Monkey: The Complete Series (Restored) Blu-Ray

My seven year old daughter said she wanted to see more after I showed her some clips online, so I bought this box set. I remember seeing Monkey on TV as a youngster myself. Fun and energetic with plenty of humorous, Japanese clowning about, the light hearted approach belies a surprising amount of deep wisdom based on Buddhist teachings underpinning each episode. The action scenes are plentiful and energetic. My daughter and I both love it and Monkey frequently has us laughing in between martial arts and moments of philosophy. As a boy I never realised how clever this show really is. I'm glad I have the chance to appreciate it as an adult.

That quote in the headline is from S2E5. In this Blu-ray set the picture is dark in some of the episodes. Even in scenes where it's not night it's slightly darker than the DVD set. It's still really watchable so don't worry about that. It's just if you're used to the brightness of the DVD set. You won't get that here. Not sure why this has happened. You can see the upgrade in picture in some scenes. The sharpness and detail. The colours are brighter. The sound is good. The brightness is the only issue here. In terms of scenes having more light in the DVD set I'd rate them as a 9.5 this Blu-ray set I'd rate the brightness a 7.5 maybe an 8.I have noticed Chinese or Japanese text on screen in some of the early episodes. It can't be removed. But it's only for a few seconds. Like it's telling viewers who it is or what the location is possibly. This makes me think that the darkness issue is one of two things. A less than perfect transfer or the Japanese source material is like that it's self. Remember the DVD version we have it will be the UK version used. I guess for the HD transfer it was the Japanese film that was used. Hence the reason text came up on screen in early episodes. And if this is the case. Expect episodes to be uncut. Not the censored BBC (and BBFC) version we've had since day one.For example on disc one Tripitaka was praying in a village as it's being attacked. It's in one of the first two episodes. You see some guy throw a spear. It is then seen hitting another man. You see him from the side view. It goes in the front and you see the spear head come out the back with blood on it. Don't remember seeing that in the version we've been watching all these years. They will be other small extra moments like this throughout the set no doubt. Just need to keep a lookout for them.It's up to you if you want to make the upgrade here. It is worth buying if you don't already own the show. But it's not as amazing a transfer as you might think it should be. I didn't let that stop me from buying it. I've liked Monkey since the mid 80's. I gave my mum my two Monkey DVD sets. The main set and the lost episodes set. If she doesn't want them in the future I'll gladly take them back. My friend Dave has his own two sets otherwise I'd have handed them to him.This Blu-ray set includes all the Lost Episodes in their rightful place within the series. They're mixed in with the other episodes. So in that happening you'll hear Pigsy sound normal in some episodes. Then he'll be a little different sounding in other episodes. Then back to normal again in further along episodes. It's Peter "Evil of Frankenstein" Woodthorpe that does Pigsy's voice in every single episode. He just must have been a little worse for wear when doing the dubbing of the 2004 lost episodes. He passed away not long after they were dubbed in 2004. So I am really thankful he did the new dubbing for the lost episodes. Even if he wasn't his usual self at the time. There is only one Pigsy after all. That's Peter.

I bought this for a friend who wanted a trip down memory lane! He was very pleased with it. The package arrived in good time and in good condition.

Love this and it took me be back to my childhood.When watching it also came to light that I actually got a lot of my beliefs and rules for living from this series. Be kind to people not matter how they are perceived to be at first glance because your kindness could actually help them to be kind to.

This was a unique (at least for us in the West) cult series, great to find this entire collection. Whacky, over the top, funny, tongue in cheek stereotypes, well paced. Being nasty kids this gave us some hints of a better way, maybe sowing the seed of our own later journeys to enlightenment. Coming back to it 40 years later I still find the closing reflections thought provoking.I only give it 4 stars as, although the sound of the blu ray is good, the picture leaves a lot to be desired (even after using the TV's picture adjustments). I can make the colours more radiant, but for blu ray the picture still lacks the crispness and sharp focus expected of re-mastering in 2020. You'd expect the Japanese to be ace at such film enhancement. In the light of some of the more positive comments on the blu ray picture, I've even begun to wonder if Amazon have inadvertently sold me a fake. Be pleased to receive feedback from someone with more technical knowledge about blu ray remastering than me, as to why Fabulous couldn't have made a better job of it.

Bought this CD for my hubby and he loves it.

As a long time fan (since I was a kid watching this with my dad in the 80's) I was excited about the bluray versions of the series.The picture is good in my opinion, considering the age of the source material and it probably wasn't looked after as much as others. Its colour is a big improvement on the dvd version made more vivid.The sound is good again for its age.It looks as if the footage is taken directly from the original source as it has Japanese text onscreen at points (which weren't on the dvd version) and even some extended scenes.The only thing I was disappointed at was that they have included the scripts but its only readable if you have a bluray drive in your computer, which i dont. Sad, if only they had them available to download.A great purchase for any fan of Monkey or daft fun tv.