Speaking as a hardcore fan of the Man of Steel it was a real thrill to sit down and watch the collection of animated shorts from the Fleischer’s from the period of the forties that gave way to the innovation of rotoscoping and telling genuinely entertaining stories where Superman takes on a new obstacle every time from mad scientists, mobsters, and giant monsters. The quality is fantastic this time around and you get to peruse the Superman animated episodes based around their dates released.
Category Archives: Collector’s Den
True Blood: The Complete First Season (DVD)
Maybe it’s because I’m just plain sick of vampires or maybe it’s just that I want them to go back to being feral vicious monsters but “True Blood” always bordered on “Twilight” for me to properly enjoy it and as hard as I wanted to enjoy it, I just couldn’t come around toward liking it as much as my family who found the show to be a breath of fresh air. Sure, the ad campaign was genius, but that’s just about where we end it.
Everwood: The Complete Second Season (DVD)
I loved Everwood and I think it was a show that was a rare family outing that didn’t rely on the religious overtones “Seventh Heaven” did and didn’t sink down to teen sleaze like “The OC.” Instead it was a firmly balanced family dramedy that took the Midwest tundra and showed off a cast of character who, with the narration of Everwood’s kindly bus driver/observer, brought to us genuine emotions and dramatic momentum that stuck with the series until the very end. Take the opening of the long awaited “Everwood” Season Two DVD where our love interest Amy envisions an Everwood that’s picturesque and filled with simplistic complications that revolve around an outing with the core characters of the series celebrating a nice summer day.
Star Wars Clone Wars (Season 1, Volume 1): A Galaxy Divided (DVD)
Sure its film counterpart got a lot of bad reviews at the movie theaters, but guess what kids. “The Clone Wars” does not suck. In fact as a series is a damn good dramatic science fiction opera that works its way through arcs instead of providing self contained stories, which kids shows usually consist of. “A Galaxy Divided” consists of four episodes of “The Clone Wars” and starts off strong. “Ambush” is a fine beginner to an already strong premise and probably the best of the foursome as Master Yoda takes to aggressive negotiations that bring him and three clone soldiers to the mercy of an endless army of robot drones and the empire’s worst warrior: Asaj Ventress.
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest: Season One, Volume One (DVD)
Going in to the official DVD release for “Jonny Quest” I couldn’t believe what they’d done with the treatment. There’s a beveled slip cover and a two disc edition with DVD faces that look immaculate. It’s a well deserved treatment because to this day I am baffled as to why this series never broke out on its own and became a hit. Perhaps audiences just didn’t care? Maybe the series wasn’t handled well enough. Or maybe the viewers were too young to understand the complex narrative and intricate characterization that made this series an instant favorite of mine. There may also be some contention at the very suggestively violent moments that included a man being impaled on elephant tusks and blood shed during fights with villains.
The Zeta Project: Season One (DVD)
There’s only one other science fiction series I can think of that manages to be half as good and exciting as “The Zeta Project” and that’s “Reboot.” The series, now on a special edition DVD, “The Zeta Project” is a spin off of the critically acclaimed “Batman Beyond.” His story in the aforementioned series is pretty much the same as the one told here. Zeta is an android who has the ability to change appearances which allows him to remain in the general population without being detected.
His introduction in “Batman Beyond” happens to be one of the best episodes of the series; so good was it that it eventually branched out on its own. Sadly, the series didn’t last very long on the WB Network here in America and the characters were shun in to obscurity. Looking back at the format thanks to this great long overdue DVD series, it’s still a fun and exciting sci-fi series very much in the vein of “The Fugitive” following a robotic unit intended for war who suddenly gains a conscious.
Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic (DVD)
Was fame the key to their downfall?
Or perhaps the burden of upholding the laws and values of mankind were just too horrific to withstand to their psyche?
Or maybe, just maybe, they forgot that they were human and they just couldn’t manage to take care of folks too similar to themselves. Perhaps humanity continued to remind them that they were human themselves, and not very good ones. And those awful people were appointed with the task of watching over civilization, and inevitably corrupted.