Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-7 - DVD Review

Movie
Yup, it’s that time of year again. Rick and Morty has gone through 6 seasons, and with each season Warner Brothers announces a complete collection (so far) of the series in a space saving box. Yeah, I get it. A “complete” box set is usually best after the series has wrapped up, but not all of us wants to have 6 individual seasons on our shelf when a single 6 disc case will do. Or we haven’t been collecting the series up until this point, and the price point for a box set to catch up is more enticing than waiting multiple years for a truly complete set, or not have it at all. Either way, this set is simply going to be the seasons 1-6 sets put together into a nice space saving case, and a habit that will probably continue as Rick and Morty just got renewed THROUGH season 10 by Adult Swim.

(some of this below will copied from the seasons 1-5 and seasons 1-6 boxset review simply because it is the same content).

Rick and Morty is one of those shows that you either love or hate (generally). It’s totally out there and completely bizarre, but still manages to be incredibly nuanced and well structured in it’s narrative. The story revolves around mad scientist Rick Sanchez suddenly showing up at his daughter Beth’s doorstep after being presumed missing for 20 something years. He’s home now, though, and wants to move in with Beth and her husband Jerry, much to both their chagrin. While Beth is happy to see her father once more, Jerry is much more reticent, begrudging the old man his new home for multiple reasons. The main one being that Rick is a sociopath scientist who not only practices his experiments out of their garage, but frequently takes Jerry’s son Morty and daugther Summer on his perilous interspatial quests.

The show also relies heavily on pop culture, both from today and from yesteryear, without seeming like it’s pandering or relying on it for the show’s popularity instead of storytelling. Heck, they even managed to make the movie Zardoz relevant again to an audience who probably is WAY to young to have seen Sean Connery in that red thong. It’s a show that has crossed over from being just a show, to also becoming a meme (seriously, half the memes out there anymore are either Spongebob or Rick and Morty), and has sort of transcended into a sort of cultural animated icon for many.

After 7 years, the series is still running strong in my opinion. Season 6 was a true return to form, and was firing on all 4 cylinders again after the mediocre season 5. But season 7 had a few minor hiccups in the form of Roiland no longer being attached to the show and new voice actors coming in to replace them (which actually wasn't that bad, I could barely hear the difference after they digitally tweaked the new voices to sound the same). BUUUUUUUUUUT, season 7 was more filler than it was anything. Still was a blast as always, but it didn't really push the main narrative ahead that much. But, at the end of the day, mediocre Rick and Morty are still better than most other animated TV shows out there today.

for those wanting a more detailed break down of seasons 4-7 (which have been reviewed individually here) you can click below

Season 4
Season 5
Seaosn 6
Season 7


Rating:

Rated TV-MA by the MPAA




Video:

Here's the part where I'm actually going to have to change it up a bit. Over the years I've reviewed and watched the series ONLY on Blu-ray, so it was a bit of a shock to see that WB decided to only release this years boxset in DVD form only. Which meant I had to "slum it" by going back to 480p on an 85 inch display, which is going to amplify ALLLLLL of the weakness that DVD was prone to. All in all, it's a solid looking presentation for a DVD. The animation is very simple, so colors are warm and bright, with strong contrast and a good detail levels for the basic animation style. BUUUT, you're going to have to deal with the macroblocking as usual, some minoor aliasing and haloing and the lack of resolution. Compared to most TV shows on DVD that get released today, it's pretty good, but nothing that super special. Good enough is the best way of putting it.







Audio:

The overall audio mix for the DVD will sound rather similar in desing to the Blu-ray's lossless mixes, but also sounds a bit thinner and less punchy as well. Lasers, ships crasphing, dragons smashing (yes, that was a thing) and all sorts of action comes through quite nicely in the 5.1 Dolby Digital track. My only real complaint is that it just doesn't have the "heft" in the bass department, and seems a bit less full when I compared it against my Blu-ray releases (after level matching of course). All in all, this is as good as it gets for a DVD mix in this era, and the show's highly kinetic audio designs makes for a lot of sonic fun.





