About this product: The king of 1970s disaster movies, producer Irwin Allen, brought together novelist Paul Zindel, songwriter Steve Allen, and a host of celebrities for a pair of 1985 TV movies paying homage to Lewis Carroll's Alice. In this first installment, the 7-year-old girl dreams of being grown up enough to join the adults for tea, only to shrink to miniature size, climb through a hole beneath the door, and follow a twitchy Red Buttons in big white rabbit ears. Whether arguing with the Mad Hatter (Anthony Newley), or trying to keep her head in the company of the Queen of Hearts (Jayne Meadows), Alice is constantly running into a host of '70s and '80s personalities like Telly Savalas, Ringo Starr, Scott Baio, and Shelley Winters. If this roster isn't enough to make a poor girl trippy, she also meets up with Sammy Davis Jr. as the caterpillar, and the pair perform an entertaining hip-hop-esque tap number to "Father William." An enjoyably campy version of Alice's wondrous journey, it features detailed sets, marvelously tacky costumes, and mildly clever musical numbers. This 90-minute TV movie's pleasant goofiness will amuse children 4 and older as well as nostalgically minded adults. The TV movie has been broken into two parts on video with Alice Through the Looking Glass picking up where this one leaves off. --Kimberly Heinrichs
About this product: Jane Austen's classic novel of 1813, Pride and Prejudice, still wins the hearts of countless schoolgirls with its romantic story of Elizabeth Bennet and her Mr. Darcy. Now, the 1996 BBC miniseries is winning over adults, with its faithful adaptation, gorgeous scenery, and superb acting.
The essence of the story is the antagonism between Mr. Darcy, a wealthy single man who believes Elizabeth to be beneath him, and Elizabeth, who upon being insulted at a dance by the aloof Darcy refuses to associate with him in any manner. Austen evokes incredible tension with the wit and flirtation of the two characters, and director Simon Langton (who also directed Upstairs Downstairs) successfully translates the repartee and conflict in this six-hour miniseries. Dialogue, for the most part, is painstakingly replicated, except when fleshing out and smoothing for modern sensibilities was necessary. Darcy, for instance, is drawn out, giving his personality significantly more depth. The acting sweeps you away to Regency England: Jennifer Ehle (of Wilde) is convincing as the obstinate Elizabeth, who, despite her mother's attempts to marry her off, spurs the attentions of Darcy. And Colin Firth (of The English Patient) will have women everywhere longing for a Mr. Darcy of their own.
For those who have been on an Austen binge--enjoying such excellent adaptations as Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion--this miniseries will round out the ultimate Austen video library. For those new to these romantic period pieces, this version of Pride and Prejudice will have you hooked and longing for more. One caveat, however: plan to watch it in an entire day, because very few have the self-control to not watch all six hours in a single sitting. --Jenny Brown
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Stills from Pride and Prejudice (click for larger image)
About this product: Fans awaiting a revamp of The Little Mermaid on DVD should be pleased to know that the new, fully restored version gets the treatment it deserved all along. The Special Edition is presented in 1:78 aspect ratio, as opposed to the original 1:66 presentation, and gone is the grainy original transfer, which had Ariel's mottled complexion looking like she spent some time in a tanning bed. Various crew members chime in on the audio commentary track, but most dominant is composer Alan Menken, who adds in previously taped interviews with the late lyricist Howard Ashman (a welcome surprise). There's also a 45-minute "making of" documentary in which everyone from animators to Jeffrey Katzenberg and Leonard Maltin reflect the limp state of Disney animation before Mermaid kicked off its "golden reign" of the early '90s. Another revelation: Katzenberg nearly eliminated "Part of Your World" from the movie after a hyperactive kid sitting in front of him appeared restless during a test screening.
