Extras:
Trivia Quiz, Eyptology, Character Files, Trailer
Directors:
Eddy Houchins and Dick Sebast
Producers:
Joe Barruso, Tom Pugsley and Greg Klein
Screenplay:
Nick Dubois
Music :
Cory Lerios, John D'Andrea and George Gabriel
Voices :
Imhotep: Jim Cummings
Alex O'Connell: Chris Marquette
Rick O'Connell: John Schneider
Evy O'Connell: Grey DeLisle
Jonathan Carnaghan: Tom Kenny
Ardeth Bay: Nicholas Guest
Colin Weasler: Michael Reisz
The Mummy: Quest for the Lost Scrolls
is the kind of cartoon anyone my age - 31 this April - will have seen time
and again. It's good against evil, and the evil has an accomplice to do as
much of their dirty work as possible.
This genre of cartoon I remember back in the '80s and the animation that's
brought us here hasn't exactly come on in leaps and bounds, but that doesn't
matter too much for its target audience who'll no doubt have seen
The Mummy
and
The Mummy Returns,
despite being far too young for them, and will lap up this animated continuation.
As I said, it's not a huge leap forward, but then I enjoyed The Real
Ghostbusters which was equally nonsensical and just took the basic
premise from the film as an excuse to churn out an endless string of
adventures based on that.
Although two full series have been made for the US at the time of writing
this review - and a complete episode guide can be found at
Epguides.com -
only three episodes (plus a bonus one) are available on this disc:
The Summoning:
The first episode in the series, in which Evy (Grey DeLisle) becomes the Chief Archeologist
type after discovering the Book of the Dead, which allows Imhotep to come
back to life. Since colleague Colin Weasler (Michael Reisz) is rather
embittered about having left out, so he becomes the right-hand man for the
skeletal baddie in their bid for world domination.
The Puzzle:
After the opener, we skip to the first of the final two episodes from the
first series. Ardeth helps the O'Connells find the Puzzle of Horus after he
rescues the first piece from the Mummy. Put together by the end, they will
discover to where lost scrolls can be traced.
The Maze
follows on from The Puzzle, After 20 minutes and a scrap with a minotaur,
can the family finally retrieve the Lost Scrolls? And is Alex forced to spend
the rest of his life with the Manacle on his arm or will a bit of butter and
a trip to casualty get rid?
Overall, this is a fairly predictable cartoon, but it's completely inoffensive
and will entertain those under 10. It also makes a pleasant change to watch a
cartoon without endless adverts in the middle or huge horrible TV channel
logos stuck over the top of it.
This is a recent cartoon so you'd expect - and you get - a crystal clear
image with no defects whatsoever. Given that it's American, it's been made
in 4:3 fullscreen, whereas more adult animations in the UK, such as Stressed
Eric and Monkey Dust are presented in 16;9.
The sound is basic Dolby Pro Logic and has no problems, but it won't exactly
set your speakers alight.
The disc is fairly light on the extras:
Trivia Quiz:
Five easy questions, after which you're rewarded with a fourth cartoon
in which our heroes must rescue the Orb of Aten from Imhotep's evil clutches,
after which Rick gets to meet baseball legend Babe Ruth.
Eyptology:
Text screens with info about the legend.
Character Files:
A few words apiece about Alex, Evy, Rick, Imhotep and Ardeth Bay.
The Mummy Animated: Trailer (1 min):
In 4:3 fullscreen, like the programme.
Subtitles are available in English, although in The Orb of Aten,
the subtitlers think the hero of the hour is called Nick and not Rick,
there's only one chapter per story which isn't enough and the menus are
largely static with music, although there is some animation before the main
menu.
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:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
