Product Details

• Actors: Michael Haley, Glynnis Talken, Amy Danles, Barry Stigler
• Writers: Sam Kieth
• Format: NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: MTV Networks
• DVD Release Date: December 17, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002WJHDJI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,161 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

In the murky alleyways of New York City, homeless Maxx huddles in his box and dreams of crushing evil villains. But when he bursts into the colorful netherworld of the Outback, the Maxx is a hero, in full purple splendor. His friend Julie, a freelance social worker, thinks the Maxx's alternate universe is just an escape from the harsh reality of New York-not realizing that she, too, roams the Outback as the Jungle Queen. Join the Maxx for deliciously demonic adventures in both worlds, as he scours streets and jungles in search of the link between his two realities. Will he be able to find the connection before it's too late?

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.\r\n

This disc is expected to play back in DVD Video "play only" devices, and may not play in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives. \r\n

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended if you're a huge Maxx fan with an old VHS copy!, December 22, 2009

By 

Marc Richardson (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Maxx: The Complete Series (DVD)

I just got my copy today and am absolutely thrilled. The comments by the previous reviewer as to the video quality are more a comment on the quality of the animation itself. I've had three different copies of the show prior to this DVD and if I'm understanding him correctly, the flaws he's talking about were always there.

I have a taped copy that I have made myself from when the show ran in a marathon after it finished airing the very first time. This one is taped on archival library quality VHS that holds up amazing well (the tape cost $20 at the time in 1995). I also have another copy taped from the first airings on two separate regular VHS tapes and I have the store-bought tape that edited out 13 minutes of the show. I watched the hell out of the regular VHS tapes, but only watched the archival one a couple times and recently made a DVD transfer of it. I just finished watching the new DVD and comparing it to my archival DVD and am thrilled with these DVDs with just a couple of exceptions that I will address later.

As far as the picture quality, it looks stunning compared to all previous copies I had. I'm not watching it on a HDTV or an upconverting DVD player. Just a 32" Samsung and my 5-disc Toshiba player from several years back. But, the colors and sharpness have never looked this brilliant on this show. Yes, there are some animation flaws (like when Maxx is climbing out of the kitchen sink and there's a black line on the bottom of the water), but they have been there from the original airing. They are problems with the original source material and not these DVDs. I think some of the problems the previous reviewer mentioned might just be more obvious because the picture is sharper and cleaner. The bluriness of old TV airings on VHS tapes hide a lot of flaws, and this show was made CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!

Now, for people looking for negative things, there are just a couple. The music changes from the VHS tape are still here. Any instances of "I Wanna Marry a Lighthouse Keeper" have either been removed completely (like when Julie goes to the police station) or have been replaced with "I'm in Love with a School Bus Driver" (in every other instance). Also, the background song has been completely removed from when Gone attacks Glorie, and the songs have been replaced when Julie is first shown in bondage at Gone's factory, when Maxx is chasing the Isz through the city streets, and when the white Isz has climbed up and is spying on Julie through her window.

Also, two small edits still exist in this version. When Maxx is running away from Retquark'n at the beginning of episode 7, after he says "All I have to do now is reach it," the line "By Rikkirackk, I love the run. To make my legs stretch into the grass" has been removed so it just goes right into him saying "Run Run Run". Also, in episode 9, when Julie asks Maxx if he thinks they can be killed, and he says "Absolutely, I'm sure of it". Her, response "Now there's a happy thought" is missing.

Other than those music changes and the two small edits, these DVDs exactly match the broadcast versions I had taped.

Just a warning as well, both discs played fine on my older Toshiba player, but on my cheap $50 Sony DVD player, while the first disc played fine, the second disc "Special Features" menu will not come up. The episodes play fine though. Also, my computer will not even recognize these discs, even though it plays other homemade burned DVDs fine. Not a big problem, but I was just wanting to make some comparison screenshots for some friends.

All in all, if you're a big fan of the series and of the comics, like me, and have watched your old VHS tapes over and over again, buy these DVDs!! Buy them now! If you're looking for top notch animation to watch on a HDTV as reference quality animation or something, you'll want to skip it. This is not Blu-Ray anime.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars compared to all previous versions? A-, December 24, 2009

By 

millhouse "DVD fan" (Perth, WA, Australia) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Maxx: The Complete Series (DVD)

Well, the transfer quality (compared to either the old rips floating about online from the broadcast, that really good version someone authored as a DVD, and the bootleg DVDs from the VHS release) is fantastic. Not perfect, but definitely a massive upgrade from any previous version you own.

All episodes (including #8, the Hammerhead episode missing from the official VHS) are there, as is the recap episode. However, "I Wanna Marry a Lighthouse Keeper" is still missing, replaced with the in-house creation "I'm in Love with a School Bus Driver", which is a shame, but it's certainly not the first time a TV show has had music replaced (just look at Dawson's Creek...).

The discs, while being DVD-R, have high-quality gloss artwork on them, far better than any "at-home" options, and the slick is pretty professional and high quality as well.

Special features include audio commentaries on all episodes, and an interviews featurette.

Well worth it, even despite it's minor misgivings.

Oh, and the original MTV oddities head is on at least one episode, with full credits on all episodes (besides the re-cap, which was originally aired before episode 11).

Dig it.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 5 for the show, 3 for this DVD, December 22, 2009

By 

MiRSD - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Maxx: The Complete Series (DVD)

I won't go into depth on the details of the show - chances are that if you're thinking about this DVD you already know of the show and love it!

I've been waiting years for a "MAXX" release on DVD, but I have to say I'm disappointed in this one. I can't say whether it's an issue with the show itself or the DVD, but the DVD is hard to watch at times. Aliasing ("Jaggies"), Rainbows and flickering are only some of the problems, but they're very noticeable and obvious throughout. Other problems popping up have been pixelation and color banding. The show just doesn't look nearly as good as it should have - it actually seems like a low resolution video (320x240?) being blown up to fit the screen without any cleanup or remastering (almost as if they just decided to "throw it out there"). The CG parts being much worse (more obvious) than the animated parts. I would say it looks better than the VHS I had years ago, but not the jump in quality you would expect on DVD (and the VHS was released 13 1/2 years ago!). I would give the video quality about a 6.5/10 by todays standards.

The disc DOES have a few extra features (interviews, commentary and a recap episode) - while not much, having commentary on each episode is great (I havent had a chance to listen to this yet - the commentary is by Sam Kieth (Creator), Gregg Vanzo (Director), Claudia Katz (producer), Seth Kearsley (storyboards/character layouts)). The interviews, while also a great feature, disappointingly seemed to be in non-anamorphic widescreen (4:3 letterboxed).

Also disappointing is the "Burn on demand" part of this product. While the packaging and labels are professional like any other store-bought DVD, these come on blue-backed discs (much like any DVD-R you can buy in stores) - the downside are that these don't last as long as professional pressed discs. Another big downside is that on my first set, the 2nd disc was badly scratched (if you've ever had a spindle of DVD-Rs, you've probably come across some that just look to be in terrible condition - that's how this one was). The replacement copy was much better, but the first disc had a few light scratches but also fingerprints on the bottom of the disc right out of the box. It just doesn't seem like much quality control went into these.

Overall a great show that I have to recommend as this is the only DVD available. I would have liked to see it be remastered in some way, but unfortunately that's just not the case here. The DVD extras are great, the bonus content is great, but the video appears poor on a 24" widescreen monitor (upscaled to 1080p by the PS3) - the effect was much worse watching on a 50" TV. SDTV will probably look fine, but this show just wasn't meant for the type of displays we use nowadays.