Review of Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection

My review of Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection is up on Netflix. If you're a member please see it here and mark it helpful:

http://www.netflix.com/StrangerReviews?prid=120953079&lnkctr=fsb2srev

Battlestar Galactica's Ronald D. Moore

Here's a very nice video interview with Battlestar Galactica's Ronald D. Moore, talking about his time on Star Trek and the ways in which he wanted Battlestar Galactica to be different.

Joss Whedon Interview

Joss Whedon was interviewed by Ira Glass last night, and someone in the audience put it on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Priscellie

Video of Dr. Horrible Winning Emmy

Video of Dr. Horrible Winning Emmy:

4 days to season 2 of Dollhouse

4 days to season 2 of Dollhouse.

Dr. Horrible Hacked onto the Emmy's!

Dr. Horrible hacked onto the Emmy's! It was great to see a new entry in Dr. Horrible's blog during the Emmy Awards.

I found it here on youtube; check it out fast before they take it down.

This copy has the intro:



This copy does not:

Harry Potter Ultimate Edition Blu-rays

The first two Harry Potter movies will get Ultimate Edition releases on December 8, 2009, with extended versions of the movies.
Find a lot of details here:

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=3447

The Office Season 6 Starts Tonight

The Fall TV season is in full swing. I'll never watch most of it, and some of it I'll rent on disc one day, but The Office is one of the few shows I'll watch as it airs, either on TV or at hulu.com. The Office has no earth shaking special effects that I want to save for seeing on Blu-ray, and hulu does an okay job of presenting the show online. It's nice to be able to watch one episode a week, instead of a bunch all at once on disc.

The Office on disc, though, does have extremely good extras. Each episode includes a lot of very funny deleted scenes. Sometimes the deleted scenes are as long as the episode, and they have a lot of improvised comedy. And, of course, The Office is now available on Blu-ray, but I have no idea why.

Has Megan Fox seen "Hotel for Dogs"?

Has Megan Fox seen "Hotel for Dogs"? Find out in this entertaining interview:

The Prisoner Blu-ray

The Prisoner comes to Blu-ray October 27, 2009, and it looks like it will be a nice release. Read more here:

http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Prisoner-The-Complete-Series-Blu-ray/12681

Doctor Who DVDs

Two Doctor Who stories are coming to DVD in the U.S. on January 5, 2010:

Story 5: The Keys of Marinus (the first Doctor)

Story 136: The Twin Dilemma (first full story with the sixth Doctor)

The first story with the sixth Doctor is something to see, because of how unlikable the Doctor is.

Find out more here:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Doctor-January-2010-Classic-Doctor-Who/12682

New Justice League Animated Film

The next DC direct to disc animated film will be 'Justice League: Crisis of Two Earths', coming out Spring 2010.

If you're a Netflix member, see my list of DC direct to disc animated films here:
http://www.netflix.com/StrangerLists?prid=120953079&showList=307073

I was disappointed by the recent 'Green Lantern: First Flight' and 'Wonder Woman' features, but I liked 'Superman Doomsday' and 'Justice League: The New Frontier'.

Joss Whedon Status

Joss Whedon was interviewed by Sci Fi about the status of his projects. There might be more Dr. Horrible! Find the short interview here:

http://scifiwire.com/2009/09/big-joss-news-dollhouse-d.php

Obama Calls Kanye a 'Jackass'

Obama Calls Kanye a 'Jackass'. Hear the audio at TMZ:

http://www.tmz.com/2009/09/15/obama-calls-kanye-a-jackass/

Joss Whedon with Emmy

Joss Whedon with his Emmy.

Joss Whedon has Won an Emmy!

Joss Whedon has won an Emmy for Dr. Horrible!

Kathy Griffin: Official Book Club Selection

Just out in book stores is Kathy Griffin's autobiography, Official Book Club Selection.

I haven't read it but I did find her promoting it on youtube, and she's pretty funny.



Here she spoofs Kate from Jon & Kate Plus 8:



There's a lot of other good clips of her on youtube too.

Disney Plans for Classics on Blu-ray

Disney has announced some of its plans for releasing classic animated movies on Blu-ray. The releases are being called the Diamond Collection. From now until 2015, 14 titles will be released. The 2009 release is 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs'. Starting in 2010, there will be two releases each year. For 2010 there are 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Fantasia and Fantasia 2000'. The future titles will be:

The Lion King

Bambi

Cinderella

Lady and the Tramp

The Little Mermaid

Peter Pan

The Jungle Book

101 Dalmatians

Also, 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Pinocchio', already out on Blu-ray as Platinum editions, will be re-released at Diamond editions.

Ellen DeGeneres Replacing Paula Abdul on Idol

Ellen DeGeneres will be a judge on American Idol. Find the People article here:

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20303396,00.html

Trailer for Plan 9, remake of the Ed Wood classic

Here's the trailer for Plan 9, the new remake of the Ed Wood classic:

Plan 9 Teaser Trailer from Darkstone Entertainment on Vimeo.

Glee tonight at 9 pm on Fox

The second episode of Glee is tonight at 9 pm on Fox. Reviews appear to agree that so far this is the best new show of the season. It's funny, smart, joyful, poignant, and silly. People break out in song, and none of them are cops.

Terminator Salvation Blu-ray for December

"Terminator Salvation" comes to Blu-ray and DVD December 1, 2009. It will have the theatrical PG-13 version and, on a separate disc, the director's R version. The reviews of this movie were negative, but I'll probably rent it.

