The fifth and sixth seasons of Danger Mouse, the world's greatest secret agent, are with us at last.  This two disc set includes some of DM's funniest adventures and is easily enjoyable by both adults and children.  If you enjoy groan inducing puns and metaphors stretched to the breaking point, this set is for you.

The series:

Danger Mouse, or DM as his friends call him, is the world's greatest secret agent.  Wherever danger will rear its ugly head, he's there to stop it!  With his faithful, and rather timid, sidekick Penfold (a hamster) to aid him, DM fights the evil machinations of Baron Silas Greenback, the world's most evil toad.

A parody of James Bond, this cartoon sets itself apart from other animated shows with its creativity,  not so subtle satire, and a strong sense of the absurd.  The latter is what I appreciate the most, and makes me a fan of the show.  Each episode is filled with strange situations that really gives the show its strange sense of humor.

In addition to the strange plots, there are a lot of bad jokes and even worse puns, some of which the younger viewers may miss but are sure to elicit groans from the adults.  Danger Mouse also realizes that he's a cartoon character.  At one point in season three, DM and Penfold have fallen off of a cliff and are holding on only by their finger-tips.  Danger Mouse remarks that "this must be the end of an episode.....the writer always has to end on a cliff-hanger."

This set:

This is another group of laugh out loud funny cartoons.  The situations are just as absurd as the previous seasons, and the jokes fly just as fast and thick.  Some of the more humorous situations include London becoming covered in Penfold clones when one of the Baron's machines goes awry, and when England grinds to a standstill when Greenback steals all of the world's tea.

Another favorite episode, and one that captures the spirit of the show perfectly is By George, it's a Dragon.  In this adventure Danger Mouse and Penfold have to go to Wales to stop a dragon that is wreaking havoc.  When Colonel K gives him the assignment, Danger Mouse is a little skeptical.

DM:  A fire breathing dragon?  There's no such thing!
Penfold:  I once saw a man eating cabbage.
DM:  Good grief.  Where?
Penfold: The Williston Green café

A typically bad joke, but one that also totally unexpected.  Filled with rapid fire jokes that have that British sense of the absurd, this show is a winner.

Though the program is very funny, the animation was done on the cheap.  They cut a lot of corners, animating only a person's mouth if they could possibly get away with it, and often having characters look the other way when talking so they didn't even have to do that much.  Scenes of Danger Mouse and Penfold walking or driving in their car are often reused, as are some backgrounds.  This shouldn't stop potential buyers though, the humor more than makes up for the lacking animation.

With season five, Danger Mouse changed its format.  Unlike seasons two through four, these episodes are now ten minute stand alone stories instead of the multi-part sagas that were told earlier.  Truth be told, I enjoy this format a bit more.   They've distilled the show down to its essence: silly verbal gags tacked onto an absurd plot.  The repetition that plagued the multi-chapter stories is gone, and plot is simplified a lot, leaving more room for the incredibly bad puns and jokes.  This is the format that DM works best in.

The episodes included in this set are:

Season Five:

Long Lost Crown Affair
By George It's a Dragon
Tiptoe Through the Penfolds
Project Moon
The Next Ice Age Begins at Midnight
The Aliens are Coming
Remote-Controlled Chaos
The Man From Gadget
Tampering With Time Tickles
Nero Power

Season Six:

Once Upon a Time Slip
Viva Danger Mouse
Play it Again, Wufgang
Hear, Hear
Multiplication Fable
The Spy Who Stayed in With a Cold
It's All White, White Wonder
The Hickory Dickory Dock Dilemma
What a Three-Point Turn-Up For the Book
Quark! Quark!
'Alping is Snow Easy Matter
`Aaargh! Spiders!
One of Our Stately Homes is Missing
Afternoon Off - With the Fangboner
Beware of Mexicans Delivering Milk
Cat-Astrophe
The Good, the Bad and the Motionless
Statues
The Clock Strikes Back!
`Ee! Tea!
Bandits, Beans and Ballyhoo!
Have You Fled Any Good Books Lately?
Tut, Tut, It's Not Pharaoh
Lost, Found and Spellbound
Penfold, B.F.
Mechanized Mayhem
Journey to the Earth's... `Cor

These two seasons of Danger Mouse come on a pair of single sided DVDs.

Audio:

The two channel audio track sounds about average for a program of this age.  The dialog is easy to understand and the background music is clear.  There are a couple of pops that are audible, and a very slight hum in the background that is only noticeable in quiet parts when the volume is turned up fairly high.  There were one or two instances of distortion where the soundtrack cracked, but this was rare.  Not a bad sounding disc though, just average.  There are no subtitles.

Like the first set, this one uses the original British soundtrack.  For American audiences Nickelodeon redubbed only Stiletto's voice and gave him a Cockney accent instead of his original Italian accent.  He speaks with an Itallian accent on these discs.

Video:

The video is acceptable, but not outstanding.  The shows had a faded look to them.  The colors weren't as bright as they should have been, and the details weren't as sharp.  The image was a little on the soft side too.  There are a few specks on the print that was used, but this was a minor defect.  All of this doesn't mean the picture is bad, it isn't, it's just showing it's age a bit.  There are no digital defects worth mentioning.

Extras:

In addition to a karaoke version of the opening song and text biographies of the characters in the show that have appeared on the previous sets, there is also an episode of Count Duckula.  The episode is One Stormy Night, in which the vampire duck can be seen in his Danger Mouse pajamas.  It runs about half an hour.

Final Thoughts:

If I had to limit myself to one collection of Danger Mouse cartoons, I'm sure this is the one I'd pick.  The shorter format works well and there are some great episodes included in this set.  I was also glad to see A&E including more in the way of extras.  While I've never considered Count Duckula to be as entertaining as Danger Mouse, it is nice to see an episode included here.  For fans of absurd verbal humor, this set can't miss.  A laugh-out-loud funny show, this set is Highly Recommended.