Movie Review: Freaky Friday (1976)

Hey everyone! How's it going? Did you all have a good weekend? I did. It was nice and quiet...except for Friday afternoon/evening, because it snowed and was freezing rain here for some bizarre reason. The perfect thing to top off an already bizarre week. Last night Katie and I watched the original 1976 movie adaptation of Freaky Friday which stars Jodie Foster. So that's what I'm here to talk about today. Not to worry though I'm still gonna do a review of Bedknobs and Broomsticks later this week. So without further ado, let's start the review.

 Of course, I'm familiar with the Lindsay Lohan version from 2003, also produced by Disney, but this was the first time I've seen the original 1976 version. It just wasn't available when I was a kid. It's only really had four home video retail releases and even when it came out on DVD in time for the 2003 version to come out on VHS and DVD, I don't remember ever seeing it in stores. I probably saw it at one point on The Wonderful World of Disney or on Family Channel, I just don't remember it. Katie and I were originally going to watch it for her birthday last month, but it didn't end up happening. When she chose it though, it kind of surprised me as I thought she'd pick something more modern that she hadn't seen yet. It was a fun movie though.

The movie is based on the book by author Mary Rodgers, who also happened to write the script for the movie. That doesn't happen very often, with The Princess Bride being the only other example I can think of where that's happened. I've never read the book but I looked it up on Wikipedia, and comparing the synopsis of the book to the synopsis of the movie, the only real differences I could see, is that the book is more focused on Annabel in her mother's body, while the movie is split between Annabel in her mother's body, and her mother in Annabel's body. With the water-skiing scene being added to the movie in the script.

The cast in this movie is amazing. It felt like every few minutes I was saying to Katie, "that's so and so from this movie or TV show". Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris are the only main cast members I'm not familiar with while there are a few minor cast members that I'm also not familiar with. John Astin (The Addams Family, Batman), Marc McClure (Superman: The Movie), Sorrell Booke (The Dukes of Hazzard), Dick van Patten (Spaceballs), Al Molinaro (Happy Days), and Laurie Main (Winnie the Pooh and A Day for Eeyore, Welcome to Pooh Corner) all appear in this movie at some point.

The 70s is the era of Disney that I'm least familiar with when it comes to the live action movies. Mainly because outside of Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Herbie Rides Again, and Pete's Dragon nobody really talks about the live action movies that Disney put out in the 70s. When Freaky Friday came out in 1976, Disney was in a weird period. The animated movies weren't doing quite as well as they had when Walt was alive, the TV shows were doing okay though they also aren't talked about, and Walt Disney World had just opened a few years earlier. Card Walker became the CEO of Walt Disney Productions the year this movie came out, replacing former CEO Donn Tatum, and not much else is really said about him. Disney had been making live action movies since the early 1950s, with a few live-action/animation hybrid films coming out in the 1940s. But in the 70s the majority of the live action films that Disney was putting out were comedies and Disney was putting them out more often than they were their animated movies.

I think the thing that shocked me the most about this movie is how sexist it is. John Astin plays Annabel's father, and his character treats his wife, Ellen (who is in Annabel's body for most of the movie), as if she's a 1950s housewife. I'm pretty sure the movie is supposed to be set in the 70s, and the book was published in 1972, but the Wikipedia page doesn't say whether the book is supposed to be set in the 50s or in the 70s. And because the author of the novel wrote the film's screenplay, it's really hard to tell. Yes, I realize that women were still somewhat treated this way in the 70s, but I honestly didn't think it would blatantly be in a movie made by Disney in the 70s, that was set in the then present day. Those scenes were a bit uncomfortable to watch, but they were few and far between (thankfully).

Freaky Friday was first released on VHS (possibly Betamax too) in 1983. Though the Disney Wiki doesn't give an exact date for the release, this original VHS release came out before 1984, when Disney was still mainly putting out their cartoon shorts and live action movies on home video, with the majority of the animated movies being held back with Dumbo, The Three Caballeros, Fun and Fancy Free, Alice in Wonderland, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh being the exceptions. I'll be talking about that a little bit more tomorrow when I do the final part in my history of Disney movies on home video series I've been doing. The movie wouldn't see another home video release until it was re-released on VHS and released on Laserdisc in 1992 as part of the Walt Disney's Studio Film Collection. It was released on DVD on June 1st, 2004, and wouldn't have another DVD release until 2019 when it was released in a 3-Movie Collection release along with the Lindsay Lohan version from 2003, and the Disney Channel Original Movie version from 2018. It was also released on Blu-ray through the Disney Movie Club in 2018.

Overall, this was an entertaining movie. It's not a great movie and I wasn't expecting it to be since it's a live action Disney movie from the 70s. It was fun though and both Katie and I had a good time watching it. For me the fun mainly came from playing "Spot That Actor" every time an actor I recognized came on screen. If you're looking for something entertaining to watch on the weekend, in between rewatching WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier or waiting for the next episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch to drop, I'd definitely recommend Freaky Friday. It's fun, it's funny, and it's entertaining in a classic 70s kind of way.

