First off, Warner Bros. finally announced the impending (March 10th) Blu Ray release of the four original Batman films. They've been threatening to announce this for about three months or so, but it's now a done deal. All four films contain all of the (incredibly high-quality) extras that the standard DVDs shared, with the usual 1080p upgrade for the video and audio. Oh, and for Frisbee enthusiasts, there will be a digital copy of the original 1989 Batman film. It seems like I waited forever for the original Bat pictures to be given special edition upgrades, but it ended up being worth it. From the incredibly honest commentary and documentaries on the Batman & Robin DVD set, to the animated story boards of the deleted Robin sequence from Batman (which included the voices of Kevin Conroy, Efrem Zimalist Jr. and Mark Hamill), this entire 2005 set was a true labor of love.
On a lighter note, on March 24th, Paramount will release the complete series set of the cult favorite Andy Richter Controls The Universe. Like the equally under-watched and nearly as brilliant Andy Barker PI, this is an incredibly funny and deliciously well written show. This series, about a short story writer stuck writing manuals for a company that sells weapons of mass destruction, deserves to find a newer, broader audience. It also contains one of my favorite lines of dialogue ever, spoken by 'Freddy' (played by Conan O'Brian): "Well, she (his aunt) died doing what she loved... committing suicide."
But the biggest and best news: Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the greatest super hero show since Batman: The Animated Series - The Powerpuff Girls. They will have a marathon over President's Day, capped off by a new, final episode. The next day will see the release of a six-DVD complete series box set with all 78 episodes, a tie-in movie, commentaries, documentaries, and more. And in this time of great national strife and peril, there is no one better suited to kick righteous ass right now than Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup. Despite years of sub par DVD releases (and a crappy theatrical movie in 2002 - CURSES!), the greatest female super heroes of all time (She-Ra is all well and hot, but Blossom could kill her six times before she hit the floor) are finally getting the red carpet treatment they deserve.I could tell you why this show is one of the best animated series from my lifetime. But that would cause me to ramble like arch-villain Mojo Jojo, the homicidal big-brained monkey whose rambling syntax seemed to have been cribbed by John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election. Just sample the classic Cartoon Network promo, in which the three kids finally put an end to the 'legion of dumb' (the clip, which I am going to embed, right here, for you to watch, right now, so that you can sample the show, the show which will be on DVD next Tuesday, the 20th of January, the day you should buy the show, so you can watch the show, so you can laugh at the show, the show which I am talking about right now... Curses!).
Scott Mendelson
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