A decade later, here we are - being rewarded with a neatly packaged complete series boxed set. Definitely a must-have for your DVD collection!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Next we'll be reviewing...
Review: It stinks! Not! The Critic is one of the funniest shows ever. It ranks among my favorites with The Simpsons, Dilbert, and Saturday Night Live. Jay Sherman (Jon Lovitz) is a movie critic in New York. He has his own show, Coming Attractions, with his own line, it stinks! The Critic is about Jay's life, his friends, his son and ex-wife, and his show. Sometimes you don't get it, but this show makes you laugh out loud. Get or you STINK!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Good show, GREAT voice acting
Review: Though it never really becomes more than the sum of its parts (hindered by quite a few rather generic plot lines and unimaginative film parodies) `The Critic' does contain more than its share of memorable laugh-out-loud moments, generally due to the brilliant voice acting of Maurice LaMarche, who performs most of the celebrity voice impersonations. His Orson Welles impression (`Rosebud... yes, Rosebud frozen peas'), one of the show's standout moments, has to be heard to be believed - it's no wonder Tim Burton hired him to overdub D'Onofrio's voice in `Ed Wood'.

Other highlights include the many cameo appearances by film critics Roger Ebert, Gene Siskel, Gene Shalit and Rex Reed. Seeing Siskel and Jay re-enact the `wig' scene from Hitchcock's `Vertigo' is heartwarming, and though I could never stand Rex Reed's reviews, he is a fabulous voice actor. His delivery of the Savvy Indian Chewing Tobacco commercial jingle still makes me laugh out loud any time I hear it.

Not a knockout show, but definitely worth watching. It's a bloody shame this was cancelled.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "It Stinks...!~!!!!!"
Review: For real fans of the show you wil realize my title is not a dig at the show...This is a great set and for the price you are getting your moneys worth. There are plenty of extras which i will let you know about...

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.

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.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great family watching!
Review: If you ever saw this series on T.V. then you remember how funny it was. I miss this cartoon and am glad I can now watch it any time I like. My son watches it all the time, and it's good clean fun. I enjoy the humor and antics of all the characters. It's a great cartoon series for adults as well as kids. I give it a "thumbs up".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fox: "It Stinks!"
Review: I don't know what confuses and infuriates me more: Why the Fox Network was so stupid that it thought dumping this show would be a GOOD idea, or the fact that after it did commit this blasphemy, no other network was smart enough to pick it back up. It had EVERYTHING! Action, comedy, romance, drama, and every celebrity of its time was insulted! It left no one safe, even the might Arnold Schwarzenegger bowed before the might of the Critic and Duke Phillips! ALL HAIL DUKE!!! DUKE IS LIFE!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fox: "It Stinks!"
Review: I don't know what confuses and infuriates me more: The fact that Fox cancelled this brilliant show after only two seasons, or the fact that no other network was smart enough to pick the series up when Fox dropped it. This show had everything! Action, Romance, Drama, the unbriadaled bashing of the Fox network and anyone affiliated with it, not to mention one of the most awe-inspiring characters of all time: Duke Phillips. I cannot stress that point enough. Simply put: 'All hail Duke! Duke is Life!'
I think that its about time for Fox to realize their mistake and crawl back to James L. Brooks and say, "Look, the Simpsons is done in two years, so will you please, pleeaase, PLLLLEEEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE save our network?!?!?!?!" This show could do that. And more. Thats how awesome it is. And if you even think about disagreeing with that, I should warn you, I'm an experienced dueler. Pistols at dawn, shal we say?


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