Weekly Digital Disc Picks – August 21, 2012

Disney rules this week’s releases.

Title Available Formats
Anime
No. 6: The Complete Collection
In a dystopian future, Shion, a teenager, finds himself exiled from society after letting a young boy called “rat” spend one night in his apartment. After he’s further framed for a series of murders, Shion and Rat must join forces to investigate the secrets of… City No. 6
Shakugan No Shana: Season 1 Complete Boxed Set
Anime series about a teenage female demon hunter who ends up having an special bond with a human boy who was a victim of one of the demons.
Shangri-La: Part 1 (Limited Edition)
Post-apocalyptic series set in the ruins of future Japan. The series follows a young girl named Kuniko as she leads a band of survivors to the purported utopian city of Atlas. The Limited Edition release includes an art-box that holds Parts 1 & 2.
Shangri-La: Part 2
Space Adventure Cobra: The Movie
Spin-off of the manga and TV series, where the legendary Space Pirate Cobra (whose left arm conceals a devestating weapon called the “psycho-gun”), takes on the sinister Galaxy Pirates, an organization lead by the avatar of Death – Crystal Boy.
Comedy
Barton Fink
The Dictator – Banned and Unrated
Mike and Molly: Season Two
Crime
Bernie
The Closer: Seventh and Final Season
NCIS: The Complete Ninth Season
NCIS: Los Angeles – The Third Season
Perry Mason: The Seventh Season, Vol. 1
Documentary
Ecstasy of Order: The Tetris Masters
Drama
Good Will Hunting: 15th Anniversary Edition
House, M.D.: Season Eight
Revenge: The Complete First Season
WarGames
Family
Adventure Time: It Came From the Nightosphere
The Adventures of Tintin: Season Three
The Aristocats (Special Edition)
Lady and the Tramp 2: Scamp’s Adventure
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Season 1, Vol. 1
Pocahontas Two Movie Special Edition
The Rescuers 35th Anniversary Edition
Includes The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under
The Tigger Movie: Bounce-A-Rrrific Special Edition
Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation
Horror
Halloween 4
Halloween 5
Stephen King’s Thinner
Romance
Virginia
Weekend (Criterion Collection)
Sports
WWE Presents: The 50 Greatest Finishing Moves in the WWE
Alex: Without giving away the whole list, I’ll just say that the Dudley Boys have a spot on the list, which (considering their complete and total absence from any WWE DVDs since they left for TNA) increases my interest in this DVD dramatically.
Superhero
The Super Hero Squad Show: The Infinity Guantlet Vol. 4

Finally, the picks of the week. Alex says, “On the one hand, I’m a little worried about how well The Rescuers Down Under would hold up if I watched it again. On the other hand, I thought it was an absolutly amazing Disney film at the time, and an underrated classic of the Disney Canon, and I’m willing to give it another shot.” Blaine says, “I still get a kick out of WarGames.”

3 replies on “Weekly Digital Disc Picks – August 21, 2012”

  1. I love WarGames but I have to wonder how well it would really transfer to Blu-Ray given its age. I don’t own many (if any) films from that era on Blu-Ray, can they really pull off that much of a quality increase that it’s worth upgrading from the DVD? I had the same reservations about getting The Last Starfighter on Blu-Ray, but haven’t sought out any opinions on that one being worth the upgrade.

    Now if another good movie from that era that I don’t already have on DVD (Like, say, D.A.R.Y.L.) were to get a Blu-Ray release, I might consider it.

    • The limiting factor tends to be the resolution of effects shots, since film resolution is slightly better than Blu-Ray anyway. As The Last Starfighter was the first movie to use full screen CGI, it may not hold up; I don’t know what resolution those scenes were rendered in. WarGames is primarily on film, as the “effects” are computer screens that are supposed to be computer screens, so I think that would make a better transfer.

      • I suspected that may be the case with TLS. Part of its charm is that it looked so good for what it was at the time. Even if it is cheesy at higher resolutions, it’s still groundbreaking.

        I’m just afraid that the extra pixels from Blu-Ray would really just make little flaws more noticeable in a film I wouldn’t have seen things wrong with before, especially on something with such an old source.

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