Birds of Prey: The Complete Series

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 07/15/2008 Run time: 650 minutes Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews: Read 69 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

MEANWHILE...back at the Clock Tower!! April 4, 2008
125 out of 132 found this review helpful

After five long years of fans begging and pleading, the way too-short TV series Birds of Prey is getting a complete DVD release! The news is truly worth shouting about.

Loosely based on DC Comics and a variety of other sources with a touch of Marvel's the X-Men thrown in, the series continues the legend of The Batman.

We enter the future, dark and fantastic world of New Gotham City. Long after The Batman has driven himself into exile, his legacy lives on in the form of the Birds of Prey - Black Canary, Oracle, and the Huntress.

From the creators of the CW hit Smallville, Birds of the Prey was produced in 2002 for the now defunct WB, but had only 13 episodes before cancellation. Since then, its devoted fan base worked tirelessly to have the series released on DVD. It was a really exciting action show, breaking new ground because ALL of the lead characters were women.

This boxed set collects all 13 episodes and a never-collected-on-DVD before Flash-animated series "Gotham Girls."

Awesomely, it also includes the unaired pilot, which featured Sherilyn Fenn (Twin Peaks) in the role of Dr. Quinzel. Mia Sara was later cast as Quinzel in the series. She also appeared in the AIRED pilot. Interestingly, all of the scenes featuring the character in the AIRED pilot were reshot with Sara, word-for-word.

Also of note, the aspect ratio of the episodes in the set will be full frame, but will have dark bars on top and on bottom to mimic widescreen.

While normal citizens slept, the Birds of Prey flocked together to fight crime on the streets of New Gotham City. Several years after the city was abandoned by Batman, the awesome threesome of Huntress (Ashley Scott), Oracle (Dina Meyer), and Black Canary (Rachel Skarsten) was formed. Huntress is the daughter of Batman and Catwoman, and can smell danger from miles away. Black Canary has the gift of clairvoyance and Oracle leads the team through her cyber experience, despite being wheelchair bound by Batman's nemesis, the evil Joker.

When the series opens, we learn that New Gotham's Batman has disappeared leaving behind a daughter from his long-time love Catwoman. Her name is Helena Kyle, who transforms herself into the mysterious superhero known as "The Huntress." Helena has hypersensitive senses and agility, but uses her gifts selfishly. Fate brings her face-to-face with her choices as well as a wheel-chair-bound Barbara Gordon, the hero Oracle, who befriends her but agrees to train her only if she uses her powers for good.

She teams up with Barbara, who had been "Batgirl" prior to being paralyzed by the Joker. By day, Barbara is a teacher at New Gotham High, but by night she fights crime from her secret lair in the New Gotham Clock Tower.

The two meet a determined Dinah Redmond, a young woman who was drawn to New Gotham to learn more about her powers. Dinah is a touch-telepath and psychic who had terrifying dreams about Batgirl's brutal incident that resulted in her paralysis. The Huntress resists working with Dinah, but Oracle convinces her to give the younger woman a chance. Now, they must learn not only how to work together as New Gotham's protectors, but also as a family.

Special recognition goes to Mark "Star Wars" Hamill who briefly reprises his award-winning voice role as the Joker from the iconic classic, Batman: the Animated Series. In Birds of Prey, "Mister J" on-camera is portrayed by actor/stuntman Roger Stoneburner but Hamill's voice was dubbed over Stoneburner's performance.

During the course of the series, the women are often confronted with schemes masterminded by the Joker's on-and-off girlfriend, psychiatrist Dr. Harleen "Harley Quinn" Quinzel (Mia Sara), but they always prevail and eventually beat her at her own game.

Other characters of note are: Alfred Pennyworth (Ian Abercrombie), who serves Helena as heir to the Wayne estate, and Police Detective Jesse Resse (Shemar Moore), confronted with crimes and abilities he cannot explain.

A central feature of the series is the concept of metahumans: Individuals born with powers that cannot be explained. No two metahumans have the same specific ability (or set of abilities) and there exists a whole sub culture of metahuman society that the outside world knows nothing about.

It is this world that Detective Reese is drawn into, reluctantly teaming up with Huntress and the Birds of Prey to defeat metahuman criminals. At first, he is disapproving of Helena's vigilantism, even trying to arrest her, but eventually he realizes there is a need for the Birds of Prey to take down criminals the police can't handle.

