The movie is now in theaters in Tokyo, and while it will be a while before they put together an English version and release it in North America, the extended trailer is still fun to watch even in Japanese. Thanks to the folks at Otaku USA for the heads up on this one.
The new trailer came out on the 14th, but I haven’t posted it yet, so hear it is. The Great And Powerful Oz is the first Oz project I have been excited about since Tin Man surprised me several years ago.
Because of the holiday weekend, things kick off on Wednesday, the 21st, with Rise of the Guardians for those looking for an animated fantasy quest. Dreamworks does their usual world-class job on the animation, and the voice talent is pretty amazing, so it should be quite good. Life of Pi is an adventure story about survival that puts quite a twist on the classic man in a lifeboat plot. Hansel and Gretel & the 420 Witch is a horror/comedy about the brother and sister team who battle the evil witch who is attacking their classmates.
If this trailer is any indication, The Mortal Instruments: City Of Bones may be a very interesting movie indeed. Based on the book of the same name written by Cassandra Clare, it is the first volume of The Mortal Instruments series, which means if it does well there are more stories ready and waiting to join it on the big screen.
I am sorry to report the only new genre film I am aware of this week involves vampires who shimmer in the sun, instead of bursting into flames the way they were meant to. They would, taking the cellulose film stock with them, if there was any justice in the world. Yes, I mean The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2. This should be a good weekend to see something released in the last few weeks that I missed, though.
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.