Every Tuesday, a vertiable slew of DVDs hit the streets. They all want your coin. Where in the hell can you go to find out what's what amongst the teeming masses? Look no further. Here's a brief rundown of some featured titles that will be hitting. We provide the information...what you do with it afterwards is entirely up to you.
Titles Streeting May 18, 2004
Widge's Personal Pick: Walt Disney Treasures: Series 3. God bless Leonard Maltin. This is the man who went to Disney and said, "Hey, since you're raping and pillaging your heritage anyway, why don't you let me plunder the vaults and release some of your classic stuff to DVDs with as much bonus feature-ness as we can muster?" Okay, so he probably didn't use those exact words, but the end result is the same: we've got DVDs that are quite worthy of their content. Why should you buy these? Well, they're limited and numbered editions in collectible tins. And they will most definitely sell out. And then if you come crying to me, I will mock you and throw cold decaf in your face. If you missed the first two waves, grab them any way you can. But don't compound the error and miss these. Check it out:
. I don't want to mention any company names because that would be indiscrete...Warner Brothers. Why in God's green hell they decided to just lump a bunch of Looney Tunes into a package and call it good, I have no idea. Disney has method to their madness. Here, you get Donald's shorts from 1934-41, thirty-six of them in all. The disc is introduced by Maltin and he introduces some individual shorts as well (putting some things that would be considered controversial today into proper historical perspective). There's a publicity/memorabilia gallery and a story and background art gallery with commentary on some images by Maltin. You've also got a featurette on the voice of Donald, Clarence Nash. And hey--bonus--you can watch Donald with subtitles! Limited to 165,000 tins.
. Okay, there's way too much stuff on here to list it all. We'll be here all night. Suffice to say I'll just smack you around with some of this. Eighteen shorts are here, from 1939 to 1953. You've also got "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (with some deleted animation), "Mickey and the Beanstalk," "Mickey's Christmas Carol" (finally on DVD and intact), "The Prince and the Pauper," and "Runaway Brain." All of this--and all the titles in this series--look pristine and amazing, incidentally. Bonus features are insane, with more galleries, a making of "Christmas Carol" featurette, the openings for the "Mickey Mouse Club" (in color!), some excerpts from the Disneyland TV show, interviews with the present day voices of Mickey and Minnie, and some footage of Walt himself performing the voice. Nice. And limited to 175,000 tins.
. This is the freaking treasure trove right here, folks. Between 1941 and 1945, Disney created animation bits meant to help the war effort here at home. All manner of shorts, from military training to flat out propaganda, are here--and damn, they clean up nice. From "Der Fuhrer's Face" and the bleak "Chicken Little" to the entirety of "Victory Through Air Power," this is all the stuff that you've heard of, and heard referenced to, but probably have never seen. Bonuses are in abundance here as well, with conversations with Roy Disney (last time you'll probably see that--oy vey), John Hench and animator/storyguy Joe Grant. The galleries are massive and some images come with Maltin commentary. Just priceless, it's restricted to 250,000 tins.
. Ward Kimball fans, rejoice. Disc one contains "Man in Space," "Man and the Moon" and "Mars and Beyond," for which Kimball served as director and producer. Is the science dated? A little dusty, sure. Is it a bit lecture-y in places and dry? Yeah, but to hell with it. Posterity reigns. You get other bits like "Eyes in Outer Space," "Our Friend the Atom," and the promotional film regarding EPCOT. Apart from the plentiful galleries, there's also an interview with Ray Bradbury on Walt and one with Marty Sklar (one of the big burritos in Imagineering). Get it because it's fun and important to save for future generations. And because there's only 105,000 of them.
I'm serious as a heart attack here, people. Buy these. They will be gone in a few weeks and you will regret it. And later on, after the corporate pride of Disney has been reduced to a cinder and your grandkids want to know why the hell the company was ever so special--you'll want these to show them.
. 50th Anniversary? Of a 1968 film? Never fear, it's the 50th Anniversary of Gojira himself (hence the re-release
of the original flick here stateside) and ADV brings this special bundle to the table. It comes with both the DVD of the
film and the soundtrack on CD. Featuring Godzilla and his entire gang of other giant monsters, they're controlled by aliens
who want to use them to conquer mankind. Of course, the big green dude ain't having it. And eventually, it's a cage
match with everybody against King Ghidorah. Wild and utterly out of control, it's a Japanese monster movie lover's dream
come true.
. Fans of the show bemoaned its ultimate cancellation, but ADV is plowing through to the end with this latest
collection. Four more episodes are presented here, covering a lot of ground, including D'Argo's confrontation with his
wife's murderer, Aeryn's captivity, the appearance of Moya and her crew on a terran documentary, and other such mayhem.
. Sanrio's franchise is a retail monster, folks. And helping out, ADV releases a new wave of kitten adventures that's sure to make ScottC go "awwwww." Four episodes are here,
including the Hello Kitty versions of Cinderella, Snow White, Sinbad and Robin Hood. All ages animation, it's cute and
fans will welcome it. This is the first volume in a series of six.
. This imaginative series is adapted from the novels of Keiichi Sigsawa, and concern the travels of the titular
character and his companion, a talking motorcycle named Hermes. This ADV release comes with clean opening
and closing animation and production sketches. From the director of Serial Experiments Lain and the scribe of
Cowboy Bebop, Kino's three-day sojourns are always wild. Recommended.
. Both a crowd pleaser and a critic pleaser, this solid sports flick from Disney concerns the victory of the
U.S. Olympic hockey team in 1980 against the Soviets, who were unstoppable powerhouses on the ice--but more than that, it's
about how their coach, played by Kurt Russell, managed to whip them all into shape and teach them how to function as a
team. The disc is fairly stacked, with a commentary by the director, editor and cinematographer, a making of featurette,
outtakes, a roundtable discussion with some of the real life athletes and Russell, and more.
. Holy crap! Is that Captain Henry Gloval back there? No? Oh well. ADV presents a boxed set that will
set the fans drooling. Not only do you get twenty episodes across five DVDs, but you get two soundtracks CDs with
thirty-eight tracks to boot. What a
deal. It's the first part of a tale involving Jean, an inventor who meets the circus performer Nadia. Nadia has a
magical necklace called Blue Water...and of course, if there's a magical icon involved, there are bad guys who want it.
You also get character bios, trailers and clean opening and closing animation.
. It's Ultimate Voltron! No, wait, sorry. Scratch that. It's up to the Bronze Knights to get back a mystical
set of gold armor that will be worn by the defender of all mankind. Well, it would--but it's been stolen by Ares, the
selfsame baddie who's apparently the ostensible attacker of all mankind. Five more episodes of the series are here thanks
to ADV, and along for the ride are cleaning opening and closing animation, as well as more info on mythology.
. Give up. Shatner is omnipresent and cannot be stopped. He's hosting Iron Chef knockoffs, he's ruling the new iteration of The
Practice, he's still doing Priceline commercials and he turns up in films all the time. Case in point: this indie film,
presented on DVD by Fox, isn't much to sneeze at...or on, but at least Shatner is here doing his thing. If you find him
funny--and well, you should--then this is worth a rental probably.
. If you missed the series the first go-round, ADV is releasing the entire package in one fell swoop. I'm not
even sure what a "fell swoop" is, to be honest, but there you have it. Six discs contain the entire saga, which is a
fascinating mix of adventure, science fiction and fantasy: the story of Taikoubou, an idiot who is picked to fight
against demons. No, seriously. Bonus stuff includes a relationship tree, character descriptions,
historical information, trailer and teaser, a glossary, and profiles of the voice actors.