Kingdom Come - Comic Book Review

 Hey guys! Happy Friday! How's everyone doing today? I'm doing good. The weather kinda sucks today, but it's warm and raining instead of cold and snowing or freezing rain, so that's a plus. There are four comics published by DC Comics between 1985 and 1996 that I don't really care for but are beloved by the majority of comic book fans. I've already reviewed Batman: The Killing Joke on the blog but the other three are Watchmen, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which I'll be getting to in the very near future, and Kingdom Come. Of these four though Kingdom Come has more to offer than just gratuitous violence, radical statements by it's author, and the destruction of the friendship between Batman and Superman though there are some really solid scenes between them in this book. Why do I think Kingdom Come is the best of these four books? Let's dive in and find out shall we?

Kingdom Come is a gorgeous book. Alex Ross's art is absolutely stunning. Every panel looks like it could be a painting that hangs on someone's wall. Just looking at the cover image I picked for this review is breathtaking and better suits the book than the original cover used for the trade paperback in 1997. What's interesting is that this was only Alex Ross's third job in the comic book industry, having worked on Marvels for Marvel Comics in 1994, and then co-creating Astro City at Image Comics with Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson in 1995. I do have some problems with his art in this book, but I'll get to that a little bit later.

While Watchmen was simply Alan Moore's statement that American comic books sucked, Mark Waid, who is well known for his deep dives into expanding the history of a character like he did with Superman in 2003's Superman: Birthright, asks the question, are DC's classic superheroes such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Shazam (originally named Captain Marvel), and all the others, still as relevant now as they were when they were first created in the 1930s and 40s? Personally, I think Waid does an incredible job of answering that question. At least for 1996, when this book was originally published. But he also doesn't attempt to give a definitive, timeless, answer so that this conversation can remain open for future generations to debate after reading this book. Not to mention the current generation which read this book when it first came out in the 90s.

Having said all that though I do think that Kingdom Come suffers from the same things that Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns, and The Killing Joke suffer from. Overreliance on gratuitous violence, ambiguity with it's characters, and deep debates that practically force the reader to come down on one side or another. Not exactly things I find to be entertainment. But hey, comics, movies, and all the other stuff I look at on this blog don't always have to be pure entertainment. It can be thought provoking as long as it isn't too heavy handed and doesn't try to convince the audience, be it readers, listeners or viewers, to agree with what the author is stating in the piece with no room for interpretation. While I don't think that's what Kingdom Come does, it is something that Watchmen suffers from. But I'll get into that when I review it.

I was talking to Aaron last night about this, but I think Alex Ross works better as a cover artist. While his art is absolutely gorgeous, it is difficult to look at in a full length comic book. Especially when he's drawing a large number of characters in a single panel. As a result the panels often feel cluttered and busy and very difficult, at least for me, to visually follow what's going on in the story. Especially during outdoor scenes or scenes in bright locations. However, when there's only one or two characters, or when they're in a dark place, such as the Batcave, the artwork is absolutely gorgeous.

I haven't talked about the POV character in this book, Norman McCay, because he doesn't actually matter. Neither does Jim Corrigan, the Spectre. They're simply bystanders and not integral to the plot of the story. We're there to see Batman, Superman and the other DC heroes and villains. 

I didn't read this book when I was a kid. I remember seeing the ad for it in Batman & Robin Adventures #5, but that's about it. Once I began learning about 90s comic books that I didn't know about when I was a kid, I was in my 20s and the internet was a thing, so I was able to look up the information online. But even still, the more I read about the book and the more I heard about it from people who actually read it, the less interested I became in it. Especially after 2015, which is when I first read Watchmen all the way through. But, I found a copy of the original trade paperback at one of the monthly comic book sales, and it was relatively cheap, especially in comparison to the more recently published hardcover and trade paperback editions that were out at the time. I had intended on reviewing it on my old blog right after I got the book about a year and a half to two years ago now, but I didn't make it through the first chapter. I just couldn't get in the mood to finish it at the time.

Overall though, Kingdom Come is a good story. It's not for everyone mind you, but if you've never read it and are into this kind of deconstruction of comic books and superheroes, then you should definitely give it a read. If you're not into that sort of thing, as I'm not, I'd probably avoid it, since it's super heavy on that kind of stuff and it can be hard to get through. If you do decide to read it though, you shouldn't have any problems finding it as DC has been continually republishing and reprinting the trade paperback and hardcover collected editions for the last 24 years (the trade and hardcover came out in 1997). 

Alrighty that is going to be it for me for this week. It's a dark and rainy day here today, so I'm going to go watch this week's episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I will be back next week though and I'll be looking at Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, the VHS releases in the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection, and either Superman: Earth One Volume 2, or Star Trek: The Mirror Universe Saga. So until then have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

The History of Disney Movies on Home Video Part 3: Walt Disney Limited Issues

 Hey guys! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. So I decided to go ahead and do my overview of the Walt Disney Limited Issues home video line today otherwise it'll be another four months until I get back to it. There's even less background information on this lineup than there was for the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection simply because not as much happened with this lineup. The only significant piece of information that the Disney Wiki has on it, is that they were the first DVD releases of animated movies besides the 1998 DVD release of Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and the early 1999 DVD release of A Bug's Life. And because I don't have very much experience with this lineup aside from owning the Walt Disney Limited Issues DVD release of The Jungle Book, this is going to be more of a list than a personal retrospective. Though when I do get to The Jungle Book I'll talk about that release a little more in depth simply because that's the sample of the line that I have. Also, there's no fancy logo to use, so let's just get right into the releases shall we?

The Walt Disney Limited Issues lineup began with the first DVD release of Pinocchio. It had been seven years since it's last home video release, when it was released on VHS as a Walt Disney Masterpiece, as part of the Walt Disney Classics. They were re-releasing the film on VHS anyway for the 60th Anniversary of the film's release, albeit a bit early since the movie came out on February 23rd, 1940, so I guess they decided this would also be a good time to release the movie on DVD to start off this experimental line. And I say experimental, because that's exactly what it was. As I said before, Disney had previously released Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas and A Bug's Life on DVD, but otherwise the only movie they'd released on this new format was Mary Poppins, in 1998. So Pinocchio has the distinction of being the first Disney animated classic to be released on DVD, so that's pretty cool.

Up next was 101 Dalmatians. Like I said, I don't have a whole lot to say since I already talked about this movie in my Walt Disney Classics and Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection overviews. However, what's interesting about this release is that it happened to be released only 8 months after the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection VHS had come out. Which is interesting and definitely not something that happens all that often, though the early DVD releases didn't always come out day and date with the VHS re-releases of a particular movie, same with more recent re-releases where the DVD doesn't come out day and date with the Blu-ray or Digital releases.

