Product Details

• Actors: Maurice LaMarche, Rob Paulsen, Roddy McDowell, Tress MacNeill
• Directors: Barry Caldwell, Jon McClenahan, Mike Milo, Rusty Mills, Russell Calabrese
• Format: Animated, Box set, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: Portuguese (Dolby Digital 1.0), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: Spanish, French, Portuguese
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: July 25, 2006
• Run Time: 471 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000FA57HG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,052 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Pinky and the Brain, Vol. 1" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Are you pondering what I'm pondering, animation fans? Yes! Pinky and the Brain have finally arrived on DVD, and they're going to take over the world! Well, at the very least, these genetically engineered lab mice are going to prove, once and for all, that they're the best comedy duo ever created for an animated series aimed at children.... but, why limit their appeal to kids? As executive producer Steven Spielberg said to the show's creators, he wanted this brilliant, Emmy®-winning half-hour cartoon series to lure adults into watching it with their kids, and like the classic Warner Brothers cartoons of the past, it's likely the grown-ups will enjoy it even more! This is largely due to the fact that Pinky and the Brain was produced under the radar, almost as if nobody was watching, so while this delightfully inventive spin-off from Animaniacs is purely entertaining for kids, it also includes a wide variety of in-jokes, movie spoofs, and outrageous dialogue that only older viewers can truly appreciate. It's all innocent fun, but if you watch and listen closely, you'll quickly realize that the writers and first-rate voice cast were having the time of their lives, inventing absurd plots and one-liners purely for their own creative pleasure. How else can you explain Pinky's bizarrely suggestive responses when The Brain asks "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" or the hilarious send-ups of classic movies like The Third Man (spoofed here as "The Third Mouse"), The Manchurian Candidate ("The Pink Candidate"), and the tearjerking TV classic Brian's Song (satirized, of course, as "Brain's Song")?

Better yet, these 22 episodes culled from P&TB's four-season run (1995-98) demonstrate how the show's basic concept--two talking lab mice ("one is a genius, the other's insane") and their nightly attempts at global domination--lent itself to a broad spectrum of hilariously ingenious plots, with no restrictions of timeframe. So you've got episodes in ancient Egypt, Napoleonic France, and 1940s Vienna, along with contemporary schemes and shorter, time-filler episodes (like "Cheese Roll Call") that qualify as mini-masterpieces of educational comedy. "A Pinky and the Brain Christmas" is a bona-fide sentimental classic (offering proof that the Brain's got a soft heart, after all), and the polar-opposite pairing of Pinky and the Brain is just about perfect, largely due to the voice talents of Maurice LaMarche (expertly channeling Orson Welles as the Brain) and Emmy-winner Rob Paulsen as Pinky (both seen, to splendid effect, in disc 2's behind-the-scenes featurette). Additional voice talents include Roddy MacDowall (as the Brain's nemesis, Snowball) and Ernest Borgnine, but the show's primary strength is its go-for-broke writing, brilliant animation (a flawless homage to Warner Bros. tradition, yet uniquely styled to match the material), and music scores (mostly by Richard Stone) that pay tribute to the late, great WB cartoon composer Carl Stalling while incorporating frequent passages from the classical repertoire. All in all, Pinky and the Brain is perfect entertainment for the young and young-at-heart, destined for cult-favorite status as one of the best overlooked TV series of the 1990s. As Pinky might say, "Poit! Narf! Oh, this is SO much fun!" --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

The adventures of lab mouse Pinky and the genius mouse the Brain and their schemes to escape the lab and take over the world.
Genre: Children's Video
Rating: NR
Release Date: 25-JUL-2006
Media Type: DVD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

126 of 130 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Failed World Domination Attempts 101, May 30, 2006

By 

Mark Clegg "Nathan's Dad" (Great Britain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pinky and the Brain, Vol. 1 (DVD)

Spun-off from Animaniacs, 'Pinky and the Brain' has a fantastic concept that constantly bears fruit - Two lab mice ("One is a genius, the other insane" in the words of the theme tune) are constantly thwarted in their attempts to take over the world. Like Wile E. Coyote before them, they seem to eventually lose sight of what they are trying to do and why, and just use more and more outlandish ruses to reach their target (Brain as the Country and Western singer is my favourite).
The concept itself may not have worked if the characters weren't so well written and performed. To my memory there was only ever three continuous characters in the show - Pinky, Brain and occasionally Snowball, a genius hamster and rival to Brain voiced by the late, great Roddy McDowell. With such reliance on a small cast (the rest of the characters featured - the humans - were different every week), the creators worked hard to get them to be well-rounded and likable (although they are essentially villains - at least Brain is anyway). That they came fully formed from Animaniacs is an even higher praise. The use of catchphrases helped make this show highly accessable ("Poit" and "Narf" from Pinky and "Yes!" from Brain as well as the opening exchange.
Elsewhere on this page, the show is described as "mindless fun" - not so. Fun, yes. Mindless, never. This was a show that had Looney Tunes sensibilites but with a brain (literally). Although the writing was hit and miss at times, it was never short of brilliant and the animation was much more consistant than its parent show which sometimes veered into amateurish. The theme tune is one that gets in the head and refuses to budge, and watch out for the definition of a new word in the end credits of every show.
If there is anyone in Hollywood reading this, I suggest a live-action movie version of this - its rife with possibilities! In the meantime, buy this and make the most of a largely forgotten gem of '90s TV.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have collection for fans of all ages., July 26, 2006

By 

tonsir (Seattle, WA - USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pinky and the Brain, Vol. 1 (DVD)

As a long time P&B fan I was thrilled to see the series finally coming to DVD. Many fans and would be purchasers have been concerned that this set is labeled as a "collection" of episodes instead of one or more complete "seasons". Don't worry! As has been noted in other reviews this set (Vol I) contains ALL of season 1 and most of season 2 (the last three episodes are missing) for a total of 22 episodes. Why did they do this?? I don't "know" for a fact but I'm sure it is so that they can release 3 volumes of approxiamtely equal size. The show had 65 episodes total. That means 3 volumes each with 22 episodes (OK, so one of the volumes will have 21 episodes - nitpick, why dontcha!). So if you are a fan of the show, cast away your concerns and pick up this first volume ASAP!

For those of you who have never seen the show, expect to be pleasently surprised. This is one of those rare animated shows that appeals to adults and children equally (well maybe not equally, I'm sure I enjoyed watching it on TV more than my kids). The Brain is a super intelligent, meglamaniacal lab mouse intent on taking over the world with schemes that would make Rube Goldberg proud. His sidekick Pinky is affable and kind hearted but somewhat dim wited. Think of them as the animated versions of Laurel & Hardy or Abbott & Costello.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A choice set of Pinky and the Brain, August 1, 2006

By 

A. CLEMENS (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pinky and the Brain, Vol. 1 (DVD)

What can you say, its grrreeat!

Episodes contained on DVD
Das Mouse
Of Mouse and Man
Tokyo Grows/That Smarts/Brainstem
Pinky and the Fog/Where No Mouse Has Gone Before/Cheese Roll Call
Brainania
TV or Not TV
Napoleon Brainaparte
A Pinky and the Brain Christmas
Snowball
Around the world in 80 Narfs
Fly
Amubulatory Aide/Mouse of La Mancha
The Third Mouse/The Visit
It's Only a Paper World
Collect 'Em All/ Pinkasso
Plan Brain from Outer Space
The Pink Candidate
Brain's Song
Welcome to the Jungle
A little Off the Top/Megalomaniacs Anonymous
The Mummy/Robin Brain
Two Mice and a Baby / The Maze