Aaahh Real Monsters - Season 1

This is one of those "which I'd run the VCR a bit more back then" cartoons. At least I'd have some home made stuff to look at.

I remember this cartoon as being very clever and creative. The voice acting was suberb, the little creatures were adorable and scary at the same time, and the characters had depth you don't see in a lot of cartoons. The underground monster civilization they created for the characters to live in made the viewer feel like he or she was really going into another world.

Anyway, here's another all-to-forgotten cartoon waiting for another generation to enjoy. Let's get it out there, OK?

What a great show from Nickelodeon this was, from Nick's own golden era of shows like Doug, Rocko's Modern Life and Pete & Pete among others comes another long awaited gem of a show. The cartoon debuted in 1994 and lasted 4 seasons containing 52 episodes in total.

The premise is the young monsters are in school learning how to scare humans, many times through out the show they venture up from under the dump where they go to school to visit humans and scare them. Lots of hi-jinks and personality can be found in these monsters, fun for all ages! There were many monsters with zany characteristics but the 3 main ones most would remember are Ickis who is located on bottom right of the dvd package art, he could grow large to scare humans, then you had Krumm on the left bottom who carried his eyeballs in his hands or even in his mouth at times and his specialty was using his foul armpit stench to scare which was quite comical. Then we have Oblina a female monster who could pull out her internal organs, transform herself and was one of the best students in the school. They sure don't make many cartoons like this nowdays!

Season 1 (1994 Original air date)

1."The Switching Hour"
2."Monsters, Get Real" & "Snorched If You Do, Snorched If You Don't"
3."Curse Of The Krumm" & "Krumm Goes Hollywood"
4."Monstrous Make-Over" & "A Wing And A Scare"
5."Krumm's Pimple" & "Monster Hunter"
6."Monsters Don't Dance" & "Gone Shopp'n"
7."Old Monster" & "Mother, May I?"
8."Don't Just Do It" & "Joined At The Hip"
9."Smile And Say Oblina" & "The Great Wave"
10."Cold Hard Toenails" & "Attack Of The Blobs"
11."Chip Off The Old Beast" & "The War's Over"
12."Where Have All The Monsters Gone?"
13."Simon Strikes Back" & "The Ickis Box"

The cartoon rocks, pick it up if you enjoyed the Pixar Monster's Inc movie.

Pros: We finally get to see Aaaah! Real Monsters on DVD and get a full season set and on proper DVD-9s discs and not those MOD burned style discs.

The price is much better then the Amazon Burn on Demand sets were,

Cons: No extras to be heard of. The picture looks good but doesn't pop so I am not sure if much remastering was done here.

*****5 Stars for the show ****4 stars for this dvd

I reviewed the previous Nick Rewind/DVD-R set and now I finally have my hands on Shout's release. Which one do I like better? Definitely Shout's! I'll go through the details first.

Aspect Ratio: Original Full Screen (1:33:1)
Languages: English, Spanish
Subtitles: English (For the hearing impaired)
Running Time: 5 hours
Openings and endings included in each episode (In the DVD-R set, the opening was only played at the beginning of each disc)

Episodes (played in airdate order)
Disc 1:
1. The Switching Hour
2. Monsters, Get Real & Snorched If You Do, Snorched If You Don't
3. Curse Of The Krumm & Krumm Goes Hollywood
4. Monstrous Make-Over & A Wing And A Scare
5. Krumm's Pimple & Monster Hunter
6. Monsters Don't Dance & Gone Shopp'n
7. Old Monster & Mother, May I?
Disc 2
8. Don't Just Do It & Joined At The Hip
9. Smile And Say Oblina & The Great Wave
10. Cold Hard Toenails & Attack Of The Blobs
11. Chip Off The Old Beast & The War's Over
12. Where Have All The Monsters Gone?
13. Simon Strikes Back & The Ickis Box

Pros: The picture quality is a lot cleaner and smoother than the DVD-R release. The DVD-R sets were priced at about $40 for each season. A bit too much for 13 episodes if you ask me. The price for this set is very much at an affordable price for everyone.

Cons: There is still some grain but this was released in '94 so that's understandable. There's also no extras. I'd be great if Shout! could add some original commercials, bumpers, etc, to their Nick releases.

Overall: A very nice upgrade from the Nick Rewind sets! It's so great to be able to watch these nostalgic cartoons again. :) Can't wait for Season 2!

Note: I grew up in the 90's and when the show first came out, I remember being afraid of it. In the late 90's, As I grew older, I began to enjoy it more. So to parents with young children, this cartoon may be a bit too scary for children under 6. If your child is sensitive to monsters or anything scary, I would not recommend this for them.