This week’s home entertainment offerings include Ang Lee’s award-winning Life of Pi, the disc debuts of the BBC’s powerful new Ripper Street and the Cartoon Network’s innovative Annoying Orange, plus a trio of strong anime offerings.

 

 

The best choice this week is Ang Lee’s The Life of Pi (Fox, “PG,” $29.99, BD $39.99, 3DBD $49.99), a daring adaptation of Yann Martel’s prize-winning novel. Lee’s film was nominated for 11 Oscars and won four including “Best Director” for Lee.  This is an "art" movie that was also a huge worldwide hit earning nearly $600 million, which was five times its production budget. Lee’s use of 3-D was especially subtle, but since 3-D TV remains in its infancy, most viewers who watch the film on disc will actually miss something, which isn’t often the case with run-of-the-mill 3-D action movies. But even stripped of its clever use of depth, Life of Pi remains a powerful and entertaining film.

 

In Dreamworks’ Rise of the Guardians (Dreamworks, “PG,” $29.99, BD/Combo $39.99) a group of legendary characters (Jack Frost, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, etc.) team-up to thwart evil—if this sounds a little like The Avengers for the pre-teen set, then so be it, since there is a real attempt on the part of the film’s creators to provide a quirky camaraderie among the heroes that many a superhero team-up book would love to emulate. Visually assured, though a bit narratively challenged, Rise of the Guardians is a solid family movie based on William Joyce’s Guardians of Childhood series of YA novels.

 

Master filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock has been the subject of several recent films including a TV movie based on Tippi Hedren’s revelations about the seamy side of the Master of Suspense’s personal character and Hitchcock (Fox, “PG-13,” BD/Combo $39.99), which presents a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Psycho. Anthony Hopkins is very good as “Hitch” and Helen Mirren excels in her portrayal of Hitchcock’s wife Alma Reville, whose role in the creation of the “Hitchcock film canon” has been greatly undervalued in most studies of the master’s work, though it receives its full due in this film, which film buffs will certainly enjoy, though other viewers may wonder why this movie was necessary.

 

You’ve Been Trumped (Docurama, “Not Rated,” $29.95) is a real life “Local Hero” with a group of Scots attempting to save a portion of their native countryside from the depredations of the loathsome Donald Trump, the epitome of the modern “faux celebrity,” who owes his increasingly problematic public visibility to the wealth from a huge real estate empire he inherited from his parents and a brace of the most brain-dead "reality" series ever produced that ooze out over the airwaves from that decaying temple of broadcasting imbecility that is the modern NBC network, an organization with primetime ratings that are deservedly lower than a snake’s belly.

 

 

Interesting “TV on DVD” releases this week include some great domestic animated shows of varying vintages along with a strong contingent of titles from the U.K. Among the former is the DVD debut of The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange, Vol. 1 Escape From the Kitchen (Salient Media, 110 min., $14.93), a YouTube sensation created by Dane Boedigheimer that made its way on to the Cartoon Network in 2012. Will Annoying Orange be the next breakout hit on the CN?

 

It's not the hot new thing anymore, but the most popular animated TV release of the week will be SpongeBob SquarePants: Season 8 (Nickelodeon, 600 min., $26.98), which collects the most recent (complete) season of what is currently Nickelodeon’s longest-running cartoon with well over 300 episodes and counting.

 

Vintage kid-targeting releases include the cult favorite Fraggle Rock: The Complete Season 1 (Lionsgate, 550 min., $29.98), which includes all 24 episodes of the first season of the Jim Henson-produced live-action series that debuted in 1983, CatDog: Season 3 (Shout Factory, 420 min., $19.93), which includes 20 episodes from the third season of the surreal cartoon slapstick series that aired on Nickelodeon from 1998 until 2002, plus The Smurfs: The Best of Seasons 1 and 2 (Warner Bros., 440 min., $19.82), a 24-episode sampler from the popular cartoon series that aired in the U.S. in the 1980s, and Tom and Jerry: Musical Mayhem (Warner Bros., $9.97), which includes 7 musical-themed episodes.

 

Vintage American TV series due this week include Xena: Warrior Princess—Season 4 (Universal, 964 min., $26.98), the fan-favorite syndicated series that starred Lucy Lawless, and its companion series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys—Season 4 (Universal, 966 min., $26.98), the New Zealand filmed series that spun-off Xena. 

 

Other vintage series include the Father Dowling Mysteries: The Third Season (Paramount, 880 min., $59.98), the classic western The Life and Times of Wyatt Earp: Season 2 (Inception Media, 900 min., $24.98) and the one-disk sampler Petticoat Junction: Return to Hooterville (MPI, 180 min., $14.98).

 

Contemporary series released include the recently cancelled The Mob Doctor: The Complete Series (Sony, 550 min., $35.99), and Law and Order: Criminal Intent, The Final Year (Shout Factory, 330 min., $29.93).

 

This week’s offerings from the U.K. are special. Ripper Street: Season 1 (BBC, 450 min., $29.98, BD $34.98), is set in the London slums in April of 1889 and provides a gritty look at Whitechapel during the Ripper era that is thoroughly engrossing and “must see” viewing for anyone with interest in the world’s most famous serial killer. This 8-part series began airing on BBC America in January.

 

{IMAGE_5)Geek fans will also want to check out this week’s vintage Doctor Who releases, Doctor Who: Story #006: The Aztecs Special Edition (BBC, 99 min., $34.98), a 4-part arc from 1964 that stars the original Doctor (William Hartnell) and deals with the series’ key question of whether time travelers could or should attempt to change the course of history, and Doctor Who: Story #076: The Ark in Space Special Edition (BBC, 98 min., $34.98), a classic 4-parter from 1975 that stars the popular Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker). These “Special Editions” feature newly re-mastered (both visuals and sound) versions of these classic sagas and they come with a full disc of extra features that should really appeal to hardcore Doctor Who fans.

 

Foyle’s War: The Home Front Files, Series 1-6 (Acorn Media, 2220 min., $149.99) contains all 22 feature-length mysteries set during World War II in the South of England. Meticulously produced and brilliantly acted this series combines important historical elements with first rate mysteries that will keep even the cleverest sofa-bound Sherlock in the dark until the very last moments. Anyone who loves a good mystery or is interested in a mature and detailed look at the English home front during World War II should check out this truly exemplary series.

 

 

There are some very interesting anime due this week including Dragon Ball Z Kai: Season 4 (Funimation, “13+,” 295 min., $49.98, BD $54.98). DBZ Kai is the updated high definition version of the classic martial arts anime. The new version not only includes spiffed up visuals and sound, the original DBZ series has been edited by removing elements that were created by the writers of the anime and did not appear in Akira Toriyama’s DBZ manga.

 

Also based on a bestselling manga, Bleach Box Set 16 (Viz Media, “13+,” 325 min., $44.82) contains episodes 230 to 242 of the long-running anime based on Tite Kubo’s supernatural adventure saga that remains one of the bestselling manga series in both Japan and the U.S.

 

The other key release this week is Penguin Drum Collection 2 (Sentai Filmworks, “14+,” 300 min., $59.98, BD $69.98), which includes episodes 13-24 of the 2011 comedy romance created and produced by Brains Base.

 

There are also some great reissues this week including Trigun: The Complete Series (Funimation, “14+,” 650 min., $39.98), an anime that proved to me more popular here in the U.S. where it received great airplay on Adult Swim than it was in Japan, and the Queen’s Blade Complete Collection (Media Blasters, “16+,” 600 min., $74.99), which two 12-episode seasons plus OVA episodes.

 
Tom Flinn

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect those of the editorial staff of ICv2.com