The Good
Cory Baxter is a kid who knows how to have a good time.
The Bad
Only four episodes?
Cory in the House: All Star Edition is a misnomer in that it only features 4 episodes from this show. The plot is simple, Cory’s father has gotten himself a job as the chef to the President of the United States. Cory, being the rambunctious teen that he is, manages to bring in his friends and cook up schemes that have them interfering with the President’s plans, giving the President advice, trying to push his business ideas on people, and even trying to impress celebrity houseguests. While the plots can seem a little too farfetched (something tells me Cory’s dad would have been axed by his son’s antics some time ago), all in all Cory in the House is nothing if not entertaining.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
Filled with the typical easy going nature that seems to run rampant in the world of sitcoms, no matter how bad things get or they seem like they’re going to get for our star, Cory in the House: All Star Edition always manages to find a way to dodge any bullets that come along.
Features
Raven and The Rock In the House
Both of these featurettes showcase these two people and the guest appearances that they made on the show. Since Cory in the House is a spin-off from That’s So Raven it only makes sense that Raven would make an appearance on this show. As for The Rock, this segment looks at his appearance on the show and also examines how his presence effected things happening on the set. None of these featurettes was really that illuminating but they’re interesting to watch if you’re a fan of this show.
Video
Full Screen - 1.33:1. The look of this show was pretty darn good. I can say that with confidence because I had to watch it on my DVD player that isn’t interlaced. Sometimes animation and everything else tends to mesh together, but on this release the compression was such that the images looked pretty darn good. While the editing and lighting offered are all pretty typical, there was an easy going vibe throughout this entire show that made it very easy to watch.
Audio
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. It’s great that they offered such a solid sound range, I only wish that I hadn’t been watching it on a 7" DVD player. As you can guess it only had two front speakers and because of this I wasn’t able to really hear the audio at the maximum levels that I would have liked to. Things sounded pretty good but, truthfully, the creators of the Cory in the House: All Star Edition DVD really haven’t done anything to utilize the bells and whistles offered by the audio they provide.
Package
Cory and the rest of the cast stand with their arms folded on this front cover that features a shot of the White House behind them. The back of this cover has a promo shot of Cory and his friends as it’s main image, while laid out across it are some images from the show itself. There is a well written description of what this show is about, a Bonus Features listing and technical specs.
Final Word
My first thoughts when I watched this show was that in a lot of ways it seemed to be like a distant cousin to Benson. I am certainly not saying that Cory in the House is on the par with the social, political and groundbreaking aspects that Benson wrought, but the similarities cannot be denied. There’s the political angle (both shows take place at varying levels of government), the fact that both Benson and Cory are misfits to certain degrees, and also the fact that the administration in power seemed on both shows to be equally clueless and open to suggestion. While Benson pulled things off that were of serious importance to the people he was serving, Cory’s reasons for doing things often start off only serving Cory and then end up serving the greater good.
While I wouldn’t say that a show like this is groundbreaking, Cory in the House: All Star Edition serves as a nice reminder of what can happen when a trail is blazed in a more serious way by a show that precedes it.
Cory in the House was released .
