What I'm Watching: Editor's Choice (DVD)

Wallace & Gromit / Battle For Terra / The Mr. Men Show

Lionsgate and Sony have five new releases out that are a perfect blend of family entertainment for the entire family, from your littlest kidlets to the tweens in your house.

First up, we have three new Wallace & Gromit releases from Lionsgate. Wallace & Gromit are really the perfect family entertainment, because they're good for literally all ages. My two-and-a-half year old twins love them, and my wife and I also immensely enjoy them. The first release is A Matter of Loaf and Death, the newest W&G release. This is a half-hour animated special in the vein of The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave, and Grand Day Out, and it's a lot of fun. It fits right in with the quality of the other short films and there's some really great humor at play here, plus a little romance (sort of) for Wallace.

The disc comes with a few cool extra features as well:

How They Donut: The Making Of A Matter Of Loaf And Death
Audio Commentary With Nick Park And David McCormick
Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures: Video Game Demo
Bonus Episode: Shaun The Sheep

Also from everyone's favorite claymation duo, we have Wallace & Gromit: The Complete Collection, which is available on Blu-ray and DVD. This disc includes all four of the aforementioned short films (including Loaf and Death), but is sadly missing the feature film The Curse of the Were-Rabbit due to rights issues. Still, you get four complete minifilms in this set, as well as some great extra features:

- Nick Park Audio Commentary
- Audio Commentary With Nick Park And David McCormick
- Amazing Adventures Of Wallace & Gromit
- Inside The Wrong Trousers Featurette
- How It Was Done Featurette
- How They Donut: The Making Of A Matter Of Loaf And Death

The Blu-ray and the DVD versions offer identical extra features, but each has its advantages. The DVD comes in a very cool 3-D case with sculpted Wallace and Gromit heads on the cover. I don't know why they couldn't replicate that for the Blu-ray version, though, which is kind of a shame. The Blu-ray, of course, offers up enhanced picture quality, although to be honest, I don't think its a very noticeable difference. I don't know if it has to do with the claymation technique, but while the images are slightly clearer and brighter, there's not much improvement in the color saturation on the disc and the overall picture upgrade is minimal. Still it's nice to have the disc available in either format.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Movies: A
Extra Features: B+

Also from Lionsgate we have the CGI-animated adventure film Battle For Terra. This movie has an interesting backstory, as it was apparently independently produced on a tiny budget by a guy named Aristomenis Tsirbas and his team. They brought the film to completion for around $8 million, a microscopic sum in the computer animation world. After its screening at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2007, the film was picked up and re-rendered in 3-D, and then released in theaters with almost no marketing to an apathetic audience. It made a very small amount of money at the box office and then quickly disappeared.

The film looks absolutely gorgeous, and the CG animation is incredibly impressive, especially once you know the history behind the movie. Where it suffers is in its storytelling. Despite a terrific cast of well known actors providing voices (such as Luke WIlson, Dennis Quaid, Amanda Peet, Danny Glover, James Garner, Justin Long, Chris Evans, and Evan Rachel Wood) I just never really came to care about any of the characters. Frankly, the film's a little bit on the dull side, despite the dazzling visuals. There are a few action sequences that will keep the tween audience interested, but this isn't a film that's ever really engaging. It's a shame, because I like a lot of what this movie has to offer, I just wish it was stronger on more fronts than just the visual.

The Blu-ray boasts a stellar transfer and, as the digital-to-digital nature of most CGI films has shown in the past, picture quality is nearly perfect. The PCM 5.1 surround mix is also pretty well-composed, offering up some nice surround effects. There is a pretty great collection of extra features as well:

The Making Of
From Storyboard To Final Render: Mala Sneaks Around
Filmmaker's Audio Commentary
Animatics: Mala's Escape
Aristomenis Tsirbas: Pulling The Strings
Deleted Scenes
Theatrical Trailer

Battle for Terra might appeal to young boys the most, but I can't help but think that if the movie just had a slightly better story, it could have been a big hit.

Movie: C
Extra Features: B+

Finally, Sony has released two DVDs from the popular kids show The Mr. Men Show. The two releases are called Mr. Tickle Presents: Tickle Time Around Town and Little Miss Sunshine Presents: Fun in the Sun. This fun little show is based on the books you might remember from your childhood, and it features various Misters and Misses that each represent a different personality trait or emotion. So you'll find Mr. Happy, Mr. Grumpy, Mr. Bump and Mr. Bounce alongside Little Miss Scary, Little Miss Naughty, Little Miss Sunshine, and Little Miss Chatterbox. The show is a lot of fun, with some educational elements to it but not ones that beat your kids over the head with it. It's clever and cute and the animation is a simplistic throwback to an older style that many adults will enjoy.

Extra features offer up some simple games and activities:

Mr. Tickle Presents: Tickle Time Around Town -

Meet Mr. Tickle
Find Mr. Tickle
How to Draw Mr. