BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE
STUDIO: Paramount / MTV
MSRP: $72.99
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 66 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Nothing for the standalone films

The Pitch

Daria gets a television movie for her last hurrah.

The Humans

Tracy Grandstaff, Wendy Hoopes, Julián Rebolledo, Russell Hankin and Nora Laudani

The Nutshell

Daria and Jane are finally coming back together in their final days of being High Schoolers. Lawndale is getting ready to send our favorite kids off to college and some pals aren’t willing to say goodbye yet. Quinn is discovering new friends outside of the Fashion Club, while Tom keeps hanging around in the periphery. College is beckoning and everyone has to figure out where they’re going next year. Will Jane and Daria venture off together or end their friendship on Graduation Day? All of these questions and more will be answered in Is It College Yet.

The Lowdown

Daria – Is it College Yet serves
as the official last word for the Daria franchise. Series Creator Glenn Eichler felt that there was no more story left to tell and MTV wanted the space to run more crappy reality shows. Daria and Jane are slowly growing back together as friends, while Tom is pushed away. Quinn is starting to realize that she doesn’t need the Fashion Club, while embracing the fact that you don’t have to be dumb to be a popular girl. Hell, Jake and Helen Morgendorffer are starting to realize that they haven’t been paying enough attention to the girls. The sad thing about all of this is that when you hit that point of realization for all of these characters, it’s time to leave. Everyone on the show was secondary to Daria, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t get to grow either. It’s just that MTV isn’t going to keep a show about Jane Lane on the air.

The purpose of the movie is to finish Daria’s emotional journey. Following the first movie, then Season 5 and now the second movie; we see that Daria has finally become well-rounded. Cynicism only gets you so far, but you’ve got to realize that being an adult requires a degree of warmth. By allowing herself to open up, Daria has discovered that she can have room for others in her life with keeping her traditional attitude. When Daria doesn’t get chosen as Valedictorian, you almost feel that like she was cheated. But, there’s a special moment towards the end of the movie that has a much-earned sense of heart.

When you look at Daria, Jane and Quinn; you see three young women who have grown up before your eyes. That’s not to say that they’re going to head to college as better people. They’ve just been shaped into realistic women with different sets of goals and dreams. While Beavis and Butthead will never escape the white trash ghetto, these girls have a future that’s more than a little bright. Ideals while compromised, still fair stronger than expected in the face of reality. I think it speaks a great deal about MTV that I care more about animated characters than anyone who has appeared on their channel in the last decade.

In the end, Daria left MTV before it all went to shit. Five years and a shred of dignity is more than most people get in the Entertainment world and Daria remains unscathed in our hearts. I eagerly await new fans discovering the characters for the first time, as I’m not sure how the last ten years have changed tastes. Does individuality still matter in such a conformist age? Will we always be locked in an Us vs. Them attitude or can we ever escape it? As an adolescent, adversity helps to define who we are as people. Hopefully, we’ve grown up since then. It’s time for a new generation to endure the struggle.

The Package

The final disc in the set doesn’t really come with any extra special features for the Daria movies. However, it’s worth noting that the cut presented here is the edited rebroadcast version. There was a little under ten minutes of material cut after the initial broadcast. Most of that is what was deemed excessive dialogue from Quinn at the Restaurant and the later Lawndale High bridge sequences. It’s not the worst thing, but you’re left wondering why the original cut couldn’t have been presented. Someone should ask Glenn Eichler about it.

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE
STUDIO: Paramount / MTV
MSRP: $72.99
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 75 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Nothing for the standalone films

The Pitch

Daria is on summer vacation, but she’s worrying about her final year before college.

The Humans

Tracy Grandstaff, Wendy Hoopes, Julián Rebolledo, Russell Hankin and Nora Laudani

The Nutshell

Daria hit this weird patch around 2001. The show was slipping in the ratings and MTV was giving the wrap-it-up signal. Hell, it almost seems foreign to talk about a cable network taking a chance on a show that required a ten month production schedule for a single season. When Season 4 ended, the groundwork for a proper finale had formed. Daria and Jane were on the outs over their mutual boyfriend Tom. Quinn was facing a future minus a collegiate education. Hell, Daria was starting to realize that she was a caring person and needed some emotional return from others. The stage was set for a proper goodbye and the first Daria Movie kicked it off.

