It's been forty years since Mary Poppins first premiered in Hollywood, and to mark the occasion (and the launch of the Mary Poppins: Special Edition DVD on December 14th) Buena Vista Home Entertainment held a 'Re-Premiere' for the film at the historic El Capitan Theater on Hollywood Boulevard complete with live penguins, chimney sweeps, and a band that played Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious more times than you would ever believe. In attendance, most of the surviving people involved with the making of Mary Poppins including: Karen Dotrice (who played the Jane Banks), Glynis Johns (Winifred), animator Ollie Johnston, designers Bill Justice and Xavier Atencio (the guy who wrote the song "Yo Ho - A Pirate's Life for Me"), choreographers Dee Dee Wood and Mark Breaux, composer Richard Sherman and of course Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews. Read our coverage of The Mary Poppins Re-Premiere

It's the chosen few DVDs released each year which receive DVD Talk's Highest Rating: DVD Talk Collector Series. Recent DVDs to get this extremely high rating include: The Ultimate Matrix Collection: Limited Edition - a spectacular achievement in comprehensive DVD film study, Hero - an elegantly paced film that is eminently re-watchable, offering as much delight on the second viewing as on the first, Short Cuts: Criterion - a film that sums up what's great about American moviemaking, American acting and American life, The Return - one of the best debut films since Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows, The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 6 - the best release from this series yet and The Saddest Music in the World - an absolute hidden gem of a film, one of the year’s best films. Finally, it's extremely rare we give our highest rating to adult DVDs which makes Eye Of The Beholder and Ass Worship 6 2 extremely notable exceptions. See the complete list of all DVDs given DVD Talk's Highest Rating.

On this month's DVD Talk TV Segment on ABC TV's AM Northwest we took a look at 4 Notable DVDs: The Chronicles of Riddick - Vin Diesel stars in this a big fun sci-fi film with a director's cut really worth watching, Gone With The Wind - Warner Bros. hits a home run with one of the best restorations we've seen yet, Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban - a much darker and complex installment in the Harry Potter series shines on DVD and Spider Man 2 - a terrific superhero movie which gets added to the short list of sequels which are better than the previous film Watch this show (which runs about 7 mins) in Windows Media High Bandwidth or Low Bandwidth. Also watch past month's segments.

Another great batch of Notable DVDs this week including: Hero [Review] - it took several years for Zhang Yimou's magnificent film to hit the US, but now it has you simply can't miss it, Spider Man 2 - an extremely strong follow up to one of the better modern superhero franchises, Happy Gilmore\Billy Madison [Review] - two Adam Sandler favorites now together on DVD, Daredevil: SE [Review] - while the Director's cut doesn't 'save' this imperfect film, it does go a long way to making it suck less, My Flesh & Blood [Review] - one of the strongest documentaries we've seen in recent memory, Northern Exposure: S2 - this charming season is back on DVD for a second season, again wrapped in a parka-like slipcase and Tru Calling: S1 [Review] - an excellent example of a television series that can flourish if given time to grow. Read our List of Top Upcoming DVDs for more great DVDs out this week, and visit our DVD Talk Review Database for all the latest reviews including an entire section devoted to reviews of DVDs out this week.

We've got a very special Holiday Giveaway from HTMarket.com who has provided some great prizes for us to give away. Enter for your chance to win your very own Personalized DVD Home Theater Intro customized for You and Your home theater, one of 2 Quick Snap Movie Poster Frame and or one of 2 DVD Storage Towers This is a great opportunity to pick up some fantastic Home Theater Accessories, so enter now for your chance to win now!  
 

This week's DVD Talk Clips of the Week features a ton of great peeks at upcoming DVD releases from Buena Vista Home Entertainment including: a look at Zhang Yimou's breathtaking Hero [Review], Mary Poppins 40th Anniversary Edition including clips of: Chim Chim-Cher-ee, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Spoonful of Sugar, Bert's Penguin Dance and Mary Poppins Arrives, a preview of another Disney classic outnext year on DVD Bambi: Special Edition, a sneak peek at the animated sequel Mulan II, and previews of King Arthur, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, Home Improvement: Season 1 and Where the Red Fern Grows

Sure, I scream! You scream! But CineSchlock-O-Rama's Most Wanted screamed for 176 WEEKS for the Ice Cream Man!!! DVD Talk columnist G. Noel Gross bows before B-royal Clint Howard and huzzahs the not-so-good humor man's most undersung gem with an exclusive interview and 5-star DVD review. Plus, strap in as Critical Mass ogles Girls on Bulls: Vol. 1. Also in case you missed them, be sure to check out CineSchlock's recent coverage for It's Alive: SE, Dawn of The Dead - 'Unrated' Director's Cut (2004), and The Day After Tomorrow: SE.  

This week The DVD Savant has reviews of: Woman in the Moon - Fritz Lang's last silent film is a draggy melodrama grafted onto the first technologically-oriented story of space travel, Explorers - River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke star in Joe Dante's wondrous tale of school kids who become bonafide spacemen by interpreting signals received in their dreams, The Official Story - the evil of political tyranny starts at the personal and family level in this chilling political film, The More the Merrier - one of the best of the wartime movies, Ragtime - Milos Forman brings E.L. Doctorow's epic novel to the screen with what they called 'mixed results', They Shoot Horses, Don't They? - Sydney Pollack's apocalyptic Depression saga is from a hardboiled novel by Horace McCoy and Made for Each Other - James Stewart and Carole Lombard go through the tribulations of early marriage, with baby, mother-in-law and bothersome boss problems. Read all this and more in this week's DVD Savant.

This week Silent DVD looks at a trio of silent films that Kino has released under the banner of "Gay-themed Films of the Silent Era": Different from the Others (1919) staring Conrad Veidt ("The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,") Michael (1924) directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, and Sex in Chains (1928) directed and staring William Dieterle ("Faust", "The Devil and Daniel Webster.") While none of these films can be considered masterpieces, all three present an interesting look at homosexuality in the early part of the last century. Also in case you missed them, be sure to read Silent DVD's coverage of The Fritz Lang Collection, The Parson's Widow, Fractured Flickers , The Girl with the Hatbox, More Treasures from American Film Archives and Arbuckle and Keaton - Volumes One and Two .

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