The weekend’s here. You’ve just been paid, and it’s burning a hole in your pocket. What’s a pop culture geek to do? In hopes of steering you in the right direction to blow some of that hard-earned cash, it’s time for the FRED Weekend Shopping Guide – your spotlight on the things you didn’t even know you wanted…
(Please support FRED by using the links below to make any impulse purchases – it helps to keep us going…)
Between Sideshow and Hot Toys, this year has been an endless cascade of riches for any red-blooded Star Wars nerd, with some truly exceptional releases coming down the pike. Hot on the heels of Hot Toys’s ridiculously neat 1/6-scale Obi-Wan Kenobi comes Sideshow’s take on the Luke Skywalker: Red Five X-Wing Pilot ($239), as seen in A New Hope. The outfit itself is spot-on, with fine detailing and tailoring and plenty of little fiddley bits and tools. The real highlight, though, is Sideshow’s strongest actor portrait to date, with a pretty good take on pre-accident Mark Hamill. He looks great either helmeted or unhelmeted, and the process of swapping is pretty painless. The figure is accessories light, with the main bonus being ungloved hands and a pair of folded gloves that are a Sideshow exclusive.
While Criterion has been releasing the features that he helmed himself, a similarly wonderful and much-needed restoration of Charlie Chaplin’s earlier work at other studios has been neglected over the years, even though there have been plenty of releases of the material. Finally, though, a definitive edition of both Chaplin’s Essanay Comedies (Flicker Alley, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$59.95 SRP) and Chaplin’s Mutual Comedies (Flicker Alley, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$49.99 SRP) has been produced, remastered and lovingly restored in high definition. The results? Revelatory. The 27 films spread across the two sets chart the rise of Chaplin as an artist and the development of his most iconic character, The Tramp, after the end of his Keystone contract. Each set also contains a selection of bonus films and alternate cuts, plus the Mutual set has a documentaries on the birth of The Tramp and Chaplin’s onscreen nemesis, Eric Campbell. Yes, so… Get these sets.
The period covered in Peanuts Every Sunday: 1961-1965 (Fantagraphics, $49.99 SRP) is, arguably, the high water mark of Charles Schulz’s iconic run, as the still-protean strip of the 50s found its rhythm and began consistently hitting the beats that would define the rest of its tenure on the comics page. And it’s brilliant to see these Sunday strips printed in full color in a large, beautiful format. These volumes can’t come fast enough, especially as we come to the close of The Complete Peanuts releases.
And because this is the holiday season, and you know you want to give the gift of Peanuts, Fantagrpahics has made it very easy with a pair of perfect gifts. Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron (Fantagraphics, $24.99 SRP) collects every strip featuring the beagle’s aerial derring-do from across the comic’s 50-year history. And Charlie Brown’s Christmas Stocking (Fantagraphics, $9.99 SRP) reprints in a single easily stocking-stuffed volume two classic holiday tales that haven’t been in print for decades.
The 4th volume of The Dona Rosa Library, Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Last Of The Clan McDuck (Fantagraphics, $29.99 SRP), is the first installment collecting my favorite batch of Rosa duck stories, as they chronicle the history of Scrooge McDuck by expertly weaving the mythology established by Carl Barks into a cohesive narrative. As with previous volumes, there are extensive end notes and bonus material from Rosa that make this the definitive presentation of these duck tales.
Going in to the theater, I truly didn’t know what to expect from the updated though still a period piece Man From U.N.C.L.E (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$44.95 SRP), but was pleasantly surprised to find a fun, funny retro action film that recalled the best of classic Bond with an engaging trio of leads in Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, and Alicia Vikander. So, cheers Guy Ritchie. It was a hoot, and I hope there’s a sequel. Bonus materials include a clutch of featurettes.
I admit, I was underwhelmed by Ant-Man (Walt Disney, Rated PG-13, 3D Blu-Ray-$39.99 SRP) when I saw it in the theater. Tonally, it just seemed all over the place, and while it didn’t leave me as cold as Thor: The Dark World or Iron Man 2, it was still a disappointment. However, I’m revising my feelings for the film up a bit after seeing it again on home, where its tonal wonkiness doesn’t quite as egregious, and the 3-D presentation of the micro world is still a hoot.. Bonus materials includes an audio commentary, deleted/extended scenes, and featurettes.
Director D.A. Pennebaker’s iconic Bob Dylan documentary Don’t Look Back (Criterion, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$39.95 SRP) gets a much-deserved and really good-looking high definition release from the folks at Criterion, which ports over the bonus features from the previous release, including an audio commentary, interviews, outtakes, short films, plus some new materials exclusive to this edition.
No additional amount of footage could make The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies Extended Edition (Warner Bros., Rated R, 3D Blu-Ray-$45.38 SRP) any less of a mess than, really, the whole bloated trilogy has been. I find that I don’t really have ire for them, but instead see them as meandering visits in a world I find interesting with characters I am mostly fond of. What really is the key draw of these editions are the brilliant, ridiculously long Appendices documentaries that these editions have featured going all the way back to the Lord Of The Rings, and this set gives us a final 10 hours worth of sometimes brutally candid behind-the-scenes material.
While what does make it out and onto the silver screen is magical, there’s plenty of magic that exists solely in the early creative process that gives birth to films from Toy Story to The Good Dinosaur, and it’s a special peek into that room that fills the pages of Funny: Twenty-Five Years Of Laughter From The Pixar Story Room (Chronicle Books, $29.95 SRP).
It’s been quite a long while since I took a gander at some of the wonderful little catalogue gems the Warner Archive has been carting up from the dark depths of their vault, so here’s a rundown of some of those titles you should check out. There’s the forgotten animated gem Bebe’s Kids (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, DVD-$17.99 SRP), director Richard Attenborough’s Oh! What A Lovely War (Warner Bros., Rated G, DVD-$17.99 SRP), Glenn Close & Jeremy Irons as the von Bulows in Reversal Of Fortune (Warner Bros., Rated R, DVD-$17.99 SRP), the George Lucas-produced animated feature Twice Upon A Time (Warner Bros., Rated PG, DVD-$21.99 SRP), the 5-film pre-code collection Forbidden Hollywood: Volume 9 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$40.99 SRP), Ed Wynn in The Chief (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$21.99 SRP), Alec Guinness in Hotel Paradiso (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$21.99 SRP), Jack Benny in It’s In The Air (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$21.99 SRP), the Rankin/Bass Wind In The Willows (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$17.99 SRP), and the Adult Swim series Squidbillies: Volume 6 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$17.99 SRP) and NTSF:SD:SUV Season 1 (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$21.99 SRP).
The real surprise, though, is how many high definition releases the Warner Archive has been delivering to fans, often for mush-requested titles that many (myself included) had given up hope of ever getting. So, now we’ve got Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys (Warner Bros., Rated PG, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), Richard Donner’s Ladyhawke (Warner Bros., Rated PG-13, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), Albert Finney in Wolfen (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), Humphrey Bogart in Passage To Marseille (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), vampire David Bowie in The Hunger (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), Thank Your Lucky Stars (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), 42nd Street (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), Jose Ferrer in Deep In My Heart (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), Dolph Lundgren & Brandon Lee in Showdown In Little Tokyo (Warner Bros., Rated R, Blu-Ray-$21.99 SRP), and the long awaited arrival of Justice League Unlimited: The Complete Series (Warner Bros., Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$35.99 SRP).
The Warner Archive has also continued emptying the vaults of nearly everything produced by Hanna-Barbera, which now includes Clue Club: The Complete Series (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP), Galtar And The Golden Lance: The Complete Series (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$29.99 SRP), Centurions: The Original Miniseries (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$17.99 SRP), The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$29.99 SRP), Snorks: The Complete Second Season (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$21.99 SRP), and the Hanna-Barbera Specials Collection (Warner Bros., Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP).
It’s been a long time coming, but Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All (Eagle Vision, Not Rated, Blu-Ray-$29.98 SRP) is the definitive documentary on the Chairman Of The Board that fans deserve, taking an in-depth look at his history and career in a decidedly comprehensive fashion with remarkable access.
Based on the notorious titular college study, The Stanford Prison Experiment (IFC, Rated R, DVD-$24.98 SRP) dramatizes the events of 1971, when Stanford University professor Phillip Zimbardo cast 24 students as inmates and guards in a mock prison, only to see the middle-class young men degenerate into the same abusive behavior the study was created to understand. Bonus materials include an audio commentary, featurettes, and a trailer.
Zac Efron stars as an aspiring DJ who gets swept up in friendship, love, and betrayal when he crosses paths with a famous DJ (Wes Bentley) that could be the key to his success in We Are Your Friends (Warner Bros., Rated R, DVD-$29.98 SRP). The sole bonus is a featurette on Efron’s process for learning to DJ.
The first two seasons were groundbreaking, but the third season of Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central, Not Rated, DVD-$22.98 SRP) is when the comedy really began hitting some truly sublime levels, key amongst them being the epic “12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer” episode. Bonus materials include an unaired sketch, unaired “Amy Goes Deep” interviews, and outtakes.
