It's springtime and things are starting to heat up in the DVD market with the release of Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox, a savvy stop-motion feature that has “potential cult hit” written all over it, as well as the sure-fire mega-hit The Blindside, the first two Toy Story movies on Blu-ray along with The African Queen and Nick Ray’s Bigger Than Life, plus more great anime on Blu-ray, and two TV series with serious potential, Mad Men and The Prisoner.

 

Theatrical Films

 

Even though this is an age in which 3D computer animation reigns supreme, two of the best animated movies of 2009, Coraline and The Fantastic Mr. Fox were made with the old-fashioned stop motion animated process.  Wes Anderson’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Fox, “PG,” $28.99, BD $39.99) benefits from strong source material, a classic Roald Dahl children’s book adapted by Noah Baumbach (Greenberg) and Anderson (Rushmore).  Sometimes having “stars” provide voices for animated films turns out to be cheesy overkill, but in The Fantastic Mr. Fox the cast, which includes George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Michael Gambon, Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson and Bill Murray, is pitch perfect.  Rather than just overdubbing in the studio, the actors recorded their vocal tracks in the actual locations, gardens, barns, etc. where the story takes place.  This is an intelligent witty, quirky film that will appeal to adults even more than it does to kids.  Coraline, which was based on an excellent YA novel by Neil Gaiman, has sold over two-and-one-half million units on DVD, and Mr. Fox with the right sort of marketing could become a “cult DVD” hit of similar or even greater proportions.

 

Clooney stars in person in the quirky “military psychic” comedy The Men Who Stare At Goats (Anchor Bay, “R,” $29.98, BD $39.98).  Moviegoers tended to either hate this film or love it with much of the disagreement tied to individual’s view of the Iraq War and the competence of the Bush administration in pursuing it.  Even though the movie is set partially in Iraq, it was only tangentially about that Middle Eastern conflict and more concerned with military paranoia and the military industrial complex’s ability to profit from any scheme no matter how far-fetched.  The Men Who Stare At Goats is no Doctor Strangelove, but it’s quite possible that in the future it will be cited more frequently in conjunction with the Iraq War than more “serious” efforts such as In the Valley of Elah or The Green Zone.

 

The biggest theatrical release of the week is surely The Blindside (Warner Home Video “Pg-13,” $28.98, BD $35.99) the family/comedy/sports drama that was one of the surprise mega-hits of the past year.  It is the highest-grossing film ever for star Sandra Bullock, who received an Oscar for her performance as an upper middle class mom who adopts a homeless black teen in this film version of a true story that celebrates family and totally defines the contemporary “feel good” film.

 

Of course families can also be the source of conflict.  Take the case of Brothers (Lionsgate “R” $29.95, BD $39.99), an elemental film with echoes of The Odyssey that is actually a remake of a 2004 Danish film.  Brothers benefits from strong performances from Tobey Maguire as a marine reported as killed in action in Afghanistan, who returns unexpectedly to find his wife (Natalie Portman) has developed a bond with his ne’er-do-well brother (Jake Gyllenhaal).  (Spoiler Alert) Interestingly in the Danish film directed by Suzanne Bier, the black sheep brother has an affair with the soldier’s wife, but in the American film directed by Jim Sheridan, they do not.

 

Anime

 

Funimation continues its exemplary program of releasing top anime series on DVD with Trinity Blood: The Complete Series (17+, 528 min., $79.98).  Produced in 2005 by Gonzo and based on a series of novels by Sunao Yoshida, Trinity Blood is a vampire saga that is set in the future and blends science fiction, fantasy, and political intrigue.  Thanks in part to a popular manga adaptation (published here by Tokyopop), Trinity Blood is a well known property in North America.

 

Another science fiction series, Darker Than Black, which was produced by Bones is also due out this week in the Darker Than Black Complete Collection (Funimation, 17+, 625 min. $69.98).  Written and directed by Tensai Okamura, Darker Than Black is one of those once common, but increasingly rare successful anime series that doesn’t have its origins in other media.  It does however have a great score from Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop), a strong neo-Noir narrative, and excellent production values.

