Shout Factory presents

Stargate Infinity: The Complete Series (2002)

"Harrison, meet me at the squirrel's tree, and try not to act like a nut."- Major Gus Bonner (Dale Wilson)

Stars: Dale Wilson, Tifanie Christun, Bettina Bush, Mark Hildreth, Kathleen Barr, Cusse Mankuma, Mackenzie Gray, Mark Acheson
Other Stars: Cathy Weseluck, Jim Byrnes, Lee Tockar, Kim Hawthorne
Director: Varied

MPAA Rating: Not Rated for (nothing objectionable)
Run Time: 10h:00m:00s
Release Date: 2008-05-13
Genre: action

Style Grade	Substance Grade	Image Transfer Grade	Audio Transfer Grade	Extras Grade
D-	D-	B-	C	D+

 

DVD Review

Stargate Infinity is a children's animated series that is only loosely based on the extremely popular science-fiction series Stargate SG-1 and its spin-off Stargate Atlantis, involving an entirely new cast of characters. It is terrible. No matter how scathing my words, they cannot do justice to this awful creation. From the first moments of the pilot episode Decision, it's clear the writers have no idea how to craft a believable story. We observe two young trainees driving through the woods as energetic music plays. They are shocked by something unseen, and then a bizarre cut occurs. The sequence is edited shoddily and focuses way too much on overdone facial expressions, which is a sign of low-rate animation. From the beginning, we don’t care about these annoying characters, which completely removes the suspense from the scene. This type of poorly composed footage is evident throughout the series and makes it a nearly unwatchable experience.

The series' supervising director is Will Meugniot—a name that immediately raised warning signs about the quality. He was the director of the recent adaptation of Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the popular novel from Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. That film was extremely sloppy, poorly edited and employed disastrous animation tactics. All of these elements are present in Infinity. The second episode Double Duty involves a world composed of giant squirrels and Ewok-like creatures. The latter appear to be cute little aliens and also wear odd brief-like underwear. The animation level ranks near that of '80s stalwarts like G.I. Joe and He-Man but comparing them does an injustice to those popular series. The creatures lack definition and seem like first drafts that need severe enhancements. I realize that the prime audience is kids, but that doesn't excuse the laziness from the creators.

The story takes place 30 years after Earth first used the Stargate (the events of the feature film). Much has changed since that time, and all types of goofy aliens live here and work in the Stargate program. One of the most decorated officers is Major Gus Bonner (Dale Wilson), but he's framed by a treacherous enemy. This action causes our hero and a random cast of characters to escape Earth with a mysterious creature. They believe it might be one of the Ancients—the "builders of the Gate system." This entire premise makes no sense within the realm of the official Stargate series and provides the set-up for hours of serious tedium. Each episode depicts the team journeying to a new world and encountering numerous strange alien cultures. This leads to really basic lessons about respecting others and being a good person. The plots are extremely straightforward and rarely move beyond the most obvious situations.

It's impossible to discuss Stargate Infinity without mentioning the totally ridiculous theme song, which is easily one of the worst in television history. Be warned, though, as the cheesy tune will refuse to leave your head for a long time. This song was composed by Mike Piccirillo, whose work has appeared in numerous animated series, including classics like Inspector Gadget’s Field Trip and Gadget Boy. His resume is packed, but I doubt this theme stands out as one of his finest creations. Even if you're a Stargate devotee or a fan of animated stories, I recommend serious caution before delving into this disastrous production. Life is too short to waste it on poorly written trash. Without the recognizable title, this show would never have received a DVD release.

Rating for Style: D-
Rating for Substance: D-

 

Image Transfer

	One
Aspect Ratio	1.33:1 - Full Frame
Original Aspect Ratio	yes
Anamorphic	no

Image Transfer Review: This release offers acceptable, but forgettable picture quality with its original full-frame transfer, but there are limited improvements that could be made. I also expect that Shout Factory did not have a huge budget allotted for this collection. The result has no major defects, but includes few memorable visual moments.

Image Transfer Grade: B-
 

Audio Transfer

	Language	Remote Access
DS 2.0	English	no

Audio Transfer Review: Stargate Infinity does not offer impressive sound and includes an extremely basic stereo transfer. There are zero moments of wonder, even when the characters are traveling to unknown ancient worlds. The dialogue is generally clear and sounds okay, but nothing stands out from the audio presentation.

Audio Transfer Grade: C 

Disc Extras

Animated menu with music
3 Other Trailer(s) featuring Swamp Thing: The Series (Seasons 1 and 2), Oban Star-Racers: The Complete Series and Medabots: The Complete First Season
2 Featurette(s)
Packaging: Boxed Set
Picture Disc
4 Discs
1-Sided disc(s)
Layers: dual

Extra Extras:

1. Original Concept Art

Extras Review: The extras provided with this release are extremely minimal and offer few insights. The Animated Stargate Effects Test and Character Walking Models both run less than a minute and give quick looks at the early designs. There's also an image gallery that contains a large amount of concept drawings. Navigating this section is annoying because you must click the "next" button to reach each new picture. The left and right arrows are useless, which leads to serious frustration. The only other inclusion is a group of pre-menu trailers on Disc 1 for similar genre series.

Extras Grade: D+
 

Final Comments

Stargate Infinity aired just one season in 2002-2003 on Saturday mornings and was mercifully cancelled without resolving its storyline. Shout Factory has done a solid job with the packaging and menus, but it's wasted on an unbelievably bad product. Save your money and wait for the official DVD movie Stargate: Contiuum in July.

Dan Heaton 2008-05-13