The chronology of the Terminator films is a bit of a mess. And by that, I mean it’s confusing. And every installment in the franchise has made it even more confusing, full of time travel paradoxes and nonsense that make the best way to really enjoy Terminator: Genisys (Paramount, Rated PG-13, 3D Blu-Ray-$52.99 SRP) is simply sit back and get a kick out of seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger back in the inevitable doomsday time travel equivalent of Jiffy Pop. Because it still makes very little sense. Bonus materials include a clutch of featurettes and commentaries.
Largely overlooked, unjustly so, now’s your chance to check out Nicole Kidman as the titular Grace Of Monaco (Anchor Bay, Not Rated, DVD-$19.98 SRP), which looks at Kelly as her marriage to Prince Rainier (Timk Roth) is on the rocks and Alfred Hitchcock is calling on her to take on the title role in Marnie, leaving her with a difficult decision.
The 3rd season comes to an intergalactic climactic head in the final 12-episode arc contained in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Revenge! (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$19.99 SRP), with the introduction of the Mutanimals, Mondo Gecko, dinosaurs, and some time travel along the way. Bonus materials include a dozen behind-the-scenes shorts and a season 4 preview.
Part of their Secrets Of The Dead series, PBS’s Jamestown’s Dark Winter (PBS, Not Rated, DVD-$24.99 SRP) investigates the life and attempts to riddle out the death of a young Jamestown colonist whose remains were discovered in a cellar dating back to 1609.
While the heat of the game has cooled a bit, there’s still a bit of charm and fun to be found in the animated offerings based on it, with Angry Birds Toons: Season Two Volume One, Stella: Season One, and Piggy Tales: Season One (Sony, Not Rated, DVD-$14.99 SRP each). And you know what? The trailer for the film makes it seem fun, too. Weird!
There’s quite a bit of endearingly goofball magic lost when you age Dora the Explorer up to tweenhood for Dora and Friends (Nickelodeon, Not Rated, DVD-$22.98 SRP), the complete first season of which is now available, full of Dora tweening about with her friends.
So there you have it… my humble suggestions for what to watch, listen to, play with, or waste money on this coming weekend. See ya next week…
-Ken Plume
##
Pixar. Listen. Why do you want to make me cry? You’re absolutely brutal with the feels, and you know exactly what buttons to push. And you push them all with 
As a new Pixar film hits theaters, that also means we get a brand new tome chronicling the artistic journey from concept to final picture with 
And because we’re not quite done with Pixar yet, they’ve helped to craft the perfect gift for budding filmmakers eager to have a journal in which to chart the progress of their own creative project’s journey with 
I’ll admit, I got swept up in the emotional wave of celebrating October 21, 2015 – the “future” date Marty and Doc (and Einstein & Jennifer) traveled to in order to do something about Marty & Jennifer’s kids. So, yes, bring on a brand new 
The now-yearly specials are certainly building anticipation for a new feature-length adventure while managing to be fun-filled romps in their own right, and that’s certainly what last year’s 
Whenever a new home theater technology arrives on the scene, there comes a home video release of a beloved property that’s meant to be the perfect showcase for said technology. With Dolby’s new Atmos sound technology, designed to make the viewer feel sonically immersed in the world they’re watching, the first television series to embrace it is HBO’s flagship show, Game Of Thrones. So what does that mean? That means we get brand new Atmos versions of 
While it seems this is the millionth release of the film on various media, you know in your heart of hearts that you’ll be purchasing 
You have a lot of gadgets, gear, and gizmos to be carting around with you as cold descends on the land, so why not face the elements with all of your stuff safely stowed about your person with the 
As someone who owns the vintage Making Ghostbusters, which explored the production of the original film, I was waiting for the day when someone would come along and offer up an updated and expanded look at the creation of the franchise as a whole, incorporating both films, the animated series, comics, video games, and more. 
You’d think there’d few variations left to mine in going meta on the slasher flick genre, but 
Yeah, well, don’t try and make sense of the Terminator timeline. By the time we’ve reached 
There are a lot of elaborate hoo-has on what is ultimately a straightforward straight shooter, which is ultimately the strength of Nerf’s 
Oh, 
Didier Ghez is a brilliant illuminator of the often unexplored corners of the art and artists behind the Disney films, and he’s brought that the unique and wonderful skill to 
PBS’s In Their Own Words is a unique spin on the biodoc format, which as the title suggests relies heavily upon quotes from the subjects themselves to guide the narrative, through archive footage and extensive interviews with intimates. Give a trio of cultural luminaries a spin, with episodes focusing on 
I suppose every comic actor should get their chance to stumble into a redeeming dramatic part, and Jason Segel gets his portraying author David Foster Wallace in The End Of The Tour (Lionsgate, Rated R, Blu-Ray-$24.99 SRP), about a road trip during which he’s interviewed by journalist David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg). Bonus materials include an audio commentary, deleted scenes, interviews, and featurettes.
It got a disastrous blink-and-you-missed-it theatrical release, which is a shame, because Aardman’s 
Sadly, it was our enjoyment of bombastic action flicks like 
There’s nothing like the restoration of a pair of kitschy old-school genre films to make a cinephile go all warm and fuzzy, which is exactly the internal reaction generated by the restoration of the Vincent Price & Agnes Morehead thriller 
Back when a pair of ideological rivals could have intellectual bareknuckle debates on the airwaves, the two greatest heavyweights were William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal. However intellectual it was, though, their verbal sparring, which began during ABC’s coverage of the 1968 Democratic and Republican Conventions, definitely laid the groundwork for the uncivil cesspit of television discourse we have today. To see exactly what I’m on about, check out the excellent documentary 
I would probably have not given a tie-in book to the show Vikings the time of day if I hadn’t discovered it was written by author, historian, and all-around great bloke Justin Pollard, which automatically elevated 
Very few sitcoms have gotten the high definition treatment, and particularly not one that goes back over 10 years, but now you can snag 
A powerful look at an all-too-brief life, 
Starting in a small Pudding Lane bakery and eventually engulfing the city of London, the disastrous events beginning September 2, 1666 are dramatized in 
The main problem with the modern quasi-sequel 
Listen to a rocking set as Martha Davis & The Motels celebrate the legendary LA club’s 50th anniversary with 
SwaySway and Buhdeuce fly their rocket van from their Nickelodeon animated series into brand new comic book adventures in 
This weekend’s turn off your brain and hop on the rollercoaster low-budget action flick is 
Wow. 
While I’m still wary, I admit that my position on the upcoming Peanuts movie has softened considerably, to the point that I’m now actually looking forward to seeing it. A large part of the impetus for that change of heart can be found in the pages of 
The folks controlling the mighty Carson archive have dipped back into the vaults for the next batch of The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson: Featured Guest Series (Carson Entertainment, Not Rated, DVD-$19.99 SRP each), each volume of which devotes an entire disc just to episodes featuring a specific luminary. The second three volumes in the series spotlight 
It’s been a crime of Biffian proportions that we’ve been without a proper book celebrating the making of the Back To The Future Trilogy, but now we’ve been gifted with two must-have volumes. First is the unauthorized, wholly candid We Don’t Need Roads, and the second is the officially sanctioned 
I think we’re all in agreement that NERF has pretty much gotten their whole NERF dart thing pretty well sorted when it comes to their various NERF guns. So how do they put a new variation on their delivery system? Howzabout a slingshot? With a pullstring release, the single-fire 
The key to measurement is accuracy, so the 
It’s raining Rickles, as Time Life has gone and delivered 
Featuring all 107 episodes completely unedited, 
Based on the WWI memoir of Vera Brittain and starring Alicia Vikander and Kit Harrington, 
Have you ever wanted to see the three films of the original trilogy summed up in a dozen words with a dozen vignettes, all constructed out of felt? OF COURSE YOU DO. And that’s just what Star Wars: Epic Yarns delivers in the most delightful way in its trio of books, for 
And if that weren’t enough unbelievably cute Star Wars for you, then there’s also the special edition boxed release of Jeffrey’s Brown’s 
You know, if it weren’t for Adam Sandler’s half-hearted performance, 
Combining comedy, drama, short films, commentary, music, animation, and a highbrow sensibility, PBS’s 
Few shows in recent memory have been as visually and artistically creative as Pen Wards Adventure Time, so it’s only right that fans can snag 
And speaking of the current renaissance on Cartoon Network, you should also definitely pick up 
When a trained military dog is sent from Afghanistan to the U.S. and the family of his killed-in-action handler, the titular canine, 
As his latest big screen adventure hits and the current actor portraying him has voiced his desire to move on, now’s the prefect time for 
Time and distance have done little to make 1999’s television fantasy miniseries event 
I find her music disarmingly infectious and her live shows ridiculously energetic, and that’s all on display in her massive arena shows, captured on 
We’ll probably never get a Pirates Of The Caribbean TV series, so the closest we’ll come is the pirates a-plenty series 
Because the success of The Fault In Our Stars means that every thing that author John Green wrote will get a green light, his 
If you’d expect George Miller’s visually memorable Mad Max: Fury Road to have an equally eye-popping book packed with the film’s visual development artwork, your expectations would be met with 
While the film may have been DOA at the box office, there’s no denying that there’s enough Guillermo del Toro visual flair and attention to detail there to justify 
From their turn-of-the-20th century rise in power to their height of control in the 50s, 
In 1946, Salvador Dali and Walt Disney began collaborating on an animated film. Postwar difficulties at the Disney studio eventually derailed the project and it was shelved, but it was revived decades later by Walt’s nephew Roy. The story of its origins, development, and revival are detailed in 
