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Something to Watch: DVD’s

The best movie this time around appears to be a documentary: Being Elmo: A Pupeteer’s Journey is a look behind the scenes at the creator of one of the worlds best loved puppets. And no, it is not Jim Henson, but someone who really wanted to work with him. The film itself racked up an impressive number of awards at festivals around the globe. Alien Opponent, on the other hand, is a bit silly but didn’t mean to be; I can not recommend it to anyone, really.

Top TV selection is Torchwood: Miracle Day, the joint project between Starz and the BBC. Actually, that is about the only live action TV selection this time around, except for re-releases.

The completely new Anime offering is Ōkami-san & Her Seven Companions, a fable-like fairy tale of truly silly proportions. Not that it doesn’t have its serious side, and based on the trailer and what I have read I suspect this one will be quite good.

Two favorite series are returning with new seasons. Motto To Love Ru -Trouble, the complete collection, continue the story of our teleporting alien girl and all the craziness that comes along with her for another dozen episodes. The Polyphonica Crimson S likewise continues its storyline, of musical magic working with the police, and the missing spirit companion returning, at which point our hero discovers she is really the dreaded Crimson Annihilator. How will he survive this one? The web site is undergoing maintenance, or I would have posted a link.

Something to Do: Movies

I love the weeks like this that have several things to choose from. For silly fun I would have to vote for Mirror Mirror, where Julia Roberts played the Evil Queen (that had to be a hoot for her). I was rather surprised to find a serious coding flaw on their web page; when you start playing the trailer, the music track that auto-play’s when you go to the site just keeps on playing. If you are looking for a film that takes itself a lot more seriously (possibly to the edge of pompousness) then you probably want Wrath of the Titans. Also this week an indi post-apocalypse film called Dead Weight looks to be the most promising thinking person’s film this time around.

Something to Watch: DVDs

Confucius: Live Action Movie is something a bit different for legendary screen star Chow Yun-fat, as well as history itself. It looks like it could be a lot of fun, though. Which is good, because it seems to be the only interesting film out this week.

Eureka: Season 4.5 was a lot of fun, and it took the show in a whole new direction. They will finish the series with season 5, but so far every season has been better than the one before it.

In anime, Dream Eater Merry – Complete Collection looks sufficiently surreal, being a story about a boy who sees other peoples dreams, the army of cats who want to posses him to take over the world, and the demon girl who wants to break back into the world of dreams but is trapped in our world instead. But then Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo – The Complete Series Part 1 is possibly even more off the wall, to the point I don’t think I can describe it; check the web site link for details. Part 1 runs episodes 1 through 38, there are a bunch more coming in part 2.

Dark Shadows trailer

This one looks like a hoot! The original Dark Shadows TV series took itself way too seriously, but even as it was being aired everyone knew it was a campy classic. But with the Johnny Depp/Tim Burton makeover, there is not even the Shadow of a doubt: this one is being played for the fun of it! I am so ready to see the new version of Dark Shadows in a real theater!