Raise your hand if you've never herd of The Amazing Screw-On Head before. Good. Everyone in the room can put your hands down.

It's not really surprising that so few people have heard of the property. There has only ever been a single issue of the book, published by Dark Horse in 2002. What is odd is that the Sci-Fi channel chose that work to adapt into an animated series. While the show was never picked up and put into ongoing production after this pilot was made, they did have an option for it should demand have been high enough. Of course, airing it one random Friday before shunting it over to the website isn't going to do much to advertise the work, but that's a rant for another time.

The source for the DVD is a one-shot by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola, which is why you can see a heavy influence even from the DVD cover above. Simply titled The Amazing Screw-On Head, the book featured a very civilized robot who is enlisted by the Great Emancipator himself to combat the evil conspirings of Emperor Zombie, a slightly effete occultist who just happens to have the unloving condition of being dead. Emperor Zombie enlists the aide of his Vampire Queen to use a "melon-sized jewel," a direct quote used many times to describe the object at the heart of the turmoil, to unleash a particularly nasty demon.

Contrary to all that, the book and DVD are far from an action set piece. Unlike Mignola's biggest hit, The Amazing Screw-On Head focuses more on humor and comedy. It's very dark comedy to be sure, but the jokes do come rather quickly if you're paying attention. My favorite is actually a change from the book in which Emperor Zombie is made to have been Screw-On Head's first manservant (think a slightly ass kicking-er Jarvis). Zombie blames Screw-On Head for his own death since he never would have been brought into this dark world if not for Screw-On Head, and in retaliation has killed the last seven manservant replacements. It's made all the sweeter when you listen to David Hyde Pierce's soft cadence describing how he can't wait to eviscerate the newest manservant, Mr. Groin.

Speaking of David Hyde Pierce, the DVD boasts a few notable names, most importantly Paul Giamatti as Screw-On and the aforementioned Pierce as Zombie. Molly Shannon, late of SNL (and occasionally talent), plays Patience, the Vampire Queen. She's not given much to do in the program, but I think they were going to flesh out her character more had the show gone to series. As it stands she is more a plot device than anything, but Shannon does a good enough job at voice acting. Patton Oswalt does an excellent job of reigning in his usually psychotic voice for Mr. Groin. While Oswalt's comedy can irk me after a while, I think he wold have fit in well in this world had it continued on.

I always tend to prefer professional voice actors in animated series rather than a celebrity screen actor. Not that a "regular" actor can't do voice work well, it's just that voice actors are trained for that area specifically. It's just like some screen actors are terrible stage actors and vice versa. They're related fields, sure, but they're not identical. That said, This cast seemed to do pretty. The only voice that seemed pretty normal for the actor was Pierce's Emperor Zombie, but in all honesty he has a fantastic natural voice for the role.

The story - aces. The artwork - Gothic and moody. The acting - top notch. Now to the hot spot of a DVD review - the special features! Unfortunately, there's only so many features on can do on a 22 minute production. The making of goes into pretty deep detail, containing storyboards and showing the producers acting out some of the scenes. The commentary isn't a laugh-riot, but it's informative and always stays lively. Would have liked to have seen Mignola on it, but I guess that would be too many people for too short a time.

If these same features were on a normal film release, they'd be getting a terrible score. But given that there's only twenty minutes of product, you really can't deduct too many points. Eve the best features would seem bare bones given the limited source of discussion.

So to bring this whole inaugural shebang to a lose for this week, The Amazing Screw-On Head is a fantastic little gem that's easy to overlook, but really worth watching. I've seen it several times now and I love it every single viewing. The only downside to the whole affair is that the pilot was not picked up for a series and this one episode is all we have. And in all honesty, that's a pretty good negative rating to have on a DVD.

There's no reason not to pick this diddy up since Amazon sells it for a measly $9.99! That's not even ten dollars ... technically. You can check out the deal right HERE at the Pink Kryptonite store. Tell 'em Goblin sent you.