A streamlined relaunch of the venerable franchise, 
Frank Zappa was bizarre. His music was bizarre. But both were eminently compelling. See for yourself in the newly-recovered 
He’s a genius and a swell guy, so of course I’m going to recommend Terry Gilliam’s “Pre-Posthumous Memoir” 
And speaking of Sideshow Collectibles, photographer Daniel Picard has taken several of the figures they’ve released over the years and used them to create some absolutely magical photographs by dropping them into exquisitely crafted tableaus that run the gamut from funny to poignant. Those photographs have been collected together into a hardcover coffee table book, 
Disney’s slow trickle home video release of their high-profile animated films has always been painful for those of us who want to own everything right now, compounded by the fact that I’ve gone through this dance with VHS, DVD, and now Blu-Ray. After what seems forever and a day, another long-awaited diamond has made it out of the rough with the high-def arrival of 
I had been hearing for months just how must-see wonderful the Brian Wilson biopic 
Its spin-off has faded into the sunset, so it’s the perfect time to circle back and re-experience where it all began with 
Yeah, so, you’ve got a bunch of old NES and SNES cartridges lying around from your childhood, and you’d love to be able to play them, right? Of course you would! And how about making the ability to play portable, as well? That’s exactly what you get with the 
Not only has Shout Factory brought the long out-of-print and ridiculously priced on the secondary market 
When most comic fans think of Donald Duck, they think of the comic book work of Carl Barks. The folks at IDW are looking to expand the appreciation of Donald’s comic adventures with the very first collection of 
And because Halloween is right around the corner, Fantagraphics has used that perfect timing to release volume 13 of their marvelous Carl Barks Library, 
If you’re looking for a pretty darn perfect way to introduce a young kid to the wonderful wonders of Carl Barks’s Disney duck tales, Fantagraphics has hit upon a handy little reformatting style for some of his classic stories, presenting them in a 5×11 style that’s perfect for carting about. Joining the already available 
While their cinematic universe is a drab, depressing antiheroic wasteland, the DC Comics television universe as been evolving into a lovely, interconnected, heroic bastion of enjoyable tales. While the third season of 
I desperately wanted to love Brad Bird’s 
The impending arrival of the new animated film on the big screen means we’re getting a deluge of books featuring and celebrating his creations, and one of the most beautiful is Chip Kidd’s 
A hearty thank you to the home video gurus at Warner Bros., who have used their mojo to shake loose and release a quartet of oft-requested catalogue titles from Paramount and get them in the hands of fans in glorious high-def. Those titles include the Harrison Ford building a barn vehicle 
Try and avoid the increasingly creaky Modern Family and instead focus your attention on the genuinely fresh and funny 
Yeah, I was certainly one of those fans who was deeply worried that the show wouldn’t be able to stick the landing at the end of its run, but the seven episodes of 
Biding time patiently for the next full season high-def release? Partake of 
Knowing that his artists, who had been toiling away on Mickey Mouse shorts and Silly Symphonies, were not quite ready to tackle something as artistically ambitious as their first feature, Snow White, Walt Disney arranged for what essentially was an in-house art school, organized by Chouinard instructor Don Graham. Featuring lecturers like Frank Lloyd Wright and Alexander Woollcott, the long-filed and rarely seen notes from those presentations have been collected together with context and copious illustrations in 
It’s the fall and a new season has begun, which means we also get the release of the previous season with the arrival of 
A zombie medical resident who works at the morgue, eats brains, and solves murders with the psychic information she gleans while eating those brains? From the guy who gave us Veronica Mars? Sure, I’ll watch that show. And you should watch the complete first season of 
The Peanuts gang ventures into international territory in 
From the work of Bill Theiss on the original series through the work of Robert Blackman and Michael Kaplan on the modern shows and films, 
Tell me 20 years ago, and I never would have believed you if you’d told me that Bobcat Goldthwait would turn out to be a filmmaker crafting some deeply fascinating films, the most recent of which, 
As finales of NuWho go, the two-parter 
As a film 
There are enough dour and depressing aspects barnacled on to the Batman universe that sometimes it takes a bit of real world joy to brighten up the impact of the Dark Knight, and that’s what we get from the documentary 
As much guff as Keanu Reeves has gotten for his acting and film choices over the years, his performance in Gus Van Sant’s 
I know my nephews, huge fans, probably would have begged to see 
While they’ve been available as separate collections of episodes, all of those separate discs have now been brought together in 
If you’re a fan of arthouse cinema – also known as, ya know, really good films that contain almost no CG, aliens, or superheroes – then the curated collection of 10 films put together by the award-winning team at Indiepix, running the gamut from comedy to drama to documentary, is right up your alley. The specially assembled lot includes 
Remember in the 1990s, when every year seemed to bring a new batch of Jackie Chan movies? Well, Warners aims tom remind you, with the high definition debut of a pair of those 90s Chan flicks – 
What do you do when your main character left the male stripping world at the end of your first surprisingly successful film but you really, really want to make a sequel? You use the old “Getting the band back together for one last hurrah” trope, and that’s exactly what we get in 
Just like the documentaries on World Wars I & II before it, there’s something undeniably fascinating in seeing history come to life merely by introducing color to what has always been black & white, and when it comes to photography, 
We haven’t gotten a proper Christmas episode out of the current iteration of the characters, so we’ll have to go to the last series for a festive 
A film like 
When you’ve exhausted sequels, go back and make a prequel, which is just what 
Now that we have cleared the Elmo storm that threatened to capsize the venerable institution known as Sesame Street, we’re able to refocus on the show’s true heart and icon, Big Bird, and the incredibly gifted performer who gave soul to both the bird and his emotional counterpoint, Oscar The Grouch, Caroll Spinney. The vehicle for this celebration is the brilliant documentary 
To say that 
While the recent must-have sets culled episodes from the show’s later seasons, we thankfully cleared whatever red tape hampered the release of 
As slaves to all of our USB rechargeable devices, it would be supremely helpful to be able to figure out which ports and cables will juice those devices to full capacity in the fastest time possible. Well, now you can figure out the answers to all of those important questions and do something about it with the 
While the legendary Carl Barks will always be foremost among the many comics creators working with Disney’s ducks, not the least for his creation of Scrooge McDuck, the second position in my heart goes to Don Rosa. Taking his inspiration from Barks, Rosa was able to craft incredible epics for a new generation of fans, full of intricate details and mythology that embraced the legacy of Barks’ classics. The fine folks at Fantagraphics have been following up their wonderful Carl Barks Library releases with the third volume in their Don Rosa Library, 
The folks controlling the mighty Carson archive have dipped back into the vaults for a series I sincerely hope has some legs, because I’m loving their The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson: Featured Guest Series (Carson Entertainment, Not Rated, DVD-$19.99 SRP each), which devote an entire disc just to episodes featuring a specific luminary. The first three volumes in the series spotlight 
Pixar has had two of them already, but this is the first time that the modern shorts from the House of Mouse get their own spotlight with the 
Listen, I never thought we’d see any seasons, let alone get to the point where we’d see the release of the second and final season of Don Rickles short-lived 70s sitcom 
It’s rare to get a science fiction film that doesn’t fall apart under its own pretension (I’m looking at you, Tomorrowland), so it was a pleasant surprise to find 
It’s unfortunate that it’s not a Blu-Ray release, because it is a beautifully shot series, but 
I’m still not a fan of the character design and animation, but the first season of 
And if that’s not enough Star Wars to keep your adrenaline going, why not enjoy the delightfully daft take on the canon with 
For years, Berkeley Breathed, creator of the legendary Bloom County and Outland, swore that there would never be a comprehensive release of the strips he produced during his college years. Despite pleading fans desperate to complete their collections with these proto-Breathed rarities, he was adamant it would never happen. Well, guess what? He changed his mind. So now, the fine folks at IDW, who have released the complete runs of Bloom County, Outland, and Opus, have now released 
As we barrel towards the holiday season, are you looking for the perfect gift for the Harry Potter fan in your life? And a practical one, at that? How about the 
Warners opens their vault to bring a trio of catalogue releases to Blu-Ray for the first time, with the high definition debut of 
Cartoon Network is the current home for some absolutely wonderful creator-driven animation, and the perfect example of that is the beautifully executed miniseries 
After he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, music legend Glen Campbell decided to embark on a national goodbye tour across America. What was supposed to have only been 5 week tour turned into a year-and-half, and the poignantly triumphant documentary 
As they mine their IP catalogue, I was not terribly fond of Disney’s recent dour live action take on Maleficent. Maybe that’s why I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I wound up enjoying director Kenneth Branagh’s take on 
Keen for the kind of middling heist movie you might have seen on a lazy Saturday afternoon on HBO? And makes the unlikely pairing of Hayden Cristensen and Adrian Brody? Look no further than 
If there’s one thing we can thank the new Goosebumps movie for, it’s that it got Sony to release a trio of high-def special editions for their modern kiddie classics 
It got off to a bit of a rough start, but there’s a very definite quirky charm to be found in 
