Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Complete Series 2022 DVD Overview

Distributor: Warner Bros. Home Video (under the Studio Distribution Services label they share with Universal Studios Home Entertainment)

Release date: October 18, 2022

Happy belated 20th anniversary to my childhood favorite original series from Cartoon Network (and still one of my top 3 favorite Cartoon Network Originals, behind only OK, KO! Let's Be Heroes and Summer Camp Island), Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends! I would have posted this video on the ACTUAL anniversary date (Tuesday, August 13, 2024), but I started editing the video together far too late to get it out on time. As the old saying goes, however, better late than never!

Released in commemoration of Cartoon Network's 30th anniversary, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The Complete Series contains all 78 22-minute installments of this groundbreaking series on 11 discs. Yes, unlike the Complete Series DVD set for Ed, Edd 'N' Eddy that was released on the same day for the same occasion, the Foster's Complete Series DVD set actually IS complete, as it includes both of THAT show's holiday specials ("A Lost Claus" and "Nightmare on Wilson Way") and ITS finale movie ("Destination: Imagination"), all classified as "Bonus Episodes".

However, what this set DOES have in common with the concurrently released Ed, Edd 'N' Eddy one is that not all of the discs included within it are new to this release: seasons 1, 2, and 3 of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends were previously released on DVD individually on March 6, 2007; September 11, 2007; and November 12, 2014, respectively; and as usual for Warner Bros. when they're releasing full series DVD sets of shows that have received at least one full season set in the past, the Complete Series release of that show uses the same discs (minus label art) for the seasons already available on DVD before.

Seasons 1 and 2 of Foster's have some really lively menus and cool special features on their old DVD releases, so I'm glad their original discs have been reprinted here (especially season 2's, since that season's standalone DVD release used to be out-of-print and quite valuable for a good chunk of last decade despite seasons 1 and 3 remaining in print during that stretch of time). Unfortunately, having been originally released on disc as a DVD-R set from Warner Archive, season 3 is a massive downgrade presentation-wise, as it has no TRUE special features (sorry, WB: the Christmas episode doesn't count as an extra!) and only one menu screen (both static and silent) per disc. Seasons 4-6, which are the seasons of Foster's that were never released onto DVD prior to its Complete Series set coming out, at least have separate Episode Selection and Set Up menus, but also utilize the same boring, generic, standard modern Warner Bros. DVD menu layouts also utilized for the new discs in Ed, Edd 'N' Eddy's Complete Series set.

On the plus side, this DVD set preserves seasons 5 and 6 of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends in widescreen like they were produced but not originally aired in (they used to be available in widescreen on HBO Max, only for the entire series to get removed in May 2023 in preparation for that service's rebrand to Max, thus now making this DVD set the only way you can legally obtain the show's final two seasons in their original production aspect ratio),...EXCEPT "Destination: Imagination", which is STILL cropped to 4x3 (matching how it was presented for its original broadcast on Cartoon Network) on a DVD set released in 2022 (likely because the cropped transfer is the only master Cartoon Network currently has in their library, as the made-for-TV movie was also cropped to 4x3 on HBO Max back when Foster's used to be available to stream there).

Still, this set is well worth tracking down in my opinion for the previously rare season 2 discs and seasons 5 and (most of) 6 in widescreen alone. (I got it for just $20 on Amazon during Prime Day 2023, which just so happened to be my 21st birthday).

For a detailed list of everything in store within this video, check out the pinned comment below the description.



















































Fuck. (YouTube Kids repellent)