Bean there, done that [insert rimshot here]. The hilarious Mr. Bean finds all this beans put into one can (or box set in this case) as most every bit of Bean is gathered into this set. However, it’s all been released before so fans won’t be getting anything new with this set.
Mr. Bean is the outlandish creation of Rowan Atkinson. I’ve always admired what Atkinson did with the character because Mr. Bean is a largely silent creation that harkens back to the ways of the great silent film comedians.
We put too much emphasis on noisemaking these days and when someone takes the harder tack of doing comedy “old school” without all the bells and whistles then I tend to give them admiration. Mr. Bean has been on DVD before and this set only adds his two feature films to the mix.
The series ran from 1990 till 1995 and volumes one thru three of the set represent those shows. Mr. Bean came to theaters in 1997 with Bean: The Movie. An animated series was done in 2002 and it’s put out in two volumes here. Finally, in 2007 Mr. Bean took holiday in Cannes with Mr. Bean’s Holiday. I suppose it’s nice to have this entire selection of Bean together in one place, but if you’re a fan of the show then you’ll already have it all – just not in one box. Though don’t get your hopes up since some of it is missing and you’ll be disappointed if you have a widescreen television.
Where the set really lets down though is that you only get Mr. Bean’s Holiday in fullscreen. Mr. Bean: the Movie is presented in a flipper disc with widescreen on one side and fullscreen on the other. It was done this way originally, but Holiday was released in separate widescreen and fullscreen releases.
Those two movies even bear the logo of the studio (Universal) that released them onto DVD so the only thing new is the A&E packaging. It seems to me that not much effort was put into this new set besides gathering up all the Bean they could find and putting it in a new box.
That being said I’m not really going to trash the box too badly. I’m going to have to snarl and hiss some because I’m a widescreen advocate and I find it pretty “mad making” that the widescreen version isn’t in there. I suppose fullscreen advocates would’ve reacted the same way, but I’m not one of them so I’ll snarl and hiss. Snarl and hiss.
Actually it’s rather annoying that they play up the widescreen/fullscreen angle on Bean: the Movie but are rather silent about the aspect ration of Holiday until you open the box and movie case. That would mean that if you’re thinking that it’s the widescreen version of Holiday and remove the shrink-wrap then there’s no taking back to the store for you.
The set also only gives you two discs of the animated series where there are really four in total. I suppose they list them, as bonuses so I suppose you should be happy with what you get.
The episodes and animated episodes are presented in fullscreen, Bean: The Movie is in fullscreen and widescreen on a flipper disc, and Mr. Bean’s Holiday is in fullscreen. Discs One and Two contain five episodes each, no extras. Disc three of the television episodes has "The Story of Mr. Bean" (40 min.) about the origin and making of the series.
There are also two extra sketches: "Library" (9 min.) and "Bus Stop" (6 min.) and two sketches from "Comic Relief: "Blind Date" (14 min.) and "Torville and Bean" (7 min.). Bean: The Movie has the "I Love L.A." music video (3 min.). Mr. Bean’s Holiday has 24 minutes of deleted scenes.
There’s also "French Beans" (11 min.), a "making of" doc, "Beans in Cannes" (6 min), about filming at the real Cannes film festival, and "The Human Bean" (6 min) about working with Atkinson. The two animated series disc have a trailer and photo gallery and a 20-minute making of the animated series.
It’s a lot of beans, but it’s too bad that this set wasn’t more “ultimate.” I was disappointed to learn that it only contains two of the four discs of the animated show as well as the fullscreen version of one of the films. I must say that we had a grand time watching the adventures of the mad Bean and had many laughs even if the set was missing the items I mentioned.
Even worse is that there’s nothing really new on this set (a new interview with Atkinson would’ve been great). If you don’t have any Bean then this would be a way to get an instant collection (the set with just the TV episodes is available rather cheaply though) and some decent bonus features.
I’m rating this set four stars for the laughs, but Bean collectors will be disappointed in the lack of anything new and it missing items.
Mr. Bean: The Ultimate Collection is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the collection in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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