Why So Blu?

Rick and Morty The Complete Series (Blu-ray Review)

When I first met my wife, well before she became my wife that is, she made an odd comment saying I reminded her of Morty.  I was like who?  She said Morty like in Rick and Morty.  I was not familiar with that television show whatsoever.  She said how much she loved it.  That was also odd to me considering she really doesn’t watch something religiously unless it’s educational.  So I hunted down the show which was conveniently available on HBO Max.  I was shocked, surprised and laughing hysterically at it all at the same time.  I reported back to her how over the top it was, but completely amazing at the same time for what it was.  She professed to watch it in small doses.  That recommendation rings true for as much as I love Rick and Morty if you bite off more than you can chew at once, you could get quite overloaded.  However, that’s the point of this Blu-ray review…to overload you with EVERY episode of Rick and Morty thus far.  Haha!  Let’s get started!

Series 

First off I was shocked so to speak how outrageous and raunchy this show by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon was on Cartoon Network.  Maybe I am out of touch with the times, but South Park and Family Guy up until this point was about as risqué as I have gone.  Rick and Morty makes South Park look like Sesame Street at times.  I guess that’s why they call Cartoon Network’s nighttime programming block, Adult Swim.  Despite the science fiction nature of the series and its cartoon graphics this is definitely NOT a show I would let my under 16 year old kid watch.  However, the funny thing is I would probably let them play Call of Duty before watching this.  What is the matter with me?  Ha!  I digress.

Rick and Morty follows the wacky, misadventures of Rick and Morty.  Well duh!  Rick Sanchez is a crazy, eccentric, mad scientist who is always disgustingly burping due to his alcoholism.  His 14-year-oldgrandson, Morty Smith, has a big heart and is his naive yin-yang.  The duo share screen time with their family members (Rick’s parents Jerry and Beth and older sister Summer) in domestic situations as well as time together in Interdimensional adventures.  Rick even has a flying car!  And for clarity sake sometimes those Interdimensional adventures follow them back to the Earth (near Seattle, Washington as I understand it) as we know it.  Did I confuse you yet?  Hopefully not, but trust me you have not seen a show like this complete with pop culture references I think most adults will get a chuckle out of.  

When you are talking about Rick’s family the show plays out kind of like any ordinary coming of age comedy or drama.  However, how many moms on sitcoms are horse surgeons other than Beth here?  I can’t name one other one.  She’s also in an unhappy marriage with Rick’s father Jerry who’s also very disapproving of Rick’s influence on the family.  And who wouldn’t be?  To further separate this series from others out there (thinking like Family Guy for example) there are different versions of the characters here inhabiting other dimensions throughout this show’s multiverse.  Whoa!  That is some heavy comic book stuff there.  Trust me.  This is unlike any show out there and that’s what makes Rick and Morty so fantastic to take all in.  

So this box set contains the original Seasons 1-4 and also last year’s 5th season, which finally aired after a long hiatus and much fan adoration and clamoring bringing it back.  In fact, there’s going to be a Season 6 too and possibly more.  However, before I get too ahead of myself I do want to pay special homage to two previous Blu-ray reviews on the site by Sir Brandon Peters where he covered Seasons 1-4 HERE with the following verbiage…

After having been missing for nearly 20 years, Rick Sanchez suddenly arrives at daughter Beth’s doorstep to move in with her and her family. Although Beth welcomes Rick into her home, her husband, Jerry, isn’t as happy about the family reunion. Jerry is concerned about Rick, a sociopathic scientist, using the garage as his personal laboratory. In the lab, Rick works on a number of sci-fi gadgets, some of which could be considered dangerous. But that’s not all Rick does that concerns Jerry. He also goes on adventures across the universe that often involve his children, Morty and Summer.

