Steven Universe Complete Collection DVD Set

The Steven Universe Complete Collection DVD set is a work of art made to contain a work of art.

The incredible box set packaging is both inventive and artistic in design and aesthetics, featuring an iridescent effect and a gorgeous view of the Temple and the beach.

We have fifteen discs here--three for Season 1, two for Season 2, two for Season 3, two for Season 4, two for Season 5, one for the movie, two for Steven Universe Future, and one for more extras.

Some of the discs simply have the episode content and nothing else. But some of the discs contain extras. Many of these extras have been released elsewhere before. Some are released for the first time here.

For content I've outlined already in other places, I'll just identify it and link. For content I haven't explored, I'll have more detail.

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DISC 1: Season 1, Episodes 1 – 20

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Contents:

1. Gem Glow

2. Laser Light Cannon

3. Cheeseburger Backpack

4. Together Breakfast

5. Frybo

6. Cat Fingers

7. Bubble Buddies

8. Serious Steven

9. Tiger Millionaire

10. Steven's Lion

11. Arcade Mania

12. Giant Woman

13. So Many Birthdays

14. Lars and the Cool Kids

15. Onion Trade

16. Steven the Sword Fighter

17. Lion 2: The Movie

18. Beach Party

19. Rose's Room

20. Coach Steven

Notable: No notes!

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DISC 2: Season 1, Episodes 21 – 40

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21. Joking Victim

22. Steven and the Stevens

23. Monster Buddies

24. An Indirect Kiss

25. Mirror Gem

26. Ocean Gem

27. House Guest

28. Space Race

29. Secret Team

30. Island Adventure

31. Keep Beach City Weird

32. Fusion Cuisine

33. Garnet's Universe

34. Watermelon Steven

35. Lion 3: Straight to Video

36. Alone Together

37. Warp Tour

38. The Test

39. Future Vision

40. On the Run

Notable:

They went with intended order rather than airing order when it comes to "Alone Together" coming before "Warp Tour." As it should be!

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DISC 3: Season 1, Episodes 41 – 52, plus extras

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41. Horror Club

42. Winter Forecast

43. Maximum Capacity

44. Marble Madness

45. Rose's Scabbard

46. Open Book

47. The Message

48. Political Power

49. The Return

50. Jailbreak

51. Full Disclosure

52. Joy Ride

☆ Behind the Music

☆ Listening Party

☆ Music Video Performances

☆ Animatics

☆ Song Demos

Notable:

The order is very strange here--two of the usual Season 1 episodes ("Shirt Club" and "Story for Steven") were left out two Season 2 episodes ("Full Disclosure" and "Joy Ride") could be tacked onto the end. "Shirt Club" and "Story for Steven" definitely go before "Jailbreak" in the continuity. But they were also a couple of the episodes that got aired after StevenBomb One, so they still sort of work out of context. It's just strange that "Open Book" is still in its usual place since that one also aired out of order originally.

And "Say Uncle" is not included here even though the outfits indicate this is before "Jailbreak" too, but since that's a non-canon episode anyway, it doesn't matter.

☆ BEHIND THE MUSIC ☆

This special covers the origin of the show, the role music plays, the philosophy Rebecca Sugar uses with Aivi and Surasshu to give the Gems their instruments, the importance of Steven's father being a musician, Rebecca's musical influences, and how Rebecca writes songs. This featurette was released previously on the Season One DVD, so I covered more details there.

☆ LISTENING PARTY ☆

A hybrid recording of a "Listening Party" from 2017 in Los Angeles, with Rebecca Sugar doing a Q&A with host Dan Casey features event footage interspersed with "singalong" versions of songs with their lyrics and a bouncing pink Gem to guide you. The audience's singing is not included.

Songs featured are "We Are the Crystal Gems" Extended Opening, "Be Wherever You Are," "Stronger Than You," "It's Over, Isn't It," a ukulele performance of "Something Entirely New" and a guitar performance of "Both of You."

This featurette was released previously on the Season One DVD, so I covered more details there.

☆ MUSIC VIDEO PERFORMANCES ☆

This is again the same featurette as was released previously on the Season One DVD, so I covered it there. It includes Rebecca Sugar's performances of "Something Entirely New," "It's Over, Isn't It," "Love Like You," "Here Comes a Thought," and "What's the Use of Feeling (Blue)," sometimes with Aivi and Surasshu accompanying.

☆ ANIMATICS ☆

These are the same animatics that were included previously on the Season One DVD, so I covered it there. The choices are "Gem Glow," "Full Disclosure," "Steven the Sword Fighter," "Steven and the Stevens," and "Island Adventure."

☆ SONG DEMOS ☆

These are the same song demos that were included previously on the Season One DVD, so I covered it there. You can hear "Be Wherever You Are" and "Full Disclosure" demos.

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DISC 4: Season 2, Episodes 53 – 64

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53. Say Uncle

54. Story For Steven

55. Shirt Club

56. Love Letters

57. Reformed

58. Sworn to the Sword

59. Rising Tides, Crashing Skies

60. Keeping It Together

61. We Need to Talk

62. Chille Tid

63. Cry For Help

64. Keystone Motel

Notable:

"Say Uncle" begins this set like it does on the Season 2 DVD. It's a Season 1 episode because of the outfits, but it doesn't matter since it's not canon. "Story For Steven" and "Shirt Club" also both belong in Season 1. But starting with "Love Letters," we're back in the intended order. The shorts that are shown later on an extras DVD belong between 57 and 58 in of continuity.

