Today sees the release of the Blu-ray/DVD combo 4 pack of Fantasia and Fantasia 2000.  Fantasia was a movie whose brilliance I didn’t understand as a child, I only knew that I liked the vague memories I had of it.  Watching it again on Blu-ray I was actually impressed by it’s brilliance and how far ahead of its time it was, and the purpose of it.  Watching it again, I was completely enamored by the concept and I hope that Disney does more like this.

The film opens up with an orchestra assembling in that beautiful world of 1940 Technicolor (which looks utterly amazing in Blu-ray) and a narrator steps out and explains the concept.  Fantasia is different artists renditions of their impressions of music.  An orchestra is employed to simulate the experience of going to the symphony and that’s really what the movie is all about.  You’re going to the symphony and watching different artists interpret the movements of the music.  Sometimes it tells a story and sometimes it doesn’t.  I watched this with my kids and they were enamored by it, wanting to go to more symphonies if possible.  (They’ve been to a couple and they love silent films, so maybe they’re exceptions to the rule).

It makes me sad to see that Disney only attempted to use this formula once more and it was in 2000′s sequel.  It’s good, too, and also looks gorgeous in full 1080.  But this kind of film is perfect for kids of today.  It forces them to just sit and pay attention to beautiful music and imagery and hopefully get them to foster a healthy respect for classical music and art.

Another thing I was surprised by was that one of the pieces of music was set to imagery that showed the Big Bang Theory and single-celled organisms and their evolution into dinosaurs and the extinction of the dinosaurs.  The narrator, Deems Taylor, explained evolution and the Big Bang as both science and fact.  The fact that this wasn’t controversial in 1940, but would be unthinkable in today’s charged climate shows how far we’ve slid away from sense and reason in today’s world.  I mean, consider that…  What would happen if a Disney cartoon appeared today and talked about evolution as fact so casually?  There would be riots in the street.

I would recommend this film to any music lover, lover of animation, or film buff.  The animation and colors hold up strikingly and I want desperately to see Disney embark on more experiments of this nature.

Today seems to be Disney day, as without exception all of the releases worth mentioning are coming from Disney.

To start we have the Blu-ray/DVD combo 4 pack of Fantasia and Fantasia 2000.  Fantasia was a movie whose brilliance I didn’t understand as a child, I only knew that I liked the vague memories I had of it.  Watching it again on Blu-ray I was actually impressed by it’s brilliance and how far ahead of its time it was, and the purpose of it.  Watching it again, I was completely enamored by the concept and I hope that Disney does more like this.

The film opens up with an orchestra assembling in that beautiful world of 1940 Technicolor (which looks utterly amazing in Blu-ray) and a narrator steps out and explains the concept.  Fantasia is different artists renditions of their impressions of music.  An orchestra is employed to simulate the experience of going to the symphony and that’s really what the movie is all about.  You’re going to the symphony and watching different artists interpret the movements of the music.  Sometimes it tells a story and sometimes it doesn’t.  I watched this with my kids and they were enamored by it, wanting to go to more symphonies if possible.  (They’ve been to a couple and they love silent films, so maybe they’re exceptions to the rule).

It makes me sad to see that Disney only attempted to use this formula once more and it was in 2000’s sequel.  It’s good, too, and also looks gorgeous in full 1080.  But this kind of film is perfect for kids of today.  It forces them to just sit and pay attention to beautiful music and imagery and hopefully get them to foster a healthy respect for classical music and art.

Another thing I was surprised by was that one of the pieces of music was set to imagery that showed the Big Bang Theory and single-celled organisms and their evolution into dinosaurs and the extinction of the dinosaurs.  The narrator, Deems Taylor, explained evolution and the Big Bang as both science and fact.  The fact that this wasn’t controversial in 1940, but would be unthinkable in today’s charged climate shows how far we’ve slid away from sense and reason in today’s world.  I mean, consider that…  What would happen if a Disney cartoon appeared today and talked about evolution as fact so casually?  There would be riots in the street.

