This week’s home entertainment offerings include a Peanuts movie that manages to capture much of the magic of the classic comic strip, the overlooked historical drama In the Heart of the Sea, the final season of the innovative single-camera sitcom Community, and a beautiful Blu-ray restoration of a Fritz Lang science fiction classic.

Theatrical Releases

This week’s top release is The Peanuts Movie (Fox, “G,” 88 min., $29.98 BD/DVD $39.99), a respectful adaptation of Charles M. Schulz’s beloved comic strip from the creators of the Ice Age movies.  There’s not much new here, but that’s not the point--the familiar characters and Schulz’s penetrating insights into the human condition (and character archetypes) come to life in an agreeable fashion that earned the film an excellent 87% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

One of the many recent movies that didn’t receive the kind of attention it deserved in theaters is Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea (Warner Bros., “PG-13,” 121 min., $28.98, BD $35.99), which recounts the true story of the whaling ship Essex, which was sunk by a whale, and was the saga that inspired Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.  Melville appears in an apocryphal framing story, but it is the well-realized action scenes and powerful period details that make this film, which stars Chris Hemsworth (Thor) well worth watching—and hopefully In the Heart of the Sea will receive the attention on disc (and streaming) that it deserved, but didn’t get in theaters.

Horror movie fans will have to make do with Victor Frankenstein (Fox, “PG-13,” 110 min., $29.99, BD $39.99), a new version of Mary Shelley’s classic that stars James McAvoy (X-Men) as the eponymous scientist and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) as his assistant Igor.  This version of the Frankenstein legend concentrates on the relationship between Victor and Igor, but critics found it pretty much of a mess, giving it just a 26% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

For art movie fans this week’s only option is Justin Kurzel’s movie adaptation of Macbeth (Anchor Bay, “R,” 113 min., $22.98, BD $26.99), a very bloody and violent version of the “Scottish Play” that is primarily of interest because of the excellent performances of Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard.

TV on DVD

This week’s top release is Community: The Complete Sixth (and Final?) Season (Sony, 360 min., $45.99), what appears to be the last season of the innovative single-camera comedy series created by Dan Harmon that deftly skewers clichés from across the pop culture spectrum.  Community is the very definition of a “cult” TV series.  Fans of the series will want to have Season Six to keep them occupied until the Community movie hits the big screen, and those who have sampled the quirky pleasures of this series are advised to give it a try.

Speaking of tear-stained final seasons, this week also sees the appearance of Manh(a)ttan: Season 2 (Lionsgate, 622 min., $29.98, BD $34.98) collects the “last hurrah” of the WGN period drama about the super-secret Manhattan Project that produced the world’s first atomic bomb, as well as the Canadian-produced cop drama, Rookie Blue: The Complete 6th & Final Season (eOne, 484 min., $39.98).

Streaming series have garnered considerable critical acclaim, and the Netflix comedy Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 1 (Universal, 324 min., $22.98) is no exception.  Rescued after spending 15 years in a Doomsday cult, Kimmy heads to the Big Apple to find herself, where she is surrounded by helpful eccentrics.

For those who enjoy elaborate parodies there is The Spoils of Babylon (Anchor Bay, 138 min., $24.98), a spoof the “Big Event” miniseries of the 1970s and 1980s (think Rich Man, Poor Man) that stars Tobey Maguire, Kristen Wiig (who won an Emmy for her role), Tim Robbins, Jessica Alba, Val Kilmer, Martin Sheen, and Will Ferrell.

Vintage TV releases include the classic WWII prison camp comedy Hogan’s Heroes: The Complete Series (Paramount, 4275 min., 79.99), and the 1950s medical drama Dr. Kildare: The Complete 5th Season (Warner Bros., 1444 min., DVD-R $59.99).

Classics on Blu-ray

Kino continues to release excellent restorations of classic silent films including two of Fritz Lang’s best 1920s films.  Spies (Kino, “Not Rated,” 150 min., $29.98) from 1928 looks forward to the modern spy thriller with its diabolical villain Haghi (Rudolph Klein-Rogge) and his high-tech gadgetry.  It also looks back to the serials of 1910s, which makes certain elements appear quaint to modern audiences, but, especially in this beautiful restoration (by the F.W. Murnau Stiftung), Spies remains an highly enjoyable adventure for those who enjoy the spy film genre.

Even more compelling for science fiction fans is Lang’s 1929 film The Woman in the Moon (Kino, “Not Rated, 169 min., $29.98), which is now available in complete form and in a beautiful restoration.  Lang consulted the top German rocket pioneers, and the result is that Die Frau im Mond is perhaps the first “hard” science fiction film.  Of course it is much more—there is a spy/sabotage element ripped right out of Lang’s Mabuse films, and a romance that is pure Thea von Harbou (Lang’s screenwriting wife, whose overheated sense of drama inhabits all of the director’s films from the 1920s including the previously discussed Spies).  While there are plenty of moments in the film that modern audiences might find cringe-worthy, The Woman in the Moon is nonetheless a real eye-opener and a definite “must-see” for those who want to understand how the science fiction film developed.

Anime

This week’s top release is the second season of Production I.G.’s cyberpunk sci-fi police procedural Psysho-Pass.  The Psycho-Pass 2: Complete Collection (Funimation, 275 min., BD/DVD Combo $64.98, PE $84.98) takes place in the same future world in which the Sybil System actively measures people’s mental states and designates individuals with a high “crime coefficient” who are the target of the Public Safety Bureau’s Criminal Investigators who use large guns called “Dominators.”  Season 2 of this superior thriller, which will appeal to fans of the Production I.G.’s Ghost in the Shell TV anime, finds Akane Tsunemori in charge of her unit and facing a new challenge from criminal mastermind who has learned how to keep his own Crime Coefficient (and those of his henchmen) low.  The “Premium Edition” comes in a chipboard box and features an exclusive booklet.

Also new this week is the Brothers Conflict: Complete Collection (Funimation, 358 min., BD/DVD Combo $74.98, LE $84.98), which collects 13 episodes of the 2013 anime from Brain’s Base that is based on the novels (and shojo manga) created by Atsuko Kanase, a romantic comedy series (known in Japan as “BroCon”) about a teenage girl who finds, when her father is planning to remarry, that she might have 13 handsome stepbrothers, all of whom appear to be sweet on her.

Another series based on a shojo property is due out on Tuesday—The Wolf Girl and Black Prince: Complete Collection (Sentai Filmworks, 300 min., Subtitles Only, $49.98, BD $59.98), which collects the 12-episode 2014 series from TYO Animations that is based on Ayuko Hatta’s shojo manga series about a teenage girl, who lies about having a boyfriend lead to some very unfortunate complications.

For younger viewers and hardcore Pokemon fans there is Pokemon the Movie: Hoopa and the Clash of Ages (Viz Media, 78 min., Dubbed Only $19.97), the 18th Pokemon animated film and the second movie in the XY series.

Re-priced re-releases this week include the 2003 horror/mystery anime Requiem from the Darkness: Complete Collection (Discotek Media, 325 min., $39.95), which includes all 13 episodes of the 2003 series from TMS that is based on the short stories of Natsuhiko Kyogoku, and which was previously released here by Geneon, and the Iria: Zeiram the Animation (Discotek Media, 210 min., $29.98), which includes all 6 episodes of the influential 1994 OVA science fiction series about a female bounty hunter.