Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.5

Rick and Morty: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

"Break the cycle, Morty. Rise above. Focus on science."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown October 11, 2014

What is Rick and Morty? A twisted, subversive Back to the Future, swapping out wholesome time travel for drunken interdimensional misadventures and extraterrestrial escapades. A demented, deviant Doctor Who, minus anything remotely cheeky or lovably British. Futurama on a sick, satirical mean streak. An angrier, more cerebral Family Guy, with more focus, less prevailing self-awareness, and little in the way of laughs that hinge on knowing winks at the audience. (Seth McFarlane's bread-n-butter.) Adventure Time, if it suffered from methamphetamine-induced psychosis. A higher concept, lower brow Ren and Stimpy... in spaaaace! A show that defies formula and scoffs at convention. The highlight of Cartoon Network's current late-night programming block. The culmination of all things Adult Swim. On and on and on. Rick and Morty is all these things, yet entirely its own entity; existing in a strange, crackpot alternate reality without rules, boundaries or limitations. Community overmind Dan Harmon and House of Cosbys creator Justin Roiland set out to subvert every sci-fi genre trope imaginable but ended up subverting, well, everything, including the way we watch and unpack an animated series. It's also one of the smartest, fastest, funniest, most unpredictable and daring animated series on television. Maybe I should've led with that...

""You're not gonna believe this, because it usually never happens, but I made a mistake."

Welcome to the world of Rick and Morty, a genius inventor grandfather (voiced by co-creator Justin Roiland) and his less than genius grandson (also voiced by Roiland). Missing for nearly twenty years, Rick moves in with his daughter Beth (Sarah Chalke), a successful horse-heart surgeon, much to the irritation of her husband Jerry (Chris Parnell) and the ambivalence of their daughter, 17-year old Summer (Spencer Grammer). Soon Rick converts the garage into his lab and begins dragging Morty along on his insane adventures.

A word of warning: the series' pilot can be... jarring. Rick isn't a likeable lead. At all. Disgusting, self-centered and borderline abusive, the Doc Brown/Doctor Who send-up is an off-putting presence, particularly with poor, sheepish Morty taking the brunt of Rick's cynical, asocial offensive. By pilot's end, though, a crucial component of the show peeks out from beneath the bad behavior and disorderly conduct. Rick, demanding Morty fire a laser rifle at pursuing alien guards, is so obsessed with the science and mechanics of reality and the universe that he overlooks the humanity of any given scenario. Morty, horrified upon killing a guard who he learns had a wife and child, absorbs the impact of the tragedy brought on by their adventure. As the season progresses, Rick and Morty shifts from hilarity to tragedy with split-second precision (think Scrubs), and rarely lightens the mood or follows a bomb-drop with a cheap laugh. Harmon and Roiland aren't posturing either. In slowly constructing a more complex and layered monument to buddy-scientist comedy with each iteration, Rick and Morty's pairing takes on a much more thoughtful meaning; one that could easily be overlooked in the chaos. And the method-less turned methodical madness only compounds from episode to episode, with bigger, bolder premises giving way to bigger, bolder setups and large-scale, multi-scene punchlines. This blend of subtle heart, brash humor and heady concepts makes the series more than a rapidfire joke machine, spitting out references for references' sake, but a deceptively sophisticated delivery device of unrestrained id.

News editor Josh Katz agrees. He writes, "At times, this mix of absurdism, genre pastiche, and genuine trauma gallops over the line of bad taste. However, Roiland has a not-so-secret weapon: his co-creator Dan Harmon. The mercurial and brilliant mastermind behind NBC's Community, Harmon excels in always finding the emotional core in even the most extreme satirical conceits, a condition in which Rick and Morty offers a master class. Over the course of the first season's eleven episodes, what lingers are the sharp, sudden jolts of feeling that puncture the animated chaos. A freewheeling, comedically dense Inception parody (the great "Lawnmower Dog" episode) gives way to a subplot about sudden advances in canine intelligence that proves equal parts terrifying and sad -- it's as if you put Terminator 2: Judgment Day and the "Jurassic Bark" episode of Futurama in the Brundlefly machine. "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind" begins with a cloning-meets-Agatha Christie setup (sort of... it's complicated) as Rick finds himself under suspicion of murdering Ricks from other dimensions and mutates into a delicate look at love and the nature of affection. And speaking of "mutates," in the season's high-point, "Rick Potion #9," Roiland and Harmon graft teenage angst, post-apocalyptic mayhem, and monster-movie thrills onto an existential head-trip of an ending that suggests Primer as directed by David Cronenberg. The best thing about Rick and Morty is how singular it is. Like it or hate it, the show is its own beast, and that confidence proves bracing. One of the best first seasons of television that I've ever seen."

Rick and Morty: Season One features 11 episodes on a single BD-50 disc:

1. Series Pilot
2. Lawnmower Dog
3. Anatomy Park
4. M. Night Shaym-Aliens!
5. Meeseeks and Destroy
6. Rick Potion #9
7. Raising Gazorpazorp
8. Rixty Minutes
9. Something Ricked This Way Comes
10. Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind
11. Ricksy Business

Rick and Morty: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Rick and Morty's 1080p/VC-1 video presentation looks great, with fewer instances of banding or aliasing than other Warner Bros./Cartoon Network Blu-ray releases. There are a few brief blips on the issue radar, but each one is extremely minor and traces back to the series' animation. Color and contrast are dead on, with gory reds, vicious extraterrestrial yellows and purples, suitably sickly greens and inky blacks. Alien worlds and landscapes are brimming with splashy hues, and every last detail remains as close to impeccable as it comes, with clean, crisp line art free from ringing and other anomalies. No complaints here.