I think that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow with the final part of my overview of the history of Disney movies on home video. Then on Wednesday I'll have my review of the first episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch which drops tomorrow on Disney+. On Friday I'll have my review of Bedknobs and Broomsticks posted. As for Thursday, I actually don't know what I'm going do post that day. Maybe nothing. We'll see though. In the meantime I'll see you all tomorrow for the last part of my history of Disney movies on home video series. Until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Movie Review: Batman Forever (1995)

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday! How's everyone doing today? I'm pretty good. Though Disney+ continues to find ways to surprise me. Back in the early to mid 90s any time I had access to Family Channel (the Canadian equivalent of the Disney Channel) I would watch a children's show called Adventures in Wonderland. Mostly it was at the hospital that I would watch it, but sometimes I'd watch it at my grandparents's place. It's never had a DVD release, only three VHS releases, and went off the air in 1995 never to return in reruns. Because of this it's been at least 26 years since I last saw it, maybe even longer. Now, in 2021 though I can watch it whenever I want because all 100 episodes are on Disney+. That's such an obscure 90s children's show, yet it's on Disney+. Simply incredible. With that out of the way, let's talk about Batman Forever, because that's what I'm here to review today!

Batman Forever is my favourite movie in the Batman Motion Picture Anthology (the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher films). It's the one I grew up watching the most, it's how I think of Batman in live action movies, and it's really entertaining. People give it alot of hate though. Particularly comic book fans as they preferred the darker, more creepy tone, of Batman Returns. However, to me it feels much more like a live action version of Batman: The Animated Series that ran on Fox Kids from 1992 until 1995, three months after this movie came out. I hadn't actually given it much thought before, because it's only in the last few years that I've become better acquainted with BTAS, and I only rarely got to watch the show when I was watching this movie.

Both Bruce Wayne and Batman's relationships with the police are similar to how they are in the animated series, both Bruce's parents murder, and Dick's parents murder are kept, though Dick's is slightly different in the movie than it is in the show, the Bruce Wayne "persona" is also similar in that he's much more out in the community in this movie than he was in either Batman or Batman Returns, and Batman's penchant for working alone/not wanting a partner is also present in how he handles Dick once Dick discovers that Batman and Bruce Wayne are the same person.

Of course much of this is taken from the comics of the 70s, 80s, and early 90s as well but I'm seeing more parallels to the animated series, simply because the cars people are driving in Gotham City are more stylized on 50s and 60s vehicles, a throwback to how BTAS had cars that were more 30s and 40s inspired, and the building design of Gotham City is more throwback as well.

The story itself could've been better, but Schumacher and the film's writers, Lee and Janet Scott Batchler, and Akiva Goldsman (you'll be hearing me complain about him alot once season 1 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds starts) only did what they were allowed to do. Joel wanted to do a compelling psychological piece that really delved into the minds of Batman, Two-Face, and the Riddler. But after the Batman Returns fiasco, WB was very nervous of another heavy Batman movie, and ordered Schumacher to make a more family friendly film. The skeleton of the movie that Schumacher wanted to make is still present in the final version of the film, but much of it, particularly the stuff concerning Two-Face and the Riddler, was pulled back.

One of the things that I like about this movie over Batman and Batman Returns is that Batman Forever is actually about Batman! I know, that's a strange concept to some of you, especially those of you who think the villains are more interesting, but if a movie has a character's name as part of the title, then it should be about that character, not his or her enemies. And I think this movie does an extremely good job of accomplishing that given the circumstances. 

Honestly, when I was a kid I thought that Nygma's brain draining device is what turned him evil. But it's not. He was evil before that, it's just he didn't let out his inner Jim Carrey until after that...hold on...what? He let out his inner Jim Carrey, because he IS just playing Jim Carrey? That explains so much...sorry about that. I was just informed that Jim Carrey was just playing himself in the movie and called himself the Riddler, because that would be a more familiar name to people watching a Batman movie. Okay then. Lol.

I joke, but Jim Carrey really is just playing himself, the way he did with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Dumb & Dumber the year before in 1994. And that is totally fine because aside from Frank Gorshin and John Astin's portrayal of the Riddler in the 1966 TV series, I've never found the Riddler to be an entertaining character. He was always one of Batman's more intellectual enemies, but he wasn't pompous and rich like the Penguin was, and so I never found him to be as interesting in the comics as I found the Penguin to be. The Riddler also didn't have the depth and complexity that I felt Catwoman had. Which is why I think many people hated the reveal about the Riddler at the end of Batman: Hush, but I'll talk about that more when I review that book.

The one thing I didn't like about this movie, and I'm sure many people agree with me on this, is Two-Face. Don't get me wrong, Tommy Lee Jones did a wonderful job of playing the character, but there isn't really a character here. Both the comic book version of the character and the animated series version are both very complex characters, dating back to the character's debut in 1942 in Detective Comics #66. None of that is here though and I think that comes down to WB's damage control efforts from the release of Batman Returns three years earlier more than the Batchlers and Goldsman's abilities to write complex characters. 

I'm also not sure how I feel about Val Kilmer as Batman/Bruce Wayne. Don't get me wrong, I love Kilmer as an actor, with Madmartigan being one of my favourite characters in Willow, but his Batman is more reserved than Keaton's Batman was in Batman and Batman Returns and doesn't show his emotions as easily as Keaton did. And I know that isn't him as an actor, because Madmartigan was very emotive. I think that more has to do with how Batman was portrayed in the comics at the time rather than a creative choice made by Schumacher, Kilmer and the writers. Which is fine, it's just a bit jarring going from the almost manic expressions that Keaton made, especially when he smiled in Batman Returns, to the more stoic portrayal that Kilmer has in this movie.

