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158 of 166 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You buy "The Chosen Collection" so your kids will leave your "BtVS" DVDs alone, November 20, 2005
My premise here is that by the time all seven seasons of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" were released on DVD the vast majority of fans who were inclined to do so had gone out and bought all seven sets. I am sure there are a few frugal fans who were waiting for something along the lines of "The Chosen Collection," but they would be relatively aware (something akin to being a vampire with a soul). Of course I had all of the episodes of "BtVS" (and "Angel") on video tape (even made up my own special boxes with cover art and episode synopses on the back) before I went out and bought all of the DVD sets, but I had occasion to buy "The Chosen Collection" as well.
That is because my oldest daughter is away at college and she was not allowed to take my "BtVS" DVD sets with her. I had purchased the first season for all three of my kids (two are away at college so it is not like they are all in one place) and was intending to eventually get them the other six but "The Chosen Collection" is too good of a deal to pass up and not just because of the price. This one big red and white box takes up a lot less space (a bit more than a third). That is because when you open it up inside you will find wallet-like cases for each of the seven seasons. So it seemed an appropriate gift for someone turning 21 who writes about Buffy whenever possible in her college classes.
I have covered each of the seven season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" elsewhere, so here I want to talk about the "EXCLUSIVE, NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN EXTRAS" included on the 40th DVD in "The Chosen Collection" (Yes, the other 39 discs are the same produced for the individual series sets):
"Back to the Hellmouth: A Conversation with Creators and Cast" is a casual 54-minute conversation amidst candles and old books with Whedon, Marti Noxon, Doug Petrie, Nicholas Brendon, Emma Caulfield, Danny Strong, David Fury, Jane Espenson, Charisma Carpenter, Drew Z. Greenberg. Topics covered include first Buffy moments (for Joss it all goes back to a scene in Invisible Girl), favorite Buffy moment, and assorted behind the scenes stories, all with choice inserts from episodes (e.g., Nick in a Speedo) and piano music. Noxon does a good job of getting off topic to interesting things (e.g., Joss writing the musical during his down time), but the fact that writers talk more than actors is hardly surprising. This is the best extra, what with finding out how Fury got Giles fired ends up getting Allyson Hannigan married and all, plus how being a mid-season replacement allowed Whedon to make the first twelve episodes before their aired so that the WB was denied the opportunity to tinker with the show. There is enough new stuff here for those who do not pick up this set to make friends with someone who has to check this out at least once.
"Buffy Cast and Crew: Favorite Episodes" is short and to the point, although the choices are basically made by those listed above with a few other additions. However, if you are waiting for Sarah Michelle Gellar to weigh in on any of these featurettes you will be totally disappointed. Hannigan only popped up once, which is not enough for me and I suspect many others as well, but cast members Amber Benson and Danny Strong both speak well for the series and David Greenwalt shows up as a key talking head as well.
"Buffy: An Unlikely Role Model" begins with Joss Whedon's explicit intention of creating a role model and has the cast and crew talking about why it actually worked (personal actions are key) without getting into ivory tower explanations.
"Breaking Barriers: It's Not a Chick Fight Thing" focuses on Buffy stunt double Sophia Crawford and Stunt Coordinator Jeff Pruitt and details how she got the gig (she had good kinetics according to Joss) and what they tried to do in terms of developing Buffy's martial arts fighting style, with some of Crawford's best fights (e.g., "Anne") caught by behind the scenes cameras. So you really get to see familiar things in a new way with this one.
"Love Bites: Relationships in the Buffyverse" looks at most of the major romantic entanglements as things went from metaphorical sex to the real thing for Buffy and her friends. Vampires are always rich in veiled sexuality and the show combined that with the imperative that teenagers need to be punished for sex (see "Friday the 13th," et al.). There are a few insightful comments from a few actors and writers on this featurette.
"Evil Fiends" is a brief look at not so much the individual Big Bads but rather at the philosophy on the show of turning teenage problems into tangible monsters. Nothing really new here and it is so short it hardly seemed worth including and ends the bonus disc on a weak note.
But then I am hardly arguing that this one disc justifies picking up this set if you already have the complete "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," because it does not. I do think it is an ideal present to stop family and friends from always want to borrow your sets, although I can also see where you might decide to buy this one for yourself and let the kiddies (or whoever) take your old ones (I kept those but made sure I got to see the bonus disc, twice, before she takes it back to college). Of course, now the next generation of fans are going to want the "The Angel Collection."
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37 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The story of BUFFY, one of the greatest shows ever, September 30, 2006
The original idea for BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER came to creator Joss Whedon when he was thinking about classic horror films. He noticed that films constantly included clueless blonde victims who wandered into an alley at night and were swiftly killed by whatever evil nasty was lurking there. If the blonde wasn't killed, she always needed a well-muscled male hero to save her. Whedon thought it would be far more interesting if the blonde went into the alley, but wasn't killed. Instead, she would soundly kick the evil nasty's [...]. Whedon wrote a film based around this concept. The clueless girl became a blonde, Southern Californian high schooler who also happened to be the one girl in all the world with the strength and skill to hunt and kill vampires. The idea was quirky enough to get picked up and a film was made. However, much meddling on the part of the director and the studio turned the film into a hoaky cheesefest that was nothing like Whedon's original vision. The film flopped at the box office and Whedon thought that was the end of the road for his quirky little idea.
