Background: As a long term fan of protagonist driven adventures, I tend to appreciate stories that show clear cut good guys as much as the next guy even when I know I might not be able to live up to that kind of purity myself. These days, even in comics and cartoons, such heroes are portrayed as flawed. Well, thanks to the Cartoon Network, there's a new hero to check out, his name is Ben Tennyson, he's ten years old (going on eleven), and he has been gifted with a device that allows him to possess strange powers for a period of time in the show for today's review called Ben 10: The Complete Season 3 with some history on the subject by way of my look at the first couple of seasons from last year (note: a live action movie comes out any time now that looked interesting but the series has been cancelled prior to this writing):

Series: Ben 10 plays on the Cartoon Network in the afternoon and I never saw an episode before catching this season set. Essentially, there are alien races fighting one another for control of the galaxy. One of them created a device that straps itself to your wrist and proceeds to alter your personal DNA for a short period of time to transform you into a powerful alien lifeform; each of which has specific abilities and weaknesses. Ben is on summer vacation with his grandfather Max and Cousin Gwen when he's walking through the woods of a large forest. Unaware of the alien vessels in the area of space above his head, he sees a meteor in the night sky; a meteor that seems to have a mind of its own as it nearly kills him. Ben investigates the crash site and a device we later learn to be the Omnitrix attaches itself to his wrist but it won't come off. After fiddling with it, he gets it to light up with a weird green glow, and as he dials the device, different shapes appear on the screen. Ben hits the face of the device and then transforms into a fiery being capable of shooting fireballs from his hands (not the best idea in a forest by the way). The rampaging fire around his doesn't hurt him but it does get Max and Gwen rushing off towards him since that was the way he headed for his walk. Needless to say, they all figure a way to stop the fire with his two relatives only slightly startled at his newfound abilities. Thus begins the adventures of Ben 10.

Initially, there are ten alien life forms that Ben can change into and Max sees fit to have him test his powers to learn more about them. His stint in the army is only part of his background, the viewer left to figure he was involved in something far greater with the government in his pre-retirement days. The aliens include, Heatblast (the first form mentioned above), Fourarms (a 12 foot tall wrestler shaped alien with four arms), XLRB (a short alien capable of running extremely fast), Stinkfly (a huge flying bug), Wildmutt (a beast in dog shape with enhanced senses), Diamondhead (another powerful type but made of a crystalline substance), Ripjaws (a shark like character), Ghostfreak (a being that can act like a ghost), Grey Matter (a tiny alien that is super smart), and Upgrade (a creature that can meld with any device and enhance its capabilities). During the series, it becomes evident that anything that effects Ben's physiology can affect the beings (when he gets a cold, they all seem to react differently) and hints that he will be able to become other creatures are dropped a few times as well.

Now, having cool superpowers usually means there are bad guys that want to take them away from you for themselves, want to stop you from getting in their way, or simply want to do as they please. The moral lessons come in early and frequent that Ben has to do the "right thing" regardless of payment or hero worship; this is a kiddy show after all, and when he acts his age, things get screwed up (especially when he tries to use his powers to get a golden samurai card). Leading the pursuit to get the Omnitrix (to duplicate and arm his armies with) is Vilgax; a galactic warlord that is almost killed in the initial episode but manages to heal over the course of the season. He employs technology and mercenaries to hunt Ben down, often nearly reclaiming the device until the heroes save the day. Each episode where Vilgax doesn't have an active role in the story still manages to have another super villain or alien lifeform up to no good, often countering Ben's abilities by accident and then finding his perseverance to win the day. The trio drives around in Max's souped up camper, finding out by the end of the season that it can do a whole lot more (as well as Max being a whole lot more than meets the eye) than your off the showroom floor model.

The second season followed the same basic formula as the first but with some interesting twists. Vilgax, thought defeated, came back as a "Doomsday" style villain repeatedly as well as Dr. Animo, Kevin 11, The Circus Freaks, and others. New alien races were introduced in a number of episodes, even more heroes when the Galactic Enforcers come to town with an encyclopedia of rules that tie their hands foolishly, but usually as the bad guys wanting Ben's hero making device. They added a few new heroes with Wildvine (a plant based hero) and Cannonball (who can roll fast and strike objects with his body at great speeds using momentum more as a defense mechanism than an offensive capability). There were a couple "What If" episodes too, like Gwen 11 showing a re-envisioned story opener with Gwen getting the Omnitrix and following in her own image. That Ben still has issues selecting the right character or the time issues of how long the characters last (the "rules" seemed extremely flexible to say the least), were problematic for those who pay attention too. In general, there was some character growth though and seeing Grandfather's old "plumber" buddies in action via flashbacks and how they were currently was kind of interesting too as the team had to fend off the latest threats as a team instead of merely relying on Ben. New possibilities abounded and I found the show still too childish but entertaining as well.

