Tom Smith

As God is my witness....

Doubleyou tee eff. In a good way. I think.

Say your prayers, Larry.

(If you leave it running, you'll catch the last couple that I missed, Top Gun and Halloween.)

This is gonna be so cool.

And here's some bonus cool.

Thanks to invader_tak_1 for noticing that Spiff has a new JoCo WoW video:

Several items of interest:

• The Wizard of Oz 70th Anniversary Edition:
  • Two-Disc Special Edition
  • Ultimate Collector's Edition with Digital Copy and Amazon Exclusive Set of 4 Collectible 8x10 Character Posters
  • Ultimate Collector's Edition with Digital Copy and Amazon Exclusive Set of 4 Collectible 8x10 Character Posters [Blu-ray]
  The restoration is the same as the 2005 edition; the Ultimate editions have the same content as the 2005 edition, but with a whole disk full of new stuff
• Monsters vs. Aliens:
  • Standard Edition
  • Ginormous Double Pack (double-packaged with an extra feature, like Kung Fu Panda was; this one's called B.O.B.'s Big Break in Monster 3D)
• Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (adapting the Loeb/McGuinness graphic novel):
  • Single-Disc Edition
  • Two-Disc Special Edition
• Celebration: The Video Collection (pretty much all of Madonna's music videos)
• How I Met Your Mother: Season Four (I've gotta start watching this just for the Neil Patrick Harris)
• Life on Mars: The Complete Series
• The Real Ghostbusters: Complete Collection

Anything else just released on video that we need to know about?

invader_tak_1 points us to an insanely wonderful web comic: Cyanide and Happiness. (You have to see the animated short, "Waiting For The Bus".)

Time for our periodic Web Comics Recommendation thread. Whatcha readin'?

Holy crap. A few weeks of Not Much At All, and then today (among many other things, mostly TV season sets), we get:

• Fame: The Complete Seasons 1 & 2
• Doctor Who: The Next Doctor (2008 Christmas Special)
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Two-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy)
• The Big Bang Theory: The Complete Second Season
• American Werewolf in London Special Edition
• X-Men, Volume Three and Four

Anything else just released we need to know about?

Anne points out that it's ridiculous to say you're into "anime"; it's like saying you're into books. Anime runs the gamut, from kiddie-cute to ultra-violent to steamy-sexual to philosophical to quasi-historical to satirical to you get the idea.

I have always been a casual fan of Japanese animation. But the right ones are getting me into it more. (Many of these links are to the Wikipedia pages for the original manga; they give information about the anime. Spoilers abound, so be careful.)

• Last year, of course, Anne made sure I watched Death Note, which was way, way cool, although definitely not to everyone's tastes. You can watch it online here.
• I also ended up watching Black Butler (Kuroshitsuji), which had fantastic characters except for the inexplicably doofus ones and went wildly out of control as far as plot sometime after Ep 6. You can watch it online here.
• There's the utterly adorable Chi's Sweet Home, the episodes of which are pretty much less than three minutes each, so it's easy to get into. Here's one of several playlists at YouTube.
• Anne and I are 1/7 of the way through Samurai 7, an authorized steampunk retelling of Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. You can watch it online here. Somewhere, Toshiro Mifune is looking down and thinking, "My character is a GIANT ROBOT!? COOL!"
• I have to check out Romeo x Juliet, the preview of which will kick your ass. (At least it did mine.) You can watch it online here.
• But the one I've been following lately is the fabulous Hikaru No Go, about a 12-year-old boy who picks up the wrong, or right, Go board and finds himself in the company of Fujiwara-no-Sai, a ghost who was a famous Go player hundreds of years ago. It quickly becomes an intricate tale of dedication, obsession, friendship, and finding yourself, with superb characters and even Go lessons at the end of each episode. You can watch it online here.

Obviously, there are many, many others. If you're an anime fan, which ones would you recommend to newbies? And, if you're not familiar with much anime, what kind of stories are you looking for, so we can help you find them?

For only two weeks. Here's a teaser (scroll down to the bottom).

This could be fun.

Oh my frickin FSM, there's a lot today:

• Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5
• Torchwood: Children of Earth
• Dollhouse: Season One
• Green Lantern: First Flight (Two-Disc Special Edition)
• The Middleman: The Complete Series
• Dragonball: Evolution (the live-action one)
• Spectacular Spider-Man: Complete First Season (literally, the only thing I don't love about this series is the theme song)
• Repulsion- Criterion Collection
• Knight Rider - Season One (the new version, not the Hasselhoff)

Anything else new on video we need to know about?

