The 3-D Film Archive's long-awaited 4K scan and restoration of Abbott & Costello's Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) is, predictably, a revelation. The movie looks far better than it has looked since its original release and, more surprisingly, sounds infinitely better. I first became enamored of the team with early Sunday morning airings of their films, but whenever Jack in the Beanstalk was shown, a 16mm black-and-white print was used, the local ABC affiliate super-imposing "originally filmed in black-and-white" during the opening titles, which included a credit for SuperCinecolor and didn't fool elementary school-age me. Years later, during the early days of home video, the market was flooded with inferior color copies. Last year, the VCI label released its own "4K restoration" which I reviewed; that release can now safely be tossed in the trash bin.

This releas...Read the entire review

During the early 1950s, the comedy team of Bud Abbott and Lou Costello was just about inescapable. Although their long-running radio series had ended in 1949, they were still cranking out movies: two in 1951 and three more in 1952. Moreover, during 1950-53 no less than nine of their earlier glories were theatrically reissued. If you lived in a large American city, chances were that an Abbott & Costello movie was playing somewhere nearby.

But, in the movies, the team had grown stale. The freshness they exhibited in their earliest films, such as Buck Privates and Hold That Ghost, was long gone. In their more recent work, pictures like Comin' Round the Mountain (1951) and Lost in Alaska (1952), they seemed tired and dispirited and their studio, Universal-International by this time, almost seemed embarrassed by their continuing popularity. The tragic death o...Read the entire review

Africa Screams (1949) is a better-than-average comedy starring (Bud) Abbott & (Lou) Costello, presented on an outstanding Blu-ray, the long-neglected film lovingly restored by the 3-D Film Archive and featuring a bounty of myriad imaginative special features.

The comedy team spent nearly their entire movie career under contract at Universal where, early in their career, the studio occasionally loaned them out to MGM. Later, they renegotiated the terms of their contract to allow them to make one outside film per year. The first, The Noose Hangs High (1948), was distributed by Eagle-Lion Films, while Africa Screams, a joint production of A&P grocery store heir Huntington Hartford and the Nassour brothers (whose logo shamelessly imitates that of 20th Century-Fox), was a United Artists release.

Back when I discovered Abbott & Costello in 1970s, when WXYZ-TV, Channel 7...Read the entire review

(Just in case you're wondering. I didn't receive my review copy until well after Christmas, hence this unusually untimely review.)

Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962) is one of the more nostalgia-inducing holiday specials. Indeed it was the very first animated Christmas special, beating Rudolph, Charlie Brown, and the Grinch by several years. It's a generally successful retooling of Charles Dickens's classic story, tailored for producer United Productions of America's (UPA) popular cartoon character, Mr. Magoo (voiced by Jim Backus), as well as another UPA creation, Gerald McBoing-Boing.

Classic Media's Blu-ray Collector's Edition, which also includes a DVD version, is reasonably good. The Blu-ray has some transfer issues, but overall is bright and sharp with especially good color, and fairly packed with extra features including a very well written booklet, though disappoin...Read the entire review

"A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty 'Hi-yo, Silver, away!' The Lone Ranger!"

There are DVDs you take home and watch immediately, DVDs that end up on a "stuff to watch" pile that might take you anywhere from a week to several years to get around to actually viewing. And then there are DVDs that are like little treasure chests straight out of Robert Louis Stevenson, boxed sets so fun and imaginatively packaged and so absolutely crammed with neat-o booklets and other memorabilia that you greedily pour over it like Wallace Berry or Robert Newton, savoring its riches.

Such is the case with The Lone Ranger - 75th Anniversary Collector's Edition, a 13-disc package consisting of the television series' first two seasons, 78 episodes, along with an especially strong selection of extra features - including a full-color, 88-page commemorative book, a comic book reprint...Read the entire review

As part of their Toho Master Collection, Toho and Sony Classic Media have released a slam-bang, action-filled daikaiju eiga double feature with Rodan and War of the Gargantuas, including not only the English-dubbed versions of these films we all grew up on, but also the original uncut Japanese language versions (with English subtitles), as well. Extras (or more accurately, "extra" as in a single one) are skimpy, but fans of the genre can't go wrong in picking up this nice double-header of building-smashing, tank-stomping, people-chomping, kaiju fun. Since most of us are more familiar with the English language versions of Sora no Daikaiju Radon and Furankenshutain no Kaiju: Sanda tai Gaira, I'll use those versions for the synopsizes (with more detailed discussion of both the Japanese and English-language comparisons - the screen caps are English language f...Read the entire review

From the Toho Master Collection (the folks that brought you all those nice, digi-pack enfolded Godzilla movies) comes the next offering, a similarly tasty two-fer starring Rodan and the Gargantuas. Coming in the same stylish book-like digi-pack foldout, we get mostly the same treatment, with two movies (both the Japanese and English-dubbed release versions) on each disc. Menu screens seem slightly less exciting than on the previous Godzilla movies, and extras are limited to one hour-long documentary, but by and large this is a two-pack any monster lover would be proud to own.