Other features: a documentary on Hans Christian Andersen, and the tragedy of his personal life that inspired his much darker original ending. (The mermaid, unable to stab the prince in the heart after he marries another, turns into sea foam.) Included is an animated short of Andersen's "The Little Match Girl," a tale so depressing--again, reflecting the loneliness in Andersen's own life--it's not really clear how it ever became a "beloved bedtime story." There's also a sing-along feature, which jumps right to the musical numbers with words appearing onscreen. Deleted scenes include one unused song, "Silence is Golden," and various early sketches of alternate takes. One curious addition is a virtual Little Mermaid amusement park ride, which was originally proposed for Disneyland but failed to come to life. (Seems digitizing the experience for people to "ride" in their living room was the consolation prize.) The only blasphemous feature is a music video of "Kiss the Girls," reimagined as a Hilary Duff-esque rock song--minus the charming calypso beat that made it famous(!)--sung by the Hilary Duff-esque Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical). Aside from that, if you own The Little Mermaid in its 1999 incarnation of DVD, get the special edition and leave your old one for the kids (or the dog) to scratch up. --Ellen A. Kim
Stills from The Little Mermaid (Click for larger image)
About this product: Based on a true story, this is the comedic saga of four Jamaican athletes going to extremes to compete as bobsled racers at the Winter Olympics. With few resources and virtually no clue about winter sports, it's an uphill course for this troupe from the tropics who are sliding on thin ice as they go for the gold in Calgary, Canada. Refusing to let anything stand in their way, these four Jamaicans enlist the help of a down-and-out ex-champion American slider named Irv. Unavoidably drawn back to a sport he had come to loathe, Irv is faced with coaching a team of complete novices. But once committed, he is determined to turn them around and to somehow right the wrongs of his own failed career. It's a bumpy ride but with pride, determination, and dignity, the bobsledders make their impossible dreams come true.
About this product: Judi and Ron Barrett's Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a much-loved, whimsical book about a tiny island where food falls from the sky like rain. The book serves as a jumping-off point for Sony's animated, digital 3-D Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs which is not so much a retelling of the book as an exploration of what makes food rain from the sky on a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Flint (Bill Hader), a clever young inventor with a reputation for creations gone awry, has recently completed a machine that he claims will turn water into food. Like his past failed inventions, Flint's new food-converting machine doesn't work as planned, and on its initial test run it ends up getting launched into the sky where clouds form and begin to rain cheeseburgers. The falling burgers destroy the Swallow Falls community's latest attempt to bolster its failing, sardine-dependent economy, but the Mayor's (Bruce Campbell) initial fury quickly turns to greedy anticipation as he begins to realize that food falling from the sky could serve as an innovative tourist draw. As the entire town is caught up re-defining itself as "Chew and Swallow," only Flint's father (James Caan) remains skeptical of his son's invention. Greed leads to some very strange weather events like spaghetti twisters and extra-giant food which, while providing a huge career opportunity for brainy weather intern Sam Sparks (Anna Faris) who's masquerading as an air-headed television personality, also threaten to destroy the town and its inhabitants. In the end, only the collaborative efforts of Flint, his father, and Sam can save the town of Chew and Swallow from certain destruction by the out of control invention. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a funny, imaginative film that's well-animated and immensely entertaining for kids and adults. Rated PG for brief mild language, but appropriate for most ages 5 and older. --Tami Horiuchi
Stills from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (Click for larger image)
About this product: NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service is that rare TV series that grows more popular over multiple seasons. The ratings of this slick and skillful crime show’s sixth season topped the previous five--no doubt due to blending a satisfying story formula with a perfectly balanced cast. Special Agent Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon, whose long career includes St. Elsewhere and Chicago Hope) is the stern but caring father-figure to a squad of younger agents, including obnoxious, self-satisfied field agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), sexy ex-Mossad agent Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), quizzical cyber-expert Tim McGee (Sean Murray), goth-chick forensics whiz Abby Sciuto (Pauley Perrette), and crusty but wise medical examiner Donald “Ducky” Mallard (David McCallum, whose career goes back even farther than Harmon’s, to The Man from U.N.C.L.E.). The banter and tensions of this eccentric sextet provide a reliable comic foil to the frequently gruesome events under investigation.
At the end of the fifth season, this crack team was scattered to the far corners of the earth by NCIS Director Vance (Rocky Carroll), leaving Gibbs with a green new crew--but within minutes of this season’s first episode, that’s revealed to be a ruse: Someone in the new team is sending secrets to the enemy. Naturally, sussing out the traitor requires pulling in the old gang one by one. From there, the season gallops along with gripping and often gory opening scenarios (A shower sprays blood! A disembowelled Navy captain has a pentagram on his back! A dying marine writes a number in his own blood--and it’s the number for Gibbs’ service record!) which are cleverly twisted to reveal even more sensational conclusions. The best episodes mislead the viewer multiple times before finally unveiling a surprise solution in the last few minutes. Gliding under these tangled threads are comic subplots about stolen cupcakes and cyberdating. Harmon anchors the show with understated gravitas (sometimes he doesn’t change expression through the entire episode), but the quirky side-players provide the juice, particularly old hand McCallum and the petulant but demanding Perrette. Though the NCIS setting means the crimes need to involve Naval personnel, that’s just window dressing--this is a show that any fan of detective procedurals will enjoy. NCIS: The Sixth Season features plenty of extras for fans, including commentaries that show the actors have the same chatty chemistry as their characters. --Bret Fetzer
Stills from NCIS: Season 6 (Click for larger image)
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