DVD/Blu-Ray REVIEW: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8: The Motion Comic

When Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended in 2003, creator Joss Whedon still had plenty of tales to tell about his famous character.

However, since the actors moved on to other projects and/or weren’t interested in reprising their roles, Whedon switched media, going from television to comics. In 2007, Dark Horse Comics published Buffy Season 8, the canonical continuation of the TV series – which ran for seven seasons from 1997 to 2003 on The WB and UPN networks – with Whedon overseeing everything. Whedon and writers from the TV series, such as Jane Espenson and Drew Goddard, have penned some stories, communicating to fans that this is indeed the new era of Buffy.

With this motion comic, the first half of Buffy Season 8 is reprinted, reformatted, and redone as a cartoon. When the TV series ended, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Willow (Alyson Hannigan) changed the status quo, causing a shift in the balance of power the world over. Instead of one Slayer, there are now thousands. Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies have recruited a good majority of them into their ranks, becoming an army.

There are forces at work, including the U.S. government, that want Buffy stopped, feeling she’s a terrorist. Enter the enigmatic Twilight. This powerful individual is mobilizing all of Buffy’s enemies into a single fighting force. Buffy went one-on-one with him, but was beaten badly. So she has to find a way defeat him and save the world (again), even though everyone’s against her (again).

This DVD incorporates the music from the series, including the famous Nerf Herder theme song and the sad piano music that plays every time a character gets his or her heart broken. While the original cast members sadly do not reprise their roles, the voice-over actors do a good job of filling in, getting the cadence of the characters’ voices down. The DVD extras include a documentary on why Buffy is such a pop culture phenomenon.

Bottom line: It’s GREAT to see Buffy and company again – no matter what medium!

GRADE: B

DVD/Blu-Ray REVIEW: Family Guy Presents: It’s a Trap!

The creators of Family Guy spoof 1983’s Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, the third installment in the original trilogy, with It’s a Trap!

Family Guy main characters Peter, Lois, Chris, and Stewie reprise their roles as Han Solo, Princess Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, and Darth Vader, respectively.

However, the magic isn’t there like it was with Blue Harvest, which spoofed 1977’s Star War, renamed Star Wars: A New Hope. In fact, the opening text scroll states clearly that Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane didn’t want to parody Jedi, but FOX made him do it and that he’s simply going through the motions. It goes on to say if you’re looking for spoofs of those three god-awful prequels, The Cleveland Show (a Family Guy spin-off) will be doing it. And viewers need to go into It’s a Trap! without any expectations.

Take that latter statement to heart: Go in with no expectations.

The jokes aren’t funny; in fact, many of them just don’t work. The language is vulgar. Yes, it wouldn’t be Family Guy if it didn’t have foul language, but the expletives are put in more for shock value, including the F-bomb, something that cannot be uttered on network television.

The only legitimately funny scene is when the Emperor goads Luke Skywalker into giving into his anger, thereby converting him to the Dark Side of the Force. This leads to the famous light-saber battle with Darth Vader in Jedi. In this parody, the Emperor goads Luke (who is voiced by Seth Green), telling him what a lousy actor Seth Green is. Now that was a funny little in-joke as this was the impetus for Luke and Vader to fight.

Don’t bother with this one, people. If you do, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

GRADE: D