Here it is, ladies and gentlemen. It’s a huge
offering of titles this week, as it’s the first
Tuesday in December. There’s an incredible volume
here; I’m getting eight titles myself.
First, the genre releases:
- Aqua
Teen
Hunger Force, Vol. 4: The show marches on.
Meanwhile, Dave smiles
a very large smile. - Batman
– The
Animated Series, Volume Four: This collects the
“Batman: Gotham
Knights” episodes with a team of heroes. - C.S.
Lewis and
Chronicles of Narnia – The True Story of the Author of
the Classic
Tales: A behind-the-scenes look just in time for
the theatrical
release of the next movie. - D.N.
Angel –
Complete Collection: For the anime fans. - Fantastic
Four: This is the widescreen edition of this
summer’s mediocre
movie. I picked up a copy, hoping that it’ll
encourage a sequel of a
quality similar to the X-Men sequel, since
the original FF
movie was similar to the quality of this studio’s
original
X-Men movie. - Garfield
and
Friends, Vol. 5: The series keeps coming in rather
small
packages. What’s wrong with complete season
releases? - Gargoyles
–
Season Two, Volume One: A serious contendor for
the pick of the
week. - He-Man
and
She-Ra – A Christmas Special: The combined series
ran with this
show. I didn’t care for She-Ra, but I never missed
He-Man. - Land
of the
Lost – The Complete Series: All three seasons (43
episodes) in one
big box. Watch out for waterfalls. - Millenium
–
Seasons 1-3: One of several complete series packs
available this
week. - Roswell
–
Seasons 1-3: This is another complete series
package. - Samurai
X –
Director’s Cut: More anime. - Shinkai:
Collection: Two films by the up and coming
director. - Star
Wars: The
Clone Wars Vol. 2: I’ve also ordered this animated
set. This
completes the fill-in story between episodes 2 and
3. - Star
Wars
Trilogy: This is a new package of episodes 4, 5,
and 6. I suspect
that those three disks are identical. This package
does not, however,
include the bonus disk from the previous release. - Superhero
3
Pack: Includes DVDs of Popeye, Superman and
Hercules. These
appear to be the Fleischer sets. - Superman
– The
Animated Series, Vol. 2: This provides us with
another chunk of
the Superman cartoon, including the episodes edited
together to become
“The Batman / Superman Movie.” Defintely one of the
items I’m picking
up this week. - Teenage
Mutant
Ninja Turtles – Season Three: I don’t know which
series this is.
I recognize some of the episode titles, so I think
it’s the one from
the 1980s. - Thundercats:
Season One, Volume 2: The adventures of Lion-O
continue. - Walt
Disney
Treasures – Disney Rarities: Spanning five
decades, these shorts
include some of the lesser known Disney works,
including the Alice
cartoons that started it all. - Walt
Disney
Treasures – The Chronological Donald, Volume 2:
This covers most
of the early 1940s. - Yu Gi
Oh – A
New Evil s.4 v.1: Yu Gi Oh! on DVD.
Now, the non-genre releases:
- 24 –
Season
Four: Jack is back. I bought the first season
during one of Fox’s
DVD sales, but I haven’t watched it yet. (I’ve been
waiting for a
free long weekend to watch it in a marathon, but I
don’t see that
happening soon.) - Belle
of the
Yukon: An older Fox film. - Captain
Jack: A British comedy in the vein of Waking
Ned Devine. - Cinderella
Man: This is the collector’s edition of the
Russell Crowe boxing
movie. - Cirque
Du
Soleil Anniversary Collection: For fans of the
performers. - Combat
– The
Complete Series: This is listed in this week’s
releases, but the
product page says it’s not currently available, so I
don’t know what’s
going on. - The
Count of
Monte Cristo: Gerard Depardieu plays the lead in
this version. - The
Dick Van
Dyke Show Collection: A five DVD set of the old
series. - Dirty
Love
(Unrated Edition): Jenny McCarthy is still trying
to get that
acting career going. - Dukes
of
Hazzard (Unrated Widescreen Edition): I linked to
the unrated
version of this summer’s film because everyone I’ve
talked to who
actually saw the movie went to look at Jessica
Simpson. I don’t know
what makes this different from the theatrical release,
but I’m betting
that the little differences are what the parts that
most of the market
is looking for. - Everybody
Loves Raymond – Complete Fifth Season: I don’t
particularly care
for Raymond, to be honest. Still, many people
obviously do, given the
ratings this has managed. - Felicity
– An
American Girl Adventure: A family film for the
holidays. - Footballers
Wives – The Complete Second Season: A BBC comedy
series. - Forbidden
Games – Criterion Collection: Criterion is a great
label. Here’s
Oscar pick for Best Foreign Film of 1952. - Full
House –
The Complete Second Season: This show amused me
when I was in
elementary school. - Fun
With Dick
and Jane: The version without Jim Carrey. - Green
Acres:
The Complete Third Season: A decent comedy of a
bygone era. - Jackass
– The
Box Set: Care to meet future Darwin Award
winners? - Jet
Li
Collection: I don’t recognize the movies in this
set, so I’m
betting they didn’t get North American distribution.