Also fresh from SDCC, by way of drzarron:

Several goodies, including:

• Watchmen (Director's Cut [Two-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy]) -- if you scroll down to the reviews, you'll see a list of additions. And it basically looks like most everything they cut for time in the release cut (which, by the way, is the digital copy, so you're getting both versions of the movie). I'm not gonna frickin' wait for an Ultimate Edition with Tales of the Black Freighter and the Digital Motion Comic. They had their chance to sell me all that stuff now, on release day, and they blew it.
• Coraline (I'm getting the Two-Disc Collector's Edition w/ 3D; there's also single-disk w/ 3D and Blu-ray)
• Pushing Daisies: The Complete Second Season
• Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods
• Robot Chicken: Star Wars - Episode II
• The Lucy Show: The Official First Season
• Anita O'Day - The Life Of A Jazz Singer

Any other new video releases we need to know about?

ETA: And INSIDE the frickin' Watchmen case is a coupon for $10 off the Ultimate Collector's Edition coming in December. The only possible reason to get it is that the Tales of the Black Freighter stuff is edited into the film. But that means THREE cuts of the same movie, dribbled out in a way to make as much money as possible. Mother fuck.

Expecto Patronum!

Who's looking forward to the new movie? I admit I'm not. The whole Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione thing, not to mention the UTTER CRAP of the last two books, has just sucked the fun out of it for me. I'm gonna see it so I can keep up, but meh.

Hardcore Nerdity informs us that there will be limited theatrical showings of the director's cut of Watchmen, in anticipation of its July 21st video release. The Blu-ray edition will also include basically a simulcast on July 25 from San Diego Comic Con, including a Q&A with director Zack Snyder.

I'm debating whether to finally jump on the bandwagon and get the Blu-ray edition first. It's got a few more features (although neither the Tales of the Black Freighter nor the Digital Motion Comic, so you know they'll be in another Watchmen Complete gift set at some point), and everything is definitely moving in the Blu-ray direction. In any case, no matter which format, if you watch movies at all with your computer, you should likely get the Director's Cut, because it's also got a digital copy of the theatrical version -- that is, you'll get both. (Getting the Blu-ray version with Nite Owl's ship is entirely up to you. You might want to save a little dosh, though, because Coraline is also released on 7/21, in DVD and Blu-ray.)

Who's planning to get any of 'em? And what else looks good on home video this summer?

They're being a little creative about this one, so this once I'll translate: "Harry Potter Medley, Part 1 of 5, in 30 Seconds (and Re-Enacted by Bunnies)".

Thanks, I think, to hughcasey.

I saw this one awhile back, but Anne reminded me.

So, Anne and I finally saw Pixar's Up last night.

She thought it was very well done, lots of fun, but you could see it all coming and it wasn't emotionally engaging, or at least she wasn't emotionally engaged. I agree with the first three points, but the dang film got me where I lived and I cried a lot, especially during the first ten minutes, and think it's in my top 3 Pixar films (I'll have to rewatch Finding Nemo [shucky-darn] to see if it still affects me as strongly).

Thoughts?

A few real goodies today:

• Gran Torino (Widescreen Edition)
• Shaun the Sheep: Sheep on the Loose
• The Best of Whose Line is it Anyway?
• Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director's Cut (40th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition)
• The thing that's finally gonna get me to give money to WWE again: WWE: Macho Madness - The Randy Savage Ultimate Collection

Anything on your video release list this week?

Surprisingly succinct. And, not safe for work (language).

Ewww. (Not safe for work.)

Since Amazon Fail has been, for the most part, resolved, the linkage is back.

This week, different flavors of paradise:

• Creation and The Fall: Caprica
• Actors' Heaven: Frost/Nixon and The Wrestler
• TV Animation Nirvana: Freakazoid!: Season 2 and Tiny Toon Adventures: Season 1, Vol. 2
• WARNING! The Gates Of Hell: Wolverine and the X-Men: Heroes Return Trilogy (the animated episodes are fine, but this is one of those repackagings of a few eps to fool the unwary into giving them more money -- they're releasing all of Season 1 soon, for less than double the price of this 3-episode rip-off)

Any other video released today we should know about?

Nicked from ladysmith.

