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"Tales from Avonlea" The Complete First Season DVD Review
By Renata Joy
Producer/director Kevin Sullivan is no stranger to Victorian Canada, most particularly Prince Edward Island. No, he is not a historical figure: he was not even alive until the middle of the 1950s. Sullivan's claim to this era is that since the mid-1980s, he has brought a number of works from Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery to the small screen.
The hour-long Disney Channel drama "Tales from Avonlea" (originally called "Road to Avonlea" in Canada, or as each episode from this set is titled, simply "Avonlea") is loosely based on four of the celebrated writer's books. There are The Story Girl and The Golden Road, both novels which center around the trials and tribulations of the extended King family, the focal point of the television series. Other ideas for episode plots come from Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea, two collections of short stories which take place in the fictional town first made popular in the Anne of Green Gables series, the books for which L.M. Montgomery is most well-known.
"Avonlea" follows Sara Stanley (Sarah Polley), a young girl who leaves her upper-class life in Montreal to stay indefinitely with her late mother's relatives, the Kings, a prominent and large clan in the small town of Avonlea. She is sent by her father, a business owner who has been falsely accused of embezzlement and wishes Sara to be far from any sort of trouble caused by the scandal.
Apparently, Mr. Stanley is not a favorite among the King family, and is particularly disliked by Sara's old maid Aunt Hetty (Jackie Burroughs), the oldest and strictest At first, fans of the novels might feel a little disoriented in this strange hybrid of L.M. Montgomery's works. Marilla Cuthbert and Rachel Lynde, substantial characters in the Anne of Green Gables stories, make a number of appearances. Also, many might be surprised to discover that Aunt Hetty is nowhere to be found in the King family's origins. She perhaps most closely resembles Aunt Elizabeth from the Emily of New Moon trilogy. Admittedly, it is odd to see characters from one series of books interacting with those from a different setting. However, if one is open to changes (and nobody likes those who are not), there is a great deal of fun to be had. In the long run, it needs to be accepted that the world presented in "Avonlea" is not a mirror image of L.M. Montgomery's creations, but it comes pretty close.
Typical of L.M. Montgomery fare, "Avonlea" presents a fairly large variety of characters, each with their own quirks. The fact that there are so many personalities and a multitude of plots featuring each makes for no shortage of enjoyable viewing. True, the King family, particularly the children, assume the majority of screentime, but their stories are rarely limited to them alone and are readily expanded to include passing or recurring individuals. The resulting effect is that the viewer feels very much a part of this small town and there is always something to occupy one's interest.
This is far from the first appearance that "Avonlea" has made on the DVD format. The series made its Region 1 debut in February 2003, with the release of The Complete First Season from Sullivan Entertainment, the executive producer's company. This 4-disc box set originated from Sullivan's home country, Canada, and never made it to stores south of the border. Subsequent seasons have followed; most recently, Season Five became available in June. Overseas, individual episodes made their way to disc as early as 2001. In the United States, Disney's video branch Buena Vista Home Entertainment holds distribution rights. They first released the series (with this new title "Tales from Avonlea") in March of 2004 as a two-disc compilation subtitled Beginnings, holding eight episodes from the first and early second season.
This November, alongside three widely-admired series from the 1980s, Disney nonchalantly released "Tales from Avonlea": The Complete First Season, a 3-disc set containing all 13 episodes from the series' debut year. While this chronological collection offers an ever so slightly higher per-episode cost than the recently-reduced Beginnings, it offers massive savings over the previous exclusive and now sole alternative Sullivan set. The Canadian releases of the first four seasons' carried a list price of $102 CDN (about $80 US). Even with the typical Internet discounts and a lower suggested retail price (SRP) on the fifth season, the Sullivan Entertainment box sets typically cost you about $55-$70 USD. By contrast, upon release, Disney's set (bearing the modest SRP of $34.99) sold for less than half that on Amazon.com.
Sounds pretty good so far, right? Unfortunately, there is a trade-off for the much lower American retail price. For reasons unknown, Disney's Season 1 set contains shortened cuts of all but one of the episodes within. Here, each show runs in the neighborhood of 44 minutes. This entails a loss of footage, ranging from 17 seconds on "The Story Girl Earns Her Name" to a whopping nearly 13 minutes on the debut episode "The Journey Begins." Most episodes are missing about 1-2 minutes, but several lose 3-7 minutes. Altogether, Disney's box runs just a shade under 571 minutes long, or just under 40 full minutes shorter than Sullivan's Season 1 set. That is no insignificant loss; it amounts to almost a full episode's worth of missing content. What's worse is the inexplicably absent footage is not merely standalone sequences; the episodes are marked by frustrating fadeouts that prematurely leave several a scene before it reaches its dramatic conclusion. As the Disney Channel has never had traditional commercials and, as far as I know, "Avonlea" has never appeared in reruns on any other ad-supported network, the shortened versions aren't obvious syndicated cuts. Nor were they likely done to provide optimal picture and sound, for Disney's set is sorely lacking in both departments (as all previous DVD versions are complained to be).
