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!
28. March 2006 at 11:22
CRASH: The Surprise Oscar-Winning Edition(?)
28. March 2006 at 11:27
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.
28. March 2006 at 15:07
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.”
28. March 2006 at 17:26
I’m not sure whether to get Robot Chicken or not. It’s SO tempting. Espcially for Behind the Music: The Electric Mayhem.
28. March 2006 at 22:34
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.
29. March 2006 at 08:26
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?
29. March 2006 at 08:28
I thought the Final Fantasy movie wasn’t out until April 25th? At least everywhere I see shows it for that day.
29. March 2006 at 08:42
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.