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analysis w/e 14.5.11 |
DVDs out 9.5.11 |
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@ DVDfever Youtube |
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May 11 2011 
DVDfever co uk
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Producers:
Animation:
Scriptwriters:
It's !
Monty Python's Flying Circus,
for anyone living with their head in the clouds for the past 31 years, was
an irreverent comedy sketch show that ran from October 5th, 1969 to December
5th, 1974 and it would change the face of TV forever, blending bizarre
humour with even more bizarre animation from Terry Gilliam, director
of films such as Brazil and
Twelve Monkeys
This compilation contains 28 sketches from the first series, prefixed by the
opening titles and Michael Palin desperately crawling up to the camera
after being thrown off the edge of the cliff and the closing credits are
sandwiched inbetween a pet shop and a parrot.
The chapters, including the titles of the sketches on show, are :
Of the above, if I had to choose five favourites, they would be :
Kilimanjaro: Cross-eyed eccentric John Cleese offers Eric Idle the chance to climb BOTH peaks of Mt. Kilimanjaro... Dirty Fork: The late Graham Chapman complains about the dirty fork on the table in his restaurant of choice. He gets the back up of the waiter and manager, not to mention incurring the wrath of mad chef John Cleese. Lumberjack Song: Michael Palin: he's a lumberjack and he's okay, but he's got something else up his sleeve - and under the rest of his clothes. Parrot Sketch: The one about the dead parrot. If you've never seen this sketch of John Cleese complaining to Michael Palin about the dodgy livestock on sale, you must be lying. The one sketch I would have included? Quite simply, The Larch.
The picture quality isn't perfect, but it's as good as it's going to get. Presented in fullscreen and artifact-free I certainly recommend it. If watching on a widescreen TV though, it's perfectly comfortable to zoom the picture into 14:9. The average bitrate is a brilliant 8.17Mb/s, often holding steady close to 9Mb/s. The sound is in mono and quite adequate with no complaints. The opening tune, Liberty Bell, still sounds as good today as it always did and for some reason, while hearing it at University in a drunken haze, I swore blind that the lyrics to "A finger of Fudge is just enough to give your kids a treat" fit the music exactly.
Extras :
Chapters :As stated before, there is a chapter for each sketch, plus top-and-tail'ers which makes 30.
Languages & Subtitles :The dialogue comes in English mono sound subtitles for the same language.
And there's more :The Biographies provide brief onscreen info about how each of the crew got here today, there's a 10-strong Photo Gallery, a selection of Palindromes to the programme's theme tune, the Radio Times: Original Billing (very small but perfectly formed), a colourful Booklet containing plenty of info about the six Pythons and an excellent addition in the form of a Sing-a-long Lumberjack song. The mind boggles...
Menu :All the menus are animated and feature sound, usually imitating the wacky humour of the show's creators. A more outlandish menu system you never did see.
Overall :This is definitely a fine compilation - with many more hits than misses - and serves as a perfect introduction for anyone who wants to get to know their comedy style. However, I hope the growth of DVD allows the BBC the chance to release the entire run of Python onto the shiny silver disc as they have done on video. There's no substitute for chapter-per-sketch and I'll look forward to what comes next.Scheduled for March/April release are : Gormenghast, Walking with Dinosaurs and Tweenies.
As for which DVDs I'd like to see from the BBC in future. They include :
Red Dwarf (in their original versions, not the remastered form),
The Young Ones, Filthy Rich and Catflap, Fawlty Towers and - depending
on whether I could bribe the new DG with enough cash - Eldorado...
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2000.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B 37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier. PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
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