They Might Be Giants - Direct from Brooklyn (1999)

The wit and whimsy of John Linnell and John Flansburgh, collectively known as They Might Be Giants, is on display in this thoroughly entertaining video compilation. Twelve of the group's videos (dating from the mid-'80s to 1998) are here, filled with all manner of craziness and looking and sounding great. But the real prize may be the two clips from Tiny Toon Adventures, marrying TMBG's silly but also smart and clever music with the cartoon series' riotous animation; the twin Giants actually didn't write "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)," a "Puttin' On the Ritz" soundalike that's also one of the 12 main videos (with different animation), but it fits their style to a T. All of this quirkiness and freneticism can get a bit wearying after a while, but in small doses it's lots of fun. DVD extras include Linnell and Flansburgh's straightforward, informative audio commentary; there are also bonus audio tracks, a live video, and more. --Sam Graham Amazon.com

Finally...

A great collection of their music videos up to "Dr. Worm" (one the bands best more recent efforts). Watching these videos makes an old fan understand why they like them and a new fan something to get to know the band by. July 20, 2008

Good TMBG, better time capsule

This excellent compilation of video work from They Might Be Giants could in one sense be a model of how to combine images with music. The artistry here shows that songs mixed with imaginative visuals can, in the right hands, become more than the sum of their parts, and with most of these, that is exactly what happens.

It's almost worth the DVD alone for not one, but two versions of "Istanbul(Not Constantinople)," both using animation, but in completely different styles. The song is catchy enough on its own, but the visual elements make it irresistible. Other favorites are "Snail Shell," "The Statue Got Me High" and "They'll Need a Crane," as well as the now-classic "(She Was A) Hotel Detective."

If not every single track is at the same high level, never mind. This DVD is still a terrifically entertaining document that shows these guys at their creative best, not to mention valuable for marking their progession over the years. The extras are good, too, but the videos are so good -- and the price is so low -- that any extras almost don't matter. September 15, 2005

MTV - is it Art?

Maybe a Picasso or a Garfunkel. Like all new forms, a lot of the most creative usage of MTV occurred when MTV was brand new. These guys could dominate largely because there was so little there as precedent.

We institutionalize everything. That is the end point of human endeavor.

But these guys were successful so long as they could set the bar for the next player. If they've done that, they're going to be long remembered. April 11, 2005

Oh, how paltry MTV looks now!

Jonathan, you might want to check your DVD player, because I had none of the problems you had -- "Play All" DOES play all, and all of the videos have commentary. A few of the older videos are grainy, but I suspect that's more due to the source material, and I doubt they'd go to the trouble of professionally touching up and restoring them.

I don't know why they bothered to put the Quicktime "home movies" on the disc. I thought it was odd that they didn't make them available as regular DVD "special features" videos, but then I found out -- they're VERY low quality, and they're only about a minute each -- just snippets of the songs. There could have been much more in the way of extras, but, fortunately, there's a treasure trove of extras available on the _Gigantic_ DVD, and the ones that are included here -- the "Tiny Toons" clips, the "fiery" live performance, and the audio tracks -- are not on the _Gigantic_ disc. Plus, the "commentary" for the "Snail Shell" video is actually another song! Overall, this is a great video collection for TMBG fans. (By the way, I'm sure that the reason "Boss of Me" is not included is that it's owned by Fox, so perhaps they couldn't get the rights to it, or didn't think it was worth it, or maybe they're saving it for the next collection...) February 11, 2004

Great collection but...

The collection is great but on the John & John commentary, John Linnell is extremely hard to hear which is extremely dissapointing. December 26, 2003

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