If you somehow made it through the last presidential election without someone e-mailing you or mentioning JibJab's web site, I am amazed.  I must have received half a dozen e-mails about their wonderfully irreverent parody of the 2004 Presidential Election, This Land.  The flash animated musical short received a lot of praise and was mentioned on many national news shows.  Riding high on the wave of publicity the two brothers who run Jibjab, Gregg and Evan Spiridellis, have released a DVD that contains a series of their shorts that were previously available only on the web.  JibJab, the Early Years is a somewhat dated collection of web Flash animations and while a couple of them are very good, overall it isn't a strong set.

This disc contains 14 animated shorts that run just under half an hour in length.  The main attraction on this disc is This Land, a wonderful parody that poked fun at both John Kerry and George W. Bush. It really deserved all of the acclaim it garnered.  At once both funny and cutting, the short played well to the large number of Americans who thought that neither Kerry nor Bush were outstanding candidates.  The amazing thing about this is that it manages to make fun of both candidates without being insulting to supporters of either.  Set to the tune of Woody Gutherie's This Land is Your Land, this cartoon has Kerry and Bush taunting each other over who will win the election.  It's great to hear the two candidates refer to their opponent as a "liberal weenie" and "a right-wing nut job."  Kerry mentions his three Purple Hearts every chance he gets while making fun of the fact that Bush "can't say 'nuclear.'  That really scares me."

This is one of those shorts that just hits everything just right.  It's a great parody that makes fun of both candidates equally, and doesn't take itself too seriously.  Unfortunately it's also the high point of the disc.  From there, the Spiridellis Brothers try to recreate the success of This Land, but don't really succeed.  Good to be in DC! is a sing-a-long set to the tune of Dixie, but it just isn't as funny.  Instead of poking fun at the candidates foibles, they have the VP calling Haliburton for money and  Kerry and Edwards implying that they are homosexual lovers.  If they had reversed the roles, it would have been funny, but as it is, this short has typical jokes about the two candidates.

The latest short they include is Second Term.  This musical cartoon set to the tune of She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain just states some of Bush's goals for his second term.  It's rather uninspired as far as comedy goes, and the animations are more humorous than the lyrics to the songs.

In addition to these three main cartoons, they have 11 older cartoons that the Spiridellis brothers have done.  Some of these were amusing, but not of them were outrageously funny, and many of them were dated since they dealt with political situations and politicians who are no longer on the national scene.  Watching George W. Bush and Al Gore dancing and rapping may (or may not) have been funny 5 years ago but today it's just lame.

A lot of Jibjabs early cartoons are fairly insulting to Republicans too.  I don't count myself among that group and I'm not a fan of our current president, but I don't think that making up tales about his stupidity is funny.  (There's enough in his record that you don't need to create any fictions.)  There are two shorts about Bush and his six inch tall invisible friend, Rumple, that I found unappealing.  In one Bush get very flustered and whiney because the Russian Premier is crank calling him and being a bully.  Rumple sings a song and gives Bush a backbone.

I did enjoy Ahnuld for Governor where the star of Terminator and Total Recall states why he should be elected governor of California.  Arnold is an easy target, but they managed to string together a good number of jokes in a short space of time.

The non-political cartoons have aged much better.  Santa Claus! has the jolly old elf going over his finances and realizing that he doesn't get paid for all of the toys he gives away, which creates a deficit situation.  Though it is rather juvenile and crude I will admit I laughed at Farting Elves where Santa's helpers used their flatulence to play The Twelve Days of Christmas.  Dumb and immature, but very funny.

Overall, there are a couple of nice shorts, and This Land was definitely inspired, but most of this aren't very good.

This cartoons on this disc are:

This Land
Good to Be in DC!
Second Term
Rumple: Funny Foreign Names
Rumple: Russian Bully
Capitol Ill
Bush on Education
Gore on Special Interests
Cooking with Clinton
Ahnuld for Governor
Santa Claus!
Farting Elves: 12 Days of Christmas
Geezers: The Musical
Geezers: It Bit My Ass!
 

Audio:

Both the audio and visual aspects of this disc were outstanding.  The stereo soundtrack was very clean and crisp.  There was very good dynamic range, with both the low and high ends coming through clearly.  Hiss and other audio defects were not present.

Video:

The full frame video quality was excellent.  I was pleasantly surprised at how well the image looked when blown up on my HT screen.  The lines were tight and sharp, and the colors were very vivid.  I was expecting to see more defects in the animation on a large screen, but that didn't happen.  Aside from some very minor aliasing in a couple of scenes, the image was great.

Extras:

Unfortunately, there are no extras.  I was hoping for an interview with the Spiridellis or a commentary, but there wasn't one to be found.
 

Final Thoughts:

Overall this wasn't the greatest collection.  There was one outstanding short, a couple of okay films and the rest were not that great.  Most of the cartoons on this disc are political in nature, and they haven't aged very well.  The four shorts that aren't political are okay, but nothing.  If you really want to see these on the big screen instead of on your computer monitor, just rent it.