Skip to main content

Something to Watch: DVD’s

Top movie choice this time around is Immortals, a tale of war and oppression in the time of the Greek Gods. In fact, it would pretty much be the only movie choice if it wasn’t for the direct to DVD release of Tooth Fairy 2 starring Larry the Cable Guy. And no, it doesn’t have its own home page that I could find, or I would have linked it.

A made-for-TV movie sits right on the border between the two video forms: My Future Boyfriend is a rather silly story without much substance, but kind of sweet. If I did food comparisons, cotton candy would definitely come to mind. If you prefer your stories with a bit of meat on their bones and noticeably more adult, Game of Thrones: The Complete First Season is the way to go. George R. R. Martin is still writing the books, hopefully he will be able to keep ahead of the filming schedule as they convert one book a year into video footage. He has been releasing the books a bit slower than that, and now that his other main project, Wild Cards, has been picked up by the new Universal/SyFy Channel production house he may have less time for writing than ever.

For western animation there isn’t anything new as such, but they are releasing Robot Chicken: Seasons 1-5, giving you the opportunity to grab everything currently available at once, and for a bit of a discount. Season 6 is currently airing and should be available soon.

Anime shows a single new release in the form of the House of Five Leaves – Complete Series, a historical drama involving a shy Ronin and the gang of kidnappers he falls in with. The animation looks interesting, and there is promise of personal growth in the evolution of the protagonist.

There are several re-releases worth mentioning, starting with Grave of the Fireflies – Remastered Edition. This semi-true story about orphaned children in wartime Japan has been digitally remastered to rip your heart out with improved video resolution and audio quality. If you haven’t seen this masterpiece trust me when I say it is right up there with Barefoot Gen as an object lesson in the human condition during war, especially as it applies to children.

On a much lighter note, Sands of Destruction – The Complete Series is being released in a S.A.V.E. (Super Amazing Value Edition) package, which means you can pick up the whole thing for around $15. Also being released in a single box set, Hetalia: Axis Powers – The Complete Series also brings the price down for those who have been waiting, but not by anywhere near as much.

Almost Carter: Dejah!

It is almost time for John Carter to hit the big screen, and the center point the entire series of stories pivoted around was the relationship between John Carter and Dejah Thoris. So here is another nice little teaser that focuses on that story aspect, and thanks to Disney for modernizing her character to be even more independent than Burroughs portrayed her as. I have been waiting for this movie since I first read A Princess of Mars when I was 14, and yes, I did manage to track down the other volumes in the series and read them all by the time I was 16. And then I reread them, in the correct order, and after that I tracked down everything else Burroughs had written. He grew up in Virginia in the 1800s after the American Civil War, so the racism built into his 25 Tarzan books as basic assumptions made my skin crawl (and do NOT get me started on the sexism built into every story he ever wrote), but his Mars and Venus series were rousing tales once you learned to spot and toss out that aspect of his writing, separating it from the core stories. And now you don’t have to, because Disney is doing it for you; do NOT miss this film if you love science fiction!

New Avengers trailer

I can’t wait to see Joss’s version of a Marvel movie, meaning the Avenger’s film due out later this year. But the good news is there is a new trailer for it… enjoy! My favorite quote from this one has to be We’re Not A Team… We’re A Time Bomb! How Wheedonesque!

Something to Watch: DVD’s

Best movie selection this week definitely goes to Hugo, Martin Scorsese’s stunning Steampunk homage to a pioneer in the film industry and to movies in general. This one blew me away in the theaters, it won a Golden Globe and it is nominated for 11 Academy Awards; we will find out tonight how many of those it is taking home. If you only get one DVD this month, this is the one that gets my strongest recommendation. On the other hand, if you just want something silly, Johnny English Reborn would be the way to go. Once more Rowan Atkinson delivers a world class comedic performance, this time bringing his anti-007 character back to life.

In western TV, Todd & the Book of Pure Evil: The Complete First Season is the live action offering, and I do like their tag line: Fighting Evil, with Mixed Results. They are actually about to launch season 3 elsewhere, in the US season 2 kicks off on Fear.Net on March 13th.

In western animation, the feature length film Justice League: Doom pretty much covers all the choices.

In anime, Fairy Tail – Part 4 continues the story of the battles between guilds of wizards out to earn a living and prove who is best with episodes 37 through 48. I was not completely certain that Princess Jellyfish – The Complete Series is genre. But it has hopeless nerds with bizarre hobbies and crippling social anxieties, coupled with a late night jellyfish rescue mission; plus it is based on an award winning Manga (the award being Best Shojo Manga), and the anime was made by the folks behind Baccano, Hell Girl, and Durarara. Taken all together, how could I not include it here? You can watch some episodes online at that link and decide for yourself if it deserves to be added to your collection; when I did and discovered all the primary characters were Otaku, it went on the must watch list right away. And for pure Otaku recursiveness, Bakuman – Second Issue brings 6 more episodes of an Anime all about making a Manga, and it doesn’t get much more recursive than that.