Steven Universe is one of those cult hit cartoon network animated shows that resonate with its viewers about love, friendship and being themselves. It does have a positive overall message about the show and comes from a place of compassion.

With many fans of the show, the DVD for season 2 is out at different stores such as Barnes and Noble and Walmart as well as online. This season also has the key feature of having a Garnet key chain within the set. The going price on this, at least online, is retailing for approximately $26.00 with tax. That is a good amount of money for a show, though with a lot of episodes, only has a run time that is just a little over four hours. Can we find a way to justify spending that kind of money on a TV show with not too long of an overall run time? Is quality outranking quantity? Let’s find out.

Most TV shows that even have 13 episodes of thirty minute run time have a longer run time. I know that they do cram a lot of plot and happenings in each episode and can milk out 12 minute episodes so quickly but, that is a very short overall season run time for that kind of money. I do appreciate the plot and story but that run-time feels more to be desired for over twenty dollars. Considering the first season had so many more episodes, season two didn’t have as many episodes.

Inside the DVD box, you get a Garnet key chain. That is a nice little thing to have. It’s very cushy and you see Garnet’s three eyes open staring blank at you. It’s a little nice trinket to throw into a DVD that seems to have been made decently. It looks like a mini pillow that goes on your keys. My question is what fan of the show will knowingly put this on their key chain and walk around with it in pride and have it being almost a distraction. If you do put a lot of stuff on your key chain with mini pops and other cushy items and trinkets, this will fit in with your collection. If you only have bare minimum key chain and are willing to spice it up, it will add some nice pink and some blue to the normality of your keys.

Besides the short run time and the bonus item in the DVD set, one thing people love about these sets are the special features. I love going through TV show special features and seeing some deleted scenes or behind the scenes or seeing some of the voice actors rehearsing some lines. This has something cool added on disc two of the DVD. They have Animatics. They have a selection of seven episodes from the season that has the storyboard, with some animated motions alongside the audio tracks. I think its cool seeing the sketching and how the fluidity comes from the storyboard to what seems to be the final product.

Watching it with the audio track is very similar to some old school comic book TV show like how Hannah Barbera did their animation or even better when Marvel made their 1966 Incredible Hulk cartoon. It was just a lot of stills with some basic motion. The Animatics are cool to see how it goes from sketch to the final product and is definitely fun. The one suggestion is maybe using other episodes from a different season than season two. I don’t know how many people would watch the final product of the episode and then go see the Animatics of the episode. I think it would be nice to throw some season two and then maybe some season 1 episode just to show something different that we didn’t just watch prior. Besides that nitpick, it is cool seeing the Animatics as the bonus feature.

So, overall, after listing the pros and cons of the DVD, would I recommend people to go out and purchase it? Well, overall, I’d say no. Over 26 dollars for a DVD doesn’t seem like a lot for a TV show, but, with the run time of only four hours, it does leave more for the audience member to get more bang for the buck. The key chain is nice and is cushy, but that doesn’t make much of a difference to me.

Finally, the Animatics are a lot of fun to see the process from storyboard animation to how you know how the final product will look, it is sadly been leaked on the internet and there are other ways of seeing them. As a whole, it is cool but its one of those features that people can live without and doesn’t really add much to the experience that is Steven Universe. The main problem with dropping the money is most people have some video streaming capabilities at home whether through Hulu or Amazon Prime. Steven Universe is on Hulu and episodes of Steven Universe are also on Amazon prime for purchase.

If you do not have Hulu or Amazon and are a big fan of the show, I cannot fault people for spending their money on what they want but I think with what is being presented in the DVD and the lack of wow from the free item and some special features, the money is too hefty and there are plenty of other movies and TV shows for a cheaper price that will get you just as much enjoyment and have some more bonus items and features on the discs. But, if you must have the season on disc, just wait until it goes down in price just to justify the expense to enjoyment factor.