Batman Forever came out on VHS on October 31st, 1995 and I think I got it for my birthday from my godfather (my dad's best friend) for my birthday just a little over a month later. As I've said before while my parents owned both Batman and Batman Returns on VHS when I was a kid, this movie was mine and I watched it all the time. This was my Batman the way Keaton and Conroy were Batman for other kids my age who did watch the Tim Burton Batman movies and Batman: The Animated Series more often than I did. I also eventually upgraded to the DVD and now I have it on Blu-ray, though I would still love to get my hands on the VHS again in the near future.

There was also a comic book adaptation as well as two novel adaptations as well. I never had the novelizations but I did have the comic book. I've reviewed it on the blog back in February, so if you want my thoughts on the comic, go check it out. 

Overall Batman Forever is still a good movie. It's not the greatest Batman movie of all time, that honour goes to The Dark Knight, but it's still my second favourite after Batman: The Movie from 1966. If you haven't seen it in a while, I would definitely recommend giving it a watch. 

Alright my friends that is going to be it for me for this week. I'll be back next week where I'll be reviewing the first volume of Codename: Sailor V, the prequel manga to Sailor Moon, and then I'll be talking about the pre-1984 Disney Home Video releases and Super Mario Bros. 3, and I'll be reviewing Disney's 1971 film, Bedknobs and Broomsticks which will kick off a series of obscure Disney movies from the 70s and 80s that are cult classics. I'll also have another post up at some point to ask a question of all of you readers concerning how I'm going to review Sailor Moon, both the manga and the anime. So until then have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Book Review: Q-Squared (1994)

 I'm back! Here's my review of Q-Squared. I'd hoped that I wouldn't finish it until Friday night so I could wait and do this review on Saturday. But I ended up finishing it before I went to sleep last night and so here we are. So let's get into it.

I swear Peter David loved to mess with his audience when he was writing these books back in the 90s. Especially when it came to the longer novels like Vendetta, Imzadi, I, Q, and this one Q-Squared. Not only does he know his Star Trek lore, but he uses it in pretty unique ways. I mean I don't know any other author who would've thought to put Q and Trelane, from the TOS episode "The Squire of Gothos", in a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel. Peter David did though and it's genius.

Track B, which is the primary TNG universe and where the bulk of this story takes place in, happens during the latter half of the show's seventh season, after "Parallels" but before the series finale, "All Good Things...". However, the other two tracks are both alternate timelines. Track A is a timeline where Jack Crusher never died on the Stargazer and saved Picard's career following the ship's destruction at Maxia Zeta and his subsequent court-martial and demotion to commander. Jack became the captain of the Enterprise, making Picard his first officer. As a result Worf, Deanna, and Riker never become part of the crew. There are other changes as well, but I don't want to spoil that for you despite this being a 27 year old book.

Track C is an alternate version of the events of the season 3 episode, "Yesterday's Enterprise". In this version the Enterprise-D arrives at the location of the Enterprise-C too late to save the crew and Geordi can't repair the ship, so Picard is forced to destroy it to keep it out of the hands of the Klingon Empire. And the war between the Federation and the Klingons continues.

This is probably my favourite Peter David written Star Trek: The Next Generation novels, followed by Imzadi and Q-in-Law. I think that's because all three books delve heavily into TNG lore and Star Trek lore in general. I'm not a huge lore person when it comes to any franchise. I know alot of it when it comes to Star Trek, Star Wars, and the DC Universe, but for the most part it's not my main focus when I'm reading the books and comics or watching the shows and movies. Therefore other people know way more than I do. However, I get excited when a lore heavy episode or book comes up in my viewing and reading lists because it's a form of world building, even if the story in question isn't canon to the series it's part of. Especially if it's parts of the lore that I am very familiar with. I guess because it means that the writer of the episode or book knows the same lore that I know and it connects me to their writing. I know, I'm weird.

Even though they aren't canon to the TV series they tie into, books like these are fun little "What If" pieces, showing how characters's lives could've been if things had been just slightly different. We've seen it several times in Star Trek, though mainly with TNG, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise, not so much with TOS outside of "Mirror, Mirror". 

On the flipside of that though parallel universes, alternate timelines and time travel in general is very confusing for me and as much as I love the lore stuff, the Trelane stuff, with evil cosmic beings, and time travel grates on me throughout this book. It's well written, but that kind of thing I don't enjoy nearly as much as I do seeing alternate versions of the main characters. 

My favourite scene in this book is early on Trelane is interacting with the children on the Enterprise in the ship's school. And the teacher, Ms. Claire, rather than Ms. Kyle from the show's fifth season, reads the children one of the Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne. So then Trelane brings the characters to life. Again, only Peter David could've come up with a crossover, however brief it was, between Star Trek: The Next Generation and Winnie the Pooh. 

Overall this is a great book. If you've never read it, but have read Peter David's other TNG novels, then I highly recommend picking this one up. Even if you just end up getting the audiobook, while I've never listened to the audiobook before, it is narrated by John De Lancie, Q himself, and him reading anything outloud is bound to be a good time. 

Alright my friends that is going it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow morning with my review of Batman Forever. So until then have a great rest of your day and I will talk to you later. Take care.

Anime Review: Haganai NEXT (2013) [Spoilers!!!]

 Hey everyone! How are all of you doing today? I'm doing pretty well. So I finished watching Haganai NEXT AND finished reading Q-Squared before bed last night, so it looks like you're getting two blog posts from me for today. First up is my review of Haganai NEXT. There will be spoilers for both seasons in this review so if you haven't watched this anime yet, please do so before reading my review. With that out of the way let's get right into it.