Out of the gates, Rick and Morty came swinging like no other. Sure, show’s on Adult Swim have had some similar humors to them. But, Rick and Morty actually acts and a heavily continuity focused, laser specific reference humored adventure that adds crazy layers, puzzles and other wild elements to keeps its viewers thoroughly engaged. To say the show has a rewatchability factor is a complete understatement. Personally, I don’t get much time to do so these days, but even I’ve been through it twice and am thinking about going for a third (My wife still has never seen it. Time to inaugurate!).

Rick and Morty is also that really popular thing that kids know about and envy. I remember those being horror movies and such for me growing up. However, being animated, Rick and Morty have themselves that sort of draw. Its a friendly element that offers itself visually to all ages. My kids shout “I’m Pickle Rick!” and have NO IDEA what they are referring to. They just hear it on their YouTube videos or video games. They WANT to know, but its going to be QUITE a while before I show them. But that’s the type of reach this show has.

While having its own inventions and continuity, it does lean in some very interesting spots for inspiration. There are science fiction ideas and the like explored and celebrated that I’d never have imagined hit pop culture like Rick and Morty has made it such. That’s the beauty of it, too. Its made things like Zardoz something people know about again. And it excites me that there are some people discovering some old goofy genre movies and tv shows that I love because of this show.

And not to be left out, the show is funny as hell. I’ve had many a gut busters with this show and its infinitely quotable. And even in the fourth season they are adding some surprisingly effective character drama moments to things as well. Fight as you may, once you walk the Rick and Morty path, you’re bound to like it. There’s nothing quite like it on TV, and one I look forward to scarfing up whatever it is Justin Roiland and company are going to serve me while it airs.

And here’s what Brandon had to say about Season 5 HERE.

At the start of every new season of Rick and Morty, I wonder if its ever going to let up. And I don’t mean bad or anything, just that it’ll feel a bit “regular”. And every single time I’m stunningly surprised at how shocking and freshly funny it comes out swinging. The show is relentless and finds new ways constantly to jab at science fiction tropes and build an ridiculous canon for itself that it holds to religiously to absolutely ridiculous levels of parody.

In the fifth season, we get more multiverse and doppleganger fun than we ever have before. They even go so far as to actually give us the full back story for Rick Sanchez. Its a bold move that could easily wreck or diffuse many shows, but not Rick and Morty. These writes actually pull this thing off.

One things that helps Rick and Morty work so well in these newer/later seasons is that they’ve slowly built an emotional core at the center of it all that isn’t abused or taken advantage of, but there to help service the story and make some of the most over the top and ridiculous things in it carry some weight. But lets not get too crazy, the show goes for cleverness and laughs and excels in them first and foremost. Its just now they excel here too.

Some of the best fun is wondering where Rick and Morty will go next. And, season to season, you never have any idea. Let alone, you never know where they are going from episode to episode. That’s the beauty and joy of the show that is key to its quality, and I hope doesn’t plan on changing any time soon.

Thanks Brandon!

Episodes

Season 1 (DISC 1)

1. Pilot
2. Lawnmower Dog
3. Anatomy Park
4. M. Night Shaym-Aliens!
5. Meeseeks and Destroy
6. Rick Potion #9
7. Raising Gazorpazorp
8. Rixty Minutes
9. Something Ricked This Way Comes
10. Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind
11. Ricksy Business

Season 2 (DISC 2)

1. A Rickle in Time
2. Mortynight Run
3. Auto Erotic Assimilation
4. Total Rickcall
5. Get Schwifty
6. The Ricks Must Be Crazy
7. Big Trouble In Little Sanchez
8. Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate
9. Look Who’s Purging Now
10. The Wedding Squanchers

Season 3 (DISC 3)

1. The Rickshank Rickdemption
2. Rickmancing the Stone
3. Pickle Rick
4. Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender
5. The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy
6. Rest and Ricklaxation
7. The Ricklantis Mixup
8. Morty’s Mind Blowers
9. The ABC’s of Beth
10. The Rickchurian Mortydate

Season 4 (DISC 4)

1. Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat
2. The Old Man and the Seat
3. One Crew over the Crewcoo’s Morty
4. Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty
5. Rattlerstar Ricklactica
6. Never Ricking Morty
7. Promotyus
8. The Vat of Acid Episode
9. Childrick of Mort
10. Star Morty Rickturn of the Jerri

Season 5 (DISC 5)

1. Mort Dinner Rick Andre
2. Mortyplicity
3. A Rickconvenient Mort
4. Rickdependence Spray
5. Amortycan Grickfitti
6. Rick & Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular
7. Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion
8. Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort
9. Forgetting Sarick Mortshall
10. Rickmurai Jack

Video 

Here’s how Seasons 1-5 stack up in the video department courtesy of Brandon Peters once again.

• Encoding: MPEG-4 AVC
• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Layers: BD-50
• Clarity/Detail:  Primarily 2-D animations with a flat color scene like Rick and Morty have no trouble shining on the Blu-ray format.  One might worry that all of the 30 minute episodes and bonus features are crammed on one disc, but there’s no real sign of that harming the viewing. The image is vivid, strong and features plenty of details clearly done in the animation to go with an overall sharp image.
• Depth: There’s a pretty strong, three dimensional, depth of field on display where the 2D and cgi animations marry. Character movements are smooth and feature no issues with distortion.
• Black Levels: Blacks are nice deep, flat color. They do well in shadow and night, with good defined outlining helping to sharpen the image. No crushing present.
• Color Reproduction:  Colors pop quite strong and this really has a nice vivid palette to display. There are wonderful glows and other bright moments from lasers, lighting and such.
• Flesh Tones: All looks great on the cartoon characters!
• Noise/Artifacts: Clean…nothing to complain about here.

Audio 

And here’s a closer look at the audio presentation of the series on Blu-ray as originally dissected by Brandon Peters.

• Languages(s): English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD (Seasons 1-4) and Season 5 contains English 5.1 DTS-HD MA, French 2.0 Stereo Dolby Digital, German 2.0 Stereo Dolby Digital
• Subtitles: English SDH (Seasons 1-4) and Season 5 contains English SDH, French, German SDH, Dutch
• Dynamics: Ricky and Morty carries a nice 5.1 mix as the series has been known to have on these releases. Its a crazy as a blockbuster with the sound design and carries that weighted impact. Its a nice lossless mix that is balanced and thorough with its playful behavior toward the vocals, effect and music.
• Height: N/A
• Low-Frequency Extension: Blaster fire, bass drops, explosions, ship engines and much more really provide a nice pounce and bounce from your subwoofer.
• Surround Sound Presentation: This is pretty playful and well thought out with effects and atmospherics really commanding the room and leaving no speaker unturned. Sound travel is quite dynamic and really whooshes back and forth across the room with a real grace and impact.
• Dialogue Reproduction:  Vocals are clear and crisp with good characteristics of the actors’ diction being picked up with the mix.

Extras 

Here’s where things get a bit bonkers.  There is so much stuff to digest down below from Behind the Scenes to deleted ones and even audio commentaries for so many of the episodes!  First off though let me say how thankful I am for them supplying all 51 episodes in Digital HD (US Only).  They redeem in VUDU.  Now I can truly enjoy them everywhere I go!  Alright, let’s just list everything you will find here down below in an as ordinary fashion as humanly possible.  P.S. though…. It should also be noted that as long as supplies last versions of this come packaged with a fold out poster too.  The poster is shown below (click on the thumbnail image to view it better).  

There’s also a loose sheet in the five spindle Blu-ray case that lists all the episodes and all the respective season extras.  

