"This is a story about stick figures who live in a world full of monsters and explosions and raccoons and a lot of other cool stuff, too. And it all takes place on a little planet we like to call Earth."

Last minute gifts are often the hardest of all. If you have someone on your list who likes irreverent humor and is also a home theater enthusiast, I think we might have an obscure title they likely missed. It will be a pretty cool surprise on their part, and you're sure to have delivered a few laughs along the way. In the spirit of shows like South Park and based on a series of cult web episodes comes Dick Figures: The Movie.The film is one of those intentionally crudely animated features. The main characters are literally colorful stick figures in an almost entirely black and white background world. The backgrounds mostly look like film storyboards with the occasional flare of color or explosive special effect. Of course, there are also a few raccoons which are cutouts that are animated much like things are on South Park. Like South Park, the film contains the kind of language and humor that sticks it in the face of political correctness. The film was written, produced, directed and voice-acted by Zack Keller and Ed Skudder. They are Jackie Chan fans who wanted to do a huge action-adventure film, but that stuff costs money. Instead they put it all into this project.

One of the best things about the last decade's arrival of high definition and Blu-ray is the chance to revisit classics. Often these movies have only been seen on late shows where they're cut to pieces. The DVD releases have often been less than spectacular because of the presumed limited audience. Fox has done a pretty solid job over the years of bringing these classics to Blu-ray. This year is no exception, and if you have a classic film buff on that list of yours, and you know what list I'm talking about, why not deliver such greats as Henry Fonda, John Wayne, Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Rock Hudson or Tyrone Powers to them. They make excellent Christmas guests, and they won't hog up all of the eggnog.

Fonda plays the famous Frank James, brother to Jesse and leader of the infamous James Gang. There were two films. Jesse James was the first and was really an attempt to get the story right. Of course, this is Hollywood, and the characters are brought to us larger than life. This was also not terribly long after the actual events of the story, and Jesse's granddaughter signed on as a consultant for the film. Jesse is played by Tyrone Power and is played more like the cult hero Hollywood has traditionally made the character. Even the granddaughter thought Power had not portrayed the cold-blooded killer Jesse really was. The film was also noted for its early use of Technicolor and the rather beautiful vistas the cinematography displayed. John Carradine plays the infamous Robert Ford, who shot Jesse in the back. Another notable horror actor, Henry Hull, also rounds out a wonderful cast. Unfortunately, the film has been remembered less for these performances than the death of one of the stunt horses that went over a cliff during filming. This was actually the incident that brought about those disclaimers that end many films since that no animals were harmed during the shooting.