That would be a nice "ha-ha!" to those who thought it would be in low demand! :D

I finally got it! It's awesome! I'll post a review later.

Only one week to go till it hits Australia!!! :frankiesmile: Can't wait!

Available on Blockbuster Online (assuming in blockbuster stores as well and on netflix?)

Foster's Home For Imagniary Friends: The Complete Season 1 DVD Review
 

Well, I got it! "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: Season 1" And here I am, reviewing it. It's very hard to find. It's not that people buy them, it's just that not many stores have them. They didn't have any at Wal-Mart, so I suggest you buy it at Target. They had many copies there for only about $14.99.
So first of all, I'll discuss the packaging. Like many movies (mostly Disney ones) it came in a cardboard slip-over. It had a hole in it, allowing Blooregard to peek out. The plastic wrapping was covering the actual case beneath the slip-over. The case features some pretty funny artwork from the episode "Store Wars" and was made to fit two discs, the first one swinging over to reveal the second. Inside was a slip with ads, episode descriptions, and a "Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends: Big Fat Awesome House Party" Game cheat, which earns you a flying fish buddy if punched into Notey.
The menu features a scene from "House of Bloo's", Mac and Bloo walking up to the house. Pretty cool. It goes slow, though, so if you want to just watch the episodes, skip over it. The selections are imaginary friends standing in the Foster's lobby. The set-up menu is the bathroom, episode select is the laundry room, extras are the outside and trailers are in Bloo's room. Also, easter eggs are hidden all over. There was said to be a problem with the second disc, but I have not had any problems with either discs.
As for the episodes, they are great! Some of the best. Great way to start off the series. It includes:

(On Disc 1)

House of Bloo's
When 8-yr-old Mac is forced to give up his Imaginary Friend Bloo, they find Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, an amazing house for unwanted Imaginary Friends.

My Opinion: In the episode selection, you can choose part 1, 2, or 3 of this episode, but if you scroll over to above part 1, you can watch all 3 parts. But the theme song and recap of the last part still play between chapters. It, frankly, would have been better if that option gave you the whole movie, like they show on Cartoon Network.

Busted
When Bloo breaks Madame Foster's bust, it's up to the Gang to put it back together before rule-crazy Mr. Herriman finds out.

My Opinion: Great episode, no problems with this one.

Dinner is Swerved
It's dinner time and Mac and Bloo can't manage to find the dining room in Foster's twisty-turny house.

My Opinion: Great episode for a tour of Foster's.

Adoptcalypse Now
Adopt-a-thought Saturday is a great day when Imaginary Friends try to get adopted by new families.

My Opinion: Since this episode rarely airs, it's a good one to have on a first-release.

Store Wars
It's Madame Foster's birthday! And Frankie has a great idea. A trip to the mall!

My Opinion: This seems to be the "Star episode" of this DVD. The case has art based on this episode, and it's the only one with commentary.

Bloooo
After watching a scary movie on a dark and stormy night, Wilt and Eduardo are sure there is a ghost in the house. But the ghost is actually Bloo, white and cold-ridden.

My Opinion: I guess this passes for the Halloween episode. It's pretty hilarious, actually.

(On Disc 2)

The Trouble With Scribbles
There is one door in Foster's that is never, ever to be opened. But Bloo can't imagine why!

My Opinion: I think this episode had some added footage into, hence the rumor about some episodes had bonus footage.

Seeing Red
Terrence realizes that the only way to get Mac is to create an Imaginary Friend to beat up Bloo.

My Opinion:
Great episode for Red's debut. I hope he appears again sometime.

Phone Home
Bloo finds the best imaginary friend ever! That is, if it's imaginary at all!

My Opinion: Episode itself equals hilarity. I just have one problem, and that is the fact that it is paired with "Seeing Red" on the episode selection, so to see just this I have to fast forward to it.

World Wide Wabbit
While videotaping interviews for the new Foster's website, Mac and Bloo get some embarrassing footage.

My Opinion: One of the best episodes ever! It's good that this is on the DVD, too.

Berry Scary
Berry is the new Imaginary Friend in the house. And she has set her sights on Bloo.

My Opinion: Once again good episode, not disappointed as usual.

Who Let the Dogs In?
When Eduardo finds a puppy in the house, he must keep it a secret due to Mr. Herriman's strict role of 'No Dogs In The House.'

My Opinion:
Aww... Good episode... but the last? Already? *Sigh* Oh well...

Now that we've gotten through the episodes, I'll discuss the bonus features.

A Sneak Peek at "Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends: What Happens When Your Imagination Runs Wild?
The creator of the show discusses... His show. Pretty cool. Short, but cool.

Shorts and Promos
Awesome! It comes with "Cheese Interview", "Animation Reel", "Big, Tall, and Imaginary Clothes Store", "Coco's Can Can" & "Bloo Rap". The only flaw is it doesn't include the other interview promos.

