Customer Reviews

Xena Warrior Princess - Season One Video Set [VHS]

5 star:		(79)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

"In a time of ancient gods, warlords, and kings, a land in turmoil cried out for a hero. She was Xena, a mighty princess forged in the heat of battle. The power. The passion. The danger. Her courage will change the world."

If you don't recognize the above, you've been in a distant land since at least 1995, and this review isn't really for you. But you should buy this collection immediately, because you're in for an entirely novel treat.

Xena: Warrior Princess is a spin-off series from "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys", which followed 5 "Action Pack" (don't ask) Hercules movies. The Hercules and Xena stories are revisionist tales of antiquity. Most of the names are right ("Hercules" instead of "Herakles", and the Roman "Cupid" instead of Greek "Eros" are notable exceptions), but anachronisms abound. We first see Xena sitting on her horse, complete with stirrups (1000 years before their invention) and saddle horn (2000 years early). Xena's sword is bronze, but steel implements abound in an era when Indian Wootz steel was a commodity valued above gold. The wet countryside of New Zealand doubles for the dry Mediterranean clime of Greece. And barbarian warriors look suspiciously like Maori. Obviously the emphasis is on entertainment rather than historical accuracy. It's a good thing, too, because the entertainment value is outstanding.

The premise of the series is that Xena was a teenager living in the Greek village of Amphipolis when it was attacked. She rallied her neighbors to mount a successful defense. Then she took the surrounding towns to have a defensive perimeter. One thing led to another, and Xena was a warlord terrorizing the countryside. But, true to her original intent, she spared defenseless women and children. When her underlings thought that made her soft she broke from them, and began an epic quest for redemption. Soon after this she met Gabrielle, a young villager whose community is raided. With ambitions exceeding her small town's reach Gabrielle decides to follow Xena on her travels.

Xena is a mythic hero. Lacking the godly strength of Hercules, she nevertheless matches him in battle by virtue of superhuman agility. Plus, as she says, "I have many skills" -- including tactics, strategy, eastern martial arts, horsemanship, medicine, and singing. Xena is at the top of her form when we first see her. In sharp contrast to this we watch Gabrielle as she transforms from quick-witted but unsophisticated villager to wannabe bard to reluctant warrior.

Lucy Lawless got an early entry into the Hercules/Xena universe; she played Lysia in "Hercules and the Amazon Women", the very first of the movies that preceded the "Hercules" series. In fact this earlier role was a strike against her when trying out for the part of Xena in the "Hercules" series. But hair dye, boots with lifts, and skin bronzer transformed Lucy Lawless (5' 10 1/2", light brown hair, pale skin) to Xena (6' tall, brown-black hair, olive complexion). Add in a passable American accent, and this native New Zealander carried off the role of an Americanized Greek mythic hero with aplomb. When you see Xena riding at the gallop or trading blows with a foe that's really Lucy Lawless; when Xena is tumbling through the air it's a stunt performer.

Renee O'Connor also got an early start; she played an earlier version of Deianeira, Hercules' wife, in "Hercules and the Lost Kingdom", the second Hercules movie, before landing the role of Gabrielle. In the first season of X:WP O'Connor is listed as "also starring", after the title; only Lawless gets "starring" billing.

Various continuing characters from "Hercules" appear in Season One of X:WP:
- Kevin Smith as Ares, God of War
- Kevin Sorbo as Hercules
- Michael Hurst as Iolaus (Hercules' sidekick); also as Charon
- Robert Trebor as Salmoneus, mercurial merchant
- Bruce Campbell as Autolycus, King of Thieves
- Erik Thomson as Hades, God of the Underworld

Season One of Xena introduced a number of new faces that would become familiar:
- Danielle Cormack as Ephiny, Amazon warrior
- Paul Norell as Falafel, food stand vendor
- Karl Urban, who would appear again in seasons 2+ as Julius Caesar
- Hudson Leick as Callisto, nemesis extraordinaire
- Ted Raimi as Joxer, bumbling would-be warrior

More notable one-shot guest stars from Season One included:
- Kate Hodge as Celesta, Goddess of Death
- Galyn G"rg as Helen of Troy
- Tim Thomerson as Meleager the Mighty
- Peter McCauley as Talmodeus

Season One of X:WP was shot on 16mm film to keep production costs down, so the DVD video transfer is no better than you'd expect. The audio is quite a bit better, including outstanding music by Joseph LoDuca. The Xena theme, in particular, is a wonderful mix of bouzouki, french horns, and strings to mix traditional Greek sounds with the stirring European classical melodies we've come to associate with inspirational themes.

