He-man R1 vs. R2 DVDs
Now that the classic He-man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon is finally widely available on DVD on region 2 as well as region 1, I thought I`d take a closer look at the differences between the two region releases.
Region 2
The UK was the first lucky region to have an official DVD release of He-man back in 2003. The DVD was released by the Contender Entertainment Group and the first release was a single disc in a keepcase with the first 6 episodes, no inserts and a few extras. Even though this was a pretty bare release, it was the only official release available so He-man fans were happy with it, in the sense that it was better than nothing.
After a few volumes had been released, the first 3 volumes were combined as a ‘box’. It actually wasn`t a real box release, because the only thing that happened was that the first 3 volumes were repackaged and put in a flimsy carton slipcover, thus making it a ‘box’ containing the first 18 episodes. Below are pictures from the outer box, with inside the 3 keepcases.
The keepcase art was custom made by the British artist The Extremist. And at best, it is acceptable, but definitely not an eye catcher. Too much digital crap IMO, and nothing that relates to the visuals of the cartoon – but Contender seemed pleased with it and the art from the following volumes were also in that line.
The art for each of the 3 volumes is shown below, so you can decide wether you also think it`s crap or not:
Region 1
Usually the US is way ahead on the rest of world in terms of DVD releases. He-man was just of the exceptions where the US was not the first to have a release. But region 1 certainly caught up when He-man was finally released on DVD in the US by BCI Eclipse in July 2005. The first release was a ‘Best of’ DVD containing the 10 best episodes from the 2 season, as voted by the visitors of Heman.org (the non-official official He-man site).
And BCI did deliver, because they delivered one of the best DVD releases for an animated series. The “Best of He-man” DVD was released a 2-disc digipack, with 2 documentaries as extras. But the best part are the 2 exclusive cards with art by Bruce Timm and Adam Hughes.
And as you can see, the 2 discs are released as a digipack, with the disc art featuring the images of He-man and Skeletor.
The coolest extra is of course the 2 exclusive 4” x 6” cards with art by Bruce Timm (left) and Adam Hughes (right):
After the “Best of” BCI has planned to release all 130 episodes of He-man divided over 4 boxsets, 2 boxes for each season. The first part of season 1 has been released in 2005, and again BCI did an excellent job. Below you can see the front and back art of the box. BCI didn`t go digital or altered He-man to current day standards, but instead kept the visuals in style of the show. And it worked, because the box art is one of best, and very in line with the cartoon series without looking corny.
In the first part of season 1, the first 33 episodes are collected spread out over 6 discs. And as you can see below, the 6 discs come in a nice digipack. All the discs feature one of the main characters.
And the best extra is of course the 2 exclusive 4” x 6” cards, this time with art by Alex Ross (left) and Bill Sienkiewicz (right).
I must admit though that the cards from the “Best of” release were much better than in this set. Especially the Ross card is disappointing because it’s only a penciled version while everyone was expecting a painted version.
Final result
Without a doubt the region 1 version is far superior compared to the region 2 release. The package alone sets the region 1 far above the region 2 release. Also in terms of extras the region 1 is again much better than the region 2. The only thing that the region 2 has on the region 1, is that it was the first to be released.
two comments:
I’ve never really watched He-Man, sadly, because when it aired we didn’t have cable. :\
I’m really attracted now to buy (or rent if possible) that ‘Best Of’ dvd. :)
Médard () (URL) - 31 01 06 - 21:41
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Médard () (URL) - 30 03 06 - 12:20
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