I honestly didn't remember most of what happened in this series after about episode 4 or episode 5. Just because it'd been so long since I watched it last. There was so much more drama in Haganai NEXT than there was in the first season, which was more comedic than this one was. Though trust me there's alot of comedy in this season as well. I think there's less of it here because all of the characters are more or less more comfortable with each other so there isn't that awkwardness that was the primary source of the comedy in the first season. I feel like it was that way with both Community and The Goldbergs too. It was really good though.

As you know I don't really like to give spoilers for a show or movie unless I absolutely have to. When I reviewed Haganai I avoided talking about the big spoiler at the end of the season. This time around though I really do need to talk about spoilers here in order to talk about the themes of the show. At the end of last season it was revealed that Yozora is actually Kodaka's childhood friend, Sora but they decide to keep it a secret from the rest of the club. At the same time though, their secret shakes up the club because, while Kodaka understands that his and Yozora's friendship is in the past, Yozora does everything she can to reignite their old friendship. 

That's not the only drama that's brewing this season though. While all of this is going on it's discovered that Kodaka and Sena were also childhood friends, since their fathers were friends previously, and that they're in an arranged marriage. Naturally this upsets Yozora when Maria inadvertently reveals it to the entire club. Mind you both Rika and Yukimura are also upset, but for different reasons.

This plot is unresolved though as the final episode ends on a cliffhanger, without an OVA to wrap things up. I don't normally do this because comic book adaptations, be it manga, light novels, or North American comic books, should stand on their own whether they're movies or TV shows. But this time I did a little research into how the light novels ended, because I figured they went on a little longer than the anime did, and I was right. I also tried to see how the manga ended, but it turns out that it's still going, though it's almost finished. Anyway, the light novel series, which I've never read, does reveal what Kodaka wanted to say to Sena at the end of the anime, which remains unrevealed in the anime due to it not getting another season. Probably because the other volumes weren't finished yet, so there was no material to draw from and they didn't want to go the way Sailor Moon did with the first twelve episodes of it's second season and make anime exclusive material for the opening of the third season. 

I was hit harder with this season than I did with the first season. Mainly because the first season was more comedic in nature with very little of the drama coming through. But with the drama coming to the forefront in this season, the nature of the Neighbor's Club really hit home for me as it reminded me of what my group of friends were for each other when we were in high school. Like the characters in the show, it didn't matter how weird we acted, we all accepted each other for who we were, while helping each other curb our more destructive tendencies. Or tried to anyway as it didn't always work. Anyway, watching Kodaka interact with the girls definitely reminded me of how I interacted with the girls in the group when I was in high school. Right down to everyone thinking that Kodaka and Sena are dating reminding me that everyone at school thought Keira and I were dating in grade ten. 

I think my favourite part was Kodaka and Rika's conversations in the last three episodes. Especially the final one where Rika chews him out for abandoning the club simply because Sena revealed her feelings towards him out in the open, embarrassing him. Or at least shocking him into some startling realizations. I guess I just feel that, outside of Kodaka and Kobato's brother/sister relationship, Kodaka's least toxic non-romantic relationship is with Rika. It's the most pure and it does remind me of certain friendships that I had in high school. Particularly one that continues to this day.

Once again Yozora being there is almost pointless, because she seems to do even less than she did in the first season. Even with the revelation of her and Kodaka being childhood friends, not a whole lot was done with her. While I'm glad they didn't drag it out the way many North American shows would've, I still wish Yozora had more to do. But I think that's just because she has a storyline in the light novels that isn't present in the anime or the manga (I haven't read the manga either so I don't know for sure). 

As I said in the previous review, I think Kodaka, Sena and Kobato are the central main characters, with Yozora, Rika, and Yukimura taking on supporting roles. Speaking of Sena, I actually like her alot more this season. And I think that's because she's actually grown as a character, leaving behind her rich girl persona that she had in the first season. At least when she's around the Neighbor's Club, particularly Kodaka. 

If I had to pick a favourite character I think it would definitely have to be Rika. There's just something so genuine about her that is actually lacking in pretty much every other character in the show. In both seasons. It just made me like her more as the show progressed.

I guess if I had to pick stuff to dislike about this season is that the season feels very compact. I thought Aoi's attempted take down of the club was something that happened the entire season, but it's in a single episode. Same with the club making their movie. I thought it was a full season thing, but it's really only episodes 9 and 10 where it happens. I mean Aoi and the student council president, Hinata, only show up for the final four episodes, but they're in the opening credits for the entire season. I think I prefer the opening title sequence style that the original Sailor Moon anime had, where a character only appears in the title sequence when they've actually debuted in the show itself. It was the same problem with the opening title sequence for the first season. Rika, Yukimura and Maria weren't introduced until episode 4, but they appeared in the opening sequence in the first three episodes.

This is a great anime. It has it's flaws, but what piece of entertainment doesn't? I definitely recommend it. I first watched it on DVD back in 2014 when Brad lent me the Blu-ray/DVD combo set, along with the first season. Of course I own that set and watched it on Blu-ray this time around since I actually have a Blu-ray player, which I didn't have seven years ago. It's also on the Funimation website. 

That's it for my review of Haganai NEXT. I'll be back shortly with my review of Q-Squared. Later.