I would recommend this film to any music lover, lover of animation, or film buff.  The animation and colors hold up strikingly and I want desperately to see Disney embark on more experiments of this nature.

Instead of experiments like that, Disney gave us another film out today, a live action adaptation of the silent piece in the original Fantasia, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, starring Jay Baruchel and Nicolas Cage.  I haven’t seen it yet and have been told it’s much, much better than I’m expecting, but I just wanted to throw that out there.

The next three Disney releases today are documentaries that I’ve been dying to see and will now have a chance to.  The first is Waking Sleeping Beauty, which tells the tale of the rebirth of Disney Animation in the 1980s.  You can watch The Big Movie Mouth-Off review of that film “>here.

The next is Walt and El Grupo, which tells the tale of Walt Disney’s sojourn to South America with a group of animators.  The thing is, they were asked to go by the government on the outset of World War II to act as cultural spies.  Two great pieces of Disney history came out of the trip, including The Three Cabelleros, making this a fascinating documentary.

The third is the tumultuous story of The Boys.  This documentary tells the story of The Sherman Brothers and their rifts through creative life.  Maybe you haven’t heard of them specifically, but you’ve heard their music.  They wrote “Supercalifragilisticexpealadocious”, the Jungle Book’s “I wanna be like you”, “It’s a Small World” and more.

Disney is coming back to their roots with documentary programming that is compelling and it’s great to see them back in form across the board.  Between this and Tangled’s release in theatres last week, they’re on a roll.

And I would be remiss in being a Star Wars fan if I didn’t mention that Vampires Suck came out today.  It stars The Clone Wars’ Anakin Skywalker, Matt Lanter in an Edward Cullen sort of role.

Cartoon Network is debuting a new DC Animated series loosely based on the young superhero team from the ’80’s called Young Justice, and they are kicking it off with a one-hour adventure this Saturday (check your local listings)! You can check out the 6 min. trailer below, courtesy MTV.

I for one am pretty excited for this. It looks like it may be up to par with the fantastic straight to DVD DC Animated movies that have been released.

The series will focus on Robin, Superboy, Artemis, Kid Flash, Miss Martian and Aqualad as they attempt to prove that they have what it takes to become the next generation of the Justice League. Sam Register (“Batman: The Brave and the Bold”) is the executive producer with Greg Weisman (“The Spectacular Spider-Man”) and Brandon Vietti (“The Batman”) on board as producers.

When the series was first announced, the team’s roster was said to include Robin, Superboy, Artemis, Kid Flash, Miss Martian and Aqualad. It’s interesting to note that Green Arrow protege Artemis and the alien shape-shifter Miss Martian don’t appear in the trailer, though Speedy (Green Arrow’s former sidekick) has a big role.

“Heroes on Both Sides” is an episode largely devoted to the politics of ending the war between the Republic and the Separatists. The Trade Federation and the Banking Clan are pushing for further deregulation of the banks in the Senate so that they might profit from more war spending. With the Republic’s credit running dry, Padme sees this as a perfect opportunity to negotiate with the enemy. When no one listens, she and Ahsoka decide to visit one of Padme’s old friends who happens to be a Separatist.

I know a lot of people have had a hard time with the politics heavy episodes, but I thought this was a brilliant critique of representative bodies and war and enemies and those standing in the way of the cessation of conflict because they have some way of profiting off of it.

It’s also a very subtle critique on the legislation we’ll pass to expedite a war, even though it’s not in the best interests of the people.

You can see the will of the real representatives of the people, Padme and her Separatists analog, working for that peace, but Sidious, Dooku, the Banking Clans, the Trade Federation, and others, working to undermine it.

Dooku goes so far to prevent the vote on this opening of negotiation between the Separatists and the Republic that they hatch a terrorist plot to disguise battle-droids that turn into bombs as maintenance droids in order to infiltrate and destroy the power grid on Coruscant.