Delay for Lord of the Rings Blu-ray

The "Lord of the Rings" Blu-ray release has been moved to early 2010.

Lost Prop Auction

There will be an auction of props from "Lost" in 2010. I'll have to save up for a Dharma jumpsuit. Find out more here:

http://www.profilesinhistory.com/index3.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62

Shatner & Nimoy at Dragon*Con

Star Trek's Shatner & Nimoy appeared together at Dragon*Con this past weekend, and they were very entertaining together. See them on youtube here:

Reese's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups

Reese's Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups are back. I noticed a commercial for them, and then I saw them at Wal-Mart, on sale for 50 cents a package. They're pretty good. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are my favorite candy, and I like dark chocolate. Reese's dark chocolate doesn't taste very dark to me, but it is noticeably different from the milk chocolate. I noticed that online, Reese's Dark was selling for at least 70 cents a package. So I went back to Wal-Mart and stocked up.

Review of "Shaun the Sheep: Little Sheep of Horrors"

"Shaun the Sheep: Little Sheep of Horrors" is the fourth DVD release of episodes of "Shaun the Sheep". It has 6 episodes, where Shaun and the other sheep get into adventures. I did not enjoy this fourth DVD as much as the first and second, because the comedy has become a bit broad. As TV shows age, they tend to become too over the top, like Fonzie jumping the shark in "Happy Days". Cartoons need to follow some set of rules to be entertaining, like cartoonist Chuck Jones imposing the rule that the Road Runner could only run on roads. In this fourth DVD, I felt that Shaun and his fellow sheep could now do anything for the sake of comedy, and weren't following any rules. The DVD includes two simple games, suitable for young children, but I also found them pretty amusing. For similar titles, see my list, "Wallace & Gromit & Related Titles".

If you're a member of Netflix and you found this review helpful, please mark it helpful here:

http://www.netflix.com/StrangerReviews?prid=120953079&lnkctr=fsb2srev

Dragon*Con 2009 on youtube

Dragon*Con 2009 was this weekend in Atlanta, and videos of it are up on youtube. So far I've noticed a "Buffy" panel with a lot of Buffy actors, Nimoy & Shatner, Patrick Stewart, and some blond dude named Tom Felton (ah, apparently he's a Harry Potter actor, and apparently he's got a lot of fans on youtube).

Youtube member cloudyvisions seems to have posted a lot of the panels; see them here:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=cloudyvisions&view=videos

My favorite video so far is this one where Charisma Carpenter talks about the fate of Cordelia on Angel; the second half of the video is very informative:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_igTbXKPck

Cordelia is my favorite character from "Buffy", so it's great seeing her again.

I miss going to cons, but it's hard to justify the cost when I can watch the panels for free at home on youtube. If there were a con nearby with good guests, I'd go.

Joss Whedon and Dollhouse

Entertainment Weekly has a nice article on Joss Whedon that includes several youtube clips from his career. Season 2 of "Dollhouse" starts up September 25, 2009. If you watched season 1, then the 13th episode, available only on the DVD and Blu-ray releases, is a must see. I watched it this week and was very impressed.

Blu-ray and DVD News

'The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy' had been announced for a Blu-ray release on November 3, 2009, but there has not been any recent news, so some are speculating that the release will be delayed.

'Angels & Demons' comes to Blu-ray and DVD on November 24, 2009.

'The Professional', starring Jean Reno and Natalie Portman comes to Blu-ray on November 17, 2009.

Dr. Horrible

It's a long weekend, so here's something to watch online at hulu if you haven't seen it yet:

Dr. Horrible

It's from Joss Whedon and friends, makers of "Buffy" and "Firefly". If you like the Buffy musical episode, then "Dr. Horrible" is the best thing ever.

Our Gang

Looks like all of "Our Gang", a.k.a. "The Little Rascals", is now available for a limited time, including some rare shorts that were not shown on TV.

The 1929 to 1938 shorts, made by Hal Roach and shown on TV as "The Little Rascals", are available in one collection. Find it at Netflix here:
The Little Rascals: The Complete Series

Despite its title, that's not the complete collection. MGM started making "Our Gang" after that. The Warner Archive is now selling these later shorts for a limited time:
http://www.wbshop.com/Our-Gang-Comedies-%2052-Shorts-1938-1942%20-%20EST-MOD/1000113696,default,pd.html

Ain't It Cool News has a nice article about these later shorts here:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/42214

The idea of seeing nicely restored "Our Gang" shorts that I have never seen before is quite tempting.

September 2009 Blu-ray Releases

My Netflix list of September 2009 Blu-ray Releases is now complete, except for perhaps a few titles. See it here:

http://www.netflix.com/StrangerLists?prid=120953079&showList=328057

Top of the list is "The Wizard of Oz". I was worried that Netflix would not carry "Oz", because it's being sold as a big and expensive collector's edition.

Jack Kirby's Mickey Mouse

Back in 1991 Jack Kirby, the classic Marvel artist, was asked to draw his interpretation of Mickey Mouse.

Marvel

I read the Wall Street Journal article about Disney buying Marvel. One detail I find disturbing is that Marvel Chief Executive Ike Perlmutter, who negotiated the deal for Marvel, gets $600 million of Disney stock for himself as part of the deal. That's a lot of money for one guy who is not Stan Lee. When I buy a Spider-Man toy, I hate to think that so much of my money is going to one Marvel suit, rather than a writer or artist.