In what has to be the weakest slate of home entertainment releases so far this year, the Disney classic Bambi, which debuts on Blu-ray, and the first fully computer-animated cartoon series stand out in a mediocre field.

 

 

Walt Disney’s 1942 classic Bambi (Disney, "G," BD combo $39.99) was the studio’s fifth animated feature and the last one from Disney’s Golden Age to make nearly everyone’s list of the top ten animated films along with Snow White, Pinocchio, and Fantasia. The new Blu-ray edition of this classic is simply spectacular, both visually and aurally. Bambi didn’t make money on its initial release (largely because WWII limited foreign market exposure), but with its superb use of the multi-plane camera, its increasingly subtle character animation, and its brilliantly subtle coloring, which added hundreds of hues to the Technicolor palette (all of which come through brilliantly on the Blu-ray), Bambi in some ways represents the most impressive achievement of the Disney studio. 

But the animal characterizations in Bambi also demonstrate the sentimentality and unrealistic anthropomorphism that critics have characterized derisively with the adjective “Disneyfied.” Though it lacks the darker edge of Pinocchio and the cutting edge graphic design of Fantasia, the master animators at Disney spent hours watching and photographing animals in preparation for creating Bambi, which in many ways represents the high point of classic Disney animation.  The labor intensive creative process employed in making Bambi is described in detail in the copious extras that come with the Bambi Blu-ray including several like “Inside Walt’s Story Meetings-Enhanced Edition,” two deleted scenes, and a deleted song, that have never been released on home video before.

 

 

The top TV release this week is Reboot: Seasons 1 and 2 (Shout Factory, 690 min., $29.93), which contains all 26 episodes of the Canadian-produced animated series that appeared on ABC Saturday mornings from 1994-1996, and on the Cartoon Network from 1999-2001. Reboot is set inside a mainframe computer and was the first major animated TV series produced entirely with computer animation. Though the computer animation appears crude by today’s standards, this was a truly groundbreaking series, and one that a lot of kids who grew up in the 1990s remember fondly.

 

The only other “TV on DVD” animated release this week is for Art Clokey completists only. Davey and Goliath, Vol. 5 (Alpha Video, 90 min., $14.95) is a stop-motion animated series created by Clokey (Gumby) for the Lutheran Church in America. Davey and Goliath featured some of the first African American characters in American TV cartoons and dealt with issues such as racism, intolerance, respect for authority and sharing.

 

Other TV offerings include the 1986 mini-series If Tommorow Comes (Image, 313 min. $19.98) based on Sidney Sheldon’s highly romantic crime novel, and  Leave It To Beaver: Season 6 (Shout Factory, 1020 min., $39.97), the final season of one of the best sitcoms from TV’s Golden Age.

 

Those interested in the rich history of television programming could do worse than Pioneers of Television: Season 2 (PBS, 240 min., $24.99), a clip-filled documentary, which covers some of TV’s most popular genres including science fiction shows, westerns, kids’ shows, and police dramas.

 

Another documentary series worthy of note, especially for history buffs, is Dickens in America (BFS, 300 min., $39.98), a revealing, 10-part series that retraces novelist Charles Dickens’ 1842 tour of the United States. The series reflects the author’s love/hate relationship with America, while providing an insightful look at the pre-Civil War U.S.

 

British drama series out this week include Napoleon and Love (Acorn Media, 468 min., $59.99), a 1974 mini-series that starred Ian Holm (Bilbo Baggins in the Lord of the Rings) as Napoleon Bonaparte, a "Hobbit "in stature, but a giant on the world stage, and as this series demonstrates eventually with the ladies, though his initial efforts in this sphere were bumbling and naive.

 

Noah’s Castle: The Complete Series (VCI, 175 min., $39.99) is another vintage U.K. series. Produced in 1980, Noah’s Castle is a 7-part adaptation of a YA novel by John Rowe Townsend set in a near future Britain in which the social order had broken down as the economy collapsed.

 

Also out this week is the excellent police procedural drama, Murder Investigation Team: Series 1 (Acorn Media, 391 min., $49.99), which includes eight hour-long episodes that follow the exploits of the Special Crimes Unit of London’s Metropolitan Police.  Those who enjoy gritty realistic crime dramas that mix cutting edge forensics with old-fashioned police work, will really like this series.

 

Although it was produced for Thames Television, The Norman Conquests (Acorn Media, $59.99) is really a televised play, actually a trilogy of inter-related plays featuring the same characters that take place in 3 different rooms of the same house during the same weekend. This reverential TV production keeps playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s unity of place intact, which gives the proceedings a decidedly stage bound quality. The Norman Conquests is by its very nature as a perfect recording of a classic stage production of interest to those who love the theater, while others may find its interlocking cleverness too arch by half.

 

 

While there are a number of releases in this category this week, it’s not exactly a banner slate. The best film in the quartet of theatrical releases is 127 Hours (Fox, “R,” $29.98, BD $39.98), a true story about a mountain climber (brilliantly portrayed by James Franco) who has to amputate his own arm, which is pinned down by a boulder in the deep back country. While this doesn’t sound like a very promising premise, this movie works—it overcomes its narrative limitations to become one of the more life-affirming films of recent years. Not for everyone, but most people will enjoy it, even those who have to turn away from the screen at various points.

 

Considerably less edifying is Faster (Sony, “R,” $24.96, BD $34.95), an ultra-violent revenge movie, that isn’t quite as bad as its reviews (only 45% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), but doesn’t quite fulfill all its genre expectations either. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson gives a monosyllabic performance that makes Schwarzenegger’s Terminator seem like a motor-mouth, but there is a surprising amount of characterization in the midst of all the stereotypes in this Death Wish-like shoot-em-up.

 

Whatever its limiations, Faster is Citizen Kane compared with Burlesque (Sony, “PG-13,” $28.95, $34.95) a glitzy cornfest of an attempt at a contemporary musical that features Cher and Christina Aguilera in a campy dog’s breakfast of a movie with dance numbers that should have Bob Fosse rolling over in his grave.

 

Love and Other Drugs (Fox, “R,” $29.99, BD $39.99) also has its corny elements, thanks to its mixture of the contemporary romcom cliché de jour, a “no-strings” love affair, with sentimental and dramatic elements yanked right out of Love Story. Still strong performances from Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway (plus lots of nudity) make this film far more interesting than the typical romantic comedy.

 

 

It’s a very small slate of anime releases this week. The highlight is the Samurai Champloo Complete Series (Funimation, “17+,” 650 min., $49.98, BD $54.98), which is being released in Blu-ray. Although Shinichiro Watanabe’s Samurai Champloo was previously released by Geneon, and by Funimation on Blu-ray in November of 2009, this new Blu-ray edition, which reduces the MSRP by nearly 50%, makes this innovative series, which appeared on Adult Swim, much more affordable and very hard to pass up. 

 

Another excellent deal, though the anime itself is not nearly as cutting edge as Samurai Champloo, is the xxxHolic Complete Series (Funimation, “13+,” 600 min., $29.98), which includes all 24 episodes of the anime adaptation of the Clamp manga produced by Production I.G.

 

The only release of new material this week is Shin Koihime Musou (Sentai Filmworks, 325 min. $49.98), which includes all 12 episodes of the second season of the anime series produced by Dogakobo based on the visual novel/strategy game from BaseSon that takes its inspiration from the Chinese historical novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The anime series, which is notable for its super-deformed characters, aired in Japan in 2009. The first season of this series was released in January (see “DVD Round-Up: Week of January 4th”), and a third 12-episode Shin Koihime anime series is due out in May.