The entire episode is a very powerful indictment of the difference between governing with the best interests of the people in mind versus the kneejerk reactions that lead to things like the Bush tax cuts that do us more harm in the long run.

This was by far and away the best political episode of the show so far.

Having said that, this was also the debut of the new Anakin and Ahsoka models on the show and I have to say I’m impressed, although they didn’t really get a chance to do anything. Anakin was seen doing nothing but walking down a corridor. Ahsoka had a little more to do, and they showed us that she now has two lightsabers, but she didn’t ignite them once.

The models and animation have taken a quantifiable leap forward, though. Ahsoka wears a cloak with a hood that she actually pulls up over her head. The side characters are more fully designed and believable. The lighting and sets are much more diverse and landscapes breathtaking.

In fact, there is one shot in particular that stood out as a particular work of art. It was the first shot after the first commercial break and it was a ship landing on a platform on Raxus. It was fall and the trees and mountains with the beautifully sculpted building they were landing in front of shining with majesty. It reminded me of a painting I can’t quite put my finger on. Any frame in that sequence could be put on a print and framed.

Overall, I think this was a very solid episode and a shining example of how politics and corruption can be done right. This episode puts Season Three’s Mandalore arc to shame.

This week sees the upgraded models of the main characters of Clone Wars with an episode entitled “Heroes on Both Sides”.

I’m keenly interested in this episode for a lot of reasons, but the biggest is something that Supervising Director Dave Filoni mentioned at Star Wars Celebration V. “Remember in the opening crawl to Revenge of the Sith it said there were heroes on both sides and evil is everywhere? We’re going to explore that so it makes a lot more sense.”

And since then I’ve been craving more along those lines.

This episode promises to deliver.

Having said that, this also marks a jump in time from the episodes we’d seen before which makes me guess a few things about what we’ve seen of Season 3 so far.

Firstly, initial reports said that a season of Clone Wars would be 25 episodes per season. These seasons have so far run 22 episodes long (plus three scotch taped episodes that served as the theatrical outing.) That leaves at least three episodes, possibly six, that were produced for earlier seasons and never aired for whatever reason. So far this season, we’ve been seeing connecting material from story arcs developed in the first two seasons. Even the season premiere was the prequel and sequel of Episode 1.5.

But now, with this episode, we’re taking a step further in timeline with these characters. This seems like the real season three. This is what we’re looking forward to for the rest of the season and it looks breathtaking. A lot of people have had issues with most of this season. (I’ve only been a little disappointed with two episodes). I think this is what we’ve all been waiting for Season Three to become.

My one question about all of this though, is whether or not we’ll be seeing the timeline jump between the old character models and the earlier times in the war and the new, more recent.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

From the official press release:

In addition to exploring some of the complexities of the war itself, the episode is notable because it introduces all-new character models for some of The Clone Wars’ heroes – including Obi-Wan, Anakin and Ahsoka.

“Over the course of the series so far, our characters have been affected by the conflict, so the changes we are seeing are a reflection of what they’ve gone through and how they’ve changed,” says Supervising Director Dave Filoni. “We’re getting closer to the events of Episode III, and the look of the series is moving toward that look and those designs. We don’t have a live-action point of comparison for Ahsoka, but her development is definitely as pronounced as anyone’s. When the war began, she was just a kid; she was strong and capable, but she had a lot to learn – and she’s been through a lot. She’s been changed by the things she’s seen and done, and now we’re seeing that reflected in her look. She’s older, more mature. In this episode, we see a significant step for her emotional development, in addition to her aesthetic development. Coming face to face with the enemy is going to be an eye-opening experience for her.”

In addition to showcasing the series’ character development and its progression toward the Episode III aesthetics, the new CG models also reflect a change in the way that The Clone Wars is produced.