Rodan:
At times graceful, titanic, horrifying and namby-pamby, Rodan is both more and less than what I remember from Saturday afternoons in the '70s. Every bit as dour and serious as the original Godzilla, Rodan actually packs two monster movies in one, but waits until the last half-hour to really let the big bird fly....Read the entire review

The Movie:

Beginning in 2006, Classic Media has been releasing very nice packages of the original Toho Godzilla films, replete with great storybook containers and lots of extras. This culminated in last year's The Godzilla Collection, a box set of all seven Godzilla movies released by the company and a definite must-have for fans of the classic monster series.

Coming off almost like an encore to The Godzilla Collection is this new 2 DVD collection containing two non-Godzilla monster offerings from the Toho vaults: 1956's Rodan (which rather oddly has a copyright notice during the title sequence with roman numerals for the year 1934) and 1966's War of the Gargantuas. The packaging maintains the storybook-style container of the Godzilla releases, so it'll look consistent with other Classic Media releases on the shelf (although thi...Read the entire review

The Film:
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids ran on television, in one form or another, from 1972 to 1985, and in doing so became one of the most popular and enduring children's animated shows of all time. In 1977, during the height of the series' popularity, production company Filmation put out the two of three holiday-themed specials that aired during primetime. The first of these specials--and arguably the best--was Fat Albert's Halloween Special.

Fans of the Saturday morning series will recognize the plot as pretty much the standard adventures of Fat Albert and the rest of the Junkyard Gang. It's Halloween, and Fat Albert and the rest of the guys are trying to get the money for some costumes, but when that plan fails, they resort to what they do best, making things out of discarded junk. As the guys set out for a night of tricks and treats, they are led astray by Rudy's friend...Read the entire review

A sequel, and not a remake, to the 1971 Rankin/Bass TV special, "Here Comes Peter Cottontail: The Movie" follows the misadventures of Peter's son, Peter Jr., as he journeys across the seasons in order to rescue spring itself. The CG-animated feature premiered on Cartoon Network in 2006, and despite the music video interludes and one or two ADD-driven action bits, it's actually a lighthearted, enjoyable little story that fits well with the stop-motion original.

Seymour S. Sassafras returns as our narrator, this time with the voice of Christopher Lloyd. After reminding us of the original story, we pop into the present: Peter's running a booming business in April Valley, a factory of Easter goodies that runs like clockwork. His son, however, keeps neglecting his duties, preferring instead to wander off and work on his inventions, like the automatic egg delivery system (a catapult). Peter Sr. (Tom K...Read the entire review

While I'll readily admit that Jay Ward's Rocky and Bullwinkleis the pinnacle of kids shows from the 60's, being both outrageously funnyand popular with kids and adults (what baby-boomer can't recite reams ofdialog from the show "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat...")for my money Ward's George of the Jungle comes in a close second. First broadcast in 1969 on Saturday mornings on ABC, the show only hada brief seventeen installments (which ABC kept re-running over and overfor three years) which are still fondly remembered. Classic Mediahas now released the entire series on a two DVD set which proves that thisfinal Jay Ward produced TV show (he went on to do TV commercials) are justas funny now as they were over 35 years ago.

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Sony Wonder has re-released Here Comes Peter Cottontail, the 1971 Rankin/Bass stop-motion Easter favorite starring the voice talents of Danny Kaye, Vincent Price, and Casey Kasem. Owners of the previous 2001 Sony release of this title may not feel a need to double dip, as the transfers are exactly the same. The bonus features vary (see below), but that's the only difference here.