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DISC 5: Season 2, Episodes 65 – 74, plus extras

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65. Onion Friend

66. Historical Friction

67. Friend Ship

68. Nightmare Hospital

69. Sadie's Song

70. Catch and Release

71. When It Rains

72. Back to the Barn

73. Too Far

74. The Answer

☆ Animatics

Notable:

This disc has no irregularities in of airing order, and ends where the Season 2 DVD ended (a few episodes shy of the actual end of Season 2). Its animatics are also the same ones we got on the Season 2 DVD so none of this is new content for this set.

The included animatics:

1. Sworn to the Sword

2. Keystone Motel

3. The Answer

4. We Need to Talk

5. Onion Friend

6. Catch and Release

7. Love Letters

If you wish to read my notes on these animatics, I wrote them up when the Season 2 DVD came out.

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DISC 6: Season 3, Episodes 75 – 88, plus extras

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75. Steven's Birthday

76. It Could've Been Great

77. Message Received

78. Log Date 7 15 2

79. Super Watermelon Island

80. Gem Drill

81. Same Old World

82. Barn Mates

83. Hit the Diamond

84. Steven Floats

85. Drop Beat Dad

86. Mr. Greg

87. Too Short to Ride

88. The New Lars

☆ Animatics

Notable:

The first few episodes here are actually the wrap-up of Season 2. The first real Season 3 episode is "Super Watermelon Island." The included animatic excerpts were not previously released on other DVD collections, so I will cover them more in depth.

The included animatics:

1. Hit the Diamond excerpt

2. Mr. Greg excerpts

☆ HIT THE DIAMOND ANIMATIC ☆

• This begins when the baseball game is already beginning and Ruby is declaring "Guess I'm out!"

• The Rubies are labeled with initials to distinguish them in the boards. (Their names had not been declared in this episode--Steven announced that he had named them in "Back to the Moon"--but their names had been revealed in the credits and were evidently used to tell them apart here.) R. for Ruby, N. for Navy, E. for Eyeball, D. for Doc, L. for Leggy, and A. for Army.

• Eyeball's Gem is drawn in these boards with its front square facet in a diamond orientation rather than the flat square that was used in the final.

• Notes for alternate dialogue for Lapis to replace "flirting" was "oh please." In anticipation of not being allowed to identify Ruby and Sapphire as flirting in any market where that wasn't allowed, I suppose.

• The excerpt ends after Ruby gets her third strike.

☆ MR. GREG ANIMATIC ☆

• Parts of three songs are included here: "Don't Cost Nothin'/Empire City," "Mr. Greg," and "It's Over, Isn't It."

• "It's Over, Isn't It" is identified as "It's Over" in the contents list.

• The first excerpt begins with the entire "Pepe's Burgers" commercial so Marty's singing takes us in. The effects of an old tape are even drawn into this.

• An extra tag line to the commercial is in this that didn't make it to the final: Marty saying "Pepe's Burgers. We Sell Burgers."

• A detail on Greg's check that also didn't make it to the final was "Marty, Inc." being in the check's address field.

• A Greg line had to be redone in pickups--the way he said "She probably woulda liked this, though, right?" needed to have more emphasis on "THIS."

• Greg and Steven's singing was already in the animatic, so they weren't using a demo here, but the full instrumental hadn't been put in yet (especially noticeable during "Empire City").

• Notes say to avoid lip sync on the characters once Greg and Steven start singing together in the latter part of "Empire City."

• A board revision note calls for an "awkward hi" when Greg came in and gave Pearl a finger gun during "Empire City," but it didn't really look different in the final.

• The second excerpt begins when the bellhop starts singing/chanting in "Mr. Greg."

• A board note indicates "track elevator light" when the Universes are going up to their penthouse room.

• A board revision requests that Greg be drinking lemonade while floating in the pool. In the final it looks like lemonade with an umbrella and ice cubes--in the board it was unclear.

• The music sounds very close to its final version in this, though to me the backup singers sound a little more prominent.

• This excerpt ends when Pearl says "Maybe later." It doesn't include a hotel employee calling "BOO! YOU RUINED THE SONG!"

• The last song excerpt begins before the singing starts, with Pearl walking into the room where Greg and Steven are sleeping. A board note indicates "sleeping walla."

• The piano music doesn't have its final arrangement yet but Deedee Magno Hall is singing the song.

• A board note indicates a revision for "Pearl poses." Another board revision requests a wider shot when Pearl is dancing on the railing.

• The after-dialogue continues after the song ends and cuts off when Steven says "this is exactly why I brought you."

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DISC 7: Season 3, Episodes 89 – 103, plus extras

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89. Beach City Drift

90. Restaurant Wars

91. Kiki's Pizza Delivery Service

92. Monster Reunion

93. Alone at Sea

94. Greg the Babysitter

95. Gem Hunt

96. Crack the Whip

97. Steven Versus Amethyst

98/99. Bismuth

100. Beta

101. Earthlings

102. Back to the Moon

103. Bubbled

☆ Animatics

Notable:

This disc actually ends where Season 3 really does end, with its proper season finale in the bubble in space.

The included animatic excerpts were not previously released on other DVD collections, so I will cover them more in depth.

