The little stamp in the bottom left hand corner of the new “Happy Tree Friends” DVD box set explains everything you need to know about the hit internet cartoon show. It reads: CV: Cartoon Violence – Not recommended for small children or big babies. In other words “Happy Tree Friends” is one of the most violent and low brow cartoons to ever grace computer monitors and television screens, and one of the funniest.
The “Happy Tree Friends,” is a series of short cartoon shows centered around a group of small adorable animal characters who inadvertently, and sometimes purposely, mutilate, torture, disembowel, and kill each other while performing daily chores. Imagine the “Care Bears” meeting “The Itchy and Scratchy Show,” and “Happy Tree Friends” is born. Known for its excessive violence, annoying theme song, – it sounds like something a Smurf on cocaine would have sung – extremely short episodes (most last somewhere around 3 minutes), and ridiculous characters, “Tree Friends” has garnered a large following of loyal fans. Unfortunately said fans will find the new DVD box set, “Overkill,” thoroughly disappointing.
“Overkill” is packed with over seven hours of content; the problem is that only 19 minutes are new to DVD. The box set consists of a collection of the three previously released “Tree Friends” DVDs (Volume 1: First Blood, Volume 2: Second Serving, and Volume 3: Third Strike) and five new episodes never before released on DVD. The five new episodes, though funny, are not worth the hefty $25- $35 price tag if one already owns the three independent DVDs. As depressing as this might be to many of the “Happy Tree Friends” loyal followers, to any new fans or fans who have had the chance to collect just one or perhaps none of the DVDs, this box set is an absolute must own. (Not to mention an amazing buy considering that each of the volume DVDs run somewhere between $17.99- $19.99 a piece)
Each DVD is jam packed with extras including: commentaries, special episodes staring fan favorites Russell the Pirate, Cro-Marmot, and Buddhist Monkey, character designs and creation drawings, character bios, mockumentaries, a theme song sing-a-long, interactive games in which the viewer can kill certain characters, and much more. These discs give great insight into how the show works and the way in which creators Rhode Montijo and Kenn Navarro think up new ideas – their influences, character development, and story lines. The DVDs also give the viewer a great look into how the episodes are created; sound, background, character movement, etc.
With all these extras a viewer can easily get pulled away from the discs’ main content, but the creators and DVD designers were clever enough to set the discs up so that the viewer always ends up going back to the main page and watching at least one more episode before the DVD player is turned off. This happens because the “Back to Menu” option is always placed somewhere predominantly on screen, almost begging the viewer to go back and watch an episode. The creators add to this by infusing so much interesting information, by way of jokes, riddles, and outrageous banter, into their commentaries that the viewer is almost inclined to go back and re-watch the episode to see, listen to, or understand what they are talking about.
Alas, if one owns the original three volumes of the DVD set, he/she already knows this information. The lack of new content will most likely keep many of these “Tree Friends” fanatics away from the new box set, but there will still be some that run out and spend their money on it anyway, hoping that the box set will offer them something new. It does, in the form of the 5 never before released episodes (the most interesting of which centers around the character The Mole in a “Spy vs. Spy” type of episode done in an animation style similar to the “Pink Panther” movies credit sequences), but over all it is not worth paying the exuberant price. They’ll find that even the DVD booklet is less than desirable; it only contains information on how to order “Tree Friends” memorabilia.
For the diehard “Happy Tree Friend” fans this DVD is a major a letdown but for those who do not have the 3 independent DVDs this is a major steal. Just ask Shifty and Lifty, the series’ kleptomaniac raccoons.
