Joe 90: The Complete Series (1968)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Format by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson
Directed by Peter Anderson, Leo Eaton, Brian Heard, Alan Perry, Desmond Saunders, and Ken Turner
Starring the voices of Keith Alexander, Sylvia Anderson, Rupert Davies, Gary Files, David Healy,

Features:

• Running audio commentary with designer Mike Trim on episode "The Most Special Agent"
  
• Running audio commentary with director Turner on episode "The Unorthodox Shepherd"
  
• Character Biographies
  
• Data Files: Equipment and Location Briefings
  

Released by: A&E
Rating: NR (suitable for all audiences)
Region: 1
Anamorphic: N/A; episodes appear in their original 1.33:1 format

My Advice: Own it if you are a Gerry Anderson fan, otherwise rent it

Joe McClaine (voiced by Jones) is the 9-year-old son to Professor Ian McClaine (voiced by Davies). It seems that Professor McClaine has developed a way to capture people's brain wave patterns, store them on reels of tape and then transfer them into other people's brains. They decide test this out on little Joe. When the first test is a success and Joe has safely landed a new secret Russian MiG jet fighter in England, they decide to make him Joe 90, the youngest secret agent ever!

I'm sure that this one was a hit in the late 60s. After all, it's about a nine-year-old boy who gets to be a secret agent and play with all those really neat James Bond-type toys. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, this is the best of all of the Supermarionation television shows that the Anderson family put out...in terms of production quality. Gone are the days of the bobble-headed characters that seem to be floating just above the floor of the set. These puppets are a lot more stable and, consequently, are more "life-like" than those of the other shows. Not only that, but the effects shots are much better than the others.

Jets that are flying around are able to travel in something other than a straight line and don't look silly while doing so. The explosions look better and the sets have more detail about them that I have seen from a 60s show in a long time. If there is a drawback to this series, it would be that most of the plot lines revolve around the fact that the "bad guys" are unwilling to accept that their opponent is only nine. There is too much screen time spent with the evil-doers spouting lines like, "What? It can't be! He's just a boy!", and then going on to discuss how ludicrous it is.

The DVDs for these Anderson family sets seem to get better with every one that I see. There are two commentary tracks in this set (one with designer Mike Trim and one with director Ken Turner) and neither of them disappoint. It is obvious that both of these gentlemen took a great deal of pride in the fact that these shows are considered by many in the film and television industry as groundbreaking. There is a slight tremor on the Velveeta factor scale when it comes to the Character Biographies and the Data Files. These are definitely geared toward those people who were really into the series as a kid and probably collected the trading cards and other toys that had this information on it. There are also photo galleries of still photos both from the series and behind the scenes.

So, if you are a fan of either this series or the Supermarionation "sub-genre" in general, you will want to pick this one up as a purchase. Every one else can rent it for a long weekend when you are being threatened with being snowed in.