The Tick - The Complete Collection Season 1-3 1994 DVD: Amazon.co.uk: The Tick: Film & TV

Product details

Format: Animated, Box set, PAL
Language: Portuguese
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
Number of discs: 6
Classification: PG
Studio: Lace International Ltd
DVD Release Date: 10 Nov 2008
Run Time: 200 minutes

Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

ASIN: B00122M2D8
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 78,927 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)

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Product Description

Attention all Evil-Doers! And I do mean ALL of you ... because everyone s favourite blue, tight-wearing, square-jawed superhero is here for The Tick vs. The Complete Collection! Hugging the City with his big blue arms of goodness, The Tick and long suffering sidekick Arthur are ready to splatter Evil in the ultimate paint ball game of justice. So duck, dive and shout ''Go Get 'Em'' as truth, justice and our big blue, wheat-loving hero swing into the fray for the ultimate villain-busting extravaganza! Includes All 36 Evil-busting Episodes!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Surf's up, Space Ponies! 1 April 2008

By Beedo Sookcool

Amazon Verified Purchase

Imagine you live in a city chock full of superheroes, most of whom are mediocre and ineffectual at best, downright dangerous to themselves and others at worst. Your hometown attracts the dregs of the caped wonders, and more than its fair share of neophyte, down-on-their-luck, or just plain desperate super-villains out to prove themselves. Then throw into the mix one big, blue, nigh-invulnerable do-gooder bent on righting all wrongs, protecting the innocent, and bringing criminals to justice! He is The Tick! He is mighty! He's also as dense as concrete baklava and almost certainly incurably insane! He speaks his own internal narration and uses a lot of exclamation marks! Welcome to The City, home of The Tick!

I'm going to say what hordes of other "Tick" fans have said about it: this cartoon, like its comic book precursor and live-action follow-up, is sheer, under-appreciated GENIUS. Oh, sure, the hardcore fans are extremely vocal in their love of this show, but this is a show EVERYONE can enjoy, because it has something for every comedic taste. It's an affectionate (but unflinching) total mockery of superhero, sci-fi, and crime comics. It's surreal and clever enough that fans of "Monty Python" and "The Goon Show" would feel right at home. It's got enough brilliant-but-dire puns in it to keep you groaning throughout. It's got bright colours, cinematic-scale action, and outright silliness for the kiddies, yet has enough throw-away adult humour to keep the grown-ups laughing. And by "adult humour," I mean jokes about relationships, security deposits, careers, psychotherapy, taking your pet capybara to the vet, and suchlike.... Read more ›

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars No frills collection of every episode 29 Oct 2008

By D. Gallacher

Amazon Verified Purchase

I remember the halcyon days of sitting by the television with my family watching random shows. Nothing really held all of our attention with the exception of two shows, Gladiators and The Tick. The Tick, a mentally unimpressive, but physically incredible superhero, takes the role of superhero for "THE CITY", an unnamed part of America. As soon as he arrives, he is met with one of the many interesting and inventive villains plaguing the city with evil. Along with his sidekick, the flying moth Arthur, and several other creative, and mostly flawed superhero buddies, he fights through 36 brilliant episodes.

This collection doesn't have any extra's, doesn't have commentaries or any frills whatsoever. Just every faithfully produced, brilliant quality episode, back to back. I highly recommend this to all fans of parody, superheroes and cartoons. So basically most people, ever.

RooCH

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The tick: Animated series vs. Live action series 30 Jun 2009

By Missy Hoppe

I have completely rewritten this review in hopes of providing an as accurate and detailed as possible comparison between the live action version of The Tick and the animated series. Until recently, I had only ever heard of the live action version of The Tick because it was mentioned in the first episode of Family Guy Season 4. I never gave it another thought, until I learned of the existance of the animated series as part of my on-going quest to attempt to collect every cartoon I can get my hands on that Rob Paulsen did voice work for.
After reading a number of reviews of both versions of this show, I realized that I simply had to add them to my collection. I got my version of the animated series from Amazon.uk, so I have all 36 glorious episodes. As someone who grew up watching Danger Mouse and Count Duckula, and who now lives for watching shows like Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain and the 1980's version of the teenage mutant ninja turtles, I absolutely adore this type of humor, or should I say, the type of humor in the animated version of this show. Based on all the reviews I read, the live action version seemd to compare favorably with Seinfeld, which I've always enjoyed immensely, and now that I've watched through this series twice, I would definitely have to agree that that comparison is a fair one to make. Before I formally begin my review, however, I feel it's only fair to warn you that I'm writing this review as a totally blind individual. So, I can't make any comments regarding which show has better visuals; all my observations strictly pertain to the audio aspects of the show.
OK. On to the review. I'll start by comparing and contrasting the four main characters which were featured in both the cartoon and live action versions of the series.... Since the live action Tick series is so often compared to Seinfeld, I will try to relate my character descriptions to that show as well.

