More DVD comments, and my roommate’s initial thoughts

Being the bad influence that I am, I “tricked” my roommate Kim into watching PoDW tonight (she’d wanted to anyway, we were hanging out down here, I just sort of put in a DVD and she got sucked into watching). 🙂 She’d never seen it before, so her observations were really amusing.

“This reminds me a lot of He-Man. Was it by the same people? I don’t know why, but it really does…”
“Oh, I know why it does. There are lots of tan guys with blonde hair!”
“Nooooo!” (when Primus died and was swept out to sea, and when Alomar died)
“Let me guess, the lizard bird saves him, right?” (Meaning, Niddler, the monkeybird, when Ren’s trapped on the crow’s nest of the Maelstrom in episode 1.)
“I wouldn’t go sailing with Pirate Guy.” (Meaning, Ioz, right after he and Ren struck up their deal in the bar.)
“I think Short Chubby Pirate Dude will become their friend.” (Meaning, Konk. She doesn’t like spoilers so I haven’t corrected her on this.)
“That squawking, screeching sound is awesome!” (Commenting on Niddler’s exclamations.)

We got partway into episode 3 before she called it quits. I finished it off and went on to episode 4.

And you know what? They edited the audio. I don’t know if the folks who put the DVD together did it, or what, but they definitely brought up the background noise in some parts and softened it in others, AND they changed the way Ren and Niddler’s scream sounds as they’re falling down into the Kramadorm (making Niddler’s sound more like Frank Welker and his squawking, rather than a humanoid scream).

Oh! They edited the video, too–they have very subtly edited and shortened some transitions by cutting out a second or two of footage here and there. It’s not a big deal but it feels choppy to me, since I know the originals really well. (More so than the episodes, the slight shift in the audio and music throws me off, but I am a very aural person.)

This has definitely affirmed for me that my favorite episodes in the series are #1, #4, and #5. They’re such gems all around, each with their own share of symbolism, darkness, complexity, and fun. But man, I do have to wonder what the true “on-the-street” reception of this show was when it first came out, because there are moments that are not kiddie fare.

Anyway…little by little, I’ll go through the DVDs and post comments. I still have not previewed them all just yet…there just aren’t enough hours in the day this semester. Fun times. (If anyone is at all interested in seeing what I’m up to these days, I revamped my personal site/blog and combined both. It’s not complete and still needs to be tweaked…but it might actually be interesting every now and then, beyond the “gaaahhh THESIS” stuff.)