Short Circuit 2

Excellent DVD!
I just watched the DVD today, and I have to say it's EXCELLENT! The picture quality is EXCELLENT, and so is the sound. I'm really impressed with this DVD. Sure, it doesn't have many extras (just a few "bonus trailers" and very short featurette), but the quality of the DVD itself is astounding.

I'm glad I've finally been able to watch the movie again in widescreen. I've seen Short Circuit 2 recently on HBO (a few times), and I didn't notice that in the full screen version that I was missing so much going on in the movie.

If widescreen isn't your thing, you still have no worries. The DVD comes with the "full screen" version as well. The disc is a flipper, meaning one side is widescreen while the other is fullscreen, thus satisfying both crowds.

As for the movie itself, I love it. I've always loved this movie. I like it more than the first Short Circuit, and mainly because this one focuses more on "Number Five" (Johnny Five) than the first...

Short Circuit fan is only slightly disappointed
I've been a long-time fan of Short Circuit and it's sequel, Short Circuit 2. When it comes to DVD's, I'm there! They're great in so many ways. The Short Circuit DVD is great in some ways, but definately could've been better.
First off, the film transfer is pretty good. For the first time ever, I was able to watch the film in widescreen, while before I was only able to view the "fitted to TV" 3:4 aspect ratio (for any fans of the 3:4 picture, this DVD IS double-sided and HAS the 3:4 picture size version as well). The colours are vibrant (but not too vibrant), the picture is sharp, and there are only a few blemishes and dirt marks on the film. The sound was great! Sure, it hadn't been remastered in Dolby 5.1, but it still was Dolby Surround. The music was MUCH clearer than what was heard on the VHS version. Many areas of the film's musical score which were barely audible before were very clear on the DVD.
Here's the bit of down-side to this DVD: there are hardly any...

If Phillip K Dick had done Pinochio as a kids film...
It would probably be much like this; two everyman protagonists, themes of loneliness and isolation and yearning, a robot who is far more humane than his human counterparts...

Unlike the first Short Circuit Movie where there wasn't much time to explore the character of Jonhhy Five, or invest the machine with character, the second film does just that and it does it very well. The viewer's suspension of disbelief is fully engaged- even as an adult I find myself lulled into feeling a deep sesne of pathos and compassion for Number Johnny Five. This is in part due to an amazing pre-CGI special effects/machine team and also due to the exceptionally unselfconscious acting of the human cast: Fisher Stevens ((the bad guye from hackers)) is truly phenomenal as Ben Jharvi, an Indian ((I think)) computer programmer who is as inept at expressing his feelings as Johnny Five is as understanding his own); Michael McKean and Cynthia Gibb are also great (McKean is perfect as a petty conman...

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