“Our production keeps getting better; as we move forward, we’re able to incorporate new techniques and improved animation,” says Filoni. “As a weekly series, we’ve been pushing ourselves to do things that haven’t been done in TV animation, and it’s always a struggle just to get it done at all. But we are learning tricks that help to streamline the process, and we continue to build our asset library. We’re at a place where we can explore and develop new and improved character assets for some of our primary players. In addition to the look change, these new models are so much more expressive.”

And in case you missed it, here’s the badass Savage Oppress trailer:

This week’s Clone Wars, ‘Hunt For Ziro’, represents what it probably the end of the arc of Ziro the Hutt in The Clone Wars. He’s been busted out of jail by Cad Bane and has been delivered to the Hutt Council, where he’s put in prison. He’s promptly broken out by Sy Snootles (of all people) and taken on journey, followed closely by Bane and Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jedi Quinlan Vos.

This episode had just about anything I could want in an episode of Clone Wars.

It opened up with an hilarious nod to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, with Sy Snootles singing a Huttese equivalent of Willie Scott’s Chinese version of ‘Anything Goes’ and gets straight into a chase.

This episode offered us insights into a lot things I was curious about, a lot of things I wasn’t so curious about but glad to know, and plenty of other stuff in between.

First off, this gave us a glimpse of the Hutts and their homeworld Nal Hutta, which reminded me of a swampy Blade Runner version of New Orleans. The musical numbers were loud (and surprisingly sexy), the music and flair was that of a cool jazz, and it hearkened back to both the original cantina band music and Sy Snootles’ original Lapti Nek number. And it doesn’t bother me one bit that she was involved romantically with Ziro the Hutt.

Obi-Wan and Quinlan Vos are on their trail, and Vos is considered by his peers to be crazy. He reminds me of a mix between Qui-Gon Jinn and The Dude. He even quoted The Dude once (That’s just your opinion, man.) He was a fun character and I’d like to see more of him, just like I’d like to see more of Cad Bane. Their fight was most impressive and doubles my respect for Bane and his skills. It also makes my respect for Obi-Wan drop a little… How many times does he get beaten to a standstill by a Bounty Hunter like Bane or Jango? And what was so different about General Grievous in Revenge of the Sith?

There was much to do made behind Gardulla the Hutt’s appearance in the series, but I really couldn’t care less about that controversy. (On a sidenote, the reason my review was so late was because I was attending a writers retreat, four or five of us got together to critique each others prose. One of the attending writers was Aaron Allston, who writes Star Wars novels for Del Rey, and he offered me his perspective on it, explaining that anyone who plays in the EU knows that they’re playing with Lucas’ toys and know that George can back up out of the driveway over the toys at any time and they don’t take it personally, fans shouldn’t either.)

The thing that I was by far and away the most impressed with this episode was the animation. The cloth moved beautifully, the costumes were incredible (the girls with Hutt masks were fantastic), the alien creatures moved believably, the Gammoreans were some of the coolest looking characters the show has ever had… It was just top notch across the board.

And the way the show is starting to connect the prequel era with the classic era always puts a smile on my face.

Overall, this was a strong episode and better than at least most of this season, so far. The story wasn’t as well paced as I would have liked to see, but the impressive animation and fun of the opening was more than enough to make up for it.

You can check StarWars.com for the availability of tickets left for their theatrical showing of the episode of Clone Wars that introduces us to Savage Oppress, Darth Maul’s brother.

As part of the announcement they gave us one of the best trailers yet for this show.

There’s not much for me to say, you really do just need to watch. It’s quite breathtaking. And my guess is the weak spots in season 3 are completely behind us and we’re heading into the most solid territory the show has ever been into.

Watch it. Seriously.

Once again we’ve been given a treat.  This is the third released clip from tomorrow’s episode of The Clone Wars, The Hunt for Ziro and each one has been progressively better.  The first had people curious and wary about the nature of Quinlan Vos, the second (which was exclusive to Big Shiny Robot! (here)) had staunch defenders of the most far flung regions of the Star Wars Expanded Universe furious for the use of Anakin’s former owner, Gardulla the Hutt.  Only time will tell what controversy will emerge from this clip.

