Created for Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup, the show has become a runaway hit, generating a plethora of merchandise and a massive and sometimes disturbingly rabid fan base. Now, Cartoon Network and publisher Warner Bros. have released a new boxed set collecting all 7 seasons of Rick and Morty on DVD! Whether you’re a fan or not, it’s hard to argue the success of the show, but after watching this set, chances are you’re going to shift your stance.
If you’re already a fan, you’re probably aware that Season 8 is coming next year and the show is planned for a 10 season run but that doesn’t negate the value of this boxed set in any way. Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-7 is entirely worth your time, partly because this is a completely uncensored set. If you’re easily offended or don’t want to hear that sort of language, turn away now but for the rest of us, the entire series is chock full of blatant sexual statements, f-bombs, and a whole lot more. The language of the show is initially almost shocking but as you adapt to the style it fits perfectly and it’s hard to imagine Rick and Morty being released in any other way.
It’s not out of place to say that this is an incredibly dark ride. Rick is the most amoral and unapologetic character you’ll ever encounter and his megalomaniacal approach to science and life bleeds rapidly over into everyone else around him. Morty starts out incredibly innocent but slowly shifts along with his sister Summer to adapt to Rick’s influence. The show frequently apes itself, dropping meta dialogue about the characters, their motivations, and much more. Very few episodes are predictable in any way and the writer’s room must be a pretty wild place because you can expect to go places you’d never have thought of while watching the seasons.
Each season is fairly short, fitting on two DVDs in the set for a total of 14 discs. Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-7 comes in a standard WB clamshell just like the one which Succession: The Complete Series (review here) and other larger WB sets use. Unlike other sets however, Rick and Morty comes in a harder slipcase and the clamshell has separate artwork with no logos, simply a picture of the main characters themselves in their ramshackle spaceship. This slipcase is welcome as it better protects the clamshell and sits on the shelf more nicely than the slipcovers that some other cases have received.
Rather than printing the episode list on the inside cover, WB has chosen to put a loose double-sided paper insert in this time which is easier to reference but unfortunately has a tendency to slip around the side of the disc storage and bend easily. The clamshell choice is unfortunate because unlike other WB sets, this one is on DVD and extracting the disc from the double prong clips is difficult, leading to more potential for scratches which DVDs are prone to. The set we received had a few scratches on a loose disc that hadn’t been properly clipped in but fortunately they were shallow and did not affect playback. The font chosen for the disc labelling was a poor choice too, as someone enabled bold on the text and the season numbers are slightly harder to read than they should be due to the screening directly onto the disc rather than a solid background.
Minor quibbles aside with manufacturing choices aside, the set is absolutely fantastic. The case storage is more than sufficient and you’re getting a lot of Rick and Morty. A ridiculous amount in fact. Most episodes have commentary as well and there are deleted scenes and a variety of other bonus material including featurettes, a deeper dive into the characters of Season 7, a look into the background and coloring process, and more. The first three seasons have commentary for every single episode and some even have multiple commentary options. It’s pretty wild, especially since some of the other sets we’ve seen lately have been kind of sparse on bonus material. For fans of the series, this is definitely going to be a wealth of content that will take hours and hours to explore.
Moving on to the video quality of Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-7, viewers will be delighted to find that the transfer on DVD is far superior to expectations, nearly matching that of some Blu-rays depending on your display (the capture software we used doesn’t do it justice). The simplicity of the animation leads to an easy video transition and the aspect ratio is widescreen for the whole series, so you’re getting a high quality viewing experience for less money than you’d play for a Blu-ray set (ignore the bars on the screen captures…blame our software, they’re not on regular playback!). While no data is available on the encoding, no one is going to be complaining about the image quality here. The menu systems are easy to navigate as well, making viewing the series a snap.
Audio quality is also very good but if you’re not an English or French speaker, you’re out of luck. The series is primarily only in English with the exceptions of French audio for Season 6 and French subtitles for Seasons 5-7. Presumably the costs involved in further translation were prohibitive but as this set is only available in the US and Canada, the complaints will be somewhat mitigated. English audio is in Dolby Digital 5.1 and even on a 2.1 system, the show sounds great with an immersive soundscape and a ton of unique and interesting audio choices that make the series incredibly immersive. Voice acting is fantastic as well and if you’re familiar with the voice actors, Season 7 changes both Rick and Morty due to allegations against Justin Roiland in 2023.
There are literally too many extras to go through on this amazing set so you’ll just have to take our word for it that the extras are awesome and worth your time. In addition to all those extras, Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-7 also comes with a spectacular poster featuring a massive number of cast and characters that appear in the series. This 17″ x 23” poster is folded but printed on glossy paper with a lot of busy artwork, so flattening it out will make it fairly suitable for putting up, unlike less detailed posters. It’s a great inclusion that fans are definitely going to want to display.
Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-7 is a massive set weighing in at 71 episodes and 1589 minutes and with its coarse, uncensored nature, excellent visual presentation, and tons of extras and bonuses, viewers are going to be delighted. Starting this review, we were pretty skeptical of enjoying the series having never watched it before but there’s a quality about the show that slowly draws you in despite the madness and depravity showcased throughout every episode, slowly shifting the experience from tolerance to enjoyment and gleeful abandon. It’s hard to really put into words how fun Rick and Morty becomes once you adapt to the narrative style but suffice it to say you’re going to have a good time and get your money’s worth with this set. Even with more seasons coming eventually, this is a must-have set, especially as an uncensored one with so many extras and you’re going to enjoy every minute of it.
This review is based on a physical copy of Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-7 provided by the publisher. It was viewed on a 55” Sony 1080p TV using a Sony Blu-ray player. Rick and Morty: The Complete Seasons 1-7 is available now from online retailers and wherever fine DVDs are sold.
Nate Van Lindt has been a gamer since the days of yore (aka Commodore 64), and has played a bit of virtually everything out there. He's also an avid comic book collector, both vintage and current, and reads a fair amount of sci-fi and fantasy. On top of that, he watches a fair number of movies and TV shows as well. Oh, and he has a family, a full-time job, and lives somewhere in the urban wilds of Southwestern Ontario, Canada, foraging for old video cables and forgotten game soundtracks.