Take a Good Look is one of the four Teddy Ruxpin VHS tapes that I owned when I was a kid. Like the previous two tapes of the three I've reviewed so far, this tape contains a singular episode, with a shorter intro and outro. Unlike with Guests of the Grunges though I don't remember exactly when I got this tape when I was a kid. I just remember having it, though I didn't watch it as often as I did the other three tapes that I had for this series. Which I will get into a little bit more when I talk about the actual episode.
I had a rental copy of this tape, so the pack in bonus item wasn't included with the tape when I got it. This time around, the item was a miniature personal journal with the cover similar to the VHS tape covers and the original book covers. Even though the item was featured in the tape's outro, Teddy doesn't actually show the viewers the inside of the journal. Just it's cover. So like most of the other pack in bonus items, the journal is one I've never seen in person before.
The episode itself "Take a Good Look" is one of the few episodes that was adapted from the Adventure Series book and tape sets where not a whole lot was changed in the adaptation process. In fact the only changes/additions are the colour of Fuzz's fur and the subplot of Tweeg and L.B. trying to hit Gimmick's house with Tweeg's cannon and failing miserably. Which is when hilarity ensues. It's also the only episode of The Adventure of Teddy Ruxpin that actually scared me. I was fine with the large house fly and the large Fob (Fuzz) when Teddy, Grubby and Gimmick have been shrunk down to a smaller size by Gimmick's Reducing Machine. But it was the large Fob at the end that terrified me as a kid. Not so much now though, obviously. So when I was a kid, I avoided this episode as much as I could, though I would occasionally ask my parents to put it on for me.
The intros and outros on these tapes just keep getting shorter and shorter. There's only two more tapes that even include these intros and outros on them. The outros are usually a bit longer than the intros because Teddy talks about the pack in bonus item during the outros. In addition to thoughts about the adventure he and his friends had just been on of course.
While "Take a Good Look" is a standalone filler episode following the five part pilot episode, it's also a significant one as Teddy, Grubby, and Gimmick discover what one of the crystals they found in the previous episode actually does. Which then leads into developing the mythology of the Teddy Ruxpin universe a little bit more.
Overall, while this isn't my favourite Teddy Ruxpin VHS release or my favourite episode of the series, it's still a solid release. That's the thing about Hi-Tops Video, they put out solid releases for Teddy Ruxpin on VHS, which are actually better than any of the DVD releases that the series has had over the years. Which is weird to say, but it's true, even though the VHS tapes don't contain all 65 episodes like the DVDs do.
No comments:
Post a Comment