Despite any controversy, I got the chills watching this clip and tomorrow night can’t happen soon enough.

From the official press release:

On both sides of the episode’s titular hunt is veteran voice actor Corey Burton, who provides both Bane’s laconic drawl and Ziro’s high-pitched theatrics.

“It’s actually easier to keep character voices distinctly separate, the greater the differences are in vocal placement, timbre and pitch,” says Burton, who also provides the rich baratone voice of Count Dooku in the series. “When you’ve got voices that can be segregated, differently textured and expressed in differing musical rhythms, it’s a snap to make a clean break from one character to another. Then, applying acting characterization – visualizing the unique ‘soul’ of the character within the parameters of voice – you really can speak as two entirely separate beings within the same imaginary space.”

With its bizarre juxtaposition of such disparate characters within the episode, “Hunt for Ziro” is a strange journey down the rabbit hole – a peculiar departure from the series’ military campaigns and political underpinnings.

“The Ziro episodes seem like a multi-room extension of the original Star Wars cantina scenes – an eccentrically comedic undercurrent to break from the steadier drumbeat of galactic conflict, but with enough sinister gravity to tug at the direction of the entire storyline,” says Burton. “It’s a sort of ‘Bizarro World’ funhouse mirror dimension, a wrong turn down a strange alley running along the mainstream militaristic highway. It’s a colorful flight of fancy and insanity, to lend a contrasting air of ‘normalcy’ to the central story construct. Ziro’s the ultimate spoiled brat, a bitterly resentful and unreasonably demanding megalomaniac – made even more threatening and duplicitous by his inability to inspire fearful obedience like his rival, Jabba.”

Contrasting Ziro’s villainous frustrations is Bane – cold, cruel and quintessentially capable. Even tasked with a bounty that might seem eccentrically whimsical, Bane never falters in the dogged and dangerous pursuit of his quarry.

“Bane is a cold-blooded ‘Spaghetti Western’ movie bounty hunter – an unflappable contract mercenary who goes about his assignments with ruthless steely-eyed disregard for the damages inflicted to life and property,” says Burton. “He has a stoic tolerance for pain and Jedi mind-control tricks, and tireless reptilian patience. But he is not a particularly sturdy or athletically powerful creature, relying on mechanical aids and sharply honed wits for endurance and safe survival outside of his native environment. Bane is definitely an all-time favorite for me – from his striking design to his iconic and potent personality. There’s such a playground of speech characteristics in his palette that make him a continuing series of spontaneous discoveries. It feels like a very personal original co-creation I can feel proud to be a part of.”

If there is one thing DC has been nearly flawless in lately, it would be their animated movies. And Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam is no exception. It is based very loosely off of 2005’s Superman/Shazam: First Thunder mini series by Judd Winick and Josh Middleton. I say loosely in that while it does show the origin of Captain Marvel and the first time he meets Superman, the villains are completely different. In the comic we get Dr Sivana, Eclipso, and an evil cult. Here in the DVD we get Black Adam, who is possibly the best known Captain Marvel villain.

The animation in this movie is gorgeous! It is very close to the style of Josh Middleton, who penciled the mini series this was based off of. It has kind of an anime type feel to it, but not completely anime.

The story follows Billy Batson, a poor kid living on his own in Fawcett City. He meets up with Clark Kent who is doing a story on Billy’s situation. During their meeting Black Adam attacks because Billy has been marked to be the Wizard Shazam’s champion. And after that the movie is one long and awesome fight, which sees Billy get his powers and become Captain Marvel.

The voice acting was pretty good in this short. We get George Newburn returning as Superman. He had previously voiced Superman on the Justice League animated Series. We also get Jerry O’ Connell as Captain Marvel, Arnold Vosloo as Black Adam, James Garner as the Wizard Shazam, and Zach Callison as Billy Batson. I thought all of the voices were spot on.

