My favorite video game to play is Angry Birds. I have completed the Roku 2 XS version using a Bluetooth remote with a built in accelerometer twice and completed Angry Birds Seasons HD and Angry Birds Rio HD the same way. Roku has Angry Birds Space, but is only available with the Roku 3 Streaming Media Player and has not been made available for purchase in the Roku Channel Store yet. However with all of the games available on iOS, Android, and Windows 8.1 are individual cartoon shorts published at about the rate of one or so a week and there is a free channel on the Roku for streaming episodes. Yet there is no way that I am aware of that one can watch all of the cartoons from the beginning with the best picture quality available until now with the release of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's Angry Birds Toons: Season One - Volume One on Blu-ray Disc.
Now in a beautiful 1080p/24fps high definition widescreen (1.78:1) aspect ratio, all 26 episodes from the first season beginning with "Chuck Time" and concluding with "The Hamshank Redemption" for this first volume, can now be enjoyed individually or via a Play All option (72:00). The average episode length is around (2:47) and the quality of the animation is true to the game though a bit cuter, but not to the point of sacrificing the appeal of these characters. The shorts are very reminiscent of the shorts Warner Brothers would produce for Bugs Bunny in the 1960s or so or the classic Tom & Jerry cartoons produced by MGM.
What I love about the cartoons is the characters remain true to their video game roots with the birds and the pigs exhibiting no wings, arms or legs. They just move about very much like they do in the game. All of the episodes feature either the birds and piggies together or just the birds or piggies in their own environment with misadventures on Piggy Island.
All of the classic bird characters are featured like the Blues, Chuck, Matilda, Red, Bomb and Terence. Featurettes introducing the characters are included among the extra value features and run at about four minutes and can be viewed individually or collectively. The same is true of the behind-the-scenes featurettes (8:27) covering the series development, script and design. A motion gallery of character sketches (1:17) allows viewers the opportunity to examine the conceptual drawings a bit more closely. A special holiday short entitled "Wreck The Halls" (2:47) wraps up the bonus material on the disc.
All of the extras are presented in 1080p/24fps with the exception of the making of material, which is presented in 1080p at 60hz. Within the packaging is a limited time only code for a free download of the full version of Angry Birds for Windows 7/Vista/XP with Service Pack 3. I was also able to run the game without a problem in the desktop mode on Windows 8.1 too.
Trailers for The Smurfs 2 (2:26), Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 (2:23) and The Swan Princess (2:07) precede the main interactive menu, which is well rendered and easy to navigate. Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish Language Subtitles are provided as options for the extra value features related directly to Angry Birds.
Angry Birds Toons: Season One - Volume One is available on Blu-ray Disc now at retailers on and offline courtesy of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
(C) Copyright 2013 By Mark Rivera
All Rights Reserved.