REVIEW: UK B-Boy Championships World Finals 2008 DVD

With a title like “Sony Ericsson UK B-Boy Champships World Finals 2008 Official DVD Documentary—Uncut,” you expect the product to be at least as legit as its name.

Fortunately, the latest addition to the UK B-Boy Championship DVD series follows through on its promise with death-defying routines and high-flying tricks—but not without some critical oversights.

This three-hour release essentially allows the battles to speak for themselves. There are few flashy tricks or intros, instead diverting attention to the dancers and their moves.

And there are plenty of notable moves to see.

While I usually have a hard time sitting through an entire locking tournament, this year’s footage had me captivated from the outset. I found myself repeatedly rewinding and re-watching Japan’s Shuffle Boogie as they kill the beats in their rounds, and I was floored by the dynamic moves and inventive routines from Korean’s Lock and Lol (I had to read that one out loud before I “got it”).

The popping battles are on point as well, my personal favorite being the duel between Guchon and his slow-motion shaking and Robozee and his snake routine—all on beat to a snake-charmer-esque beat.

As is to be expected, the b-boy battles are explosive. Top 9 ultimately dominates, with member Kosto winning the one-on-one battles with his crazy threads and combos and the crew taking the overall crew battles as well. The Russians fight their way to the top with inventive and cleanly executed tricks (threading babymills, anyone?) and ridiculous routines (like, say, group freezes with bodies threading through one another, or throwing a crewmate spinning through the air—over another a crewmate who’s spinning on the ground).

And there’s plenty to ogle before the climatic final battle between South Korea’s T.I.P. (last year’s winners) and Top 9.

The Trinity Warriors of the UK show off the latest “kid in a bag” routine and even use prop wallets and cash to burn their opponents. And crews like T.I.P. and Japan’s Found Nation literally fly through routines that seem to rival the epic tendencies of Broadway productions.

I found myself shaking my head in disbelief as I watched b-boys and b-girls footworking under, bouncing off of, and flipping through one another. Who comes up with these ideas? And how do you even begin to attempt practicing something so dangerous? And if these seemingly reckless routines are the ones they use in battles, then how crazy are the ones they rejected?

The battles get heated, especially it becomes evident that almost every round from every b-boy crew is going to be a choreographed routine.

It even gets to the point where you hear Crazy Legs (who returns as MC) yell, “Calm down, it’s only a dance!”—one of the last things you might expect to hear from the Rock Steady Crew president.

All of this is shown with slick packaging, editing, camera work, and graphics. There are no shaky cameras, cheesy transitions, or out-of-focus shots to be found here. And while the crispness is a nice contrast to the grainy pixilation of other releases, at times this DVD seems a little too polished, almost to the point where the event seems sterilized.

Though it claims to be the “uncut” official DVD documentary, there are a lot of battles that aren’t included on the disc, including the IBE 7 to Smoke, B-Girl, and Footwork battles. For the locking, popping, and one-on-one b-boy battles, only the semi-finals and finals are shown—meaning you only get three battles from each category. There is no judges showcase or any introductions—not a bad thing, if you want to get straight to the dancing, but at times the back-to-back clips seem a little too bare-bones.

Furthermore, some of the battles felt a little too staged and “big time” when I saw how some of the dopest b-boy’s moves didn’t translate well to the large stage

Some of this can be attributed to the fact that the crowd and the stage weren’t well microphoned, leaving us listening to just the music and Afrika Islam’s voice cracking as he yells, “This is not Dancing With The Stars! This is a battle! Somebody’s gonna win, somebody’s gonna lose! Battle, battle!” lest we forget what we’re watching.

Minor a detail as it is, this absence of sound makes the heatedness of the battles a little confusing and unnecessary, as it becomes difficult to gauge the energy level and vibe of the crowd and crews.

I had to satisfy my coverage craving by watching some of the event’s webisodes (www.bboychampionships.com/tv), which seem to have the upper hand as far as production value and back story go.

Aside from these technical setbacks, the UK B-Boy Championships World Finals 2008 is still a DVD worth checking out, as it will still leave you breathless—if not from the mind-blowing tricks and routines, then from saying the lengthy name.

BUY IT HERE