Sales Rank:106 List Price: $39.95 Lowest New Price: $17.89 Lowest Used Price: $17.00 MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Format:
AC-3
Animated
Color
Dolby
Dubbed
Subtitled
Widescreen
Director(s):
Actor(s):
Alyson Court
Paul Mercier
Laura Bailey
Roger Craig Smith
Crispin Freeman
Resident Evil: Degeneration, the first fully CGI animated feature in the dystopian horror series, presents fans of the game and its subsequent movies with all the things they crave the most: loads of gunplay orchestrated by an attractive heroine, a labyrinthine plot honeycombed with conspiracy theories and government double-dealings, and most importantly, an army of plague victims hungering for human flesh. The CGI animation certainly allows for richer, bloodier and more explosive scenarios than in the live-action features, and if the story itself--RE heroes Clare Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy must fight their way from a zombie-infested airport to the pharmaceutical company that hides a key to the virus, as well as a monstrous new enemy--is so densely plotted as to warrant multiple rewinds, the picture knows it can be simply enjoyed as a player-free version of the game that inspired it. Vocal talent is probably Degeneration's weakest link (the already purple dialogue sounds extra cringe worthy in the mouths of the cast (which includes several voice actors from the games)) with a subplot involving Leon and fellow agent Angela Miller running a close second. However, neither is so detrimental to fans' enjoyment that it might prevent them from checking out the latest--and, it should be noted, not the final--chapter in Resident Evil's complex and gruesome mythology. --Paul Gaita
Sales Rank:348 List Price: $39.95 Lowest New Price: $17.66 Lowest Used Price: $17.13 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format:
Animated
Color
DVD-Video
Full Screen
NTSC
Director(s):
Actor(s):
Includes 7 Holiday Favorites: - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town - Frosty the Snowman - Frosty Returns - Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol - The Little Drummer Boy - Cricket on the Hearth
Sales Rank:415 List Price: $19.98 Lowest New Price: $11.62 Lowest Used Price: $10.98 MPAA Rating: Unrated
Format:
Animated
Closed-captioned
Color
Full Screen
Original recording remastered
NTSC
Director(s):
Chuck Jones
Ben Washam
Actor(s):
Boris Karloff
Thurl Ravenscroft
June Foray
Hans Conried
Chuck Jones
Accept no substitutes. The 1966 television adaptation of Dr. Seuss' timeless book How the Grinch Stole Christmas!--about an anti-Santa who tries to heist the holiday only to learn a powerful lesson--is a classic in its own right, and looking better than ever in its 50th Birthday Deluxe Edition. (For those doing the math, the 50 years is counting from the book's 1957 publishing date rather than the show's broadcast date.) The most significant improvement is in the digital transfer, cleaning up fuzz and specks and restoring the proper colors to the program. While the awful earlier DVDs showed the Grinch in a mustard-yellow color, this edition restores his proper green gleam. Special features are mostly ported over from the previous DVD--the Horton Hears a Who program, a featurette on the songs, Phil Hartman's special edition version, pencil tests, etc. minus the commentary track--but there is a new 15-minute featurette, "Dr. Seuss and the Grinch: From Whoville to Hollywood." While it starts out as a fluff piece aimed at the younger set (interviews with kids, some rapping), it does provide some interesting information, including interviews with the widows of Theodore Geisel and Chuck Jones and clips of Geisel and Jones' Private Snafu. (No mention of Jim Carrey, however.) --David Horiuchi
Sales Rank:65 List Price: $29.99 Lowest New Price: $25.18 Lowest Used Price: $13.00 MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)
Format:
Animated
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Special Edition
Widescreen
NTSC
Director(s):
Actor(s):
Paige O'Hara
Robby Benson
Angela Lansbury
David Ogden Stiers
Jerry Orbach
The film that officially signaled Disney's animation renaissance (following The Little Mermaid) and the only animated feature to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination, Beauty and the Beast remains the yardstick by which all other animated films should be measured. It relates the story of Belle, a bookworm with a dotty inventor for a father; when he inadvertently offends the Beast (a prince whose heart is too hard to love anyone besides himself), Belle boldly takes her father's place, imprisoned in the Beast's gloomy mansion. Naturally, Belle teaches the Beast to love. What makes this such a dazzler, besides the amazingly accomplished animation and the winning coterie of supporting characters (the Beast's mansion is overrun by quipping, dancing household items) is the array of beautiful and hilarious songs by composer Alan Menken and the late, lamented lyricist Howard Ashman. (The title song won the 1991 Best Song Oscar, and Menken's score scored a trophy as well.) The downright funniest song is "Gaston," a lout's paean to himself (including the immortal line, "I use antlers in all of my de-co-ra-ting"). "Be Our Guest" is transformed into an inspired Busby Berkeley homage. Since Ashman's passing, animated musicals haven't quite reached the same exhilarating level of wit, sophistication, and pure joy. --David Kronke --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Sales Rank:144 List Price: $29.99 Lowest New Price: $11.50 Lowest Used Price: $10.00 MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)
Format:
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC
Director(s):
Dave Bossert
Robert Stevenson
Actor(s):
Julie Andrews
Dick Van Dyke
David Tomlinson
Glynis Johns
Hermione Baddeley
There is only one word that comes close to accurately describing the enchanting Mary Poppins, and that term was coined by the movie itself: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even at 2 hours and 20 minutes, Disney's pioneering mixture of live action and animation (based on the books by P.L. Travers) still holds kids spellbound. Julie Andrews won an Oscar as the world's most magically idealized nanny ("practically perfect in every way," and complete with lighter-than-air umbrella), and Dick Van Dyke is her clownishly charming beau, Bert the chimney sweep. The songs are also terrific, ranging from bright and cheery ("A Spoonful of Sugar") to dark and cheery (the Oscar-winning "Chim Chim Cher-ee") to touchingly melancholy ("Feed the Birds"). Many consider Mary Poppins to be the crowning achievement of Walt Disney's career--and it was the only one of his features to be nominated for a best picture Academy Award until Beauty and the Beast in 1991. --Jim Emerson
Sales Rank:89 List Price: $29.99 Lowest New Price: $14.96 Lowest Used Price: $7.00 MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)
Format:
Animated
Color
DVD-Video
Special Edition
NTSC
Director(s):
Ron Clements
John Musker
Actor(s):
Rene Auberjonois
Christopher Daniel Barnes
Jodi Benson
Pat Carroll
Paddi Edwards
From the moment that Prince Eric's ship emerged from the fog in the opening credits it was apparent that Disney had somehow, suddenly recaptured that "magic" that had been dormant for thirty years. In the tale of a headstrong young mermaid who yearns to "spend a day, warm on the sand," Ariel trades her voice to Ursula, the Sea Witch (classically voiced by Pat Carroll), for a pair of legs. Ariel can only succeed if she receives true love's kiss in a few day's time and she needs all the help she can from a singing crab named Sebastian, a loudmouth seagull, and a flounder. The lyrics and music by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken are top form: witty and relevant, and they advance the story (go on, hum a few bars of "Under the Sea"). Mermaid put animation back on the studio's "to do" list and was responsible for ushering Beauty and the Beast to theaters. A modern Disney classic. --Keith Simanton