Daria: The Complete Animated Series

Description

Product Description The people of Lawndale just don't get Daria Morgendorffer. She's cool with that. See, Daria was born alienated, and now she's just trying to make it through high school with as little human contact as possible. Popularity, friends, activities... whatever. Daria lacks enthusiasm, but she makes up for it with sarcasm. Includes all five seasons plus both movies. desertcart.com Turns out that Clarissa did not explain it all, like what a sick sad world it is, how much student life sucks, and how the notion that it is great to be young is a storybook fantasy. Daria, which aired on MTV between 1997 and 2002, does not paint a rosy picture, but this so-called outcast for whom suburban life "is one smart-ass joke" gave sardonic voice to the disaffected. "I'm not miserable," Daria states, "I'm just not like them." She's not kidding. Though she's referring to the "interesting idiots" she suffers none too gladly at Lawndale High School, she could well be talking about the women normally paraded on MTV, the hedonistic spring break partiers, serial daters, spoiled sweet sixteeners, and tabloid tarts like Tila Tequila. And then there's Daria, an animated (just barely) character who after five seasons and two movies (both included in this eight-disc set) managed to survive high school with her sense of self unbowed and uncompromised. Daria came a long way, baby. Before she got her own series, she was a recurring character on Beavis and Butt-head, a brainy foil for the two heavy metal imbeciles, whose pet name for her was "Diarrhea." Daria relocated her to Lawndale and introduced her self-absorbed yuppie parents and her airhead, popularity-obsessed younger sister. It also gave her a best friend and kindred misanthropic spirit, Jane Lane. Their deadpan and sarcastic banter has lost none of its incisive edge. The broadly drawn high school stereotypes--vapid cheerleaders, fashion-plate mean girls, corruptible administrators, empty-headed jocks--seem unworthy of their contempt. But the series really hit satiric pay dirt when it addressed "profound and fundamental moral issues of life," such as one episode in which Jane joins the track team out of spite, but becomes a track star, alienating Daria, who is not above enjoying some of the perks of Jane's newfound popularity. When all reverts back to, for want of a better word, normal, Daria remarks, "The system continues, you haven't redeemed yourself, and we're ostracized anyway… Hey, they really are preparing us for the real world." Daria comes to DVD with 99 percent of the original music changed due to rights issues, regrettable, but that shouldn't be a deal breaker, especially for those making Daria's acquaintance. The special features almost compensate. They include an animatic version of the pilot episode "Sealed with a Kick," a series retrospective featuring series creator Glenn Eichler and key members of the voice cast, Daria and Jane episode intros, and a Top Ten video countdown hosted by the duo (videos not included). --Donald Liebenson Review: Let me be direct....You're standing on....A GREAT SERIES & DVD - I was a moderate fan of Daria when the show aired in the late 90's/early 2000's. It wasn't that I didn't like the show (I actually liked it quite a bit), just remember it being a show I'd see from time to time and remember it being decent. Funny, good writing, just simply entertaining. When I heard it was coming out on DVD I didn't have to think twice. The memories of watching the show were good ones, so I ordered it the day it came out (and ended up only having to pay 28 bucks-NEW-and this included shipping). Well I can say after having watched the first few episodes of the Daria Series Collection that the show seems to have held up well. I guess if I could knock anything it might be the video quality. Grainy lines and bland reproduction are apparent in the episodes I've viewed, but this in no way takes away from the enjoyment of watching the episodes. Maybe I'm just spoiled in today's age of Blu-Ray. I'm not going to downgrade the DVD for not having the original music. Number one, everyone knows this that would be interested in this DVD. I wouldn't be telling you anything you didn't know. Additionally, inside the case there's a small note explaining why it isn't there (costly licensing). So nobody is trying to hide anything here. Number two-It's not that big of a deal. I'm frankly shocked everyone is so concerned about the original music being present. It's not like this is Beavis and Butthead where the music played a much more regularly present central role to the plot/action of the episodes. Personally, not being a person that remembered many of the episodes, the lack of original music so far has not taken away anything from my viewing experience. Guess I'm not sure what everyone's big problem with this is? If you like the music that much, go hop on ITunes??? Maybe buy some used CDs on desertcart??? In the end, if you remember liking/watching Daria, there's no reason not to pick this up. It's affordable. All the episodes (including the movies) are there. The show has held up well. On a side note, I'm uncertain how people could have been reviewing this specific DVD collection in February of this year. It was released on May 12th (I believe) 2010. Maybe that's the most upsetting thing about this product-The desertcart Reviews. The point of a review is to review the product once you've used it, not to hype it or knock it, when the damn thing hasn't even been released. I don't care if you've seen all the episodes or not, until you use the actual product in