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Clerks - The Animated Series Uncensored

Clerks - The Animated Series Uncensored

List Price: $14.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Kevin Smith can do no wrong
Review: I was completely amazed that this show was cancelled after only 2 episodes. I have been a fan of Kevin Smith since Clerks (The Movie) came out. He put a fresh spin on a very tired movie scene. I guess the only positive thing to come out of the cancellation of the show is this DVD set. We might not have seen this release had the show been allowed to air in it's entirety. In a nut shell this is the continueing adventures of Dante, Randal, Jay and Silent Bob. If you liked Clerks the movie, you will like this.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: I was praying for more......
Review: I wnet out and bought this the first day it came out on DVD. I was so anzious to watch it. Well, after the first two episodes, I was so ready to turn it off. The first episode was not funny at all, just like the narrator at the beginning said. However, he was wrong to day that the second episode was funnier, cause it wasn't. The third one, however, was mildly funny, so i continued watching it. Was I glad i kept wacthing it. The fourth, fifth, and sixth episodes are the funniest of them all. I would've given it a higher rating, but the first two episodes were so horrible i can see why ABC cancelled it, but i think if they would've seen the other episodes, they would've kept it going. I am a diehard Kevin Smith View-Askeuniverse and have loved eveey movie he has made, especially the underappreciated Mallrats. I can watch all of his movies over and over again and still not get tired of them. That's why i wanted to give this a better review, but like i said, the first two episodes ruined it for me. But, if you are a fan of Kevin SMith, add this to your collection right away.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another hit or miss
Review: Again, Kevin Smith provides a show that is really only meant for one audience, and if you don't belong to that audience, you won't like it so much. His line for the show was that it was "a cartoon about people who watch cartoons." I think it mostly appeals to the male age 12 to 40 audience, but my sister and mother enjoyed it a lot, too.

As was probably said already, NO IT IS NOT LIKE THE MOVIE. But how many episodes could be made like the movie? Maybe one, but then the second one would be boring and repetitive. The reason the movie worked was because it was set in the span of one day, Dante's Horrible Worst Day, and it was a real one-time-only kind of feature. Any kind of sequel (like the series) would NEED to be a lot different in order to be good.

That said, the show is incredibly funny, but is - at times - stupid. [....] Anyway, the good gags make up for it, so there's no real complaints.

There are three parts to the series. In the first part, episodes 1 and 2, you see the series taking baby steps and beginning to evolve. It's funny, but with some flaws. In the middle part, episodes 3 and 4, you see that the animation is a lot smoother, and things seem to be working better. There are much less flaws, and it is a lot funnier. When you get to the final two episodes, you clearly see that everything is moving faster and without any problems, and the episodes are - guess which word I'll use - flawless.

The commentary is great, and is both very funny and informative. It teaches you what to do and what not to do if you ever plan on making a TV show. The documentaries are interesting (Not funny, but hey, they're documentaries), but a little bit too short. One is only about three minutes, the other one is about eleven minutes. The Film Festival Trailer is hilarious, particularly because of the fake critic reviews. So, the extras on the DVD do not disappoint.

Great music, great animation, great acting, good plot ideas. Why did it fail? [....]

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Interesting animated series...Why was it cancelled?!
Review: First of all, I've never been a huge fan of Kevin Smith. I did enjoy Mallrats, and viewed Dogma, as well as Clerks, and found them interesting, but nothing that I would really get into. When word hit of an animated series, the shows were put on the air for two episodes, before ABC television decided to cancel the series. After this, KEvin SMith and his creative team decided to get their version of revenge, and released this DVD set, featuring all six episodes. Yes, ALL SIX EPISODES! What's great is that the series had some funny yet creative parodies, everything from Japanese animation, Star Wars, The Matrix, Indiana Jones, The Last Starfighter, the original Batman TV series, and much more.

The basic premise of the series revolves around Dante Hicks, the down-on-his-luck clerk at the local "Quickstop" convenience store, and his annoying and troublesome chum Randal Graves, who usually succeeds in getting Dante into more trouble than he needs. Along for the ride are the fast-talking Jay, and his long-time companion Silent Bob.