The 7-disc Season One collection is remarkable mostly for what it DOESN'T have. There are NO extras in the Season One DVDs AT ALL. Each of the 24 episodes is 44 minutes 15 seconds or less. There are no DVD or CC captions. There are no extra chapter stops; each episode has 5 or 6 chapters. The 7th disc is a CD-ROM, with rather unremarkable content. There are no printed guides in the set.

6 DVDs, with 4 episodes each; 24 total episodes
1 CD-ROM:
- Screensaver
- Cast & Director bios
- "Scrolls" - episode cast lists, guest stars ("mortals" and "gods"), search through the scrolls text
- Season One trivia game

Xena: Warrior Princess is a fun, butt-kicking action series. It's a shame that the DVD collection of Season One is both low on extra content and high on price.

I looked for some reviews before picking up Universal's re-release of Xena: Warrior Princess - Season One, and unfortunately couldn't find any, so I purchased the set even though I didn't know what to expect.

-- Packaging / Discs --

Xena: Warrior Princess - Season One is packaged in one of those standard sized cases capable of holding multiple discs. The previous release by Anchor Bay (AB) was one of those brick sized digi-packs where you had to unfold the entire thing to get to all the discs. The reverse side of the cover lists all the episdoes (by disc) and includes breif summaries. There is not mention of first air date for the episodes. The discs themselves are all single sided, double layered discs. The only artwork on the discs is the red outline of the chakram (the round throwing blade used by Xena) and the "Xena: Warrior Princess" logo.

-- Video Quality --

First of all, I'm watching the episodes on a 32" Vizio 720p HDTV. It's being played on a progressive scan DVD player at 480p.

I no longer have access to the AB release of Xena: Warrior Princess - Season One, and thus can't compare the video quality of that set to this new one. Based on my memory of last watching the AB release (which was quite a few years ago) I can say that the episodes on the Universal release don't look any worse. In some cases that look better.

The picture has grain, that's going to be unavoidable considering Xena: Warrior Princess - Season One was shot on 16mm film stock. It wasn't until halfway through the second season that the producers switched to 35mm film stock. I haven't noticed any of the compression artifacts or other problems that plauged the AB release of this season. It's unfortunate that Universal couldn't have made this a 6 disc release, because I imagine that without the additional compression needed to fit 5 episodes per disc the video quality could be a little better. Regardless of that oversight, I'm more than pleased with the video quality of this release.

-- Soundtrack --

Xena: Warrior Princess - Season One is presented in a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. That's just a fancy way of saying it's the orginal broadcast audio. Some people have complained because Universal choose to include the orginal audio rather than the upmixed 5.1 soundtrack that was created for the AB release. Most home theater systems are capable of upmixing 2.0 audio into 5.1 audio anyways.

-- Subtitles / Captioning --

Universal has included english subtitles for all 24 episodes. This was a feature that wasn't included on the AB release.

-- Extras --

Other than a handfull of trailers on the first disc, there are no special features included on this set. The AB release was also light on extras (it included a CD-ROM with some extra content for your computer). Universal owns the rights to the Xena: Warrior Princess tv series, but all of the special features included on the AB releases were produced and are owned by Davis/Panzer and the only way Universal can included these featues on their DVD's is if they license the right to them. Considering that this re-release of Xena: Season One is pretty much a budget release, I don't see Universal spending that kind of cash.

-- Conclusion --

Until a proper comparrison of the video quality of the AB release to the Universal release is done, I don't think it's fair for me to reccommend that people who have purchased the AB set, go out and replace it with this release. I will say that if you don't have the AB sets, or are one of the many hearing impaired Xena fans who held off on purchasing the previous sets because of the lack of subtitles/captioning then you really can't go wrong with this release.

The 1st Season of Xena was addictive, mindblowing and, like all beginnings, had some kinks to be worked out. The casting of Lucy Lawless and Renee O'Connor was phenomenal from day one; Lawless (as most of you probably know) plays a profound, regretful, blue eyed, powerful former warlord who, thanks to help from Hercules, sets out to thoughtfully atone for her past reign of terror.

