New Releases, 26 Sept 2006
The Adventures of Dick Tracy: The Complete Animated Series
Between this and the recently announced archival reprints of the complete comic strip series, we must be entering a new Golden Age of Dick Tracy Appreciation.
Curious George (widescreen) (2006)
I’ll give you one for the kids here.
Danger Mouse: The Final Seasons (3-disc set)
And, yeah, this one is for the kids, too. Right.
Drop Dead Sexy (2005)
Nice of you to notice.
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (widescreen) (2006)
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (pan-and-scan) (2006)
It’s a movie series whose titles are just grist for the parody mill — they define poor sequel title choices, or exlempify the best because they’re so memorable. You make the call.
The Lake House (2006)
Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock return to prove that love can conquer all.
Mama’s Family: Season One (2-disc set)
It’s come to this. Every other TV show must already be out on DVD.
A Nightmare on Elm Street: infinifilm (1984)
Wow, they’re still trying to do something with the “Infinifilm” label? I haven’t heard a squeak from that line in forever. . .
The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)
No doubt someone reading this blog will be interested in it. Gretchen Mol plays the good girl.
Save the Last Dance: Special Edition (2001)
We need another dancing movie this year, don’t we? Was the direct to DVD sequel to BRING IT ON not enough in the wake of TAKE THE LEAD and STEP UP?
Who’s [sic] Line Is It Anyway: Season One, Vol. 1
This here is your release of the week, even if DVDJournal.com has the first word so horribly misspelled. I miss this show. I think it’s time for another revival of it. I need my Ryan Stiles fix, dangit!
Pictured at left is the “uncensored” edition of the release. The regular edition has all the swears artfully edited out, don’t worry.
Next week, though, has a couple of highlights worth mentioning right now. The third X-Men movie comes out. But, more importantly and after years of waiting, Disney is finally releasing their special edition of THE LITTLE MERMAID. Details to follow next week.
September 26th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
“It’s come to this. Every other TV show must already be out on DVD.”
When the cancelled “Birds of Prey” and “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” make it out to DVD, then you can say that. :)
And yes, I really would like both of those on DVD.
September 26th, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Oh, and yes, I’ve been waiting for “The Little Mermaid” DVD for a long time. It’s one of my favorites from the modern Disney animation era.
Although how “modern” is that, really?
September 26th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
Phil - OK, so how sad is it that MAMA’S FAMILY beat out BIRDS OF PREY? Eh, given Warner Bros’ track record, it’s not THAT surprising. . .
You’re allowed to call LITTLE MERMAID “modern” so long as you’re at least 30 years old.
September 26th, 2006 at 1:28 pm
That’s very sad. Maybe in time for the next Batman movie?
And I’m over 30, so that takes care of that. Although, my question was more of a “Can we call a film 17 years old ‘modern’?” And that just depresses me to realize that I was in high school when it came out.
September 26th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
First of all, Augie, don’t be talking trash on Mamma’s Family!
I wouldn’t but Mamma’s Family on DVD, but if it’s on TV, and I’m not doing anything else, I’ll watch it and always get a laugh. It was always great seeing Carol Burnett chew up scenery as Eunice.
As for Dick Tracy, I’m psyched about the hardcovers. I love Dick Tracy. I think it’s great that this Tracy material is coming out. I also think that the Beatty movie is a highly underrated movie. Of course, I also say the same thing about the Shadow.
September 26th, 2006 at 6:59 pm
“Save The Last Dance” is actually a pretty good love-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks movie, though I’m pretty sure it doesn’t need a Special Edition.
September 26th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
I still have my Little Mermaid DVD from Disney’s original batch of 1999 DVD releases, when they all were $40 retail, non-anamorphic widescreen, no special features (except for “full color artwork on the disc” and “chapter stops”, which were prominently listed as “SPECIAL FEATURES!” on the back cover), and drab, lifeless transfers with minimally enveloping 5.1 at best.
How far we’ve come. DVD seems so quaint and antiquated lately… :(
September 27th, 2006 at 12:23 am
Just DM for me. I am insanely happy that The World’s Greatest Secret Agent is now finally all on dvd. Considering how great the last set was, I’m raring for more. By this point in the series they’d finally nailed down the format and had raised the punnery to an art. I can’t wait to get my hands on the rest.
September 27th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
I saw The Notorious Bettie Page in theaters. Although the script was pedestrian, Mol deserves props for playing Bettie Page so well. The film is definitely worth renting just to see Mol as Bettie Page. There are times that you forget you’re seeing a recreating of the 1950s icon. I thought she was THAT good.
FYI all: Anamorphic DVDs didn’t become common until after 1999. Even today, a company will occassionally be cheap and NOT do anamorphic remasters for widescreen as WB “graciously” did for Justice League Season Two (despite a previous anamorphic release of the 3-part episode “Starcrossed” on single DVD) and LucasFilm for the original Star Wars theatrical releases on DVD just a few weeks ago. Disney was cheap and just transferred laserdisc masters for the first wave of animated classics back in 1999. Since then, practically all those films have been re-released with digital remasters and with anamorphic video (in the casse of the ORIGINALLY widescreen releases).
September 27th, 2006 at 3:49 pm
George - I can remember when the fight was on for anamorphic for everything. We’re about 99% of the way there, which is nice.
Of course, I also remember the fight against DiVX and the fight to convince people that “letterboxed” format is inherently superior to Pan N Scan. Sadly, we still have some ways to go on that last front.
Those Disney DVDs started out looking so nice because they needed updating to be released to IMAX screens. Without that incentive, I hope Disney is still keeping up that high standard of quality with THE LITTLE MERMAID. I’d hate to see this film, of all of them, get screwed.
September 28th, 2006 at 8:01 am
It amazes me how people would still rather watch Pan N Scan than letterbox.
I didn’t buy the new Star Wars releases a few weeks ago because Lucas, in an attempt to separte me from my money, just threw out some cheap laserdisc transfer of the original trilogy.
As for Disney and DVDs, the one Disney movie that I want and will never be able to get in this country is Song of the South. Amazingly, Disney has Splash Mountain, and Zip Pa Dee Doo Dah is still one of Disney’s most popular songs, but we’ll never get the movie in this country. Damn shame.