The episodes are as follows: Episode 1: This TV pilot episodes was never shown, because the people who saw it were Hollywood suits who did not get it. The plot basically stems around the fact that in the city where Clerks is based (LEonardo, New Jersey), the town founder's relation Leonardo Leonardo, has returned to stay, and plans to open a new convenience store (Quickerstop), which could pose a risk for Dante and Randal.

Episode 2: After getting locked in the storage freezer at the "Quickstop," Dante and Randla begin to reminesce about their past adventures (which doesn't amount to much considering it's only their second show, but it is still funny!).

Episode 3: After a new pet store opens nearby run by Patrick Swayze (though voiced by Gilbert Gottfried), Randal gets the idea that a monkey in the store has infected the entire area with a virus, just like the movie "Outbreak." His idiotic overreaction causes the government to quarentine the Quickstop, and call for the extermination of the town to keep the virus from spreading. Side note: the voice of the leader of the government group is played by James Woods, great casting!

Episode 4: One of only 2 episodes that aired on TV. After Jay slips on some spilled orange soda in the "Quickstop," Randal idiotically manages to coax Jay to sue Dante for $10 million dollars. It doesn't look good when the NBA all-stars take the jury, and Randal does nothing to help the case (how can calling George Lucas and Steven Spielberg as witnesses help? Watch and see!). The episode also has a surprise animation ending, that just gets funnier everytime you watch it!

Episode 5: After Dante is berated by the fact that his high school baseball team does not remember that he was their team manager, Leonardo Leonardo gives Dante the chance to coach his little league team, and slowly, the team wins their way to glory! Meanwhile, Randal finds an old video game from his past, and after beating it, is recruited for a secret government operation, but it's not what he thinks!

Episode 6: After hearing from fellow fans that the entire Clerks cartoon series seems nothign like the film, Dante pledges that the cartoon will be more like it's predecessor. The entire episode then goes on to include everything from Matrix references and Chuck Jones cartoon jokes!

Along with all this, the DVD also has commentary by the people involved (and crude language is used, A LOT!!), as well as storyboards for each episode. The discs had me watching for several hours, and I still keep watching them! Buy this DVD, and experience cartoons that aren't for kids, and not quite for grown-ups.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Repetitive and Unfunny
Review: I may be the wrong audience for CLERKS: THE ANIMATED SERIES. My husband is a huge Kevin Smith fan and absolutely loves this series, and urged me to see it. I'm not a Kevin Smith fan and the only movie by him that I've ever seen is DOGMA, which I thought was funny and reasonably entertaining but not great by any means. But because I love my husband and because I heard Alec Baldwin provided one of the voices (and for Baldwin I'll sit through almost anything once), I sat down to watch it.

Or, at least, I TRIED to watch it.

This isn't the worst thing I've ever seen on DVD, but it's pretty close. In the four episodes I was able to get through in their entirety, I smiled a half-dozen times and laughed out loud only once. I could not even make it through the last two, they were so bad. Smith's guidelines for writing this series appear to be "Anything Is Funny If You Repeat It Enough Times" and "Even Stupid Pop Culture References Are Cool". The series starts out promising--the first episode has its share of moments where the repetition and the pop stuff ALMOST works, and the voice actors, including many original cast members (and of course, Alec Baldwin, who completely outshines his material) do their darndest to make the dialogue sound funnier than it is--but the second episode rapidly degenerates into self-referential smugness, and even the one laugh-out-loud moment in the third episode is immediately swallowed up by needless gay-bashing and running its one funny joke into the ground. By the end of the fourth episode I realized I hadn't laughed in a long while, and by the time the fifth episode told the series' millionth is-somebody-gay joke, I hit the eject button. I made myself watch the opening sequence of the sixth episode (in which Dante and Randall are asked by geek CLERKS fans, "How little did you sell out for?") and was just starting to think I might have been too hasty when the Kewl Reference Machine kicked in again full force and I once more turned it off in disgust.

