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DVD They Might Be Giants - Direct from Brooklyn
The wit and whimsy of John Linnell and John Flansburgh, collectively known as They Might Be Giants, is on display in this thoroughly entertaining video compilation. Twelve of the group's videos (dating from the mid-'80s to 1998) are here, filled with all manner of craziness and looking and sounding great. But the real prize may be the two clips from Tiny Toon Adventures, marrying TMBG's silly but also smart and clever music with the cartoon series' riotous animation; the twin Giants actually didn't write "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," a "Puttin' On the Ritz" soundalike that's also one of the 12 main videos (with different animation), but it fits their style to a T. All of this quirkiness and freneticism can get a bit wearying after a while, but in small doses it's lots of fun. DVD extras include Linnell and Flansburgh's straightforward, informative audio commentary; there are also bonus audio tracks, a live video, and more. --Sam Graham
Review(s): DVD They Might Be Giants - Direct from Brooklyn
An excellent DVD for an excellent band. Just a few problems.
Well, I was very excited when Direct From Brooklyn was released on VHS, but I did not purchase it knowing the DVD would eventually come out. And it did. A few years after the VHS, but who cares. The DVD is overall great, animated menus (in a way), extras, and of course, John Linnell and John Flansburgh. OK, now the special features. All the official videos are there except Boss Of Me, the Malcom In The Middle theme song. Which was a great video, but it's a minor loss. Again, it has all of the videos plus the two Tiny Toon Adventures videos ("Particle Man" and "Istanbul"), and a new live video of "Why Does The Sun Shine?" from a 2002 tour. Each video's audio track is in Dolby Pro Logic Surround, which is old technology. Also, every video, including the bonus videos have commentary from the two John's in the background. Plus, there are three bonus unreleased songs that are audio-only tracks, a trailer for the TMBG independent film, "Gigantic," and three DVD-ROM only home videos of their songs, recorded by John Linell. I did find a lot of technical problems with the DVD, though. A few of the videos are low quality, and all of them are grainy, a few don't have commentary when you go to the commentary tracks, and some selections on the menu don't do what they are supposed to. For example, pressing "Play All" on the main menu only plays Doctor Worm, and brings you back to the main menu. Plus, during some videos, the screen flickers black a few times. That's about it. Well, that's my review of this DVD. Overall, I think it still deserves five stars because of how great the band is, and all of the songs on here. Just ignore a few problems, and you have a perfect DVD. Well, almost perfect, anyway.
Oh, how paltry MTV looks now!
Jonathan, you might want to check your DVD player, because I had none of the problems you had -- "Play All" DOES play all, and all of the videos have commentary. A few of the older videos are grainy, but I suspect that's more due to the source material, and I doubt they'd go to the trouble of professionally touching up and restoring them.
I don't know why they bothered to put the Quicktime "home movies" on the disc. I thought it was odd that they didn't make them available as regular DVD "special features" videos, but then I found out -- they're VERY low quality, and they're only about a minute each -- just snippets of the songs. There could have been much more in the way of extras, but, fortunately, there's a treasure trove of extras available on the _Gigantic_ DVD, and the ones that are included here -- the "Tiny Toons" clips, the "fiery" live performance, and the audio tracks -- are not on the _Gigantic_ disc. Plus, the "commentary" for the "Snail Shell" video is actually another song! Overall, this is a great video collection for TMBG fans. (By the way, I'm sure that the reason "Boss of Me" is not included is that it's owned by Fox, so perhaps they couldn't get the rights to it, or didn't think it was worth it, or maybe they're saving it for the next collection...)
Great collection but...
The collection is great but on the John & John commentary, John Linnell is extremely hard to hear which is extremely dissapointing.
Related DVD's They Might Be Giants - Direct from Brooklyn
Watching Gigantic (A Tale of Two Johns) is like stepping into a delightful alternate universe where wit and ingenuity are valued over sexual display and bombast. This energetic documentary explores the quirky world of They Might Be Giants, surely one of the most distinctive rock bands of all time. Through interviews with the band's creative duo, John Flansburgh and John Linnell, as well as concert clips, video snippets, and interviews with commentators and musicians like Ira Glass, Sarah Vowell, Frank Black, Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart, and the gloriously deranged Syd Straw, Gigantic tracks the irresistible rise of They Might Be Giants to the curious cult niche they occupy with panache and aplomb. The movie ably captures the band's off-kilter humor while also... More Info about this DVD Director(s): AJ Schnack DVD Release Date: Released the 18 November 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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