Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 16th, 2011
The American Girl series appears to have started as a collection of dolls. The collection featured various girls from a wide range of historical periods. The dolls came with rather unique histories that provided both a chance to bring the doll to life in the imagination of the child and also teach a little of what life might have been like for girls that lived in these different eras. Of course, the collection had to have accessories, and before long an entire industry was born. The dolls led to a series of books that fleshed out the adventures these characters might have had in their time periods. The books managed to sneak in some wholesome values along with the romantic adventures. The books became quite popular with young girls, and so it was inevitable that this would all lead to films.
The films would come in a series of made-for-television movies on the CW. Each movie centered around a different girl. All were ten years old and lived in a particular time of American history. The second of these movies was Felicity.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by BABY on February 12th, 2011
You know you're in a lot of trouble when a movie opens up with the wedding of two dogs. Hi, I'm Baby. I'm the German Shepherd who runs security here at Upcomingdiscs. If you work for either UPS or Fed Ex, no introductions are necessary, and that spells R U N. I want to know why it is that you humans think that dogs want to look and act like people. We don't need no stinkin' sweaters. We don't want to walk on our hind legs. And we don't want to get married. Now I know why some politicians want a law to protect the definition of marriage. The truth is I get along just fine being a dog. I kind of have it made here. Someone always brings me my breakfast. I get belly rubs and treats all day long. The only job I have is protectin' this place, and that job's a cinch. Sure, it would be great to be able to open that fridge door by myself and the whole opposable-thumbs challenge gets in the way every now and again. But at the end of the day, it's a dog's life after all. There's a reason why people say stuff like that. You may think you have all the power, but when I give those delivery guys a piece of my mind, who do you think does all the runnin'? 'Nuff said.
Every now and then Gino asks me to look at some dog movies that get sent here. Okay, yeah, some of these things do happen to slip through my security net. Gino likes that, for the most part but, I'm afraid I really fell asleep on the job for letting Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 get through the door. And someone's gonna pay down the road for that one. But it was my mistake, so it was only fair I had to watch the stupid thing and then write the review while Gino sits here and plays his pinball machine doing something called "poppin" all the dang time while I'm trying to concentrate. Sensitive ears here, by the way. Anyway... here's what I found out.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by BABY on November 23rd, 2010
"Sometimes you just gotta let a dog do his thing."
Hey everybody. Baby back again to bring you yet another dog movie from a dog's point of view, which is the floor, in case anybody out there really wants to know. You see, Gino won't let me on the furniture in the theater. He says that just because the seats look like chew toys, and smell like chew toys, doesn't mean they actually are chew toys. I mean, really, people. You wanna talk about your special effects, which reminds me of something else I'm not supposed to do in the theater, but let's not talk about that right now.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on November 22nd, 2010
“Things never happen the same way twice.”
C.S. Lewis created an incredibly imaginative world when he wrote his Chronicles Of Narnia. The stories were an escape, of sorts, from a war-torn Europe. They integrated elements of Christianity in an effort to provide a semblance of hope in the form of a children’s fairy tale. And like all such tales, the world of Narnia was first and foremost a place of magic and bewilderment. It was a place where fantastic creatures of both good and evil thrived, living out epic lives of adventure. It was also a world where only children could enter. The stories became hugely popular, first in England, and eventually around the globe. Since that time we live in a different planet than the one Lewis was attempting to offer a respite from. Still, the images and ideals are remarkably relevant today. With such sweeping grand adventures and marvelous creatures, it’s no surprise that the franchise has found its way into films. The only real mystery is why it took so long. Perhaps it was necessary for the technology to finally catch up, providing a far more realistic and captivating experience. Some credit must also go to the enormous success of the Harry Potter and even the Lord Of The Rings films. With the investment of time and money required to bring such a world into existence on celluloid, there must be some reasonable assurance that, if done correctly, there was a large enough profit to be found. These earlier, and continuing, franchises have overwhelmingly proven that point. It was only a matter of time before the studio that practically invented movie magic would find such a place as Narnia and claim it for their own. When you combine these extraordinary histories together, can there be any question as to the results?
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 19th, 2010
Here is a second volume of episodes from the Marvel cartoon's first season, which is geared towards young children. The review for the first volume, written by the highly skilled and suspiciously well-dressed Michael Durr, can be found here: https://upcomingdiscs.com/2010/07/12/marvel-squad-vone/ . Dr. Doom is still using his many evil minions to obtain fractals of the shattered Infinity Sword before the Superhero Squad, a team of Marvel heroes assembled for their unique skills depending on the mission as led by Iron Man, can stop him.