( Big ol' list behind the cut.... )

Pretty slight week, actually:

• The Tale of Despereaux
  
• What I'm sure the studios consider one of the Big Guns in the SF genre for the week, The Day Keanu Reeves Tried Again To Act And Gosh Look At All The Special Effects (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)
  
• Max Fleischer's Superman: 1941-1942 -- all 17 of the Fleischer cartoons, the precise same ones as restored for the Ultimate Superman collection from a few years ago, only now available without having to buy Superman 3, Superman 4, and Superman Returns
• Can't believe I think this one might be good: Adam Sandler in Disney's Bedtime Stories (also 2 Disc DVD + Disneyfile). If you haven't seen the trailer, decide for yourself
• Kinda the same thing on Jim Carrey in Yes Man (Single-Disc Edition and Two-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy)
• My choice for coolest rerelease of the week: A Song Is Born with Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo, including performances by Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong
• Doubt (the must-see, feel-good movie of the year)
• Pre-Code Hollywood Collection (The Cheat / Merrily We Go to Hell / Hot Saturday / Torch Singer / Murder at the Vanities / Search for Beauty) -- films with Cary Grant, Talullah Bankhead, Frederic March, and a host of others, in the wild days before the 1934 Hollywood "Production Code"
• i.o.u.s.a., which looks like a hard-hitting documentary about the nation's financial woes until you realize the filmmakers' solution seems to include disemboweling Social Security and Medicare
• My Friends Tigger, Pooh and a Musical Too -- strictly for the kids who can't get enough W-t-P
• Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword -- get i.o.u.s.a. and the Pooh one before you get this

Oh, and, Freakazoid!: Season 2 and Tiny Toon Adventures: Season 1, Vol. 2 are available for pre-order -- they're out in two weeks.

Any other new DVDs we need to know about?

Brand new from Patrick Boivin:

Various and sundry goodies today, not counting Hot Angsty Baseball-Playing Vampires of House Sparkly-Poo -- I mean, Twilight (Two-Disc Special Edition) which came out over the weekend:

• Disney's Bolt (Single-Disc Edition, Two-Disc Edition + Digital Copy, and Three-Disc Edition w/ Standard DVD + Digital Copy and Blu-ray)
• Finally, finally, FINALLY a 2-Disc Big Wave Edition of Disney's Lilo & Stitch
• Quantum of Solace (also on Two-Disc Special Edition and Blu-ray)
• Secrets of the Furious Five (as far as I can tell, this is precisely the same widescreen DVD that was already packaged with Kung Fu Panda, so if you got that you don't need to buy it again -- but, if you haven't seen it, it's pretty cool, and if you've got kids there are lots of activities on it)
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars - A Galaxy Divided (TV Series) (but you don't want it -- even if you like the series; it's not the whole season, only four episodes, and a season set has already been announced, so this disc is basically to keep the kids happy in the back seat)
• Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter & Under the Hood (Single-Disc Edition and Single Disc + Digital Copy and Blu-ray) (I am torn on this one, because I just know that the bastards are gonna come out with a Super Special Asskicking Edition for the holiday season that has the movie, this disc, the Complete Motion Comic, the graphic novel in a digest edition, and a Rorschach mask, I just know it)
• Craig Ferguson: A Wee Bit o' Revolution (his first stand-up special)
• The Venture Bros.: Season Three

Any other cool video releases we need to know about?

ETA: jrittenhouse informs us that the Warner Bros. Archives has some fairly cool old movies on DVD -- I presume stuff they either had in release at one point or just made limited quantities of, 'cause it's not the type of stuff that'll blow out the doors sales-wise. And I'm going to get at least one, a movie I've been wanting on DVD, one of the best and worst movies there is: Doc Savage, The Man of Bronze. (Click here for a tiny preview of the DVD's video quality, and here for the full opening titles on YouTube.)

( I'm actually slightly disappointed (spoiler).... )

Four of 'em, to be precise.

It's a good day to hype some friends and their work:

• the online journal Anthrozine
• new stuff up at Accidental Centaurs
• the always hilarious Something Positive
• brand-new vertical Sunday strip format for Kevin & Kell
• an animated storyboard Bill Holbrook did for a prospective animated special that hasn't worked out yet -- you may recognize at least one of the singers

And what do all of these things have to do with each other, besides that I think they're great and talented folks?

New album.

You also might notice that the web site has been slightly buffed up. This is an ongoing process. If you have any problems with it, please post them in this thread, with the subject "Website Bug Report". Thanks.

