Steadily gathering a cult Internet following peopled by the insane and the uniquely disturbed, Mondo Media's Happy Tree Friends is a hilarious animated concoction of outrageous violence and gore. At first glance, Happy Tree Friends might seem an innocuous Saturday morning TV show that your youngest offspring might plop down to enjoy, but trust me, you don't want your kids to come within miles of this creation. No, Happy Tree Friends is for the jaded, off-kilter little tot inside sick adults like you and me. In my review of the first collection of these Internet-bred cartoons, I called Happy Tree Friends a cross between Hello Kitty and Itchy & Scratchy, and the comparison remains valid—you're in for a cornucopia of blood, guts, and mayhem, all among adorable little creatures whose innocence is repeatedly and mercilessly dashed.

Happy Tree Friends: Second Serving presents a new collection of minutes-long vignettes—19 of 'em!—originally presented in Flash Animation at the Happy Tree Friends Web site. (You can download new cartoons from http://www.happytreefriends.com.) I was giddy to unwrap this disc and behold another crazy collection, but once the disc started spinning, I was initially put off by this DVD's menus, which are unwieldy and quite irritating. The menu icons are cereal boxes and vitamin bottles, a theme that was probably funny on paper, but in practice, the icons obscure what they hold and are needlessly confusing. Also, navigating the menus feels clumsy. Interestingly, the insane opening theme music plays only when you select episodes individually. When you choose Play All, the theme never plays. You will probably find that to be a blessing.

The DVD contains the following short-shorts:

Boo Do You Think You Are—A gory ride through a funhouse.
Mime and Mime Again—A series of hospital-room horrors involving bandages and a fan.
You're Baking Me Crazy—A door-to-door cookie seller is maimed by baking utensils.
Tongue Twister—An anteater goes through hell when his tongue gets stuck on a frozen lake.
Meat Me for Lunch—Meat burglars are foiled by deli instruments.
Sweet Ride—Mayhem following an ice-cream purchase.
It's a Snap—A moose endures horrible agony when caught in traps.
Off the Hook—Fishing misadventures.
Spare Me—Terror at the bowling alley.
Snow What, That's What—A Neanderthal fuzzy animal frozen in ice causes all kinds of trouble.
This Is Your Knife—A campfire turns one of the cuddlies into a homicidal maniac.
Happy Trails—This season finale features a bus ride that goes horribly awry.
Happy Trails 2—Picking up where the first episode left off, this one finds the bus survivors on a desert isle.
Eye Candy—In this very inventive episode, one of our heroes has eye trouble.
Rink Hijinks—Dastardly goings-on at the roller rink.
Flippin' Burgers—Homicidal rampage at a fast-food joint.
Get Whale Soon—Efforts to escape the innards of a whale prove fatal.
Eyes Cold Lemonade—Another inventive episode involving eyes.
Snip Snip Hooray—An infant's haircut turns disastrous.

As with the first DVD, some of the moments fall flat (although less often than in the first show), and the sheer aggressiveness of the depravity gets somewhat wearying. I recommend watching just a few episodes at a time. That said, this is a stronger collection than the first, and not just because there are five more episodes. This Second Serving also boasts episodes that get more and more creative in their methods of violence. Nice job!

Ventura presents Happy Tree Friends in a terrific full-frame transfer of the short subjects' original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. This herky-jerky animation isn't exactly demanding of the DVD medium, but the image is pristine. Colors are bright and vivid, and I noticed no bleeding. Blacks are deep. Aliasing is kept to a minimum. Detail is exemplary.

Unlike the first disc, which contained only a 2.0 track, this disc contains a Dolby Digital 5.1 track that is quite absorbing and enveloping. The bits of cutesy dialog and yelps and screams are clear and clean, and best of all, much of the mayhem and music makes its way to the rears. Great sound design!

Once again, Mondo Media has gone all out for the extras. As with the first collection, I'm amazed by the attention paid to this quirky little project.

First up is Smoochies, an interactive-game section in which you choose one of four cereal boxes (each representing a different character) and use three buttons to kill off the character in novel ways. This is a very fun feature, perhaps even more fun than the episodes themselves.

In the Holiday Kringles section, you can enjoy six mini episodes in the form of holiday greeting cards.

The rest of the supplements are relegated to the Special Features section, which contains even more nice surprises.

Under the Skin of Happy Tree Friends is a silly little 6-minute pseudo documentary about the genesis of the show. I expect there's some truth to be found in this collection of stock footage, but it's just too ridiculous.

Buddhist Monkey Episode is a martial-arts film satire in the form of a Happy Tree Friends episode, and it's pretty damned hilarious.

Character Interview is a 90-second "interview" with the Neanderthal character frozen in ice. Silly stuff that's quite skippable.

Sing-Along is a very funny feature that provides karaoke-style subtitles to the show's vastly annoying main title song.

Board to Episode Comparisons is a great feature that brings together the show's creators to provide running commentary over both the episodes and the storyboards, side by side. The seemingly drunken men primarily joke over the action, but they do provide interesting insight into their deranged minds. It runs about 30 minutes.

Sound FX Commentary is a 7-minute commentary that focuses on the show's sound design, including music and screams and hideous sound effects. The participants focus on the Eye Candy episode, and they pause and slow the action to make key points. This is a fun feature.

I'm a big fan of Happy Tree Friends and I'm glad to see the quality of the show actually improving. Mondo Media has produced another stellar DVD collection that provides lots of evil laughter. My only reservation is the clumsiness of the menus.