Following is a list of the First Season episodes with a star ( DISC 1 (Volume One)
1. The Journey Begins (44:13) (Originally aired January 7, 1990)
DISC 2 (Volume Two)
5. Song of the Night (a.k.a. Old Lady Lloyd) (42:51) (Originally aired February 4, 1990)
7. Aunt Abigail's Beau (44:01) (Originally aired February 25, 1990)
8. Malcolm and the Baby (43:54) (Originally aired March 4, 1990)
9. Conversions (43:55) (Originally aired February 18, 1990)
DISC 3 (Volume Three)
10. Felicity's Challenge (43:51) (Originally aired May 7, 1990)
12. The Witch of Avonlea (44:08) (Originally aired October 21, 1990)
13. Nothing Endures But Change (44:05) (Originally aired November 11, 1990)
VIDEO and AUDIO
"Avonlea" is presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen, which is appropriate considering that this is The previously-released Sullivan sets garnered their fair share of criticism in the picture department. Without seeing them, I can't make a direct comparison, but I can't imagine the Canadian DVDs looking any worse. In fact, I can't imagine any 15-year-old television show released by a major studio looking as rough and troubled as "Avonlea" does here.
Sound quality is not as bad as picture, but there is definitely room for improvement. Most noticeable of the Dolby Stereo soundtrack's flaws are the somewhat rare occasions where the audio goes out of synch with the video. Of course, if you are a fan of watching dubbed foreign films, this aspect of the DVD transfer might be something you find endearing. There is little range to the dynamics and little else remarkable about the sound presentation. Dialogue is generally understandable, if not as crisp as you'd like for a barely-teenaged show, and the soft score comes through just well enough to appreciate.
BONUS FEATURES, MENUS, PACKAGING and DESIGN
Unfortunately, Disney hasn't seen "Avonlea" fit to be accompanied by any bonus features, new or old. On the first disc of Sullivan's First Season set, the premiere episode was joined by 9 minutes of screen tests and a 10½-minute behind-the-scenes featurette. Whether or not either could have been included, they were not, which is bound to disappoint fans. More than even movies, the release of television shows on DVD often lends itself to nostalgia, which either newly-created or archival supplements can both serve. The lack of extras is nothing unusual for the studio, though. Each of the three TV show box sets concurrently issued similarly went without any kind of supplements.
The three discs of this Season 1 collection are packaged in a cardboard box and stored individually in clear slim keepcases. The back of each case provides a brief overview of the episodes, with a summary accompanied by writer, director, and guest cast information.
The 16x9-enhanced menus are very simple - there is no animation or accompanying music (unlike the Sullivan DVDs). There are pictures of various scenes and characters; several recycled, more than a few taken from the opening credits montage, and most relegated to watermarked background. The Episode Selections menus rely merely upon titles (not even pictures) for your choosing, but at least they don't list extraneous episodes as the Sullivan discs did. Each disc is equipped with a "Play All" option for those who like their TV DVDs in doses of 3+ hours. A number of chapter stops are provided, though not as many as you might hope for on an hour-long show and not always in the places you'd suspect. For instance, attempting to skip the lengthy opening credits sequence will make you miss a good deal more.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Though loosely adapted from a hodgepodge of L.M. Montgomery's writings, "Avonlea" consistently pleases with its character-driven small town tales. Such a strong show would merit a wholehearted recommendation if Disney's First Season DVD treatment did something other than plainly disappoint. This 3-disc collection improves upon the previous Canadian DVD release from Sullivan Entertainment only in price; Disney's set can be had for less than half the cost of its expensive northern counterpart. Poor video and audio quality, the absence of any bonus features (including two which appeared on Sullivan's set), and the disconcerting loss of 40 minutes of content all add up to one Halifax of a letdown for those with fond early '90s Disney Channel memories and those craving some good old-fashioned family fun. While such careless treatment can't rob "Avonlea" of its period charms, the series deserves far better than this, which only satisfies in the fact that it preserves this gem in chronological order.
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Reviewed November 20, 2005.
Lucy Maud Montgomery's Books that Inspired Avonlea:
Complete Anne of Green Gables Box Set
The Story Girl
The Golden Road
Chronicles of Avonlea
Further Chronicles of Avonlea
Heidi (1993) • Perfect Harmony (1991) • One Magic Christmas (1985)
Five Mile Creek: The Complete First Season (1983-84) • Cheetah • The Muppet Show: Season One (1976-77)
The Rescuers Down Under (1990) • Cheetah (1989) • Under the Umbrella Tree: Volume 1
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers: Volume 1 (1989) • DuckTales: Volume 1 (1987)
Scrubs: The Complete Second Season (2002-03) • Old Yeller: 2-Movie Collection (1957-1963)