Count Duckula: The Complete First Season
Capital Entertainment
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"Count Duckula", a spin-off from the animated series "Danger Mouse, " portrays the adventures of quite possibly the world's first vegetarian vampire duck, in this rather humorous and quite popular animated series from the late 80's. "Count Duckula" who survives a near fatal stake to the heart, is resurrected by Igor the butler and his bumbling nanny, in a kooky ceremony involving a transfusion with ketchup! Spending their time globetrotting in their teleporting castle, the group is joined by two castle bats named Dimitri and Sviatoslav as they are occasionally pursued by Count Duckula's nemesis, Von Goosewing, a hilarious take on the character of Abraham Van Helsing, from the original "Dracula" tale.
Capital Entertainment brings the complete first season of "Count Duckula" to DVD in its original presentation of 1.33:1 – also known as full-frame. First off, there is really no need to compare this traditional cell animation to today's full-blown computer generated animation. That would be like comparing apples to oranges, to use an old worn-out phrase, which is how I could sum up the transfer for this presentation. Black levels were decent, but not overly impressive. Color saturation was only acceptable at best, as the overall transfer exhibited a very murky look. Sadly, there were ample amounts of dust and debris scattered throughout, which truly shows that little was done to prepare this series for the DVD format. If you are a dedicated fan, I would strongly recommend that you rent one disc of this set to see if your childhood memories live up to your current expectations, as you might be disappointed with this DVD release.
The soundtrack for "Count Duckula" comes in the form of an English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo presentation, which managed to provide an appropriately suited soundstage for the production. The available soundtrack displayed a decent balance and there was a passable amount of bass included, still the overall listening experience barely reached average as the sound appeared slightly cloudy throughout the presentation.
I am always welcoming of a true favorite from the past that finally makes its way to our beloved digital format, but in this case, there was obviously little to no provision involved in the production of this DVD release, which will only manage to disappoint fans of this series.