I'm not sure what either ABC or Kevin Smith thought they were getting into when they agreed to do this series, but it's clear from the final result that neither got what they wanted; ABC cancelled it after only two airings, and Smith excoriated ABC on his web site and on the DVD's commentary track. It isn't just that it's not funny, it's that it's not even interesting. See Kevin lampoon Canada. See Kevin lampoon gays. See Kevin lampoon his own misogyny and homogeny. See Kevin lampoon sitcom plot devices. See Kevin lampoon popular movies. See Kevin lampoon himself for "selling out". See exasperated reviewer turn off the DVD.

If you're a Kevin Smith fan, by all means give CLERKS: THE ANIMATED SERIES a try; you'll probably get a lot more out of it than I did. But if you're not a Smith fan--or if you actually like your comedies funny--stay away.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "The Cartoon for people who watch cartoons."
Review: Kevin Smith said it in the commentary track for one of the episodes, and a more accurate assesment of 'Clerks the Animated Series' would be hard to find. I saw both of the origianlly aired episodes, and was sorely dissapointed when the show was cancelled. To me this DVD collection is a Godsend, not only all of the episodes(in order!), intros to each episode with Jay and Silent Bob(I think everyone agrees the intro to episode two is the funniest of the six), background info on character creation and story development, but best of all(apart from the cartoons themselves) Kevin Smith and crew doing what they do best: Audio Commentary! Anyone who's bought Kevin's DVDs(or laser discs) will know what a treat his commentaries are. Sometimes outshining the movie they're commenting on. Definatley worth the price of addmission on its own. Well about the actual episodes themselves: 1) Somewhat typical first episode fare, establishes the main characters of Dante, Randal, Jay and Silent Bob, and Leonardo Leonardo, as well as the adversarial relation ship between the Clerks and Leonardo Leonardo. It also makes it quite clear that this is NOT the Clerks movie in animated form, but an honest to goodness effort at a new cartoon. 2) Hillarious take on all of the sitcoms that ever used the 'locked in the freezer' premise, and 'flashback to use old clips to fill time' dodge of cartoons as well as sitcoms, just made all the funier by the fact they only had one episode to 'flashback' to.

3) two words: James Woods. 4) An amalgamation of courtroom drama and Anime. "Who is driving?" "Oh no! Bear is driving! How can that be?!" 5) One of the strongest episodes story wise combines 'The Bad News Bears' with 'Temple of Doom' and a little 'Last Starfighter' thrown in for good measure. Meeting Randal's old girlfriends at his ten year highschool reunion has got to be one of the funniest moments in the cartoon. Both Randal and Dante's characters really begin to develop, and move beyond their movie counterparts. 6) Going 'OldSchool Clerks' this episode was created to answer the unavoidable backlash Kevin and company knew would come from die-hard Clerks fans. The main part of the episode deals with the Clerks staying inside the store, as incredibly exciting things that we never see, but only hear about, are occuring outside. Very funny, with refernces to 'THe MaTRiX' and Bug's Bunny Cartoons.

With voices by the original Clerks stars, and an interesting list of bigger names, such as the afore mentioned James Woods, Alec Baldwin(as Leonardo Leonardo) and Gweneth Paltrow, the vocal talent really adds to the show. The style of the animation really fits as well, psuedo comic bookish but not saturday morning stiff.