 

Bargain hunters can’t do much better than the Viridian Collection Editions of Case Closed Season 4 (Funimation, 13+, 615 min. $29.98) and Case Closed Season 5 (Funimation, 13+, 600 min. $29.98).  For the price of what a single-disc 4-episode anime used to cost, viewers can check out nearly 30 episodes of one of the most popular anime series in Japan (where it is known as Detective Conan).  And since each episode is a self-contained mystery, there is no problem with jumping in on Season 4 or Season 5.

 

Some of the most popular anime series are still getting single-disc releases, and this week Viz Media is putting out Bleach Vol. 26 (13+, 100 min. $24.98) and Media Blasters is releasing the sexy Ikki Tousen Dragon Destiny Vol.2 (100 min. $29.98).

 

Classics in Blu-ray

 

With Toy Story 3 due out this June, Disney is releasing Toy Story (BD $39.99) and Toy Story 2 (BD $39.99) on Blu-ray in combo-packs that also include a new standard DVD transfer of the film.  Needless to say both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 look absolutely spectacular in hi-def.  Toy Story is a crucial film in the development of Pixar as one of the extras, “Black Friday” documents.  Toy Story was Pixar’s first feature film and the young company was working closely with Disney exec Jeffrey Katzenberg on the film.  Katzenberg kept urging them to make the film “edgier” and more adult until at a storyboard run through of the film it was clear to everyone that the movie wasn’t working.  The Pixar team, which included the legendary “story man” Joe Ranft, rewrote the film to please themselves making Woody a sympathetic character once again and the rest is history.  Toy Story was the first feature film to use entirely computer-generated imagery and Pixar’s techniques have definitely evolved since then, but Toy Story still looks and sounds great (especially on Blu-ray), and it displays the secret ingredient of all Pixar’s successes, a great heartfelt story.

 

Released four years after the original, Toy Story 2 is that rare sequel that is actually better than the film it was based on.  Originally planned as a 60-minute direct-to-DVD project, the film looked so good in production that it was expanded to 90 minutes and given a theatrical release where it easily out-earned the original Toy Story.  Toy Story 2 was rated 100% positive on Rotten Tomatoes and remains the highest rated animated film in the history of the site.  Among the most interesting bonus features included with the Toy Story 2 Blu-ray is “The Movie Vanishes,” a scary true life tale of how a technical error almost resulted in erasing all of Toy Story 2 from Pixar’s computer system, but the most fascinating feature is a tribute to Joe Ranft, the legendary “story man” who helped define “the Pixar touch” before his untimely death in an auto accident in August of 2005.

 

John Huston’s The African Queen (Paramount BD $39.99, Commemorative Set $57.99) includes memorable performances from Humphrey Bogart, who won an Academy Award for playing against type, Katharine Hepburn and Robert Morley.  Until the release of the new Blu-ray, this film was only available in a very shabby version on DVDs created for other regions.  Finally this film, which was brilliantly shot on location in Africa in glorious technicolor by the great cinematographer Jack Cardiff, is getting the sort of treatment it deserves. The Commemorative Set includes an audio CD of the Lux Radio Theater version of the story, a reproduction of Katherine Hepburn’s out-of-print memoir, The Making of the African Queen or How I Went to Africa With Bogart, Bacall, and Huston and Almost Lost My Mind, a collectible Senitype, and eight images inspired by the original lobby cards.

 

Also out this week is a Blu-ray version of another 1950s classic, Nicholas Ray’s Bigger Than Life, which starred James Mason (who co-wrote and produced the film) as a school teacher who wigs out on cortisone, which was at the time an experimental treatment for inflammation of the arteries.  Bigger Than Life with its depiction of a less-than-ideal suburbia, flopped in 1956, but what could be more relevant today than a film about the misuse of prescription drugs.  Nick Ray, who was something of a wild man with an outsized ego, was the perfect director for this film, just as he was for Rebel Without a Cause, and like Rebel, Bigger Than Life rises above the “problem picture” genre to say something much more profound about the human condition.

