DVD Review: Home Movies - Season Two
I first caught adult-oriented animated TV show Home Movies when it originally aired on Adult Swim, and although it wasn't quite as funny as South Park or Family Guy, it did make me chuckle a lot. Still, I didn't set up a Season Pass for it on my TiVo, because even though it had some laughs, it was just way too annoying to watch. Anyone who's seen the first season knows exactly what I'm talking about: the squiggling! For some weird, oddball artistic reason, someone decided to make all lines that made up the character drawings vibrate like they were all being electrocuted or something. Apparently it's known as "Squigglevision", and what's also apparent is that many other people besides myself found this jittering to extremely annoying, because for season two, Squigglevision has been replace by Flash Animation.
I hadn't watched another episode after the first, so although I knew the show was funny, I really wasn't all that excited about putting in my review copy of Home Movies - Season Two, sitting down, and watching it. And you do have to watch it, as this isn't one of those shows you can just push the Play button and go work on the computer. A lot of the jokes are visual ones, where the dialog in conjunction with some action on screen makes for a hilarious scene. When I saw that the Squigglevision had been done away with, I was not only relieved, but anxious to lay back and watch the entire season.
And this season delivers. The overall theme of show is basically about an eight year old boy named Brendon Small who makes movies with his camcorder. He writes, directs, and acts in his films, along with a couple of his friends. These can be funny at times, but it's really all the oddball characters and their unexpected remarks that makes the show so dang funny. Most of the dialog seems to be improvised, which makes for some truly hilarious conversations, especially since the characters often find themselves in uncomfortable situations. And these situations come naturally thanks to the wide spectrum of weirdo characters, like my personal favorite, the alcoholic soccer coach who treats his kids more like adults and really shouldn't be allowed within 100 feet of children, much less be in charge of actually teaching them anything.
The animation here is very basic, as is the art style (a lot of time objects aren't even filled in with any color, just outlined), but that's also part of what helps make this show funny. Some of the jokes do miss and fall flat, but more times than not they hit the mark. This box set contains three one-sided DVD's, with all 13 episodes of season two. The most notable extra features include interviews and commentaries, and although I haven't heard the commentaries yet, I did check out the interviews, most of which were pretty enjoyable and funny in their own right. Now, if only they'd re-animate the first season by ditching the Squigglevision and using the Flash Animation, because I definitely like to see how the first season played out, I just can't stand the squiggle-factor!
Home Movies - Season Two is being released by Shout! Factory on DVD starting May 31, 2005.