So I received my advanced copy of the "Casper" DVD that I did commentaries and interviews for. Overall, I give the set high marks with some minor quibbles that I had no control over.
On the plus side, the set looks good. There are two slimline case clamshells; one featuring the two theatrical discs and the third disc in its own case features all of the "New Casper Cartoon Show" episodes.
The 20-page full-color booklet looks fantastic and of course, it was written by yours truly, so it is crammed with tons of information including where every episode appears in comic books, when applicable.
The first three Casper cartoons that are now in the public domain are actually featured as bonus features of disc one. There are 10 commentaries strewn throughout. All feature me with three of them with Edmee Reit (widow of Sy), three of them with Bradley Bolke and three of them with Alison Arngrim (daughter of Norma MacMillan).
I first saw the 15+ minute documentary in Oregon and was upset that I looked so "zombie-like", but after re-watching it a second time, it's not too bad, but I still come across as a bit dull in comparison with the animated Alison, who makes the documentary fun!
The commentaries are generally pretty good, considering that I had never done anything like this before, and recorded everything in a marathon 10-hour session in my home.
They DID get the "New Casper Cartoon Show" opening and closing in color which I begged them to do, and got MOST of the individual episode openings where Casper and friends zip in to watch a cartoon in a TV cloud.
Now, for the negatives. Even though I begged them to go back to Paramount to get the original cartoons for the original elements and credits, it just wasn't or couldn't be done. As a result, the Harveytoons opening is used and even "The Harveytoon Show" opening is used in a couple of cases. And on the public domain cartoons, the Paramount logos are used, but in one case the UM&M openings are used.
HOWEVER, if you use that above criteria to NOT buy the set, you will be missing out, because this is the most comprehensive set of Casper cartoons that has ever been issued and probably ever will be issued. It has the ONLY appearance of "The Bored Billionaire" EVER on home video AND is the only set that has all of the Casper cartoons in one place; a feat that will probably not be repeated any time soon.
As a result, you can literally toss out any previous Casper DVD collections, as this definitely takes the place of those sets. The Casper DVD from Shout Factory is due to be released on October 11.
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