Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume 3 DVD Retrospective


Release Date:  April 8, 2003
Re-Release Date: September 27, 2016


Episodes included:

Also featuring:

We have Movie Sign on another volume of Mystery Science Theater on DVD!  Like the previous volume, this set features one episode I put on a pedestal and two that weigh it down.  In this case, I prefer watching Unearthly and Atomic Brain over both Pod People and Angels' Revenge, which makes this the preferable set for me.  The issue with this volume is that Side Hackers is a rough one for some fans, due to aggressive subject matter.  Personally, I think the episode is hilarious, but that's just me.  It's also a bit of an odd man out though, since both Atomic Brain and Unearthly are dour mad scientist movies, while Side Hackers is a gritty biker film.

One thing's for certain, this set has some killer shorts!  Not only is Shorts Volume 2 the most consistent short compilation, but as much as I can knock Unearthly and Atomic Brain, their shorts are great.  If you love a good selection of shorts, this is the set for you!  But if you're only in it for the episodes, then this is another one of those pesky volumes that only features three and burned the fourth disc on something inconsequential.

Average Rating (Episodes only, out of 4):  2.667

Picture quality is pretty good across the board, with great audio too.  The one problem is that Rhino accidentally cut the stinger off of Atomic Brain, which was also the case for the Rhino VHS.  Bonus features are pretty interesting this time around, as they encompass B-roll footage of the host segments for each episode.  I, for one, find seeing the filmmaking process for the sketches pretty interesting to watch, and the alternative takes usually keep me at rapt attention to different gag deliveries.  I find that Side Hackers and Unearthly are of more interest, because they have better host segments, but overall I think these make welcome companions to the Poopie! blooper reels, if nothing else.

Rhino's package theme is the theater doors (Mike's theater doors, specifically), which makes this a pretty cool looking set.  I believe early sets may have had a fun pop-up door design, but my set does not.  If anyone has any information on how the initial run of sets may differ.  But if it did, the basic cover is the same picture of Mike's final theater hatch.  Pulling the interior set, the fold out cover has Mike's number "6" door, while the opening interior sees the silhouettes in the theater, watching a starry backdrop on the screen with a rocket that says "Volume 3" flying across it.  Opening this interior set to the discs themselves, we find that the art behind each disc shows off the Hexfield viewscreen with a different photo behind each.  Atomic Brain sits in front of a view of the Earth from space.  Unearthly sits in front of a photo of Crow sitting in a rocket in space.  Side Hackers sits in front of a pic of an upside down Gypsy floating above what I presume is supposed to be Uranus (the planet is blue, but the patterns on the surface of the planet lead me to believe it might be Jupiter painted blue).  Shorts Volume 2 sits in front of a photo of Tom Servo floating in space, connected to a space shuttle.

Disc art is all the same, which is a basic silver disc with a transparent MST logo.  Menus are a different story.  Atomic Brain's menu has the chamber from the film with character stills popping up in it (including Crow and Servo thrown in for good measure).  Unearthly has grainy shot of the movie's house, with a disembodied head of a beast man hovering to the left with glowing eyes.  Side Hackers has clips of the film playing in black and white projected behind footage of Joel playing "Only Love Pads the Film" from the ending host segment.  Shorts Volume 2 is in a classroom, with "Shorts 2" written on a chalk board, and on a projector to the right clips from the shorts play.  As usual for Rhino menus, each features the theater silhouettes at the bottom of the screen, with Joel and the Bots watching the menus, even in the case of Atomic Brain, which is a Mike episode.  The sole exception is Side Hackers, in which Joel has been removed from the silhouettes.

Years later, Shout Factory re-released the set, with solid audio and video for Unearthly.  Video is problematic for Side Hackers, which is considerably softer and lower resolution.  Atomic Brain has flawed video as well, but not consistently bothersome, and at least the stinger is restored here.  B-roll footage is retained for this release, but it also includes an interview with Side Hackers star Ross Hagan, who relates stories of his career.  There are also MST Hour bumpers for Unearthly.

The packaging for this release is the traditional slim case for re-release sets.  Disc art is the standard starry backdrops with the titles of the episodes, while the menus all have the default starry backdrop with silhouetted theater seats at the bottom of the screen.

The long and short of it is that extra bonus features are nice, and Ross Hagan's interview is pretty good and all, but I think most would buy this set for the episodes themselves.  If one wants the best presentation of these episodes on home video, Rhino's set is the one to have, missing stinger aside.  But if that stinger is important to you, seek out the re-issue.  Ideally, the best aspects of each set would be combined into an ultimate version of this set, but we can't have both apparently.

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