Just in case somebody managed to miss the news, The Hobbit hits the big screen this weekend! I don’t need to mention this is based on an amazing book of the same name written by J.R.R. Tolkien, nor that it is the prequil to Lord Of The Rings, both as a book and series of movies. In fact, I didn’t need to even do this blog entry at all, everybody already knows all of this… but just in case somebody missed it, now you know. See you in the theater!
Tom Hanks showed up recently on the late night talk show hosted by Craig Ferguson and briefly discussed Doctor Who. Based on this my best guess is he saw a Tom Baker episode involving the Daleks, got completely confused, and never watched another episode. Of course, it would have been even more amusing had he said the Doctor was the British equivalent of Captain Picard, but I take my amusement where I can find it.
A quite tasty series of givaways centering around the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary have begun, and you can join in over at BBC America’s Anglophenia site. This week’s entry runs until midnight Saturday, the 8th of December; they are looking for your favorite quote from the new season seven opening episode, Asylum of the Daleks. But just giving them the quote isn’t what helps you win; you have to tell them WHY it was your favorite quote, and looking at the answers already posted, it looks like a very stiff conpetition indeed. The prizes are itunes downloads and bragging rights, and this weeks winner gets the Best of Christmas Specials program; good luck!
Yes, I know this has been out for weeks, but I don’t care. I just finished watching The Angels Take Manhattan, and now I can not wait to see the x-mas special. There is never enough Doctor Who in the world. And yes, I had not seen that episode before; I saved it until I was able to watch it with a friend.
While I didn’t find any Fantasy or Sci-Fi movies this week, The Expendables 2 is almost genre when you consider both its close approach to fantasy and the amazing cast.
Just in time for the gift giving season, Dr. Who: Limited Edition Collection contains the new series seasons 1 through 6, and all the specials of that time frame from both the BBC and BBC America, crammed onto 41 disks. They also threw in some other goodies, like an 11th Doctor sonic screwdriver, some art cards, and a comic book. There are over 70 hours just in the actual episodes themselves, and more hours still for the extras. If you know someone who loves the Doctor but doesn’t own anything more recent than Sylvester McCoy, this is the perfect gift for them. I have seen it priced from $150 to $240, so you do want to shop around to find the best deal on it. Somehow I don’t believe Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Complete Series is going to draw the same kind of loyal fan interest or numbers, but it is also becoming available this week.
In western animation we have Dragons: Riders of Berk, a TV series based on the award winning How To Train Your Dragon from Dreamworks. At least, I think it is western animation. With most major animation houses having studios in both California and China it is getting harder to tell these days.
In Anime, there are two special edition boxed sets that seem way overpriced to me for the contents included. Bakemonogatari has as its protagonist a boy who is saved from being turned into a vampire, only to consequently discover all his female friends are suffering from apparition induced afflictions. The central character in Garden of Sinners spent two years in a coma, to awake and discover she can see the lines of mortality tying together the living and the dead. One is a set of 7 feature length film, the other a series of fifteen 25 minute episodes, but with an SRP of just over $180 each that comes to between 34 to 55 cents PER MINUTE. Even the best sale price I could find only reduced them to $150 before taxes and shipping, and even with the extra booklets and art cards I don’t really see enough additional value to justify that kind of price.
The much more realistically priced Cluster Edge: Collection 2 continues the story of transfer student Agate and his friends at the elite school Cluster E.A., as the artificial soldiers and the tapestry of history threaten to come crashing down on everyone. The long running classic InuYasha may finally be coming to a conclusion with InuYasha: The Final Act Set 1. The powerful jewel is almost reassembled but in the hands of the enemy, and the race is on to gather the final fragments. The release of Soul Eater: The Complete Series puts the whole thing in a single box set for the first time. This gives a much better price point than when your only option was to buy it as four separate box sets, so if you have been waiting to pick it up, now might be the time. And finally, Bobobo-Bo Bo-Bobo: Part 2 continues the silliness begun in part one.
The Watch is a comedy about neighborhood patrol types out to protect themselves from an alien invasion, much as we saw in Attack The Block. It does have one particularly good comedic actor, who you will no doubt recognize from IT Crowd. The other live action film this week is Snowmageddon, and it also has a few actors you will recognize.
In TV, Doctor Who: Series Seven, Part One brings us the first half of the latest season, 7 episodes long. The Christmas special and the episodes in 2013 will comprise the second half, but they will have a special treat among them: Neil Gaiman is writing another episode, and after what he did with The Doctors Wife I can’t wait to see it!
The other TV series this time is Lost Girl: The Complete Second Season, and if you haven’t been following it, you really should start soon. This is a very well done series with a bit of a supernatural twist. Pretty much everything else coming out this week is a re-release of a classic or recent series, with the possible exception of Variable Geo Neo. That OVA set was made back in 2004, but I do not know if it was previously released in North America or not.
There are several quality selections in Western Animation this week from Pixar, including their wonderful feature film Brave. If you missed it in the theaters, now is the time to correct that error, and if you didn’t you already know how good it is. They are also releasing the Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 2, with still more amazing and intelligent animations for the whole family. A motion comic rather than an animation, Marvel Knights Astonishing X-Men: Unstoppable is the fourth installation in this story arc, with Joss Whedon and John Cassaday bringing impeccable storytelling and quality graphics to the table once again.
The Anime feature film this week is Children Who Chase Lost Voices, another excellent story by award winning Makoto Shinkai, who’s previous works include 5 Centimeters Per Second and Voices of a Distant Star. His animations have a haunting beauty about them, and his stories always go right for the heart. Pretty much everything else is a re-release of some form, such as Linebarrels of Iron: Complete Series, which is coming out in a S.A.V.E. version (Super Amazing Value Edition). That means if you shop around, you can probably find it for around $20 or so.