The Tick is voiced by Townsend Coleman in the animated series and played by patrick warburton in the live action series. To me, both versions of the show's main character are really great, but in different ways. Both versions of The Tick make a lot of hilariously nonsensical speeches. Both are extremely silly and incredibly clueless in many respects, but it seems to me that the cartoon tick is slightly more worldly than his live action counterpart. Best example: in Season 3 of the animated series, Tick is trying to encourage Arthur to kiss Carmelita. In the live version, Tick seems to be utterly clueless about romance: trying to accompany Arthur on his date with Stacey and otherwise interfearing with their relationship. Both versions of the Tick have a lot of really great and memorable lines: "Keen!" "spoon!" and "Arthur, honk if you love justice" from the cartoon Tick and "a secret message from my teeth," "absodoodle," and "Wicked men, you face the Tick!" from the live action Tick. One of my favorite scenes from the live action series is when Tick is talking to the toilet while trying to clean it out. The only true negative I found with the Tick's character was in the live action series when he calls the vending machine his b*tch, something which I didn't find at all appropriate, especially given the otherwise seemingly child-like, innocent nature of the live-action version of the character. Don't get me wrong. That particular line would have been even more shocking and inappropriate coming from the cartoon Tick, but it really stood out to me because of the way the live action tick was otherwise portrayed. If one wishes to relate the live action Tick series to Seinfeld, in spite of his overwelming stupidity, I suppose that The Tick would probably be closest to Jerry's character.

In Season 1 of the animated series, Arthur is voiced by Micky Dolenz after which Rob Paulsen takes over for the remaining two seasons of the series. David Burke plays the part of Arthur in the live action series. In my opinion, both Micky Dolenz and Rob Paulsen do a superb job voicing this character, although I would personally give the slight edge to Rob Paulsen as he just does a slightly better job bringing Arthur to life for me. To be perfectly honest, they actually sound so amazingly similar to each other that I might not have even noticed the difference if I hadn't been specificly listening for it after reading about the change between seasons one and two beforehand. This brings me to the primary reason why I wasn't particularly fond of the live action version of Arthur. First of all, David Burke doesn't even sound remotely similar to either Micky Dolenz or Rob Paulsen. I just think that they could have tried a little harder to find someone who sounded at least a little more similar to the original character. After watching a few episodes of the live action series, however, I managed to more or less accept the all-too noticeable change in Arthur's voice. Never-the-less, for some reason which I still haven't managed to figure out, live action Arthur is probably my least favorite character from either version of the series. My feelings about live action Arthur are difficult to put into words, but I think the best way to describe the contrast between the two versions of the character is to say that at least to me, the cartoon Arthur is simply a lot more likeable. While you can tell by his tone that Arthur in the cartoon is often frustrated with, if not outright annoyed by the Tick's stupidity, you can also tell that the two of them are always a team, and that Arthur serves as the brains of the outfit and does his best to look after Tick and keep him at least somewhat grounded in reality. In the live action version of the show, however, no matter how much they talk about it being to the contrary, I just can't quite sense any genuine teamwork vibe. Live action Arthur seems to be a lot more demanding and argumentative, and he occasionally comes across as being almost mean to Tick. Also, when it comes to worldly matters, I almost think that live action Arthur would have been better suited to be pared with cartoon Tick. Best example: in the cartoon, it turns out that poor Arthur is too shy to kiss Carmelita, his supposedly steady girlfriend, while on the other hand, live action Arthur appears to be significantly more interested in dating and possibly even having sex. Personality wise, I'd say that live action Arthur can best be compared to George Kostanza on Seinfeld, which makes it even more difficult for me to determine my reasons for not liking him. George is most definitely my favorite Seinfeld character, but I think the problem is that all the personality traits that make George so loveable to me just don't work in the context of Arthur. Besides, cartoon Arthur is my favorite character from either series, so to be perfectly honest, it would be pretty tough for live action Arthur to compare favorably.

In the cartoon, we have the character Die Fladermaus, who is voiced by Cam Clarke. This character is replaced in the live action series by a character named Batmanuel, a pun almost worthy of the animated series, who is played by Nestor Carbonell. It's not entirely fair to compare these two since they're technicly completely different characters, but surprisingly, they're actually quite similar to each other. Both of them have huge egos, are total cowards and both seem to be more interested in talking to women than actually being superheroes. To continue the Seinfeld analogy, I suppose it would be fair to say that Bat Manuel would be the Kramer of the group.

