Stingray: The Complete Series (1964)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Series Created by Gerry Anderson
Written by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson
Directed by Alan Pattillo, David Elliott, John Kelly, and Desmond Saunders
Starring the voices of Don Mason, Ray Barrett, Robert Easton, and Lois Maxwell

Features:

• Brand-new 20-minute Making of Featurette: "The Thing About Stingray..."
  
• Running audio commentary by creator/producer Gerry Anderson on episodes "Stingray" and "Stand By For Action"
  
• Running audio commentary by writer Sylvia Anderson, producer John Reed and puppeteer Mary Turner on episode "Rapture of the Deep"
  
• Running audio commentary by art director Bob Bell & effects specialist Brian Johnson on episode "Loch Ness Monster"
  
• French end credits sequence
  
• Expanded Gerry Anderson biography
  
• Production still galleries
  

My Advice: Rent it

It seems that in the year 2065, mankind's only enemy is a race of beings that live beneath the surface of the oceans. These people are called the Aquaphibians and they are led by the evil Titan (voiced by Barrett). All would be lost if it wasn't for the heroics of Captain Troy Tempest (Mason) and his ship, Stingray. This submarine is part of the fleet of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), which is the last line of defense against these evildoers.

Okay, this is one of Gerry Anderson's first shows and it...well, shows. True, this is one of the shows that pioneered his ground-breaking style of animation known as Supermarionation. In case you don't know, all of the characters are marionette puppets that are controlled from above the set, off camera. In Gerry Anderson's early shows, like this one, the puppets look like they are floating just slightly above the floor of the set whenever they move and their heads and arms look like those "bobble-head" dolls that you can sometimes find on the dashboards of people's cars. The only problems that I can see with these early productions is that a majority of the half-hour show is taken up with launch sequences of some kind. The dialogue always sounds like people don't know how to use any of the definite articles (i.e., "Prepare to launch torpedos!" and "Release elevators" just to name a few). To an audience member of today, the action sequences are going to look very cheesy mostly because you can see the wires (not only of the ships, but also of the characters). Still, this show was groundbreaking for the animation industry and we should be thankful it's on DVD for posterity's sake.

Beyond just content, this set is one of the best that A&E has released so far. So, far, I have reviewed three of these Supermarionation series (see Thunderbirds and Joe 90), and it is just now that they have gotten around to getting Gerry Anderson to record a couple of commentary tracks for this set--something that those other sets were sorely missing. Here, you get him for two episodes and they are not to be missed. There are two other commentary tracks on this set which give you the perspectives of Gerry's wife, Sylvia, who co-wrote some of the episodes, among some of the other people involved with the production of this series. Most of the information that is presented in these commentaries is pretty standard; they talk about special effects sequences, but after that, they find there's not much left to talk about.

The other features in this set are pretty common stuff. If you've already gotten or seen the Thunderbirds set, then you've probably already seen the Gerry Anderson biography. It is expanded a bit, but not by very much. And, again, it's still just text on screen. Perhaps the most bizarre of the bonus material is the French End Credits Sequence. All you get here is the ending credits sequences written in French and the closing song sung in French...and that's all there is to it.

Finally, there is the twenty minute featurette that is titled "The Thing About Stingray...". Here you get little snippets of interviews with the puppeteers, art directors, production designers and directors of the shows. It's really a nice featurette, and the only thing that I can think of negative to say about it is that it leaves you wanting more. I would have loved to hear at least another twenty minutes of these interviews. It's a shame they had to cut it so short. There is another feature that's not listed on the back of the DVD case. This one allows you to "Play Mission Tapes". This is just weird. It's the admiral and captain looking over some of the lost mission tapes. I think it's intended to be funny, but I can't really tell. I really couldn't be sure of whether I was laughing with or at it.

If you are a fan of Anderson's work, you will at least want to rent this one. Serious fans will want to own it. I'm just glad these are saved on DVD. I just keep imagining some archaeologist opening a vault a thousand years from now and finding these to watch...