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The Movie:  "Wonderfalls" is a fine example of a show that somehow snuck its way onto television. Weird, imaginative and quirky, the show was obviously not meant for a long life, given the climate of network television today. Not surprisingly, the show lasted all of four episodes on Fox, after being saddled with a rather unpromising time slot. Despite an uproar from a very strong cult of fans (including some websites), the show's remaining episodes (there were 13 in all, which can be found here) were never aired. The show focuses on Jaye Tyler (Caroline Dhavernas in a terrific performance), who gets out of college with a degree and decides to move into a trailer park and work in a gift shop next to Niagra Falls. One day, a customer becomes upset with the quality of a wax lion that dropped out of the shop's machine. After dealing with the customer, the lion, now sitting on the counter, starts dispensing advice, much to Jaye's horror. After a while, Jaye finds that the advice that these various creatures offer lead her towards ways to help others. This wouldn't exactly go over well with her snooty family, including her mother Karen (Diana Scarwid), her straightforward father, Darrin (William Sadler), her snotty sister (Katie Finneran) and irritating brother, Aaron (Lee Pace). There's also a romantic interest in a local bartender, Eric (Tryon Leitso) and a best friend in Mahandra (Tracie Thoms). The amusing difference here is that Jaye doesn't exactly like people - she hates the tourists that come into her store, drinks rather heavily and doesn't get along with her family. So, whenever the objects come forth to chat with her about what to do, Jaye is a tad reluctant to go along with it. Dhavernas still somehow makes Jaye a sympathetic, involving character. In an age where a lot of people the character's age are taking longer to settle down, figure out what they want and jump into what's considered "adulthood" (the Time magazine that came out the week I'm writing this has a front page story on the subject), a lot of people will probably sympathize with Jaye's retail existence. The performances are terrific, especially Dhavernas in the lead. Even the little talking objects are pretty amusing. Visuals are snappy, especially the visual effects that animate the little creatures that speak to Jaye. It's too bad that the series couldn't have gone longer, as the unaired shows are superb and the series would have had real potential had it been helped along with a more reasonable time and more promotion. 1. Wax Lion 2. Karma Chameleon 3. Wound-Up Penguin 4. Pink Flamingos 5. UNAIRED Crime Dog 6. UNAIRED Barrel Bear 7. UNAIRED Muffin Buffalo 8. UNAIRED Lovesick Ass 9. UNAIRED Safety Canary 10. UNAIRED Lying Pig 11. UNAIRED Cocktail Bunny 12. UNAIRED Totem Mole 13. UNAIRED Caged Bird The DVD VIDEO: "Wonderfalls" is presented by Fox in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen. The picture quality is generally terrific, as sharpness and detail were stronger than they were when I remember watching the show briefly when it was broadcast on Fox...briefly. Some minor edge enhancement and a couple of traces of pixelation were spotted, but there was no wear or damage on the elements used. The show's color palette, which is often rich and shows a lot of strong reds, seemed well-rendered, with nice saturation and only a tiny bit of smearing. SOUND: "Wonderfalls" is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. There's really not much in the way of surround use, although the audio has a nice spread across the front speakers. Audio quality remained perfectly fine, as dialogue remained crisp and clear, as did sound effects. EXTRAS: "Wax Lion", "Crime Dog", "Lovesick Ass", "Safety Canary" and "Caged Bird" have a commentary from Caroline Dhavernas, Tom Holland, Katie Finneran and Bryan Fuller. "Cocktail Bunny" has a commentary from Caroline Dhavernas, Tom Holland, Katie Finneran, Scotch Ellis Loring and Bryan Fuller. "Greetings from Wonderfalls" is a documentary feature included on the first disc (no timecode is included, so I don't know how long it was.) The doc is a nice piece that sits with the creators and actors, who chat about the development and direction of the characters (we also see some audition tapes), as well as aspects of the production, such as visual FX and music. We also get a music video and visual effects featurette. Final Thoughts: Quirky, funny, dramatic and often very imaginative, "Wonderfalls" definitely should have had a longer life (the fact that the series was an hour long also may have kept it from finding a better time slot.) Fox's DVD edition provides very good audio/video quality and a solid helping of supplements. Recommended. |