The History of Disney Movies on Home Video Part 7: Walt Disney Signature Collection + Extras

 Hey everyone! How's everybody doing today? I'm pretty good. So we've come to the end of this journey through the history of Disney movies on home media platforms ranging from VHS in the mid 80s all the way to Blu-ray in the 2010s. It's not over quite yet though because I still have the Walt Disney Signature Collection to talk about today and then I'm going to go back to the early 80s and talk about some of the earliest VHS releases that Disney put out BEFORE the Walt Disney Classics came to fruition in 1984 as sort of an epilogue. Right now though let's dive into the Walt Disney Signature Collection.

With the Diamond Editions being discontinued in 2015, Disney decided to begin a new line that would launch in early 2016. This was the Walt Disney Signature Collection, named after the fact that Walt's signature is on the front cover. The premise behind this is that these are the movies that either Walt made himself, had attempted to make himself, but dropped and they got picked up again in the late 80s, or movies, such as Aladdin, that Walt would've made had he been alive to do so. While I don't have a super amount of experience with this line, I do own one DVD and one Blu-ray from the line, so I can talk about those in a bit more detail than I could otherwise. However, there is at least one movie that was supposed to be part of this collection that ended up not being in it at all, so I think I'll talk about that quickly before I get into the Signature Collection proper.

Beginning in the early 2010s I guess it would've been, Disney began putting out special Blu-ray releases of their animated canon movies through the Disney Movie Club as exclusive releases. The Jungle Book was released on March 26th, 2019 but except for the cover art, the content on the discs are exactly the same as the 2014 Diamond Editions Blu-ray. How does this relate to the Signature Collection you may be asking? Well, I don't remember exactly when it was removed, but up until last year sometime, The Jungle Book was included on the list for the Walt Disney Signature Collection for sometime in either 2020 or 2021. However, most likely because of the pandemic, the release was cancelled. Though Blu-ray.com still has it listed, with no release date. Regardless, I think it was cancelled because no other Signature Collection releases have come out since 2019. I'll get into that a little later though. Right now let's get into the Walt Disney Signature Collection proper.

First up we have the Blu-ray release for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. One of the bonus features on here is one that is on all of the Blu-ray releases in this collection for the movies that Walt worked on directly. That's the "In Walt's Words" feature. I think it's just a quick thing where you listen to Walt talk about the movie, not an actual additional audio commentary. Which is also on here by the way, the audio commentary from the old Platinum Edition DVD. Aside from the deleted scenes and an alternate sequence, there are other bonus features that I don't really need to talk about since if you collect Disney movies at this point, you probably have this release already. The bonus feature that's worth talking about, sort of, is "Disney's First Feature: The Making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" which is an extended version of "The One That Started It All" from the 2009 Diamond Editions DVD and Blu-ray releases. It's a good Making Of featurette. While I don't have the Blu-ray, this featurette is included in the Disney+ version of the movie, under the extras tab. Which is cool.

The DVD only has two deleted scenes, which have been on the video releases since the 2001 Platinum Editions DVD. My brother got the DVD for me for Christmas in 2017 and I've watched it a few times since then. While the Digital version, which I won't be talking about here, came out on January 19th, 2016, and the Blu-ray came out on February 2nd, 2016, this DVD release didn't come out until almost a year later, on February 28th, 2017, no idea why. In fact throughout this entire collection only three movies have day and date releases for the Blu-ray and DVD releases.

Up next is Beauty and the Beast as a 25th Anniversary Edition release. There really isn't much to talk about with this release as there aren't alot of bonus features on this release at all. In fact even the work in progress version of the film is gone. Instead there's the 2002 special edition version, and the 1991 theatrical version, but now there's a sing-along edition instead of the 1991 work in progress version. Neither of the Making Of featurettes from the 2002 Platinum Editions DVD or the 2010 Diamond Editions Blu-ray and DVD are included here either. The Blu-ray came out on September 20th, 2016 and was re-released on March 2nd, 2021 in a 2-Movie Collection with the 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast remake.

The DVD is even more barebones than the Blu-ray ended up being as it has absolutely no bonus features on it at all. It was released on February 28th, 2017, a few months after the Blu-ray release, and was re-released on March 2nd, 2021 as the DVD version of the 2-Movie Collection release with the 2017 live action remake.

The 4K release includes the same Blu-ray as the 2016 Blu-ray release, so I won't go over that again. This was actually the last 4K release for the Signature Collection, but it's the first one I'm talking about because it's still an edition of the second release in the collection. It came out on March 10th, 2020.

Next is Pinocchio. Brad actually bought this Blu-ray for me in the summer of 2017 while I was still recovering from the major abdominal surgery that I had earlier that year and wasn't really able to go anywhere just yet. The bonus features a really bizarre collection. Aside from the "In Walt's Words" featurette, and the very first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon that Walt produced in the 1920s, the majority of the bonus features are from the 2009 Platinum Editions DVD and Blu-ray releases. Including the Making Of featurette, "No Strings Attached: The Making of Pinocchio". However there's a SECOND Making Of featurette called "A Wish Come True: The Making of Pinocchio", which was originally included on the 60th Anniversary VHS that was released on October 26th, 1999 as well as the 2000 Gold Classic Collection VHS and wasn't on the 1999 Limited Issue DVD or the 2000 Gold Classic Collection DVD.

The DVD once again doesn't have any bonus features on it. No deleted scenes, nothing. However, it was released on January 31st, 2017 along with the Blu-ray. 

