Video/Audio
The video presentation for this release is another disappointment. It is technically high-definition, but from a practical standpoint it falls completely flat. It's a 1080p encode, presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio, but the quality of it is largely a mess. To be fair, the animation style of MacFarlane's shows is meant to be more utilitarian than anything, with stylistic roughness used to service the jokes. But presented in high-definition, the limitations of the source become apparent, to the point where you wonder why a Blu-ray was even made. The two-dimensional art is (obviously) flat, but also not crisply defined, with ragged edges for lines. Colors do not pop and tend to fluctuate with transition, there are banding issues, black levels are off and blocky... basically any way you slice it, this is a tragic Blu-ray transition.
The audio is fine for what it is, but what it is almost exclusively consists of stereo dialogue. Granted, it is a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track, but that's in name only. Witty back and forth between two parties only benefits so much from a high encode. But although it's not an impressive audio track, there's not nothing to complain about with it either. It's as clear as you please, but just doesn't see any appreciable upgrade with the format
Bonus Materials
Bonus content on this release is pitifully short, as well as disappointingly extraneous. The main item is the "Red Carpet Premiere" (SD, 4:21) which is a quick assembly of interviews of cast and crew at the premiere party - which apparently was held in the basement of a small nightclub. It has all the substance of an E! teaser spot, and annoys more than it enlightens. Other than that we are left with still image galleries of some of the characters in development (from concept to final versions), which is basically a non-feature. As a curious omission, it's a bit odd that the animated ads created for the website weren't included with this set. Since they're in the same visual style, and aspire to include a slight comedic edge, it seems like a missed opportunity to pad out the paltry selection of extra content.
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