"Nothing you can do can erase the shame you've brought onto your kinsmen," Xena's mother exclaims. "Probably not," Xena admits sadly, eyes dropping, "but I'm going to spend the right of my life trying." And does she ever! In one of her first attempts at being "good", the warrior princess lays eyes on Gabrielle, a spirited and selfless village girl who, after seeing Xena's heroics, wants to "join up with Xena" and "wants to be a warrior like her" As all fans know, Gabrielle is instrumental in reforming Xena by sharing her unconditional love & showing her how much good there is to be done. Xena, of course, has a renewed purpose & reason to live while gladly ready to die for Gab. Like most 1st seasons, the characters are a little shaky, the acting is new & unsual, & the plots are somewhat undefined & experimental & therefore not as soul pinching, action packed and heartpounding as the seasons that so bravely followed. Also, while X & G's relationship grew dramatically over the years, it was only "friendly" at this stage of the game. At least they wised up in the 2nd season.

Still, it holds a special place in the hearts of all Xena fans as the noble beginning of a timeless legend of pursuing the things that matter: love, sacrifice, the greater good, nobility, triumpth, loss, life.

There are 24 great episodes but HIGHLIGHTS include:
"Sins Of The Past" -pilot episode
Xena journeys homeward determined to atone for the sins of her past, but her efforts to begin a new life are challenged by the vengeful warlord Draco. A betrothed village girl, Gabrielle, takes to the warrior princess immediately.

"Dreamworker"
Xena must enter the magical realm of the Dreamscape to rescue Gabrielle after she is kidnapped by an unlikely god.

"Altared States"
Xena & Gab intervene to save young boy from being sacrificed to a "one God" by his own father

"The Greater Good"
When Xena is hit with a poisoned dart, Gab must disguise herself as the warrior princess in a plan to save Salmoneous and a town from an evil warlord

"Callisto"
Xena must battle the fierce woman warrior Callisto, who is bent on revenge for the burning death of her family by evil Xena years ago. One of my top ten faves of all times...

"Is There A Doctor In The House?"
Xena attempts to end the Mitoan-Thessalian War while trying to use her medical knowledge to save the lives of numerous casualties, including the critically wounded Gabrielle

I was elated to finally receive Xena's Season 1 DVD box set, but was concerned due to all of the bad reviews regarding the picture quality. After some tests, I thought I'd share my experiences.

I found *absolutely nothing* to complain about when watching the discs on a TV with a brand-new, high-end, progressive scan DVD player. The picture was as crystal clear as any other DVDs made from 16mm film (i.e. Buffy Season 1) that I have seen.

Now, watching these DVDs on my laptop was a different story. Yes, they were grainy. Yes, it was so awful, it was hard to watch. I can see how people became so angry if this is what they saw when seeing these for the first time! For comparison's sake, I tried Buffy Season 1 on my laptop, and while it was also grainy compared to viewing on TV, it wasn't as bad as Xena.

So, I would say, that if you plan on watching these solely on a computer or maybe an older DVD player, you may want to think carefully before you purchase. But, if you have a higher-end system and plan to watch on your TV, I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

Also--the 5-channel digital sound was amazing! Woohoo! Xena at last!!

This is a review based on what I can see when I did a side by side video comparison. As for the show 5/5 :D
Thought I might just share this so that users may know about the differences.

The two DVD compared are the new release DVD by Universal Pictures and the out of print Anchor Bay release. These two DVDs were tested using a full HD TV (like it's really going to matter anyway).


Video Quality:

Well, to be honest, I can't really see any major difference. Okay, there's a bit of differences. The universal release is much brighter than the anchor bay release; they also added some blur effects. For some scenes, the blurriness and brightness seems to make it lot better and it looks appropriate; however, most of the time, the anchor bay release seemed much more defined and real. As for the graininess, it's pretty much the same.

DVD Menu:

When it comes to DVD menus, the anchor bay release is a lot better. The universal release showed only the logo and went straight to the menu. Conversely, the anchor bay release had this intro before revealing the menu. The menu of the universal release was just a still picture of Xena, similar to the one on the cover. The anchor bay one has motion pictures in the background and cool effects. One of the best things about the universal menu is the ability to play all, aside from that, nothing really fancy at all.

