G.I. Joe - A Real American Hero/The Revenge of the Cobra (DVD, 2003, 2 Disc Set)

This is one of those DVDs that is hard to objectively rate, because most of us who like it, do so because of its nostalgic value. However, I will try here to be as fair as I can. The sound on this DVD, though fair, isn't that great. That's just a problem that goes along with transferring a nearly 20 year old television show to DVD. Its also uneven, as the sound levels on the opening are sometimes much lower than that on the actual show. The same could be said for video quality. Though there are minor scratches and imperfections on the animation cell from time to time, its not distracting, really, and so its not really worth complaining about. The animation on these episodes is, generally, good, though it can be a bit uneven at times. You can tell that the animation was outsourced, probably to Japan or Korea, and the style reflects that. For comparison, the animation on the regular series that followed this was far more uneven and, on the whole, not nearly as good. The stories for both mini-movies are very similar, but each involves different characters (I personally like the 1984/1985 characters from Revenge of Cobra--Flint, Zartan, Storm Shadow, etc.--the best). These stories are OK for a children's cartoon, but I wouldn't be looking for anything profound here. Overall, I rate this as good. You will probably have to shell out serious money for it at this point (I did), but if you are a true fan, that is a price worth paying (as opposed to waiting for the hype surrounding a Joe feature to convince Sony to re-release these).-srobi1