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Review: PEZ Universe DVD
Posted by Paul on May 29,2006:
PEZ Universe calls itself the "Official DVD of PEZ Candy, Inc." As PEZ's official DVD, you would expect it to be chock full of all kinds of PEZ stuff. And it is. This DVD delivers the goods, with lots of interesting information, trivia, and video about dispensers, the candy, the factory, and the collectors.
After you pop the disc into your DVD player or into your computer's DVD drive, a menu will appear showing the six sections. A high enery rock tune plays on the menu page, telling you to "shake it, break it, turn it inside out"....I don't know what the song is about or what it has to do with PEZ, but my kids were dancing to it. The music varies from page to page, covering several genres. I would have preferred a more consistent musical approach, but all of the music is interesting to listen to.
The first section, "History of PEZ", contains a PEZ timeline from 1929-2006. You first select a period like 1953-1967, then a year like 1956, with the title "Space Gun". Each year contains a short description of what PEZ did in that year, and in some years there is a surprise, like the "psychedelic montage" that you can find sometime in the 60s. Not every year is represented, probably become something interesting didn't happen in every year. I'd like to see more of these video clips in the timeline.
The next section, "PEZ Glossary", is similar to the glossaries that you will find in books about PEZ collecting. It defines the terms that are used to describe the various parts of a PEZ dispenser, the terms that are used to talk about the condition of dispensers, and acronyms for various groups of dispensers. For example, "NGG" refers to a Non-Glowing Ghost. The illustrations for these terms are nice, but I think a reference like this is easier to access in a book or on a web site. There is no way to search on a DVD. If I want to know what a particular term means, it's faster to open a book or navigate to a web site than to turn on my TV and put in a DVD.
The third section is a "PEZ Trivia Quiz". This ought to be a lot of fun if you're a PEZ trivia expert. I'm not, and while my kids loved most of this disc, they quickly became bored with this section. So this is more of a draw for the experienced collector, I think, or for someone who wants to bone up on the trivia.
The "Behind PEZ Scenes" section contains "factory tours" which show hand-drawn, cartoon-like illustrations, while a voice over explains how PEZ developers a new dispenser and how PEZ candy is made. Some short video is interspersed with the illustrations, such as showing completed dispensers moving down a conveyor belt. The videos don't actually show the manufacturing process, though, and don't really fit with what is being explained. For example, while the voice over says "this sample is then sent to the factor as a die", the video shows a factory worker placing completed dispensers on cards moving through a conveyor belt. I think the producers could have made much better use of actual video in this section.
This section also contains a "sneak preview" called "Behind The Animation". This shows a preview of a PEZ cartoon or animation being developed this year. I found this to be the most interesting thing in this section.
The fifth section is called "PEZ Stories". It contains an interview with the PEZident Joe Vittoria, short interviews with other PEZ employees and a number of well-known PEZ collectors. These are interesting to watch, making this one of the best sections of the DVD. It's in this area where you'll find more details about what PEZ is up to this year, such as tidbits about PEZ's factory expansion.
The final section, "PEZ Dispensers", is a reference for dispensers. It allows you to look for dispensers by name or by timeline. Pictures are shown for all of the included dispensers, and a few have a video which show the dispensers rotating. I found that using a DVD remote is a bit awkward to use for navigating a reference like this. If you just want to browse through a lot of dispensers, this is a fun way to do it. But if you want to look up a particular dispenser, you're better off using a reference book or web site. Also, while the timeline is cool, the release date of the dispenser is not displayed when you're looking at an individual dispenser. The only information displayed is the name of the dispenser.
PEZ Universe is a worthwhile addition to any PEZ collection. My kids liked watching it, and I thought several of the sections were really interesting. If the producers get a chance to make another one of these, or an upgrade to this one, I'd recommend that they focus more on the strengths of the DVD medium (video) and less on the "reference" aspects that work better in an online or print medium. PEZ Universe is available for $15 from the web site.
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