G.I. JOE: VALOR VS. VENOM - DVD review

Pop culture has a cyclical nature, what's old is new. During the 70's, there was a sense of 50's nostalgia which lead to the success of George Lucas's "American Graffiti" and "Happy Days." During the 80's, there was a nostalgia for the 60's as embodied in "The Big Chill." The 90's saw the return of bellbottoms, Woodstock, and the debut of "That 70's Show." The children of one decade grow up, gain disposable income, and spend it by buying up their childhoods.

It's the 21st century now and 80's nostalgia is in full swing. Old 80's staples like "Transformers" and "G.I. Joe" have returned with a vengeance in toy, cartoon, and comic book form. All new stories are being told, but for the most part they are a re-imagining of what came before. "Valor vs. Venom" is a direct-to-video release and places G.I. Joe in a new high tech world through computer animation.

Right away, we learn that there has been a series of mass kidnappings and theft of animal DNA. Of course, it's the work of the evil terrorist organization, Cobra, who plan to create a new army of soldiers by merging (or "venomizing" as they call it) animal genes with unwilling test subjects. Cobra decides a great test subject would be G.I. Joe's commanding officer, General Hawk, and they kidnap him with ease. If that's not enough, Cobra also plans on stealing a new rainmaking machine to spread the mutating chemicals across the world. Phew!

You'll find a lot of familiar faces here like Duke, Scarlett, Shipwreck, and of course Snake-Eyes. They've gone through varying degrees of change. For the most part, you'll still recognize them, although some might leave you scratching your head. In this version, Destro's head has an odd eggplant shape. A few new characters appear as well like Kamakura, a protege of Snake-Eyes (who was first introduced in the new comic series from Devil's Due Publishing).

The storyline is an obvious take-off of the Serpentor storyline from the original cartoon (Cobra trying to create a new being by combining DNA). There's a lot of goofy science going on, which I didn't mind. It's not meant to be hard science fiction. Some of the action sequences are a bit silly, but entertaining. In one scene, Duke goes into John Woo mode by diving slow motion into the air and firing off two guns.

I'm not a big fan of CG animation, however. With the exception of the films put out by Pixar and Dreamworks, I don't feel it works as well as traditional hand drawn animation. The animation in "Valor vs. Venom" is jerky so the characters move in a robotic, unrealistic manner. Second, the voice actors try to sound like cartoon characters rather than real people. As a sidenote, the new voice for Cobra Commander sounds like a mix of the old one with a little bit of Mark Hamill's Joker mixed in.

VIDEO:
The video is presented in full screen with an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Considering this is brand new material, the picture is just about perfect. The colors are vibrant and there isn't the slightest flaw found.

AUDIO:
The audio is presented in 5.1 surround sound. This is an action packed cartoon with lots of lasers and explosions. You can hear the jets and tanks rumbling from one side to the other.

EXTRAS:
A quick glance at the back of the box makes it seem like this is a packed edition. But, this is mainly aimed at a younger audience so the extras are a bit light. There's a ten minute Making Of featurette, which features comments from animators, artists, and voice actors. It's nothing new for anyone that knows a bit about animation, but they don't talk overly technical so kids will understand what they're saying.

The other big features are a section that teaches you how to play the G.I. Joe trading card game (merely a commercial) and a DVD-ROM exclusive game. You can play as Snake-Eyes to fight off Cobra's new mutant soldiers. It's pretty simplistic, so older players might get bored easily.

Finally, there's character bios, a Drawing Board-to-Film Comparison (which only features a few pictures), a music video which is just highlights of the film, and the movie trailer.

FILM VALUE:
As a huge fan of the old cartoon, I'm quite disappointed with this lackluster production. Then again, I'm a purist. The younger kids out there will probably have an enjoyable time watching it as there's plenty of action to keep them entertained. But, like the old saying goes "Often imitated, never duplicated." Stick with the original.