The Lowdown

Daria – Is It Fall Yet serves as the first leg of the official Daria finale. The end was coming for my favorite animated High Schooler, as she had to take the final steps towards adulthood. Season 4 ended with Daria kissing Tom, as he had previously broken off his relationship with Jane Lane. Jane was going to spend the summer at Art Camp, as she tried to focus on her passion. Daria tries to avoid everyone during the summer, but her mother makes her sign up for Mr O’Neill’s freaky hippie camp for kids. Then, there’s Quinn’s efforts to get into her choice college while trying to deal with her budding intellectualism. Carson Daly, Dave Grohl and Bif Naked did some supporting voice work. 

Rewatching these Daria movies, I came to realize just how much MTV has failed teens over the last decade. While Daria never approached the realism of a Degrassi, it’s still a much saner world than anything you would see on The Hills or Jersey Shore. Issues of emotional reflection, personal sexuality and intellectualism are addressed throughout the rather short film. When was the last time you saw an MTV show deal with a character realizing that they might be a douchebag and that they have to become a better person? Daria and Jane fight over Tom, but Tom isn’t shown as this glorious teen God that makes everyone’s problems go away. Tom isn’t a Jake Ryan that’s going to show up with a cake and a Porsche on your 16th birthday. The guy is a little self-centered, while using his wealth and knowledge to find ways to score a little academic poon.

The movie’s key moment comes with Jane’s sexual discovery at Art Camp. When Jane starts to blow away the head counselor, she garners the attention of female camper Alison. Alison is intrigued by Jane’s talent and tries to seduce her. Jane is frightened by this approach, yet she can’t help to wonder about her sexual tastes. The back and forth with Alison also reveals that Jane doesn’t know much about the social politics of the world that Daria seems to fight. Sexuality, money and status are all tools used for control and personal ambition means nothing. Watching Jane learn this is so harsh that you almost forget you’re watching an animated show.

In regards to Daria, the character finally starts to pay off her arc started way back in the pilot. While she was willing to follow her emotional side by taking Tom away from Jane, she also realizes that there are consequences for ignoring her brain. She doesn’t really know Tom that well and his personal quirks are rubbing her the wrong way. Yet, Tom resembles the first grasp of normalcy in a life dedicated to being a loner. The difficult balance of trading friendship for man candy almost feels like too much, but this awkward balance is what will end up pushing Jane and Daria through the final season.

The Package

The final disc in the set doesn’t really come with any extra special features for the Daria movies. While this first film is presented uncut, some might wonder why it wasn’t placed back into the seasonal rotation. Chronologically, the film takes places shortly after the end of Season 4 and about a few weeks before the start of Season 5. I guess it was a matter of policing space on the Season 4 discs, but I think that a little creative juggling could’ve helped to make the show move a lot smoothly on DVD. I mean, it’s not like it’s important step in the evolution of the title character.  End of short rant.

BUY FROM AMAZON: CLICK HERE!
STUDIO: Paramount / MTV
MSRP: $72.99
RATED: Not Rated
RUNNING TIME: 1586 minutes
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Interviews
• Bonus Footage
• Bonus Episode
• Unreleased Script
• Character Profiles

The Pitch

Daria moves from Highland to Lawndale. The locals are still stupid, but she is able to make a difference.

The Humans

Tracy Grandstaff, Wendy Hoopes, Julián Rebolledo, Russell Hankin, Nora Laudani

The Nutshell

Daria Morgendorffer is the girl you wanted as an angry 15 year old while listening to excessive amounts of Black Flag. She debuted on Beavis and Butthead, as a background character who gradually rose to getting some face-time with America’s new dynamic duo. When Glenn Eichler approached MTV with the idea to create a spin-off for her, it was a rough sell. The original five-minute pilot is available on this release for your viewing pleasure. The effort was a success and the rough-edged darling for a new generation of cynical bastards was born.

The Lowdown

I wanted to meet a girl like Daria in the worst way. When I finally met a girl like that, she introduced me to her girlfriend. Cartoons are so full of shit. Girls like Daria don’t exist in the real world, we just get their real world counterparts. In a way, the sentiment says a lot about what the show was always driving home. No ideal, no goal and no dream should ever miss the scrutiny of a Leftist chick in Doc Marten shitkickers. It’s a lesson that I wish the current generation of teenagers would live by in their Nuevo Depression Disco world of desperately desired material excess.

