8.5 | / 10 |
Users | 3.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Animation | 100% |
Fantasy | 71% |
Adventure | 51% |
Action | 37% |
Martial arts | 34% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1, 1.33:1
See individual releases
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Five-disc set (5 BDs)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 2.5 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The commentary on the new ClassicFlix Blu-ray release of the venerable noir He Walked by Night mentions how the cast features two stalwarts of sixties Irwin Allen television efforts, though only one of the actors got more than a season’s work out of the gig. He Walked by Night’s titular villain is played by Richard Basehart, who despite a long and rather storied film career that included appearances in outright classics like Federico Fellini’s La strada, is still probably best remembered (at least by Baby Boomers) for his multi-year stint aboard the Seaview in what was arguably Allen’s most successful television enterprise, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Character actor Whit Bissell, whose name may not be all that familiar but whose face will be instantly recognizable to many film (and television) fans, didn’t fare nearly so well in his Irwin Allen enterprise, the “one season wonder” The Time Tunnel. Despite only lasting a single season, one of The Time Tunnel’s unexpectedly long lasting iconic images was of its titular “character”, a swirling tube featuring concentric black and white rings that were probably intentionally hypnotic looking when they kicked into motion and transported the series’ two heroes to various eras (mostly in the past). That very image may well have served as inspiration for Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky, for when this show’s titular character is sent packing through time by a shape shifting ogre named Aku, he does so in a very Time Tunnel-esque fashion (see the first screenshot accompanying this review), though in this case Jack ends up in a distant dystopian future where Aku has completely taken over. There’s a different kind of “time travel” involved in Samurai Jack from a production standpoint, for the series had a rather fascinating broadcast history which saw it unfold for three years (more or less, anyway) between 2001 and 2004, before returning almost a decade and a half later for a “wrap up” season that sought to close a number of plot strands that had been left hanging when the first run perhaps prematurely came to a close.
Samurai Jack: The Complete Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1 (for
the first four seasons) and 1.78:1 (for the fifth and final season). This is a pretty remarkable upgrade from the previously released DVDs, though it
looks like some elements from the first episodes, including the title sequence (which recurs thereafter) have at least some moments that have been
upscaled, so that eagle eyed viewers may catch some quick moments of relatively minor stairstepping and the like. Other than this anomaly, and a
kind of strange softness that accrues in some of the fourth season episodes, I can't imagine fans of this series not enjoying the presentation here. Line
detail is sharp and precise looking, and the series' wonderfully diverse animation styles are rendered with clarity and a refreshing lack of issues like
banding. The palette of Samurai Jack is continually appealing, and widely variant (perhaps part of its appeal), and the color space across the
five Blu-ray discs is continually quite impressive.
Note: I've arranged the screenshots "by season" in the following manner:
Unfortunately, the news is less spectacular with regard to the audio on this release. I'll state up front that there's nothing really "wrong" with either the Dolby Digital 2.0 mixes on the first four seasons, or the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the fifth and final season, but why a release of this assumed popularity is being offered with only lossy audio this far into the high definition era is a bit of a head scratcher. I personally found the amplitude on the first four seasons a bit on the anemic side, resulting in me boosting my volume a bit higher than I typically do, but with that said, all elements come through clearly enough, if often without much sonic "oomph". Things improve at least marginally on the fifth season, and the surround track does provide regular immersion courtesy of both the often evocative score choices, but also the glut of effects that attend Jack's adventures (not necessarily only with regard to Aku). My 2.5 score is a bit of a "protest" vote to register my personal displeasure that lossless audio was not included on this release, but at least rest assured that I encountered nothing truly problematic on the lossy tracks included here.
Disc One (Season One)
From a plot standpoint, Samurai Jack is almost willfully minimalist, but from a visual presentation standpoint, this is one of the most audaciously hyperbolic offerings I can personally remember in the last couple of decades of television animation. Filled with wonderfully bizarre characters and continually outré vignettes, Samurai Jack also manages to actually touch actual real human emotions at unexpectedly regular intervals. I'm personally displeased that this release only offers lossy audio (I'm a huge fan of the soundtrack), but otherwise, Samurai Jack: The Complete Series comes Highly recommended.
2001
2002
2002-2003
2003-2004
2017
2005-2008
2012-2014
2019-2020
Legend of Deification / 姜子牙
2020
1989
2003
35th Anniversary Edition
1977
2012
2020
2007
2015
Tout en haut du monde
2015
2020-2021
1989
Collector's Edition
2024
2021
2024
2024
2024
2024