game over dvd

THE SHOW: Sold to UPN as in attempt to win over young male viewers lost to the burgeoning video game phenomenon, the creative team behind Game Over obviously had more honorable ambitions. The six episodes presented here (one, Monkey Dearest, never made it on air) show a great deal of potential, most of which went unfulfilled when the expensive series wasn’t renewed. But the high-concept ideas, whip-smart humor and (mostly) endearing characters are memorialized for your enjoyment in Anchor Bay’s 2-disc set. Billed as a “behind-the-game” 3D animated sitcom, the series follows the Smashenburn family, led by Rip and Raquel, working parents who just happen to punch the clock for your favorite videogames. Rip is a perpetual loser on the Gran Turismo circuit while Raquel earns a living acquiring historical relics Tomb Raider-style. This lifestyle is hard on their kids, Alice and Billy, who, in between their own 64-bit adventures, desperately crave their parents’ attention. If you’re thinking this sounds an awful lot like Brad Bird’s The Incredibles, you’ve won yourself an Atari 2600. In fact, co-creator David Goetsch admits they pursued Bird’s talents early on in the pitch process (an offer which the director turned down to create his own superhero success story). And the central dilemma is the same for both families: how to balance a ridiculously dangerous and time-consuming professional life with the ridiculously time-consuming challenge of raising a family. While The Incredibles used the rich world of comic books as a backdrop, Game Over is set in the hip, sleek but ultimately less dramatic world of video games. The Smashenburn’s pet, Turbo, is a foul-mouthed refugee from the Nintendo universe...their neighbors are ninjas...the kid’s classmates include the buxom girl volleyball team from “Dead or Alive” as well as various voodoo shaman and zombies. Being well-past the age of target demographic, I’m sure I missed fifty-percent of the inside jokes. But the show’s limited success rides on the fact that you really don’t need to know anything about videogames to understand these characters. What you do have to like is fast-paced Simpsons/Family Guy humor, dialogue dripping with sarcasm and a slightly rough-around-the-edges feel. Game Over really finds it groove by episode four (“All Work & All Play”) in which Raquel finds helping with the school play more difficult than her day job as Rip deals with his feelings of inadequacy as an underperforming “man-of-the-house.” The talented voice-work by leads Patrick Warburton (The Tick and Seinfeld) and Lucy Liu add a snap to the already above average scripts. And for a show built around the shallow, showy world of gaming, Game Over delivers a surprising amount of depth. THE FEATURES: Split over 2-discs, Anchor Bay adds a few brief extras to sweeten the pot besides routine character bios and crew photos. The Trivia Game challenges you to a simple quiz that unlocks an all-too short promotional piece. Watch Closely replays certain sequences from the show and points out the inside jokes you might have missed. And finally, a progression reel splits the show into various states of completion, from storyboard to animatic to finished product.