Season 1

Audio Commentary

• Every episode features commentaries from the creators and animators in different combinations including Justin Roiland (every episode), Dan Harmon (every episode), Ryan Elder, Ryan Ridley, Eric Acosta, Wade Randolph, Tom Kauffman, Bryan Newton, Stephen Sandoval, Pete Michels
• There are also Special Guest commentaries that include Matt Groening, Al Jean, J. Stewart Burns, Max Pross, Matt Selman, Jon Kern, Tom Gammill, Robert Kirkman, Scott M. Gimple, Pendleton Ward, Kent Osborne

Behind The Scenes (HD, 19:08)

Animatics

• Pilot (HD, 21:44)
• Lawnmower Dog (HD, 21:40)
• Anatomy Park (HD, 21:12)
• M. Night Shaym-Aliens! (HD, 21:00)
• Meeseeks and Destroy (HD, 20:29)
• Rick Potion #9 (HD, 20:51)
• Raising GazorPazorp (HD, 21:06)
• Rixty Minutes (HD, 21:26)
• Something Ricked This Way Comes (HD, 22:21)
• Close Rick-Counters of the Rick Kind (HD, 21:52)
• Ricksy Business (HD, 22:05)

Deleted Scenes

• Pilot (HD, 1:36)
• Anatomy Park (HD, :23)
• M. Night Shaym-Aliens! (HD, :31)
• Meeseeks and Destroy #1 (HD, :55)
• Meeseeks and Destroy #2 (HD, :57)
• Rick Potion #9 (HD, 1:10)
• Rixty Minutes #1 (HD, :29)
• Rixty Minutes #2 (HD, :33)
• Rixty Minutes #3 (HD, 1:10)
• Ricksy Business (HD, :22)

Season 2

Audio Commentary

• Every episode features commentaries from the creators and animators in different combinations including Justin Roiland (every episode), Dan Harmon (every episode), Ryan Ridley, Wes Archer, Erik Wolpaw, Jay Pinkerton, Cabe Newell, Dan Guterman, Mike McMahan, WWE Superstar Sheamus, Abed Cheith, Tom Kauffman, Sal Governale, Richard Christy, Bryan Newton, Juan Meza-Leon, Dominic Polcino

Deleted Animatic Sketches (HD, 2:11)

Rick and Morty Season 2 Premiere Party Featuring Chaos Chaos (HD, 43:13)

Animatics

• A Rickle In Time (Attempt 1) (HD, 19:13)
• A Rickle In Time (Attempt 2) (HD, 22:03)
• Mortynight Run (HD, 21:48)
• Auto Erotic Assimilation (HD, 22:21)
• Total Rickall (HD, 21:30)
• Get Schwifty (HD, 21:31)
• The Ricks Must Be Crazy (HD, 21:59)
• Big Trouble In Little Sanchez (HD, 22:14)
• Interdimensional Cable 2: Tempting Fate (HD, 22:01)
• Look Who’s Purging Now (HD, 22:52)
• The Wedding Squanchers (HD, 22:22)

Season 3

Audio Commentary

• Every episode features commentaries from the creators and animators in different combinations including Justin Roiland (every episode), Dan Harmon (every episode), Mike McMahon, Juan Meza-Leon, John Mayer, Courtney Love, Marilyn Manson, Jessica Gao, Jordan Brock, Lance Wehrly, Anthony Chun, Russell Brand, David Benioff, DB Weiss, Peter Dinklage, Sarah Carbiener, Erica Rosbe, Chris Parnell, Erica Hayes, Tom Kauffman, Karl Wahlgren, Dominic Polcino, James Siciliano, Bryan Newton, Wes Archer, Jeffrey Thompson

Animatics

• The Rickshank Redemption (HD, 22:58)
• Rickmancing The Stone (HD, 22:39)
• Pickle Rick (HD, 22:57)
• Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender (HD, 23:06)
• Rest and Ricklaxation (HD, 22:52)
• The Ricklantis Mixup (HD, 22:41)
• Morty’s Mind Blowers (HD, 22:19)
• The ABC’s of Beth (HD, 21:57)
• The Rickchurian Mortydate (HD, 22:14)

Inside The Recording Booth (HD, 6:14)

Rick and Morty Origins: Part 1 (HD, 4:55)