Episodes in this four-disc collection are: the Pilot; Slick; Prey for the Hunter; Three Birds and a Baby; Sins of the Mother; Primal Scream; Split; Lady Shiva; Nature of the Beast; Gladiatrix; Reunion; Feat of Clay; and Devil's Eyes.

Very popular theme song "Revolution" was performed by Aimee Allen.

3 out of 5 stars

Never given the time and opportunity to grow May 8, 2008
37 out of 41 found this review helpful

Despite the many liberties it took with DC mythology, Birds of Prey displayed a boat load of promise, but sadly got the axe before it had the chance to grow into something special. The story revolves around Helena Kyle, AKA The Huntress (Jericho's Ashley Scott), who just so happens to be the daughter of Batman and Catwoman. She joins forces with the wheelchair-bound former Batgirl Barbara Gordon (Dina Meyer), and the telepathic Dinah (Rachel Skarsten) to fight crime in Gotham City when Batman mysteriously disappears. Other familiar faces from the Batman world appear also throughout the course of the series, including trusty butler Alfred (Ian Abercrombie), Harley Quinn (Mia Sara), and even the Joker (played by Roger Stoneburner with the voice of Batman: The Animated Series' own Mark Hamil!), but there were often times when the show just felt as if it wasn't sure of what it was. Granted though, Birds of Prey never came off as cheesey and sugar-coated as Smallville, and by the time the series came to an end, things were just starting to really pick up. Despite it's flaws though, Birds of Prey always managed to entertain. Who knows what might have been, but the fact is Birds of Prey was never given the time and opportunity to grow, which is a crying shame. Its great that WB finally had the good sense to release the series on DVD, which has been long overdue to say the least.

4 out of 5 stars

A good concept that just needed a bat-boost July 8, 2007
25 out of 29 found this review helpful

By the time they finished airing the new episodes I was sad to see it go. This was a show that would eventually build on the character driven stories to show some fine performances by the leads. The interplay between the characters was well balanced and entertaining. The addition of Mia Sara as Harley toward the end of the series was fantastic. Great villians make for great heros. Nice casting.

I waited a while to see a decent program with Dina Meyer as a lead. This was that show for me. Ashley and Rachel both seemed to dive into their parts with some flair. With Alfred and the detective rounding out the regulars.

My one criticism was that (especially on my recorded tapes) the sound volume seemed to be very low at times. Not so, with other shows I had recorded. I had to rewind and turn the volume up to catch a joke spoken "under the breath" more than once. Worth the effort, but not something I would expect the casual viewer to go through.

The start was a bit slow, but the series did grow on me. I hope to view the performances again, maybe in a better format. Give those ladies (and gentlemen) their wings once again.

4 out of 5 stars

REJOICE, THIS IS IN WIDESCREEN :) July 1, 2008
25 out of 37 found this review helpful

Through a stroke of insane luck, I came upon the official DVD set, in my local used DVD/CD store (obviously sold to the store by a reviewer who got an advanced copy to review) and contrary to the, "Standard" specs on the box, this is in 1.85:1 widescreen.

So, you can all relax.

Hope this helps :)

P.S. The next reviewer seems to have some erroneous info about this release, and here was my comment to him:

"Anamorphic has nothing to do with the aspect ratio of widescreen, anamorphic simply means that the picture will properly fill up a widescreen TV without the picture appearing stretched (and since I don't have a widescreen TV, I can't report on the validity of this being anamorphic or not).

I've watched 9 episodes so far, and this is true widescreen and not letterboxed (as there's no crowded feeling in the frame or missing side information associated with simply putting black bars at the top and bottom of the picture to create a faux widescreen formate)."

4 out of 5 stars

Batman, the next generation January 15, 2008
15 out of 21 found this review helpful

One of a host of 'women that kick but' shows that came out at the end of the last century "Birds of Prey" follows the adventures of the daughter of a tryst between Batman and Catwoman, now grown up with hypersensative senses and agility, she'd like to settle down and be a normal girl but fate and a wheel chair bound Barbara Gordon, played by Dina Myer, keep pushing her into adventures.
In the rush of programs about beautiful women with amazing fighting skills, this got trampled in ratings and then canceled before it could really grab an audience. That having been said if you enjoy shows like "Buffy'" and "Dark Angel" then this certainly is worth your attention.

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