Most of the action is in the Theatrical category this week with the home entertainment debuts of Frozen, American Hustle, Saving Mr. Banks, and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, but there are some small screen delights for geek viewers including the syndicated late 1980s horror series Monsters, the new BBC Atlantis fantasy series, plus two more seasons of the Beetlejuice animated series.
 
Theatrical Movies
 
This week’s most popular release is Disney’s Frozen (Disney, “PG,” 102 min., $29.99, BD $44.99), which has earned over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office.  A loose musical adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen, Frozen won the “Best Animated Feature” and “Best Song” Oscars at the recent Academy Awards.  With its musical numbers and a story that revolves around the sibling rivalry of two Princesses (one of whom has become Queen), this is film that will appeal to girls far more than boys.
 
Though it was shafted at the Academy Awards, where in spite of ten nominations it didn’t win a single Oscar, David O. Russell’s American Hustle (Sony, “R,” 138 min., $30.99, BD $40.99), was my personal favorite American film of 2014.   A sparkling fictional comedy drama set in the late 1970s, American Hustle is loosely based on the FBI ABSCAM entrapment operation, which many saw as the Bureau’s response to post-Vietnam Congressional investigations into the many misdeeds of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover earlier in the decade.  American Hustle takes some liberties with history—Jeremy Renner’s Camden mayor Carmine Polito is more of a “white knight” in the movie than the actual politician he was based upon, Angelo Errichetti, was in real life, but it is Carmine’s essential goodness that puts the moral complexity in American Hustle.  As in every David O. Russell film that I have seen, the performances here are extraordinary, and American Hustle was only the second film made since 1981 to earn Oscar nominations in all four categories.  Comedies rarely garner awards, but when they are pitch perfect like American Hustle, they can be a joy to behold.
 
Saving Mr. Banks (Disney, “PG-13,” 120 min., $29.99, BD $36.99) stars Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers, the creator of Mary Poppins.  The film ingeniously weaves together two stories: the tale of Travers’ youth in Australia, and the backstage saga of the Disney studio’s attempt to get the adult Travers to permit the creation of a “Disney version” of her famous work.  Despite its “A-list” cast, Saving Mr. Banks was entirely shunned by the Academy and didn’t receive a single nomination, which actually isn’t that surprising given our current era’s aversion to sentiment on the screen.  But by constantly refraining from employing the cinema’s power to move the emotions, many contemporary filmmakers are forgoing a powerful tool that writer Kelly Marcel and director John Lee Hancock wield deftly in Saving Mr. Banks.
 
For art movie lovers there is Kill Your Darlings (Sony, “R,” 104 min., BD $35.99), an intriguing biopic set during the college years of Alan Ginsberg that involves other key members of the “beat generation” including William Burroughs, and Jack Kerouac.  Daniel Radcliffe stars as Ginsberg in this indie production that earned a solid 77% positive rating from review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
 
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (Anchor Bay, “PG-13,” 147 min., $29.99, BD/Combo $39.99) is a more conventional sort of art film/biopic, which stars Idris Elba as the South African freedom fighter.  Elba gives a powerful performance, but Long Walk to Freedom is a bit too conventional and reverential in its approach.
 
Originally conceived as a direct-to-video project, The Jungle Book 2 (Disney, “G,” 72 min., $29.99, BD $36.99) was given a theatrical release in 2003.  Haley Joel Osment provides the voice of Mowgli and John Goodman voices Baloo in this sequel, which is definitely not as good as the original.  It is also far more of a rehash of the first Disney Jungle Book film than an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Second Jungle Book.
 
TV on DVD
 
What would appear to be a very lackluster week of TV releases actually contains a number of cult shows and fantasies that will appeal to a wide swath of geekdom.  The key live action release is Atlantis: Season 1 (BBC, 585 min., $49.98, BD $59.98), which collects all 13 episodes of the first season (a second is in production) of the fantasy series from the producers of Merlin.  Just as Merlin was based on the Arthurian legends, Atlantis, which debuted on BBC America last November, is based on the saga of Atlantis in Greek mythology.
 
For “geeks of a certain age” this week’s top release is Monsters: The Complete Series (eOne, 1560 min., $99.98), which includes all 72 episodes of the syndicated horror anthology series that originally aired from 1988 to 1991, and was rebroadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel during the 1990s.  Created by the producers of Tales from the Darkside, Monsters was exclusively devoted to horror and featured some great guest stars include Tony Shalhoub,  Lili Taylor, Steve Buscemi, David Spade, and Gina Gershon.
 
The only other live action offerings are the Canadian SWAT team drama Flashpoint: The Sixth and Final Season (Paramount, $39.98), and Marc (Desperate Housewives) Cherry’s serial drama/comedy Devious Maids: The Complete First Season (Disney, $39.99) that “airs” on the Lifetime cable channel.
 
Animated offerings include the cartoon version of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice: Seasons 2 & 3 (Shout Factory, 360 min., $19.93), which contains 24 episodes that focus on goth girl Lydia Deetz and Beetlejuice and their adventures in the Neitherworld.  With Tim Burton’s character designs and Danny Elfman’s music, this series, despite its many changes from Burton’s live action movie, manages to capture some of the spirit and wacky, gothic black humor of the original.
 
Other animated releases include a Blu-ray release of Green Lantern: The Animated Series (Warner Bros., 575 min., $28.99), which includes all 26 episodes of the first WB/DC computer-animated series that aired on the Cartoon Network’s DC Nation block from November of 2011 to March of 2013, as well as three single disc offerings: Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures, Vol. 3: Ghost Patrol (Phase 4 Films, 88 min., $12.99), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Vol. 4: Mutagen Mayhem (Nickelodeon, 173 min., $14.98), which contains the first six episodes of Season 2 of the new Nickelodeon TMNT series, and Transformers: Rescue Bots, Vol. 4: Heroes on the Scene (Shout Factory, 110 min., $14.93), which contains 5 episodes of the popular Transformers cartoon series that is geared toward younger viewers.
 
 Anime
 
Leading off this week’s anime releases are Bleach Set 20 (Viz Media, “13+,” 300 min., $44.82), which includes episodes 280 to 291 of the long-running anime adaptation of Tite Kubo’s popular supernatural action manga series, and the Upotte!! Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “17+,” 250 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), which includes 10 episodes (plus an OVA) produced by Xebec and based on the seinen manga by Kitsune Tennouji that first appeared on the Web and were streamed here by Crunchyroll.
 
Re-releases of previously issued material include the To Love Ru Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 650 min., BD $89.98), which includes all 26 episodes of the series that was previously released on DVD, and Shakugan no Shana Season 1 (Funimation, “14+,” 625 min., BD $34.95), which includes 24 episodes and one OVA featuring the sword-wielding heroine.

Tom Flinn

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.