Home Movies - Season Four

by Shout Factory Theatr

$34.99
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Average Rating: * * * * *
Sales Rank:16814 (lower is better)
Price Used:$19.85
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Availability:Usually ships in 24 hours
Release Date:2006-05-16
Label:Shout Factory Theatr
UPC:826663100051
Binding:DVD
Published By:Shout Factory Theatr
ASIN:B000EQ5PT6
Category:DVD

Actors and Actresses

Editorial Reviews and Product Descriptions

Description

Home Movies is a cartoon about children who are more like adults made for adults who like cartoons. The series spotlights third-grader Brendon Small, a young filmmaker who writes, acts, directs and "co-executive produces" his "groundbreaking early work" along with his friends Melissa and Jason. The show also features Coach McGuirk, a youth soccer coach who hates soccer and isn’t all that crazy about youths.

The fourth and final season of this half-hour cult hit comedy contains some of its most memorable episodes - "Camp," guest-starring They Might Be Giants as crappy music camp counselors, Brendon, Jason and Melissa’s rock-opera opus/debacle "The Wizard’s Baker" and Brendon's visit to the dark side in the classic "Those Bitches Tried To Cheat Me." The only thing wrong with Home Movies is that there aren't any more to watch.

Contains all 13 episodes of Season Four – the last 13 episodes ever!

Also Includes:

Bonus Music CD - 52 Tracks - The Best Songs From All Four Seasons

Plus:

Fan Commentaries by The Shins, Modest Mouse and the staff of The Onion

Amazon.com

Home Movies: Season Four represents, sadly, the final episodes of a wonderful animated series, and those 13 shows are indeed a comic triumph. Somewhat reminiscent of Seinfeld, Home Movies gradually mastered the art of interwoven, multiple storylines that build toward brilliant entanglements. That would be enough to recommend the show, but Home Movies, besides being frequently hilarious, also has a soul. The continuing misadventures of 8-year-old, neurotic Brendon Small (voiced by, yes, series co-creator Brendon Small) are a treat to watch, but they also reveal the pain of a good kid's outsized ambitions chafing against natural innocence and the frustrations of childhood.

Many of the episodes concern Brendon's relentless desire to direct films and, at least in one case, theatre. His off-and-on ambivalence about collaborating in these endeavors with best friends Jason (H. Jon Benjamin) and Melissa (Melissa Bardin Galsky) creates some marvelous tensions, such as a very funny story in which Brendon reluctantly acquiesces to his pals' enthusiasm to produce an obviously doomed movie called "Wizird's Baker" (the misspelling is Jason's fault). While Melissa and Jason pound the pavement to raise funds for the production, Brendon dodges the project by immersing himself in a half-baked, outdoors-y outfit called the Skunk Scouts. His sudden embrace of boyhood pleasures--carving wood, earning merit badges--is painfully sweet in light of his guilt over sabotaging his friends' dream. In another superb episode, Brendon mounts a disastrous, 1950s-themed musical called "Bye, Bye Greasy" at school, pressing the increasingly degenerate Coach McGuirk (Benjamin again) into playing a teen rebel and nudging a disillusioned Jason and Melissa toward bland, supporting roles. On the other hand, the trio of friends sometimes cooperate beautifully: organizing, for instance, a special revenge against sadistic camp counselors in the season premiere. (Meanwhile, McGuirk is in hiding from a touchy-feely men's group called "Crywalkers.") There are some fabulous special features in this set, including a bonus music CD with 52 songs from all four seasons, 22 commentaries from the cast, crew, and special guests (including the Shins and Modest Mouse), and an "Audio Outtakes Jukebox." --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Highly recommended!!!!!! - Reviewed on 2008-10-03
* * * * *

Sadly, this is the final season of a series that should have gotten more exposure. I never saw Home Movies when it was in first-run television, but discovered it in reruns in the Adult Swim block of programming on Cartoon Network. While the characters mostly act and speak much older than their supposed 8 years, they still retain some of the innocence and naivety of children - at least enough to make them believable.

No matter how bad a mood I am in, all I have to do is pop in a Home Movies DVD and soon I'm laughing out loud. Brendon's decidedly non-childlike, quirky, honest but overwhelmingly naive outlook on life creates a lot of deeply funny moments.
Best season of the series - Reviewed on 2008-04-17
* * * * *

Of my favorite 6 or 7 Home Movies episodes, 4 of them are in this collection. I think that "Camp", "Bye Bye Greasy", "The Heart Smashers", and "Temporary Blindness" are worth the price of the DVD set.

The episodes in Season Four are more complex and feature more characters in each one than in the previous volumes. These guys were really hitting their stride. I just wish there was a Season Five on the way.

Home Movies is the show that drew my attention to the Adult Swim lineup back in the day. It is a very intelligent show and is watchable over and over again.
Neat concept and just a fund animationf for me - Reviewed on 2008-04-01
* * * * *

I think this is a great little series and enjoy the antics of Brandon and company in jagged fashion.
"I Smell Burning Eye. Is That A Problem?" - Reviewed on 2007-11-24
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3 customers found this review helpful.

In this season of "Home Movies" the cartoons get more intricate, while the characters become more richly nuanced. I love this DVD set, but it saddens me that this is the final season of the series, surely one of the most original and entertaining animated shows in history.

The plots this season span everything from a rock opera disaster ("The Wizard's Baker") to Coach McGuirk having laser eye surgery, losing his sight (temporarily), and becoming a psychic. One of the best shows of the whole series is "Camp" and features Brendon, Melissa, and Jason at the wretched "Camp Campingston Falls" while McGuirk (a.k.a. "Cloudchaser") is pursued by a group of "Crywalkers." The musical production and conclusion of that episode are among the best moments ever aired on television.

The three DVD set is an absolute delight with no real clunkers in the bunch (although I never really warmed to "Cho and Amy Lee," as I did to the other episodes). It also includes a bonus audio CD of the best musical tracks from the series over the years: I liked it so much I put it on my iPod. There are many extras in the form largely of commentaries, etc., which are compelling as well, especially to die-hard fans.

I love "Home Movies" and couldn't recommend this, the final, season more highly.
Smart and Hilarious Series, Terrible DVDs! - Reviewed on 2007-08-29
* *
1 customer found this review helpful, 6 did not.

I won't even bother to explain all my reasons for loving this series, other reviewers have already done that. And even though I know my review won't even make a drop in the bucket of 5-star ratings, I would be remiss if I didn't point out the poor quality of these DVDs. First of all, I noticed right away that the plastic was marred a bit on the very inside of the center hole of Disc 2, but figured it wouldn't matter. Then I tried playing them. Disc 1 has a glitch. Halfway through the "Heart Smashers," my favorite episode of all time, the sound quality suddenly changes and gets worse as if someone has just messed with a graphic equalizer. In a bad way.

I returned the first set to Amazon, and got a new set, thinking that would solve the problem. Wrong. The sound glitch on disc 1 was still there, and this time, the plastic on two discs was marred instead of just one.

There is absolutely no excuse for such terrible quality and for a glitch that went out on every DVD.
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