Strap yourself in for more sky-high adventure!

Storm Hawks is one of those half-hour animated shows that combines kid-violence with some touches of postmodern humor for the adults. It airs on the Cartoon Network. Earlier in 2008, Sony Home Entertainment released the first ten episodes of this series on two separate DVDs. Episodes one through five were contained on Storm Hawks: Hawks Rise Again with the following five episodes on Storm Hawks: Tales from the Atmos. Apparently, the fan base was there for Sony to follow-up those early releases with this two-disc set, titled Storm Hawks: Showdown in the Skies.

Storm Hawks: Showdown in the Skies collects a total of 13 episodes from the series - although the selections are a bit curious for a reason I'll discuss further in the review. First, though, it should be noted that the major characters of the show continue to be a diverse group of teenagers who protect the make-believe world of Atmos - with a thousand mountain-top kingdoms - from evildoers. You've got Aerrow, the hip leader of the Storm Hawks; Finn, a wise-cracking blond-haired foil for Aerrow; Junko, a talking rhino strong guy; Piper, the supersmart girl; Stork, a morose green-skinned guy; and Radarr, a weird bunny rabbit thing who doesn't speak and serves as Aerrow's comic relief co-pilot. Together, they serve as the Storm Hawks Squadron. They travel around in fast-movin' and cool-lookin' tech and sport energy weapons reminiscent of lightsabers.

Seven episodes are on disc one: A Little Trouble, Thunder Run, Escape!, Forbidden City, Leviathan, InFinnity, and Terra Neon. The remaining six episodes are on disc two: The Storm Hawks Seven, Talon Academy, Siren's Song, Calling All Domos, The Lesson, and Dude, Where's My Condor.

If I were a Storm Hawks fan, I'd probably be happy to see further adventures on home video, of course. However, I'd also be frustrated as Sony seems to have passed over several episodes between Storm Hawks: Tales from the Atmos and this recent release. If the Internet Movie Database's episode list is accurate, then the following stories were skipped: King for a Day, Terra Deep, and Storm Warning. I suspect these three episodes may be on the Storm Hawks Collector's Set: Heroes of the Sky, which means that buyers of the earlier releases have been shafted.

This oversight aside, one other caveat would be to suggest that this series may be due for a box set / season release. I'm not sure why Sony is releasing this cartoon piecemeal (though it probably has to do with money), but I can certainly imagine a Storm Hawks box set down the horizon.

In any case, my opinion of Storm Hawks hasn't really changed with these new adventures. I find this show moderately entertaining. It strikes me as something I would have liked when I was in elementary / middle school. Its humor, while predictable, is amusing if not laugh-out-loud funny. The show is best in small doses, though, as the action gets a little tiresome when viewed episode after episode straight through. With 13 adventures of rather formulaic storytelling here, it's best to catch an episode once in a while.

The DVD

Video:

This DVD sports an anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen presentation. The colors look very bright and details are clear. The animation - while not earth-shatteringly great - is fun to watch on this disc.

Sound:

All thirteen episodes are presented in Dolby Digital 2.0. It's a solid sound presentation, with dialogue, music, and sound effects well-mixed. This track is the only audio option.

Subtitles are available in English and Spanish.

Extras:

Okay. This gets tricky. Sony advertises three episodes - Calling All Domos, The Lesson, and Dude Where's My Condor - as "bonus episodes." This seems really silly, especially considering the front cover art promises "13 action-packed episodes!" I have a hard time accepting episodes as extras here, so I'm not going to.

What this means, then, is that the extras are a bit disappointing (as they were on previous Storm Hawks DVDs).

Sony is typically generous with trailers, however, and Storm Hawks: Showdown in the Skies is no exception. A Previews menu on disc one provides access to trailers for The Spectacular Spider-Man, Open Season 2 (Open Season 2's trailer also precedes the main menu), Surf's Up, The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, Zathura: A Space Adventure, The Final Season, Daddy Day Camp, and The Prince & the Pauper.

Aside from trailers, there's not much else. An incredibly disappointing The Storm Hawks Fleet menu option offers what's described as "360 degree Vehicle Transformations." The vehicles from the show transforming as they spin around in the sky is all this has to offer. The total runtime for this is not long at all, but Sony decided to offer a submenu with access to each individual transformation. I'm not sure why they bothered doing this. The vehicle transformation scenes are for Condor, Aerrow Skimmer, Junko Skimmer, Finn Skimmer, Piper Skimmer, and The Dark Ace Skimmer.

No extras appear on the second disc.

Final Thoughts:

Storm Hawks is an amusing kids show seen on the Cartoon Network. It has some nice moments of humor and it's action-packed to keep one's attention. If you enjoyed previous Storm Hawks DVDs, then I'd definitely recommend this release. Personally, I find the show is best in small doses, an episode at a time here and there. Storm Hawks fans should note that a couple episodes of the series have been skipped over between releases - if they didn't get the collector's set version of them, that is.

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