Last, but certainly not least, we have our female lead character. In the animated series, her name is American Maid, another spectacularly bad pun reminiscent of Dangermouse or Count Duckula, and she's voiced by Kay Lenz. The live action series gave us Captain Liberty who was played by Liz Vassey. In my opinion, American Maid and Captain Liberty actually sound remarkably similar to one another, which only serves to add to my frustration regarding Arthur. I really like American Maid a lot. She doesn't take crap from anyone, and she somehow manages to keep Tick moderately focused in situations where Arthur has been kidnapped or is otherwise in danger. She's also quite a decent superhero. Captain Liberty strikes me as being fairly similar to American Maid in many respects. I think the Seinfeld analogy can best be used here because more than anything else, Captain Liberty reminds me of Elaine from Seinfeld.

Now that I've compared all of the main characters from both versions of this series, I'll try to compare the actual shows themselves. I simply can't think of the words to describe the animated series in particular. The only way I can describe it is to say that it takes the absurdity of shows like Red Dwarf and Monty Python to a whole new level. It's so off-the-wall and original that there really isn't anything that I'm aware of that I can compare it to. It's pure silliness, and that is most definitely meant as a complement. The humor is nonstop, yet somehow, they always managed to keep it squeaky clean. The villins in the animated series are just so deliciously bizarre: Chair Face, Charles the brainchild, El Seed, The Deadly Bulb, The Fin and of course, the midnight bomber what bombs at midnight. Unfortunately, the only major villins mentioned in the live action series are the Red Scare, Apocalypse Cow and Destroyo. In all fairness, though, the live action series is intended to be more focused on the characters' down time when they aren't fighting villins.both versions of the show feature The Terror, though, which I must admit is extremely awesome.
A few lines and situations are shared between both versions of the show, most noteably in the first episode when Tick sees Arthur's apartment for the first time and when Tick states that gravity is a harsh mistress.
Aside from its favorable comparison to Seinfeld, another positive thing I can say about the live action series is that its theme music is much better. As much as I love the animated series, that theme is just really awful. Once it gets stuck in your head, it refuses to leave, and I think it would have been really cool to hear the animated Tick do an intro to the show similar to that in the live action series. I must confess that at first, I just couldn't get into the live action version of The Tick. Even as similar as it is to Seinfeld: four main characters and lots of relationship issues, it just wasn't enough to make it worth watching at first. My initial impression was that although it had a few laugh out loud moments, so much of the humor had been changed to suit an adult audience that it just fell flat for me. The animated series never needed to resort to bad language to make a joke. I even went as far as to sell my first copy of the live action series to a friend who was extremely happy to get it, but for some reason, I couldn't get the show out of my head so I ended up repurchasing it when I found it for under $10. I don't know if there was something magical in my second copy having the pretty blue case which the live action series was originally released in, but for some reason, I absolutely loved it the second time I watched it. Even live action Arthur was significantly less hateful. I think it also may have helped that I took the time to listen to the commentaries the second time around with the live action series, which helped me to understand and appreciate it a lot more.
Bottom line: for me, The Tick animated series will always be the definitive version, but the live action series is almost as enjoyable in many respects. I would highly recommend both versions of The Tick, but if you can only afford one, go for the animated series first, and if at all possible, try to get it through amazon.uk so that you don't miss a single second of the Tick's insanity. Then, if you're still hungry for more of the Tick's antics, proceed directly to the live action series. I'm sure you won't regret purchasing either set. Read more ›

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4.0 out of 5 stars At last: the Mighty Blue Avenger complete on DVD! 29 Mar 2012

By Lobdozer

Amazon Verified Purchase

The Tick is a dimwitted but well-meaning and enthusiastic superhero who uses his powers of "nigh-invulnerability" to protect his home city of "the City" against hordes of increasingly bizarre villains. The character was originally conceived by cartoonist Ben Edlund as a mascot for a comic book store, but quickly got his own popular indie comic before ultimately breaking out into the mainstream as an animated cartoon in the 1990's.

This DVD set is the first one that I know of that collects all of the series' 36 episodes, making it unmissable for any true fan of the Mighty Blue Avenger. As far as I can tell nothing was done with the episodes like remastering or suchlike, but the screen quality is still pretty good (at least as good as when the series was first aired, I think).
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be very much in the way extras on the discs, like commentaries, featurettes or makings-of. It's really pretty much just the episodes themselves. Personally I didn't mind this, but some fans might find this lack of extras disappointing.

The Tick is mostly a cartoon for "big kids" at about late high-school/college age and adults. It's not one of the 1990's "shock toons" like the more famous Ren & Stimpy and Beavis & Butthead, in that it doesn't contain much in the way of sex, profanity or excessive violence. Still, most of the humour is irony-based and will probably go over most younger children's heads. Much of the humour deals with issues like troubled relationships, the fine line between brilliancy and insanity and of course the inherent absurdity found in a lot of superhero comics.
For people not already familiar with the series, I guess it will appeal the most to fans of comic books and graphic novels.... Read more ›

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The Tick - The Complete Collection (Season 1-3) [1994] [DVD]

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