Excelent all the way around, and made for multiple viewings, a lot slips by the first time. And as you get to know the characters like Kevin Smith does, more of their motivations become clear. Buy it, Watch it, Love it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is the funniest thing I've seen since Space Ghost C2C
Review: First off, I've never seen the movie, Clerks. The only movie of K. Smith that I've seen is "Mallrats," which I was less than impressed with. Then a friend of mine let me borrow his "Clerks Uncensored" 2 DVD set. After I recovered from rolling on the floor laughing I sat and listened to the episode comentaries and was surprised to learn that this show only aired two episodes. These six episodes are rare gems worthy of anybody's cartoon collection. The "Korean" ending of episode four had me in stitches, as did the Indiana Jones spoofs in the Class Reunion episode. The commentaries were almost as entertaining as the episodes themselves. Just my two cents.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Really funny
Review: Now, if you're a diehard lover of "Clerks" the movie, and if you're watching this movie with the hopes that the show will be like the film, unfortunately, it's going to be a big disappointment. "Clerks: Uncensored" follows the continuing adventures of Dante and Randall, as they bicker about how much they can't stand their jobs. As usual, Randall gets Dante into all sorts of unwanted trouble ranging from a harsh lawsuit to being dubbed the "local gay boy" who saved a town. The show's quite entertaining, and could probably receive an award for Most Random Humor, with the Simpsons coming to a close second. The DVD is packed with some amusing features with two featurettes, trailers, and an incisive commentary from Smith & Co. who go out of their way to bash ABC and how the network screwed them. It's on five of the six episodes. Rather than that, it's quite a funny show, but be warned, there aren't any stinging conversations about fellatio and dicks jokes. Jay and Silent Bob don't deal drugs. But if you love cartoons, then you'll like Clerks.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: my two cents
Review: what can i say that everyone else hasn't? Well i'm not sure, I didn't read them all, But the important thing to remember is that they got all the episodes with a lot of extras on 2 dvd's. I just got a dvd player and this was one of the first dvd's i got. If you're an animator, you'll need this, if you're not, you'll love jay and silent Bob. Besides ABC, who doesn't love them??

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not what the fans were expecting.
Review: ...If you're going to make a cartoon, make it a cartoon, not some piddly King of the Hill-type ..(Not to say I don't like King of the Hill, ... the show might as well have been live-action.) To tell you the truth, the DVD probably deserves 4 1/2 stars, ...Oh well...

So, obviously, The Animated Series caught Smithites off-guard, with a very un-Clerks kind of humour. The beauty of it was, Clerks humour would never have translated into a network cartoon, especially the bad language. So Kevin took the most logical step: Poke fun at the kind of antics he had in the Movie. It's pretty brave of a director when he can write lines like "Make more Star Wars references, it'll keep you warm." And Kevin himself even answered, in his own prophetic way, the ensuing backlash he'd receive from the fans (in episode 6, The Last Show Ever) by making the biggest spoof of his own movie of all time. ... Although, admittedly, the show's jokes did get a bit stale at points, and you can obviously see which episodes were reditted by the network's request even without the hilarious commentary by Kevin and company, and the animation gets a bit cheap at times. Still, some lovely nuggets of joy just from the shows themselves are the hilarious intros by Jay and Silent Bob, guest voices like Mike McShane from the original "Whose Line is it Anyway?" (whose voice talents can be heard in the Miramax released version of Princess Mononoke), Alec Baldwin, Michael McKean of Spinal Tap fame, Charles Barkley, and even Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow. The Commentary is possibly the best aspect of the set, when you get to hear Smith, Mosier, and co-creator Dave Mandel ....curse the network suits for cancelling them, laugh at the follies of the Korean animators, and plan out more hilarious episodes that would probably never get made. Personally, I would have wished for more of the Jay and Silent Bob PSAs that appeared at the end of the first three episodes.

It's easy to see, in terms of business, why ABC would cancel the show. It's style just didn't belong on their network to begin with; it was too wacky ... especially at prime-time. And even with it's huge fanbase, not many average TV-goers have even heard of the Clerks movie. And cartoons are, by nature, unlikely ratings boons (only toons like South Park and The Simpsons have broken this law). But of course, this wasn't helped by the fact that the network ....simultaniously disregard publicizing the show, AND run it against SURVIVOR. That was the big problem with cartoons at all last year. "God, the Devil, and Bob," David Spade's "Sammie," and Clerks all lacked network support (Or in "Bob"'s case, affiliate support); and I won't even mention Family Guy, for fear of insulting Clerks:TCS's creators (you'll find out when you listen to the commentary track). It was a project doomed from the start I suppose, and good shows never last on the networks ... But despite some of the show's failings, it's still a strong effort from a guy who seems to take on any written media with as much courage as one chubby man in a big coat can muster.


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