‘Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends’: The Complete Series DVD Review – An Oddball Gem From Cartoon Network

What happens when a child outgrows his trusty Imaginary Friend, the pal that stuck with him through all of the highs and lows of growing up? Well, these creations pack up and head for Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends! Foster’s is a one-of-a-kind Victorian mansion filled with hundreds of unique characters from all over the world, thought up by completely different children for completely different reasons. These creatures all live together in this vast, sprawling home with more rooms than you could ever dream possible! Mac, a clever but somewhat shy 8-year-old boy, discovers Foster’s when his mom tells him he’s too old for his Imaginary Friend Blooregard. Not ready to part with his trouble making best buddy, Mac takes Bloo to Foster’s with the hope of giving him a safe place to live, while still being able to visit every day.

For thoughts on Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends: The Complete Series, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic: 

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Video Quality

Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends: The Complete Series comes to DVD in a 11-Disc set with a 480p transfer that is pretty decent in lieu of an HD option. The animation style is one of the unique aspects of the series, and the sharp edges and deep curves mostly retain their line detail. This show is filled with vivid colors throughout nearly every frame, but it cannot match the saturation a high definition presentation affords. The discs could benefit from deeper black levels as the image is not completely free of crush. These discs lack the definition that a Blu-Ray would provide, but it does avoid an abundance of digital anomalies such as consistent artifacting and digital noise. Since a high definition release is unlikely to appear, this DVD set should please most sensibilities. 

Audio Quality

This release boasts a Dolby Digital 2.0 track that gets the job done without ever feeling formidable. The music comes through with a nice fidelity and clarity. Dialogue is rendered favorably with no issues of clipping during more active moments. There is a decent amount of weight in the featured channels during the chaos of certain outlandish situations, but this is not a show known for being an action showcase. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has done a serviceable job with this audio track considering the limitations of the format. There are English, French and Spanish subtitles provided for the first two seasons, and English for the final three seasons. There are no subtitles provided for season three. 

Special Features

• Audio Commentaries

• • Season One, Episode Seven – Store Wars: Blooregard, Mac and Frankie

• • Season Two, Episode Seven – Mac Daddy: Cheese

• What Happens When Your Imagination Runs Wild?: A three-minute featurette which takes a look at the themes of the show, the success, the response to certain characters, what it means to the creatives and more. 

• Exclusive Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends Promos: Seventeen promos ranging from 10 seconds to one minute in length which shines a spotlight on one of the imaginary friends. 

• Gallery Of Friends: A seven-minute journey through some of the imaginary friends with brief text descriptions that give some context and background. This takes a slightly different form in the second season format, but you do get introduced to more characters. 

• End Of Episodes Gags: A 14-minute collection of gags that serve as an amusing addition to the episodes. 

• “Cheesequest” A Very Special Music Video: A minute-long video game-themed music video is provided here. 

Final Thoughts

Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends is often overlooked by old school Cartoon Network fans since it was not made during the “golden age” of the ‘90s, but there is so much to love about it. Not only is it filled to the brim with oddball hilarity, there is an emotional undercurrent that makes itself known when it is most effective. Over the six seasons it was on the air, it never had a substantial dip in quality. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has provided a DVD set with a pretty solid A/V presentation that should please fans, not to mention a few legacy special features. With the inconsistent nature of how these seasons were initially dispatched on DVD, it is a blessing to finally have the entire run in one package. Recommended 

Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends: The Complete Series is currently available to purchase on DVD.

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the DVD.

Disclaimer: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.