New Releases, 28 March 2006
There is a metric tonne of TV shows on DVD arriving in stores this week. Fatten up your wallet, TV fans, before heading to Best Buy.
From the animated world:
Astroboy: Ultra Edition: Set 1
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Book 1: Water, Volume 2
Danger Mouse: Seasons 5 & 6
Robot Chicken: Volume 1
The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! Volume 1
From the genre worlds:
Dark Shadows: DVD Collection 23
Doctor Who: The Beginning Collection
Godzilla: The Series: Vol 02: Monster Mayhem
Godzilla: The Series: Vol 03: Mutant Madness
The Invisible Man: Season 1
Masters of Horror: Cigarette Burns (John Carpenter)
Masters of Horror: Dreams In The Witch House (Stuart Gordon)
Quantum Leap: The Complete 4th Season
The X-Files: Season 4
The X-Files: Season 5
The X-Files: Season 6
Those are the new slimmer cased versions, that might also be missing the last disc of bonus supplements.
From the world of reality/documentary television:
American Muscle Car: Season 1
Dog the Bounty Hunter: The Best of Season 2
Modern Marvels: Extreme Gadgets
Modern Marvels: FBI’s Crime Lab
Modern Marvels: Great Inventions
Modern Marvels: Walt Disney World
And everything else:
The Andy Milonakis Show: The Complete 1st Season
Degrassi: The Next Generation: Season 3
Friends: The One With All The Babies
Friends: The One With All The Birthdays
Friends: The One With All The Weddings
Highway to Heaven: Season 3
Knots Landing: The Complete 1st Season
Northern Exposure: The Complete 4th Season
Not the Nine O’Clock News: Best Of
Six Feet Under: The Complete 5th Season
Wonder Showzen: Season 1
Not the Nine O’Clock News is about the closest I get to being excited for a release this week. Rowan Atkinson is hilarious.
Onto the movie highlights:
Barry Manilow: Music and Passion (2-disc set)
All this talk about him in the past week on the American Idol threads meant that I had to include this release. I believe it’s a live performance disc.
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2-disc set) (2005)
Has anyone actually seen this yet? Is it any good?
Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ (2005)
I’m trying. Sorry, “I’m Tryin’”.
Godzilla: Monster Edition (1998)
Unnecessary Special Edition Winner of the Week!
King Kong: Special Edition (widescreen) (2-disc set) (2005)
King Kong (widescreen) (2005)
King Kong (pan-and-scan) (2005)
I’m waiting for the four disc edition at Christmas time. No, that’s not for certain yet. I’m just guessing. I have remarkably little patience for three hour movies these days, though.
Memoirs of a Geisha (2-disc set) (2005)
This was supposed to be better remembered at Oscar time than it ended up being.
Next week: The Greatest Unnecessary Special Edition Title of All Time. I kid you not. Plus: a second edition of CRASH already. Another season of DAWSON’S CREEK. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. CHRONICLES OF NARNIA. And more!
March 28th, 2006 at 11:22 am
CRASH: The Surprise Oscar-Winning Edition(?)
March 28th, 2006 at 11:27 am
To be fair to the movie company, I’m fairly certain this release was announced before the Oscars. Still, it is a REALLY quick turnaround for a special edition.
March 28th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Well, I know that I didn’t watch it EVERY time it was on A&E (thanks TiVo!), I’d be all over that Dog the Bounty Hunter release! I absolutely love that show!
What’s the appeal you may ask? Well, an article that I read online recently summed it up perfectly for me: “Duane “Dog” Chapman speaks with the compassion of a preacher, the bravado of a pro wrestler and persuasiveness of a snake-oil salesman.”
March 28th, 2006 at 5:26 pm
I’m not sure whether to get Robot Chicken or not. It’s SO tempting. Espcially for Behind the Music: The Electric Mayhem.
March 28th, 2006 at 10:34 pm
Augie,
From what I’ve seen of the Final Fantasy VII movie, it’s just more of the usual anime-without-a-plot that chugs along.
I really can’t stand the type of animation Square-Enix does nowadays. The characters look like weird, plastic marionettes. They also just don’t look like the original hand-drawn F-7 versions at any rate.
For whatever weird reasons, S-E decided to make the F-7 characters look “more real” and modelled them on Japanese characteristics.
They should have stuck to the original stylized designs and given the film more of a drawn animation look like the recent Appleseed movie (but with much better animation).
Aside from fighting games, most of the Japanese CGI I’ve seen in videogames or videogame-inspired movies falls apart when the action stops and the characters have to emote.
March 29th, 2006 at 8:26 am
Augie,
If you don’t have the patience for a 3-hour version of King Kong, why would you wait for a hypothetical 4-hour movie?
March 29th, 2006 at 8:28 am
I thought the Final Fantasy movie wasn’t out until April 25th? At least everywhere I see shows it for that day.
March 29th, 2006 at 8:42 am
Mark - It’s a LORD OF THE RINGS leftover. I spent three consecutive Christmas breaks going through three consecutive boxed sets. I want to relive that glory this Christmas.
Josh - It’s possible that the release date has changed, or that DVDJournal.com got it wrong. Flip the coin. I’d guess it’s more likely that DVDJournal is wrong, though.