Plot: What’s it about?
As this is a collection of vignettes with no narrative cohesion, there is no plot to speak of. Instead, this is a series of one to two minute shorts, complete with explanatory title card. So in case you didn’t know a skit where a chicken crosses the road is about a chicken who crosses the road, then it is explained for you. The shorts are animated in the usual McFarlane style, which means crude, but colorful visuals. A lot of the voice talent from his shows return also, bringing to life characters like an angry Scottish man who complains about film logic, Dracula, a princess tricked into jerking off a frog, an overly sensitive horse, and similar creations. As I said, these are very short, one idea segments, just a quick fade in, unroll gag, and fade out style. There are no bookend segments either, which I feel might have helped with the overall presentation.
As a fan a watcher of both Family Guy and American Dad, I was kind of excited when Seth McFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy was announced. A chance for McFarlane to show off his talent with no censors and no need for episodic continuance, so we could see him shine outside of his well known projects. Well, Seth McFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy was absolute torture to endure and again, I’m a fan of his television shows. This series was backed by Burger King as short form web-based material, which shows here. This could have been hilarious, a chain of one-off jokes that could never be fleshed out, but deserved a chance to make people laugh. Instead, this is like a D reel, not even a B reel and the laughs never come. A few of the segments elicit a slight smile, but that is as good as this gets. This is so bad, I felt bad for those involved, as this is painfully unfunny stuff. But if you’ve seen interviews with McFarlane, you already know he isn’t driven to make us laugh, just cash a check. Even fans of his shows should skip this, as it is simply miserable.
Video: How does it look?
Seth McFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy is presented in full frame, as intended. This looks decent, but doesn’t seem to offer much beyond the DVD presentation. The animation style isn’t detailed, so depth remains about the same, though colors do appear to be brighter here. I would rank this high definition transfer higher than the DVD counterpart, but I don’t think the difference is enough to warrant a higher price in this case. Even so, this is by no means a bad visual effort, but the material simply doesn’t benefit that much from the upgrade.
Audio: How does it sound?
The DTS HD 5.1 audio is just fine, but you’d never know this was a lossless soundtrack. This material never needs much audio presence, the surrounds remain silent for the most part. Which is acceptable, since the segments don’t have requirements beyond dialogue and low impact elements. The important part is that vocals sound clear and clean, so while not memorable, this soundtrack covers the bases. This disc also includes subtitles in English, Spanish, and French.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc includes some character model artwork, as well as interviews from the premiere.