Disney animator/director Eric Goldberg, best known for his work on Genie in Aladdin, was recently tasked with creating as series of black & white portraits in the style of the legendary Al Hirshfeld, featuring classic Disney characters from Mickey to Baymax and beyond. Those portraits have been collected in 
Fans of DC superheroes in their animated incarnations have a one-two power punch of titles to pick from, with the wonderful romp that is 
Ten years after it failed to find an audience during its initial run on HBO but managed to build a healthy cult following, Lisa Kudrow returned as B-list TV star Valerie Cherish in 
The fourth season of 
We’re 5 seasons in to 
On a scale of sane to crazy, the first season of 
You want a solid B movie starring formerly “Stone Cold” Steve Austin as a fixer alongside war veteran turned assassin Michael Jai White? Well, that’s 
Based on the Thomas Hardy novel, 
Take an in-depth look at director Joe Wright’s cinematic trip to Neverland in 
For the first time in almost 30 years, Jeff Lynne’s ELO performed live for a massive audience in London, captured in the concert film 
The comedy was, by design, of the truly cornpone caliber, but the real joy of digging into the 3-disc 
The best I can say about the comedic teaming of Reese Witherspoon and Sophia Vergara in 
Aquatic evildoers beware, for 
The story of newlywed senior citizens Alan (Sir Derek Jacobi) and Celia (Anne Reid) continues in 
While the rest of the show would manage to make even Aaron Spelling slightly embarrassed, the first season of 
The premise of 
Kids in need of a lesson can learn one with their Nickelodeon friends with 
We’re nearing the end of the summer, so you know what that means – It’s time to binge-watch all of the DVD releases of your favorite TV shows in order to prime for their return in the coming weeks. With that in mind, dig into 
Nickelodeon has a pair of new compilation releases to keep the kiddies occupied, and with titles like 
Holidays mean we’re increasingly bombarded by themed collections of nearly every known intellectual property, which means that we even get 
Dig in to two nifty series from the Beeb with the release of 
Fans of the ever-growing NCIS franchise can binge to their heart’s content on the previous seasons of all three of the currently running shows with 
Because I have absolutely nothing to hide and have no shame about it, I’ll admit that I had Care Bears as a kid. Both figures and stuffed animals. I also had Get-Along Gang figures. And a Shirt Tales doll. Which is all to say, don’t judge me. And I won’t judge you if you want to pick up 
There is an audience for 
Slowly but surely, the high definition releases of 
Walt Disney Records tip-top Legacy Collection continues to roll along with the release of Randy Newman’s score and songs from 
It’s a long, long dry spell until the next season starts, so fill that time with a roll down memory lane with the 2-disc 
In what I can only hope is a precedent they expand upon, the purveyors of preservation at Criterion have released a high definition special edition of producer Franics Ford Coppola’s underrated children’s classic 
Season 7 of 
Bruce Timm returns to the animated DC universe with a far darker alternate universe take on the familiar triumvirate of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman in 
After being run out of the city by an invasion of the Krang, our half-shell heroes take back the town in 
It’s Office Space in hell, but the chief reason to recommend the first season of Adult Swim’s 
Adam Goldberg is the titular musician in the midst of a mid-life crisis in 
Who doesn’t love a brilliant and incredibly beautiful BBC nature documentary? Both of those adjectives certainly apply to both 
I thought the film was certainly an improvement over the original trilogy of awful X-Men films, which is not much of an accomplishment, so I was more curious than excited to see what director Bryan Singer had in mind for his 
I can’t quite figure out who the more cartoonish characters are in 
Nicholas Sparks works his soft focus, mealy-hearted magic again with 
Patience has been rewarded for fans of Hayao Miyazaki, as his brilliant animated classic 
A cult cult classic, 
Leave it to Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman to do for the spy genre what they did for superheroes in X-Men: First Class by injecting a bit of vim and vigor into their adaptation of 
There’s a special kind of joy to be found when cracking open and becoming invested in a book a part of you knew always should have existed but finally does. 
Celebrate America’s birthday with the most comprehensive restoration and stunning presentation of a musical classic with the high definition debut of 
Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Kevin Murphy return with a brand new batch of short form hilarity with 
He still lives in a pineapple under the sea, but 
Every month brings a new clutch of iconic films given the high definition treatment by movie mavens at Criterion, with June’s must-have titles being Terry Gilliam’s 
Over the past year, Paramount has been providing a boon to coompletionist fans of beloved TV shows by releasing complete series megasets from their rather deep catalogue of classics. The latest programs to get the uber-massive treatment are 
Another month brings another sterling entry in Disney’s remastered and expanded Legacy Collection of soundtrack re-releases, with the latest being the film that out a creatively and financially shaky post-war Disney studio back in the black, 1950’s 
I do enough traveling that I’m always drowning in cords and desperate to find the perfect combination of cords to streamline my terribly complicated existence. Thankfully, Thinkgeek has a pair of nifty items that have now made their way into my travel bag. First is the 
Existing in the period between the departure of William Hanna & Joe Barbera and the short run from the legendary Chuck Jones, 
Chris Vance returns as the titular high-octane deliveryman in the second season of 
Liam Neeson further cements his reputation as a man not to be trifled with in 
Inspector Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) continues his struggle to tackle the seedy underworld of Edwardian Whitechapel in the 3rd season of 
Listen, I wouldn’t have pined for them, but both Tarsem Singh’s 
The folks at Mill Creek open up the Columbia vaults for another batch of reasonably-priced catalogue releases, with James Mason & Helen Mirren in 
Get your reality fix this weekend with a pair of powerful documentaries, the first of which is director Robert Kenner’s 
I was wholly unaware that Joan Rivers hosted her own syndicated daytime talk show in the late 60s out of New York City, so it was with keen interest that I dove into 
Promoting the then-recent It’s Hard album, 
Finally getting a proper official release from the band’s archive, 
It’s a slight, toss-off little comedy, but 
No one will ever mistake it for Citizen Kane, but there’s a certain affable charm to David Spade’s performance as the titular schlub searching for his parents in 
Even though outside success means that the days of Adam, Blake, and Ders are probably numbered, enjoy the merry misadventures of 
Mash together the world’s most famous cat & mouse combo with the globe-trotting adventurer Jonny Quest and you get the direct-to-video original feature 
Keep the kiddies occupied over the long summer holidays with Nickelodeon’s 3-disc 
It’s long-established that HBO’s 
Another month brings another sterling entry in Disney’s remastered and expanded Legacy Collection of soundtrack re-releases, with the latest being the 1955 animated classic 
J.B. Kaufman’s epic 
As a child of the 80s, and a comic book fan, I was well and truly steeped in the Venn alignment of Larry Hama’s now-legendary run on Marvel’s GI Joe comic. That’s probably why I find IDW’s first class treatment of that run via their still-ongoing 
If you’re keen on seeing Will Smith be all suave as a master con artist who gets involved with a young novice who then reenters his life years later as a master manipulator, upsetting both his game and his heart, then 
While they’ve offered his iconic question mark sweater and scarf in the past, now you can finally complete his ensemble with the 
The fine folks at Olive have delivered another batch of deep catalogue high definition debuts with the release of Terry Jones’s 
While 
Fantagraphics lovingly presented 7th volume of Floyd Gottfredson’s run on the Mickey Mouse newspaper strip, 
The modern Turtles recently made their triumphant comeback to the Big Apple, but you can flashback to their 3-part battle with the Shredder in the 2003 series with 
While many today know him for his design work, that the legendary Alex Toth produced a barely-seen comic book about a dashing pilot that could exist in the same universe as The Rocketeer will come as a giddy surprise. And it should, because 
Hoping to cut the legs out from under all of those awful-looking public domain releases floating out there, CBS has released another complete season of beautifully remastered Cartwright adventures on the Ponderosa with 
Catch up with a pair of post-apocalyptic TNT originals with the complete fourth season of 
We’re entering the home stretch of the long-running British staple with the release of 
This week’s soundtrack round-up kicks off with Murray Gold’s score to 
While I have a cultural awareness, I do not have an emotional attachment to the late 90s/early-aughts era of wrestling dubbed by the WWE 
If your kids have been pleading for the return of Dreamworks Animation’s racing snail, their calls have been answered with the small screen return collected in 
The magic wonder-wand has touched Glen Larson’s original, non-grimdark tale of galactic refugees on the run from the Cylon empire, giving fans 
He may have been one of the stiffest, most awkward hosts ever to have risen to television prominence, but it was on the strength of his legendary (and soon-to-be-legendary) guests that he became an icon, and those incredible guests are why 
For those that missed the boat on the stellar prop replica put out by Master Replicas ages ago but wanted something more robust than the plastic alternatives currently available, Thinkgeek’s 
Amazing we got to his centennial before getting a near-definitive documentary on a legend, but better now than never comes 
In the fallow period between the end of the Smothers Brothers’ show and the paunch of Saturday Night Live, the only destination on your dial to catch the hippest music and comedy acts was NBC’s Friday night staple, 
The 75th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s final UK film, 
I loved to draw when I was a kid, and I would often find myself doodling beloved cartoon and comic characters. It should come as no surprise, then, that I own many dog-eared and much-loved “How To Draw” books released over the years by the folks at Walter Foster. For years, they’ve had 
As someone who has observed firsthand the kind of downward mental spiral the befalls Julianne Moore’s character after she’s diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s as the titular character in 
