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Transformers Animated is the latest iteration of the franchise, taking the Michael Bay Transformers idea and making it very kid-friendly. This includes a kid protagonist who allies herself with the Autobots and a very modern superhero animation style. This you can tell by the cover art in which even the Autobots seem to have magnificent chins. All sixteen first episodes are here across two discs. Now we previously mentioned when the first release came out that you might want to wait for this to hit. Now I’m saying that if you’ve got a kid who just wants to watch this on demand, you might want to purchase. Otherwise it appears to be playing once a day on Cartoon Network. And with this having a season 2 photo gallery sneak peek as its only feature, it’s sort of hard to justify. But again, if you must do it for the kiddies, we won’t think less of you. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
Welcome to Wayside School, named as such because instead of the rooms all being on a single floor, each room is stacked up on its own floor, for a total of thirty floors. Todd, the newest student, finds himself on the top floor having to adjust to not only the weirdness of school in general but the weirdness of this school in particular. Paramount and Nickelodeon bring you this first season’s thirteen episodes (twenty-six stories) across two discs. The story on this is the same as the above–although I can’t quite tell when the show is airing currently, if a kid wants this show and this inspires him especially to pick up the original books and start reading, then more power to everybody involved. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
Next up we’ve got The Ultimate Mulan 2-Movie Collection, which is basically just taking the previous Mulan special edition and the Mulan II release and sticking them in a box together. So you’ve got the deleted scenes, the audio commentary, and the slew of making-of stuff that came on the first film’s release and the deleted scenes and short featurettes from the second film’s. And that’s about it. Again, if you’re buying this for a kid, then your decision’s pretty much already made, but I will say if you need to buy these two films and you don’t already own them, then you save about $15 buying them like this. So that counts for something. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
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[ad#longpost]It’s already been documented how freaking funny Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are. They can take just about anything and run with it, and that’s certainly the case here. Fey is a super successful single female who decides that it is baby-time. Unfortunately all her attempts at spawning are thwarted, so she turns to a surrogate mother…played by an uncouth Poehler. And hijinks ensue from there, especially the surrogate’s circumstances change and she has to move in with her client. This Universal release comes with an alternate ending, deleted scenes, an SNL featurette, a commentary and a making-of. The film’s not an owner outright, but I suppose if you’re hardcore fans of the two leads then you might be able to justify a purchase. Otherwise, it’s worth at least a rental. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
I have been called all sort of names and slandered for my dislike of The Big Lebowski. It was hard for me to get into a film where the only character I really had any interest in was a very supporting character-bowler played by John Turturro. But I realize there are many believers among you, and this 10th Anniversary Edition release from Universal is obviously for you. You’ve got almost all the features from earlier releases of this title, such as the film intro, the original making-of, and Jeff Bridges’ photo slideshow. You also get two looking-back featurettes, plus a featurette about The Lebowski Fest. There’s also a featurette that features the dream sequences of The Dude, a look at the photo book Bridges put together for the film, and an interactive map of the flick’s locations. There’s the regular two-disc, plus the bowling ball limited edition we mentioned previously, for only $10 extra as I write this. Would make a good gift for a fan of the film. (Click here to buy the 2-disc from Amazon or click here to buy the Bowling Ball Limited Edition.)
Fox continues to make me happy by giving great treatment to old films that most people have never heard of before. Thus, we get Fox Horror Classics, Vol. 2. Even though this stuff isn’t what we would consider horror by any stretch of the imagination, I’m not going to quibble. First up, is Bela Lugosi vs. Edmund Lowe’s Chandu the Magician. This comes with a commentary from a Lugosi biographer as well as a featurette on the character of Chandu, who started life on the radio. Then there’s Gene Tierney and Vincent Price in Dragonwyck, which is the theatrical film debut of helmer Joseph L. Mankiewicz. In this Price gets the girl–but what else has he got going on? Lots–he’s Vincent Goddamn Price, okay? This comes with a commentary, isolated score, featurette, and two Dragonwyck radio programs with Price. And finally, Dr. Renault’s Secret, in which an ape is evolved up the ladder until he can become a human. This comes with a featurette. And all three have restoration comparisons because they are all three restored. Nice. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)
