Release Date: November 25th, 2014
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Features the following episodes:
Jungle Goddess
The Painted Hills
The Screaming Skull
Squirm
Be it early or belated, Happy Thanksgiving eveyone! And the perfect way to celebrate is by watching some turkeys on Mystery Science Theater through their Turkey Day marathon! And if you can't make it, hold your own with this Shout Factory collection of four episodes, each with their own custom Turkey Day intro starring Joel Hodgson, with Trace Beaulieu as Crow and J. Elvis Weinstein as Tom Servo. The episodes in this set rate pretty well in my opinion, with The Screaming Skull being my personal favorite of the set. With Squirm coming in second. I think I favor the Mike episodes of the four featured, though Jungle Goddess is pretty solid as well. The Painted Hills lingers a bit behind for me, though it has its fair share of laughs.
Average Rating (scale of 1 to 4): 3
Episode presentation is pretty good, with solid audio and video all around. Special features skew Turkey Day related, with intros for each episode, a retrospective of the holiday marathon, and intros and commercials for the three Turkey Day marathons Best Brains created material for. There is a mild disappointment that non-BBI Turkey Day intros weren't included, but it's understandable and easy to forgive.
Movie related special features include a documentary called This Film May Kill You: Making The Screaming Skull, which documents the production of the picture. Furthermore there is an interview with Joe Clokey, son of Gumby creator Art Clokey, about Gumby and an interview with Don Scardino about the making of Squirm. Also included are theatrical trailers for The Screaming Skull and Squirm.
The set was initially produced with a special tin packaging, though it came with the option of a cardboard sleeve. Both maintained the same cover art of Crow and Tom Servo dressed as pilgrims surrounded by turkeys, sitting down to a Thanksgiving meal of film stock. Like most Shout Factory sets, each disc is given its own plastic case with its own artwork. Jungle Goddess features Crow as a white goddess tying up adventurer Tom Servo to a tree. The Painted Hills has Crow pushing old prospector Tom Servo to his death as Lassie looks on. The Screaming Skull sees both Crow and Servo peaking out of the eye-holes of a giant skull. Squirm features Crow and Servo being devoured by worms. Disc art is standard for Shout Factory, an episode logo against a starry backdrop.
Disc menus are typical Shout creativity, which sees audio clips from the episode used as CG animated Crow and Tom Servo stumble through different scenarios. In Jungle Goddess the Bots lead a white goddess through the wilderness, shoot at coconuts, and see wild turkeys and lions in the jungle. The Painted Hills has them recreating a scene from the movie where the Bots try to poison a little boy but Lassie saves the day. The Screaming Skull features the duo harassing the titular skull at a graveyard where they try to catch it. Squirm has Crow and Servo out fishing with two characters from the film where they are harassed by "Squirmy the Squirm Sprite."
With a good selection of episodes and some great bonus features, I don't see any reason why MSTies wouldn't have Volume XXXI. If you haven't yet done so, I say pick it up. Definitely by Thanksgiving!
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