Image courtesy Amazon.com
Created by:
Ben Edlund
Principal Cast:
Townsend Coleman …. The Tick
Rob Paulsen …. Arthur
Cam Clarke …. Die Fledermaus
Kay Lenz …. American Maid
Jess Harnell …. Sewer Urchin
The Show
This show is, quite simply, inspired lunacy.
The Tick is large, nigh-invulnerable, but not terribly intelligent superhero, who wears blue tights that cover from his toes to the top of his head. He is, in fact, never seen out of costume – he has no “secret indentity”, he is simply The Tick. Along with his level-headed but somewhat cowardly sidekick Arthur (whose battle cry is “Not in the face! Not in the face!”), the Tick is the protector of The City, and battles evil in all of its various shapes and sizes.
The best parts of humor comes from The Tick’s random, rambling non-sequitor soliloquies, such as this beauty: “Destiny’s powerful hand has made the bed of my future, and it’s up to me to lie in it. I am destined to be a superhero. To right wrongs, and to pound two-fisted justice into the hearts of evildoers everywhere. And you don’t fight destiny. No sir. And, you don’t eat crackers in the bed of your future, or you get all… scratchy.” Let’s face it folks, you have to be on the good drugs to write that kind of dialogue.
At the very least, you should buy this DVD set for the episode “The Tick vs. The Tick” (all of the episodes in season one are titled “The Tick vs. [something]”, hence the title of the DVD), where The Tick, Arthur, and two other superheroes from The City travel to a Super Hero nightclub. The jokes never stop in this episode, from the introduction of The Mad Bomber What Bombs at Midnight (“Yeah, baby, yeah!”), to the Sidekick Lounge where Arthur is forced to hang out, to the battle between The Tick and.. The Tick. It’s a battle you won’t soon forget.
The DVD:
The Video:
The video is in fullscreen, in a 4:3 aspect ratio. The show is somewhat old (1994), so the colors don’t seem quite as clear as crisp as you might expect for an animated series.
The Audio:
The audio is available in Englishand French Dolby Digital 2.0. No complaints here.
Special Features:
None. There’s a handful of trailers, but nothing else to speak of. Rather disappointing: they couldn’t have recorded even one token commentary track?