Don’t expect a
great transfer, but the original films could be
decent. - Kenny
vs. Spenny – Season One: I keep hearing about this
Canadian take
on reality shows, but I’ve never watched it. - Law
and Order
– The Fourth Year: Most shows either deal with the
investigations
or the courtroom. This actually deals with the entire
process. - M*A*S*H
–
Season Nine: A rather significant comedy in the
history of
American television. Not one of its best years,
though. There were
11 seasons in total. - Macgyver
–
Complete Fourth Season: Don’t thank him, thank the
moon’s
gravitational pull! - The
Magnificent Seven – The Complete First Season: The
spinoff of the
movie, which in turn was a remake of the excellent
Seven
Samurai. - Murder,
She
Wrote – Complete Second Season: A little old lady
lives in a tiny
little town with the country’s highest per capita
murder rates.
J. Michael Straczynski was involved with later
seasons. - Newlyweds
–
Nick and Jessica – The Final Season: I think this
was the fourth
season, since Amazon also has listings for seasons
one, two and
three. So, how many years can people be together
before they’re not
called newlyweds anymore? - Nova:
Einstein’s Big Idea: Nova is a quality program,
and I can’t think
of anyone who’s had more impact on the world of
physics than
Einstein. Note that the “big idea” is his famous
theory of
relativity, and not the work on the photoelectric
effect that actually
won him the Nobel Prize. As a physics geek myself,
I’d recommend
this. - NFL:
Greatest
Super Bowl Moments: They’re talking about the
actual games, and
not the commercials. - The
Rockford
Files – Season One: Jim Rockford stands up with
Columbo and Monk
as one of the greatest detectives on television. - Roseanne
– The
Complete Second Season: I never understood the
appeal of this
show. - Saved
by the
Bell – The New Class: Seasons 6 and 7: I can’t
believe the
original launched a spinoff, let alone that the
spinoff lasted this
long. - Shirley
Temple
– The Early Years: Some of her early works. - Shirley
Temple
– Biggest Little Star: This is a documentary on
her real life. - Shoot
the
Piano Player – Criterion Collection: Directed by
Francois
Truffaut, so you know it’s French New Wave. Expect
the bizarre. - The
Simpsons –
Seasons 1-6: This Fox TV package includes the
seasons released so
far. I don’t know which version of the package season
six will be
in. - Walt
Disney
Treasures – Elfego Baca and The Swamp Fox:
Selections of two
distinct series. - Walt
Disney
Treasures – The Adventures of Spin and Marty: This
is the complete
first season of the serial that ran within the Mickey
Mouse Club. - The
West Wing
– The Complete Fifth Season: The Aaron Sorkin
series kept going
without him. - Where
The
Sidewalk Airs: Part of the Fox Film Noir
collection.
Finally, the pick of the week. There is a
lot to pick from
this week. I’ll have to go with The Rockford
Files – Season
One. It’s a good detective series that holds up
a few decades
later because it was as much about the style of the
detective as it
was about the mysteries. (This is probably why
Columbo and Monk work
so well, too.) It was close, with the Batman,
Superman, Star Wars,
Disney, and Fleischer products also on the release
schedule, but this
seems to be the best bet (of the products I’ve seen in
some form and
am willing to vouch for) for general audiences and
Christmas shopping,
which is what most of the DVD shopping this time of
year is all
about.
Star Wars Trilogy
According to the official site, the only difference between this set and the previously-released 4-disc set is that the bonus disk is not included. This release is for people who would like to own the movies but who aren’t Star Wars fanatics. It’s also less expensive than the 4-disc set.
Check out Chad’s News
Re: Samurai X 12/06
That seems to be about the third release of the Rurouni Kenshin/Samurai X OVAs (Trust & Betrayal was initially released on separate discs, then combined, then Reflection was released, then all three were combined into a box, and now …. looks like a rehash to me). They’re nice, but probably won’t be very interesting if you haven’t seen a pretty fair portion of the television series they follow-up.
I agree
The Rockford Files, if for no other reason than to have all the answering machine messages that began the show!
I don’t agree, Fantastic Four was worse than XMen
I must say I disagree with the Fantastic Four comment, the original XMen was way better than it was.
Damien
Re: I don’t agree, Fantastic Four was worse than XMen
Well, the studio thinks a sequel is worthwhile