The included animatics:

1. Alone at Sea excerpt

2. Greg the Babysitter excerpts

☆ ALONE AT SEA ANIMATIC ☆

• The "Alone at Sea" animatic begins following the boat's anchor chain down into the water where Jasper grabs it and begins to climb.

• A board note asks Jasper's hand to be drawn smaller than it was.

• A board revision note asks for more Jasper poses to be added.

• A board revision note asks for Lapis to glance at Steven while she's thinking about Jasper's proposal.

• A note asks for a "beauty shot" for the ending.

• The excerpt ends with the end of the actual episode.

☆ GREG THE BABYSITTER ANIMATIC ☆

• The "Greg the Babysitter" excerpts are the "I Think I Need a Little Change" song and a beach hangout clip.

• The first one begins with the actual beginning of the episode, before the song starts.

• The audio for the song is Rebecca's demo, not Greg singing.

• A board revision asks for something other than a dollar to be shown in Greg's guitar case and asks it to be "something funny."

• The second excerpt is the scene when Greg is discussing how baby humans grow into adult humans. It's mostly just Greg and Rose in the same position with different expressions, with Baby Sour Cream between them.

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DISC 8: Season 4, Episodes 104 – 118, plus extras

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104. Kindergarten Kid

105. Know Your Fusion

106. Buddy's Book

107. Mindful Education

108. Future Boy Zoltron

109. Last One Out of Beach City

110. Onion Gang

111. - 112. Gem Harvest

113. Three Gems and a Baby

114. Steven's Dream

115. Adventures in Light Distortion

116. Gem Heist

117. The Zoo

118. That Will Be All

☆ Animatics

Notable:

This order matches the intended order and airing order. The Season 4 shorts would be after "Onion Gang" sequentially but the shorts are elsewhere.

The included animatic excerpts were not previously released on other DVD collections, so I will cover them more in depth.

The included animatics:

1. Mindful Education excerpts

2. Last One Out of Beach City

3. Three Gems and a Baby excerpt

4. That Will Be All excerpt

☆ MINDFUL EDUCATION AMIMATIC ☆

• The first "Mindful Education" excerpt is the "Here Comes a Thought" animation by Takafumi Hori. It begins right when Garnet starts singing and ends at the end of the song.

• The animation has the white cutouts of Hori-san's animation with notes to put the "meditation space" background in.

• The audio of the song used includes Garnet's and Stevonnie's sung lines, but the background music is just percussion and ukulele, not the full mix that was later created.

• The sketches of Stevonnie have their Gem facet pattern wrong, looking more like Amethyst's with a hexagonal front facet. Garnet's Gems have the right facet patterns but are sometimes placed on the opposite hands. (This is fixed in the final.) When we see Ruby and Sapphire their Gems are on the correct hands.

• The second "Mindful Education" excerpt has more of Hori-san's animation (interspersed with some traditional boarding), featuring part of the third act from the point that Stevonnie is fighting Holo Pearls in training to the point that they fall off the cliff.

• In the original animatic Stevonnie hallucinated that they were sticking a sword through Bismuth and we could see it coming out the other side of her body. There is a board note asking the image of the sword sticking through Bismuth to be edited.

• A note for Stevonnie's pickup lines indicates that their apology should be "bigger."

☆ LAST ONE OUT OF BEACH CITY ANIMATIC ☆

• The "Last One Out of Beach City" animatic is the entire episode from beginning to end!

• There is a board note asking for Pearl's pose to be revised when she's ranting about breaking every rule while sitting on the couch with the puzzle.

• The Mike Krol music is included in the animatic.

• A line was truncated in the final; Amethyst originally said "That's what that was? Socializing?" They dropped the "socializing" word in the final.

• A board revision asks Amethyst's expression to be changed to look "defeated" when Mystery Girl has left them stopped at a traffic light.

• Another board note asks for the pedals to be revised when Pearl is slamming on the gas to chase Mystery Girl. They also wanted the cars to come through the scene separately when the police were chasing Pearl.

• Original boards have Steven laughing and enjoying himself while they're running from the cops, but a board note asks for a revision to "make serious."

• Even the ending cards with "Repressed Nerd" and whatnot are included.

☆ THREE GEMS AND A BABY ANIMATIC ☆

• The "Three Gems and a Baby" excerpt is just the boards from during the song "I Could Never Be Ready."

• There's a board revision asking to have Greg looking out the window instead of the original just looking at baby Steven.

☆ THAT WILL BE ALL ANIMATIC ☆

• The "That Will Be All" excerpt begins when Steven and Greg run into the room where all the Rose Quartzes are bubbled and ends after the song is over.

• There's a board note to revise an angle to match a previous angle and to change some poses.

• The "What's the Use of Feeling (Blue)?" song is included, and has an earlier version; Yellow Diamond and the Pearls are singing, but the background music is not as robust and hasn't been filled in yet.

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DISC 9: Season 4, Episodes 119 – 128

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119. The New Crystal Gems

120. Storm in the Room

121. Rocknaldo

122. Tiger Philanthropist

123. Room for Ruby

124. Lion 4: Alternate Ending

125. Doug Out

126. The Good Lars

127. Are You My Dad?

128. I Am My Mom

Notable:

This disc ends where Season 4 legitimately ends, and has no extras. Strange for this disc to have only 10 episodes and no extras!

