Posted by Red-Five on June 13, 2003, 6:05 am Price: 12.99 (ukp) The DVD kicks off with the usual copyright notice, and WB logo - then straight into the top level menu, a static screen containing a picture of Lynda as Wonder Woman and five menu options down the right hand side, as the CBS theme tune plays quietly in the background. The five options include the ability to play all episodes in sequence, select each of the three episodes individually (which takes you to the chapter select menus) or enter the specials menu. The 'specials' are nothing to write home about, there's only half a dozen or so photos, and they are all well-worn publicity shots that can be found on every WW web site. Likewise with the memorabilia. The profiles are probably the only bonus feature with stands out - containing brief (but comprehensive) histories of Lynda, Lyle, Norman Burton (Joe Atkinson) and producer Charles B. Fitzsimons. Each of the three episodes (the first three of the CBS run) is accessible via chapter menus - with the 70 minute "Return of..." being broken up into eight chapters, and the following two 45 minute episodes only four each. Sometimes it is quicker to go to the next chapter and scroll backwards to find the a transformation you want. The quality of the print is as sharp as you could expect from this kind of material - except for the title sequences which are grainy for some reason. There has been no attempt to hide any scratches and marks on the original film from which the DVD was compliled - so the odd blemish blinks up on screen occassionally. On the whole, however, the print is clean. The transformations are a little strange. The Return of... episode is as expected, but the flashes on the two other episodes are different - in so far as they do not completely obscure the splice between Diana and Wonder Woman. If you look carefully you can actually see the point at which the edit happens. I actually found this kind of appealing - that you can see through the explosion and actually witness the point at which Diana's clothes change... although the sudden jump in alignment is a little off-putting. (If you look carefully at WW't transformations you'll see that there actually appears to be two explosions - one on top of another. I can only assume that the second effect was added later - perhaps for syndication? - to better mask the edit point. So maybe the DVD has been compiled from original prints, before this was done?) So, is it worth getting? Well... the ability to rock-solid pause Diana in the throws of an explosive transformation is appealing. The sharpness of the picture is also a massive improvement over what you'd get on video tape. The lack of decent extras is a let down (a commentary track by Lynda and/or Lyle would even have been worth paying extra for!) but this is the same for most other TV show DVDs. So overall, yes the DVD is good value for money!
Warner Bros have released Wonder Woman onto DVD in the UK. Below is a review of volume one...
Episodes: Return of Wonder Woman, Anschluss'77, The Man Who Could Move the World.
Running time: 162 minutes arrox (70/45/45 approx)
Subtitles: none
Extras: three 'text' features including: photos, memoribilia, profiles.
Message Thread:
« Back to thread