Take a collection of musicians including Elvis Costello, T Bone Burnett, Marcus Mumford, and more, add in a batch of recently discovered Bob Dylan lyrics, and as those artists to set them to music – that’s exactly the remarkable process 
While it’s not necessary to read 
The wonderful work that Criterion has been doing with their restoration and high definition release of the Charlie Chaplin library continues with the release of one of Chaplin’s later works, 
The story behind Star Trek‘s adaptation of Harlan Ellison’s script for the now-legendary episode The City On The Edge Of Forever, and Ellison” intense dissatisfaction with the changes the staff made to his vision, is well-known within the fan community. Thanks to IDW, those fans can now experience his version with the graphic novel adaptation of 
It’s a shame that 
Only the BBC could produce a show like 
You can never have too many books exploring that legendary galaxy far, far away, so just try to refrain from devouring 
Listen, I shouldn’t have to sell you on watching a film called 
It’s certainly not a classic, but there’s certainly laughs to be found in the first season of 
Better late than never comes 
Scott Glenn has always been an actor capable of holding my attention in anything he’s in, and he remains so as a serial killer hiding out in a small town as 
Rescued from the mists of time, the classic newspaper strip adventures of the man of steel and the dark knight detective continue with 
If, like me, you still mourn the passing of quality history-based content on The History Channel, the photo and info-dense 
It’s a bit frustrating that Nickelodeon still hasn’t given their beautiful new Ninja Turtles series proper high definition season sets like Cartoon Network has been doing for Adventure Time, because the show certainly deserves it. Until then, we’re getting standard definition single-disc releases like 
Fish out of water culture clash comedy is always fertile territory, and Greg Poehler’s 
Well, I mean, the best you can say for the direct-to-video animated special 
History buffs with fond memories of parking in front of the pre-Aliens and idiots heyday of The History Channel will lose themselves in 
A Russian family man tries to extricate itself from under the thumb of a corrupt mayor in the gripping import 
When 3 soldiers – one Lebanese, one Israeli, and one American – are accidentally trapped together when a lockdown mechanism is triggered in a secret base, the trio are forced to either work together or die together in the dramedy 
Kiddies can learn their math skills with 
Strawberry Shortcake and her friends both human and furry star in various canine-themed tales in 
The fine folks at Fantagraphics continue to do a stellar job presenting the works of the legendary Carl Barks for a brand new generation keen to discover the finest Disney Ducks comics ever created with the release of 
If they have to revisit Martin Scorsese’s 
It should come as little surprise that the brilliant Timothy Spall is brilliant in Mike Leigh’s biopic about Britain’s revered, emotionally complicated painter J.M.W. Turner in 
They’re not the best films ever made, but there’s a Technicolor delight to be found in the 5 flicks which comprise Warners’ new 
It’s quite a challenge to follow up such a powerful first season, but the second season of 
No longer do we have to content ourselves with the lackluster standard definition piecemeal releases of the gloriously vibrant pop-pop animated 
I love diving into books where you spend every page thinking, “Finally! Someone put together an awesome book that I never knew I wanted until it existed!” Such is the case with 
No one in their right mind would consider the latter-day Curly Joe features made by the Three Stooges to be the boys at their finest, but there is a charm and novelty to be found in 
S.H. Figuarts are known for their ridiculously poseable action figures with a level of near-miraculous articulation. Combine that with two Nintendo superstars and you’ve got must-have, shelf-ready figures of 
Ryan Gosling’s writing & directing debut, 
As a longtime Marvel comics nerd who owned every issue of the original Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe, I mightily enjoyed the tech and geeky trivia packed into the official Haynes’ 
Because they’re wonderful maniacs, Olive Films have dropped another clutch of catalogue titles new to high-def, including Abbott & Costello’s final film, 
Twomorrows has taken their long out-of-print stellar biography of a comics legend and expanded it into a must-have deluxe edition with 
This week’s toddler time titles from the folks at Nickelodeon include 
For the Hal Lublins of the world, who would kindly be characterized as rabid wrestling fans, the 
Sometimes, you’re just hankering for a mindless action flick, and that’s exactly the sort of popcorn cleanser you’ll get from 
How great is 
Preston Sturges’s still-cutting satire 
Kick it back to the 90s with a trio of much-requested catalogue releases from Warner Bros. sure to make plenty of fans happy – Cameron Crowe’s 
I’m a sucker for retro tchotchkes that tug on my nostalgia, and that’s exactly the sweet spot hit by Thinkgeek’s nifty 
As flawed an adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s classic musical as it is – and it most definitely is, eliminating much of the darker tone – 
It’s taken years and years and now the very good graces of the folks at Olive Films, but with the release of 
Hot on the heels of the debut disc comes the second volume of Cartoon Network’s quirky series with a giant realistic flying tiger, 
I’m just as shocked as you are to have enjoyed the onscreen team-up of Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen in the medieval action flick 
Produced a year before Twilight Zone but largely forgotten today, 
Let’s kick things off this week with a very special video feature – an episode of COOKERY! hosted by me, Ken Plume. Like many others before me, I’ve become addicted to partaking of both Pineapple and Orange-flavored Dole Whips whilst enjoying a day… or a week (whatever!)… in either Disneyland or Walt Disney World. Thanks to a bit of sleuthing and the fine folks at 
Oh, Shout Factory. I’ve long since come to have an unconditional belief in your ability to clear even the gnarliest of rights tangles, and you’ve proven your miraculous powers once again in 
Their brand new seasons are returning soon to deliver us from the doldrums of Girls, but in the meantime you can rewatch the stellar debut season of 
In an era of CG, it’s refreshing to see a beautifully realized animated film like 
I’d like to say that the final installment of Peter Jackson’s 3-part adaptation of pulls together all of the threads into a gloriously satisfying finish, but 
Chris Rock is a funny, funny man. And his writing and directorial debut, 
As both a documentary film and a powerful indictment of justice mishandled, Errol Morris’s 
It seems hard to believe, but it’s only now that the Marlon Brando classic 
Much like the overly-ballyhooed Gravity before it, Christopher Nolan’s 
A beautifully shot documentary about an incredibly nifty animal narrated by Morgan Freeman? In 3D? Yes, please. Because that’s exactly what 
If you’re not willing or able to dive into the complete season sets but just want to dip your toe, CBS has released a trio of sampler collections for just that purpose. 
Exercise your dormant creativity with 
Another week, and the fine folks at Olive Films surprise with another solid clutch of new-to-high-def catalogue releases. This week brings Brian Dennehy & James Woods in 
It came and went at the box office, but the modern re-make of 
It’s impossible – Impossible, I say! – that John Hughes’s 
Following the Krang’s takeover of New York City, the Turtles take refuge in April O’Neill’s family cabin in the woods in 
Shazam! Taking an Andy Griffith Show fan-favorite character and putting him in the military proved comic gold in the long-running spin-off 
The epic arc of Avatar Korra comes to an end in 
The passing of Robin Williams adds a poignancy to 
The modern stone age family meets the modern stone age pastime in 
They’re not my cup of pixie dust, but I know plenty of my friends’ kids adore the denizens of Pixie Hollow, and for them, there’s delight in the arrival of their latest animated adventure, 
Help your preschooler learn the basics with the 3-disc 
There have been many books that purported to present the definitive history of the original Star Trek. Much like Roshomon, many presented a perspective on the show’s genesis. But we’ve finally got a complete overview that incorporates all of those memories plus original memos, documents, and interviews and places them in a comprehensive context with the publication of the third and final volume of 
While not brilliant, Jon Stewart’s 
It seems ridiculous that there’s never been one until now, but if we had to wait for a documentary celebrating the life and madness of Richard Pryor, then it’s comforting to know that 
While it would be foolish to deny that the only reason we’re getting the tome is to provide cross-promotion of the new live action Cinderella feature, 
We march ever closer to the next glorious high-def season release with the arrival of the latest stopgap fix of episodes, 
While it has to take comfort in its 5 Academy Award nominations, 
After a forever gap that seems to have afflicted many a classic catalogue TV show that began getting a DVD release in the early years of the format, Warner Bros. gets the ball rolling again on another forgotten series with 
I don’t know if I’d agree with its claim to be the best British rock concert of all time, but the line-up featured in 1990’s charity performance 
The Warner Archive continues to be the afterlife savior of criminally ignored shows by releasing the complete 3rd season of 
Kinder entertainment for this week brings a pair of tiny tyke titles from Nickelodeon – 
I love a film that can expertly blend comedy, action, and genuine heart, and last year brought two films that accomplished that hat trick with flair – Guardians Of The Galaxy and 
The 4th season of 
Even knowing its pastoral trappings soon reveal a brutally faithful adaptation of Richard Adam’s brutally dystopian tale of a rabbit community under threat – a nature a traumatized young me was unaware of before watching what he thought was a simple cartoon – the power of 
We already got a sparkling high definition Blu-Ray release of the film a few years back, so there’s no better way to celebrate its 70th anniversary this year than with the deluxe Walt Disney Records Legacy Collection treatment of 
It’s been years since I watched The Green Mile – it still holds up, natch – and Warners has made it very easy for you to do so by bringing it under one box set with both The Shawshank Redemption and the high-def debut of The Majestic in 
Yes yes yes, Eddie Redmayne is every bit as amazing as you’ve heard as the young Stephen Hawking in 
After a bit of a stumble last year, new Doctor Peter Capaldi gets to inaugurate his 12 incarnation of the Time Lord into the longstanding tradition of the annual holiday special. 