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DISC 10: Season 5, Episodes 129 – 146

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129. Stuck Together

130. The Trial

131. Off Colors

132. Lars' Head

133. Dewey Wins

134. Gemcation

135. Raising the Barn

136. Back to the Kindergarten

137. Sadie Killer

138. Kevin Party

139. Lars of the Stars

140. Jungle Moon

141. Your Mother and Mine

142. The Big Show

143. Pool Hopping

144. Letters to Lars

145. Can't Go Back

146. A Single Pale Rose

Notable:

The episode "Gemcation" was switched around in some people's airing order and understood order, but here it is placed in its appropriate spot. There are no extras.

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DISC 11: Season 5, Episodes 147 – 160, plus extras

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147. Now We're Only Falling Apart

148. What's Your Problem

149. The Question

150. Made of Honor

151. - 152. Reunited

153. Legs From Here to Homeworld

154. Familiar

155. Together Alone

156. Escapism

157. – 160. Change Your Mind

☆ Animatics

Notable:

There are no irregularities to the airing order here either.

The included animatic excerpts were not previously released on other DVD collections, so I will cover them more in depth.

The included animatics:

1. The Question excerpt

2. Reunited excerpt

3. Change Your Mind excerpts

☆ THE QUESTION ANIMATIC ☆

• The first animatic from "The Question" is a "Ruby Rider" song clip. It begins as Ruby is riding Horsemethyst and Greg and Steven are following her. After almost falling down a ravine, the "Ruby Rider" song begins.

• The song sounds like it's not quite the final version but the instrumental track is guitar and Ruby is doing the singing.

• There's a board note asking for Ruby's rope swinging to be revised, and mentions that the logs from Ruby's camp fire are "already on fire."

• Another board revision requests that Horsemethyst be bobbing her head and looking at Ruby. And another one requests the boards be revised to have Ruby's hand positions on the guitar show the proper chords.

• And another requests a pose change for Ruby when she's sitting high up on the rock talking to Steven after her song.

• The dialogue in the original was a little longer when Steven was trying to explain being independent while missing someone through a comic book reference. In the final he only says "I miss Sally May" in the Lonesome Lasso voice, but in the original he explains "He misses Sally May!"

• The clip ends after Steven shows Ruby the comic book and inspires her to try a wedding.

☆ REUNITED ANIMATIC ☆

• The next animatic is the "For Just One Day Let's Only Think About Love" clip. It ends after Ruby's flaming steps get stomped out by Amethyst.

• The intro includes Steven's singing but only has ukulele accompaniment.

• Board revisions ask for some "Steven acting" changes.

• There's a revision request for Steven to redo part of the intro of the song, and to do some pickups in one of the little interludes when he's warping over to get Peridot.

• When the intro is over and the ensemble song begins, it's Rebecca Sugar's singing to the uke accompaniment, with interspersed dialogue from Ruby, Sapphire, Pearl, Steven, Bismuth, Amethyst, and Peridot. Sometimes Rebecca is saying the dialogue at the same time as the voice actors' lines are laid in on top, and at the end Rebecca is singing multiple parts.

• There's a board note asking for Greg and Bismuth to do pickups for the song because they're supposed to have parts in it.

☆ CHANGE YOUR MIND ANIMATIC ☆

:black_small_square: The next animatics are from "Change Your Mind." The first one is the fusion dance for Obsidian! It begins when Steven and Garnet are knocked out of the Sunstone fusion and decide they need all four of them.

• Board revisions are requested for some of Pearl's spins and the other Gems scattering when Obsidian starts to form.

• A revision is requested to make sure it doesn't look like the Diamond mech stepped on Obsidian.

• The raw voices without effects and blending make it really easy to hear that all the characters are voicing Obsidian together.

• Other board revisions request that Peridot look more concerned when Connie suggests they distract the mech, a request for the B team to "look cool," and various positioning and sizing requests.

• The animatic is fairly long and ends after White Diamond pulls Steven's Gem out.

• The second animatic from "Change Your Mind" is the scene surrounding James Baxter's famous animation where Organic Steven and Pink Steven are reunited. It begins with everyone looking aghast at the appearance of Pink Steven, and ends with Steven mid-sentence about to say "I've always been me."

• We see Connie carrying Organic Steven and White Diamond trying to stop Steven from getting back together. The James Baxter animation is very different from the rest, mostly shown in light clean lines.

☆ COMMENTARY TRACKS ☆

There are two commentary tracks on this DVD! "Reunited" and "Change Your Mind" have the option to turn on commentary.

☆ REUNITED COMMENTARY ☆

Commentary with Rebecca Sugar, Ben Levin, Matt Burnett, Hilary Florido, Joe Johnston, Ian Jones-Quartey, and Kat Morris.

• In 2015, an episode idea called “If You Love Yourself So Much” was discussed but rejected. It included some early ideas that ended up getting incorporated into “Reunited,” most notably Garnet marrying herself and putting rings on both hands.

• The idea of the Cluster arm wrestling was planned for a long time.

• A scrapped idea of Steven banging his fist on a vending machine to get some Chaaaaps was supposed to visually parallel some of that scene, but it was axed.

• When they got pushback on the wedding idea, they kept adding more and more “high entertainment value” items like a big musical number so the episode would be absolutely unmissable and appealing to everyone.

• The song at the beginning of the episode was meant to check in with the entire cast and sort of remind you they exist and what their state of mind is going into the wedding.