Next is Bambi. Like the previous Blu-ray and DVD releases for the movie, there aren't a ton of bonus features on this release. Instead of "In Walt's Words" there's a feature called "Studio Stories: Bambi". Otherwise there's some deleted scenes, both two new ones for this release and the ones that were on the 2005 Platinum Editions DVD and the 2011 Diamond Editions DVD and Blu-ray. The rest of the bonus material was ported over from the previous DVD and Blu-ray releases.

The DVD has no bonus features at all. Not even the new deleted scenes that are on the Blu-ray release. It was released with the Blu-ray on June 6th, 2017. 

After that came The Lion King. Like with the Blu-ray for Beauty and the Beast, this release does away with all of the bonus features from the previous DVD and Blu-ray releases. It also gets rid of the special edition of the movie (I think it's the special edition anyway), has "The Morning Report" as a deleted scene (separate scene anyway), and replaces whichever version of the movie is removed with a Sing-Along version instead.

There aren't any bonus features on the DVD either. It came out with the Blu-ray on August 29th, 2017. It and the Blu-ray were re-released on Blu-ray and DVD in a 2-Movie Collection release with the 2019 live-action remake on March 2nd, 2021.

However, on December 4th, 2018 The Lion King was released on 4K for the first time (maybe even the only time). There's nothing to really talk about here though since if the Blu-ray disc is exactly the same as the 2017 release, then all of the bonus features are the same, and there doesn't seem to be any bonus features on the 4K disc either. Though unless I'm mistaken the bonus features are Digital content only.

Next is Lady and the Tramp which came out on February 27th, 2018. This one is unique as it includes three different versions of the movie. The original theatrical release, a Sing-Along mode version, and an Inside Walt's Story Meetings version as well. Otherwise the rest of the bonus features are the ones taken from the 2012 Blu-ray release, with none being from the 2006 Platinum Editions DVD.

The DVD, which came out on May 22nd, 2018 has no bonus features on it. Just the movie.

Next is Peter Pan. The two new bonus features on this release are "Stories From Walt's Office: Walt & Flight" and "A Darling Conversation With Wendy & John: Kathryn Beaumont and Paul Collins". This feature is exactly what it is, an interview with Kathryn Beaumont, who voiced Wendy Darling in the film, and Paul Collins, who voiced John Darling. The rest of the bonus features are from the 2013 Diamond Editions Blu-ray, which were originally from the 2007 Platinum Editions DVD. And yes, it includes "You Can Fly: The Making of Peter Pan" which goes all the way back to the 1998 Masterpiece Collection VHS and Laserdisc. The Blu-ray came out on June 5th, 2018.

The DVD came out on September 4th, 2018.

Next is The Little Mermaid which came out on February 26th, 2019. The bonus features really aren't anything to talk about, though there is a "Stories From Walt's Office" which presumably covers whatever Walt started on back in the 1930s when he originally wanted to make the movie. There's also a 30th Anniversary retrospective on digital platforms like iTunes.

The DVD came out on May 7th, 2019.

The 4K release came out on February 26th, 2019 along with the Blu-ray.

Cinderella was released on Blu-ray on June 25th, 2019. There's a "In Walt's Words" feature and the rest of the bonus features are from the 2012 Diamond Editions Blu-ray and the 2005 Platinum Editions DVD.

The DVD was released on August 27th, 2019.

Aladdin was released on Blu-ray on September 10th, 2019. All of the bonus features are from the 2015 Diamond Editions Blu-ray. Like with the other films that had recent live action remakes/retellings, the movie was re-released on Blu-ray and DVD with the 2019 film on March 2nd, 2021.

The DVD was released on October 8th, 2019.

The 4K release also came out on September 10th, 2019.

101 Dalmatians came out on Blu-ray on September 24th, 2019. There are some decent new bonus features on this release including a behind the scenes on the making of The Further Adventures of Thunderbolt a short that was originally on the 2015 Diamond Editions Blu-ray and a few other seemingly cool featurettes. The rest of the bonus features are from the 2015 Diamond Editions Blu-ray and the 2008 Platinum Editions DVD.

The DVD came out on October 8th 2019.

The final Blu-ray release in the Walt Disney Signature Collection is Sleeping Beauty. There aren't as many bonus features on this release, but there are a few new ones, though once again, the majority of the bonus features are from the 2014 Diamond Editions Blu-ray.

The final release for the Walt Disney Signature Collection was the DVD release of Sleeping Beauty. It came out on January 14th 2020. There's no bonus features on this DVD.

And that my friends is the Walt Disney Signature Collection. I think the general consensus for this collection is one of disappointment. Many people, especially the serious Disney collectors, had all of these movies on previous releases and the new bonus features on the Blu-rays weren't worth double dipping for these releases. Though they're perfectly fine for someone like me, who hasn't gotten the majority of the Blu-ray or DVD releases for these movies. Also, by the time this collection REALLY got going, Disney+ was in the works and many people were moving towards streaming and digital releases. Which is why I think Disney started pulling back on these releases and not putting as much effort into them in terms of the bonus features. The packaging looks really nice on shelves, but if the content is exactly the same, most people only want one copy of a movie, unless they're serious collectors.

In my first post in this series I talked about how the Walt Disney Classics came into being and how the collection really got Walt Disney Home Video going in terms of the animated movies. But what was Walt Disney Home Video like in the "dark times" pre-1984? Well, you'll just have to come back next week as I talk about the Neon Mickey era of Walt Disney Home Video.

