A glut of great DVDs this time around, starting with the Steampunk action adventure instant classic The Three Musketeers, which I loved in the theaters and look forward to adding to my own collection so I can watch it over and over. Melancholia is a beautiful and award winning movie which tells the tale of a woman who’s wedding is interrupted by the end of the world. There are also a couple of animated feature length films worth your time, including The Adventures of Tintin with Daniel Craig, Nick Frost, and Simon Pegg. Happy Feet Two also has a huge and star studded cast, and is every bit as fun as the first one.
The TV miniseries Neverland sees Bob Hoskins reprise his role as Smee in this Peter Pan prequel. A classic Tom Baker Doctor Who episode also becomes available with the release of Dr. Who: The Face Of Evil, with every one’s favorite savage Leela as the companion.
Western animation has the return of two of my favorite characters in Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention. This originally ran on BBC1 in 2010 and has our beloved duo being the hosts of a TV show about some crackling good inventions and showing off some of their own accomplishments.
New anime this week includes the Bleach – Season 12 uncut box set, continuing the soul reapers story with episodes 180-193. To put that in perspective, I think the latest episode to air on Tokyo was 367. One Piece – Collection 5 also hits the shelves bringing us the next 27 episodes of the Straw Hat Gang making friends and having adventures. these are episodes 104 through 130, out of a current total of 538. It will be a while before all of these are going to be available in the US. Also new this week, Kekkaishi DVD Set 4 brings episodes 40 through 52, which in this case actually completes the series.
I was all excited when I heard there was going to be a new Mardock Scramble release, and then anoyed when I learned it was going to be Mardock Scramble: The First Compression [Director’s Cut]. I just bought this thing back in September or so, why are they trying to sell me a different version of the one I have seen, before the ones I haven’t seen become available? And the difference between the theatrical version and the directors cut (both of which are on the new DVD, but not the original release) is 5 minutes of additional scenes. This is definitely one of the most impressive and twisty new animes to come along in a while, but I do not feel that this is treating the fan base right. They should have come out with both versions get from the get go.