• Ian made a comment joking about “All 15 people in Beach City” being in the audience.

• Just about everyone on the Crew touched this episode, despite that there are four main storyboarders credited for “Reunited.”

• In 2016 Ian Jones-Quartey proposed marriage to Rebecca Sugar. They felt like the characters based on them (Sapphire and Ruby) HAD to get married in the show now because otherwise it wouldn’t be honest. But then their characters got married before they did.

• They really love the idea of having characters get married who have known each other for a really long time, versus the fairy tale trope of movies ending with weddings between people who have met very recently.

• Steven’s speech as officiator at the wedding used to be longer in its first draft--it was described as being weird and full of jokes, and there would have been a scene with Pearl getting weepy and pulling tissues out of her pearl.

• Ian mentions loving a joke Jeff came up with having Greg play one chord to make Steven fall asleep--it’s sort of a “dream” chord you hear in cartoons a lot before a dream sequence.

• The Crew discussed what it might be like if someone had never seen the show before and started with this episode.

• Ian really wanted Steven’s psychic powers to figure into the episode.

• Blue using a sadness wave to attack the Gems was a very old idea they’d planned for a long time. So was Lapis’s arrival.

• There was a discussion of having Lisa Hannigan performing her lines as Blue VERY early in the morning.

• Ian was happy the sword got broken because it was so momentous but it was just a sword. And later appeared on a shelf in the house as an artifact.

• Miki had drawn a torn dress for Garnet at one point so she could be shown fighting and moving around more accurately, and this led to a long discussion of whether Gem clothing can even actually get torn the way human clothes can. They concluded that no, it shouldn’t be torn, so they backed up and gave Garnet an open-front dress from the beginning so the fighting version would make more sense.

• Lapis originally might have had a longer speech upon arriving back on the beach. They eventually decided to just have her say “Hey.”

• The barn falling on Blue Diamond was an intentional Wizard of Oz reference.

• They point out that Steven even once said “drop the barn on the beach” (in a previous episode, “Can’t Go Back,” which was also a Miki episode).

• Destroying the house was a big deal, and they always thought they’d end up doing it but backed away from it until “Reunited.” They almost even did it back in “Coach Steven”! But it just ended up with a little damage to the porch.

• The Crew thinks Miki is really good at drawing ensemble shots.

• Rebecca was always overwhelmed whenever she got to have Patti LuPone record for Yellow.

• Originally the giant figures of everyone’s statue bodies in the mindscape were too dark and had to be revamped so they could be seen.

• An earlier idea of Steven’s “psychic-ghost-situation” had him as a ghost actually trying to interact with the other characters during fighting action, but it was pulled back to this mindscape so there wouldn’t be as much confusing action to keep track of and more focus on what Steven was doing to encourage his teammates and the Diamonds.

• Hilary was glad not to have to block out a fight.

• Ian mentions loving having Bismuth back in the group.

• They originally wanted the “Diamonds sensing Pink’s energy” plot to happen when Steven was in the palace somehow, but everything got moved to this scene--which the Crew all agrees turned out incredible, like how cool it was to have Steven essentially reminding each character why they fight and summing up their whole arc in a sentence.

☆ CHANGE YOUR MIND COMMENTARY ☆

Commentary with Rebecca Sugar, Ben Levin, Matt Burnett, Hilary Florido, Joe Johnston, Ian Jones-Quartey, and Kat Morris.

• They like to refer to this episode as “The movie before the movie.”

• They loved incorporating “princess tropes” into Steven’s time on Homeworld, which is why there were so many references to “mice” (well, Pebbles) making clothes, being locked in a tower, being reminded of his manners, loving animals and freeing imprisoned pets, etc.

• Deedee did the voice of the rainbow worm pet. She apparently didn’t find it memorable and was surprised when she was reminded she did the voice.

• Rebecca was super excited for the confrontation with Blue.

• There was some discussion of how Steven would have died of starvation if he didn’t have someone practical like Connie to to bring food.

• They love working with the huge scale the Diamonds present.

• The Crew always wanted to put someone in Blue’s hair loop. Originally they wanted Blue to tuck Greg in there when she kidnapped him, but they didn’t end up being able to do any hair-loop-carrying until this episode.

• The Crew bantered back and forth about what the heck those Pebbles’ names were and how hard it was to track them.

• They agreed that Paul draws the best Yellow Diamond, which makes sense since he also drew the first episode with Yellow (and her stink face).

• The scene where Yellow asks Blue to stop using her powers on her and then realizing she’s crying on her own was one of Rebecca’s favorite scenes to get to finally.

• Steven Sugar thought Gems would spend a lot of time in their own chambers/rooms just not really doing much of anything unless they had to fulfill their purpose.

• Some of the Homeworld ideas were based on a Soviet artist’s concepts, Boris Artzybasheff, and also many ideas were inspired by Busby Berkeley regarding how people were objects and furniture.

• The mech was an old idea. Once they had the hand ship from “Jailbreak,” they knew there had to be bodies somewhere.

• They focused a lot about what could be the coolest and funniest way for something to happen. The concept of the yellow and blue spaceship arms appearing out of the sky to smack the White Diamond mech around was one of those.

• Rebecca really wanted things to look more and more cartoony and bizarre as you get deeper into Homeworld.

• They spent a very long time trying to decide on characters’ new outfits.