Alright guys that's gonna be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my review of Haganai NEXT. On Friday will be my review of Batman Forever, possibly a double feature posting, if I finish Q-Squared before Saturday. If not that review will be up on Saturday. So until then have a great afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Book Review: The Rest of Us Just Live Here (2015)

Hey everyone, how are you all doing today? I'm doing pretty well for a Tuesday morning. I was able to finish reading The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness yesterday afternoon so I'm here to talk about that book right now. Let's get right into it.

 I'm not hugely into modern YA novels, but when my sister told me the premise of this book, I knew I had to read it. She happened to have a copy and she lent it to me in 2016, as the book came out in 2015 and I'm pretty sure we hadn't moved yet when she lent it to me. I couldn't put it down so I got through it in a day or two and loved it so much that I ended up going back and re-reading it, which took me another day or two to finish the second time. I liked it so much that my sister let me keep her copy. Which has now been on my shelf ever since.

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog update post, The Rest of Us Just Live Here is about a group of high school seniors who are only a couple of weeks away from graduating. Normally in YA novels, and just fiction in general, the story is about the Chosen One, someone who can bring balance to the Force, save the world from Vampires, Demons, and any other extra-dimensional being who tries to conquer the world and kills a bunch of people to achieve their goals. But, this book isn't about them. This book is about the kids who don't get chosen to save the world. They're just trying to live in it and find it difficult to do so when their high school is always about to explode because of something the Chosen Ones, called the Indie Kids here, do while saving the world. And while Mikey, Jared, Mel, Henna, Nathan, and Mikey and Mel's younger sister, Meredith, aren't Indie Kids, they are each touched by what's going on in different ways. Henna's brother was an Indie Kid, Nathan was involved with the Indie Kids as a mascot (he's the Snapper Carr of the Indie Kids basically), and Jared is part god because his grandmother married a human back in the day. It's weird.

I can relate to Mikey so much. His anxiety over all the changes that are happening in his life, his OCD, and his fear that his friends don't need him as much as he needs them, wondering if they are his friends even. I can relate to those things because I'm autistic. And, aside from the OCD, I felt all of those things when I was a senior in high school. Moreso the second time around in 2006, than the first time around in 2005 (believe me, I had other problems in 2005). All through high school, and even to this day, there are times where I do wonder if my friends don't need me as much as I need them or if I'm the least wanted person in the group. Of course I know that that isn't true, but I did, and still do, have times where I wondered. 

Even though the book is told from Mikey's point of view, and narrated in first person I might add, each of the main characters gets equal amount of screen time. I complained about this alot in when I reviewed Animorphs books #1-6, and Ness seems to have a good handle on having the story be first person POV but also giving all four of the main kids a chance to shine. 

Before I continue, I wanna talk about the author a little bit here. So Patrick Ness is mostly known for writing YA novels. However, Doctor Who fans might recognize the name because Ness created the spin-off, Class and served as the show's head writer during it's eight episode run in 2016. I've never seen the show though I remember seeing commercials for it on Space Channel at the time. I've heard it was decent, so maybe I'll check it out sometime. In any case this book is more like the American version, but minus the Doctor, and about the kids who aren't directly involved in the protecting the world from the bad guys thing.

One of the things I love about this book is that each chapter starts with a synopsis of what the chapter would be if the book was focused on the battle between the Indie Kids and the Immortals (the threat of the book) rather than on Mikey, his friends and their lives. Just from those synopses I kinda wanna read that book as well just because it sounds so interesting. Not that this book isn't interesting, because it is, but still, now I want that other book as well.

The biggest reason that I love this book is because it focuses on the mundane. I mean for the majority of the book Mikey and the others are trying to get through final exams, prom and graduation. That's it. And yet the universe doesn't want to let them just do that so the weird stuff happens to them even though they have no idea what's actually going on. I guess that's kind of how it is with most teenagers even without the supernatural stuff. At least that's how it seemed to me when I was in high school. Sure we learned about things in school, and 9/11 happened when I was in grade nine, but aside from that major event, my classmates, my friends, and I were just trying to get through the day and didn't really care about what was happening in the world outside our school. To us that was stuff that the adults were dealing with and didn't have a whole lot to do with us. In this book all of that is magnified due to the supernatural elements.

While the characters don't deal with the supernatural stuff directly, they still have plenty of YA tropes to handle. For example, Mikey is in love with his friend, Henna, but has been too nervous to tell her up to this point and everyone around him knows it. Including Henna it turns out. Naturally this leads to some tension because she thinks she's developing feelings for the new kid, Nathan and Mikey gets super jealous. By the way I have a problem with Nathan as a character, but I'll get to that shortly. Another example is that pretty much all of the teen characters have problems with their parents for one reason or another. This is a thing that happens quite often on TV in shows like Degrassi and The O.C. and it's been a thing since the 80s at least.

My one problem with this book, as much as I love it, is the way Nathan is portrayed. Aside from causing tension between Mikey and Henna, and then later Mikey and Jared, he's basically a non character. Ness portrays the character as mysterious and up to no good, but it feels forced because the story is from Mikey's perception, which naturally makes Nathan suspect, because Mikey doesn't like him. At the same time he's basically just there to cause trouble, much like how Oliver Trask was only there to cause problems for Ryan and Marissa in the first season of The O.C. with no real character development or anything like that. It's fine I guess, but I would've liked a bit more of a reason for why he shows up in town and starts going to their school when there's only two weeks (when the book starts) until graduation. Who does that? Most people, unless absolutely necessary don't move until summertime or the middle of the school year, because going to a new school with only two weeks left, especially in the senior year of high school, is absolutely pointless. 