Special Feature:

The winner for this category can be debated. For me, the universal release wins. Yes, the universal pictures has no behind the scenes or any video or audio commentary, neither did the anchor bay. The anchor provided pictures and a CD that had character bios and a screensaver. But the best thing about the universal pictures release is subtitles. Yep, that's right, Xena finally has subtitles!

Packaging:

Anchor Bay wins this category. I really love the cool book style the anchor bay release has. The universal pictures is just a standard DVD case; although, the pictures on it are good. The disks of the anchor bay release has pictures on it, but the universal release only had a few printings and showed more metal. This category can also be debated. Some people, like me, likes the whole fancy aesthetic book style kind of thing and some people like simplicity and portability.


I can't really compare the audio, because as one plays, I completely forget about the other. I think that's everything. Have fun shopping.

I give 5 stars for the tv shows themselves. Xena is one of the greatest tv shows of all time.

I have compared the new DVD set to the original release and see absolutely no change in the picture quality. It still looks grainy and full of artifacts. I was hoping that the new release would be remastered better but it isn't. If you have the original release of the DVD, I see no reason to buy this new set. If you do not own it, what are you waiting for? Xena rules!

I picked up this collection, since Im a big Xena fan, and immediately noticed the problems that people were complaining about for the graininess, and I also had some blurring problems on character's skins while watching the DVD on my 10 year old GE 25" TV and using my PS2 as a DVD player. I knew this might change when I got my new TV setup of a Sony 32"HV600 HDTV and a Panasonic DVD Player/Recorder EM50 with component cable hook-up. Sure enough the blurriness problem went away, and though you could still see some graininess in some of the scenes, it wasnt that bad, and maybe attributed to what film the original season first used til midway through the second season. So, many of the problems might just be what you are using to watch the series. It is unfortunate that they couldnt have cleaned up this collection better but I still found the DVD's worth owning.

After over a week of cycling through Anchor Bay representatives, most of which were unresponsive, (no response to emails or voice mail), I was shuffled over to a company called Crest National, the actual manufacturers of the DVDs. Here I spoke with a technical rep who understood the problem, and his explanation made perfect sense. The reason why the Xena Season 1 box set has poor picture quality often referred to as "grainy" is do to that season being shot using 16mm film. The representative then went on to state that the following seasons (2,3,4,etc.) were all shot using 35mm, a much higher quality film. He promised me that the next box sets would reflect this with much more appealing picture quality.
I have heard reports of other versions (U.K.?) of Xena on DVD that were equally poor in quality. The final question in my mind that needs answering is: Are all the seasons of these other versions poor in picture quality, or just the first season? Because if it is only the first season that is poor, than all can be aquitted to it being shot using 16mm. If all the seasons are poor, then it still leaves a question in my mind if the Anchor Bay version will actually improve in the future like the Crest rep said, or was he just BSing me. Either way, I'm 75% sure that the quality of season one that we see from Anchor Bay is as good as it will ever get. I'm fairly confident that the future releases (season 2 coming in September...why the long wait?) will show dramatic difference in picture quality. Having said all that, I think that I will hold on to this version of season one, when before I was ready to return it. If all the rest of the seasons turn out with better picture quality and the same brilliant packaging, then I can let the first seasons short-comings slide just so I can have the complete set.
One HUGE concern I have now is, if each season will be released 6 months apart from each other (according to Crest National), then the entire Xena collection will take over 3 years to be available!!! If you are a true fan of Xena and believe this to be unacceptable, I suggest bombarding Anchor Bay with emails demanding a faster turn around.

Yes, it is true that season 1 was shot using 16mm film, and this film is of lesser resolution than 35mm and thus very grainy. It is also true that if one compresses such a source, one will get compression artifacts that will make the picture look even worse. However, the job of the DVD authors is to provide OPTIMAL compression, so the picture is as close to the original as possible. And if the DVD is to be digitally mastered, the picture quality has to be improved upon (not deteriorated!) to make it look as best as possible. There are ways to do this with any film source, if enough time is given. I have seen things restored from such poor quality that it was hard to believe. And besides, the time it took to get this DVD set out eliminates lack of time as an excuse.

Otherwise the DVD is not bad. The sound is adequate, and the packaging is nice. However, the picture quality is what is important. I only hope that this set will get a re-release so that the fans of this exellent show will not have to settle for this. I recommend that all complaints be taken to Sam Raimi directly.