Next in line is the DVD debut of Hercules, which had just been released on VHS a year and a half earlier. Like 101 Dalmatians this DVD came out on November 9th, 1999. 

The final release to come out on November 9th, 1999 was Mulan. The Walt Disney Limited Issues is probably the smallest lineup of Disney movies on home video ever, and the only DVD line to only have a DVD release with later lines having a VHS release or a Blu-ray and Digital release to accompany the DVD. Pinocchio is the only movie to have a corresponding VHS release as both were released for the movie's 60th Anniversary, as I mentioned before. 

Peter Pan was released on DVD on November 23rd, 1999 along with Lady and the Tramp and The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, which I will talk about VERY shortly. What's unique about this release of Peter Pan is that it's the first release since the 1990 Walt Disney Classics VHS release to not have the bonus featurette, You Can Fly!: The Making of Peter Pan included and the only DVD release to not include the bonus feature. In fact none of the releases in the Walt Disney Limited Issues have bonus features included on the disc. DVD had become more prominent by late 1999 and more studios were beginning to include a ton of bonus features on their releases, though most movies still only had a single disc. I think that's why most people forget about this set of releases, since the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection DVD and VHS releases had more bonus features on them, as did the Walt Disney Platinum Editions, which began in 2001. So I think the Walt Disney Limited Issues get forgotten about by Disney home media collectors. The only reason I even have The Jungle Book is because it had been my grandfather's before he passed away last year. But most of the time I don't hear people talk about them, I don't see collections of them on YouTube and I also don't see them pop up for sale on eBay or Amazon very much if at all. Which is part of the reason I'm doing this History of Disney Movies on Home Video series so that a chronicle can be made of each major home video release line.

Up next is Lady and the Tramp, which had also been released on VHS in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection only 14th months earlier. And unlike with Pinocchio, there was no anniversary to celebrate, so it's weird to me that Disney would release it on DVD so soon after it's last VHS release. 

 The most bizarre release in this lineup would have to be The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. This was the direct-to-video sequel to the 1994 Disney classic, The Lion King. Out of all of the movies that could've been released they chose this direct-to-video sequel, especially since films like Dumbo, and Robin Hood are noticeably absent from this lineup. Now don't get me wrong, I actually like The Lion King II. I had it on VHS in the late 90s and actually thought it was a decent movie. But to include it in an experimental home video lineup with classics like Pinocchio and Peter Pan is just weird to me. This wouldn't be the only time this would happen as Toy Story, A Bug's Life, A Goofy Movie, Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas, and Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World would all be released on VHS and DVD as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection in 2000. Unlike the other Limited Issues DVD releases though, The Lion King II has bonus features on it. It has the music video for the song "Love Will Find a Way" by Heather Headley and Kenny Lattimore and the original VHS release trailer for the movie.

The final two releases in the Limited Issues lineup were released on December 7th, 1999. The first of these, according to the Disney Wiki page, was The Little Mermaid. According to the Disney Wiki page for the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection, Disney considered the Limited Issues line to be a failure. Which is why they stopped after nine releases. It makes sense in a way because these DVDs don't really offer you anything new for these movies. Especially if you already have their previous VHS releases, which most people did at the time. I mean the then most recent VHS releases of Pinocchio, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, and The Little Mermaid all offered more in terms of bonus content on them between music videos and Making Of featurettes. Even the cover art is exactly the same. So I am absolutely not surprised that this lineup was considered to be a failure. It's even more evident almost 22 years later, because like I said, nobody seems to remember these releases at all. However, unlike the Disney of a decade and a half earlier, who would've cancelled future Walt Disney Classics VHS releases had one of them not sold very well, didn't shy away from DVD. Instead they continued on with the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection less than a year later, which I will be talking about next time.

 And finally, the last release in the Walt Disney Limited Issues was The Jungle Book. Looking at the release and comparing it to the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection VHS release, the packaging is astonishingly the same. Right down to the film's logo design on the box, except it says "Walt Disney's The Jungle Book" instead of "Walt Disney's Masterpiece The Jungle Book". And the spines are the same too, with the purple bar and Baloo at the bottom. Also, the back covers are exactly the same as well, except the DVD is smaller than the VHS.

I really hate late 90s DVD menus. They're so static and boring. Also, there aren't any previews before the movie on this DVD either. Which is strange for a late 90s Disney home video release, even if it is an early DVD release. The heading called "Film Recommendations" is just static box art for the previous eight Walt Disney Limited Issues DVD releases. I can't tell you for sure, but I think the menus for the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection DVDs are similarly boring. It wouldn't be until the Walt Disney Platinum Editions that we'd get really cool DVD menus, including different backgrounds for each heading. One thing that's interesting is that between the traditional 90s Walt Disney Pictures logo and the movie's opening title card, the Buena Vista card appears. This isn't on the Masterpiece Collection VHS release, even though Disney used that transfer of the movie for this release. The only release I haven't seen is the 2007 Platinum Edition DVD so I don't know if it's on there or not. I do know it's not on the Classics VHS, the Masterpiece Collection VHS, or the Diamond Edition DVD. So I thought that was interesting. 

And that's the Walt Disney Limited Issues lineup. I know I had to pad it out just to make this post interesting, because there really wasn't much to talk about with these releases. Except for Pinocchio and The Lion King II, which weren't included in the previous lineup, these releases are basically just the DVD versions of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection VHS tapes, right down to the same cover art being used for both. Next time I'll be tackling the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection, which I will be splitting up into separate parts for the VHS and DVD releases, which I'll be doing moving forward with the series. 

That's it for me for today. I'll be back on Friday for my review of Kingdom Come by Mark Waid, with art by Alex Ross. So until then have a wonderful day and I will talk to you later. Take care.

Blog Update for Monday, March 22nd, 2021

 Hey guys! How's it going? I'm pretty good. Like I said in my previous post, the weather was gorgeous over the weekend and I spent most of yesterday afternoon outside, without a jacket on. Right now I'm just gonna talk about some stuff that I'm doing on the blog. So let's get right to it shall we?

So as you may have noticed I didn't do my review of Mickey's Fun Songs/Disney Sing-Along Songs: Beach Party at Walt Disney World this morning like I said I was going to be doing at the end of my review of the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier on Friday. That's because I've decided to take a little bit of a break from the Disney Sing-Along Songs reviews for a while. I'm really enjoying doing them, but I decided to start my new video game memories series instead. Aside from having not talked about video games on this blog since I reviewed Super Star Wars for the Super NES for Star Wars Week last year, there's another reason that I'm going to be talking about in just a little while.

