For years, Adult Swim’s stop-motion sketch comedy show Robot Chicken has skewered everything from toys, video games, and other cartoons to movies, TV shows, and celebrities. But the reason it works so well is because it’s made by people who are big fans of the things they’re skewering. Which is good for fans of this show since it means their DVDs and Blu-rays are put together by people who know what fans of Robot Chicken would want on their DVDs and Blu-rays.
Like the previous seasonal sets …
and their Star Wars and DC Comics specials, Robot Chicken: Season 6 (Warner Home Video) has uncensored versions of the most recent episodes, as well as commentaries on all of them, deleted bits, and numerous extras.
First and foremost when it comes to the added stuff are the entertaining and enlightening commentaries. Not only do they feature many of the writers and directors — including co-creators/voice actors Seth Green and Matthew Senreich — but also such specific episode’s guest stars as Community’s Gillian Jacobs, Ben Schwartz from House Of Lies and Parks And Recreation, and Saturday Night Live’s Michaela Watkins.
But what makes these commentaries truly interesting is that, unlike those on other TV shows’ DVDs, the ones on Robot Chicken: Season 6 aren’t just hours of “our show is so great,” “every episode is perfect,” “we have so much fun working on it.” Instead, you often hear Green, Senreich, or someone else talk about why didn’t like the sketch being shown (though there are also times when they talk about how they didn’t like it until they saw it finished, or they heard the voices being recorded, etc.).
The commentaries are so engaging, in fact,
that you can’t help but wish they did them for the deleted scenes, unused channel flips, and the animatics of cut sketches. Especially since some of them are as funny as the bit that made it into the show. Though, to be honest, there are also a bunch that make you say, “Yeah, I get why they cut that”).
As for the other extras on Robot Chicken: Season 6, there are a number of interesting and informative making-of featurettes, which are often as funny and off-beat as the show itself. Chief among these are “They Came To Play” and “My First Time,” which look at the celebrity voice actors this season; “Our First Ladies,” which talks about how they finally got some women on the writing staff…and they’re just as twisted as the guys; and “The Benefits Of Robot Chicken,” which goes into how working on this show will not get you laid.
In fact, the only problematic extra on Robot Chicken: Season 6 is the one that was problematic on Robot Chicken: Season 5, 4, and so on: the Chicken Nuggets. In them, they show three of the episodes with video commentary introductions and interruptions you can chose watch by hitting the Enter button when the Robot Chicken icon appears. Except that, if you opt to watch the episodes this way, you’re doing so because you want to see these videos, so why make us hit the button over every time? I don’t get it.
Ultimately, though, the quality of the commentaries, extras, and the cut stuff is only as good as the episodes themselves. And, thankfully, the episodes included in Robot Chicken: Season 6 are quite good. Well, not as good as the first couple seasons, but every episode here does have a couple sketches that are laugh out-loud funny, be it the Chipmunk groupie one and the G.I. Joe go to Afghanistan one in “Crushed By A Steamroller On My 53rd Birthday,” or the “Dora The Explorer: Quinceañera Special” in “Hemlock, Gin, And Juice,” or the Castaway parody in “Punctured Jugular.”
Which is why,
as a fan of this show, you’ll want to get Robot Chicken: Season 6 just like you did the other five seasonal collections, the three Star Wars specials, and the DC Comics one: Because it was made by fans like you.
SCORE: 8.0/10
