The Search for Animal Chin Special Edition DVD Review

The Search for Animal Chin is the classic of classics. When Animal Chin, the 62 year old master of skateboarding goes missing, the Bones Brigade (Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill and Lance Mountain) goes on a search for him. The story is simple and fun, and it's obvious that the team had a lot of fun making it. The video is a must see for anyone who cares about skating - it's different from the skate videos of today, more low, simple, and fun. Plus, you get piles of extras with the Special Edition.

The Bones Brigade videos are famous in the history of skating. The first Bones Brigade Video set the bar, and the second video showed more of the Bones Brigade’s lives. The Search for Animal Chin DVD is the most famous of them all. Even the band Switchfoot has an album called “The Legend of Chin”. If there’s one classic skate movie you should own, this is it.

The Search for Animal Chin DVD has all the footage first released in 1987, 60 minuets long. The main feature is brilliant - the basic story of Search for Animal Chin DVD is that Won Ton Animal Chin, the greatest skateboarding master in the world, has gone underground because skateboarding has become too commercial, and the Bones Brigade decides to go search for him. The search takes them through California, Hawaii, Mexico and even a concert with Johnny Rad. The acting is campy and cheesy, and everything about the video screams 1980 - it's awesome!

Animal Chin Bonus Features

The Search for Animal Chin Special Edition DVD is a 2 disk set packed with extras. The first disk has the Search for Animal Chin movie, plus the entire movie again with commentary by Stacey Peralta, Steve Caballero, Tommy Guerrero, Tony Hawk, Mike McGill and Lance Mountain. The commentary is a lot of fun, and reveals all kinds of stuff - for example, how in the world they came up with the name and character "Animal Chin". They talk about what it was like to make the movie, the troubles they had getting these young skaters to act, what they loved and hated - if you love classic skating, you've got to see it.

The first disk also has all the songs from the Bones Brigade Video Tunes CD, and you can set it up to play one or all of them, with a picture of the CD on the screen. It's perfect to just have on the background in your home or skate shop.

Disk two has an entire documentary on the history of Powell - Peralta, and the Bones Brigade. Hear from all the guys in this move, plus people like Rodney Mullen and Alan Gelfand (also Bones Brigade members), and piles of other people in the skateboarding industry. It's wild to hear how Stacey Peralta chose the original team, and how his videos changed skateboarding.

Also on the second disk are some outtakes from the movie, a walk through the Powell-Peralta museum display from ASR, and a special 25 year anniversary tribute to Steve Caballero. You can also watch trailers for other Bones Brigade DVDs.

Basically, you have hours of entertainment here, but it's powerful stuff - if you are looking for a piece of the old school, want to know more about it, or were skating back then and remember this stuff, this DVD is something you want.

While the acting can be cheesy, the skating is smooth, low and most of all fun. The trend today in skate videos seems to be to show raw footage from one skater, trick after trick, set to music. In Animal Chin, you see a group of five friends, all skating from location to location, laughing, and having a great time. There's a story. It might be a campy story, but it's there! There's plenty of great footage, but it's all set together with a certain relaxed feeling. It's a great way to make a video.

I had a great time watching it, laughing at the hokey jokes and being blown away by skating that's still top notch. It's also wild to see these guys so young, and thinking about how awesome the 80s were. This is a time when skating was being re-defined. Skateboarding was exploding in popularity, and The Search for Animal Chin calls the viewer to remember what skateboarding is all about - fun.

The Search for Animal Chin DVD has a young, alive feeling to it. If you haven't seen this video, you have to get it. No skate video library would be complete without it - and the Special Edition DVD is worth every penny. Make sure to check out the reviews of the other Bones Brigade DVDs (Video Show, Future Primitive, and Basic Training Plus). The soundtrack to the Bones Brigade movies is also available.