The Good

A heart warming show featuring a top notch Mickey Rooney.

The Bad

No Special Features.

The Adventures of the Black Stallion: The Complete First Season gives fans 26 episodes from this heartwarming show. Following the movie and the best selling Walter Farley novels, this show gives us Alec Ramsey (Richard Ian Cox) and the the Black Stallion that only he can ride. Alec is aided in his journey by Henry Dailey (Mickey Rooney, who played the same role in the movie version of The Black Stallion), and together we get to see horse racing as a metaphor for life. Whether we are looking at a show like "Sweet Tooth," "Kidnapped," or any of the other tales that comprise this set, there is always something to be learned by what happens to the main characters.

Features

No Special Features came with this release.

Video

Full Screen. From what I understand this show, which is about 17 years old now, ran for three seasons. The look is simple and I guess since the majority of the shows revolved moving things like horses and people, that is for the best. For some reason, I just knew that the episodes in this set were going to have a washed out look. It isn't bad as I think it encapsulates a certain moment in time, but the compression on these DVDs seem like it has darkened the picture just a bit.

Audio

Sadly, they don't list out what kind of audio is on these discs but I didn't have a problem with any of the sound. Also, I didn't even need to turn up my TV that much and everything still played at a pretty nice level. The audio for these episodes really helps give layers to the scenes and the characters. There isn't too much about it that interferes with the experience of watching this show. Basically, everything about the sound design is meant to further draw the viewers in.

Package

Looking almost like a book, the Black Stallion seems to leap off this embossed front cover. The back is embossed as well and it also features a couple of images from this show. There is a well written description of what this series is about, a cast list, and some very, almost vague, technical specs. All of the discs pull out in one piece of artwork that contains a tray for each DVD. There is more artwork from the show and a listing of what episodes are on which discs.

Final Word

I was really impressed with The Adventures of the Black Stallion: The Complete First Season. Though it didn't gave me the the same wonderous feeling that I had when I watched the original movie, there was a lot of charm to this show that is laced in good clean fun. I know that there are probably people who come to this site who could never imagine screening something like this, but overall I was really impressed and inspired by what I was given here.

The Adventures of the Black Stallion: The Complete First Season is at all times a family affair.

The Black Stallion was released .