DVD Release Date: May 1, 2007 (Walt Disney Home Entertainment)
Color/1992-94
MSRP: $39.99
Number of Discs: 4
Number of Episodes: 36
Running Time: approx. 670 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: approx. 15 minutes
(not counting Easter Eggs or commentaries)
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English;
English subtitles; Closed Captioned.
Special Features:
* I’m the Baby, Gotta Love Me!! Featurette
* Creatures with a Cause: The Issues of Dinosaurs
* 2 Episode Audio Commentaries
* Bonus Unaired Episodes
* Dino-Eggs Hidden Easter Eggs
Introduction:
Not the mama! The hilarious Sinclair family returns
one last time on a four-disc DVD set that includes a
herd of long-awaited bonus features including seven
episodes never aired on network TV, two featurettes
and tons more from the entertaining pre-historic
family! The set brings the return of the
side-splitting Sinclair Family including Baby, (Gotta
love him!) now in his terrorizing twos, and
even-tempered Fran, who struggles with getting
loudmouth Earl to shoulder more responsibility for
raising the little lizards. In addition, Charlene’s
idiotic theory that the world is round gets her in
trouble at school, while her brother Robbie discovers
some animal instincts. In addition, the controversial
series finale where everyone is stuck in the ice age
caps it off. DINOSAURS: THE COMPLETE THIRD AND FOURTH
SEASONS will be available on 4-Disc DVD box set for
$39.99 from Walt Disney Home Entertainment!
Starring the voices of Stuart Pankin as Earl Sinclair,
Jessica Walter as Fran Sinclair, Jason Willinger as
Robbie Sinclair, Sally Struthers as Charlene Sinclair,
Kevin “Elmo” Clash as the Baby, Florence Stanley
as Grandma Ethyl and Sherman Hemsley as B.P.
Richfield, Earl’s Boss at Wesayso Corporations.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
Like I mentioned in the last review, I am sure many of
you have not seen this series in such a long time. It
was briefly syndicated in the mid to late ‘90s on
local stations and the Disney Channel. With only 65
episodes total, it was hard to air it for a long
period of time. We get the last 36 of those episodes
in this set. All of them are very good. But I’ll break
the down the best of them as best as I could. The
third season premiere, “Nature Calls,” Fran tells Earl
that she's changed every diaper in the past 15 years
and now it's time for him to the responsibilities.
“In “The Network Genius,” not only does Earl prove
that any dinosaur can be a network programming honcho,
he also proves he's a genius by scheduling shows like
"The Test Pattern" and "The Happy Colors Show." In
“Little Boy Boo,” Baby pulls a fake death after eating
a cookie to prove on scaring Robbie, so Robbie decides
to get him back at telling him a story that is scary
and tells about a cavemen monster. In “License to
Parent,” Earl & Fran’s parent license is being taken
away from the Parent Patrol Officer Battleheim. In
“Charlene’s Flat World” (no, this is not about her
chest), Charlene gets arrested stating that the world
is round and everybody believes that the world is
flat. It’s a day for the men, in “Wilderness
Weekend,” Earl, Robbie and Baby Sinclair including the
other males go out into a Wilderness Weekend to
experience the male supremacy of knowing what their
legacy and spiritual meanings are all about. In
“Steroids to Heaven,” Robbie doesn’t feel that much
comfortable with being the weakest dinosaur in the
family, so in order for him to become very strong and
muscular, he uses one of Dolf's favorite foods to make
him become very strong and that's when he starts
giving Caroline the hots and tries to woo her love.
In season four, we had 7 episodes that were aired and
7 that were unaired. Super Earl…that is what happens
in “Earl, Don’t Be a Hero,” as Earl assumes the powers
of a superhero and intends to put them to good use,
but he's powerless before the Wesayso Corp., to which
he's contractually bound to use his might. In the
“Terrible Twos,” the baby turns two and is possessed…a
great Exorcist spoof. And in the final aired episode,
“Changing Nature,” the nature is changing and will the
dinosaurs survive the ice age? This was a very
controversial episode and a great way to end the show.
The seven unaired episodes I have never seen, but
they were all of course made prior to “Changing
Nature.” The plotlines on those look good as well.
Lending their voices as guests on this set are Jeffrey
Tambor, Dan Castellaneta, exercise guru Richard
Simmons, Tim Curry (Rocky Horror Picture Show,
Charlie’s Angels), and Michael McKean.
Packaging:
The packaging is simple. The box cover has a shot of
Fran and Earl. The logo is beneath them and the
complete third and fourth seasons, 4-disc set label is
above them. The back of the box has a photo, synopsis
of the show and the set, with bonus features info.
Then we pull the case out of the box. The case’s
cover has the full Sinclair family photo, with the
label of the complete third and fourth seasons, 4-disc
set and the show logo above them. The back of the case
has a short message from Brian Henson, Michael Jacobs
and Bob Young. Then it has breakdowns of what episodes
and bonus features are on each disc. There is a
message saying you can excavate hidden Dino eggs, just
like on the last set! When you open the case, you get
two sides, the left side has discs one and two, and
the ride side has discs three and four. However, they
are overlapping like last time; I hate that so much.
Each disc is grey and seems holographic. Disc 1 has a
picture of Earl and episodes 1-9 from season three.
Disc 2 has a picture of Fran and episodes 10-19 of
season three. Disc 3 has a picture of Robbie and
episodes 20-22 from season three & episodes 1-7 from
season four. Finally, disc 4 has a picture of Charlene
and has episodes 8-14 from season four which were
never aired on network TV and the extras are also on
this disc. A Disney Movie Rewards flyer is also inside
the box, if you are wondering.
