Product Description

Movie DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17781 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 2008-09-16
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Dimensions: .55 pounds
• Running time: 480 minutes

Amazon.com
Contrary to Duckman's worst fears, the "private dick/family man" is not doomed to "live an unnoticed, unappreciated life," not with the DVD release of this cult fave animated series based on Everett Peck's underground comic. For four seasons, Duckman nested comfortably in the USA Network's "Up All Night" programming block, its politically incorrect misanthropy given full voice by Jason Alexander as a character whose cluelessness, insensitivity, deviancy, and boorishness are his best qualities. Who is Duckman? No one special, he laments, "I'm just one more duck detective who works with a pig and lives with the twin sister of his dead wife, three sons on two bodies and a comatose mother-in-law who's got so much gas she's a fire hazard." As with Alexander's signature Seinfeld character, George Costanza, Duckman has few redeeming qualities. He's an incompetent detective whose few acts of heroism are inadvertent (in one episode, he is sent flying after groping two women and unwittingly lands on a Presidential attacker). He rants and raves on everything from "clean" comics to the commercialism of TV news. His catchphrases are equally obnoxious: "What the hell are you starin' at?" and "Homana, homana, how wah." This could get tiresome after awhile, but what buoys Duckman are its inventive and vividly colored animation (produced by the folks who birthed Rugrats, Klasky Csupo), sharp and clever writing, and virtuoso voice work by Alexander and company, including Nancy Travis as Duckman's braying sister-in-law Beatrice, Dweezil Zappa as Duckman's dim son, Ajax, and E. J. Daily and the late Dana Hill as his other conjoined-headed son, Charles and Mambo, and Gregg Berger as breakout character Cornfed Pig, Duckman's brilliant porcine partner whose deadpan just-the-facts delivery suggests Jack Webb, but who insists his "spiritual forerunner" is Jack Lord. Duckman can be hit and miss, and some of its satiric targets (reality shows, fact-based TV movies, clip episodes) are obvious, but for those who like their comedy most fowl, it really fills the bill. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

Duckman and Cornfed, it's about time too.
At last, one of my favourite modern cartoon characters is coming to a DVD player near me soon. I purchased Ren and Stimpy season one and two and enjoyed them, but this character is the one I've been waiting for. Trying to follow the adventures of this excitable private dick was an adventure in itself, as the TV station over here put it on at anytime, but always very late at night.
It always seemed to me that the TV station didn't know how to handle this show.
My VHS tapes are on the way out now, so this release has come at the right time.
Most of the subject matter will go over a childs head, but this is definitely not a cartoon for kids anyway.
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The eponymous character comes across as a mixture of a wise cracking, un-pc, Inspector Clouseau type, it's his side kick Cornfed who's the real brains behind this outfit, and he's obviously based on; "Dragnets" Joe Friday.
If your easily offended you may find some episodes a bit indecorous, so you've been warned.
Though personally I can't wait, as I've pre-ordered it.
My favourite character after Duckman himself was his eldest son Ajax, "most excellently" voiced by Frank Zappa's son Dweezil.
Hopefully the remaining two seasons won't be too far behind in getting released.
This set should consist of twenty two episodes.
Original run dates, march 5 1994-september 6 1997.
(Overall there were four seasons, seventy episodes in total.)
This one will be played the moment it's delivered.
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Thanks to mattd, I have been reliably informed that the Complete series will be released on the 6th of january 2009, it would perhaps be more financially astute to hold on till then.

Occasional edits bring it down to four stars
I won't echo the sentiments of all the previous reviews: clearly, if you remember Duckman enough to be searching for this DVD, you, like me, were a big fan when it was on USA. It's great to finally have this DVD after many years of no Duckman available to the public, and for many of you who didn't have the good fortune to tape the show when it was on the air, this will be your first chance in over a decade to relive the show AT ALL. The one thing that brings down the quality of this set is the occasional cut material. Granted, most episodes are untouched, and the ones that were only lost about 10 seconds of material, almost always for copyright purposes. For example, in one episode, Duckman has a seventies-style hallucination orchestrated by a Frank Zappa instrumental and culminates in a few bars of "Let the Sun Shine In." On the DVD, the hallucination ends before the song starts. It's literally just a few seconds of material, and of course this type of cut doesn't really kill any of the humor, but for purists like myself, it's annoying. If you're not annoyed with these very minor cuts, and are just plain thrilled to finally have whatever Duckman you can get, period, this set will not disappoint.

Hamana, Hamana, Howwaa!!!
It's about time this was released! DUCKMAN is, alongside REN & STIMPY one of the funniest animated series of the 90's. I've given it Five Stars purely based on the quality of the show - the writing is spot-on, the voice acting is top-notch and the humour itself is twisted - that's why I like it! Modern shows like Family Guy owe a lot to Duckman. Let's hope there are some good extras on this long overdue dvd set.