Extras:

Season 1

• Commentaries for Every Episode
• Animatics for Every Episode
• Behind the Scenes
• Deleted Scenes

Season 2

• Commentaries for Every Episode
• Animatics for Every Episode
• Deleted Animatic Sketches
• Rick and Morty Season 2 Premiere Party Featuring Chaos Chaos

Season 3

• Commentaries for Every Episode
• Animatics for Every Episode
• "Inside the Episode" for Every Episode
• Exclusive "Inside the Recording Booth"
• Origins of Rick and Morty Part 1 & 2

Season 4

• A Day at Rick and Morty: Inside Season 4
• "Inside the Episode" for Every Episode
• Creating Snake Jazz
• Directing Rick and Morty
• Samurai and Shogun
• Prop Process
• Character Creation
• Animation Challenges

Season 5

• "Fighting Gravity": The Making of Season 5 (Exclusive to Set): In this deep dive discussion, co-creator Dan Harmon and the crew reflect on the challenges of completing this season in the middle of a pandemic and the creative process behind the story's biggest revelations.
• "Inside the Episode": For every episode from Season 5
• B-Story Generator Vol. 1: Co-creator Dan Harmon and writer Rob Schrab reach into their box of random ideas to conjure up hilarious side stories.
• B-Story Generator Vol. 2: Co-creator Dan Harmon and writer Rob Schrab return to brainstorm even more ludicrous side stories.
• Backgrounds: The show's artists give us a jaw-dropping look at the amazingly detailed environments packed into every episode.
• Animation and Compositing: Crafting the show's visuals is a complex process and the crew is here to show us why
• Coloring Rick and Morty: Get an in-depth look at how the crew uses vibrant color to create fantastic alien worlds.
• Directing 'Mortyplicity': An inside look at the evolution of this ambitious and action-packed episode, from initial storyboards to final product.
• Directing 'Rickmurai Jack': A behind the scenes look at one visualization of one of the most ambitious episodes in the series' history.
• Season 5 Hype: Dan Harmon and the writers give you a taste of what's in store for Rick and Morty's wildest season yet.

Season 6

• Rick and Morty: Inside Season 6 – Take a trip through the show's portal-less sixth season with co-creator Dan Harmon, co-executive producer Steve Levy, showrunner Scott Marder, and writers Heather Anne Campbell, Albro Lundy, Rob Schrab and James Siciliano
• Anatomy of a Scene: "Bethic Twinstinct" (Featurette) – Co-creator Dan Harmon, showrunner Scott Marder, director Douglas Einar Olsen and writer Anne Lane dig into the carcasses of two scenes while you stare at them in a numb trance.
• Anatomy of a Scene: "Night Family" (Featurette) – Clock the most extensive car chase in the series' history with co-executive producer Albro Lundy, showrunner Scott Marder, writer Rob Schrab and director Jacob Hair.
• Anatomy of a Scene: "Analyze " (Featurette) – Co-creator Dan Harmon, showrunner Scott Marder, director Fill Marc Sagadraca and writer James Siciliano go blow-for-blow on Jerry's fight with Pissmaster.
• 10 Inside the Episodes (Featurettes) – Take a deeper look into each of the ten episodes from the season.

Season 7

• 10 Inside the Episodes (Featurettes) – Take a deeper look into each of the ten episodes from the season.
• Directing Unmortricken (Featurette) - Jacob Hair walks us through the challenges of making one of the most ambitious and action-packed episodes in the series history, centered on the climatic showdown between Rick and his arch-nemesis.
• The Characters of Season 7 - A wide-ranging look at how the character team crafted this season’s most impressive and challenging new designs. For example, how did the team create Jerricky, which consists of fusing two iconic characters together.
• Inside Season 7- A deep dive on S7’s biggest story shifts and reveals, plus an overall look at the making of the season from the perspective of various members of the crew.






As is the case with every one of these boxsets, this is simply the 2 DVD's from all 7 previous seasons, just put inside a single clamshell case, but in the case of the DVD it's 2 discs per seasons vs. the single disc for the Blu-ray's (the simplistic animation makes it easy to fit the full season on onoe disc). And if history repeats itself, as we get a seaons 8, 9, or possibly 10, we'll probably get an updated version with each season. However, this is the first time that we haven't had a Blu-ray release for the "seasons 1- infnity" boxsets for once. (Guess I'm keeping my Season 7 steelbook release). Simply put, this is an economical way to get all seven seasons under your belt without tracking down previous boxsets, albeit only in DVD this go around. Solid set, great show.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Justin Roiland, Chris Parnell, Spencer Grammer, Sarah Chalke, Kari Wahlgreen
Created by: Dan Harmon, Justin Roiland
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 MPEG2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English
Studio: Warner
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 1589 Minutes
DVD Release Date: September 10th, 2024