As you may remember from countless viewings over the years, Here Comes Peter Cottontail details how Colonel Wellington B. Bunny (voice of Danny Kaye) decided to retire as head of April Valley, passing along his duties as chief Easter Bunny to Peter Cottontail (Casey Kasem). However, evil Irontail (voice of Vincent Price), a bunny who wears an prosthetic iron tail after his rea...Read the entire review

I was intrigued when I heard that the Turok franchise was going to berising from the dead once again.  The character has had a long andcolorful history, starting in the comics in the 1950's, being revived andupdated by Valiant Comics in the 1990's, and staring in a series of popularvideo games by Acclaim that ran through 2002.  With Valiant (laterAcclaim Comics) dead and the last video game a critical and commercialfailure however, I thought the odds of the Indian who fights dinosaursbeing revived yet again were fairly remote.  Never count a dinosaurhunter down though, as in early February a new first person shooter videogame is being released and a direct-to-DVD animated feature is also hittingthe shelves.  The DVD, Turok:  Son of Stone, harkens backto the original comics.  Go...Read the entire review

Classic Media has released a curious collection, The Best of Rocky and Bullwinkle: Volume 2 that should puzzle fans of the landmark, subversive cartoon from the early 1960s. If you're at all familiar with the original series, you know that over several half-hour episodes, a central Rocky and Bullwinkle story arc would play out in cliffhanger fashion, with these segments wrapped by individual bumper segments of other short cartoons, such as Dudley Do-Right, Fractured Fairy Tales, and Peabody's Improbable History. For The Best of Rocky and Bullwinkle: Volume 2, all of the additional shorts that wrapped around the Rocky and Bullwinkle stories has been eliminated, giving the viewer three complete adventures, without interruption, of that famous flying squirrel and that dim-witted moose.

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THE SHOW:

After my unlucky experience revisiting Woody Woodpecker on DVD, I was a little worried about tackling Felix the Cat: The Complete 1958-1959 Series. Also billed as the "Golden Anniversary Edition," the two-DVD set houses the 31 episodes from the early television series. A child of syndication, I recall seeing these on a local children's program, interspersed with other cartoons (perhaps even Woody) as some sort of block of miscellaneous shorts. A fan of tricksters, I enjoyed Felix's antics because he had an actual Bag of Tricks, from which anything could be extracted. With its catchy theme song ("Felix the cat, the wonderful wonderful cat..."), the show inspired a kind of P...Read the entire review

A happy memory of childhood is trying to keep up with the non-stop jokes in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, which jumped into prominence (in 1961 I believe) when it launched NBC's dynamite Color Sunday night lineup. We didn't have a color TV but the NBC Peacock station IDs nevertheless made us feel like part of the all-color spirit. Filled with corny gags and topical jokes that zoomed over the heads of children everywhere, the show was an instant hit. Classic Media's The Best of Rocky and Bullwinkle Volume 2 is an economical sampler for fans of what Boris Badenov, in thick Russian accent, called "Moosansquirrel".

Jay Ward's The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show was a manic half hour packed with a score of quickie cartoon blackouts, some only lasting four minutes or so: Dudley Do-Right, Fractured Fairy Tales, Peabody...Read the entire review

If Mickey Mouse rates archive editions showing his creation and genesis, the privilege should also be accorded to Gumby, the humble clay-boy who has been around on kiddie TV for over fifty years now. Gumby's home company Premavision has allied with Classic Media and Genius Entertainment to release Gumby Essentials, Volume 1, a collection that, with a little web research, allows one to see where Gumby came from. The fifteen full shorts on the compilation have their original soundtracks, a choice mentioned right on the disc package.

The show offers five well-chosen episodes each from the 1950s, 60s and the green clay man's comeback in the 1980s. But the place to go first is the extras menu. Gumbasia is Art Clokey's 1953 theatrical short subject that animates basic clay shapes in interesting patterns, backed by a jazz tune. It...Read the entire review

Well, it's not my Casper the Friendly Ghost. Classic Media has released 2006's Casper's Ghost School, a failed 3D computer-generated look at the sweetest ghost who ever lived. Or...died. Looking very much at times like a Tim Burton cast-off, Casper's Ghost School does have a terrific design to it (particularly the world of the Scare School), with some amusing bits concerning the ghoulies that attend. However, a subplot involving Casper helping a lonely young boy - a central storyline of many, many earlier classic Casper cartoons - is twisted here to subvert the Casper mythology, and not in a nice way. And to top it off, they ultimately abandon that poorly developed subplot, creating a hole in the film's motivation.