 

TV on DVD

 

The top two TV on DVD releases of this week series are from cable network AMC, The Prisoner and Mad Men Season 3.  The Prisoner (Warner Home Video, 288 min., $29.98) is a six-episode mini-series remake of the classic cold war Orwellian 1960s series The Prisoner.  Unlike the original show in which the mysterious “village” where the protagonist known as “Number 6” is confined is located somewhere in Wales, the village in the new series is located in a desert.  There are many changes in the new series starting with the fact that Number Six is not a former British agent.  He is seen in flashbacks living a rather ordinary existence in New York City prior to his stint in the village, which begins when he awakes in the middle of the desert.  While the new series retains the cat-and-mouse relationship between Number 6, who is played by Jim Caviezel and Number 2, who is memorably interpreted by Ian McKellen, there are major changes in the nature of their confrontations, not the least of which is that Number 2 is always played by McKellen whereas in the original series Number 2 was played by a number of different actors who took different approaches in their quest to control Number 6.  There are some hints of the Victoriana, which gave the original “village” its weird “out of time” character, but the new village, which was constructed in Namibia has the look of a modern resort.  While those who loved the original 17-episode Prisoner series will likely find the new mini-series lacking in atmosphere and drama, others will see it as a rather commendable effort to update the concept of the original series for a less ideological age.

 

With the end of The Sopranos and The Wire, Mad Men is the best current drama series on American television.  Mad Men Season 3 (Lionsgate, 611 min. $49.98, BD $49.99) takes the Madison Ave. drama to the Kennedy assassination in 1963, but although the historical events do provide context, they are not the heart of this series.  What makes this show so good is its complex portrait of ad exec Don Draper, one of the most interesting strivers in American fiction since Fitzgerald’s Jay Gatsby.  Like Gatsby Draper has humble origins, assumes a new identity (literally in Draper’s case), and manages to find himself lost at the hollow center of the materialistic American Dream. 

 

Situation comedies, old and new, foreign and domestic dominate the rest of this week’s TV on DVD releases.  The first half of the U.K. West Indian-themed series, Desmond’s: The Collection Seasons 1-4 (Visual Entertainment, 1110 min., $39.98) is coming out along with the vintage 1950s’ Father Knows Best Season 4 (Shout Factory, 650 min., $34.99), the Canadian-produced Life With Derek: The Complete Third Season (E1 Entertainment, 580 min., $29.98), the Archie comic book-based Sabrina: The Teenage Witch, The Sixth Season (Paramount, 482 min., $39.98), and the Comedy Central sword and sorcery parody Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire (Comedy Central, 140 min., $19.99).

 

Drama series released this week include 7th Heaven: The Complete 10th Season(Paramount, 943 min., $49.98), and the gay-themed vampire series The Lair: The Complete Third Season (E1 Entertainment, 351 min., $29.99).

 

Foreign Films

 

John Woo’s Red Cliff is available in two versions on DVD, the Theatrical Cut (Magnolia Entertainment, 148 min. $26.98, BD $29.98) and the two-part International Version (Magnolia Entertainment, 288 min., $29.98, BD $34.98).  Since home viewers can watch at their leisure, the nearly 5-hour International Version, which includes many characters and subplots that are cut out or given short shrift in the Theatrical Cut, is clearly the better option.  The battle scenes are awesome throughout and they have been shortened as well in the Theatrical Cut. The epic film, which is based one of the classics of Chinese literature The Romance of the Three Kingdoms written by Luo Guanzhong in the 14th Century, cost $80 million making it the most expensive movie ever produced in Asia.  With its glorious shots of the breathtaking landscapes of Southern China, spectacularly choreographed fight scenes involving thousands of extras, and epic scale intrigue, Red Cliff is one of the great movie epics of this or any other era.  Watch it in the hi-def Blu-ray format and view it one part at a time in the International Version, which is almost twice as long and nearly twice as good.