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Something to Watch: Discs

The genre films this week are animations, with Zootopia being set in an alternate universe filled with anthropomorphic sentient creatures from all animal species. They created some wonderful characters and a great story line, if you missed it when it was in the theaters you should really try to catch it now. The darkly comedic fantasy Anomalisa also hits the shelves, after having been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Film. Not genre but sufficiently strange to merit a mention here, Hail, Caesar! comes to disc this week.

In Anime Mamoru Hosoda’s multiple award winning film The Boy and The Beast is ready to become part of your permanent collection. Yona of the Dawn: Part 1 begins the story when Yona sees her childhood sweetheart murder her father and usurp the throne. Now she is on the run, gathering allies and preparing for the war that will retake the country and make her its rightful new ruler once again. In Gonna be the Twin-Tail!! Complete Collection Soji is a normal high school boy who suddenly has to battle monsters while wearing pigtails. Fairy Tail – Part 20 brings episodes 227 through 239 of the magical combat comedy home, with all the collateral damage its fans could wish for. Medaka Box: Complete Collection puts season 1 and 2 into the same package for the first time. When Medaka became Class President and put out her suggestion box, she was expecting to be faced with simple issues. Instead she finds herself neck deep in a years old mystery and coverup centered on her school. Likewise Berserk: The Golden Age Arc – Movie Collection allows you to get all three of the films in the arc in a single boxed set.

There are a few re-releases worth mentioning this time around. This time, when you pick up Mamoru Hosoda’s award winning The Girl Who Leapt Through Time you can get it in both Blue Ray and Ultraviolet HD streaming formats, neither of which were available previously. Also Lupin the 3rd: Alcatraz Connection, After War Gundam X, and Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ all become available again for the first time in years.

Monster Trucks trailer

Monster Trucks will be hitting the theaters this January, and it looks like silly family fun for all! I don’t know (or care, really) whether it has a serious story at its core to impart a range of morality tales for our edification. But I have every intention of being in the theater to enjoy it on the big screen once they release it.

Something to Do: Movies

There are three completely different films to select from this weekend, each pointed at a different audience. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows continues with that franchise’s silly fun action/adventure served up Michael Bay style. Approaching the Unknown is a near-future story about a solo mission to colonize Mars which doesn’t seem to have its own web page. Andron has a small group of people trapped inside a maze who have to solve puzzles and win fights to survive, while the rest of the world watches.

Something to Watch: Discs

My favorite movie title this time is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, because I loved it as a book title when Seth Grahame-Smith released it in 2009. I am not normally a fan of Zombie movies, this one made my tiny handful of exceptions, which also includes Shaun Of The Dead and Warm Bodies. Gods of Egypt is the other fantasy movie this week; I missed it in the theaters, and I will be waiting to see it until it comes to a service I already have. If there was any SF/F TV this week I didn’t manage to find it.

Anime has When They Cry: Kai, the second season finding the survivors of the 1983 Great Hinamizawa Disaster continuing to fight for their survival as the time loops keep bringing the disaster back. Log Horizon: Season 2 Part 1 begins six months after thousands of players were trapped in the game, and there is still no escape in sight. With winter coming on they have some hard decisions to make if they want to live into the spring. Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend: Set 2 brings the second season of that story, and the creative team gathered has most of the skills needed to finally build the game. The only aspect they are missing is the music, but the only person they know who creates there own music has no interest in gaming, and urges them to give up their otaku project. The only anime this time around which is not the second season is One Piece – Season 8 Voyage 1, bringing episodes 457 through 468 home; to put that in perspective, they are currently streaming episode 783.

SING: New Trailer

Anthropomorphic animals doing a popular musical reality show is pretty much the story line here, but it could be quite entertaining if they took the time and effort to involve the correct animators, singers, writers, and stage crew. I think this one has the potential to be very good, if they gave it the right touch. Keeping my fingers crossed and looking for their next animation.