[VIDEO] Wish List: Studio Ghibli Collection on Blu-ray

By brenden ⋅ March 1, 2010 ⋅ One comment

My Neighbour Totoro. Castle in the Sky. Kiki’s Delivery Service. These are among my favourite films of all time. And they are all newly re-released on DVD this week from Disney. …Continued…

[VIDEO] Wish List: Super Friends Season 1

By brenden ⋅ January 9, 2010 ⋅ 2 comments

It’s Saturday morning. I like to have a coffee (and pie, if it’s available) and watch a few cartoons before starting my day. Sadly, there’s not much on the old tube these days that holds my interest. Thank goodness for this collection of episodes from the first season of The Super Friends! …Continued…

[VIDEO] Wish List: Animated G.I. Joe Resolute on Blu-ray

By brenden ⋅ November 8, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Argh! This is where it’s at! Nevermind that I enjoyed the crap out of the live action G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. This animated adventure, the 58 minute G.I. Joe Resolute bests it in almost every way. Its only problems - it’s too damn short and it’s not on Blu-ray. Like I said, “Argh!” …Continued…

[VIDEO] Halloween Wish List - Karloff & Lugosi: Horror Classics on Blu-ray

By brenden ⋅ October 28, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

As I just mentioned in my review of the Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Blu-ray disc, I’m a passionate fan of the Universal Monster films of the 30s and 40s. And through them, I’ve become fascinated with the actors who played many of the starring roles. In particular, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff, most famous for their iconic portrayals of Dracula and the Frankenstein monster, respectfully. Watching the newly released Karloff & Lugosi: Horror Classics on DVD over the last few evenings has just led me to feel overjoyed that we’ve finally got access to these fantastic films on home video while at the same time, frustrated that we haven’t seen a single horror classic from their era in high-def yet! …Continued…

[Video] Wish List - Reboot on Blu-ray

By Stone ⋅ October 26, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

I loved this show! Being a Canadian, I may have a special point of pride with this Canadian made show. It has pop culture references galore, all sorts of computer jokes, it’s action packed AND smart and the evolution of it’s animation quality is fun to watch. …Continued..

[VIDEO] Wish List - Where the Wild Things Are Documentary - Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak Blu-ray

By brenden ⋅ October 13, 2009 ⋅ One comment

Oh wow! Spike Jonze has made a documentary on Maurice Sendak, the author of the book Where the Wild Things Are. Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak airs on HBO tomorrow night, October 14, in the USA, just in time to support Jonze’s adaptation of the book for the big screen! …Continued…

Animated G.I. Joe: Resolute coming to DVD, not Blu-ray

By brenden ⋅ October 5, 2009 ⋅ 4 comments

This is me crying in my soup. I might have enjoyed myself a little bit watching G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra in the theatre but I really got a kick out of the Warren Ellis penned animated series, G.I. Joe: Resolute! This is exactly what the live-action film should have been! The sad part, the reason for my tears is that G.I. Joe: Resolute has just been announced for release, hitting shops the same day as The Rise of Cobra. But Paramount is only releasing it in a standard-def DVD edition. No Blu-ray! …Sob…

Ah well, you know what? I’ll be overjoyed to watch it on DVD (I know, strong words from a guy like me with my snobby HD tastes.) I’ve only ever seen the show on YouTube or through shifty looking downloads, so a pristine, crystal clear DVD version will be an improvement for me. Check out the details of the release: …Continued…

[VIDEO] Wish List - Comedy Shorts on G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra Blu-ray

By brenden ⋅ August 11, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

I may have been in love with the toys, the comics and the cartoon when I was growing up but in recent years I’ve found myself more attracted to G.I Joe parodies than anything else. In fact, with the absence of new toys or TV shows, it was the comedy shorts that seemed to be keeping the franchise alive in the public mind. And by the public mind, I mean my mind. …Continued…

[VIDEO] Wish List: Marvel Anime on Blu-ray - Wolverine, Iron Man and more!