I also don't like Mikey, Mel and Meredith's parents, but what do you expect? You're not supposed to like them. They're not Sandy and Kirsten Cohen from The O.C. or Snake and Spike from Degrassi: The Next Generation. They're there because Mikey and Mel don't graduate from high school until the end of the book (spoiler), and Meredith, who I love by the way, is only ten years old. So of course their parents would be around.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. If you're a fan of slice of life stories and the supernatural or Fantasy or Science Fiction, whatever you wanna call it, then I think you'll enjoy this book. Even if you're not into the YA novels. Also, if you like Class then you'll wanna check this book out too.

That's going to be it for me for today. I will be back tomorrow though with my overview of the Walt Disney Signature Collection. I ended up watching four episodes of Haganai NEXT before bed last night and there's only twelve episodes in the series. So I've decided to continue with my four episodes a night routine for it and finish it up tomorrow night so I can review it on Thursday, which will push Super Mario Bros. 3 back to Monday of next week. My review of Batman Forever will still come out on Friday though for sure. Oh and I've also started reading Q-Squared by Peter David. Yes, it's a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel from the 90s. So stay tuned for that review at some point too. Until then, have a great afternoon and I will talk to you all later. Take care.

Blog Update for April, 2021

 Hey everyone! How were your weekends? Mine was pretty good. Today I just wanted to touch base with all of you since I haven't done a blog update since March so I thought I'd just check in with you for today's post. I got some cool posts coming your way this week, so let's dive in and I'll let you know what I'm up to this week.

So the first thing I wanted to talk about is something I kind of mentioned in the intro of my review of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but didn't really say anything about it beyond that. So for those of you who don't know, I got my first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday afternoon. It was kind of a surprise because my age group isn't being done yet for the most part unless they work in healthcare or other frontline positions. But one of my doctors felt I should get it sooner rather than later, and submitted my information to the local hospital and they called me out of the blue on Wednesday afternoon with an appointment. I jumped at the chance of course. Aside from a sore arm and some fatigue for a couple of days afterward I haven't had any ill effects from the vaccine. I did take it easy for Friday and Saturday though just to be sure. So that was cool. But now I'm playing the waiting game again because I can't get my second dose until August, which feels like a long ways away, but it's really only almost three months, the length of summer vacation when I was a kid. So that's not too bad. Anyways I just wanted to put that out there.

On the same day that I got my vaccination done, I started reading The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness. It's a YA novel about how the people who aren't directly involved the events of books like Harry Potter or Twilight get dragged into the events anyway because they affect their lives as much as they affect the lives of character like Harry Potter, Bella Swan, Katniss Everdeen, and pretty much every other hero and heroine in YA fiction. This is actually a re-read, because I have read this book several times in the past. In fact I think I reviewed this on the old blog about three years ago now, but I've never talked about it on this blog before. I'm more than halfway done so expect the review to come out probably tomorrow if I plan things right. I think. If not tomorrow, then definitely on Wednesday.

I'm really wanting to talk about books more often on this blog, because aside from movies and TV shows, books are my favourite thing in the world. I love comic books and music and archaic home video formats, but books are awesome and I want to talk about them more on here than I have so far.

Either tomorrow or Wednesday, depending on whether I finish reading The Rest of Us Just Live Here today or not, I'll be putting out my final overview of a Walt Disney home media collection. Which actually brings us to present day as I'll be talking about the final (so far) collection, the Walt Disney Signature Collection. I might do an epilogue showing off my favourite releases in each collection, but we'll see. 

It's been a while since I did a movie review, so I think for this week I'm going to review my favourite of the Tim Burton/Joel Schumacher Batman movies, Batman Forever. I had to make that distinction since my actual favourite Batman movie is Batman: The Movie from 1966. Anyway I've been itching to do this review since I reviewed the comic book adaptation months ago and since I haven't put out a movie review in a long time, I thought I'd get back into it with this one. Look for that review to come out this Friday because I'll be watching the movie on Thursday night.

Then finally, I think this week I'm going to try to start watching Haganai NEXT as well. That review won't happen until I'm finished the series, but this time I might try to watch two episodes a night in order to finish the show in a shorter amount of time than it ended up taking me to watch Haganai before. Besides watching The Orville on Tuesday nights with my sister (virtually of course), my only show on right now is The Hardy Boys since the next Marvel show, which is Loki, doesn't start until June 11th, and even though Star Wars: The Bad Batch starts next week on May the 4th, I don't have any interest in that series so I won't be watching it. Also it's looking like Superman & Lois won't be back until the summer, after the final season of Supergirl is over, which is why my sister and I are watching The Orville on Tuesday nights.

 

I'm planning on getting back to the video game stuff next week as well, depending on how things go. I just really wanna talk about Super Mario Bros. 3, so you might actually get that this Thursday, making it a five day release schedule for this blog. We'll see how things go with the The Rest of Us Just Live Here review, the Walt Disney Signature Collection overview, and the Batman Forever review.

So that is what's been going on with me and what I have planned for the blog this week. I'll be back tomorrow with either the The Rest of Us Just Live Here book review or the Walt Disney Signature Collection overview, depending on when I finish reading the book. So until then have a great rest of your day, stay safe, and I will talk to you all later. Take care.