Video Business reports that Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment is set to release a 3-inch mini-DVD which will carry an hour's worth of special features as a bonus disk along with a regular size disk that will contain the complete Metropolis anime feature. This will mark the first time that a studio has employed the mini-DVDs, which can be played in any standard DVD player. Columbia is obviously hoping that the mini-DVD format will appeal to the tech-savvy anime audience. Full details and on the contents and pricing of the Metropolis DVD are not available at this time, but are expected to be released shortly.
Metropolis is based on a manga created in 1949 by Osamu Tezuka, the founding father of both manga and anime. Some 50 years after the publication of the Metropolis manga, two of the biggest names in anime, screenwriter Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) and director Rintaro (X) have collaborated on one of the most fascinating anime features of the past decade. Metropolis, which is currently receiving a limited theatrical run here in the U.S., was the impetus behind a very flattering article on anime that ran in the Arts & Leisures Section of the N.Y. Times. (see 'N.Y. Times Dubs Anime Japanese Cinema's Second Golden Age'). Thanks to the popularity of the classic Fritz Lang Metropolis silent film (which inspired Tezuka), and its exposure in the Times and its theatrical run in key cities, Metropolis has the potential to appeal to a broad base of anime and science fiction fans. The double disk (one mini, one regular) Metropolis DVD is set to debut on March 12.
