Aaahh!!! Monsters - The Complete Series - DVD

Content: Deep beneath a garbage dump in New York lies the Academy for Monsters. Here, young monsters are to learn how best to frighten humans. The Grumpler, the principal of the academy, teaches with a hard hand, which the young monsters have to learn painfully right on their first Halloween. They were looking forward to finally coming to the surface to spread fear and terror on the holiest of all monster days, but because of their poor exam results, the Grumpler orders them to be grounded for the time being - an order that none of the young monsters wants to obey, of course. Especially not their friends Ickis, Oblina and Krumm, who mingle with the humans that night and learn just how difficult it is for monsters to be truly terrifying on Halloween. But that's just the beginning of the many adventures these three monsters have together during their time at the academy. For instance, Krumm loses his beloved body odor on his birthday and Ickis suddenly becomes filthy rich when he finds thousands of old toenails on a man he's supposed to scare - which is pure gold for monsters. Then, on one of their scare missions, the three end up in a little girl's luggage and suddenly find themselves aboard a plane that they almost bring down. And Krumm is astonished when the pimple he so carefully grooms to impress the beautifully scaly Horrifica suddenly takes on a life of its own. Monster Academy really does have a lot to offer - but rest or monotony is definitely not on the curriculum here...

Aaahh!!! Monster comes from the creative mind of Gábor Csupò, creator of Rugrats and former producer on The Simpsons. Between 1994 and 1997, a total of 52 episodes of the quirky animated series ran, which still enjoys a large fan base today. The monsters, who love everything that is beautifully disgusting, slimy and spoiled, get into wonderfully bizarre situations again and again, about which not only children can laugh heartily. In the process, you can recognize some ideas here that later reappear in slightly varied form in the Pixar films The Monsters Inc. and especially clearly in The Monsters University. However, Aaahh!!! Monster is much more raw and original, if only in terms of drawing style, than Pixar's perfect computer animations. And as much as these two films are successful, the somewhat dirtier style of the Csupò series somehow fits better to the world of the monsters.

The series lives not only from its crazy stories and the wacky humor embedded in them, but of course also from a good word joke, some of which has been successfully carried over into the German version. In any case, the German dubbing, for which experienced speakers such as Helmut Krauss, Bodo Wolf or Wilfried Herbst were hired, can be described as very successful overall. Admittedly, as with almost every series, some of the charm and wit of the original is lost. Nevertheless, the makers have obviously made a lot of effort to live up to the good original synchro with speakers such as Jim Belushi and Tim Curry.

Naturally, it does not remain with 52 episodes that some gags repeat themselves and that some stories just do not work as well as others. Still, that alone leaves the multi-award winning series with a positive overall impression, as it never tries to be as repulsively gross as possible, but always manages to somehow remain charming even in slightly more unsavory moments (the pimple episode immediately comes to mind).

It's nice to see the Turbine label embracing such animated series as Aaahh!!!! Monster, Ren & Stimpy, Rocko's Modern Life, or even The Beaver Brothers, and has given fans such beautifully designed complete box sets. This deserves not only the highest praise, but also full support. Therefore, monster fans and cartoon nostalgics should also definitely grab this box!

Picture + Sound: Their age can not hide the series even on the DVD. The colors are relatively powerful mixed, but in terms of image sharpness reveals but again and again some potential for improvement, in addition, slight dragging effects can be detected again and again. Still, for an animated series that's over 15 years old, this is entirely satisfactory. The same applies to the stereo mix, which transports the amusing dialogues well understandable from the boxes.

Extras: Unfortunately, there is no bonus material. For this, stickers, postcards and a poster are included in the box.

Conclusion:Aaahh!!! Monster is a cult animated series produced by Nickelodeon channel between 1994 and 1997. Gábor Csupò, creator of Rugrats and for some time a producer on The Simpsons, has created a wonderfully quirky, offbeat series, popular with viewers and critics alike, that still works really well 16 years after it ended. This complete box set of the series presents all 52 episodes of the four seasons in decent picture and sound quality. Fans and nostalgics should definitely grab this!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp