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Something to Watch: DVDs, 29Jan13

Getting my vote for strangest movie with the best cast this week is Seven Psychopaths, which I completely enjoyed. All Superheroes Must Die is about four Superheroes stripped of their powers and trapped by their arch-nemesis in a situation where they must fight to avoid total destruction for their entire town. The western animation Hotel Transylvania is out this week as well for those in need of silly fun.

We finally get the US release of Misfits: Season Two, the show about the strangest group of Superheroes ever remanded to public service. Let’s see how many social workers sent to rehabilitate them they manage to kill off this season, while trying ever so hard to stay out of trouble. This is one of the best done shows out of the UK on virtually every front, and the soundtrack includes some of the best tunes I never heard here. I strongly recommend this show to everyone old enough to not get offended, but mentally young enough to not get bent out of shape.

In new Anime releases, Baka and Test: Season Two is coming out. It has a nice silly premise; class standings and personal differences are resolved using battle avatars who’s strength is determined by the students academic standing. Our protagonist Yoshii is a warm-hearted goofball with a solid string of F’s in all his classes, who wants to advance his station. He has nowhere to go but up, and he can’t even spell surrender, which makes for an amusing series.

Viz rolls out Naruto Shippuden: Box Set 13, bringing us up to episode 166 by the end of it. For those in need of a silly time, Shin Chan: Season Three may be the way to go.

Arakawa Under the Bridge Season 1 is the story of a man who falls into the river, to be saved by cutely insane Nino, who lives there. To repay her kindness he sets out to help her, meeting many of her friends in the process, some of whom are not human. This is a bit of a re-release, having been previously come out in a limited premium edition. Likewise, Fate/Stay Night: Collection 1 has seen the light of day before, but this time it is coming out as a Blue Ray Disc.

25 Years of Pixar

It’s been a bit more than that, but this video was made a few years back by Nick Kinder. And unlike some shortsighted production companies, Pixar not only didn’t get mad or threaten lawsuits, they sent him a library of their work because they liked his appreciation video. Which makes sense; you need serious heart to make the kind of films they do, I make a point of never missing opening week because of that.

Metegol trailer

This non-English animation looks like it might just be a winner. Metegol means Foosball, and this film is based on the book Memoirs of a Right Winger by Roberto Fontanarrosa, an Argentine writer. While the majority of the production work is being done in Argentina, some of the contributions to the final project come from other Hispanic language locations, like the band Calle 13 from Puerto Rico doing the music. It will be hitting the big screen in February, and I am hoping it will include a version with English subtitles so I don’t have to wait for the DVD to come out to enjoy it.

New Crood trailer

From the Dreamwork’s team that brought us How To Train Your Dragon, their new movie The Croods looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. It will be coming out March of next year, and this new trailer shows a bit more about the new world they get into after their cave collapses. The first version of the new trailer evaporated off the server, hopefully this one remains…

Something to Watch: DVD’s 25Dec12

Frankly, I am surprised anything new is being released on Christmas day, and not surprised there are only a couple of titles, all some form of animation. Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is a Machinima coming out on the 28th, but it has been out for viewing in Video On Demand for several weeks already. I suspect some regular Anime fans will enjoy this, but it is targeting the Gamers first. Hakuoki: Record Of The Jade Blood is coming out with season two of this story of the ninja/samurai wars of the Edo period. IDOLM@STER: Xenoglossia brings collection 2 with more Mecha action as the war heats up, as well as developing relationships between the giant robots and their pilots.