The basic premise for this new series is to take a video game, or series of games, that I owned, rented, or played at the hospital when I was a kid and talk about my memories of either playing the game myself, playing multi-player with other people (if I did so), or watching other people play the games. I might go off on tangents occasionally, like talking about Nintendo Power or which games I remember seeing commercials for on TV or just heard about from my friends and classmates when I was growing up, but never played or even saw footage of. So hopefully this will be a fun series. Especially when I get into Pokemon as I'll be going off on SEVERAL tangents with that since I have the games, the trading cards (and the game they're for), AND the Anime to talk about and so I'll be splitting things up into generations for that franchise.

The reason I decided to do this is because starting tonight after my sister and I watch the episode(s) of The Orville that we plan on watching on Disney+ I am going to be watching the first episode of an Anime called Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends, which I will now be referring to as simply Haganai from this point on. There's a total of 13 episodes in this Anime, with 12 regular episodes in the season and then an Original Video Animation (OVA) episode as well. So technically I could binge the entire series in two days and just review it on Friday morning. Except I'm not going to do that. Instead I am going to watch one episode a day until I've finished the series then I'm going to review the series. After that I'm going to watch the follow-up series/second season Haganai NEXT. 

I'm also going to be reading some comic book story arcs like Kingdom Come, The Death of Superman, Batman: Knightfall and others and not read them in one sitting like I normally would. So this video game memories series will fill in the spot where movie reviews would be normally. 

This week I'm going to be reading Kingdom Come by Mark Waid with art by Alex Ross, and that review will be out on Friday. Today is of course this post and my memories of Super Mario Bros. on the NES. On Wednesday I'm kind of waffling between putting out my Walt Disney Limited Issues DVD line overview and writing about my history with Batman. I'll probably end up doing the Batman post because I think that'll be fun to do. We'll see though. 

Anyways guys that's going to be it for me for today. It's another beautiful day in the neighbourhood, so I am going to go have some lunch and then go outside for the afternoon. So until next time have a great day and I will talk to you all later. Take care. 

Video Game Memories: Super Mario Bros. (1985)

Hey guys! Did you all have a good weekend? It was so nice out this weekend that I spent pretty much all afternoon outside yesterday. Which was awesome. Okay, so before we get into today's post, there's some housekeeping that I need to do. First, as you probably noticed from the title of this post, this isn't my review of Mickey's Fun Songs/Disney Sing-Along Songs: Beach Party at Walt Disney World. I'll have an update post explaining all that coming out later today, probably after I've posted this one. Instead, I'm starting a new series where I talk about my video game memories, one game at a time. Or at least one group of games at a time, because for the Pokemon games I'll be covering them by generation rather than by game. So let's get into it with the first game I ever owned, Super Mario Bros.

In the early 90s, Nintendo and Sega dominated the video game industry with the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Genesis. Both Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog were everywhere. They had cartoons, breakfast cereal, toys, comics and clothing. Basically if you could put them on it, Nintendo and Sega did so. However, in 1991 the NES was joined by the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in North America and the two consoles were played by millions.

In my little corner of the world however, things were alot different. We didn't get an NES until, probably, November 1992 when my mom bought one for my dad as a birthday present from all of us. However, because he worked and my mom stayed at home with my brother, sister, and I, my dad didn't play the NES quite as much as my mom did. Especially once we'd moved out to this old, refurbished, log farmhouse in the middle of nowhere in the summer of 1993. In fact I think I spent more time watching my mom play Super Mario Bros. than I did actually playing the game myself. Which made sense, because this way I learned the controls and what not to do while playing the game. There was alot of trial and error because we didn't have the internet or game guides back then and I definitely didn't have any friends who had the game who knew what they were doing.

Anyway we'd sit in front of the TV and watch my mom play the game. I remember being absolutely mesmerized by what I was seeing on the screen. There's this little dude running around, stepping on these little creatures, falling into pits, which I learned very quickly was a bad thing, or jumping over said pits, going underground and swimming in the water. And eventually he'd get to a castle and have to fight this giant lizard dude, only to be told that the princess you're supposed to be rescuing is in another castle. Eventually I came to learn that the little dude is Mario, the creatures he steps on are Goombas and Koopa Troopas, the lizard dude is Bowser, the king of the Koopas, and the princess is named Toadstool, and the dude in the mushroom hat you rescue in the first seven castles is named Toad.

 Originally the launch game for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America (probably, most likely in Japan as well), the version we had was actually the 1988 re-release, where it was combined with Duck Hunt (I'll get to that another time don't you worry) into a single cartridge as a pack-in game for the NES. I also remember playing the original individual cartridge at the hospital along with Super Mario Bros. 3 and The Legend of Zelda (again, I'll get there). Sitting there on the floor of our house, watching my mom try to beat the game was actually more fun than playing the game itself (less stressful for sure). I did play it myself numerous times as we got the NES up in our play area, which included a TV and VCR (to save my parents from having to watch Guests of the Grunges, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, and The Backyard Show for the kajillionth time), once my mom bought a Super Nintendo a few years later (my siblings and I also eventually inherited that console by the time we moved to another house in late 1995).

I may not have been able to have friends over to play the NES, but playing with my family was just as much fun. Especially when we got to play two-player and take turns, with one of us being Mario, and the other being Luigi as you couldn't have both characters on screen at the same time, something that was a problem right through the Nintendo 64 era, with Luigi being completely absent from Super Mario 64. And because my parents have been very conscious about things like this, we never got to play for more than half an hour at a time, which is totally fair, because once we got the N64 in 1999 and the Xbox in the early 2000s we'd play for hours upon hours. 

Also, the best part about playing Super Mario Bros. back then is that we didn't care if we ever beat the game or not. Beating the game was definitely achieveable, but none of us actually cared whether we did or not. Mainly because there was no save feature and in order to end the game, we'd run into a pit three times, or however many times it took to run out of lives, so we could get a Game Over screen and turn the console off for another day. Or, if we only played the game for fifteen out of our alotted thirty minutes, we'd either reset the console and play Duck Hunt (like I said, I'll get to it) and suffer through that game for the remaining fifteen minutes, or we'd play one of the other few NES games we had like Days of Thunder, After Burner, Yoshi's Cookie or Batman: The Video Game.

 Sometime in the late 90s, about the time we got the Nintendo 64 or a little before that, our NES died on us. However, we could still play Super Mario Bros. At some point in the mid 90s we upgraded to the Super Nintendo and got a ton of games for it, most of which I still have some 25 years later (the console still works too). One of those games was Super Mario All-Stars which was a compilation cartridge that included 16-bit versions of Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels (Super Mario Bros. 2 in Japan), Super Mario Bros. 2 (Super Mario Bros. USA in Japan), and Super Mario Bros. 3. So any time I feel like playing Super Mario Bros. I play the Super Nintendo version, which still holds up. Also, my sister lent me her NES Classic Mini so I got to play all the original Mario games for a little while. Which is cool.

