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Rating: Summary: Damn right Review: This is a series I have been hunting for. I rate it highly although it may be to do with childhood nostalgia. I agree, I'm sick of lazy DVD releases, how hard can it be to release the whole series. Surely it can't be for reasons of profit. Yes is is available in french as an entire series.
Rating: Summary: A less-than-stellar treatment of a futuristic 'Odyssey'... Review: I recall catching "Ulysses 31" on occasion when it aired Sunday mornings on the local independent station way back when. However, I didn't really remember any of the adventures or situations our hero, his two preteen charges, and cutesy robot sidekick got themselves into week after week. What I DID remember was that the show's storylines tended to be more developed and maturer than most of the other kidvid `toonage that was bein' cranked out at the time. Which was likely the main reason the show stayed in my memory to a certain degree long after my interest in `toons had subsided. Sadly, my efforts to rekindle a few of these memories over the last few years ultimately proved fruitless as I looked `round for a few episodes of "Ulysses 31" on video, and found nothing... until this DVD came out. That's when I decided to take a chance and give the show a gander for the first time in almost two decades...
Unfortunately, I found myself rather disappointed with the four shows on this platter. Most of the storylines were pretty good-- two of which were reasonably interesting tributes to and/or updates of the original "Odyssey" (`Strange Meeting', `The Magic Spells of Circe'). But the voice-acting for the most part was downright terrible! The horrific voice work made me wish this DVD was presented in its original French dialogue with English subtitles!
Another big disappointment I have with this DVD is the exclusion of the pilot episode that sets up our hero's seemingly endless journey through the cosmos. All you get is a quick recap of the events of the pilot at the beginning of the show's opening credits sequence: our hero destroys a robotic Cyclops which invokes the wrath of the futuristic versions of the Greek gods (yet more parallels to Homer's "Odyssey"). The vengeful Gods force the hero and his crew to wander the stars looking for Earth, getting into all sorts of strange predicaments and performing good deeds to those in need along the way. Sadly, one of the "predicaments" on this DVD, `Before the Flood', had a more than a few confusingly convoluted and downright incoherent moments. However, I did find the opening soundtrack music, a slow-paced and very subtle piano rendition of the opening notes to Styx's "Too Much Time on My Hands", oddly amusing. A subliminal foreshadowing of the episode's time-travel shenanigans, perhaps? Hmmm...
Another gripe: although "Ulysses 31" isn't in a quasi-serialized format like many space-opera anime shows (all eppies here are stand-alone adventures), I would have preferred they put the first four episodes on this platter instead of a few shows taken from various places in the series in order to make a "theme" disc. Now don't get me wrong, I love messin' `round with the space-time continuum and all that, but for my money I'd rather have the entire series in a DVD box set...
Then there's the kicker: the cutesy diminutive comic-relief sidekick! Urgh... as if the likes of Orko ("Masters of the Universe"), Snarf ("ThunderCats"), and T-BOB ("MASK") weren't nauseating enough, now I gotta deal with NoNo the klutzy mini-bot here and his "sweet tooth" for nails! Well, at least he ain't quite as annoying as Scrappy-Doo. But then, who IS?
Bottom line: save up yer bucks and wait for `Ulysses 31' to come out on in a full-series DVD box set in the original French dialogue with English subtitles, and let this particular platter be.
`Late
Rating: Summary: Don't buy this! Review: My one star is not for the cartoon but the DVD itself.
Over here in rainy old England, you can get the complete set of Ulysees cartoons (Yes, every episode ever made) for around 20 pounds. So for you, that would be about $40.
Hunt it down!!!!!
See ya.
Rating: Summary: Hmmmmmmmm? Review: Well I don't really know what to think. Ulysees is an amazing cartoon and should be bought by everyone who's ever seen it, but the formats is what's bothering me. For the past few years since DVD first started I have been waiting for all the 80's cartoons that I loved so much to be released. Well, now they are all starting to come out, but they are coming out poorly. Transformers is a perfect set as far as I'm concerned and all the other 80's cartoons should be released in the same way. But it's not the case, the first one that bothered me was Batman the animated tales.It should definitely be in a box set. Next was the Super Mario bros show, released badly by Animation Station. This company "Animation Station" are releasing all the DIC cartoons such as Heathcliff, The Legend of Zelda, Jayce and the wheeled warriors, Mario, Sonic (I think), Cops etc. Personally I don't think we should stand for it. They have these cartoons and they are waiting until they have sold all that they can in these rubbish random DVD sets before they release box sets. Think about it, Zelda is only 13 episodes, would it have really been so hard to release that season in one. I don't think so. Anyway, until I am certain that sets will not be released I refuse to buy any of them. Except TMNT (Original) of course.Where's the rest of the cartoons? We want Inspector Gadget, Captain N, Galaxy high, The Real Ghostbusters, Thundercats etc. Don't stop now.
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