I love finding me some 80's cartoons. Especially when I don't know about them being available on DVD. When I came across this Deluxe Edition of The Complete Series of Alf, I thought to myself, "What makes it deluxe? Does it have the entire cartoon series?" I was being sarcastic in my mind, and then got slapped in the mouth when I flipped it over to reveal the disc cases.
Looking at the third set (blue), I immediately took a step back and said, "Wait...Does it really?" A quick search on my phone, and I came across the original listing on Shout Factory. Turns out, this thing came out in 2023, and does indeed include the entire animated original series (1987 - 1989), and its counterpart, Alf Tales (1988 - 1989), both released for the first time in this set.
I used to really have a problem with supporting Shout Factory. Mainly because back in the day, they wouldn't have released a full set like this. Instead, they'd do it as seasons, or parts. More times than not, this method would end up with one of two things happening.
1) Low sales meant that the entire series was never released because future sets were cancelled. The irony of this was that the poor sales were often a result of people waiting to see if Shout would release the entire thing before investing in a partial set.
2) The rest of the series in future volumes was released in such limited quantities that it quickly sold out, went out of print, and costs hundreds of dollars on secondary markets because of how scarce they became.
As such, I'm glad to see more sets like this from Shout, where everything is included in one fell swoop. I can't help but think in general this is what more people want versus multiple volumes over time. I do, however, feel sorry for the people who already own the multiple seasons of Alf on DVD. It's kind of a slap in the face to them if they want the cartoons to have to buy the entire series again.
Shout absolutely should have just released the cartoons on their own set. But, I suppose doing so would have equated to lower sales. I mean, I know I wouldn't have bought the whole thing if there was an option to just buy the cartoons.
The set comes with a nice booklet...
...Which if you flip to the back last few pages, you'll find some fun artwork from the animated series, along with episode lists...
...and some fun screenshots.
The covers of each individual "volume" are pretty nice. They mimic the opening to the animated series, which is also showcased on the third set.
But again, this third one is where my money was spent. Honestly, I don't really have an interest in the live action series.
Because this has never been released in full, and since I didn't watch it regularly as a kid, I haven't had a chance to see all of these episodes until now. I'm totally looking forward to that over the next several weeks.
I was also surprised to see how many discs were inside the case. I expected Shout would pack each DVD to the fullest capacity, resulting in reduced picture quality for the sake of cutting cost corners. Surprisingly, there are eight discs inside, seven of which contain the cartoons, with the last being reserved for bonus features.
Now, if this is something that interests you, I highly recommend you avoid going directly to the source at the link above. Shout sells this for regular retail price of $69.98. While it is currently on sale for $55.99, if you instead go to Walmart, you can grab it for $39.99 (regular price).
Is that a bit much if you're just wanting the cartoons? Yeah, probably. However, if the entire package interests you, then that's where the true value will come.
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