That's going to be it for today ladies and gentlemen and other. Next I'm going to be continuing down Mario memory lane by talking about Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels. My plan is to go through the major franchises that I played when I was growing up before I get to the one off or smaller franchises that I also played during that time. So until next time have a great day, and look out for an update post, which I'll have out shortly. Talk to you later everybody!

Animorphs #6: The Capture - Book Review

 Hey guys! Yeah, I finished The Capture last night after I watched Punky Brewster and The Hardy Boys, so here I am to review it. This is also the last Animorphs book review that I'm going to be doing since it's the last Animorphs book that I own for the time being. However, I would still like to talk about the series, and I read a good chunk of it when I was in middle school and early high school so I'm going to do a book by book overview of the rest of the series, so stay tuned for that at some point. In the meantime let's get on with this book review.

The Capture is probably my favourite Animorphs book narrated by Jake. Not because it's a Jake book, but because of the events that take place in the book itself. We also learn more about the Yeerks in this book as well, which is neat, because so far, up to this point, we learn very little. Mainly because they didn't do a thing with the info dump that Elfangor gave Tobias in the first book after that book, and of course Ax knows stuff but for right now he's keeping it all to himself. But we'll get into that a little bit later.

So this book is kind of the Animorphs's first emergency situation. Up to this point the kids have been reacting as soon as they stumble upon a mission and that's it and none of it has really been anything of consequence aside from rescuing Ax in The Message. Even in the previous book with being captured by Visser Three and being taken up to Visser One, that was an accident, it wasn't supposed to go down that way. Here though, not only does Jake spy on Tom to get a mission but then they take the mission in stages. Like first they use the cockroach morph to gather intel on the situation and then once they know what's going on, then they go on the attack. And then, when the mission goes sideways and Jake becomes a Controller, the team is in emergency mode for the very first time in this series.

That's probably the scariest thing about this book. The fact that for a good chunk of the last half of the book, Jake is a Controller. He's got a Yeerk in his head. A Yeerk the Animorphs can't let get away because he knows who they all are just by the fact that he's in Jake's head so if he got back to his people, he could tell Visser Three everything and that would be it for the Animorphs. Which is as scary as things can get this early in the series, leaving aside all the insanity that happens later in the series. 

What's crazier is that this Yeerk, who had once been in Tom's head, is arrogant enough to think that Visser Three would promote the Yeerk and let him keep Jake as a host. But knowing Visser Three, there is absolutely no way he would allow another Yeerk to be in control of a morph capable host. That would mean that that Yeerk would be equal to Visser Three and there's no chance that Visser Three would allow an underling to be his equal when, to him, it's bad enough that Visser One is above him in terms of rank. So I think rather than infest the captured Animorphs, Visser Three would kill most of the Animorphs. He'd probably kill Jake for sure, and then kill Tobias, Cassie and Ax. But I think he would make Rachel one of his lieutenants because of the fact that she's a warrior, in spirit anyway, and the Visser appreciates that. Mainly because his Andalite host was once a warrior too. And then I think he'd keep Marco alive because of Visser One.

Speaking of Tom I love that we find out why he joined the Sharing in the first place. It's for such a stupid reason too, but it works because Tom's a teenager and his reason for joining a club is the same reason we would all join a club. Tom joined the Sharing because the girl he liked was a member. She was already a Controller and Tom discovered her secret, and so he had to be infested too. Like I said, it's such a stupid reason, but c'mon, how many times have you done something like that because of someone you had a crush on in middle school or high school? Trust me I've done some pretty stupid things because of a girl I liked when I was in high school. That's what pre-teens and teenagers do. We're young, we're inexperienced and so we do stuff because we're figuring things out about ourselves. And sometimes we get into trouble for it. Like, I don't know how many times my parents said to me, "you should know better than do that!" when I've gotten into trouble for something. The thing is though, we don't necessarily know better. Especially if it's a situation we've never been in before. And in Tom's case the consequence of him joining the Sharing because of a girl is that he got a Yeerk in his head, which will lead to some very unpleasant things near the end of the series. We'll get there though.

The only changes made for the 2012 edition are both in chapter 12. In the 1997 edition, Jake says that Marco had helped him pick out an old copy of Spider-Man #3 (I'm assuming the third issue of Todd McFarlane's run, since that series was the first to just be called Spider-Man) for his mom's birthday one year, which is why he asked Cassie and Rachel to help him out this time around. In the 2012 edition, this is changed to Ultimate Spider-Man #3, which makes sense since at this point it had been ten years since Ultimate Spider-Man #3 had come out. The other one is that when referencing The Fly, they just refer to the 1958 version as the really old one, and the 1986 Jeff Goldblum version as the one with Jeff Goldbum. There are also other little changes made when referencing technology like Jake checks the calls on the phone, since modern phones have a Caller ID feature on them, in the 2012 edition but he redials the last number Tom called in the 1997 edition. The other is just Rachel programming the DVR to record two of her favourite shows and Cassie recorded the movie of the week, while in the 1997 edition, they simply set their VCRs to tape the shows and movie. 

I know, I say this all the time with these books, but things are a bit wonky with these reference changes. I'm not sure about this, but even in 2012 they didn't have the Movie of the Week anymore. I mean Netflix was a thing by then so I think they got rid of that concept around that time. I honestly don't remember though. It's definitely not a thing now in 2021 with all the streaming services that we have these days with the Movie of the Week/TV movies being replaced by Netflix Original Movies, Disney+ Original Movies, Amazon Original Movies, and Hulu Original Movies, to name a few. If this concept was still around in 2012 that's fine. I just don't remember if it had died out by then or not. Even the Wikipedia article on it doesn't say when it went away.

The last thing I wanna talk about in this review is the ending scene. When the Yeerk in Jake's head is dying and transfers his essence (basically) to Jake, which doesn't come up again any more than Elfangor's info dump to Tobias in the first book does, Jake sees a Big Red Eye watching him. Initially people who first read this book in 1997 didn't really think anything of it. But then in book #26 The Attack we are introduced to Crayak, the enemy of the Ellimist, and Crayak is a Big Red Eye, so this was actually some foreshadowing on K.A. Applegate's part. And knowing what we know about the Ellimist, Crayak taking notice of Jake and seeing him as a threat, would've forced the Ellimist to reveal himself to the Animorphs and Ax in the very next book, The Stranger. So I thought that was a really cool setup when the payoff doesn't happen for 20 more books after this.

Overall, this is a decent book. I mainly like it because of the crisis situation the Animorphs find themselves in. Just because I just don't like Jake all that much. He's a pretty bland character at this point and I just can't relate to him like I can Tobias and Ax. But it's still a pretty important book for the series, because it does foreshadow Crayak, and it begins to open up the Yeerk lore a little bit more. Which is a process that began in the previous book, The Predator when we learned about the Yeerk political structure a little bit. 

