Product Description

Old-school stop-motion animation and fast-paced satire are the hallmarks of this eclectic show created by Seth Green and Matt Senreich. Action figures find new life as players in frenetic sketch-comedy vignettes that skewer TV, movies, music and celebrity. It's television especially formulated for the Attention Deficit Disorder generation.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Audio Commentary:On all episodes by creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich.
Comparison Scenes:FX/Wire to Animation Comparisons & Animatic to Episode Comparisons
Deleted Scenes:Includes deleted animatics and scenes from 4 episodes.
Featurette:Behind the scenes of Robot Chicken with the cast and crew.
Gag Reel:Pee Gag Reel.
Other:See the Animation Meetings for three episodes.
Outtakes:Includes alternate audio takes from cast and guest stars.
Photo gallery

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6574 in DVD
• Brand: Turner
• Released on: 2006-03-28
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 333 minutes

Features

• Old-school stop-motion animation and fast-paced satire are the hallmarks of this eclectic show created by Seth Green and Matt Senreich. Action figures find new life as players in frenetic sketch-comedy vignettes that skewer TV, movies, music and celebrity. It's television especially formulated for the Attention Deficit Disorder generation.Running Time: 345 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: C

Amazon.com
Take the stop-motion animated toy action of Kablam! and the pell-mell-paced gag barrage of, say, Laugh-In and you've got the fast and furiously funny Robot Chicken, the addictive addition to Cartoon Network's Adult Swim late-night lineup. Co-created by geek-God Seth Green and filmmaker Matthew Senreich, Robot Chicken episodes run a scant 12 minutes or so, which invites repeat viewings to catch what you missed during the channel-flipping mayhem through TV, movie, and commercial parodies, and non-sequitur blackouts, all acted out by dolls and action figures. To truly appreciate this series, it helps to have a Family Guy grasp on pop-culture trivia, although you need not remember the failed TV series Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place to enjoy "Two Kirks (Admiral James T. and Cameron), a Khan and a Pizza Place." Suffice to say, if you grew up with the Transformers, Voltron, He-Man, and the Care Bears, you'll cackle loudly at Robot Chicken. Each episode is hit and miss, with moments that border on mad genius, such as The Diary of Anne Frank re-imagined as a vehicle for Hilary Duff, or a sketch involving the Tooth Fairy and a little boy whose happiness is short-lived as his parents brutally bicker off camera. It may just live up to its billing as "the darkest sketch in television history."

Other moments to remember: actress Rachael Leigh Cook (voiced by herself) gets carried away during a "This is your brain on heroin" PSA; the shape-shifting superhero adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen; a popsicle-stick adaptation of Debbie Does Dallas; and a Behind the Music devoted to Muppet house band the Electric Mayhem. Robot Chicken's coolness cache extends to its voice cast, including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane, Mark Hamill, and Macauley Culkin. This two-disc set hatches a wealth of archival goodies, including deleted scenes and "animatics," behind-the-scenes footage of animation meetings, and alternate audio takes. Robot Chicken is a fowl ball! --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

Funny animated "blackouts" are great satire
The topics and humor in this show come fast and in a highly random manner, which may not appeal to everyone, but if you like the old 1-minute "blackout" type of sketches done years ago on many variety shows, then Robot Chicken will appeal to you. If a gag misses the mark for you it will be over fast and the next one will be rolling by moments later, a gag that may be very different and a lot funnier to you. There's something for everyone, as pop-culture, politics and more are skewered using action figures and other models in a rapid parade of stop-motion comedy sketches. My personal favorites are those that use action figures from some popular cartoon, comic book or movie, placing them in character in situations where they are forced to deal with everyday frustrations and problems. It's bust-a-gutt funny when you see Lex Luthor and Skeletor stuck in traffic, Transformers suffering from severe chronic illnesses, and more. There's also a hilarious bit where a stop-motion Mark Hamill (who voices himself) walks off the set of Star Wars after Darth Vader spouts a string of the most improbable explanations of how things work in Star Wars mythology. Many other actors and well-known personalities provide guest voices on the show, often poking fun at themselves or work they have done in the past.

Robot Chicken Vol. 1 is funny enough to warrant repeated viewing and I'm looking forward both to buying this DVD set and to seeing the second season of the show which begins in April 2006.

Finally, life after MST3K
I just wanted to write this review because the only review of this show is actually wrong. The show isn't claymation, it's stop motion action figures. The orgins of this show actually stem from two things: the mad scientist scenario is an homage to MST3K and the actual programs are an extension of a feature titled "Twisted Toyfare Theater" in a magazine entitled Toyfare. Okay, now that I have clarified these miscrepancies, on to an actual review. The shows aren't exactly peabody award winners, but if you're like me and grew up in the 70's and 80's you'll get a good chuckle out of seeing your favorite action figures in hilarious and sometimes compromising positions. My main problem with the show was that the episodes are only 13 minutes long. Something like this definitely needs to be upgraded to a half hour at least. If you're a fan of Family Guy and it's ilk, give this show a good look, but if you are easily offended, steer clear. It's definitely not a kid's show.

Hillarious but CENSORED!
About 3 minutes is missing from "Vegetable Funfest" - there's a "Teen Titans" sketch which featured Beavis & Butt-head, and apparently MTV/Viacom took issue with this, so the piece was cut from the DVD.

Keep your broadcast recordings to see it uncut!