Rick and Morty: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unlike Warner's Adventure Time Blu-rays, Rick and Morty: Season One follows in the footsteps of The Venture Bros. with a lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track. Voices are crystal clear and prioritization is spot on, without any mishaps to report. LFE output infuses alien attacks, creature chases, ship assaults, interdimensional implosions, terrestrial explosions and other eruptions of mad-science with plenty of weight and presence. Likewise, the rear speakers bring plenty of life to the series' madcap parties, alien worlds and dystopian shenanigans, even though simple conversational scenes are quite front-heavy, without much in the way of ambient effects. While it makes for a somewhat flat and inconsistent episode-to-episode experience, the mix remains a solid (but not quite remarkable) lossless offering sure to please fans of the show.

Rick and Morty: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Creator and Animator Audio Commentaries: The supplemental package kicks off with eleven quick-witted, engaging and fairly extensive audio commentaries; one for each episode, featuring co-creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland and a number of writers, directors and animators. Identifying references, easter eggs and subverted genre tropes is priority one, followed by overviews of the inspiration behind the broader stories and specific jokes, a general look into the development and evolution of each episode, descriptions of abandoned concepts and alternate ideas, and much more. Despite all the laughter, the participants are quite focused and do a great job staying on track. Commentaries include:
  
  
  • Pilot, with Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland and Ryan Elder
  • Lawnmower Dog, with Harmon, Roiland and Ryan Ridley
  • Anatomy Park, with Harmon, Roiland, Eric Acosta and Wade Randolph
  • M. Night Shaym-Aliens!, with Harmon, Roiland, Ridley and Tom Kauffman
  • Meeseeks and Destroy, with Harmon, Roiland, Ridley and Bryan Newton
  • Rick Potion #9, with Harmon, Roiland, Ridley and Stephen Sandoval
  • Raising Gazorpazorp, with Harmon, Roiland and Ridley
  • Rixty Minutes, with Harmon, Roiland, Ridley and Newton
  • Something Ricked This Way Comes, with Harmon, Roiland, Elder and Pete Michels
  • Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind, with Harmon, Roiland, Ridley and Sandoval
  • Ricksy Business, with Harmon, Roiland, Ridley and Michels
  
  
• Special Guest Commentaries: Also available are three additional commentaries (bringing the grand total to fourteen) featuring a variety of special guests, themselves huge fans of the series. Tracks include "Rick Potion #9," with The Simpsons' Matt Groening, Al Jean, J. Stewart Burns, Max Pross, Matt Selman, Jon Kern and Tom Gammill; "Rixty Minutes," with The Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman and Scott M. Gimple; and "Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind," with Adventure Time's Pendleton Ward and Kent Osborne.
• Behind the Scenes (HD, 19 minutes): I love Rick and Morty as much as the next mildly disturbed late-night animation junkie. I really do. But this has gotta be the most obnoxious behind-the-scenes featurette I've ever seen. Ever. Fake host, purposefully annoying interviews, irritating questions dominated by nonsense inquiries, dismissive answers by the creators, befuddled reactions from the rest of the crew, sophomoric gags, bathroom tours, corner urination, haunted office stories (and reenactments), and other grating, seemingly never-ending bits. Every now and then a legitimate interview segment or clip of a meeting or recording session sneaks through (identified by placing the word "actual" on screen, as in "Actual Season 1 Recording Session"), but these brief respites are very few and very far between. Ugh. What a waste.
• Deleted Scenes (HD): The episode selection menu houses a selection of storyboarded deleted scenes for the pilot, "Anatomy Park," "M. Night Shaym-Aliens!," "Meeseeks and Destroy," "Rick Potion #9," "Rixty Minutes" and "Ricksy Business."
• Animatics (SD): A full-length animatic is available for each 20 to 22-minute episode.

Rick and Morty: Season 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Rick and Morty. Mmmm good. You may have to force yourself to keep watching after the pilot -- you wouldn't be the first -- but make it to "Lawnmower Dog" (one of the season's earliest and best) and you'll be set. At the very least, you'll have a better idea if you fall in the "love it" or "hate it" camp. Just know if you love it, you're in for one helluva hilarious treat. Warner's Blu-ray release is terrific too, with an excellent video presentation, a solid Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround track and a pile of special features that includes fourteen audio commentaries. Already a fan? You'll be ecstatic with the results. Newcomer? "We're gonna go on even more adventures after that, Morty. And you're gonna keep your mouth shut about it, Morty. Because the world is full of idiots that don't understand what's important. And they'll tear us apart, Morty. But if you stick with me, I'm gonna accomplish great things, Morty. And you're gonna be part of them. And together, we're gonna run around, Morty. We're gonna- do all kinds of wonderful things, Morty. Just you and me, Morty. The outside world is our enemy, Morty. We're the only friends we've got, Morty. It's just Rick and Morty. Rick and Morty and their adventures, Morty. Rick and Morty forever and forever. 100 years, Rick and Morty's things. Me and Rick and Morty running around, and Rick and Morty time. All day long forever. All a hundred days. Rick and Morty forever a hundred times..."