Menu Design and Navigation:
Now to the menu navigation--it is very simple and easy
to use. First, disc one starts with auto previews of
various movies, Scrubs season five DVD, and The Muppet
Show Season 2 DVD. Then we get to the animated
opening! You see fire. Then it zooms to the main menu.
The end theme song is playing in the background. All
of this is the same as last time. Disc one has a photo
of Earl on the main menu, disc two has Fran, disc
three has Robbie & Charlene, and disc four has the
Baby. The options are Play All, Episode Selection,
Audio Commentary, Bonus Features, Set-Up, and Sneak
Peaks. Audio Commentary and Sneak Peeks are just on
disc one. Sneak Peeks has the same previews as the
auto-previews. The Set-Up option lets you turn on
subtitles in English for the hearing impaired and if
you want to Register your DVD. Bonus Features is only
on disc four and we will detail them in the bonus
features section later on. Episode Selection has the
episodes on each disc and has fossil rocks with a
snapshot from the episode along with the episode
title. Disc four instead of Episode Selection it says
Bonus Episodes. Sound effects from the show play in
the background on all sub menus.
Video and Audio Quality:
The video and audio quality is very good, just like
the first set. The show never looked and sounded
better. I found no problems whatsoever once again.
There are like nine episodes per disc and it still
looks good. The episodes run usually around 23-24
minutes or so, all uncut! There is however one episode
that runs 22:19, “Little Boy Boo.” Maybe that
episode just ran short originally. I can’t prove if
it is edited or not. Maybe someone who has an original
ABC copy can. Four chapter stops are available for
each episode. The episodes are in airdate order.
Therefore, the seven unaired episodes are the last
seven and the series finale is actually before these
seven. The following are the episode run-times:
Disc 1
Season 3:
1. Nature Calls (23:03)
2. Baby Talk (22:52)
3. Network Genius (23:16)
4. The Discovery (23:06)
5. Little Boy Boo (22:19)
6. Germ Warfare (23:08)
7. Hungry for Love (23:08)
8. License to Parent (23:09)
9. Charlene’s Flat World (23:05)
Disc 2
10. Wilderness Weekend (23:01)
11. The Son Also Rises (23:01)
12. Getting to Know You (23:10)
13. Green Card (23:09)
14. Out of the Frying Pan (23:10)
15. Steroids to Heaven (23:10)
16. Honey, I Miss the Kids (23:09)
17. Swamp Music (23:09)
18. Dirty Dancin’ (22:59)
19. If You Were a Tree (23:10)
Disc 3
20. We Are Not Alone (23:10)
21. Charlene and Her Amazing Humans (23:11)
22. The Clip Show II (23:06)
Season 4
1. Monster Under the Bed (22:56)
2. Earl, Don’t Be a Hero (23:26)
3. The Greatest Story Ever Told (23:25)
4. Driving Miss Ethyl (23:26)
5. Earl’s Big Jackpot (23:25)
6. Terrible Twos (23:26)
7. Changing Nature - Series Finale (23:25)
Disc 4 - Unaired Episodes
8. Into the Woods (23:27)
9. Scent of a Reptile (23:26)
10. Working Girl (23:25)
11. Variations on a Theme Park (23:27)
12. Life in the Faust Lane (23:26)
13. Earl and Pearl (23:25)
14. Georgie Must Die (23:26)
Special Features:
The extras are good once again and this time we have
audio commentaries! Two featurettes and Easter Eggs
are also on this set. All the extras are on disc four
except the first audio commentary. We will get to
that in a moment, but first we will start with the two
featurettes. “I’m the Baby, Gotta Love Me!!”
runs 5:46 and has interviews with Kirk Thatcher
(Character Designer), Brian Henson (Executive
Producer), Bob Young (Creator), and Kevin Clash (The
Baby). We learn a lot about the baby and how he was
formed. Kevin Clash does the voice of the baby at the
end of the interview as well. Clash of course also
voices Elmo on Sesame Street. This is a fun and
interesting featurette. The next featurette is titled,
“Creatures with a Cause: The Issues of Dinosaurs.”
It runs 9:20 and has interviews with Brian Henson, Bob
Young, Kirk Thatcher, and Kevin Clash. The show
attacked everyone in a fun way and could get away with
it because it was a puppet show. It also talks about
controversial episodes such as the New Leaf episode
from the last set and the controversial series finale,
where we assume they all die from extinction because
of the ice age. This is probably the best extra on the
set. Then we have two audio commentaries. One on
disc one for the season three premiere episode
“Nature Calls.” Commenting are Brian Henson, Kirk
Thatcher, Kevin Clash and Bill Baretta (who wore the
Earl suit). The same team gets together on disc four
for the first unaired episode “Into the Woods.”
They like to laugh a lot! Finally, on every disc we
have Easter Eggs once again. “Dino-Eggs Hidden
Easter Eggs” is what they call them. I won’t give
how to find them, but you can easily find them.
Final Comments:
We now have all 65 episodes on DVD. This show is so
wonderful and funny. It was the Family Guy of the
'90s. It had so many spoofs. We saw an episode where
the baby turned two on this set and turned wild, like
in the movie The Exorcist. They watch a lot of TV and
I love the Dino-TV buts. DNN (spoof of CNN), Blarney
(spoof of Barney), Mr. Ugh (spoof of Mr. Ed) and DSPN
(spoof of ESPN) are some of the hilarious spoofs they
do on Dino-TV. The baby loves watching Captain
Actionfigure and Georgie! I thought seasons three and
four would be on two separate sets, but I was wrong
thankfully. We had two seasons on two sets...very
convenient. Each set had decent amount of extras, too.
I am thankful we have all the episodes on DVD. I
urge you to buy the DVD. We’re not dictators like
B.P. Richfield here at Sitcoms Online but when ‘we
say so’ you must listen and buy this set because
Wesayso!