Gallery of Friends
Long, but worth it if you want to know your imaginary friends.

End of Episode Gags
They come fullscreen separate from the episode and are hilarious!

All in all, an awesome DVD that is totally worth buying. It has English, Spanish and French subtitles and languages. The picture quality is great, too. With 13 episodes and 4 great bonus features, if this isn't worth your money, nothing is.

Thanks for the review Foster's Geek 287. I just got it yesterday, and just finished disc 2. It's cool!!

Only one day to go until it's in Australia!!! :frankiesmile:

Have you pre-ordered it?

No, I haven't. I'm planning to buy it tomorrow or Thursday, because I usually go to my local shopping center for dinner.

I think I will be posting the "easter eggs" from the DVD on youtube shortly :)

I have them saved as a .vob file at the moment

Sure thing. I can't wait for season 2!!! :bloogrin:
Also, I'm taking screenshots. Any requests?

A query to you lucky sons of guns...
 

OK, I'm starting to come to accept that it's unlikely that this DVD is going to get a proper UK Region 2 release, and that I might have to just bite the bullet and import one from the US. That being so, I would like to ask those of you who own the DVD a logistical question; what's the deal with the packaging? :terrconf:

Let me explain what I mean; from the description that Foster's Geek gave, and from the picture on the NF homepage, it seems like the DVD comes in a standard plastic Amaray keep case, with Store Wars-inspired artwork on the outside, which is then placed inside a slip-on cardboard sleeve, which features images of characters in portraits, a synopsis on the back cover and a large portrait hole on the front for the Bloo on the keep case artwork to peek through.

However, on a lot of other pictures, such as this one from Amazon, a different version is shown, one without a slip-on cardboard sleeve that instead prints the slip-on's artwork directly onto the keep case insert (with Bloo printed flat in the portrait hole), and forgoing the Store Wars artwork altogether.

Therefore, my question is: are there two versions of this disc, one with cardboard sleeve and one without? See, I'm a real sucker for nice, artwork-heavy packaging, and I would feel a little cheated if I got a copy without the interior artwork or fancy sleeve, so I need to know if this is an issue or not before I think about ordering anything. I've seen it happen before that a DVD's packaging gets downgraded later on in their production run - the first two Harry Potter movies, for example, were intially released in beautifully-designed gatefold digipacks, but later editions were simply in bog-standard keep cases. ::)

I would really like my Foster's discs to look as good as possible, so can somebody please clarify this for me? :frankiesmile:

I've never seen one like the one in your link in stores, they are always like the one I have, with the slip-on thingie. So if the ones without even exist, I've never seen one. So. :terrsmile: I'd guess that maybe the one on the Amazon site was just some sort of promo - I've caught other promo-only versions of Foster's stuff (such as books) pictured on Amazon. It's not like if you ordered that item, that you'd get the promo item as pictured. If you know what I mean. So, if I had to guess, I'd say that you'd get the one with the sleeve.

Thanks much!
 

Aha, cheers, Sparky. :)

That's what I was hoping, really...I suspected that if there were differences in the packaging, someone would have mentioned it by now. My guess is that the picture on Amazon could just be a mock-up they made when the DVD artwork was first released...

Well, that concern dealt with, I've just placed my Amazon order. Yay for me! :D I was hoping to buy it through the Never Forgotten Amazon Store, until I realised that, naturally, it works through Amazon.com, not Amazon.co.uk, so I couldn't use it. Sorry, Sparky! :(

Well, I gotta update the store anyways, I'll look and see if one can have multiple Amazons linked to in a store. I didn't even think of that. :P

Despite the lack of indication, I'm not ruling out the chances of a Region 2 release just yet - if I cast my mind back, I remember not too long ago when European releases of Frasier DVDs had come to abrupt halt whilst continuing on course in Region 1. A great sense of doom and gloom filled Frasier fans all over the UK. For a while, the general consensus seemed to be that, "they obviously didn't sell well enough over here, if you want to complete your collection, then importing will be the only way to go from now on". For a while, my Season 5-nostaligic self was tempted to follow this advice. Then suddenly, the R2 release of Season 5 was announced, and things were once again back on track as quickly as they'd departed. ???

If the worst comes to the worst I can import - my personal computer handles multiple DVD regions easily enough - it's just that I'd prefer not to. I do own a couple of Region 1 DVDs, but I'd rather have discs which I know will play on any DVD player around me, so that I don't have to sit squinting at my PC screen every time I want to watch them, and I can easily share them with my friends. As far as Foster's goes, I'm willing to wait until the summer before I take any further action. With the amount of work I currently have to get through, I wouldn't really have time to watch them much until then, anyhow.

