Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series

I have a confession to make. I just spent most of my night curled up with a Dungeon Master. No, I wasn’t fishing for bonus XP. The Dungeon Master I’m talking about is of the 3 1/2 foot tall, bald, animated variety. Yes. I am that big of a nerd. I just watched three straight hours of Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series.

Coming in a case reminiscent of 1983’s red box set, within are four pieces of swag: a case containing five DVDs, an episode guide, an Animated Series Handbook, and an advertisement for Dragon and Dungeon magazines. While DVD special features are usually the high points of sets like this, the boxed set shows that it totally knows its audience with the Animated Series Handbook. This sort-of-hardbound booklet (with the same cover treatment as the Player’s Handbook) presents stats for Hank the Ranger, Erik the Cavalier, Diana the Acrobat (showing some Unearthed Arcana love), Presto the Magician, Sheila the Thief, Bobby the Barbarian, Uni the Unicorn, the evil henchman Shadow Demon, and Venger himself (at a whopping CR 21!). There’s also a new adventure, penned by Wizards of the Coast designer Matt Sernett with maps by Jason Engle, that leads up to the episode “The Dragon’s Graveyard” (where our heroes decide to murder Venger).

But aside from the D&D style sourcebook, there’s a ton of special features, like the interactive adventure “Kelek’s Crystal,” episode commentaries by the writers and voice actors, storyboard comparisons, “Uni’s Fun Facts” triva game, a documentary “Entering the Realm of Dungeons & Dragons,” a radio show-style performance of the unaired final episode “Requiem,” and a bunch more.

While the show’s not as hypnotizing as I remember it being when I was six, it holds up a lot better than several other cartoons I’ve tried to revisit. And, while some episodes are corny and a little hard to watch, for every ten bad ideas and hokey jokes, there’s one or two really clever bits. Eventually, you also start to get the vibe that Eric might have his eye on Hank for more than just his glowing bow.

Well worth the $45.00 price tag, you can read more and pick it up Dungeons & Dragons: The Complete Animated Series right here.