TV cartoon sets brighten holidays

Want to really savor the clarity of DVD? Take an eye-popping look at some of the TV animation you’ve probably been watching over fuzzy cable lines or ghost-image antennas. With an eye toward the holiday shopping season, video shelves are now loading up with digital season sets, imported anime and impressive repackagings of vintage cartoons.

The technical versatility and extra features of DVDs enrich the viewing experience by introducing the creators of these cartoons, the voices that bring them alive, the animation process and more. Captions and foreign-language subtitles make them accessible to wider audiences. The more adult offerings can include cut scenes and graphic commentary.

These are some of the best recent arrivals. (List prices are often deeply discounted.)

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“SpongeBob SquarePants Complete 1st Season”: This one’s fun from the delirious animated onscreen menus to the giddy voice-cast commentary on two of these 40 Nickelodeon cartoons. You can easily find the titles you want with episode synopses printed on the box’s three individual DVD cases. Generous extras explore creator Stephen Hillenburg’s inspirations (Jacques Cousteau and animated sculptures), various steps in animation, voice recording sessions, the underwater settings, even “SpongeBob” karaoke. (Three discs, 40 cartoons. Paramount; no list price, often less than $40.)

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“South Park Complete Third Season”: The first three years of Comedy Central’s unsparing adult satire are now on DVD, a format that makes the visuals look even more feverishly cheesy. The Season 3 release includes such classics as Kyle’s “Jewbilee” camp visit, Jesus’ millennium extravaganza and the warped holiday music of “Mr. Hankey’s Christmas Classics.” In audio mini-commentaries, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone discuss Y2K, what God looks like, Jennifer Aniston and other hot topics, all in ultra-frank terms. (Three discs, 17 episodes, includes Spanish-language track. Paramount, no list price, often less than $40.)

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“Aqua Teen Hunger Force”: Hip-hop detectives Mickey D’s-style, these three ‘burb-livin’ roommates -- savvy Frylock, excuse-dropping Master Shake and childlike shape-shifter Meatwad -- find themselves avoided and abetted by neighbor Carl, a hairy, angry, pool-owning human. But that hardly describes the free-associating appeal of Cartoon Network’s “Adult Swim” standby. Its attitudinal absurdities are an acquired taste. Those of us twisted enough to bite get 16 strange animation conglomerations here, along with guitar-laced commentary from creators Matt Maiellaro and Dave Willis on, among other items, the original uncut rough version of the “Rabbot” pilot that “came very close to getting this entire project killed.” (Two discs, 16 episodes. Warner Bros., $30.)

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“Sailor Moon” season sets: Japanese anime first impressed many devotees in this wild 1992 adventure of an eighth-grade “cry baby” who teams with a mysterious cat to lead transformed schoolgirls against evil aliens. In TV’s familiar cut-and-dubbed American version, kids loved the colorfully kaleidoscopic action. But ADV’s two uncut season sets, with English subtitles over the original Japanese audio, reveal more adult depth and emotion behind the crazily careening tales, restoring nuances of death, romance and homosexuality. The DVDs’ audio-video transfer quality isn’t great. But it’s the comedy-drama mix that keeps fans transfixed. (Two hard-boxed sets: Season 1 has 46 half-hours on eight discs; Season 2 has 42 episodes on eight discs. No extras. ADV, $150 each.)

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“Looney Tunes Golden Collection”: Yes, these classic 1940s and ‘50s Warner Bros. cartoons were made for theatrical release. But most fans found ‘em on the tube. These four discs in a folding package hold 56 of the best-ever adventures of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety and Sylvester, Wile E. Coyote and the Roadrunner, Speedy Gonzales, Foghorn Leghorn and Pepe LePew. Even better, they’re crammed with behind-the-scenes treats spotlighting the voice talents (Stan Freberg, Mel Blanc), the composers, the animators (Chuck Jones and the other “boys from Termite Terrace”), and the “visual vocabulary” they established. Other extras include character profiles, creator interviews, animation tests and illuminating commentary: “If Disney was classical music, the Looney Tunes were like jazz.” This superb box hits all the right notes. (Four discs, 56 cartoons. Warner Bros., $65.)