Simpsons - Season 11 - Complete [DVD]

Another Great Season for The Simpsons. Have been looking forward to this coming out for some time. Can;t believe its taken so long.
I would have given this a higher rating if it wasnt for the packaging. Unlike the other Limited Edition Simpsons boxset (i.e. Homer Head boxset etc) this comes slightly smaller where the discs are stuffed into cardboard sleeves which can be quite hard to get out, and also have to touch the readable side of the disc with your fingers leaving grubby marks.
Also the packaging is very confusing and you are lucky to find the right disc you are looking for, first time.
As long as you aren't fussy about the packaging then this is a must buy!

Here in one box set, spread over four discs, are all twenty two episodes of the Eleventh season of the Simpsons.

Episodes are as follows:

Beyond Blunderdome.
Brother's little helper.
Guess who's coming to criticize dinner.
Treehouse of Horror X.
E-I-E-I-[annoyed grunt].
Hello gutter, hello fadder.
Eight misbehavin'.
Take my wife, sleaze.
Grift of the magi.
Little Big Mom.
Faith off.
The Mansion Family.
Saddlesore Galactica.
Alone again, natura-diddily.
Missionary: Impossible.
Pygmoelian.
Bart to the future.
Days of Wine and D'oh'ses.
Kill the alligator and run.
Last tap dance in Springfield.
It's a mad, mad, mad, mad, marge.
Behind the laughter.

The quality of the show at this stage in the run is a matter of opinion. And you do get the sense of them just taking an idea and running with it. But this is a very solid season. The Mel Gibson guest starring season opener 'Beyond Blunderdome' is a very good episode and a strong season opener. And the season finale 'Behind the Laughter', a parody of a certain documentary series which has the Simpsons as actors in their own show is inspired and very clever and very funny with it.

The discs have the following language and subtitle options:

Languages: English.

Subtitles: English.

Although you can choose to watch 'Beyond Blunderdome' in either Italian, Portugese, Czech, or German.

All episodes have a commentary from production staff and occasionally cast members also.

You can choose to watch every episode on the discs in a row or individually.

Those that have deleted scenes allow you the option of putting them back into the episode should you desire.

Disc one also has:

A short introduction to the season from show creator Matt Groening.

Animation showcase: which allows you to watch 'Beyond Blunderdome' at various stages of it's development.

Disc two also has:

One minutes worth of original character sketches.
'The many faces of Krusty': seven minutes worth of clips from Krusty related episodes showing how his look has been down the years.

Disc three also has:

Another animation showcase. Like the one on disc one, it allows you to watch 'The Mansion Family' at various stages of it's development.

Disc four also has:

Deleted scenes. Nineteen minutes worth of these, all the ones for the season in a row. Some are unfinished and some are in black and white. You can watch them with or without a commentary which explains why they were cut. Usually for timing reasons. Amongst them is an alternate ending for 'Beyond Blunderdome' which is well worth a look.

There's also another minutes worth of original sketches.
'And then there were menus'. A minute long feature showing how the interactive menus for these dvds are put together.
'A star on Hollywood boulevard'. A two minute long feature showing the ceremony that took place when the show was granted a star on Hollywood Boulevard.

As with other seasons the menus on the dvd do contain some fun animation that is well worth watching. And there are extras gags in the artwork and writing on the box of the dvd and in the booklet that comes with it.

Unfortunately this season isn't as well packaged as before. Instead of putting the discs in plastic holders the packaging folds out and you have to slot them into little cardboard pockets. Which is mildly inconvenient and somewhat annoying.

As with season ten this does feel a little light on extras compared to what came before.

But even so, it's a strong collection and what you do get extras wise is pretty good.

Just a shame about the packaging. But otherwise a very strong product.

I'm saddened to rate this item 2 out of 5 stars. This is due to the poor packaging where the discs are tightly packed into cardboard sleeves. This creates a problem, first getting the DVD out is tricky as it is tightly packed into the cardboard sleeves, if one were not careful they could rip the box and the discs are nearly gauranteed to be scratched already the first time you take the disc out as it is scraping against the cardboard every time you take out and put back the disc.

On the positive side, you have 22 episodes of the Simpsons which provides a nice lengthy watch, a nice little episode guide booklet and while the packaging is poor, it is colourful and looks nice.

My suggestion is this, purchase some thin DVD cases along with this, they are sold cheaply on the Amazon Marketplace and while you shouldn't have to, you won't have to worry about your discs being broken after being taken out of the case a few times.