Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Review of Buffy episode 801 "The Long Way Home, Part 1"


It's here. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is back on the screen (computer screen, for now, but with DVD release in the Fall). As an avid fan of the show and avid reader of the season 8 comic series, I was awaiting this release pretty heavily. And I was not disappointed.

It's four years after the show. After they changed the world by turning every potential slayer into a slayer and destroying Sunnydale. The new base of operations is in Scotland, operated by Buffy and Xander. Buffy and her squad of slayers (including new characters Satsu, Rowena and Renee) find a corpse with a mysterious symbol on its chest. Meanwhile, a military group investigates the Sunnydale crater and finds its only two survivors...

The story's adapted nicely from the comic. A few lines are taken out, a few lines are added and it's an acceptable balance. The animation actually flows quite nicely compared to many motion comics. It brings a lot to the new format, especially the action sequences, which are pulled off very well. Another bonus is the music. Having the theme back really brought this home as season eight.

Things that may take getting used to: the voice acting is obviously jarring at first because I'm so used to the cast, but you'd be surpised how quickly you get over it. The short format only leaves you wanting more, which is probably not a bad thing, especially with season eight being twice as long as every other season. The biggest thing that takes getting used to is the fact that the character's mouths don't move. With how well the rest is animated, you'd think they'd be able to do something about this. Again, this becomes tolerable fairly quickly, but I would like to see them fix it.

Overall, the season, finally in moving-picture format, is off to a good start and gets a solid 8/10 from me.

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