Road Rovers DVD Review

        

Hey, this is MDTartist83 and welcome to my review of the complete Road Rovers DVD. Now, you guys all know me for my previous reviews of Road Rovers where I covered quite a bit of the show's material. And only two days ago I posted a video announcement of the recently released DVD edition of the series. Well, now that the DVD is in my possession, I finally had the chance to see the show in the way it was meant to be shown. Everything is exactly as I remember it. And like I said, we fans couldn't ask for anything more than this. And I know I don't need to say this since I already did in my DVD announcement. But for years now, we thought Warner Bros. would never release this show on DVD. Well, it took almost 20 long years for it to happen. But eventually, it did happen. In the midst of the darkness there was a light. And while the chances of this show receiving a reboot seems unlikely, I'm at least grateful that Warner Bros. finally decided to give Road Rovers its long overdue DVD release, even though it was not one of their most popular shows with it only being 13 episodes long and only having a cult following. But who knows? Maybe there is hope for Road Rovers in the near future. We just have to keep hoping for the best.

So anyway, enough of that drama talk. Let's talk about the DVD edition. But before I begin, this is essentially to let you be aware of what to expect and what not to expect from the DVD release. As I have stated in my DVD announcement video, the Road Rovers DVD edition comes with 2 disks. Disk 1 contains the first 9 episodes, while disk 2 contains the last four episodes. I can imagine why this is a double disk DVD edition since they probably couldn't fit all 13 episodes into one disk. And well that's actually pretty convenient if you ask me. But sad to say, this DVD edition is kind of a disappointment. The main reason being because it only contains the whole series, but it has no special features or extras. Which means there are no trailers, no commercial advertisements for the show, and no behind the scenes footage or interviews. Not even the Cartoon Network bumpers are in it. And what's also sad is that the disks have no additional languages. And as I said before, Road Rovers was broadcast in several countries from around the world besides North America, and was dubbed in several languages. But unfortunately, none of those are in the disks either. And DVDs are capable of storing more than just the feature presentation. I guess Warner Bros. must have thought "Okay, we'll give the fans what they've been asking for so many years now. But we're not going to make this DVD anything special. We'll just put in all 13 episodes into two disks with better quality picture and sound, and that's it." But oh well, what else can you expect? I can't say I was expecting too much since Road Rovers wasn't a very popular show when it first aired on television. I've watched both disks. And so far so good, everything is the way it's supposed to be. But what's really disappointing is that the DVD only features the edited version of the final episode instead of the original version. Which means we won't be seeing the Russian name song sequence in this DVD. Talk about a major disappointment. But I guess Warner Bros. was planning to release this show for a younger audience. So I guess I can't really complain. But the problems aside, there are some highlights to this edition.

Thanks to the modern day convenience of digital reconstruction, all 13 episodes of the series have been digitally remastered with sharper and clearer picture, and better sound quality. So now we'll have no trouble trying to understand the dialogue, and the audio is crystal clear and easier to listen to. And not only that, but the colors are nice and rich, just as I remember it from back in 1996, a year that I remember quite fondly for many reasons. And Road Rovers being one of those reasons. But anyway, the sound and picture quality is excellent. Much like the 20th anniversary DVD edition of the original Transformers movie. Everything is sharper, clearer, and MUCH better than those crappy torrent videos which we were forced to deal with since Warner Bros was too lazy to put Road Rovers on DVD until now. And best of all, there are no commercial interruptions. But all the episodes retain the commercial break bumpers with the logo appearing and disappearing before fading to black. And of course, since the animation varies from episode to episode, you can expect to see all those noticeable animation errors and inconsistencies. You know, such as seeing Blitz in Hunter's colors, the black line that suddenly appears on Hunter's face in the first episode, Exile in Blitz's colors in one shot, etc. But that aside, it's just awesome to see the show digitally remastered for the first time ever. So now we can forget about the grainy picture, dull colors, and muffled sound from those crappy torrent videos, and make way for this DVD release of Road Rovers. Of course I will still hold onto the torrent files. If only for the Russian Names song that sadly never made the cut. Now again, there are no special features on either of the two disks, which will be very disappointing and frustrating for those of you who were expecting much more out of it. Because naturally, you'd expect a hell of a lot better from Warner Bros. since they're such a big company. But I wouldn't let the flaws stop you. Because in all honesty, despite the flaws I pointed out here, I'm more than happy to have this DVD added to my collection. Seriously, it's a dream come true. And never in a million years would we ever expect Warner Bros to have the courtesy to release this show domestically. And for me, that's saying a lot. So if you plan on buying this DVD, don't expect too much out of it, because if you do, you will be disappointed. But me personally, I'm happy with what I have. I honestly couldn't ask for anything more. If you want to go for this DVD, you'd have to be a longtime and loyal Road Rovers fan. And if you're a die hard Road Rovers fan, then by all means, pick it up while it's still in stock. Because I'm not sure how long it will be available. So hurry up and buy the DVD edition before its too late. And who knows? If this DVD sells well, then maybe the series will see a revival in the near future. Just maybe. Though I don't want to give my hopes up just yet. Well, that's all I have to say. This is MDTartist83 saying take care, peace to all, and God bless. See you around.

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