Product Details

• Actors: Lee Tockar, Kathleen Barr, Lisa Ann Beley, Ian James Corlett, Laura Harris
• Writers: Brooks Wachtel
• Producers: Daniel S. Kletzky, Kenzo Tsujimoto
• Format: Animated, Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English, Japanese
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Section 23
• DVD Release Date: February 18, 2003
• Run Time: 286 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00007KK4I
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,893 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Darkstalkers - Out of the Shadows" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Gimme a frickin break..., January 15, 2004

By 

Abram Lenten (Negaunee, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Darkstalkers - Out of the Shadows (DVD)

An American based cartoon based off of the Darkstalkers series, but despite having the Darkstalkers name this cartoon is anything but a faithful representation of the series. Exactly what was Graz Entertainment thinking when they decided to stick an extremely stupid (to say the least) wizard, who doesn't even look like a wizard, and has absolutely no relation to the series whatsoever, in as a main character? And even worse, to put him as Felicia's love? Felicia's an exotic dancer not a princess dedicating her life to a 12 year old who probably doesn't even know what puberty is. This Harry Potter ripoff pretty much kills the quality of the cartoon right there. "Ooooh. I'm mad at you! Why don't I just call Merlin for help to defeat you! I'm Merlin I will use a flashlight to defeat you!" All the other characters have flashlights in their hands as well. This shouldn't be called Darkstalkers. It should be called Harry's Magic Show. Graz Entertainment was so stupid to make up fake names for characters that already have names. Lets take Anita, Donovan's assistant, and lets change her into a blonde haired girl named Amanda so us Americans can understand her easier. Oh, and lets change Donovan's name to Donavon. Also, the bigfoot's name is Sasquatch. Graz decided to make it Bigfoot the Sasquatch. Rikuo's a hard name to pronounce so lets change it to Rikou. Morrigan, she's from Scotland so why not give her a hardcore British accent and make her look like a barbie whose hair turned green and sprouted wings. Demitri comes next. Lets see, lets make him toss balls of orange gas all the time. What is that stuff, coming from his armpit? Victor shows up, then he falls head over heels in love with Clouse, another random geek Graz Entertainment decided to stick in just for the heck of it, claiming they are decendants of one another. Oh, and he's played by Arnold Schwartzinegger, who makes an appearance himself somewhere in the cartoon. Lord Raptor. Hmmm, lets see how many times he screams his name like an idiot in a single episode shall we? Hsien-ko comes next. Um, lets pretend she don't even have a sister. She don't even know she is a Chinese ghost. She's just hellbent on killing Demitri because he destroyed her family. At least that's what the cartoon says. Bishamon, better not leave him out either. Make him have the voice of a 500 year old guy who's already dead, and have him pick a fight with Donavon for no reason whatsoever. Pyron has control of his own little ship complete with computer that likes to yack yack all day. Huitzil hates aliens, so he takes Pyron hostage in one episode, and despite Pyron wanting to rule earth, all the "friendly" darkstalkers are more than convinced to help him anyways, even when a crew of Pyron's evil twins come aboard for a shot of whiskey or something.

Finally, to top it all off, lets have a bunch of random stories that make absolutely no sense whatsoever in a season.

Us Americans, or Canadians, have a real good imagination when it comes to making video game based cartoons, don't we?

The bottom line is, get the Japanese anime, the Night Warriors series. Despite being only 4 episodes they are 10 times better and more representative of the actual game than this is.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Happy days are here again!, March 27, 2006

By 

Citizenjess "Literary Rubbernecker, Esq." (Ely, IA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Darkstalkers - Out of the Shadows (DVD)

Through some accident, I ended up acquiring both bits and pieces of television-taped episodes of Darkstalkers: the American adaptation, as well as a couple episodes of the original anime a few years back from a friend. (Possibly we were both interested in one of the voice-over artists or something; I don't really remember now.)

I realize that they are technically both based off of the video game to some degree, but I wholly recommend viewing/thinking of them as separate entities. They are, in my opinion, most enjoyable this way. The anime is action-packed, mystical, slightly violent and not a little sexually charged (the ending credits roll over a shot of one of the male leads pretty much fondling his female counterpart, for instance). The cartoon, conversely, is severely kidified; the characters are less ambiguous and more cleanly drawn, and in true DiC fashion, a twelve-year-old boy becomes more the centerpiece of the thing than any of the Darkstalker warriors.

In truth, the cartoon does a major disservice to the anime/video game when you hold them up for comparison; the cuts and changes divert the point of the entire series, and a lot of the initial 'umph' is lost in the adaptation. On the other hand, as an average 90s American toon following the popular, "normal-ish kid meets up with strange group of mystical creatures to battle zany yet dangerous enough villains and learn more about his/her own destiny" motif, it's actually pretty engaging. The voice talent is fun, the story is engaging enough, and the themes of fate and friendship and exploring one's potential are always great kids' show components. It reminds me fondly of Mighty Max in some ways, though I recognize that the DS cartoon will take a lot more flack for its inception because it doesn't remain 'true' to its Japanimation origins.

Either way, however, it stands on its own feet as a fun slice of American animation, and its lack of following on the Internet was part of the reason I seeked out the commercially-released DVDs. It's not perfect, but I'll take it.

3.0 out of 5 stars OK if you have good memories of the show..., March 24, 2007

By 

Veil_Lord - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Darkstalkers - Out of the Shadows (DVD)

This show aired back in 1995. I remember getting up to watch it mostly because the character Morrigan (a succubus) was in a really low cut outfit. Yeah, what can I say, adolescent boys will be boys. Watching it again all these years later, the episodes were still pretty entertaining. The cast of characters is based on the Darkstalkers video game, but centers around a kid named Harry who's descended from the great wizard Merlin. Felica (the catwoman) has to help defend him from the evil Darkstalkers led by the alien Pyron. In different episodes, she gets help from various other good characters.

If you have good memories of the show, it's a nice walk down memory lane. If you haven't seen it before, it's really not worth the bother. The stories are cheesy and the animation isn't the greatest, but that didn't stop He-man from being fun. Despite low production values, Darkstalkers still manages to be quite enjoyable.