A few interesting things:

• Pinocchio (2-Disc 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition)
• Milk
• Rachel Getting Married
• Escape to Witch Mountain Special Edition
• Return from Witch Mountain Special Edition
• Howard the Duck
• The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
  

Honestly, I've bought Pinocchio a couple of times now, and I'm sure it'll be re-re-restored for the 75th Anniversary. But, if you don't have it, it's wonderful. I'll probably see Milk at some point, but Rachel Getting Married is there because it's the biggest money-maker released this week, and because I worship at the Church of Anne Hathaway. And the Witch Mountain flicks are in anticipation of the new film starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (if you haven't seen the trailer, it's here).

I'm most interested in revisiting whether Howard the Duck was as bad as I thought at the time, which is not as bad as a lot of people thought. Great performance by Jeffrey Jones, pretty cool special effects... but it wasn't Howard. (If it happens that you've never read the original, you should seriously scrape together some bucks and get the Howard The Duck Omnibus... or, if you can't afford that and are willing to deal with B&W on newsprint, get a used copy of Essential Howard The Duck.)

Anyway. Any other new videos we need to know about? Oh, and, should I put Blu-Ray links up here as well? (As we previously discussed, the links are all to Amazon with a reference to my Associates account, so I get a cut from any sales made through those links. I'll use the tag "amazon links" so you'll know.)

ETA: naomi_de_plume asked me to link up to the DVD of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, so I would get credit when she bought it. Thanks very much, dear, that's really sweet of you. And here's the soundtrack on CD as well as MP3 download. Let me go check something... huh. That's interesting. Telling you all I'm in the Amazon Associates program may violate the terms of it. There's also supposed to be a small graphic I can put up; can't find it. Still not sure whether going to Amazon by way of one of the above links counts for me on all purchases you make, or what; I'll assume not. So -- anything else you want to buy by way of me? ;) Maybe I'll do this every week.

ETA2: Belay that. huskiebear says I get a cut of anything you get in the next 24 hours by way of any of the links. Kewl.

ETA3: Had to add one more. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas looks as if it'll kick your ass.

unclelumpy points the way to one of the biggest hoots I've had in awhile.

Honestly, the only DVD I'm interested in today is the new direct-to-disk Wonder Woman movie (on single disk, two-disk Special Edition w/digital copy, and Blu-ray). But there's also (Australia with Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman, and Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic

Also, today I start using my long-dormant Amazon Associates account. Which basically means, if you follow the links above to buy merch, I get a cut. Therefore, there will not be links to anything I wouldn't get for myself.

Any other new vid we should know about?

Take the box!

Yes, I know I'm late on this one. I was working.

Just saw Coraline. Very good, very beautiful, very creepy. Henry Selick's script and direction are tight, the vocal work is excellent, fabulous music, the effects and the visualization of the world are gorgeous, and it's not necessarily a movie to take the kids to -- only a few very minor cat-scares, but a good deal of stuff that'll slip into your dreams for a few weeks.

Thoughts from you guys? I've been specifically avoiding most of the conversation, as I haven't read the book.

Here's the trailer:

The entire thing is over four hours long, on YouTube in 26 parts, all of which can be found here. No matter what you may think of the book or the animation style, just the fact that someone did this -- and did a pretty decent job, if I may say, with some surprisingly good vocal acting -- is amazingly cool.

A dream come true for some of you: Yentl, in both regular and 2-disk special editions. Zack and Miri Make A Porno. The Secret Life of Bees. Rent, filmed on Broadway (so it should be a good deal better than the Chris Columbus movie). On what I consider the low end of things, Space Buddies and a 20th anniversary edition of Oliver and Company, a dull and ugly movie I still cannot believe was made by Disney Animation. To various tastes, various TV show sets, ranging from MST3K and Columbo collections to seasons of The Partridge Family.

Any other new vid we need to know about?

Conroy. Hamill.

Oh yeah.

Twinkle, twinkle.

Don't shoot your eye out.

And what do you want for Christmas this year?

Awhile back, we talked about favorite holiday movies. Now that it's actually Christmas Week, it's time for the real treasures: holiday animated specials. And the list is vast.

• My all-time favorite, no question, no argument, is Chuck Jones' adaptation of How The Grinch Stole Christmas! If I have to tell you why, I envy you, because you obviously haven't seen it, which we'll take care of right now.
• I also really love Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, to my mind the very best of the Rankin-Bass stop-motion specials. Great cast, great script, only one dumb song.
• A Charlie Brown Christmas is lots of fun, especially if you haven't seen it for a few years.
• Opus and Bill: A Wish For Wings That Work is just wonderful.
• The Nightmare Before Christmas is obviously not for everyone, but I adore it.
• Along the same lines are Richard Williams' animated Christmas Carol and Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, both not seen much these days and both very underrated (and rather frickin' creepy).
• I have to mention Rankin-Bass's Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but understand my love for it is not most people's. Sure, the songs are mostly great, especially "Silver and Gold" and "Holly Jolly Christmas". Sure, Yukon Cornelius is a fantastic character. But what I really love about it is that it's one of the most mean-spirited, abusive, misogynistic pieces of MST3K meat in video history. It's amazing Rudolph didn't come back with a machine gun to take out his entire herd and then the big fat guy himself, let alone agree to lead the sleigh. Seriously, go watch it with an eye towards political correctness. You'll be flabbergasted.