• The trash can lid is said to be a reference to “a flying bear cartoon” and they dance around speaking a direct reference because they’re not sure they’re allowed to say its name.

• In discussing the powers of the Diamonds, there were debates on what White’s power would be; with Yellow being physicality-based and Blue being emotion-based, they thought White as identity-based made the most sense.

Different ways to express this were played with before settling on the idea that she thinks she’s perfect and others’ colors make them less like her and less perfect. But then she becomes a hostage to her own beliefs about herself because if she does anything that reflects on everyone else, so it’s best to do nothing.

• They had some cool earlier ideas of White’s powers making statues out of other Gems and having a gallery full of frozen Gems, frozen by White to make them perfect.

• They also weren’t sure what fate befell the original Pink Pearl and discussed whether she might have been destroyed.

• Rebecca discussed how creepy it was to have White Pearl speaking in Christine’s voice and not Deedee’s--that we should find it fundamentally disturbing at this point.

• Tom Herpich came up with the crack on White Pearl’s face.

• In real life, pink diamonds aren’t understood as well as yellows and blues. It’s more known what makes a diamond yellow or blue, and some of those facts Rebecca researched were originally woven into the speech White gave about their “impurities.” But it turned out to be too dry and most of it got cut.

• Rebecca loves having Lapis with pants and sandals for easier cosplay.

• Ian had to draw the scene where Steven is falling and fusing with inert characters--he wasn’t able to properly explain it to Rebecca so she had him draw it.

• They really wanted Rainbow Quartz 2.0 to have a scarf, but they couldn’t figure out how to get that into Pearl’s design. They miss the scarf.

• It was really important to have these Fusions display call-forwards of the Gems’ new outfits which we hadn’t yet seen.

• Rebecca points out that Sunstone’s design breaks a design rule and she feels like Sunstone should have Garnet’s pant leg colors on their legs, but at the same time she understands the rule of cool and likes it like this.

• It’s discussed how none of Steven’s fusion weapons are exclusively offensive weapons either.

• Rebecca still really wants a suction cup Sunstone toy.

• Sunstone’s ability to transcend reality and break the fourth wall was a joke that exploded in the discussion room among the Crew. As soon as the idea was pitched everyone kept coming up with ideas. Sardonyx’s fourth-wall-breaking is more snarky, but Sunstone’s is helpful.

• Rebecca was disappointed that the rule about Steven’s clothes wasn’t always followed with having his clothes appear on Obsidian’s hand, but she was delighted that you could see them in one scene.

• They spent a lot of discussion time on making sure Steven-Obsidian was different somehow from Rose-Obsidian. The hair is different.

• Old versions of Obsidian were drawn with wrapped-together Twizzlers legs, which sort of is reflected in the present design.

• The sword had been planned forever--and it first appeared in “Bubble Buddies.”

• Miki worked on the Ninja Turtles show so Rebecca was really excited to see her depictions of Bismuth and Sunstone.

• An early plan to have Obsidian draw the sword from their mouth was complicated because fusion weapons should be combinations, so they finally reached the solution of having them combine to make the hilt, then get the blade out of Obsidian’s mouth.

• The blade of the sword is thought to say “We’ll always save the day,” but you’d have to ask Steven Sugar.

• Another really old idea was climbing into the White Diamond mech eye.

• Rebecca was disappointed that some of the merch made of White Diamond did not feature her cape sparkles.

• There were many debates early on about where Rose might “actually” be. There were tons of references to this fundamental question throughout the show--introducing Lapis as a Gem trapped in an object, having Pearl ponder pulling Steven’s Gem out as a baby, straight-up wondering what would happen to him in “Bubbled” when Eyeball was trying to take his Gem, etc. They all decided Rose was definitely gone but that the idea of her possibly being inside him should be on his mind a lot, leading to disturbing images like dreaming about coughing up her hair.

• Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond both challenged Steven about things he was very confident about, but White’s question of his identity got to him because he in fact is not confident about that.

• The black and white eeriness of the fuzzy background and the other characters having their colors washed out helped make the scene in White Diamond’s head so disturbing and creepy.

• The split screen showing Steven’s two perspectives was exciting to Rebecca, and was a pretty old idea. And she points out it sort of “breaks the show.”

• The Gem Steven, Pink Steven, was represented by a slightly modified version of his model sheet. Everyone laughed when they saw what was getting used.

• They decided that an earlier idea of Pink Steven looking angry should be replaced by an emotionless version of him. All the emotion should be with Organic Steven.

• In the pitch meeting for this episode, Rebecca herself screamed “SHE’S GONE!!” and shocked the hell out of everyone. She pointed out how no one expected this of her because she’s pretty quiet, but she just wanted to shock everyone the way Steven would in the show.

• They point out this is the first appearance of the geometric shield that got so much use in Future.

• The fact that Steven is Steven is the ultimate reveal of the show. Usually in fantasy shows there’s some other kind of revelation, but Steven just being amazingly human and amazingly Gem and amazingly himself is wonderful here.

• They like having the pilot reference with “What’s your excuse?”

• If Rose had somehow still been alive in him, all of this would have been cheapened.

• Ian loves that you can faintly hear Sadie’s concert from way out in space as the camera approaches Earth.

• They got a lot more use out of the Beach-A-Palooza stage than they thought they would when it had to be designed for “Steven and the Stevens.” There was a joke about how at one of the conventions a real Beach-A-Palooza stage was constructed and they had a thought about how oh good, it’s getting reused.

