South Park: The Complete Eleventh Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 13th, 2008
I often have trouble believing that
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Animated
Speed Racer: The Next Generation – The Beginning
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 19th, 2008
To be bloody honest, I was never a huge fan of Speed Racer. Actually I spent most half hours watching the cartoon (in college) poking fun at it and wondering how many drinking games could be compiled by just analyzing various components. It was a serious cartoon with some brief comedic relief that did not come off as funny, what was funny was all of the seriousness of driving the Mach 5 and figuring out who this Racer X character was (it was Speed’s Older Brother, sorry if I spoiled it). Anyhow, it’s 2008. Speed Racer has experienced a resurgence including a movie and a new cartoon series. The movie hasn’t done very well but many times the cartoon can be the saving grace. It was supposed to follow a new Speed, with a mysterious past. Ooooo, well as long as no Chim-Chim or Spritle is around, we’ll be okay.
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SpongeBob SquarePants — Pest of the West
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on July 16th, 2008
If it’s Wednesday, that must mean another batch of SpongeBob cartoons. The lead-off here is the is title episode, a 22-minute piece that recounts the adventures of SpongeBuck SquarePants, our hero’s 19th-Century ancestor. The rest of the episodes are an eclectic bunch, and the thematic consistency is less than that of some other collections (there is a vague adventure link that runs through several of the stories). At any rate, the silliness is just as engaging and bizarre as ever, and there are plenty of quick absurdist sight gags to keep you chuckling.
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Futurama: Beast with a Billion Backs
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 7th, 2008
If you read my recent review of Bender’s Big Score, you’ll know I wasn’t exactly thrilled by Futurama’s first dvd movie. But like many things (such as relationships and less than average presidents), you always want to give it a second chance. Bender, Fry, Leela & others are fantastic characters and perhaps with the first film, they just had a bump in the road. We, as viewers know they can do better. They just have to steer clear of disgusting & annoying villains as well as confusing plots. Let’s hope that it holds together for the solid ninety minutes and see what pans out.
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Futurama: Bender’s Big Score!
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on July 6th, 2008
Futurama is one of my favorite cartoon shows. When it was cancelled a few years back, I went ahead and collected the four fine dvd season sets and proceeded to watch them whenever I had time. Truth is, if you are a nerd like me, Futurama is much funnier than the Simpsons and deserved much more than seventy two episodes. Somebody listened. The people at Fox decided there was more life to Futurama and ordered up four straight to dvd movies which will be cut up among sixteen episodes for a fifth season. The first one is titled: Bender’s Big Score. Here is hoping that the plot isn’t Bender getting involved with a larger female robot (I think he already did that in a previous episode).
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Stargate Infinity: The Complete Series
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on July 1st, 2008
If you’ve followed my reviews, you know that I love Stargate. SG-1 or Atlantis; I can’t get enough of them. When the collection of Stargate Infinity discs arrived at my doorstep, I tore into them like a Wraith into a red shirt. Now the Stargate might be an incredible mystery that delights a legion of fans. What is not much of a mystery is why this children’s cartoon version of the franchise only lasted one year.
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The Jungle Book 2 (Special Edition)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 17th, 2008
The voices aren’t the same. The animation has lost that classic charm. The story is completely contrived. What remains is a dim reflection of a few beloved characters from a bygone year of vintage Disney magic. This sequel of the classic Disney telling of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book looks more like a direct to video knockoff. I was actually quite amazed to note the film did have a box office run.
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The Sword in the Stone (45th Anniversary Special Edition)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 17th, 2008
The time was that following the death of a good king,
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Drawn Together – Uncensored!: Season Three
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 14th, 2008
Many attempts have been made over a decade or so to imitate
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Original Series (Season 6)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on May 7th, 2008
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series ran from 1987-1996 and had over one hundred and ninety episodes. Millions watched as Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo, & Raphael grew up from little turtle babies into mean, green, fighting machines. They could take on Shredder, Krang and any other bad guy that wanted to turn them into turtle soup. The sixth season takes on episodes 128-143 and spins them into a tiny two disc package from Lionsgate. Over a hundred episodes in, do the turtles still pack the punch they did back in 1987? As Splinter would say, “Be patient young ones, the answer will come.”
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Saludos Amigos / Three Caballeros
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 30th, 2008
In the 1940’s Walt Disney was asked by President Roosevelt to take a good will tour across Latin America as an ambassador of sorts. He declined the invitation, protesting that he wasn’t the handshaking kind and that the cause would be better served using someone else. Not to be deterred,
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Aqua Teen Hunger Force Volume 5
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 1st, 2008
Aqua Teen Hunger Force has hit mainstream, well for the most part. The Tv Show has been on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim for a few seasons now and they even released a theatrical film. The film entitled Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film wasn’t exactly a run away success. The film only made 5.5 million dollars nationwide. However, this was also about 7 times the budget which made the film a profitable success. So with the movie behind them, would the fame of past efforts fill their minds and make the creators’ (Dave Willis & Matt Maiellaro) heads swell with pride? Let’s turn into Volume 5 (Season 4) and find out.
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Bee Movie (Jerry’s Two-Disc Special Edition)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 19th, 2008
Bee Movie is almost completely a Jerry Seinfeld creation. The idea apparently came out of a conversation the comedian had over dinner with Steven Spielberg. From the simple concept of a film about bees called Bee Movie, Seinfeld teamed with his long-term collaborator Spike Feresten. Together they created a rather amusing world where bees can talk and live in a human-like society dedicated to the production of honey.
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South Park – Imaginationland
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 14th, 2008
If Matt Stone and Trey Parker have learned anything in their long run with
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Lil’ Bush – Resident of United States – Season One
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 14th, 2008
Let’s make the point right from the start, that
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101 Dalmatians (Platinum Edition)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Athena on March 6th, 2008
Athena here. That’s right, I’m the 12 year old Siberian Husky that kind of runs things here at Gino’s house. Since I did such a great job doing the review on Snow Dogs, I decided to step in when I saw Gino watching yet another dog film. This time it was Walt Disney’s classic 101 Dalmatians. Naturally the film would have been better if it had been called 101 Huskies, but unfortunately the film was based on a popular children’s book by Dodie Smith who happened to have Dalmatians herself, so let’s not blame her
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Dragonlance: Dragons of the Autumn Twilight
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 29th, 2008
My college life was usually spent doing two things. Okay, actually three things. One, studying (nearly unsuccessful) . Two, trying to get women to sleep with me (mostly unsuccessful). Three, playing Dungeons & Dragons. I owned a good dozen dice from a D3 to many assorted D20’s. Want to scare a fellow gamer? As DM, roll for damage and bring out 5 D20’s. Anyhow, around this time I also discovered D&D adventure books. I read primarily the works of R.A. Salvatore & Ed Greenwood (Drizzt & Elminster). So needles to say, I was a little intrigued when I saw a Dragonlance movie in my pile. The original book was published in 1984, a few years before I really got into D&D. But with dragons, elves & a mad mage; it was a surefire recipe for something wonderful.
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Beowulf (Unrated Director’s Cut)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 28th, 2008
Beowulf is one of the oldest written stories known. The story began as a heroic tale passed from generation to generation only by word of mouth. Naturally there’s no way to know how much the story changed during those years of oral tradition. The author of the piece is unknown, and it is likely several persons contributed to the work. By the 8th Century an epic poem was written that forms the story as it is remembered today.
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Turok: Son of Stone
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on February 20th, 2008
Turok is a property that seems to come and go. In the 1950’s, it was introduced to lure kids away from the television sets because it had dinosaurs and intriguing stories. It was later updated when it got inserted in the Valiant comic world and rose to sell nearly 2 million copies with its first issue for the universe. In more recent times, Turok has become a series of video games by Acclaim. So it was only natural that an animated dvd would also hit the mix. However, would the character be more representative of its roots or perhaps take on a more futuristic feel akin to the current property portrayed in the video game?
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The Aristocats (Special Edition)
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on February 9th, 2008
The Aristocats has the distinction of being the very last animated project that was greenlit by Walt Disney himself before his passing. The film reveals all of the classic elements that Walt believed a good animation project should contain. He went to the famous Sherman Brothers to provide sing-a-longable songs and utilized the best voice talents in the Disney arsenal. While the animation is not quite as good as some of the other films made during this animation golden age, it still met the high standard Walt Disney had already established.
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Snow Buddies
Posted in Disc Reviews by Athena on February 8th, 2008
OK. Listen up. My name’s Athena and I’m a 12 year old Siberian Husky living in Florida. When I heard Gino say he needed a break and some down time, I decided to pitch in. It turns out that pulling a speaker from the shelf was not the kind of “break” he was talking about, and maybe not what he meant by “down” time either, now that I think about it. So, in between the “bad dogs” and those funny little words that come out whenever I get creative, I was able to figure out what he was really talking about.
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SpongeBob Squarepants – To Love a Patty
Posted in Disc Reviews by David Annandale on February 8th, 2008
Here we are again with a semi-themed collection of SpongeBob cartoons (seven in all, for a brief 77 minute running time). Food is the recurring theme here, with the title episode seeing SpongeBob creating a Krabby Patty so perfect that he falls in love with it, and keeps it with him until Patty can be charitably described as “festering.” Collections like this don’t exactly have the same value as a complete season, but that doesn’t change the fact that the nautical nonsense at work here is, as ever, pretty damn funny.
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Garfield Gets Real
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on January 22nd, 2008
As expressed before, I have a certain fondness for Garfield. The larger than life orange tabby cat has been a staple of my comic strip reading diet for more than 20 years. I’ve watched Garfield & Friends, seen the longer animated specials, and even sat through the first of the full length movies (I couldn’t stomach the nerve for the second one). So naturally, I was a little excited when I heard that Garfield would be a full CGI showing in a new dvd called Garfield Gets Real I just hoped it would be better than what I’ve heard about the Tale of Two Kitties
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Underdog
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on December 21st, 2007
Something strange happened to me this week. I had two particular films arrive that I was to review. Stardust and Underdog. I expected to love one of them and basically tolerate the other. If you’ve read my recent Stardust review, you already know which was which. I expected to love Stardust and ended up hating it. I expected just a lot of silly nonsense from Underdog, and that’s what I got, except I had a great time watching it. The film is far more entertaining even to adults than I ever could have imagined.
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Squidbillies Volume One
Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on November 30th, 2007
I love some Adult Swim. There are some real standouts shown that have fun plots, edgy animation, and a whole lot of outlandish humor. Venture Bros, Robot Chicken and Aqua Teen Hunger Force immediately come to mind. Heck, I’ve even gave smaller shows like The Boondocks and Metalocalypse a try and liked them on some level. So needless to say, I was interested when I received Squidbillies Volume 1. Twenty episodes staring a Georgia-based hick squid family. How bad could it be?
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