Casper (voice of Devon Werkheiser) befrien...Read the entire review

Just in advance of the live action Underdog movie that is supposed tobe hitting theater screens in August, Classic Media has released a compilationdisc of the classic Underdog cartoons:  The Ultimate UnderdogCollectgion Volume 1.  A childhood favorite, I was excited whenthe disc arrived but I soon discovered that the show hadn't aged as wellas one would hope.  An amazingly repetitive show, seen today throughadult eyes the program just doesn't have the charm or humor that it oncehad.  Added to that is the bizarre way that the disc is arranged. They don't present the show as it was originally broadcast, but insteadmix together Underdog chapters with several other shorts that the samestudio produced.  When will the DVD publishers learn that people wanttheir TV shows they way they were originally broadcast, uncut,...Read the entire review

I would imagine the last time I saw 1965's Invasion of Astro-Monster (Kaiju Daisenso), retitled years later as Godzilla vs. Monster Zero for American TV (both versions are available on this Classic Media DVD release), I was probably around seven or so, watching Ron Sweed's The Ghoul syndicated out of Detroit's WKBD Channel 50. I distinctly remember being particularly excited anytime a Godzilla film showed up on his show, because it was virtually guaranteed that Sweed would imitate the giant Japanese monster, stomping around on some model airplanes and cars, in between blowing up Froggy with illegal M-80s (just ask somebody who grew up on the show). Featuring spectacular battle royales between Godzilla, Rodan and King Ghidorah, Invasion of Astro-Monster has plenty of comic-book action sequences to get you through the rather pedestrian exposition scenes, with m...Read the entire review

The Movie:

Ishiro Honda's 1964 monster-mash, Ghidorah The Three-Headed Monster brings together the titular flying beastie (in his first appearance), Rodan, Mothra, and of course, Godzilla in one of the best of the sixties kaiju films that remains as entertaining today as it was when this reviewer first saw it on broadcast television in the late seventies or early eighties.

When a meteorite hurls from space and lands in Japan, it causes a massive heat wave to spread out across the islands. As all of this is going on, Himalayan Princess Selina Salno (Akikko Wakabayashi of You Only Live Twice) is en route to Japan when an explosion in her plane causes a crash landing. Making matters more bizarre is the fact that shortly after the crash, someone looking very much like the Princess is seen wandering the streets of Tokyo, trying to warn the citizens of their impending doom co...Read the entire review

He just wants a friend - is that so wrong? Casper, the Friendly Ghost: Best of Casper -- Volume 2 is the second latest offering from Classic Media's Casper holdings (please click here to read my more lengthy review of Casper cartoons as a whole and Casper, the Friendly Ghost: Best of Casper - Volume 1). Ten more classic Casper theatrical shorts from the 1950s (along with two bonus cartoons), are showcased here in beautiful transfers. Although fans probably already have these from other collections, Casper, the Friendly Ghost: Best of Casper -- Volume 2 is a nice alternative if you're new to Casper, or if you don't want to get bogged down in collecting everything and anything Casper.

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Has there ever been a sweeter, gentler, more kind and caring cartoon character than Casper, the Friendly Ghost? I can't think of one. Oh, I know that many find him too cloying and saccharine, but I remember quite clearly as a young child loving him (just like his famous theme song says) precisely because he was so different from my other cartoon favorites. Of course, when I wanted some insane violence I'd switch the channel to a Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck. And old Disney shorts played like treasured gems that you somehow just knew were the top of the line in animation, even if you were too young to know exactly why. But Casper was something wholly original in cartoon fare. You always knew that the plots were going to be remarkably the same, and you always knew that Casper would never say an unkind word, or do anything to harm anyone. All kids feel lonely at times, and...Read the entire review

As part of its co-production deal with Henry Saperstein, Toho rushed out a semi-sequel to Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster in Invasion of Astro-Monster, an even more juvenile giant monster adventure that adds cartoonish elements to the Kaijû stew. Mothra sits this one out but Rodan and Godzilla are back to tangle with the outer-space dragon King Ghidorah, last seen beating a hasty retreat into the stratosphere. Nick Adams of Frankenstein Conquers the World is back as well, this time playing an intrepid astronaut investigating a mysterious planet 'hidden' behind Jupiter. Simplistic plotting by ace Toho scribe Shinichi Sekizawa keeps us up to our scaly necks in rockets, menacing aliens, perfidious ...Read the entire review

Classic Media continues their line of vintage Toho Godzilla pictures with the amiable 'something for everyone' monster-fest Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster. The big, splashy show is the first to reinvision the monsters as personalities that communicate with each other, bicker, and form an alliance to tackle an unwanted outsider. Godzilla, Mothra and Rodan oppose the gaijin outerspace interloper Ghidorah (originally Ghidrah to us stateside monster kids). And if a Saturday Night Wrestling rethink of the series isn't enough, we also get two more major subplots to keep the large Japanese cast in constant motion.