• Sadie having green hair in the finale was a late change but they liked showing her progression.

• They had originally kicked around the idea of Sadie already having her new partner Shep at this point, but decided to develop that in Future instead.

• They compare White Diamond’s stepping gingerly into the fountain to skeptically getting into a public pool.

• Some silliness they didn’t get to use was that Biggs would be “beloved by everyone” except Steven. They never got to cover it, but originally Steven was just going to not really understand why everyone loves her so much and doesn’t personally much care for her.

• The Heaven and Earth Beetles are based on the Mothra Ladies.

• The healed Gems’ horns are supposed to be side effects of the corruption that they continue to bear in the present.

• Larimar and Orange Spodumene ended up different in the ending scene than they became in Future. Many of the designs were retroactively pulled into this scene after being designed for the movie.

• Rebecca wrote “Change Your Mind” as a personal song to express her feelings surrounding her fight for the wedding.

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DISC 12: Steven Universe The Movie

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This disc features the entire Steven Universe movie as well as a bunch of special features:

1. Steven Universe The Movie: Behind the Curtain

2. Animatics for Select Songs with Commentary

3. Rebecca Pitches Act 3

However, these special features are not new to this DVD set because they were all released exactly like this in the previously released DVD for the movie. So a quick overview:

• Behind the Curtain is a nice beefy documentary about the making of the movie.

• The animatics of four songs are included: "Happily Ever After," "Other Friends," "True Kinda Love," and "Change." The animatic versions can be seen with or without Crew commentary, but if you turn the commentary on, you get to hear discussion from Rebecca Sugar, Joe Johnston, Kat Morris, Hilary Florido, Miki Brewster, and Jeff Liu.

• Rebecca Pitches Act 3 is the pitch session for the third act of the movie with Rebecca describing the action while showing the animatic (or in a couple cases, animations) with some songs filtering in. Some differences existed in the pitch version.

• I have an extensive writeup in my article about the SU Movie DVD, so no details will be shared here.

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DISC 13: Steven Universe Future Episodes 1 – 10, plus extras

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1. Little Homeschool

2. Guidance

3. Rose Buds

4. Volleyball

5. Bluebird

6. A Very Special Episode

7. Snow Day

8. Why So Blue?

9. Little Graduation

10. Prickly Pair

☆ Animatics

Notable:

The airing order is the expected first ten episodes of the epilogue series. Only one animatic is included and it is from "Why So Blue?"

☆ WHY SO BLUE? ANIMATIC ☆

• The animatic begins when the new Lapis Lazulis have decided to ignore Lapis and Steven and begin to return to terraforming the landscape. Lapis confronts them and says she's had enough.

• A board note requests a pickup line for Steven to provide a "horrified gasp."

• A couple lines exist in this recording that didn't make it to the final. Originally Lapis said to Steven, "No, they're right, I just go along with what you say. If we had done this my way, we would've been done from the start." The first line of this was cut in the final. Also, originally the two Lapises had more interplay when expressing disbelief that Lapis had attacked them: "She did not just do that! Did she just do that? She did that!" The first line was cut in the final.

• There are some notes for pickups from Lapis and Mean Lapis. The lines are already there on this animatic and they sound like the ones that were used in the final, so they may have been added in already.

• The animatic ends with the end of the episode.

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DISC 14: Steven Universe Future Episodes 11 – 20, plus extras

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11. In Dreams

12. Bismuth Casual

13. Together Forever

14. Growing Pains

15. Mr. Universe

16. Fragments

17. Homeworld Bound

18. Everything's Fine

19. I Am My Monster

20. The Future

☆ Animatics

Notable:

Again the airing order is not surprising. The animatics included are from "Fragments" and "I Am My Monster."

☆ FRAGMENTS ANIMATIC ☆

• The "Fragments" animatic is labeled as the "full animatic," but it is not. The segment starts when Steven is already training with Jasper and is carrying a pile of boulders up a hill behind Jasper, and it ends after Steven throws his pink wall of spikes at Jasper.

• Board notes indicate when Steven is supposed to be pink.

• Steven is sometimes referred to as "Perfect Steven" in the board notes.

• There are minor notes requesting revisions for acting for Steven.

☆ I AM MY MONSTER ANIMATIC ☆

• The "I Am My Monster" animatic, however, is the entire episode as described.

• Mr. Dewey is referred to as "Citizen Dewey" in the labeling.

• There are no effects on the monster voice so it's easier to tell it's Steven's voice.

• There are a bunch of minor notes asking for additional poses or repositioning/resizing here and there.

• A really teeny voice acting change: Originally Yellow said "Blue, look out!" when Monster Steven sent her cloud back at her, but the final just had "Look out!"

• The scene with White Diamond trying to connect with Monster Steven using her new power was originally a little longer. White asks him to let her in, then Amethyst calls out "Is this gonna work??" and Blue Diamond bends down to say "Shh!" White continues her quest, saying "Come now, where are you?" as she tries to connect with Monster Steven. Then the scene proceeds as it does in the final with her connection ending dramatically and her declaring that's not Steven anymore.

• There's a little extra voice acting from Steven that was cut from the final where he's trying to ask what he did, before collapsing crying into Lion.

☆ COMMENTARY TRACKS ☆

And this disc has a bonus option to turn on the commentary track for "The Future"!