However, there was something about the movie that caught the attention of the president of the tiny WB network. The network had so far only found success with the overly-sentimental family drama 7th HEAVEN and was more willing to take a chance on something unusual than the four major networks were. Gail Berman called Whedon and asked that he revitalize and rework the idea for television. After seeing the unaired pilot he had made to shop around the idea to networks, she agreed to a 12 episode order. And with that, one of the greatest television shows ever created was born.
The TV version of BUFFY is very different from the film version. He kept some of the basic plot elements of the film around as canon for the show (chief among, the fact that Buffy burned down the gym of her high school in Los Angeles) but has always stated that, for the sake of the show, the film does not exist. Instead, we pick up in the two-part pilot episode with Buffy Summers, played by the fantastic Sarah Michelle Gellar, moving to Sunnydale, California with her mother. Her parents have divorced and Buffy has been kicked out of her high school because of the aforementioned fire. It is the middle of her sophomore year of high school and Buffy has already been called as the next Vampire Slayer in an ancient line of female warriors blessed and cursed with all the skills required for hunting and killing vampires, and other demons. However, Buffy is so upset about the negative effect slaying has had on her life, that she decides to give it up.
It is only when she is confronted with the truths about her new town that Buffy gets back into the game as a Slayer. Sunnydale rests on a "Hellmouth"- a literal gateway to other, nastier dimenstions, and for this reason it is a center of mystical energy which draws all sorts of evil beings to it. For this reason, there is a seemingly endless supply of demons and ghouls for Buffy to fight. However, she won't be doing it along, because she quickly makes friends with a couple of outsiders (brainy Willow and snarky Xander) and meets her new Watcher, Rupert Giles, who has the task of training and leading her in her duties as the Slayer. Also in the mix right at the beginning are the acid-tongued and popular Cordelia and the mysterious Angel.
That's just the basic opening premise for BUFFY. It is a show that, on the surface, is about a rag-tag group of outsiders who must band together to fight forces of evil we can't even imagine. However, the things that made BUFFY a true delight are its sense of humor and its heart. The show has its own sound, based around the way that Joss Whedon writes, and "Buffyspeak" became instantly recognizable as a blend of snarky sarcasm, witty pop culture references and unexpected turns of phrase. The show is smart and fast, which allows the campier elements to be fun and not hoky and the darker elements to feel unique. Along with comedy, this horror show also mixes in romance and drama leading to some truly poignant and heartbreaking moments between the richly drawn cast of characters. The series darkened as it progressed, with bigger evils to face and less and less hope for a "normal life" for our heroine Buffy, but it always remained a story about friendship and family.
All seven seasons of this show are phenomenal. Each episode crackles with energy, smart writing and cast chemistry and the mythology of the show deepens and matures as BUFFY ages. Villains are allowed to be multi-faceted and three-dimensional (witness the sunshiny exterior of the brilliant evil Mayor of season three and the twisted romance between season two vampires Spike and Drusilla). The main cast expands to include a wonderful array of characters that include a laconic werewolf guitarist (played perfectly by Seth Green) and a straight-forward and hilarious ex-Vengeance Demon. However, the core four Scooby Gang members of Buffy, WIllow, Xander and Giles always remain the focus as they move through the perils of Sunnydale and real life together. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is hilarious, eye-opening, genre-bending, heart-breaking, intelligent, romantic, amazing television and if you've never seen it before you are in for a glorious treat. Whatever you've heard about this show, in actuality it is worse and its better and it is truly one of the most amazing things to ever grace the television screen.
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328 of 382 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The widescreen and Full screen issue (UK vs. US), September 27, 2005
I keep running into people who want the UK version cause it's widescreen. Guys, it's very simple - not always widesceen is better. At Buffy - Joss wanted us to see it in Full screen - not widescreen - it's very simple. The widescreen contains more elements that was not intended to be seen !
Here is a note from JOSS about it:
No doubt you are looking over this scrumptious BUFFY package and exclaiming "No @#$%ing letterboxing ? Whutzat ? GYPPED !" Possibly you are breaking things. Please calm down. The fabulous episodes of BUFFY (and that one crappy one, sorry about that, seemed really cool when we wrote it...) were not shot in a widescreen format. They were shot in the TV 4 by 3 ratio. Now I'm a letterbox fanatic, but not just because I crave th' wide. I want to see the whole screen, as framed by the director. The BUFFY's I (and others) shot were framed for traditional TVs. Adding space to the sides simply for the sake of trying to look more cinematic would betray the very exact mise-en-scene I was trying to create. I am a purist, and this is the purest way to watch BUFFY. I have resisted the effort to letterbox BUFFY from the start and always will, because that is not the show we shot. This is. So enjoy ! Stop breaking things. You're getting the best presentation of -- let's face it -- the best Television Drama since MATCHGAME '79. Bye for now !
Sincerely,
Joss Whedon
p.s.
To the people who got hurt by the Double Dip - get over it ! almost any Tv Show or movie that come out on DVD gets double dipped today ! that's life - the studios want to make more money. I really don't know what you want from Joss. would you prefer that the 7 seasons would not be available until now?
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