Of course, this whole messy process could have been easily avoided if they'd never felt the need to impose these galling, kick-in-the-knickers DVD regions in the first place. Damn you, you mercenary major film studios. I never have any of this trouble when I want to import CDs. :frankiemad:

Rip-off artists!!
 

jekylljuice: I totally agree with everything you just said (right down to the too much work thing - I just figure by the time the DVD ships from the US to the UK, and then again for my family to send it out to me here in China, the bulk of my work will be done. :P) It is a real pain having to import Region 1 DVDs in a house mostly filled with region-locked players. I'm lucky in that the DVD players that count, ie. the ones in my living room and on my laptop, are multi-region, but the limitation still sucks.:frankiemad:

Nevertheless, I personally wouldn't hold your breath for a Region 2 release; apart from those worthless CN compilation discs (with one arbitrarily selected episode each from, like, five different shows), I've noticed that UK releases of Cartoon Network shows are really thin on the ground, particularly season boxsets; we didn't get any of the Samurai Jack sets, none of the Adult Swim releases, and we got one out of the four Powerpuff Girls discs the US got (and it had fewer episodes on it :frankiemad:). These aren't just delays we're talking about here, either - these sets came out literally years ago in the US, so I think it's fair to say that if we haven't got them by now, we're not ever going to. :( The only CN show I can recall getting a proper DVD showing in the UK was Clone Wars, and I'm guessing we ought to thank Lucasfilm for that rather than CN.::)

Fact is, we've heard nothing on a Region 2 release for either the Foster's set or the upcoming Powerpuff Season One set, and I'm not expecting to. :( I'm perfectly happy to be proven wrong here; if they do hook us up with a UK release, then I'll happily sell off my US copy and buy the proper R2 version to show my support. For now though, I do think the best bet is importing; I got mine brand new and sealed from an Amazon Marketplace seller and it came to less than ten quid, including postage, which seems pretty reasonable...

You're probably right. I believe that Season One of Ed, Edd and Eddy was released in Region 2, which is what gave me hope for the prospects of Foster's also seeing the light of day our side of the Atlantic - but even then, just from looking at it on the shelves at WH Smiths, I'm not sure if it actually is the complete season or just the first disc released as Season One, Part 1 (cheapskates - 20th Century Fox did exactly that with the R2 release of Garfield and Friends and then never even finished what they started :frankiemad: ). I agree that Cartoon Network, among other studios, has not been kind to us Brits. :(

(The only instance I can think of when Region 2 had one up on other regional releases is with Twin Peaks. Certain ownership disputes prevented them from including the pilot episode in the Nothern American release, which strikes me as somewhat inane given how crucial a role it plays in setting the scene, but due to some loophole or whatnot it still made it over here. :cheesegrin: )

As you say, importing may well be the only option here. If, come June, we still haven't heard anything, then I'll probably have to bite the bullet and do it. I was really hoping that I could use the DVDs as a way of introducing some of my friends to Foster's - but unless their dvd players are region-free, I guess we'll all have to stand crowded around my PC. :P

that's nice but i live in georgia( not in america) an if i order The DVD can they bring it to me?

From what I know, it wasn't. The only EEnE DVD released here is Volume 1, and Volume 2 was due but has been on hold for ages... since Christmas...

I know this is WAY old, but what original credits to Adoptcolypse

I can't believe I can't remember but...wasn't this the one that originally had censer bars over the characters, guys? But the network wouldn't allow it so they changed it to a loop of Bloo dancing? It was a long time ago and my memory is failing me.

[edit] I'm pretty sure it was Adoptapoclyspe Now (can't remember the real spelling), when in a scene where Mac brings Coco in, but he had to explain to Herriman that "she needed clothes". Afterwhich he calls Herriman "Pantsless Joe" and from then on Herriman is seen wearing pants far too large for him.

So yes, the original gag was gonna be friends with censer bars, but they changed it, like you said.

But it still shows Bloo dancing on the DVD. ;_;

That would have been cool

I'm just looking at the order the episodes appear in- it is a different order from when they were aired on TV. It makes me wonder tho- in the official continuity, which order would be correct? Which order do the episodes take place?

I suppose it doesn't really matter, obvously House of Bloos comes first, but it would make more sense to me that Busted would be first, as it shows Bloo getting used to living at Fosters (as he hasn't been there very long). With Store Wars, he seems very much at home, more the typical Bloo rather than the more nervous HoBs one. Also, the gang seems to know him and Mac better.

The way the episodes appear on the DVD would be correct as the DVD shows the episodes in the order in which they were produced.

It's pretty common for networks to sometime show episodes of a non serialized show out of order for various reasons, in the case of Foster's I guess Cartoon Network thought that Store Wars was a stronger episode to lead off the series proper so they went with that, rather then go with Busted which as many has pointed out is the most natural introduction to the regular series and was more then likely intended as such.

Yes, that makes sense.

Is there a full list of episodes from other seasons in production order?

Hooray!