Customer Reviews

The Brak Show, Vol. 1

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Brak Show" is a spinoff of "Space Ghost Coast To Coast," but is completely different in content, concept, and character development. This is a wonderful little set of offbeat episodes that will delight and amuse. The best part of "The Brak Show" is the interplay of Brak and Zorak, particularly when they interact with others. Of all the episodes on the set, I love the episode starring Mr. Tickles, the goldfish owned by Thundercleese. Brak makes a mess of the situation, ultimately having to meet the brother of Mr. Tickles: Don Tickles, Notary Public. Despite the scheming, Thundercleese is not fooled, and Zorak gets his hilarious comeuppance. I liked this episode so much than when I was recently given a Beta fish, I named him "Don Tickles, Notary Public", which seriously made my petsitter stop to ponder the situation.

There are a lot of extras included with the set, and they will all be entertaining to the "Brak" fans. Not everyone likes this show, as it is overtly strange, but for those who do, this set is a treat.

I think if you're a Brak fan like I am, then you'll buy this set regardless of what people say here. But if you're still wondering, or still reeling from the blandness of Spaceghost's first season DVD...

This DVD starts you off by warming you up with hilarious menu music sung by Brak. He's got a song for every page in the menu. My favorite is his languages page where he goes "Well, there's English... AND THAT'S ABOUT IT!!! 'Cuz we're American everybody YEEEE-HAAAAW!!! And there's different subtitles in French and Spanish, but that's only for those who can read! YAAA-HOOO!!!"

In the extras there's a bunch of his commercials and funny clips during his segments on Space Ghost. Here you get to watch the crew perform "Don't Touch Me," "Scat Sandwich," and other great tunes like "I'm A Cucumber" and "Highway 40."

If you've seen and love the show, then there's nothing left to say about the cartoon itself besides the fact that it's freakin hilarious. The storylines and characters are original and different from other adult-oriented cartoons, since most other adult cartoons rely solely on shock and outrage to force the laugh out of you.

To me, what makes this show interesting is the fact that Brak is transformed from an evil and diabolical character from the old version of Space Ghost... to a whiny, endearing and innocent little boy who is placed in the middle of adult situations and dialog.

There's Dad, a tiny Cuban-esque man who always has some sexual innuendo; Zorak who constantly tries to corrupt him; Mom, the mother-figure who tries so hard to maintain Brak's innocence, but goes on an evil streak herself; and Thunderclese, a robot warrior neighbor who, in my opinion, is Brak's only true friend.

Put these characters together and you get nothing but laughs and an appreciation of original adult-situated cartoon humor.

The only down side of Cartoon Network's /Williams Street's zany and madcap Space Ghost Coast to Coast was the live guests. Maybe Zorak vaporized them because they were nowhere to seen on the excellent spin-off show Cartoon Planet (long awaited on DVD). Until those shows make it to disc, here's The Brak Show, the first inkling of great things to come. The other inklings came on audio CDs, The Brak Show Starring Brak and Space Ghost's Musical BarBQue. The sky's the limit with the Brak Show, which opened each episode with a parody of some 'fifties sitcom. Among the splattering of extras among the fourteen shows, you also get a couple previews of Cartoon Planet, which only makes fans all the more eager for the antics of Brak, Moltar, Zorak, Space Ghost and the gang to make it to DVD.

This is a good show with some great episodes but, here are the features and episodes on this dvd:

Cartoon Planet Segments
Brak Presents the Brak Show Starring Brak
Adult Swim News
Creator and Brak Commentary
Never Before Heard Radio Play Production of the Brak Show

And 14 Episodes:

*Goldfish
*War Next Door
*Time Machine
*Hippo
*Bawkbagawk
*Mobab
*Expiration Day
*Psychoklahoma
*The Eye
*Poppy
*Bully
*Mother, Did You Move My Chair?
*President Dad
*Pepper

I have shown my aging tapes of The Brak show to many, many people who always start by saying, "WHAT... is THIS?" and end up cackling uncontrolably. Then, they torture me in the most pitiful, begging, pleading tones to show it to them again. And now, I am overwhelmed with joy that these delightful morsels of brilliance (especially, PSYCHOKLAHOMA) are now available for everyone to see.