Season three seemed to take a bit of a step back to reevaluate the franchise from time to time. Ben is shown as egotistical (he's a kid, what do they expect?!?) to the point where Gwen and Max are played up more using their bigger supporting roles to show their contributions as being equally important. Such was the dynamic in Ben 10,000, Game Over, Be Afraid of the Dark, and The Visitor where Ben might have saved the day a time or two but only in proportion to his teammates in their newly revived Plumber Squad or Team Tennyson. The usual moral lessons are also learned here as some of the established villains make appearances to find themselves defeated yet again; their plans thwarted by the trio's newfound manner where they turned the tables in new ways. That was one of the other problems with the season set though; the writers seemed too intent on mixing things up to make Ben the dope and in great need of assistance against even the weakest of enemies. Leaps in logic aside, it was cleaner fare than I'm used to on cable television and the potential was still present but working on the lowest common denominator plan has never been an ingredient for longevity in a children's series so it is no wonder the show was the victim of its own lack of growth (disappointing many fans from what I've read online).

The dynamic is familiar with Ben learning about himself and how to use his powers, even getting some limited guidance by one of the mercenaries who turns out to be something far more important to him, while still finding time to rescue people in need and play pranks on Gwen. Yeah, the "kid who saves the world every episode" approach is common as is the time limitation (the watch like device reminded me of an old TV series from the 1970's involving an invisible man too); animation made for kids typically revolves around such elements (heck, the whole Dial H For Hero theme from the DC Comics of the 60's and 70's gets a workout too) but this one seemed pretty well done so I look forward to seeing later seasons on DVD as well. I admit that when I took a look at the poster included in the DVD case, I thought this would be one big commercial to sell stuff (it was replete with action figures and clothing for kids to wear) but that was balanced off with some fun episodes that didn't take things too seriously and a youthful approach that I'd advise parents as being reasonable for their young to watch. In all, it wasn't perfect and I found some of the writing (there was a relatively limited creative staff that directed, wrote, and otherwise assisted on the show) to be in need of tweaking but I still found it worth rating as Rent It. The addition of a few new heroes was too little, too late to make the short season work for me though I acknowledge that the audience for this is certainly geared to a different market demographic than one I am in so take this with a few grains of salt. Here are the episodes in order of their placement on the double DVD set as well as original airdates as best I could figure them out from the various online resources available to me (some information conflicted on them but the IMDB seemed the best of the batch), a few of them different on the disc than how they aired:

Picture: Ben 10: The Complete Season 3 was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was shot in for airing on the Cartoon Network back in 2006. The thirteen episodes on two discs looked clear and fairly crisp, with occasional compression artifacts or minor video noise (while dual layered, there was a lot of material on the discs and animation doesn't always fare too well when many episodes are jammed onto a disc, though looked better than most). The animation style itself looked much like that from the Teen Titans, Kim Possible, and other shows out at this time so while it wasn't quite like anime from Japan, it was close enough that anime lovers should find it appealing too (except maybe the snobs). The discs never froze up or showed other problems for me and I took a look at part of a single episode airing on cable (I didn't want to ruin future viewing by seeing the whole thing) to compare how it looked. I'm happy to say that the DVD looked markedly better than the cable version even if booth looked pretty solid.

Sound: The audio was presented in 2.0 Dolby Digital with English as the primary track and a dubbed version in Spanish and French offered up as well. There was a bit of separation on the tracks, especially during the fighting sequences, and the dynamic range was akin to most recent shows on the Cartoon Network; not great but reasonably modern compared to older, far crappier fare available. The voice acting was reasonably well done (hotty Tara Strong playing Ben Tennyson) with only a handful of the cameo roles performed like wooden script reading from the days of old, the Galactic Enforcers cameos the best of the batch in terms of revisiting shows from the early to mid 1970's. The music seemed generic as could be but that's to be expected from such a show, even if the sound effects people did a fine job overall.

Extras: The discs only had a couple of deleted scenes and some promotional bits lacking any consequence. I suspect that the lack of an audio commentary track or three was the result of the show being cancelled but it was still a shame given the availability of the cast for such projects. There was another drawing lesson this time as well as an alien character gallery, a paper episode guide to the show, and some trailers for shows including the live action version of the show (that looked a lot like a TV movie or made for cable show in term of the special effects but cool enough for this big kid).

Final Thoughts: Ben 10: The Complete Season 3 fit nicely into the pantheon of super heroes in how the creators paid homage to a number of heroes and villains from days gone by with the double disc season set providing modest value from what I've seen online. The show wasn't bad but the increasing tendency for the writers to go back to the well too many times on the clichés and do the same old stuff repeatedly lowered the replay value for me here. The technical aspects and extras helped make it a decent buy for big series fans and I only wish it came out with the first two seasons as a package rather than making us all wait around for who knows how long to pick up season four. Still, the creative and acting staff helped make this okay for children; perhaps the live action version coming out next month (April 8th IIRC) will live up to the expectations I had for the season set.

If you enjoy animation of all sorts, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, Best of Anime 2005, and Best of Anime 2006 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.