The Amazing Screw-On Head

The Amazing Screw on Head is maybe the greatest thing of all time.

No, really. It might be the best thing I have ever encountered. It's got zombies and robots and vampires and werewolves and mummies and demigods and Abraham Lincoln and a freaking monkey firing a machine gun. And all of this over the course of only 22 minutes. Also, there is one scene where a villain smokes another character through a giant hookah.

'Screw on Head' tells the tale of an alternate history for America. Abraham Lincoln uses the titular character to deal with secret government matters, like attacks by the evil Emperor Zombie, who coincidentally used to work as Screw on Head's first butler. After a brief set up, the series goes for total, gee whiz, super colossal, brilliant dada absurdism.

I have never read anything mike Mignola before. I didn't terribly like the Hellboy film and I never saw Atlantis. However, if The Amazing Screw on Head is so good that I think I'm going to go buy the guy's back catalogue sight unseen. The animation is perfect, the line readings all inspired. Everything about this project is flawless.

Unfortunately, this appears to be all she wrote. 'Screw on Head' was produced as a pilot for Sci-Fi channel, and to my knowledge, it was not picked up for series. If there is one flaw, it is that it leaves you wanting more. Also, the mouth movements don't often match the voice recordings. But, that's a minor problem that is only noticeable on the many repeat viewings that this warrants.

DVD:

I don't know what the MSRP is for this product, but the extras are very slim. The show is only 21 minutes and change and there is less than 20 minutes of additional features (discounting the commentary track). The cartoon is presented in both normal television and widescreen format, but occasionally the animation feels pixely in its transfer in both versions.

The commentary track is amusing and an easy listen with a good balance of technical jargon and good old fashioned anecdotes. The same cannot be said for the storyboard to screen comparison which lasts for under 4 minutes. The featurette is also fairly standard with talking heads praising the cartoon.

The other major extra is the alleged comic book which is not a comic book at all. Instead, it is just a collection of a few pages of character designs, a 2 page essay by Mignola on where 'Screw on Head' came from and 2 original character designs for unproduced episodes of the series.

It is frustrating that some really interesting features are mentioned in the commentary track, but never materialize on the disc. Why they didn't I don't know because, as it stands, paying even 15 dollars for this DVD seems extraneous. The show is brilliant and has great rewatch value, but if you're going to be shelling out hard earned cash, you should be getting more.

The Movie: 9.9/10 The DVD: 5/10

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