Title: Rick & Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-4
Format: Blu-ray (Reviewed), DVD
Publisher: Warner Bros. Home Video
Release Date: March 2, 2021
Price: $89.99 (BD), $79.99 (DVD)
Rick & Morty is a show that has captivated an audience like none other in recent times. In a time where political correctness and everyone pushing their agendas is about as commonplace as cold pizza and beer for breakfast before your 8 AM shift at a law firm, Rick & Morty is there to remind us that it’s okay to laugh at situations that push the boundaries of acceptable humor in today’s day and age.
Most likely, if you’ve purchased this Blu-ray set, then you have already watched Rick & Morty on Adult Swim or, perhaps, you’ve been urged to buy it by your friend who just won’t shut up about it and if you have to listen him mention the show one more time, you might feel inclined to sever his vocal cords with a rusty razor blade that you were meaning to throw away but you held on it to just in case you needed to sever your best friend’s vocal cords for pestering you about watching Rick & Morty.
Whatever psychopathic reason caused you to hold this glorious collection in your hands, just rejoice that you now have every episode of Rick & Morty produced in the history of time. (This statement will be voided once Season 5 becomes a thing).
Every episode that you know and love is here for you to enjoy. If you want to witness Morty smuggle seeds WAY UP his ass, you can. If you want to watch Rick operate a miniature theme park inside of a hobo, you can. If you want to see the touching story of a snake civilization brought to the brink of war… well, there’s something wrong with you but you can. Want to see if you can get a high score on Roy? Go for it! And yes, the worst-received episode that nobody talks about ever is in this collection. Of course, I’m talking about the episode where Rick turns himself into a brine-infused cucumber. (Incoming hate mail in 3… 2… )
Of course, holding all 41 episodes in your hands in the form of shiny mini frisbees may be enough to sate one’s appetite for highly intelligent toilet humor, it’s just not enough, is it? You demand more for your money because that’s the American way! If you’re going to pay medium dollar for a collection as exquisite as this then you want… nay… you DEMAND more bang for your buck… otherwise you’ll end up writing a 280-character misspelled rant on social media while Fribbles the dog pees on your carpet because you were too busy venting to the internet instead of taking him out for a walk. Well, fret not capitalist consumer! This collection gives you just that!
Special Features
It seems as if the special features start off rather paltry in size but as you make your journey through the 4-disc collection, you’ll come to realize that those features only grow in number the deeper you traverse.
Disc 1 takes you behind the scenes of Rick & Morty. You’ll take a tour of the office, indulge in some humor, and even partake in staff members interviewing themselves in order to meet their required quota for special features content. You’ll also be treated to some animatics. For those unfamiliar with the $0.10 word, animatics are simply black and white stills that are animated in a very low number of frames… or a motion storyboard, if you will. There’s one for every episode in the first season.
Disc 2 steps it up by offering not two but THREE special features! Here, you get to see some deleted animatics, such as one from Little Bits! There are also your standard animatics for season two in addition to some footage from the season two premiere party which featured the band Chaos Chaos.
Disc 3 steps it up with FOUR special features! (I sense a pattern here). You get your standard fare of animatics but now we get some meaty features such as a look inside the recording booth where you can see the voices of Jerry and Summer record their lines over and over again to please Justin Roiland, a 2-part feature on the Origins of Rick & Morty, and a new feature called Inside the Episode where there is commentary on each and every episode from the third season.
Disc 4 gives you… wait for it…. FIV… er EIGHT special features! This final disc is absolutely jam-packed with extra content such as Inside Season 4, creating Snake Jazz, a look at Directing a show like Rick & Morty, the Rick & Morty anime short, Samurai & Shogun, a look at their prop process, character creation, animation challenges, and, just like in Disc 3… animat… er… inside the episodes! Actually, come to think of it… animatics were actually missing from the fourth disc. What gives!?
The Verdict
While I had fun being a little snarky writing this review, much like Rick & Morty, it was all for entertainment purposes. In all seriousness, Rick & Morty is an incredible show and this Blu-ray should be a must-have for anyone who is a fan of it. While all of the BD extras are fantastic, there are a couple of other goodies in the box.
The first is a really well-done poster for you to hang up on your wall, the other is a code where you can get a digital copy of the entire Blu-ray collection. So, if you don’t want to lug the physical discs around, you can download all 41 episodes to a device of your choosing and bring them with you wherever you go.
The Blu-ray collection clocks in at a pretty beefy 919-minute runtime so there is plenty of content to chew through or experience for the first time. It also supports 5.1 surround sound and comes with English subtitles.
Do yourself a favor and pick this one up!
Wubba lubba dub dub!
Review Disclosure Statement: This copy of Rick & Morty The Complete Seasons 1-4 was provided to us for review purposes by Warner Bros. Home Video. For more information on how we review media, please go review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy for more info.
