TPR Coaster Expedition Volume 7 review.

[Erik Johnson]

Ok, you know that this DVD is pretty cool, or totally messed up, when a segment makes the cut for my weekly Wedesday night movie group. (The segment with the Dog Fart coaster made it last year as well). Our little group was dubbed several years ago, "The most sick and twisted movie group in the U.S." by Lloyd Kaufman himself (the owner and creator of Troma films). It is a group of friends that I have been watching movies with, usually every Wed, for the past 15 years or so. We usually try to find some really off beat movies or shorts to share with one another. This week, as a featurette, I chose a segment from The Alveys brand new DVD, "Coaster Expedition Volume 7: Around the World With Theme Park Review!". I just happened to choose the 3rd Japanese TV show segment as the featurette. If you have already seen it, you know the one I am writing about.

 

These segments, as well as others, which makes the newest Alvey DVD release more unique than the previous six. What did I think of the DVD you may ask? I really liked this one a lot. It does feature parks, like the title says, from all over the world instead of the usual "parks from Europe or Japan" that are featured on the other volumes. Not only are the parks from all aorund the world, these are an eclectic collection of lesser known parks. How many collections include Uminonakamichi Seaside Park? I would say that 80% of the parks featured have never been included on any other themepark DVD.

 

For me the selling point was the Hong Kong Disneyland segement. The park is not even a year old, yet the Alveys have already visted and edited together a wonderful segment featuring this park. The Space Mountain segment was extra special as they had a rare oportunity to film the ride with both the lights off as well as on.

 

The theme park segments on disc one are featured in the familiar music video style that the Alvey's are known for, but I think they have improved on it by adding more commentary/observations which I think make them more entertaining. I believe the segement that best represents this style is the Nasu Highland segment (which is a free download on the site).

 

Disc two focus more on onride presentations of the roller coasters themselves. Both the Hades and SheiKra videos are top notch. I honestly prefer watching overall park videos than ones that feature just onride footage. However, with this second disc it gives those who are interested in onride footage a chance to experience these coasters from thier own living rooms. In short, there is something for everyone in this collection.

 

The third disc features the 2nd half of the video entrees that were choosen for the 2005 video contest. I have to admit that I have yet to watch these on DVD as I watched them directly from the site. However, it is a really nice bonus to this set to now be able to watch them in full-bit rate on a DVD instead of a smaller internet download.

 

If you have yet to pick up or have never seen an Alvey produced DVD I would actually recommend that you either buy Volume 5 or 6 first. Those volumes feature some of the more well known/famous parks from Japan and Europe. After you experienced those, go ahead and pick up volume 7 which is a really different collection of parks, but feature that same fun and high quality videos as the other collections.