Alright guys that is going to be it for me for this week. It's a beautiful day out today so I am going to go have lunch and then I'll be heading outside to enjoy the sunshine and warm temperatures. I'll be back on Monday for my review of Beach Party at Walt Disney World. So until then have a wonderful rest of your weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.  

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 1 "New World Order" - TV Pilot Review

 Hey guys! Happy Friday! How's everyone doing this morning? I'm actually pretty good. Today I'm taking a look at the first episode of the new Disney+ series from Marvel, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I've been waiting for this show for two years now and I'm so excited that we finally got it. So let's get right into it. Before I do though, I would like to say that I'm going to try to go spoiler free with this review, but I may have to talk about some minor spoilers in order to talk about certain parts of the episode. With that out of the way let's dive right in.

Whenever a Marvel movie or TV show comes out I always ask myself if it's something that I would watch if Marvel hadn't produced it and Marvel characters weren't involved, because many Marvel movies aren't just Marvel Movies. For example Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a political thriller, Thor is an epic fantasy and Guardians of the Galaxy is a Sci-Fi Comedy. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision are no different. While WandaVision is a weird psychological character piece, it's not something I'd be watching whether it's a Marvel show or not. So when The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was first announced two years ago and we found out what it was going to be about, I knew ordinarily it's not a show that I would normally watch, but because I really enjoyed both Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson and Sebastian Stan as Bucky in the MCU movies they appeared in up to this point and because Captain America: The Winter Soldier is probably my favourite MCU movie ever, I knew that I'd enjoy this show.

Fast forward to about half an hour ago when I finished watching the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and I'm still trying to process what I saw. Because it's good. Not good in the "holy crap everything Marvel touches turns to gold!" fanboy kind of way. No, it's good because the people involved in it's production know what they're doing and understand why people like these characters in particular. I think Captain America: The Winter Soldier was the first Marvel movie where I understood what these movies could be besides just a superhero movie, if given to the right people. Unfortunately, since then the MCU movies have become a formula and they're no longer as interesting to me as they were seven years ago when I saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier on the big screen. But that's just me though and I know the vast majority of people don't share my opinion on that.

I genuinely enjoyed this episode. It wasn't predictable, and it also wasn't boring, even though there was only one action scene near the beginning of the episode. And honestly I appreciate that because it felt like there was more substance than style and with the last several Marvel movies I've felt like they've been the reverse of that where it's been more style than substance. I'm glad that Sam Wilson has a sister and two nephews. I'm glad that Bucky is dealing with what he did for HYDRA as the Winter Soldier. I'm also glad they're dealing with the loss of Steve Rogers as well as the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame because, outside of Spider-Man: Far From Home it doesn't feel like the MCU has really dealt with that on a grand scale. From what I've heard WandaVision kind of deals with it, but only as far as how Wanda broke following the loss of Vision at the end of Infinity War and not really dealing with the actual aftermath of Endgame itself.

One of the things I like about this episode is that it doesn't drag and it doesn't feel like an introduction. It takes it's time to reacquaint as with Sam and Bucky, because even though the show is set only six months after Endgame, for us it's been two years since we saw them last. Which is a long time even if you've rewatched the entire MCU film catalogue since then. And not knowing where they were following the events of the movie made it satisfying in a way. I also like that we get equal screentime with Sam and Bucky. The show is called The Falcon and the Winter Soldier not The Falcon and Maybe Bucky will Show Up from Time to Time so the fact that while they aren't together in this episode, it gives us an equal opportunity to get to know these characters on their own again before bringing them together in episode 2 or episode 3. The show is only six episodes long so I'm assuming Sam and Bucky will come together in next week's episode and that they won't wait longer than that to make it so.

Besides watching the first trailer back in September or October, I haven't kept up with the production of this series because I wanted to go into it without knowing anything. Because of that, I didn't realize that Don Cheadle would be showing up as Rhodey on the show. So it was a pleasant surprise to see him in this episode. Rhodey was one of my favourite characters in the Iron Man movies so I was glad to see him with Sam in this show. Now if we could only get Nick Fury at some point... 

There's so much to talk about with this episode, but I want to keep it spoiler free so I'll leave it here for now. However the thing you need to know is that I loved this episode. I'm not a Buddy Cop guy, you know I've never seen Rush Hour, Lethal Weapon or Bad Boys, but if there was one thing that would make me consider seeing those movies, this show would be it. So good job Marvel for giving us a great first episode. Hopefully it doesn't get overshadowed by Zack Snyder's Justice League because I'm not seeing people talking about it online like they were with WandaVision last month. But it is only 11 o'clock in the morning so most people probably haven't had the chance to watch it yet. So I guess we'll see tonight. Regardless, expect a full spoiler review when the series finishes next month.

Alright guys that is going to be it for me for today. Unless I finish Animorphs #6, The Capture tonight before bed, the next time I post something will be Monday when I do my review of Disney Sing-Along Songs: Beach Party at Walt Disney World. If I do finish The Capture before bed tonight, expect that review to come out sometime tomorrow. Until then have a great rest of the day and a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.    

The History of Disney Movies on Home Video Part 2: Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection

 Hey guys! How's it going? I'm pretty good. I know, I said I wouldn't be posting anything until tomorrow when I do my review of the first episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but when I got up this morning I decided that I would do the second part in my History of Disney Movies on Home Video series, which I haven't done since November. Last time I talked about the Walt Disney Classics, which were released (and re-released) from 1984 until 1994. So now we continue with the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection which expanded the list of movies available on home video greatly. So let's get into it.

By 1994 Disney movies were selling extremely well on home video. I can't seem to find a reason for this, but at some point, probably in 1993, Disney decided to discontinue the Walt Disney Classics line and start the Masterpiece Collection. Probably because a certain movie was being released to home video and they wanted a special line of home video releases to include it in. So I think that's the real reason the Classics were discontinued and the Masterpiece Collection was started. There really isn't a whole lot to say as a general overview for the Masterpiece Collection since there isn't as much history to look into given that Disney had now been releasing their animated movies on home video for a decade at this point.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released on home video for the first time ever on October 28th 1994, seven months after The Fox and the Hound had been released, which ended the Walt Disney Classics Collection. This was an interesting play for Disney because up to this point, Snow White had been considered to be one of the "untouchable" Disney movies, meaning that it would never be released on home video because the theatrical re-releases were still bringing in tons of money. But like I said earlier, I think the Masterpiece Collection was started because they had decided to release Snow White on home video.