Xena Not Dead!

The seven piece picture gatefold is done quite nice, each with a picture from a highlight of the episode on each disc. The entire set is housed in a slip case with a picture of Xena that showcases her look of danger and excitement and is a nice touch in introducing the earlier stories of Xena's adventures. The menus are quite interactive. Each episode selection has a moving picture from the episode itself to help guide to viewer. The background shows fire in motion, and any menu done in motion is definately better than the static ones. The original Xena theme, with all the lyrics plays in the background, is a nice touch. Each episode is broken up in chapters, again with thumbnails to help the viewer. The picture quality, as many fans have pointed out, can be quite horrid, especially for the first three quarters of the season's episodes. The amount of grain present in the video is so great that it literally seems like you are watching the show through a veil. As a result, the Mpeg-2 compression can not handle this level of grain and the picture quality suffers; every minute detail in the picture becomes 'blocky'. Motion artifacts are even worst, it's like watching a scene disolving into another. I watched the dvds on my flat screen HDTV, which has a feature that doubles the level of detail, but it also doubles the amount of video noise, grain and motion artifacts. On the plus side, effort was put into improving the brightness and color of the video and I can tell you that it really helped when it came to dark interior scenes or bright outdoor ones. The dark scenes were improved with low-light details and outdoor scenes produced the lush, saturated look of New Zealand's greenery. Hope is not totally lost though, as I found that by the time you get to episode 19, 'Altared States', the level of video noise and digital artifacts had decreased substantially; it was only noticable during scenes that involved lots of movement. Things improved further in episode 20, 'Tie's That Bind'. I can honestly say that, except for the small amount of video noise associated with most tv produced shows, there was virtually no grain and digital artifacting of any kind. With these improvements, they lead me to think of one of three conclusions: 1)The original video masters were not taken care of properly (a very common problem for most shows produced before the DVD era) and this is especially true for Season 1 of many shows; or 2)There was not enough space on the dvd for the video to be encoded at a 'healthy' rate (for example, Warner decided to encode six episodes of 'Friends' on a dual layered dvd, which contains only about 150 minutes of video, allowing a high bit-rate for the best presentation, versus Xena, containing four episodes of 300 minutes of video on each dual layered disc, of which it probably had problems of video noise and grain already inherent in the video masters); or 3)Who ever supervised the video transfers (it was neither Rob Tapert or Sam Rami, they were not involved in this set in any way) just didn't do a good job. Either way, with episode 19 showing a good potential of things to come, perhaps the video quality will improve by the time Season 2 is released. Most people know that this set Anchor Bay released is the duplicate of what Davis-Panzer Merchandising Corp. released last year on their own web site. Whether Anchor Bay improved the video and the audio of this set is unsure, and we will know when Season 2 is released. The audio on the other hand is great, for a tv show. Remixed in 5.1, the sound is a lot more expansive than when it was shown on cable. Strange thing is that a couple of episodes are mixed in full 448kbps, whereas most others are mixed in 384kbps. Extras are minimal, a cd-rom is included to provide the viewer with some actor and director bios, a trivia, a screensaver and the Xena Chronicles, which catagorizes each character on Season 1. A small photo gallery in included on Disc 1. As mentioned before, there was no involvement from anybody that was directly related to the show when this box set was produced, as the rights were sold to Davis-Panzer Merchandising Corp. However, Anchor Bay has stated that they will try to get Rob and Sam, and as well as lead actresses Lucy and Renee to participate on commentaries on future seasons. [On a perculiar note, for some reason, my set came with a 7th dvd (in additional to the cd-rom) that contained the 60 minute documentary 'What You Didn't Know About Xena - a featurette from the directors of Season 1', and I can tell you, it's quite informative, if nostalgic].
On a side note, I viewed my original 'Xena Trilogy' dvd from Univeral and the video quality was excellent, with not a slightest hint of dirt, noise or artifacts in sight. The three episode arc was encoded at a higher bit rate though (191 minutes on a dual layered disc), which explains the great presentation, but it does not explain why the newer, later Season 1 of Xena could look so much inferior to its original successor. Perhaps Univeral retained the superior video masters and 'lent' Davis-Panzer the less the stellar ones? Let's hope that Season 2 will look much better and beginning with Season 3, Anchor Bay will ensures that the show will be presented in Anamorphic Widescreen.