As it has been for every episode in this first season, the humour ranges from quirky one-liners that only slightly older viewers may catch, to extremely low-brow bodily function gags, mostly pertaining to farts and burps; though the latter only arises whenever Mole Man or Hulk are involved. Not to say that this makes it uninteresting for viewers young or old but is more unifying. As well, each episode often features cameos by many characters from the Marvel universe, much of whom are rather obscure as only hardcore Marvel geeks might know (show me an 8-year-old who knew who Thanos was before this show and I'll eat my Thor shirt!). Perhaps the most amusing cameo is The Punisher, being voiced by Ray Stevenson who actually played the violent vigilante in an R-Rated adaptation of the comic Punisher: War Zone; only here, he uses a metaphor about brussel sprouts when speaking about crime...but still has many a gun go off at random in an especially amusing scene.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on November 9th, 2010
As was the case for my two previous Madeline reviews (https://upcomingdiscs.com/2010/07/20/madelines-great-adventures/ plus https://upcomingdiscs.com/2010/09/21/madelines-halloween-other-spooky-tales/#more-13938) there is little more I could say about the general premise of Madeline. But as I slowly become a connoisseur of this particular character (as this website feels I should be, it seems) I have a few more insights brought on by this Christmas themed edition.
My patience is wearing thinner as the title character insists upon herself this perpetual great-at-everything mien. Having a character be so adored at all times and yet feature little natural charm, can be extremely grating on my nerves.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 21st, 2010
When Jim Henson had finally finished up with The Muppet Show, it was time to take his puppet creations in a slightly different direction. Fraggle Rock, like The Muppet Show before it, was originally produced and aired outside of the United States. With the Muppets it was England that gave the guys their break. This time it was CBS in Canada. The show did quickly find a home in the United States, this time on cable. HBO was just beginning to stretch its legs and break out of its reputation as merely a place to watch movies after their box office run was completed. The network also had a bit of a reputation as more of an adult network. Fraggle Rock was the perfect opportunity to expand on both fronts. The show developed a cult following, but never achieved quite the reputation and numbers that the Muppets had done. Still, it was a staple on the cable network for 5 years.
Fraggles are furry little animals that live underground. Each Fraggle is unique in many ways. They all have their own color and look. They pretty much live a simple life of socializing and having fun. In the world of the Fraggles, there is also a family of giant troll-like creatures called Gorgs. The Ma and Pa Gorgs considered themselves the King and Queen of the land, but Junior was the only other Gorg in the kingdom. He loved to try and catch the Fraggles, who would often raid his garden for their favorite food, radishes. There was also an entrance to Fraggle Rock in the workshop of Doc and his dog Sprockett. Doc was blissfully unaware of the Fraggles living under his home. But, Sprocket was always trying to alert him to their presence. In the final episode, Doc finally learned of the existence of the creatures.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by William O'Donnell on September 21st, 2010
The only difference between this collection of episodes and the one I reviewed on this site previously (https://upcomingdiscs.com/2010/07/20/madelines-great-adventures/ ) is the Halloween theme implied in the DVD's title. In fact, in terms of quality and material I could almost quote that review word for word. So feel free to refer to my previous review and I hope to avoid redundancies while writing this latest one.
There is no Halloween in Paris so most all of Madeline's adventures on this disc require her and her friends to travel elsewhere, mostly the United States. There are a couple that lead them to Madrid and Egypt but both are not directly about Halloween but some other “spooky” theme.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by BABY on September 7th, 2010
Gino likes to listen to some guy named Warren Zevon who says that all of the werewolves are in someplace called London. He also sings a song that says "Don't knock on my door, if you don't know my Rottweiler's name". Well ... I ain't no stinkin' Rottweiler, and you know my name; it's Baby. But I wouldn't knock anyway, 'specially if you are trying to deliver more of these movies. I don't know what the Rottweiler's planning to do, but I promise I'm not going to lick you, and that spells B I T E. Don't you guys know we got too many movies in here already? How am I going to get any playtime in if you keep bringing more movies over here? Gino says that if you stop bringing the movies, he might not make any money. He says if they don't make any money, he can't buy any more treats. He calls that a catch 22. But the problem is while he's in there watching movies, my ball stays where it is, and I'm not catchin' anything. Since beggin' is beneath me, I guess I'm just gonna have to let somebody have it one of these days, and that spells O U C H.
Hey everybody. Baby, back again to bring you yet another dog movie from a dog's perspective. Ever since I was a little puppy I liked readin' those funnies in the paper. For some reason there was a lot of those things layin' around the place for a while. Since a dog's gotta do what a dog's gotta do, I would take a look at the comics while I took care of some business. Now what that business was, is none of your business, and that spells W E T. One of my favorite strips was this one called Marmaduke. Now, that dog is one funny cat, and that spells B I G. He was always gettin' into some kind of trouble or other. I always figured we'd get along great, because I get yelled at all the time, too. Anyway, the strip's been around since 1954. That's a whole lot of dog years ago. It was written by a guy named Brad Anderson. That means a lot of those comics were written, and a lot of fans must be out there. So now they've decided to create a whole movie based on Marmaduke. And, guess who got to watch it. That's right. Me, Baby.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on August 4th, 2010
"This is James Henry Trotter. He lived with his mother and father in a cozy little house by the sea. It was a wonderful life. They had each other, and they had their dreams. Then, one day a terrible thing happened. An angry rhinoceros appeared out of nowhere and gobbled up his poor mother and father..."
![Marmaduke [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/marmaduke-blu-ray-large.jpg)
![James and the Giant Peach (Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo) [Blu-ray] dvd cover art](https://upcomingdiscs.com/ecs_covers/james-and-the-giant-peach-two-disc-large.jpg)