The interesting thing about the early printings of the VHS for Snow White is that while the cover says "Walt Disney's Masterpiece" and the spine has the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection logo at the top, the logo isn't on the tape itself. Instead the Walt Disney Home Video logo that was still in use on the cartoon shorts, Disney Sing-Along Songs, and TV show tapes coming out at the time, was put onto the tape. I think that might just be because Snow White was pressed before the logo was ready because the other nine tapes that also came out on October 28th, had the Masterpiece logo on them. Also, Snow White was one of the tapes that we had at Nana and Grandpa's house. I have it in my personal VHS collection and I watched it the other night and it's a first printing version as it has the Walt Disney Home Video logo on it instead of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection logo. 

The second release in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection is also somewhat of an odd play for Disney, because it's Mary Poppins, and except for a segment that includes animation, it's a live action feature film. Mary Poppins has had many home video releases prior to this one, with the first having come out on December 30th, 1980. So it was one of the really early Walt Disney Home Video releases. However 1994 did mark the film's 30th anniversary so it makes sense that Disney would re-release it on home video as part of the Masterpiece Collection, since that seemed to be the lineup that had the most special anniversary home video releases in it. We didn't own Mary Poppins when I was a kid. I remember renting it at some point, though I think it was most likely one of the earlier home video releases from the 80s rather than this one or any of the later VHS releases. I mainly know the songs from the movie because of the Disney Sing-Along Songs tapes. 

The third release in the series was Dumbo, one of the most evergreen movies in the Disney collection. The weird thing about the Masterpiece Collection is that alot of it's releases are re-releases of movies that had been released in the Walt Disney Classics line. And while there was a full decade between the Classics release and the Masterpiece release for a couple of the movies, for many of them there wasn't the traditional 6 to 7 years between the releases. For example, with Dumbo, the Masterpiece Collection release came out in 1994, which was only three years after the last time it had been released in the Classics line, back in 1991, most likely with a reprint in 1992 and 1993 as well. So if there was a reprint of the 1991 Classics release in 1993, that's only a year between that final Classics printing and the first Masterpiece release in 1994. Again it's highly unusual for Disney to do that.

After Dumbo came Alice in Wonderland. I say after, but they all came out on the exact same day, which was another first for Disney as they usually spread out their home video releases across a year  rather than releasing them all at once. Unlike the second Classics release, this release of Alice in Wonderland included the original RKO logo that had been on the movie during it's theatrical releases. By the way I really like the cover design for these early tapes. They were only used for nine of the first ten tapes, then was abandoned when The Lion King was released in 1995. Though it was brought back for Melody Time and a later re-release of Mary Poppins and sort of brought back for Bambi.

 Next up was Robin Hood, which had originally started off the Walt Disney Classics line ten years earlier because it wasn't a super popular film, having done okay at the box office for both it's initial 1973 theatrical release, and it's 1982 theatrical re-release. But by the time of it's Masterpiece Collection release in 1994, it had proven itself thanks to both it's 1984 home video release in the Classics line and it's 1991 home video release in the same line. And while I didn't see this movie in this lineup, you all know that I've seen it in the Classics line, and it's one of my favourite Disney movies of all time.

 Next came The Sword in the Stone, another sleeper hit for Walt Disney Productions. One thing I haven't mentioned so far is that Disney Feature Animation didn't release a movie in 1993. Instead they did the final theatrical re-release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which is why it came out on home video when it did, the direct-to-video release of the sequel to Aladdin, The Return of Jafar, and then The Nightmare Before Christmas was released through Touchstone Pictures. And while The Lion King was released in the summer of 1994, before the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection began, it had just finished it's theatrical run by the time the lineup began and so it wouldn't get it's home video release until early 1995. Which is why there's only been classic films in this lineup so far. As for The Sword in the Stone, it's a good movie but there's really nothing special about this release. At this point the movies that were released in the Classics line and re-released early in the Masterpiece Collection, are basically just the same prints used for the second releases from the Classics collection, with new previews added at the beginning. I also didn't own this tape so I don't have much to say about it than what I said in the first part of this series.

 However, the next title on the list is Pete's Dragon, which is an even weirder choice than Mary Poppins was. This movie is a completely live action feature, with the only piece of animation in the whole movie being the dragon, Elliott. But again, that's probably why it's in the Masterpiece Collection rather than in a home video lineup like the Walt Disney Family Film Collection, where it's just live action movies with no animation in them at all. I remember watching Pete's Dragon at school in 1994 or 1995, the latest being 1996. So it's possible that it was this release, but it just as easily could've been one of the earlier releases as there were VHS releases in 1980, 1985, 1987 and 1991. I honestly don't remember.

Like Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks makes sense for this home video line because it has an entire segment that's done in animation. I remember renting this movie when I was a kid. It was from Rogers Video. It wasn't this release though. They had the 1986 release so that's what we rented. I remember liking it, but since we didn't own it, I only saw it the one or two times that we rented it. 

Next is The Three Caballeros, which also had a home video release in the early 80s and again in 1988 and 1991. This is the first time it was released with the other Walt Disney animated movies. It's a package film which was what Walt made in the 40s because he just couldn't get the money to make full length animated features like he'd done with Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and Bambi earlier in the decade. I've seen this movie once, about ten years ago. I mainly know it because the title song was one of the songs on Disney Sing-Along Songs: Heigh-Ho, which I had. It also wasn't advertised all that hard during this period either.

The final Masterpiece Collection release to come out on October 28th 1994 was So Dear to My Heart. Much like Pete's Dragon, this movie confuses me as to why it's part of this collection. It's not super popular, it's never had any theatrical re-releases, and it's only ever had four home video releases. 3 VHS releases and one DVD release with the DVD being a Disney Movie Club Exclusive from 2008. Though according to the Disney Wiki it was supposed to be released on DVD as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection in the early 2000s, but the release was cancelled for no apparent reason. I guess it's here because there is some animation in it, and it was the last live action movie produced by Walt in the 1940s. I've never seen it and I don't know anyone who has seen it either, so I don't know anything about it. Just what I read on the Disney Wiki while writing this post.

 1995 was actually a lean year for the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, with only two releases that year. However the first of those releases was The Lion King a movie that had dominated people's lives in the summer of 1994. It was released on home video on March 3rd, 1995. Not only did I see it in theatres but we owned this release as well. We watched this movie all the time when I was a kid. It was a favourite of mine as well as a favourite of my brother and sister as well. I also have it in my current collection.

The final Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection release in 1995 was Cinderella. The movie had been previously released in 1988 as part of the Walt Disney Classics Collection and it had been seven years since that release had come out. And unlike other Classics releases Cinderella didn't get a re-release in the Classics line in the early 90s. This is the release that we had when I was a kid. I don't really remember watching it, but I'm pretty sure we did watch it a few times. It was basically my sister's tape though so we'd only watch it if she wanted to. It was released on October 4th, 1995. 