When it comes to chronicling the art, artists, and history of comic books, no one has done it as consistently well as Twomorrows, so much so that every one of their releases are a must-have. That goes double for their latest tomes – 
Steven Spielberg’s 
His last couple of outings have been somewhat shaky, but Terry Gilliam returns to fun and freaky form with the deeply contemplative 
Listen, Michael Keaton is amazing and wonderful and turns in a fine performance, but I just can’t bring myself to do anything but shake my head at the unmitigated & off-putting pretension of 
Yes, we know, you’re still suffering withdrawal symptoms from The LEGO Movie. Well, get your LEGO fix with a superhero twist courtesy of the feature-length 
Oh, Olive Films – You continue to delight with your ridiculously impressive dedication to releasing massive amounts of niche catalogue titles new to high definition. This week, they’re dropping the Frankie Avalon & Annette Funnicello beach flicks 
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE, catalogue title fans! Olive Films have dropped even more vault titles, including Norman Lear’s 
Not to be outdone, the fine folks at Shout Factory have also unleashed the floodgates of high-def catalogue releases, including Kenneth Branagh’s epic adaptation of 
The first was a solid if unmemorable comedy, and its sequel, 
May the bromance never end, as 
There’s an added poignancy that legendary film critic Roger Ebert has become the subject of a posthumous documentary celebrating his life the same way he devoted his life to celebrating film, but one can’t help but wonder what his review of 
The latest in the long line of visually lush animated films from the legendary Studio Ghibli, 
The tiny kinder set get a trio of releases of their own this week with the monster truck mini-movie 
As a child, I must have watched 
Disney’s incredible series of fully remastered and expanded soundtrack special editions continues with the 4-disc 
Overshadowed by splashier studio fare like Big Hero 6 and How To Train Your Dragon 2 in theaters, home video is the perfect second chance to experience the delightfully offbeat animated comedy 
The performance sparks you hope for when you hear that Robert Downey, Jr. is playing a big city lawyer who returns to his childhood hometown when his estranged father, a local judge played by Robert Duvall, is accused of murder are there in spades in the brisk 
Catch up with Cartoon Network’s continuing winning streak of quirky animated kids fare with the inaugural DVD releases of 
I didn’t think it possible to release so many quality new-to-HD catalogue releases each month, but the folks at Olive consistently prove me wrong, as they drop a new clutch of beuts including Frank Capra’s 
You take the good, you take the bad, you add ’em up and there you have 
While you’re waiting for the next full-season Blu-Ray collection, bide your time with the single-disc 
Even a broken watch is correct twice a day, and such is the case with Keanu Reeves in 
It’s sad that the latest DC animated film, 
Jeremy Renner stars as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb in 
Hoping to expand with an aging audience, Dora explores adolescence in 
Much like the Pixar of yore, Laika has, through a succession of endearingly quirky films, made me anticipate whatever project they’re cooking up, and their winning streak continues with 
Yes, everything you’ve heard about the 12-year narrative journey of Richard Linklater’s 
As the 6th season hits screens, refresh your memories of where we left the down & out ISIS crew in the 5th season of 
Every bit as memorably iconic as its 80s contemporaries, Craig Safan’s score for the sci-fi classic 
Even when the story flags, there’s no denying the mesmerizing stylistic filmmaking that David Fincher brings to his adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s 
Abandoned fans fearful of never completing their personal collection of Reinhold Weege’s brilliant 80s sitcom Night Court have been saved from despair by the angels of mercy at the Warner Archive, who have made the complete 
The Warner Archive has also rooted through the vaults for another batch of never-thought-you’d-get-a-chance-to-own-this-but-here-it-is animation titles, including 
Oh, and if that weren’t enough Warner Archive surprises – THERE ARE NEVER ENOUGH WARNER ARCHIVE SURPRISES – they’ve also given us beautiful high definition transfers of Michael Caine & Christopher Reeve in 
While he may have gotten a big screen CG makeover, that uncanny valley contraption will never match the simple charm and beauty in the original stop-motion 
Nickelodeon’s bizarre but addictively fun 
Aaron Sorkin’s current endearing soapbox returns with the second season of 
If Taken series has proven anything, it’s that just about anything with Liam Neeson is worth watching for Liam Neeson, and that certainly applies to 
After five seasons, 
There’s a quiet desperation to all of the series that have popped up as of late, hoping in some way to cash on to the genre action success being enjoyed by the likes of Game Of Thrones and Walking Dead, so it’s no surprise that executive producer Michael Bay has thrown in with his pirate tale 
I can’t even really say I’m hate-watching 
Absorb some classic Bikini Bottom hijinx before the big screen sequel hits theaters with 
Team up Luc Besson with Scarlett Johansson and Morgan Freeman? Say no more. I’m in. It’s just an added benefit that 
There are plenty of companies out there picking up the catalogue slack and releasing deep cut films from a lot of major studios, but one of the best of the lot in terms of quality are the folks at Olive, who just dropped a batch of high def remasters from the Paramount archives – the Cold War film noir 
Best known for appearances on Chelsea Lately, Heather McDonald gets her first solo special with 
The ridiculously creepy doll from The Conjuring gets her own solo horror prequel in 
Mill Creek continues their fine tradition of providing catalogue titles to fill your free time at an exceptionally astounding value price. The latest batch from them include a 13-film 
Take an economical journey under the sea in 
Somehow, the adaptation of Ayn Rand’s ridiculous farce gets a final cinematic installment with 
While many a college professor has probably done the same, 
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon return to their largely improvised hyper-reality selves in Michael Winterbottom’s 
Despite a shaky start and a network that doesn’t seem to know what to do with it, 
Fill the increasingly chilly hours during your December lock-in by partaking of a pair of Comedy Central shows ready for bingeing – 
Taken as a slick B movie, the adaptation of Joe Hill’s pulpy morality horror 
The Warner Archive continues to be a refuge for the studio’s often-overlooked animated fare, with brand new high definition releases for 
While purists may grumble with some alterations to the plot, none of that affects the thoroughly enjoyable soundtrack to Disney’s adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s 
It may be a bit soft-focus, but there’s something certainly uplifting in 
The Beeb has kids covered this season with the 
If, like me, you were onboard and hooked by the early days of Nick At Nite, a horse is a horse, of course, but there’s no horse as famous as 
Dysfunction has rarely been as enjoyably watchable as in 
It’s not often you see a romantic comedy centered around a pair of leads in the twilight of their lives, but 
If nothing else, the sixth season of 
Watching the Michael Bay-produced 
Glen Morgan was part of the key creative team on The X-Files, and he brings that supernatural sensibility to the BBC’s eerie paranormal thriller 
Listen, as far as charming little family flicks go, 
History buffs who want to pass the long family gathering hours watching documentaries instead can dive into the History Channel’s massive 20-disc 
Holiday viewing has reached its crass nadir with the arrival of 
While the wait at times seemed painfully long, the wait was well worth the wonder contained in the beautifully restored and presented brilliance found in the third volume of Walt Kelly’s 
Fans of Disney duck comics from masters Carl Barks and Don Rosa are being spoiled with the arrival of two brand new collections – 
The House Of Ideas is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, which means there are plenty of massive coffee table books hitting shelves to help you celebrated (and possibly give you a hernia from listing them). For pure visual impact, there’s 
Not to be left out of the mix, though, are the Distinguished Competition, whose history you can explore with the newly updated edition of 
I love to decorate for the holidays, so when I chanced upon a neighbor’s incredible projected window display at Halloween – featuring what seemed like very real skeletons, zombies, and a grim reaper inside their home, visible through the window – I had to find out exactly how they accomplished the wondrous feat. Well, much to my surprise, the effect was incredibly easy, as it consisted merely of a vinyl static-cling projection screen on the windows, a digital projector, a DVD/Blu-Ray player, and digital animation files crafted by the fine folks at AtmosFX. As soon as I heard that, in addition to Halloween frights, they also have a line of festive winter animations – 
Few shows in recent memory have been as visually and artistically creative as Pen Wards Adventure Time, so it’s only right that fans finally get a peak behind all of their weird and wonderful processes that go into its creation with 
In addition to their new Adventure Time book, Abrams has got a handful of other pop art books you should consider as gifts for yourself (or others), including 
Oh – hey – back to Adventure Time for just a moment, because you can record all of your innermost thoughts and experiences in either the large 
Coming years after the initial volume focusing on the costuming of the prequel trilogy, old school fans (and obsessive cosplayers) finally have 
If you find all of the running around from home to home and store to store this holiday season has got your energy on the wane – and if, like me, you’re not too keen on the taste of coffee but do like chocolate – then you should pick yourself up a clutch of 
The Walt Disney company has a brilliant musical legacy going back 85 years to its very first sound cartoon, and the company is diving headfirst into its impressive archives and surfacing with the absolutely incredible “Legacy Collection” of releases. Over the course of the next year on an almost monthly schedule, they’re releasing completely remastered and expanded editions of soundtracks from their most beloved films, as well as what one can only hope is a multi-disc set spotlighting the music of Disneyland. In addition to the soundtracks themselves, each set also includes rare demos, deleted songs, and newly-recorded “Lost Chords”, which takes those deleted songs from the films and realizes them with brand new recordings that attempt to match how they might have sounded if they were finished for the original films. The first clutch of releases to come down the pike – all of which are a must-have – are 2-disc sets for 