question-DON'T REVIEW IT ON desertcart!!!!!!!!!! It completely defeats the purpose of reviewing items. Review: For Daria Newbies from one - I'd like to start off by saying that I never saw Daria when it aired on TV. When I found out that the girl from Beavis and Butthead got a spin off I decided to check out the show (illegally) online. I then decided to purchase (after realizing I couldn't watch the entire series on YouTube) this box set. After watching the whole series I'm very glad that I did. Daria is now one of my favorite shows of all time. It's smart, witty and, very funny. If you don't already know, the series is about a teenaged girl named Daria and her life throughout high School. Of course this has been done before, but what makes this show special are the characters. The title character is truly unique. I honestly believe that there will never be another main character like Daria; she's smart, very sarcastic, and funny. After watching the entire series I know that I will be quoting her for the rest of my life and you will too. The rest of the cast is not as unique as Daria, but they still bring a lot humor to the series. There is Jane (Daria's artistic friend), Quinn (Daria's shallow sister), Kevin (dumb Jock), Upchuck (pervert), Mack (Black guy), Jake (Daria's manic father) and the list goes on. The comedy comes from putting the characters through everyday situations and just having them be themselves .Truly the work of very talented writers. A huge benefit of owning the entire series is that you can watch the show in rapid succession and you will be able to see the great deal of character development that goes on over the course of the entire series very clearly. Almost all the charters in Daria mature and change throughout the series in very realistic ways, something that isn't done in many shows that I watch nowadays. The last reason that I'm recommending this DVD box set is that even though the show is no longer on the air its themes are still relevant to this day. Even though the show will have you laughing through every episode, it still deals with things that every teenager, including myself, deals with. Sex, morality, and questioning one's own existence are the themes of certain episodes and these episodes happen to be my favorite ones because of how well the subject matter is handled. It is fair to say that any teenager will be able to relate with Daria in some way. I know I did. Until know I have only been talking about series itself, but now I will talk about the actual box set. All 65 episodes are here with the 2 TV movies and some extras. The actual box is very simple with very simple artwork on the front and back and only a note from Glenn Eichler, the series creator, inside the box. The extras are not much,but were fun to look at. You get original character sketches, the unaired pilot episode (my favorite extra), and a music video from one of the shows characters. My biggest problems with the box set are actually about 2 of the extra features. My first problem was that both of the TV movies are a part of the extra features and not a part of the main feature. Since there is not an episode list included with the box set, I had no idea were too chronologically place the movies in the Daria time line. Thankfully I was able to find episode guides online, but it still annoyed me. The other problem I had was with this one extra feature that has Daria and Jane counting down the top 10 animated music videos of all time. For some reason they skip the music videos after Daria and Jane introduce them. Why couldn't MTV include the videos? There were 11 music videos on the Beavis and Butthead Box set and there were 3 of those and in my opinion Daria in a better show. Anyway, to fix this all you need to do is watch the extra feature on your computer, wait until they introduce the music video, pause it then look up the video on YouTube. I know that it's a hassle, but Daria and Jane's introductions are as smart and funny as anything that they say on the show plus the music is good (oasis!!!). The final thing that I would like to bring up about the box set is about the music used in the show. I know that many long time Daria fans complain that the box set doesn't use the original music that the show used when it aired on MTV due to legal issues. For people that don't know when Daria aired on MTV it used licensed music from various popular artists for transition and background music, so that means that the box set had to use generic stock music instead because of the cost of home distribution licensing. From what I have read the show was better with the original music but I don't have opinion on the matter, I never got the chance to hear the difference (I didn't even know about the whole music issue until I read the note inside the box) so it doesn't bother me one bit. Final thoughts The show 5/5 It's smart, witty, and very funny. I don't think there ever was or will ever be a TV show like Daria, truly one of a kind. I understand that it might not be for everybody, so watch an episode online and if you like it you will LOVE the 24 hours of teenage angst that are in this box set The Box set itself 4.5/5 Could have done better and it did annoy me a little with the extras, but it gets the job done very well. Afterthoughts Why doesn't MTV air any reruns. I would really enjoy watching the show with the original music. Do we really need all of those" reality" shows? I know I'm willing to replace any one of them with 9 year old episodes of Daria. Any daria fan would agree with me right? In my opinion there is more" reality" In Daria than anything on MTV now a days.