Now you may be wondering why you should pick this up if its only a short. Well this disc also includes three other shorts that have previously been released with other DC animated movies, but the versions on this disc are extended versions. Included on this disc are the Jonah Hex, Spectre, and Green Arrow shorts. And for those of you that enjoy blu ray, if you get it in that format you will also get extra episodes from past DC animated series featuring the characters from the shorts.

Overall I really enjoyed this and would recommend trying it out!

It hits the streets tomorrow. You can order it from Amazon now!

Star Wars has always worked best when it’s rooted in a tongue in cheek humour.  From the hilarious banter between all the characters in A New Hope and Threepio’s head-mixing hilarity in Attack of the Clones, to the Ewoks and Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, humour has grounded the saga and made us care more.  This is a humourous episode designed to make us laugh and smile, attaching happy feelings to this show, making the dark moments to come (remember, we still have Nightsisters!) even darker.

Evil Plans, a prequel to the season 1 finale (Hostage Crisis) and a sequel to the season 2 premiere(Holocron Heist), revolves around Cad Bane’s quest to get the plans for the Republic Senate building for the Hutts.  He’s chosen Threepio as his target, and abducts him while he’s out on an errand for Padme and Anakin with Artoo Detoo.

This episode is a lot of entertaining fluff and I loved every minute of it.  Threepio and Artoo are, in their own right, one of the classic comedy pairs in the history of film, right along with Laurel and Hardy and Abbot and Costello, and this episode reinforces that beautifully.  In fact, I could see bits of those guys in this episode.

Another thing I liked about this episode is that it sees the return of one of my favorite characters from season 2, Todo 360, voiced by Seth Green.  He’s a techno-service droid and a very funny foil for a villain like Cad Bane to have.  Apparently, he’s been rebuilt since the last time we saw him he exploded.

There isn’t a lot of substance to this episode, the Hutts have hired Bane to steal the plans for the Senate (which come in handy since that’s what Bane uses to bust Ziro out of prison) and then they hire him to bust out Ziro.  That’s pretty much the story.  There’s a side story involving cake toppings for a dignitary banquet that Artoo and Threepio need to retrieve by a street vendor.

While Threepio is abducted by Bane, Artoo finds himself at a brightly colored droid spa for a massage and cleaning.  Sure it sounds ludicrous and some of you probably hated it, but everything about the droid spa was great.  The lighting and colors were vivid and fantastic, the female droids were incredibly cool, and Artoo gets treated like a king before he too gets abducted by Todo and an IG droid.

Bane is pretty ruthless when it comes to torturing droids, and makes EV-9D9 look like a saint.

Bane gets what he needs and Bane tosses them back into the street, having wiped just enough of their memories so that no one is the wiser to his plot.

This episode served a small, modest function, but was incredibly entertaining.  My son and I were both laughing hysterically through it and agreed that this was almost as good (in the humour department) as Bombad Jedi.  But really, can you get more hilarious than an episode scripted by Kevin Rubio? Probably Not.

The other big thing I was glad to see were more classic trilogy locations.  Jabba’s palace popped on screen and looked incredible.  This season seems to be making leaps and bounds toward tying the prequels in with the classic trilogy in a way a lot of fans are eager to see.

Overall, I think this is a pretty good episode.  Not great, but really fun.  In fact, it’s probably as much fun as you can have with an episode half devoted to simulated torture of a humanoid droid.

Next week sees the sequel episode to this and Hostage Crisis, and sees Obi-Wan and Quinlan Vos tracking down Ziro the Hutt.  (You can watch an exclusive clip of that episode here.)

(It’s probably also of mild interest to note that the cake-baking Too-Onebee droid was a cameo appearance by the guy from that Ace of Cakes show.  See?  Mildly interesting…  Right?)