Oh, and howzabout a little soundtrack round-up of film scores you should snag as gifts for yourself? There’s Howard Shore’s score for the final tale from Middle-Earth, 
You don’t know the name Herman Schultheis, but every one who has any interest in the art of animation or filmmaking should devour the recently-rediscovered magic in 
Taschen is well known and beloved for their lavish art books, so it was with great delight to learn that they had turned their eye towards all things Polynesian in popular culture with 
Very few comic artists have been as influential on their peers as Alex Toth, and it’s his incredible design and draftsmanship skills in animation that are explored in 
While WETA may chiefly be known for its work on the Lord Of The Rings franchise, the little FX studio borne out of the early films of Peter Jackson way, way down in New Zealand has grown to be a powerhouse in the special effects field and has taken its rightful place amongst longstanding giants like Industrial Light & Magic. The history of the little effects company that could is celebrated in the two volume 
Based on the decided dearth of products available, you’d think that Disney was afraid to capitalize on their animated success, Gravity Falls. In fact, amongst the very few products available this holiday season are a quartet of books, two of which are advanced reader chapter books – 
And because you can never – NEVER – have too many sonic screwdrivers, the folks behind the Doctor Who toys have decided to expand their line with a brand new pair. Added to the already existing wonder wands are the 
The cinematic return to J.K. Rowling’s wizarding universe is still a few years off, but you can revisit all of the craftsmanship that went into developing the original films for the big screen with 
As a child of the 80s, and a comic book fan, I was well and truly steeped in the Venn alignment of Larry Hama’s now-legendary run on Marvel’s GI Joe comic. That’s probably why I find IDW’s first class treatment of that run via their still-ongoing 
Decorate your desk with the Doctor’s own robo-companion with the 
To many, after a string of hits, Marvel’s 
I don’t really like the idea and inherent frustration behind blindboxing, but it’s hard to resist the appeal of the 
As the year ends, so does the unexpected but welcome high definition release of 
While it has been available on Blu-Ray for a few years now, you and I both know that the definitive edition of any title comes when it makes its gets the full Criterion treatment, which has finally happened to Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece 
With the arrival of the 22nd volume of Fantagraphics’ landmark release of 
And since you are such a Peanuts fan, you’ll also want to get the second volume of the must-have companion series, 
LEGO has been releasing their high-end “Architecture” kits of famous buildings for quite awhile, but now you can visually peruse the entire line via the coffee table-ready 
While we all eagerly await his definitive biography of the mighty Jack Kirby, author and genuinely good guy Mark Evanier has curated an overview of the work Kirby crafted alongside Joe Simon during comics’ golden age in 
If you were just as pleasantly delighted by Disney and Marvel’s animated Big Hero 6, then you’ll want to explore all of the visual design work that went into crafting the flick via the oodles of design artwork contained in 
Laika continues to impress with their quirky and memorable stop-motion masterpieces, the latest of which is the focus of 
And the “art of” train just keeps rocking along, as Dreamworks drops a look behind their development curtain with 
It may come as a surprise to some just how involved in the Disney company was in the war effort during World War II, but that distant history is explored in fascinating detail via 
Though it may not grant you the power of flight, the 
While All In The Family is perpetually hailed as the classic, the Norman Lear show I fell in love with as a kid was 
Peter Capaldi’s take on the timeless Time Lord was certainly a much darker, more intense affair as we got to know him – a journey you can revisit with 
But if you’re wanting to re-live the entire run of the 11th Doctor, then you can do so with the multi-season and comprehensive 
Odd that one of the best collections of previously unpublished production artwork from the studio’s classic period is available in postcard form, but 
Even just a few months ago, if you had told me that one day I would be able to buy an official, high definition edition of Otto Preminger’s infamous debacle 
And while we’re talking about Olive Films, they’ve very quietly been building up an incredible slate of deep catalogue releases making their high definition debuts, including Charlton Heston in 
Oh, and Olive Films have also made fans of two dearly departed shows very happy by finishing off a pair of DVD releases left in the lurch by Fox with 
Every holiday season, I like to catch up on all of the must-see comedy and DVD releases coming out of the UK, and this year is no different – starting with brand new stand-up with 
If you’ve ever wanted to sleep with The Venture Bros., then Adult Swim has the perfect holiday gift for you – a set of queen size 
All kudos, salutations, exaltations, hurrahs and huzzahs to Darrell Van Critters for assembling a long overdue and absolutely brilliant tribute and celebration of 
Of all Disney’s famous group of legendary animators, the one whose works crosses the most disciplines is the one spotlighted in the excellent new 
I’m a big fan of ephemera books that pull together facsimiles of rare materials into beautiful tomes celebrating a given subject, so it should come as no surprise that I really dig 
There are a handful of beloved shows that many have claimed we’d never see on home video in their original form, due to their extensive use of popular music over the course of their runs. Well, you should never says never and nothing is impossible, and to prove that, the folks at TimeLife managed to clear an immense amount of obstacles to being out a truly special edition of 
Trust me, you’ll never know just how much you want a fully-remastered high definition collector’s edition of 
There have been best-of clip package DVDs released in the past – all of which are well worth adding to your collection – but what makes 
Considering the legal tangle that has stymied its home video release for decades, miraculous is a perfectly suitable word to describe the arrival of the 1966 
If you’ve been holding off on a grand refresher binge of The Sopranos, your perfect moment – and rationale – has arrived in the form of the honkingly massive 28-disc 
After Paramount cruelly teased fans a few years back with both a best-of collection and a first season set, it took the miracle workers to deliver unto us the beautifully mastered complete four season set of the legendary 
I have been waiting ages – AGES – for Steven Spielberg’s epic misfire 1941 to make its way to a proper high definition release. Heck, considering the old DVD wasn’t even anamorphic, even that would have been a better treatment of a film that, for all its messiness, I truly enjoy. Just when I was about to give up hope, along comes the new 
I didn’t dislike the first Hobbit film, but it did suffer from a bloated sense of not much happening, as well as a decided lack of a dragon. And because of the decision to turn two films into three, its extended edition was not extended by very much, as most of the material that would have been put back in was instead shunted over to help fill out its first sequel. That being said, the extended edition of 
Nothing says Turkey Day like Mystery Science Theater 3000, so Shout Factory has crafted the perfect way to fill your holiday viewing in proper fashion with 
There are a few shows long since passed that I could still see running today and being every bit as enjoyable, and one of that select few is most certainly 
Age and familiarity have in no way lessened the weird wonderfulness of Weird Al Yankovic’s 
Irving Berlin’s 
I really do despise the “Anakin Effect”. I am a firm believer that there not all evil needs a backstory, and a tender, forgiving one, at that, and that is sadly what 
The single-disc releases of Adventure Time have made it up to season 3 with 
If you were expecting a truly batshit crazy final season from 
Even when the film is an I-wish-it-was-better road trip comedy, there’s something eminently and irresistibly watchable about Melissa McCarthy. Such is the case with 
Let Seth Green and Co. into your hearts for the holidays with the 
If you’re jonesing for some Star Wars and were a fan of the abruptly terminated animated series Clone Wars, see where it all was going with 
If you’re in the mood to be uplifted, 
The music is iconic, the story is interesting, and the actors are game, but there just doesn’t seem to be any real spark to Clint Eastwood’s big screen adaptation of the musical 
Add years of advancement in effects technology and the deadening of audience expectations for drama after numerous SyFy spectacles and you get this generation’s Twister, 
As a story, the wholly unnecessary sequel 
I feel bad for Dwayne Johnson. Supposedly, he always dreamed of playing a certain hero of Greek myth. It’s just a shame that when he finally did, it was the painfully dull and thoroughly forgettable 
If the first half of the final season of 
The fine folks at Criterion have once again worked their sacred cinephile magic to conjure up a pair of truly fantastic special editions making their high definition debut. First up is Federico Fellini’s legendary 
In this age of miracles, Shout Factory has pulled off another of their patented wonders by somehow managing to untangle and license nearly all of the music found in the feared-to-be-unreleasable-in-a-manner-it-deserves 
Monty Python’s absolutely final run of reunion performances as captured in 
Cartoon Network brings together a handful of its heavy hitters for a 
It’s been a while since we last checked in with the fine folks at the Warner Archive Collection, and in the interim they’ve been busy digging up even more hidden gems and guilty pleasures from the deepest recesses of their vaults for our viewing pleasure. Fresh from the depths come the Jack Benny features 
