This week’s home entertainment offerings include Aardman Animations’ superb stop-motion-animated Shaun the Sheep Movie (plus a new edition of the out-of-print Shaun the Sheep TV series), plus the nail-biting thriller No Escape, the cult film in-waiting American Ultra, the first ever collection of Doctor Who Christmas Specials, and a censorship-themed anime series from Production I.G.

Theatrical Films

This week’s top offering is the Shaun the Sheep Movie (Lionsgate, “PG,” 84 min., $29.95, BD $34.99), another brilliantly animated feature from Aardman Animations (Wallace & Gromit).  Gentle enough for kids, but clever enough for adults, the Shaun the Sheep Movie is one of the true cinematic delights of 2015.  Given the very short, episodic nature of the Shaun the Sheep TV series (now available once again, see below), the property doesn’t appear at first glance to be suitable for a feature film, but this saga in which Shaun decides to visit the big city is near perfect—witness its 99% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

There are a couple of other films of great interest due out on Tuesday.  No Escape (Anchor Bay, “R,” 114 min., $29.98, BD $39.98) is a nail-biting thriller about an American family that moves to Southeast Asia and then is caught up in the midst of a violent revolution.  There’s nothing “new” in this family survival saga that stars Owen Wilson, Lake Bell, and Pierce Brosnan, and the critics didn’t really appreciate it (only a 46% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes), but folks who like straight forward, hard-hitting “R” rated action films won’t be disappointed.  American Ultra (Lionsgate “R,” 112 min., $21.98, $29.98) fared even worse with the critics (44% positive), but, while this stoner version of the Ludlum’s Bourne Saga starring Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart may not please everyone, it has a good chance to become a “cult” film with young viewers.

The movie the critics liked the most among this week’s home entertainment offerings was predictably Ricki and the Flash (Sony, “PG-13,” 101 min., $30.99, BD $34.99), which stars Meryl Streep as an aging rocker, who returns home to make amends to her family.  Jonathan Demme directs with his usual skill from a screenplay by Diablo Cody, and Streep is good as always (and in a role that is outside her usual comfort zone), but the real treat here for 80s music fans is Rick Springfield, who puts his General Hospital training to good use along with his musical talents.

This week’s top documentary is The Square (City Drive, Not Rated, 109 min., $17.95, BD $17.95), a compelling look at the Egyptian revolution by director Jehane Noujaim, who follows three different protagonists from different backgrounds who end up as part of Egyptian Revolution of 2011 in Tahrir Square.

TV on DVD

Giftset with Tardis Speaker
This week’s top release is the Doctor Who: The Christmas Specials Giftset (BBC, 540 min., $50.82, BD $57.98, With Tardis Speaker $111.01), which collects for the first time all ten of the Christmas Specials from the revived Doctor Who series featuring various iterations of the good doctor including those played by David Tennant, Matt Smith, and Peter Capaldi doing battle with an array of seasonal menaces including robot Santas, exploding Christmas trees, and militarized snowmen.  This set is also available in an edition that includes a “Tardis speaker”—sign me up!

This week’s limited TV offerings also include Inside Amy Schumer: Season 3 (Comedy Central, 210 min., $22.98).  Schumer’s Trainwreck was one of the top “R” rated comedies of 2015, and her raunchy brand of comedy that found such favor on the big screen is little changed from her TV series that is one of the hipster favorites on Comedy Central.

The only animated TV offering of the week is a great one, Shaun the Sheep: Season 1 (Lionsgate, 278 min., $14.98), which includes 40 episodes of stop-motion animated bliss from Nick Park and the creators of Wallace & Gromit at Aardman Animations.  This spin-off from Wallace & Gromit takes place at Mossy Bottom Farm where the critters are always trying to spice things up often with disastrous consequences.  The first edition of this release in 2010 is long out-of-print with versions going for big bucks on Amazon, so it’s great to see it available again at a reasonable price.

The only vintage TV release this week is George Lopez: The Complete 6th Season (Warner Bros., 384 min., $24.99), the final season of popular ABC sitcom that originally aired in 2006-2007.

Anime

This week’s top new release is the Dragonar Academy Complete Collection (Funimation, 300 min., BD/DVD Combo $64.99, Ltd. Ed. $69.99), which collects the 12-episode 2014 anime produced by C-Station and based on a series of fantasy/romance light novels by Shiki Mizuchi that is set in a world of dragons (and dragon-flying) where the citizens train their dragon buddies.

Another 2014 anime series due out this week is the Dramatical Murder Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 300 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), which collects the 12-episode series from NAZ that is based on a BL (Yaoi, or “Boy’s Love”) game (visual novel) developed by Nitro+chiral.

Even more interesting this week is the 2008 anime series Library Wars.  The Library Wars Complete Collection (Discotek Media, 300 min., Subtitles Only, $44.98), collects the series from Production I.G. that takes place in a Japan divided over censorship in which a government-sponsored Media Betterment Committee does battle with Library self-defense forces in one of the more intriguing anime series of the past ten years.

For those who like classic anime there is a new edition of the 1985 anime film Night on the Galactic Railroad (Discotek Media, $24.98), which is based on the 1927 fantasy novel written by Kenji Miyazawa.  This dub was originally released by Central Park Media in 2001.

Re-priced re-releases this week include the Eureka Seven AO: Complete Collection (Funimation, $29.98, BD $34.98), the Good Luck Girl!: Complete Collection (Funimation, $29.98), and the Angelic Layer Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 650 min., $49.98), a great collection (the 2008 edition is listed for over $100 on Amazon) that is currently out of print.