As with The Lion King the previous year, the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection began 1996 with the home video debut of Walt Disney Feature Animation's latest summer blockbuster, Pocahontas, which came out in theatres on June 23rd, 1995, and was released on home video on February 28th 1996. We didn't own this movie when I was a kid, but we did rent it. It hadn't done nearly as well in theatres as Disney had expected it to, with it not making nearly as much as The Lion King had the year before. Personally, I think it's an okay movie. I haven't seen it more than a couple of times since we didn't own it and we only rented it the one time. 

The next movie to come out was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh which hadn't had a home video release since 1982. Having said that, the Disney Wiki says it had a home video release in 1984 as part of the Walt Disney Cartoon Classics line on the home video release page for the movie, but on the page for the Walt Disney Cartoon Classics line, it says it's a non-U.S. release, with a question mark after the 1984 date. So I tend to go with that 1984 release being outside of North America, and the 1982 release being the last home video release here in North America until this 1996 Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection release came out. It being Winnie the Pooh, you'd think I'd have owned this release, well I didn't. Mainly because I already had the three cartoons that made up the film on VHS. I saw the feature film version on TV sometime in the 90s, but we never owned it or rented it. I have the 25th Anniversary DVD release of the movie, but this VHS release is on my list of tapes to pick up at some point. It was released on March 27th, 1996.

Next up was the home video debut of The Aristocats. It was released on April 24th, 1996. We borrowed it from someone sometime in the early 2000s but I knew of the movie because "Everybody Wants to be a Cat" was on Disney Sing-Along Songs: The Bare Necessities which I had when I was a kid. It's interesting to see when certain movies were released on home video and the reasoning for waiting for so long. Back in the late 80s and early 90s things were alot different in terms of Disney putting movies out on home video because of how long it took for movies like The Rescuers to come out on home video compared to the evergreen films like Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland. And so movies like The Aristocats didn't get home video releases when they easily could've done.

The final Masterpiece Collection release for 1996 was Oliver & Company, having been released on September 25th, 1996. Though it wasn't the final Disney Home Video release for 1996 as Winnie the Pooh and Christmas Too, James and the Giant Peach, Toy Story, Disney Sing-Along Songs: Pongo & Perdita, and the Disney Favorite Stories release of Mickey's Christmas Carol all came out that year after Oliver & Company did. This is one of the Disney movies that we didn't own and didn't rent when I was a kid. I knew about it because of clips used in the previews on the Walt Disney Classics tapes I owned but I didn't actually see the movie until I was an adult. 

1997 saw a slight difference in the home video releases in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. When it was released on February 4th, 1997, Bambi had something extra at the end of the movie. It was a making of featurette called Bambi: The Magic Behind the Masterpiece. Up to this point home video releases didn't have much on them besides the movies and maybe some previews on them unless they were deluxe releases. The exception, that I've had experience with, being the 1995 home video release of the Star Wars Trilogy which has Leonard Maltin's three part interview with George Lucas at the beginning of each tape. But with the Masterpiece Collection release of Bambi also being a special 55th Anniversary Limited Edition, Disney decided to put this special feature on it. Which is cool. I didn't have this edition of Bambi when I was a kid. Instead we had the Walt Disney Classics release from 1989. However, it was in the box of VHS that Michelle and Jonathan brought over for me back in September, so I grabbed it to expand my Masterpiece Collection VHS collection.

Exactly one month after Bambi was released, Disney released The Hunchback of Notre Dame on home video as part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. This was just a standard release with no bonus content on it. I had this one as a kid and I don't remember watching it all that often. Probably because it was darker than most of the other more recent Disney movies that came out. We had it though and I have it in my collection again thanks to Michelle and Jonathan. 

Up next was the 50th Anniversary Limited Edition release of Fun and Fancy Free which hadn't had a home video release since 1982. Because it was also a special anniversary edition, this release also had a making of featurette after the movie, called The Story Behind Fun and Fancy Free, which would later be included on the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection VHS and DVD released in 2000. This was another tape that we didn't have and didn't rent when I was a kid. I remember seeing the Mickey and the Beanstalk segment on TV, but I didn't see the full movie until I was an adult. 

The next few releases were all Limited Edition Masterpiece Collection tapes so they had bonus features at the end of them. The first of these was the 1997 re-release of Mary Poppins. This was one of the few re-releases in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection that was completely different from the previous release in the lineup. Certain movies had new printings of the 1994 releases, but only Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, and Robin Hood got brand new releases in 1997 and 1999 respectively. The bonus feature at the end of this tape was called Mary Poppins: Practically Perfect in Every Way.

Next in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection lineup was Sleeping Beauty. The last time the movie had had a home video release was in 1986, pretty early on in the Walt Disney Classics line and right after the initial Classics release of Alice in Wonderland. So it was definitely time that it had a re-release. Especially since it had had it's final theatrical re-release in 1995. This is the release of Sleeping Beauty that we had when I was a kid. It was my mom's favourite Disney movie and we got it for her for Christmas in 1997, as it had been released on September 16th that year. And by we, I mean my dad because he bought it, but we put it from the four of us. I also have a copy of this tape in my current VHS collection.

The final Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection release for 1997 was the 30th Anniversary Limited Edition release, with bonus making of featurette, of The Jungle Book. I remember seeing commercials for this back in 1997 and I remember asking my mom if she could buy it for me because The Jungle Book is my favourite Disney movie, but she said no because we already had the Walt Disney Classics release from 1991 and we didn't need two copies of the same movie. I totally understand that back then since being a VHS collector wasn't really a thing yet since VHS was still the primary home video format in 1997 even though DVD was starting to become a thing at this point. However I found a brand new, factory sealed, copy for $5 at the Ottawa Geek Market in 2019 so naturally I bought it because I wasn't about to pass up a factory sealed copy of The Jungle Book on VHS for $5. I'm still hoping to get a copy of the original 1991 Walt Disney Classics release, but I am also very happy to have this edition in my VHS collection.

1998 started the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection off with the home video debut of the newest Disney animated classic, Hercules. For the next two years this would be the trend for the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, putting out the newest movie out on VHS at the beginning of the year with the remaining releases for the year being older movies. I had this tape when I was a kid, and we watched it a couple of times, but nowhere near as often as movies like Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. I enjoy Hercules. In fact I think it's an underrated film for sure. But there's just something about it that just doesn't hold up as well as the other three movies that I mentioned. I also have a copy in my collection now though I haven't watched it yet. 

The second Masterpiece Collection release in 1998 was the 55th Anniversary Fully Restored Limited Edition of Peter Pan. It has a making of featurette at the end of the tape called You Can Fly!: The Making of Peter Pan, which has been on every home video release of the movie since then, including the more recent Walt Disney Signature Collection Blu-ray from 2018. Because I had the 1990 Walt Disney Classics release, I didn't get this when it first came out on March 3rd 1998. However I do have it in my collection now, which is pretty cool.