And while we’re on the subject of the Warner Archive Collection, they’ve also been releasing a handful of their niche titles in high definition, the latest being Blake Edwards’ madcap 
Long before the man behind ALF created that wacky alien, Paul Fusco produced a series of puppet-based holiday specials, the first of which – 
I’d say “amiable” is a better word than “funny” to describe the one-man autobiographical show 
I wasn’t expecting much from 
Rewind back to the very beginning of the long-running Brit crime drama, back when forensic pathologist Dr. Samantha Ryan was solving murder cases in 
Regardless of all the brouhaha over the band’s recent free album, there’s no denying U2’s place in the musical firmament, and that’s why it’s surprising it’s taken this long for the Irish quartet to get a fitting illustrated history like 
It’s a kinder, gentler, often goofily amiable kind of comedy that you’ll find in 
Although the story is rather flat and doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny, 
It’s been over 10 years since the release of Tom Shales & James Andrew Miller’s definitive oral history of Saturday Night Live, years featuring plenty of new castmembers and scores of new sketches. With that in mind, as well as the show’s 40th anniversary, a newly updated and expanded edition of 
Every bit as pulpy as the name implies, the first season of 
While the special is fun in the same manner of their first go round with the legendary comics universe, 
In one of those, “Wait, this wasn’t out on Blu-Ray yet?” moments, the Farrelly Brothers’ 
The eleventh season of 
The Walt Disney company has a brilliant musical legacy going back 85 years to its very first sound cartoon, and the company is diving headfirst into its impressive archives and surfacing with the absolutely incredible “Legacy Collection” of releases. Over the course of the next year on an almost monthly schedule, they’re releasing completely remastered and expanded editions of soundtracks from their most beloved films, as well as what one can only hope is a multi-disc set spotlighting the music of Disneyland. In addition to the soundtracks themselves, each set also includes rare demos, deleted songs, and newly-recorded “Lost Chords”, which takes those deleted songs from the films and realizes them with brand new recordings that attempt to match how they might have sounded if they were finished for the original films. The first clutch of releases to come down the pike – all of which are a must-have – are 2-disc sets for 
Has there ever been a cartoon as delightfully and decidedly weird and wonderful as 
While the legendary Carl Barks will always be foremost among the many comics creators working with Disney’s ducks, not the least for his creation of Scrooge McDuck, the second position in my heart goes to Don Rosa. Taking his inspiration from Barks, Rosa was able to craft incredible epics for a new generation of fans, full of intricate details and mythology that embraced the legacy of Barks’ classics. And now, the fine folks at Fantagraphics have followed up their wonderful Carl Barks Library releases with the first volume of the new Don Rosa Library, 
It took a few episodes for me (and the show) to latch onto its tone, but once we both did, it was a delight to dive into the twisted, brilliant, and consistently funny world of 
Chalk it up to poor marketing, because 
It still baffles me that Nickelodeon has not released their positively beautiful Ninja Turtles series in high definition, but at least they’ve finally bundled together 
I’m surprised it’s taken this long for him to turn his eye towards such an iconic American dynasty, but Ken Burns is at his absolute best in his portrait of 
As the world gears up for a newly reimagined big screen take on the character, dive into the original problem solver for hire with the limited edition complete collection of 
Every once in awhile, Disney drops another feel-good inspirational sports drama, and 
Freddie Highmore and Vera Farminga continue to be the main draw as young Norman and matriarch Norma in the second season of 
Disregarding his unfortunate obsession with William Shatner, 
I can appreciate what Seth MacFarlane was trying to do with 
Over 30 years ago, the now-legendary 
And from across the pond, we get the complete second season runs of a pair of the BBC’s supernatural dramas, with 
Just as atmospheric and fun as the film itself, Dario Marianelli’s score to 
As biopics go, the greatest trick 
From The Beatles to Lady Gaga, 
I’ve got to give Michael Bay credit for finding a way to make his already bloated and off-putting take on a fairly straightforward and ostensibly fun IP even more frustratingly boring and messy in 
Picking up a year after the events at the end of the first season, the second season of 
The revolving roster of Sipowicz’s partners lands on Rick Schroder in the seventh season of 
It’s about as far from the hip, modern Friendship Is Magic reinvention of the franchise, but those who want every iteration of a thing will probably still pick up 
Paul Haggis has never met a top-heavy, overly-layered story he doesn’t latch onto and infuse with a profound self-importance, and that’s pretty much what you get in 
Matt Stone & Trey Parker show no signs of flagging in the seventeenth season of 
Some of the freshest, funniest sketch work being done on TV can be found in the third season of 
It seems the US is taking a page from the UK’s longstanding policy of quickly releasing episodes to home video prior to a big season box set with the drop of 
If there’s one reason and one reason alone to watch the BBC’s 
A landmark science fiction anime gets the high definition treatment it deserves with the 25th anniversary edition of 
It definitely grew on me, and by the end of its first season, I was looking forward to spending time with the crack ensemble of 
Sure, it’s not the Belushi/Aykroyd black comedy I was hoping for, but the Seth Rogen/Zac Efron 
It’s as lowbrow as most Chuck Lorre comedies, but there’s no denying the appeal of leads Allison Janney and Anna Faris in 
For those of you who still watch the seemingly neverending pandering emptiness and truly wasted ensemble cast of 
The 4k restoration done for its 30th anniversary has done wonders for 
I can’t recall a time when Disney opened up the vault and unleashed such a title wave of catalogue titles as they have this week, but animation and just good ol’ Disney fans should be delighted by the deluge, seeing as how it contains beautifully restored high definition editions of 
It’s never too early for Halloween viewing, so make a double feature out of the high definition release of The Adventures Of Ichabod & Mr. Toad with the home video debut of last year’s Pixar special 
Why does Shout Factory remain a fan favorite? Because they consistently cater to fans with wonderful, brilliantly presented, quirky collections like 
If you’re anything like me (and don’t you wish you were!), then you’re looking for just about anything to reaffirm your faith in all things good and strike from your noggin the horrible vision of Michael Bay’s steroidal Ninja Turtles monstrosity. Guess what? You can do just that with the deluxe coffee-table appropriate 
And speaking of context, you can get even more of an insight into the Turtles’ history with the brand new documentary 
While it is far, far, FAR from the Emmerich/Devlin disaster of the 90s,, the chief factor that makes the newest American take on Toho’s giant lizard a profound disappointment is the decided lack of Godzilla in 
If the recent big screen relaunch has whet your appetite to binge on some more classic thunder lizard action, look no further than the high-def debut of not one, not two, but 6 more classic Godzilla films in The Toho Godzilla Collection. Fully remastered, the films include 
Criterion’s banner year for high definition releases with a pair of much-requested, much-anticipated titles – David Lynch’s 
We may still be months and months from the premiere of the final season in 2015, but you can pass the time with the feature-laden sixth season of 
Made a few years back but just now getting its home video debut, 
Ignore the profoundly disappointing first 3/4 of the season when so much potential was left on the table in favor of an inert mess and fast forward to when 
Thankfully, the Warner Archive continues to offer high definition Blu-Ray releases of their animated series, with the release of 
For more years than I can recall, the amiable scholars at Twomorrows have been publishing a wide range of magazine and books chronicling every nook and cranny of the comics, creators, characters, and companies fans know and love. They took that love and scholarly approach to the next logical step when they launched their must-have document of four-color history in the 
Speaking of Twomorrows and their comics scholarship, they’ve just released 
By all means, watch all of the episodes featured on the new 
Carrie Brownstein & Fred Armisen’s 
It’s remarkable just how fast DC seems to churn out their animated comics adaptations when their live action films seem to take forever and a day. The latest toon is 
The oasis of normality Rick and the survivors established at the prison is threatened by more than just zombies in 
After three seasons of increasing battiness, 
They’re not quite up to the level of what we see from the BBC, but Disney’s nature documentaries are quite fine in their own right, owing more to the narrative-based tradition the studio pioneered in their “True Life Adventures” series. The latest is 
The residents of Bikini Bottom indulge in ghoulish delights in the 
Shout Factory further solidifies their position as the number one purveyor of classic TV shows with another of their lovingly presented complete series sets, this time for the 70s favorite 
Those infuriated by Paramount’s scattershot approach to divvying up bonus features as retailer exclusives for their original release of Star Trek Into Darkness finally have the chance to get all of those bonus features in one place, but only if they buy the film packaged with the first JJ Abrams Trek in the 4-disc 
Sigh. I so, so wanted 
The BBC has opened up its vaults to commemorate the anniversary of WWI with a handful for dramas set around the Great War, most of which are making their DVD debut. Now available are Daniel Radcliffe as Rudyard Kipling’s doomed offspring in 
Continue to get your Brit on with a clutch of new BBC releases, including the first season of 
It’s a light bit of fluff, but the only reason 
Emily Thorne’s plan for vengeance against the Graysons take a new bent in the third season of 
Patrice Chereau’s cinematic adaptation of Alexandre Dumas’s novel 
It tries very hard to recapture some of the affable nature of The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates, but the re-team of Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler in