The Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special: Look Who's Walking - DVD Review

[Michael Scott]

The Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special: Look Who's Walking

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
Ah, good old Robot Chicken. No one quite does parodies of pop culture quite like the nerd group that is Breckin Meyer, Seth Green, and the rest of their motley crew. The jokes are rapid fire, the base level of humor is stupid (which is actually part of the gag usually), they are hard not to love. The Robot Chicken Star Wars Specials are probably some of the most laugh out loud hilarious bits of sketch comedy ever created from the show, but that doesn’t mean they can’t poke fun at OTHER popular movies and TV shows. There’s not a bigger target as of this moment than The Walking Dead, and just mere weeks before the 100th episode of the show, the famous robotic chicken has decided to riff the most hilarious moments of the previous 7 seasons of the series (wow. Has it really been that long since it started?).

This review will be rather short because….well….the special is rather short. In fact, it’s a 22 minute episode of the 9th season, so it’s a blip on the proverbial radar in regards to being close to feature film. Like most of the specials before it (outside of the Star Wars Specials which had me almost vomiting from laughing so hard), Look Who’s Walking is a bit hit or miss, with some jokes landing solidly, while others are like the whiff of a baseball bat (although probably not as deadly as Lucille is). The great nature of Robot Chicken is the rapid fire nature of the skits. They move so incredibly fast and are so nimble that when a joke doesn’t land completely, it’s not lingering in the nostrils, but rather shifts on to a (hopefully) funnier moment.

Like usual, the sketches are funny, but it’s the voices BEHIND the animation that really lend their talents to the comedic show. Seth Green and Breckin Meyer are naturally still helming many of the voices, but there was a lot of collaboration with the actual cast from The Walking Dead, and they were able to pull in Jeffrey Dean Morgan for Negan, Andrew Lincoln for his famous roll of Rick Grimes, Jon Bernhal as Shane Walsh, and many more cameos (including Daniel Radcliffe as Gareth). There’s always a standout character or two in these specials (Boba Fett and the Emperor in the Star Wars Specials) and this time it’s Negan and Glenn. Jeffrey Dean Morgan knocks it out of the park by hamming up his roll as Negan, making him a hilariously comedic character which really has you laughing yourself silly in every scene he’s in. The same goes for Steven Yeung does the same thing for poor, dead, Glenn. Showing a great sense of humor over his fate in the show Steven does wonders for the (now) brain dead Glenn and creates one of the single most memorable skits in the special

The show is lighthearted and fun, and shies away from the more mean spirited direction that the show COULD have gone (all you have to do is google fan sites of The Walking Dead for that type of badgering). We got jokes about Carol’s ruthlessness, Merle and his famous racism, Carl and his wavy locks (I almost felt kinda bad at that joke), and winks and nods at Negan and his famous “dip” that he does before beating someone’s brains in. The special isn’t their best special, but it’s far from the worst and is a hilarious addition to anyone’s Robot Chicken archive, or for someone who only enjoys these high profile specials vs. collecting the episode within a full season boxset.




Rating:

Rated TV-MA by the MPAA




Video:

The DVD looks quite good considering the lower end animation style, and it’s only real fault is being SD in an HD world. Colors are nice and bright, ranging from richly saturated primaries, to some duller shades of brown and gray in a few of the skits. The disc is free of any major artifacting (as it should be considering there’s only 22 minutes of footage plus extras on the disc) and I detected no signs of major issues with the shadow detail.. Black levels are nice and inky and black crush is near nonexistent (though I did detect a flicker here and there). Same goes for the fine detail as you can see the fibers and flaws in some of the puppets used for the stop motion. It’s a good looking transfer and does well with the content (though I would have preferred the higher definition that the Blu-ray offers)






Audio:

Instead of the 5.1 Dolby Digital track from the Holiday Special, The Walking Dead special uses the same 2.0 TV track that we’re used to from the show. Not a big deal as the series has never really been surround heavy from the Blu-rays and DVDs that I’ve demoed, and the audio mix is more than capable of delivering the goods. The vocals are crisp and clear, with good channel separation for the most boisterous moments in the show. LFE is naturally rather limited to a few bumps and bangs, but overall a good sounding mix for what it is.


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Extras:

• Behind-the-Scenes Making of The Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special: Look Who’s Walking
• Commentary featuring Scott M. Gimple, Seth Green, Robert Kirkman, Matthew Senreich, and Tom Sheppard
• Bawkward
• Sketches to Die For
• Behind the Screams

Final Score: ​

I had a good laugh with The Robot Chicken Walking Dead Special: Look Who’s Walking (whew, that’s a mouthful), as I always had with Robot Chicken specials. The humor is poignant and straight forward for fans of the show, and the lightning fast style of the sketch comedy show works in its favor. Allowing the less funny bits to blend into the background as the funnier sketches shine just a bit. The audio and video is what you would expect for a TV show of this ilk (especially with a 2.0 audio mix), bu the extras are actually surprisingly beefy, with a full length comedy and several other tidbits that show the creators just having a blast with the content.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Michael Rooker, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Seth Green, Breckin Meyer
Directed by Tom Sheppard
Written by: Tom Sheppard, Hugh Davidson, Mike Fasolo, Scott M. Gimple, Seth Green, Breckin Meyer
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 MPEG2
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: TV-MA
Runtime: 22 Minutes
DVD Release Date: March 27th, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Fun Watch

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[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Wow, I will have to check this one out.

 

[AudiocRaver]

LOVE Robot Chicken, must check it out.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Huge Dead fan... enjoy stuff like this .

Book it!