What are some of your favorites? Don't worry about overlap; go right ahead and name some of these, if they're your favorites, and your favorite moments.

Only problem is, I find that this one isn't as funny as usual, and I suspect it's because I didn't like the original:

(Click here for the video -- the embed code doesn't seem to want to work)

It's that magical time of year, when we pick your favorite holiday movies! (Not animated specials -- that'll be a different thread in the near future.) Mine would be Scrooge, the original Miracle on 34th Street, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, with a heapin' helping of Edward Scissorhands and White Christmas. (Most adaptations of A Christmas Carol would be on my list, with special warm fuzzies for the ones with George C. Scott and Jack Palance.)

Second, we've got the teaser video for the upcoming game Batman: Arkham Asylum. It may take awhile to be released... but they've got Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill on board, and they ain't voicing Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee.

I've mentioned that Anne has gotten big into anime and manga. This morning, she aimed me at this music video. From what she tells me, the creator (VicBond007) is a professional video editor whose girlfriend is into anime. Annoyed by some of the, how shall we put this, enthusiastic but unimaginative editing jobs on many fan videos, he's decided to show everybody how it's done. This is one of several you can find on YouTube. And I fuckin' love this song anyway.

NSFW -- nothing any of us can't handle, but a few boys-kissing and girls-touching moments.

Okay, I've been posting music vids all over the place -- any, new or old, that we need to see? Particularly if it's feel-good. I think we could all use a bit more of that lately.

ETA: Fine, that one got pulled. Try here or here.

The Lemurs (huskiebear, me, Anne, markbernstein, Sharon, violinsontv, and Miranda -- sadly, not Tom U., he was at work) got together today to catch the new Disney animated, Bolt. It rocked. Lassetter's hand was all over it, and, top to bottom, it shone. Excellent cast, tight script, fun fun fun.

I haven't seen Twilight. I'm sure I will eventually, just to get the cultural refs. But I've been quite amused at the reactions to some of the less-than-kind reviews. Said reactions all seem to be of the You'd Understand If You Read The Book variety.

Which is a problem, because this is a movie. You're not supposed to read a book before you see it. The problem is not in the story, but in the storytelling -- specifically, the filmmaking. Anyway, like I said, I'll get to it.

What's on your immediate movie horizon?

I've got a number of links I'll put up after LJ returns this afternoon (estimated 3:00 pm EST, actual time Ha Ha Suckers Sit There And Go Through Withdrawal), but the first is of course the big DVD releases of the week, in this case Disney-Pixar's Wall•E and Doctor Who: Season 4. And The Who At Kilburn 1977 is tempting. (There's also Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest [animated], Tropic Thunder [regular and director's cut editions], Star Trek: The Original Series - Season 3 Remastered, and Season 4 of McHale's Navy, but somehow they're not on my A-list. Hannah Montana: Season One is not even on my planet.)

Anything else we should know about that's released this week?

Meijer has Kung Fu Panda in widescreen.

Meijer also has the two-pack of Kung Fu Panda in fullscreen and the new not-available-separately sequel Secrets of the Furious Five.

They do not have a two-pack of Kung Fu Panda in widescreen and the new not-available-separately sequel Secrets of the Furious Five.

This seems to be a corporate decision.

Called Best Buy. Picked menu option to speak to a live person. Phone rang fifty times. Fifty.

Amazon does have a two-pack of Kung Fu Panda in widescreen and the new not-available-separately sequel Secrets of the Furious Five.

Therefore, Amazon has my money, and Meijer and Best Buy do not.

This ain't rocket science.

Tomorrow is Hellboy II: The Golden Army and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, among other things. Although I really don't care about the SW:TCW and won't get it, right now at least. (Even though, at least obliquely, it is rocket science.)

Anything new on DVD this week we need to know about? Alternately, any good or bad shopping or customer-service stories?

ETA: The phone call. No idea why I forgot.

Next year's offering from Pixar:

Many thanks to hughcasey.