The pace of DVD releases is accelerating as the holiday season approaches.  Last week it was the theatrical film releases with considerable graphic novel sales-driving potential, namely Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and the live action Blood: The Last Vampire.  The Transformers films have both spurred strong sales of IDW’s Transformers graphic novels (especially to younger readers in the bookstore channel), while the stylish Blood: The Last Vampire franchise with its vampire-like Chiropterans has inspired the popular Blood+ anime and manga (publisher here by Dark Horse). 

 

For this Tuesday (Oct. 27th) it’s the TV and anime categories that are providing the most opportunities. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is probably the top new prospect along with a host of new anime releases including Death Note Re-Light, Vol.2: L’s Successor, Naruto Shippuden Vol.2, Claymore, and Pokemon: Diamond & Pearl, while Warner Bros.' Saturday Morning Cartoon Anthologies provide a heaping helping of nostalgia.

 

TV Releases

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan (Universal $26.98), which was directed by series star Edward James Olmos, is a two-hour movie that is set before the attack on the 12 colonies and follows events from the perspective of two Cylon agents.  BSG: The Plan won't air on the SyFy Channel until 2010.  More BSG movies are planned, which should keep the property in the public eye and help push sales of Dynamite’s line of BSG comics.

 

Anime

The Claymore Complete Collection (Funimation $69.98) includes all 26 episodes of the dark fantasy saga based on Norihiro Yagi’s manga (published here by Viz Media, which has released 14 volumes so far).  Produced by Madhouse, the Claymore anime series features lots of bloody action as the series’ sword-wielding heroines take on the Yoma, vampire-like monsters that feed on human innards.  The action-packed collection, which is rated “TV MA” (17 and up), includes all 650 minutes of the series on six discs as well as some excellent extras including six different commentary tracks and two 24-page full color booklets.

 

Viz Media has three anime releases based on extremely popular properties that are due out this week including Naruto Shippuden Vol. 2, which continues the popular ninja saga and features the English language track included on episodes that are currently airing on the Disney XD cable channel. Also out this week are Death Note Relight 2: L’s Successors, a feature film that recapitulates much of the original Death Note anime series; and Pokemon: Diamond & Pearl Battle Dimension Vols. 5&6.   The Pokemon property continues to receive plenty of TV exposure and the Pokemon TCG and video games remain popular with young gamers.

 

Genre Films

Halloween is at hand so horror films take center stage this week starting with the original 1987 version of The Stepfather (Shout Factory $19.99, Rated “R”), an economically-made slasher film that is clearly one of the most character-driven films in that unfairly maligned subgenre.  Directed by Joseph Ruben, The Stepfather stars Terry O’Quinn (Lost) in a very underrated performance in the title role.  A remake of The Stepfather, in which the key teenage role has been changed from a stepdaughter to a stepson, is in theaters now.

 

Almost as good (and even more successful in building a “cult film” reputation) is Night of the Creeps (Sony, $19.94), a superior horror comedy directed by Fred Dekker that was released in 1986.  The accidental unfreezing of a cryogenically-preserved football hero of the 1950s leads to the release of a horde of slugs that invade the brains of the unsuspecting and results in a chain of increasingly surreal and often humorous deaths.

 

For those who like their mayhem unadulterated by any semblance of plot or characterization there is The New York Ripper (Blue Underground $19.95), Italian director Lucio Fulci’s supremely stylish 1982 cinema bloodbath.

 

Animation

For the nostalgically inclined, Warner Bros. is back with new volumes of its Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s (Vol.2 $26.98) and Saturday Morning Cartoons 1970s (Vol.2 $26.98) series.  The two-disc sets each provide more than 300 minutes of Saturday morning animated fun.  The 1960s set contains an excellent selection of Looney Tunes (Bugs, Porky, Roadrunner, etc.) and Hanna-Barbera selections.  Extras include “Completely Bananas: The Magilla Gorilla Story,” an in-depth examination of the secrets behind the success of the Hanna-Barbera shows.  The 1970s set includes more Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera heroes (Augie Doggie, Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound) plus some of the duo’s fully animated Tom and Jerry toons and a special feature on “The Power of Shazzan,” the innovative series created for Hanna-Barbera in 1967 by Alex Toth.

 

The major animated release of the week is Disney's direct-to-DVD Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure.  Though Tinker Belle has appeared in a number of Disney comics through the years, she's not much of a 4-color player now.  Perhaps Boom's success with other Disney properties will lead to comics where the sprite's considerable popularity with young girls can be exploited.

 

Theatrical Films

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs will rule the DVD sales charts this week, but the popular CGI animated feature film franchise doesn’t have any direct comic book tie-in, nor does Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, which stars Larry David and Evan Rachel Wood.  The third Ice Age film is available in three different DVD versions, a single-disk, a double-disk Scrat Pack, and a Blu-ray.  Although the wordless segments featuring sabertoothed squirrel are among the best elements in the Ice Age movies, the Scrat Pack extras are something of a disappointment.  For Scrat fans who have to have them, they are available on the Blu-ray at less cost than the double-disk Scrat Pack version, but it's the Ice Age 3 film itself that is the real star here, not the extras.  The third film in the series is tighter, more focused and funnier than either of the previous entries, a fact born out by its worldwide theatrical gross of $878 million. It's the movie itself not the extras that will make this one of the bestselling DVDs of the year.

 

Two politically charged films should be of interest to cinephiles: Costa Gravas’ stylish 1969 saga of the assassination of a leftwing Greek politician, Z (Criterion $39.95); and Il Divo (MPI $27.98) a contemporary Italian film about the shadowy career of the urbane Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti.  Because of the sad state of the art house market here in the U.S., Il Divo, which features a brilliant performance by Toni Servillo as Andreotti, has not received the attention it deserves.  A sophisticated study of how the mafia actually operates in Italy, Il Divo is in a league with the best efforts of Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather) and Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas).

 

The major cinephile release of the week is Criterion's 7-disc Sam Fuller Film Collection featuring the under-the-radar feature films of one of America's most original writer/directors.