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Mr. Bean: The Whole Bean – Remastered 25th Anniversary Collection (DVD Review)

He captured the hearts of million viewers worldwide and has been called the most embarrassing man on earth. He is the character who everyone wants to help out of his sticky situations, but nobody would invite for tea.  Behold the man who is a bean, Mr. Bean!  Starring award-winning British comedy genius Rowan Atkinson (Blackadder,Johnny English, Mr. Bean’s Holiday and Bean), internationally acclaimed TV series MR. BEAN, two box office hit films and animated series continue to enthrall audience worldwide and maintain universal popularity.  This highly anticipated 25^th Anniversary Collection DVD set contains all 14 laugh-out-loud episodes of the beloved series, recently remastered. Special bonus features include previously missing scenes from the original U.S broadcast, a 40-minute documentary, the best bits of Mr. Bean and much more that will complete your Whole Bean.

Series 

Mr. Bean  is a series of 14 original TV programs based around the character of Mr. Bean, a grown man who seems to have been born yesterday.  Aided by his best friend Teddy, Mr. Bean stumbles from one mishap to the next, always finding complex solutions to the simplest of problems. He creates his own messes and delights audiences with his uproarious facial expressions and physical comedy.

I first met Mr. Bean when I was around the age of ten.  HBO, I believe, was airing the episodes at the time.  I went over to my neighbor’s house and their dad was watching it.  They were having a marathon of episodes that afternoon apparently and I wound up sitting their the whole afternoon watching Mr. Bean with their dad.  To be quite honest, it was my first foray into British humor as well.  It was like nothing i’d ever seen before.  Within the next year, I would discover my next British humor love, Monty Python.  Having always been a fan of Laurel & Hardy and The Three Stooges, I was really digging Mr. Bean.  I’d even seek out Atkinson’s stand up routine and follow his film career.  Funny enough, Mr. Bean wasn’t my first introduction to Rowan Atkinson, it was the non-canon “doesn’t count” James Bond film Never Say Never Again.

As a high schooler in the US midwest, Mr. Bean also felt like some best kept secret.  Few of us really knew and enjoyed him in high school.  One of my best friends, Cullen, had an incredible Mr. Bean impersonation which we actually did shoot an original short for.  Mr. Bean himself wasn’t cool, but being a fan was a sorta “cool” thing for us geeks.  He’d go on to make a movie that wasn’t much of a force here, but was very much a big hit overseas.  The movie was enjoyable and a little bittersweet.  It was one of those like Borat that assumed this was the audience’s introduction to the character and played as a remake of the “greatest hits” from the television series of origin.  Enjoyable, but I’d seen it all before.

In my film classes in college, I would grow a further appreciation for Rowan Atkinson and his comedic knowledge.  I was introduced to the talents and films of the legendary Jacque Tati.  Atkinson’s Mr. Bean is pretty much a next-generation or “modern” (For the time when it was new) take on Jacque Tati’s sort of clown routine.  Not a all makeup, red nosed and “honk a horn” type, but sort of a dimwitted regular person.  Watching Tati was an eye-opening experience and one that showed he was crafting an art.  Atkinson may not have invented what he was doing, but he excelled at it, kept it alive and fresh and took it to new heights.  Mr. Bean is one of Britain’s most well known pop-culture icons and still extremely popular.  The Eastern hemisphere could randomly drop a new Mr. Bean movie tomorrow and it would likely be a big hit and huge box office smash.

Going back to the series, which I hadn’t revisited in probably about twelve years, I was worried it wasn’t going to hold up or be as good.  Nope, this puppy is timeless.  The humor ranges from small giggles, to that uncomfortable embarrassment humor to outrageous belly laughs.  Right from the first episode when he has the beach scene where Mr. Bean is trying to change into his swim trunks through is pants had me laughing my butt off pretty hard.  Yeah, I was in love with this show again.  And it worked all throughout the fourteen episodes.  Its a show that didn’t overdo it and left you with plenty to savor and still wanting a little more.

Video 

Encoding: MPEG-2 NTSC

Resolution: 480i

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Clarity/Detail:  I’m going to be very lenient on the video because a lot of BBC video stuff from analog yesteryear doesn’t always look too handsome when it hits the US.  Its a conversion of PAL to NTSC.  Two formats running at different frame rates.  This looks solid enough.  Its a bit soft and detail is light.  But this is probably the best its going to turn up for the US.  The source video also isn’t likely to lend itself to a quality high def transfer either.

However, there are also these little boxes that will show up randomly during some episodes and have no idea what they are or why they are there.  I’m doubting this is in the source.  This has to make a mistake in the authoring/pressing of some sort.  I’ve drawn attention to it in the two example screen shots above.

Depth:  This is rather flat.  Motion creates a little blur and there’s not a lot of distinction in character and environment.

Black Levels:  Blacks are decent.  There is some crushing and detail hidden from darkness and dark clothing hides plenty.

Color Reproduction: Colors are more muted and dingy.  Nothing really pops.  The show features a lot of duller colors in the browns, blacks and greens anyway.

Flesh Tones:  Flesh tones are natural and consistent.  Detail is okay in close ups and not really much to talk about further back.

Noise/Artifacts: There are some typical DVD blocking issues, plenty of noise, aliasing and some halo effects.

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English 2.0 Dolby Digital

Subtitles: N/A

Dynamics:  The audio track for the episodes and menu is pretty repulsive.  Its very choppy and strobe-like.  Long tones, sounds, dialogue are all broken up but its pretty bad on the ears.  I made it through the entire 14 episodes, but I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t irritated by the vibrating audio the entire time.  It would not surprise me in the slightest if this disc gets recalled because of the audio.

Low Frequency Extension: N/A

Surround Sound Presentation:  N/A

Dialogue Reproduction:  The show itself doesn’t feature a lot in the way of the dialog, but its loud.  Like I mentioned above its very choppy.

Extras 

Mr. Bean: The Whole Bean is a 4-disc set and comes with a booklet featuring a disc/episode guide.  All  bonus material appears on disc 4.  The audio on the bonus material appears perfectly fine and not choppy like the episodes and menu audio.

Missing Scenes (SD, 5:45) – “Turkey Weight”, “Armchair Sale”, “Marching”, “Playing With Matches”

The Story Of Mr. Bean (SD, 39:59) – A documentary taking a look from the beginnings of Mr. Bean through the TV series and his legacy upon pop and British culture.  Rowan Atkinson as well as much of the crew and cast have interviews in here to lead it.

TV Sketches (SD, 15:16) – “Bus Stop” & “Library”.

The Best Bits Of Mr. Bean (SD, 1:11:52) – A feature length “best of” featuring a compilation of scenes from the show intermixed with some new footage of Mr. Bean going through things in his attic.

Mr. Bean: The Animated Series Trailer (SD, :49)

Summary 

First off, if you skimmed this review and are like “this crotchity a-hole doesn’t like Mr. Bean”, please go back and read the technical sections.  I love Mr. Bean and have been a fan of the character for many years.  When Bean opened up in 1997, I sat with great anticipation in a pretty empty theater on opening weekend.  I can’t in good conscience recommend this problematic release to anyone.  I hope and am predicting that this release gets pulled or recalled to fix the audio and video issues present on this DVD.  If they can get those just “decent”, this is a great set; comprehensive and everything you’d want from the original series.  As is though, if you’re going for the “full Bean”, then I’d see if I could find A&E’s previously released 2003 set of the entire series.