Rick and Morty Origins: Part 2 (HD, 4:38)

Inside The Episode

• The Rickshank Redemption (HD, 2:37)
• Rickmancing The Stone (HD, 2:33)
• Pickle Rick (HD, 2:39)
• Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender (HD, 2:04)
• The Whirly Dirly Conspiracy (HD, 2:14)
• Rest and Ricklaxation (HD, 1:59)
• The Ricklantis Mixup (HD, 2:09)
• Morty’s Mind Blowers (HD, 1:48)
• The ABC’s of Beth (HD, 1:57)
• The Rickchurian Candidate (HD, 2:42)

Season 4

A Day At Rick And Morty: Inside Season 4 (HD, 9:11)

Creating Snake Jazz (HD, 2:30)

Directing Rick And Morty (HD, 2:55)

Samurai And Shogun (HD, 5:24)

Prop Process (HD, 2:48)

Character Creation (HD, 2:36)

Animation Challenges (HD, 2:30)

Inside The Episode 

• Edge of Tomorty: Rick Die Rickpeat (HD, 1:23)
• The Old Man and the Seat (HD, 1:24)
• One Crew Over the Crewcoo’s Morty (HD, 1:22)
• Claw and Hoarder: Special Ricktim’s Morty (HD, 1:24)
• Rattlestar Ricklactica (HD, 1:23)
• Never Ricking Morty (HD, 1:39)
• Promortyus (HD, 1:47)
• The Vat of Acid Episode (HD, 2:13)
• Childrick of Mort (HD, 2:04)
• Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri (HD, 2:07)

Season 5

• Fighting Gravity: The Making of Season 5 (HD, 9:16) – This goes over the challenges of making a season during a pandemic and the decision to tell Rick’s backstory and convincing Dan Harmon to allow it. There are also some moments revealed to be more emotional than you’d have thought on the surface.
• Animation and Compositing (HD, 2:22) – A brief showcase on what compositing is and animation touch up and fixes that come in later in the process.
• B-Story Generator Vol. 1 (HD, 3:04) – Dan Harmon and Rob Schraab go through a box of little post its that are B-Story ideas for episodes and they draw them and read them aloud. Dan picks a favorite and fleshes it out and has some storyboards to show some of them.
• B-Story Generator Vol. 2 (HD, 2:49) – Some more drawing from the box.
• Backgrounds (HD, 2:30) – This one covers the background animation and how intensive a process it actually is.
• Coloring Rick and Morty (HD, 2:47) – Here’s a piece on the use of color in the animation and what goes into it.
• Directing “Mortyplicity” (HD, 2:00) – A little bit of insight behind this episode about Rick’s multiple decoy families set about.
• Directing “Rickmurai Jack (HD, 2:36) – This one goes over the challenges of putting together the multiverse in the show.
• Season 5 Hype (HD, 1:52) – The creators hype up and joke about the Season.
• Inside the Episode – These are really brief clips with folks like Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon giving a little bit of insight on the episode.
  • Mort Dinner Rick Andre (HD, 1:45)
  • Mortyplicity (HD, 1:45)
  • A Rickconvenient Mort (HD, 1:58)
  • Rickdependence Spray (HD, 1:53)
  • Amortycan Rickfitti (HD, 1:35)
  • Rick and Morty’s Thanksploitation Spectacular (HD, 1:30)
  • Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion (HD, 1:25)
  • Ricketernal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort (HD, 1:44)

Summary 

I would have to assume most folks already have all these episodes in the previously released Blu-ray editions, but in the off chance you don’t and you want them all in one convenient collection…then this is the collection for you to buy!  I can guarantee we will see a new complete collection a year from now after Season 6 releases.  Ha ha!  Regardless though if you decide to buy this, I hope you laugh non-stop and truly enjoy!  This collection was released last week on March 29, 2022 and it comes HIGHLY recommended provided you don’t already own this.  Otherwise all you’re getting is a stinking poster!

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