Daria is one of the greatest animated television series of the last quarter century. I hate to play the boastful card, but how many animated series have debuted since with a strong female lead? A female lead whose strength doesn’t come from shooting, maiming, killing or whatever vicious bloodsports are called for that day. Ms. Morgendorffer was a strong female voice in an era where all degrees of feminism were becoming stale and ripe for parody. But, Daria broke out of that mold and became something else.

Our glum heroine was more than a role model for young women, she was a spokesperson for her generation. A gathering of Post Generation X folk that were banded together in their disgust with everything and everyone that wasn’t them. The adults of Lawndale are parodies to a point, but nowhere nears as one-dimensional as they were on Beavis and Butthead. Helen and Jake Morgendorffer were caring parents, but they were real people. They often pushed both of their daughters aside when work or psychological issues stole focus. Then, there are the school figures at Lawndale High. They care about the kids, but really it tends to be more about themselves. The average teenager should be able to relate to that than yet another Mr. Belding figure.

It wasn’t until the second season that Daria found its voice as a show. So much of the first episodes were dedicated to setting up Daria as an independent character. She met Jane, she discovered her way through her new High School and she learned that she hated everything. The start of the sophomore show let the audience know that the series intent was to make this young woman grow up and change. That doesn’t mean she had to stop being critical and focusing on improving in the face of mediocrity. Ms. Morgendorffer needed to learn that not everyone can live up to insanely high standards, not even herself.

Jane and Daria’s relationship as friends first and foremost is what helped to ground the series’ direction. Building on interpersonal relationships eventually allowed the showrunners to delve back into the Morgendorffer family and examine why such a screwed-up family works. While Daria enjoyed the fact that she had a friend with similar views and personality, Jane helped to ground our heroine. More aloof than the spectacle wearing titular character, Jane gave Daria a look at how a rebel can be relaxed while still sticking it to the mainstream. Jane’s brother Trent also helped Daria to realize that she can’t escape those warm girly feelings that she seemed to fight.

When you consider the era at MTV where Daria began, it’s pretty amazing that it lasted a full five years. The death of music-driven pop culture television by Top 40 clips and reality show pablum only reinforces the oddball programming of the show. Critics have praised the show for daring to say that American teens weren’t Adderall driven morons desperately hoping for after-school coitus. I feel that Daria’s importance moves beyond that, as the show has remained firmly entrenched in the hearts of its target audience. Whenever the maddening crowd pushes against you to change, you have the right to resist. It’s just important to realize that you have friends and family to support you, no matter what you end up becoming. 

If I took one thing away from my revisiting of Daria is the fact that the show has probably aged better than anything MTV has/will ever air. Sure, you’re going to notice that some of the music has changed. The changes aren’t terrible, as you probably weren’t too attached to a 98 Degrees song playing in an outro. This show was the last time that MTV was willing to tell teenagers that you’re just fine being the half-adults of a world that won’t treat you like anything but a kid. The teenage years aren’t glamorous and there is nothing special about a High School archetype. Just keep your head low and make a few friends. These are the people with whom you’ll form memories to replace those that weren’t so great. Cool is a currency that no one can afford, but everyone wants. Don’t be afraid to put on your glasses, your Doc Martens and turn on Sick, Sad World. Nothing will change on your long way to the middle.

The Package

The
DVD
contains a ton of cast interviews, featurettes and a music video. Hell, there’s even notes from the series creator discussing what he had to do for Daria to finally reach DVD. The original pilot is included for your viewing pleasure, but there’s even more. The script for a planned Mystik Spiral spin-off was discovered while developing this massive release and it has been included in the supplemental section. The final two bonus movies have been included on the final disc, as they run at feature length.

The A/V Quality is pretty sharp, as the standalone films sports better transfers than their original 2002 DVD bows. The series looks pretty good on DVD, but there’s something quite off. It’s been noted that the episode cuts are rather uncut. But, the timing cues from commercial bumpers are off and you have intro/outro music leading into the feature itself. The problem isn’t consistent across the board, but it’s noticeable for any serious fans. If you can put all of that aside, you’ll find one of the best TV on DVD packages of 2010.