Another week, and another set of releases. There are a couple more gems that will hit shelves before the end of the year.
First, the genre releases:
- Adventures of the Little Prince: The Greatest Gift: Three episodes of the old cartoon.
- Adventures of the Little Prince: The Magic Case
- Animaniacs, Vol. 2: I eventually picked up volume one. This is one of the funniest cartoons that ever ran in syndication. It’s packed with jokes I didn’t get when I was in junior high.
- The Complete Uncensored Private Snafu: Mel Blanc’s wartime propoganda cartoons.
- Dungeons and Dragons – The Complete Series: A five disk set of the old cartoon.
- The House on Haunted Hill: The original, with Vincent Price.
- Naruto Uncut Boxed Set Vol. 2
- Paniponi Dash, Vol. 1: Lethal Lesson: That’s got to be one of the coolest DVD covers I’ve ever seen. I have no knowledge of the show or its quality, but the DVD cover is cool.
- Pinky and the Brain, Vol. 2: Are you pondering what I’m pondering?
- Pirate of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest: Man, that’s a prominent use of the Disney logo on the package. You’d think the company was trying to repair their image in the post-Eisner days or something.
- Pulse: This is the unrated edition.
- Red Planet Mars: The 1952 flick.
Now, the non-genre releases:
- 1900: Bernardo Bertolucci directs, starring Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu.
- 24 – Season Five
- Adventures of the Black Stallion – Season One
- Attack Force: Steven Seagal’s career is now officially direct-to-video.
- The Beale’s of Grey Gardens – Criterion Collection: This one’s a documentary.
- Beerfest – Unrated Edition: This was, apparantly, out in theaters this year. Gee, I wonder why I’ve never heard of it.
- The Charlie Chan Collection, Vol. 2: This includes “Charlie Chan at the Circus,” “Charlie Chan at the Opera,” “Charlie Chan at the Race Track,” and “Charlie Chan at the Olympics.”
- Cheyenne: The Complete First Season
- The Conformist (Extended Edition)
- Driver’s Seat: Elizabeth Taylor and Andy Warhol in a movie released by “Cheesy Flicks Entertainment.”
- The Dukes of Hazzard – Complete Seventh Season: This was the final season.
- The Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton Film Collection: Includes the two disk edition of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” “The V.I.P.s”, “The Sandpiper,” and “The Comedians.”
- Fox War Book: Includes “Patton,” “The Longest Day” and “Tora! Tora! Tora!”
- High School Musical: The two disk remix edition of the surprise Disney Channel hit.
- Holiday: The 1938 Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn movie.
- How to Eat Fried Worms: I loved the book when I was in grade two, but haven’t seen the movie.
- Idlewild
- Miami Vice (Unrated): Also available in an HD-DVD combo pack.
- Mission Impossible – The Complete First Season: This has got to have one of the most famous theme songs in television history.
- The Premiere Frank Capra Collection: Includes “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington,” “It Happened One Night,” “You Can’t Take It With You,” “Mr. Deeds Goes To Town,” “American Madness,” and “Frank Capra’s American Dream.”
- Rocky (Two Disk Edition): Also available in Blu-ray.
- Rocky Anthology: The first five entries in the series.
- Roseanne – Complete Season Six
- Saturday Night Live – Complete First Season
- Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One – Criterion Collection: It’s a movie in which the crew didn’t know which kind of movie they were making. That’s got to be entertaining.
- TCM Archives – Forbidden Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1: Includes “Waterloo Bridge,” “Baby Face” and “Red-Headed Woman.”
- Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?: The new two disk edition.
Finally, the pick of the week. As good as the Capra collection is, I’ve got to go with the second Animaniacs
collection. I don’t think people realize how much ground this series broke for animated television.
SNAFU
I took a Science Fiction class back when I was… GOD was I young. Anyway, we had quite a few classes discussing propaganda in Science Fiction, and it kind of kindled my interest.
The SNAFU cartoons are a great example. If nothing else, it shows that Our Government happily does all the stuff we accuse Their Government of doing. Of great note are the extremely racist (and racy!) cartoons written by one Dr Seuss, better known as a writer of children’s books, and also of propaganda concerning having American citizens in internment camps. Oh, and the fact that this is made by the same people who brought us Bugs Bunny is priceless.
I’ve had this DVD (same cover and all) for years so I don’t see why it’s a new release, but if you’re into this kinda thing, it’s wonderful.
I am VERY happy about Season 1 of Mission Impossible. The pre-Phelps show! Woo! I’m gonna have to get that.
Animaniacs is indeed an excellent show.
Re: SNAFU
Bugs Bunny’s brief cameos in a couple of the SNAFU toons are a highlight.
Re: SNAFU
That just means that it’s been sold out for a while and went back to press. I leave those off the list when I notice them, but I missed this one.
Re: SNAFU
Oh, cool. I usually wonder if it’s some kind of re-release with more stuff.
While we’re waiting….
For those interested in the Charlie Chan releases, I did this piece on the Chan Man awhile back.