Tuesday , March 19 2024
After only one episode, it’s easy to see why Stargate: Infinity was short-lived.

DVD Review: Stargate: Infinity – The Complete Series

After viewing only one episode, it’s easy to see why Stargate: Infinity was short-lived.

DiC, the production company that brought us shows like Strawberry Shortcake and Inspector Gadget that we all grew up with and enjoyed as kids (well, some of us did, at least), teamed up with 4 Kids Entertainment (a company that has specialized in bringing us English dubbed versions of crappy Japanese television shows) to bring us this bastardized amalgamation of several successful sci-fi storylines lush with cheap French animation, uninteresting characters, and dialogue that most kids over ten years of age would shake their heads at.  And don’t even get me started about the ridiculous theme song (which was written by Mike Piccirillo, the jingle-genius behind songs heard in such cinematic classics like That Thing You Do! and A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, not to mention countless other DiC-produced series).

For those of you who are actually interested, Stargate: Infinity concerns a small group of androgynous space cadets (one of whom is a Native American girl who is telepathic á la Deanna Troi), a major from an old Stargate program, and a Jolly Green Giant Cyclops alien guy named Mr. Echo (!) who travel from planet to planet every episode after one of their fellow humans (an old scientist) sides with some evil aliens and frames the Major. The six characters escape on some leftover G.I. Joe vehicles via the Stargate and from then on, it’s the cheap-o animated version of Sliders voiced by a combination of both seasoned professionals (such as Dale Wilson, Mackenzie Gray, and Mark Hildreth) and novices alike — so at least somebody made some money from it (it’s a surefire bet MGM didn’t, or else they might have released it on DVD themselves rather than licensing it over to Shout! Factory).

This four-disc set includes all 26 episodes of the series, plus several bonus features: an "Animated Stargate Effects Test" (where most of the budget went, I imagine), "Animated Character Walking Models," and some "Original Concept Art." There are also a few previews for other (better) titles available from Shout! Factory.  As bad as the show may be, you do have to give Shout! Factory credit for actually going to the trouble of putting extras in this set — I don’t think any other company would have bothered.

Bottom line: if you’re not very concerned with what your kids watch (and I really didn’t notice anything that was very objectionable), Stargate: Infinity isn’t a bad DVD set to plop the little ones in front of – just don’t watch it yourself or you’ll probably go nuts.

About Luigi Bastardo

Luigi Bastardo is the alter-ego of a feller who loves an eclectic variety of classic (and sometimes not-so-classic) film and television. He currently lives in Northern California with four cats named Groucho, Harpo, Chico, and Margaret. Seriously.

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