☆ THE FUTURE COMMENTARY ☆

Commentary with Rebecca Sugar, Kat Morris, Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Hilary Florido, Joe Johnston, and Ian Jones-Quartey.

• The animatic for this episode ran SO long--they’re supposed to be just over 11 minutes but this one was 17 minutes.

• Steven’s calisthenics routine, a callback to “Future Vision,” was on the chopping block to make the episode shorter but Rebecca wouldn’t allow it to be cut because she wanted to show that Steven’s been taking care of himself.

• They were very excited to get a chance to cover some of the things in Future that they couldn’t squeeze into the original show, like the unbubbled Rose Quartzes, Volleyball, etc.

• The new writers on the show also helped bring forward the idea of Steven finally making some of his OWN mistakes to fix.

• This also helped construct the idea of Steven essentially being the “final boss” of his own battle.

• Usually stories that involve someone being in a fight and winning don’t explore the effect just being in a fight has on a person, regardless of whether you won.

• Rebecca really wanted to play Ocarina of Time after beating it so she could go back to all the places and see how people were doing. She wanted this epilogue series to explore that a little too.

• Little Homeschool is sort of a Tiny Toons reference--older cartoons teach younger cartoons how to be cartoons, and this is Gems teaching other Gems how to be Gems on Earth.

• Lamar came up with the silly joke about receiving that art set with all the different media types in it--the one artists are always getting from a well-meaning relative at holiday time.

• A scrapped plot idea involved Volleyball/Pink Pearl as a sort of “mini-villain,” with a focus on her activating the un-activated Pearls.

• There’s discussion of how victimization turns people into villains sometimes. But since showing that happening with Volleyball wouldn’t have served the interests of Steven’s arc, they couldn’t fit it in.

• There was also a “very specific” Gem origin and Diamond origin story that’s quasi-religious in nature--it’s very cool and complicated. But they do not tell us what it is.

• Ian and Joe both really wanted to have Jasper living alone in the woods and stacking rocks. They’re glad they got this series to do that with her.

• There was originally an idea for a B-plot involving Jasper in the movie. They don’t discuss the specifics.

• There were many ideas they didn’t get to work on because they would have started new arcs and Future was not about kicking new plots into gear.

• “Mr. Universe” was the last episode they wrote/finished.

• Miki really wanted to include a kiss between Connie and Steven to show their relationship was okay. Among the Crew everyone knew their relationship was basically eternal but Miki wanted to make sure WE knew that.

• Steven driving conveyed momentum for Future; in the original show, we always came back to the laundry hand, back to home, but in Future that’s changed and home isn’t what it was.

• They were really excited that a gourd family made it to the crowd scene in Future.

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DISC 15: Bonus Disc

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☆ "Stronger Than You" Music Video

☆ "True Kinda Love" Music Video

☆ "Other Friends" Multi-Language

☆ Steven Universe Pilot

☆ Steven Universe Mini-Sodes

☆ Steven Universe Sing-A-Long Movie

Notable:

This is most of the bonus content that has been released for Steven Universe. It does NOT contain the Dove shorts, the "Crossover Nexus" that's actually an episode of OK KO, the Crystal Gems Speak Up antiracism PSAs, or any of the Pensive Moments with Steven Universe shorts.

☆ STRONGER THAN YOU MUSIC VIDEO ☆

The "Stronger Than You" music video is Estelle's performance of the song at San Diego Comic Con 2017, with audience participation from fans (including many cosplayers).

☆ TRUE KINDA LOVE MUSIC VIDEO ☆

The "True Kinda Love" music video is the studio version of the song with Estelle singing to the camera with various rainbowey effects going on around her. It's a shortened version of the song that does have a performance from Zach Callison doing his verse but he does not appear in the video.

☆ OTHER FRIENDS MULTI-LANGUAGE ☆

"Other Friends" Multi-Language is a version of Spinel's song that switches between different foreign language dubs (with all the languages singing at the same time at the end). The languages featured include English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Bahasa Malaysian, Cantonese, and Bahasa Indonesian.

☆ ORIGINAL PILOT ☆

The original Steven Universe pilot is included in its entirety--including a set of credits at the end that resemble the final show's credits setup.

☆ MINI-SODES ☆

The Mini-Sodes are included in a very peculiar order. The "Classroom Gems" shorts were originally released with "What Are Gems?" coming first and "How Are Gems Made?" following it, with "Fusion" as the last Classroom Gems short. But this menu has "Fusion" at the top (which isn't a good way to watch it--this short breaks the format established in the previous two shorts and only really works if we know the format exists to break).

And then the other shorts, "Lion Loves to Fit in a Box" and "Unboxing" are there, plus the extended theme song that seems to be mislabeled--it's identified as "What Are the Crystal Gems?" when it should be "We Are the Crystal Gems." Maybe whoever was titling this thought it was another title in the format of the Classroom Gems. Anyway, this is a bit of a mess.

The Season 4 shorts are also included: "Cooking With Lion," "Gem Karaoke," "Steven Reacts," "Steven Song Time," and "Video Chat." There is nothing different about any of these; they're just all collected here.

☆SING-A-LONG MOVIE ☆

Steven Universe Sing-A-Long Movie is just the movie again but with the lyrics onscreen in the Crewniverse font and a bouncing star to keep the pace. In between songs, the spoken words are provided with subtitles.

☆ THE END!!! ☆