The Brak Show is a one-of-a-kind treat. I wish Andy Merril enjoyed doing the role more, because if there's one thing we all need in these troubled times, it's MORE BRAK! Thank you Cartoon Network for releasing this volume into the wild. Hooray!

Well, I'm a huge Brak fan. I have a few of his CDs and they still crack me up, what can I say. I had never seen the Brak show but picked it up on a whim -- it turns out I wasn't missing much.

Brak is great and all, I love the character they have for him -- but this show just really isn't very funny. And I'm all for stupid funny, nonsense funny, etc. Brak has a few clever lines, but most of it is just pretty boring. It isn't appropriate for kids, and not funny for adults. Don't really know what the point of it is.

I did watch all of Disc 1, hoping for something really funny. There were a few laughs, but overall the episodes are just short, non-hillarious entertainment.

If you love Brak enough that you can handle some seriously mediocre humor, give The Brak show a try.

Alot of people may find this DVD a horrible waste of time and money, and they'd be right...if they're not Brak fans.
I am a huge Brak fan; I have been since I was a kid watching Cartoon Planet. There's just something about that crazy cat-like face and ridiculous montone yelling that warms my heart. I'll admit, when I first watched the shows in this collection, I didn't find many of them quite as funny as I'd hoped. But the more you watch 'em, the funnier they get (kinda like Napoleon Dynamite.) Now I can't stop laughing when I see Brak pulling a toy wagon down the street (with Zorak seated inside) by a rope tied around his waist. Or when I see Brak and Zorak watching large-nosed private eye "Schnoso" on TV (" Not so fast baby! Schnoso wants mo' "). Or when Zorak sings in a Timberlake-esque voice a musical version of Psycho.
If any of the above sounds funny to you, you'll probably like The Brak Show. Buy it and have some fun.

Like Sealab 2021, the Brak Show is another program from the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup that was terribly underrated, although this show didn't last as long. Starring Space Ghost: Coast to Coast sidekick Brak, the Brak Show focuses on the intergalactic feline's pre-teen life in his home of Spacetown. Living with his look-a-like mother and miniature father, and hanging out with his best pal Zorach, Brak gets into the kind of misadventures that those who faithfully watched Space Ghost: Coast to Coast would expect. Unbelievably absurd hijinks with risque humor, the Brak Show fit right in with the Adult Swim lineup, with hilarious voice overs from Andy Merrill as Brak and C. Martin Croker as the evil mantis Zorach. Like Adult Swim's other shows, the Brak Show isn't for everyone, but this handsome DVD set (which actually includes decent DVD extras) is a must have for fans of this underrated series.

I watched this show when it first came on Adult Swim (in fact I still remember the old Adult Swim commercials, This and Sealab 2021 were my favortie shows on this late night block. I was also a huge fan of Cartoon Planet (I also have those 2 CDs) and I thought Brak was the coolest of the 3 characters. Then after that show got cancelled, this show came on. I liked it a lot and I wish they would make more episodes, but unfortunately half the people out there don't like Brak because of his voice and that's probably the reason that the show is cancelled. For those who loved Brak or like Adult Swim shows, this is a must have (and volume 2), but for those who like Adult Swim but was annoyed by Brak should look else where.

This collection requires the viewer to have a very special sense of humor: what my co-workers and I call "the gift". If you have it, you'll be very amused by these episodes. If not - you'll pretty much think this is the stupidest thing you've ever watched. I fall into "the gift" camp, and found this collection great. The more absurd the situation, the better. Consider the following: beeflogs, the movie title "@ss Disaster IV", Jerkwater High School, a 2 player video game called "Head Stomper", where 1 player's character stomps on the 2nd player's character. If these items sound funny - you'll love this. If not, move along down Highway 40 in your big ol' pickup truck, buddy.