The Show

If you’ve never heard of Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, I’m not sure what to say that could describe the series short of just telling you to watch a few episodes. Essentially taking some of Hanna-Barbara’s lesser popular superhero character from the 1960’s, the Cartoon Network’s [adult swim] brand has put a great spin on Harvey Birdman, pitting Harvey against super villains inside courtroom battles. Yes, superheroes are now lawyers and witnesses on trial. It sounds so stupid, but it’s oh so hilarious.

With Volume 3 marking the end of the series, each of the 15-minute episodes have a somewhat somber tone to them as you know these great episodes are going to eventually come to an end. However, with that said, these last batch of episodes are probably some of the best of the series. Episodes like Identity Theft and Return of Birdgirl are simply classics, not to mention the finale.

The 2-set disc includes the final 13 episodes of the series with a Play All option available on each disc.
Disc 1
1. Turner Classic Birdman
2. Free Magilla
3. Return of Birdgirl
4. Mindless
5. Identity Theft
6. Sebben and Sebben Employee Operation
7. Shazzan
8. Incredible Hippo
Disc 2
1. Babysitter
2. Birdnapped
3. Grodin
4. Harvey Birdman, Juror in Court
5. The Death of Harvey Birdman

THE DVD

The main menu looks a bit jumbled at first, but overall, things are pretty easy to navigate. There’s just a lot going on in the static backgrounds that seem intimidating at first.

The video transfer is offered in 1.33:1 Fullscreen Format and provides for a relatively clean picture. The picture is most certainly better than how they looked on original broadcast television, which is to be expected with a recent series such as this.

The audio is offered in English Dolby Digital 2.0. The sound comes thoroughly cleanly with the dialogue and voice work sounding distinguished and bold. Subtitles are available in English, French, and Spanish.

THE EXTRAS

The 2-disc set comes in a fold-out digipak enclosed within an embossed cardboard box that looks like a hardcover legal book. The artwork for the packaging is just awesome and will be sure to please fans with all the little bits of info and pictures.

The Joke Timeline features 14 of the show’s running jokes as they appeared throughout the series. Very interesting to say the least.

Birdman Characters runs only about 30-seconds and offers a montage of the show’s characters, plain and simple.

The bonus options round out with 8 Deleted Scenes and a self guided static Comic Book: The Origin of X The Eliminator: A User’s Guide.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There’s something to be said for a series like Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law – Volume 3 that goes out on top in this kind of fashion. Although this set lacks in the bonus options department, it’s still a must have for fans of the series.

- Morris Tang