By brenden ⋅ July 25, 2009 ⋅ One comment

Ok. I really wasn’t expecting this. Marvel has teamed up renowned Japanese animation studio Madhouse (Paprika, Tokyo Godfathers) and multiple-Eagle Award winning writer Warren Ellis to create four new animated versions of classic superhero stories. The comic book publisher released trailers for two of the series, expected to begin airing in Japan next year. Check out the incredible Iron Man trailer above, and Wolverine below! Let’s hope these make their way to Blu-ray some day soon… …Continued…

[VIDEO] Wish List: Watchmen Episode of Prisoners Of Gravity with Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

By brenden ⋅ July 19, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

I grew up in Ontario, Canada. We had our own kind of PBS television station called TVO (TV Ontario). Still do, in fact. Outside of the excellent Magic Shadows and Saturday Night at the Movies, both hosted by Elwy Yost (father of Graham Yost, screenwriter of Speed) I didn’t really pay much attention to TVO, growing up until I discovered Prisoners of Gravity. …Continued…

[VIDEO] Wish List: On-Set Star Wars Home Movies as Blu-ray Bonus Features

By brenden ⋅ July 13, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Holy crap! This video is amazing.

Dave Berry, one of the rotoscope and animation artists who worked on the original Star Wars film from 1977, apparently skulked around the Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) workshop back in the day, shooting home-video of the experimental, ground-breaking special effects filmmaking work in progress. Now just imagine, he’s probably had to keep all of this footage under lock and key, held tightly for over 30 years for fear of battling the Sith lords of Lucasfilm’s legal department. Luckily for us, he’s compiled a little bit of it now and posted somewhat of a nostalgic montage over at Vimeo. …Continued…

Ponyo and Studio Ghibli films on Blu-ray

By brenden ⋅ July 12, 2009 ⋅ 7 comments

My favourite movie on the planet, I mean the absolute best film ever made, in my eyes is Tonari No Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki. Damn near cinematic perfection. And Miyazaki’s best work, by far. Even compared to his most recent, Ponyo, which has just been released on DVD in Japan.

How can you get Ponyo or Totoro on Blu-ray? Well, you can’t. Not yet anyway. …Continued…

[VIDEO] Wish List: The Star Wars Saga on Blu-ray

By brenden ⋅ July 2, 2009 ⋅ 5 comments

Man. This is really a no-brainer. Everybody wants this. I just thought that with all the hubbub over the Clone Wars box set this week, I should say a little something about the Star Wars films and when we might see them on Blu-ray. …Continued…

[VIDEO] Blu-ray Wish List: Animated Transformers: The Movie (1986)

By brenden ⋅ June 26, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

Why the hell don’t we have this movie on Blu-ray yet?! Urrrr…

All right. Let me explain. Transformers: the Movie, the animated giant-robot extravaganza that shaped my youth, came out in 1986. You know the film. The one with that song that goes, “YOU GOT THE TOUCH. YOU GOT THE POWER!” Yeah. That one. In the last number of years, the film has arrived in the home video market on DVD, in a variety of versions. Some full screen, attempting to show the full animated frame but looking way too loose, compositionally. Some widescreen, attempting to replicate the matted cinematic presentation (where movie theatres chop off the top and bottom of the picture - really, it happens ALL the time!) but looking way too tightly composed. Each version suffered additional problems in colour fidelity and compression. It seems that no studio, no release is able to get Transformers: the Movie quite right. …Continued…

Should You Import the Highlander Blu-ray Steelbook from UK, Europe?

By brenden ⋅ June 22, 2009 ⋅ One comment

Should you import the Highlander Blu-ray Steelbook from the UK or Europe? I guess the question should really be, should you bother watching Highlander again at all? Probably not. But if you, like me, have a real soft spot in your immortal heart for this film, then yeah, maybe you want to consider an order to Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.de. …Continued…

[VIDEO] Blu-ray Wish List: Star Trek Animation Nerdgasm

By brenden ⋅ June 11, 2009 ⋅ Post a comment

I want to see this in high-def, on my giant front projection screen. I want J.J. Abrams to watch this and go, “Holy shit! This needs to be a bonus feature on our Star Trek Blu-ray disc” I think it can happen. If we all close our eyes and pray to Kahless the Unforgettable, our nerd wish (read: MY nerd wish) may just come true! …Continued…