Release Date: March 24, 2015
Episodes Featured:
It's weird to think that a volume featuring my all-time favorite short, Last Clear Chance, and an episode that is so immensely chill and enjoyable as Hercules could be dogged down as much as Volume XXXII is, but for my money both San Francisco International and Space Travelers are among the most boring episodes of the series. Even Radar Secret Service, which is coupled with Last Clear Chance, is a fairly inert movie as well. That episode has stronger riffing to elevate it, but the movie selection in this volume is a bit of a dog. Hercules does the heavy lifting, because it's the most lively and fun film/episode in the set, which I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that he is the strongest man who ever lived!
Average Rating: 2.25
The audio and video is pretty good on this release. Bonus features include a making of featurette for Space Travelers called Marooned: A Forgotten Odyssey and a career overview on producer Joseph E. Levine called Barnum of Baltimore. MST related features include Sampo Speaks!, which is an interview with Satellite News contributor Chris Cornell, and MSTUK, which shows Trace and Frank touring in England. Frank also contributes intros for Space Travelers and Hercules and there are also trailers for both of those films as well.
The box art is Shout's basic stock cover, featuring the MST logo in the upper right hand corner and theater seats at the bottom, while the roman numeral "XXXII" is painted in yellow in the center. But as usual, the real artwork are the individual case covers on the inside by Steve Vance. Radar Secret Service features Crow and Tom Servo as secret service agents in dapper outfits with guns at the ready as a radar tower looms above them. San Francisco International features features Crow as the villainous priest holding lady Tom Servo hostage as airplanes fly above the airport behind them. Hercules features Crow as Hercules, whipping a chain at an army in one had and holding Tom Servo as Iole in the other. Space Travelers has Crow as an astronaut in a space capsule reaching for astronaut Tom Servo, who is adrift in space.
Disc art is also Shout's stock design, with episode logos against a starry backdrop. The disc menus feature a bit of a change-up from Shout's norm though, as they've dropped the computer generated menus they've been commissioning since the 20th Anniversary Edition set and instead employ the same basic idea of mini-skits using audio from the episodes, but this time they are performed by miniature puppets. It's not a drastic change and they're kinda cute. I think the CG menus are more expressive, though these can be charming. Radar Secret Service features Crow and Tom Servo communicating with a radar dish through conventional and unconventional means. San Francisco International has Crow and Servo jamming out with the hippie from the film. Hercules features the demigod harassing Crow and Servo while they're playing Connect 4. Space Travelers has Crow and Servo as Houston control trying to communicate with Gene Hackman in space.
Like Volume 2 and Volume XXX before it, there are some aspects to this volume that help lift it up from being a skippable collection. The best corners of it feature's the show at its most lovable, but it's a bit of a slog as a whole, which makes it low on the totem pole of MST volumes. Last Clear Chance and Hercules are definite recommends from me though that I feel every MSTie has to watch at least once.
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