Disney re-released two movies in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection on March 31st 1998. The first was a barebones re-release of Mary Poppins which has the cover art that was on the Limited Edition release from the previous year, but it's now set in the classic Masterpiece Collection cover design from the early tapes in the collection that were released in 1994. I don't actually remember ever seeing this release anywhere.

The second release on March 31st 1998 was the Fully Restored Special Edition of The Little Mermaid. While we'd rented the original 1990 Walt Disney Classics release of the movie when I was a kid, I do remember seeing this edition in stores and seeing the commercials for it on TV. I think this was also the first time that I remember hearing references to the Disney Vault in the commercials because this tape was only going to be out for a short time. The only bonus feature on this tape is the music video for "Part of Your World". I have this tape along with the 1990 Classics edition in my collection now.

Next up is the home video debut of the 1948 Walt Disney package film, Melody Time. Despite it being a 50th Anniversary Special Edition, the cover has the original Masterpiece Collection design from the 1994 tapes and no bonus features on it. Melody Time is a movie I didn't get to see when I was a kid as it wasn't available on home video until 1998 and we didn't rent it or own it. I thought it was okay when I finally saw it as an adult, but I actually liked Fun and Fancy Free better.

The next 1998 release was the movie that Disney had done everything they could to pretend it didn't exist. After The Black Cauldron bombed hard at the box office in 1985, Disney didn't do a thing with it. No theatrical re-releases, at least not in North America, and no home video releases. It seemed like it was just going to disappear once it left theatres. But then on August 4th, 1998 The Black Cauldron debuted on VHS only to everyone's surprise. Even though I don't like this movie that much, I would love to get my hands on a copy of this tape just because the movie's history fascinates me immensely. I haven't found a copy yet but I haven't exactly been out thrifting in more than a year. 

The final release of the year came out on September 15th, 1998 and that release was Lady and the Tramp. This movie hadn't seen a home video release since the Walt Disney Classics release came out in 1987. I didn't have this tape when I was a kid and I don't remember renting it. I did see the movie in the early 90s because we rented the Classics release. I have it in my collection now and it has a teaser for the direct-to-video sequel Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure on it but I haven't watched the movie yet so I don't know if the teaser is before or after the movie.

The first Masterpiece Collection release for 1999 and the final new Disney animated movie to be released on home video in the lineup as well as the last one to be released on home video in the 90s was Mulan and it was released on February 2nd, 1999. Mulan was the last Disney movie that we owned on VHS as the next Disney movie that we owned was Lilo & Stitch and we had it on DVD. We still rented Disney movies on VHS right into the early 2000s, but this was the last one we owned. I think my parents felt that we were getting to be too old to be getting Disney movies for our birthdays and Christmas like we had been my entire life. At least on VHS, because like I said we still got a few Disney and Pixar movies on DVD as well as classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs throughout the 2000s. 

The second release of 1999 actually came out with some controversy surrounding it due to some suggestive imagery which you couldn't actually tell what it was unless you paused the movie at a particular moment. The Rescuers was that movie and during the montage of Bernard and Bianca flying to the Bayou on Orville the Albatross, they fly by some apartment buildings and apparently there's a topless woman drawn into one of the windows. Again, unless you pause the movie at that particular moment you'd never actually see it, even if you're looking for it because the windows go by so fast they're blurry. But Disney got complaints about it and so they pulled the movie from shelves and re-released it. Originally it had come out on January 5th, before Mulan, but due to the recall, it was pulled and re-released on March 23rd, 1999. The post-Recall edition included a short from the TV series, Mickey Mouse Works at the beginning of the movie called Pluto Gets the Paper: Bubble Gum.

101 Dalmatians came out on March 9th, 1999 to less controversy than The Rescuers had. Probably because nobody actually did anything with the movie. I had the Walt Disney Classics edition from 1992 so obviously we didn't buy or rent this edition. There really isn't much else to say about this edition since I don't own it and I haven't seen it. The cover is kind of cool though.

1999 saw one final home video debut in the Masterpiece Collection when The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad came out on VHS on May 25th. Despite being a 50th Anniversary there aren't any bonus features. At this point Disney was starting to release movies on DVD with both the Walt Disney Limited Issues line and the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection so they were starting to put less effort into the Masterpiece Collection since it was winding down at this point. I think that's why the Masterpiece Collection ended in 1999 even though it easily could've continued for at least two more years.

The next release to come out was the 1999 re-release of Alice in Wonderland. Again, no bonus features so aside from the usual previews and the movie itself, there's nothing on the tape. I didn't know this tape existed because I wasn't getting Disney movies as often by this point and this came out in the summer of 1999 so we weren't renting Disney movies quite as often either. I think we rented A Bug's Life when that came out on home video in April of that year. But I don't recall there being a preview for this release on that tape. Not like back on the Walt Disney Classics tapes where certain movies were heavily advertised on the other Walt Disney Classics tapes. 

The final Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection release was Robin Hood and it came out on July 13th, 1999, the same day as the re-release of Alice in Wonderland. I really don't have anything else to say about this release because I've never owned it or rented it. It's interesting that fifteen years earlier this movie proved to the Disney executives that home video releases were a viable thing for the company to pursue by being the highest selling home video release at Christmas in 1984. Then in 1999 it wrapped up the second line of Disney movies on VHS.

Aside from the Walt Disney Classics, the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection was how I saw many Disney movies that weren't included in the Classics series. Especially the newer films that were coming out every year since, aside from The Lion King and Mulan, I didn't get to go to the movies very much in the 90s to see them. And while the Masterpiece Collection was only around for half as long as the Classics had been, it had more releases due to the first ten movies coming out on the same day in 1994 and the focus being on new releases and less on re-releases of the same four or five movies. Which was nice. 

That's it for this post. I'm not sure how, or when I'm going to do the next part of the series. For the Walt Disney Limited Issues DVD releases I'll do what I did for the Walt Disney Classics and Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection. However once I get to the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection, I'm thinking of splitting the post up into two parts. The first part will be the VHS releases and the second will focus solely on the DVD releases. For these next two sections I'm going into unknown territory because I didn't grow up with either the Limited Issues or the Gold Classic Collection so I won't have as much to say about them, though I do have the Limited Issue DVD release of The Jungle Book so I'll probably watch it just to see how Disney designed these early DVD releases. Unfortunately I don't have any of the Gold Classic releases, but there will be more bonus features to talk about with those. The Platinum Editions, Diamond Editions and Signature Collection releases are all ones that I have examples of in my collection for me to look at so we'll see.

Alright guys that's gonna be it for me for today. But I will be back sometime tomorrow for my review of the first episode of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier which drops tomorrow morning on Disney+. So until then have a great night and I will talk to you all later. Take care.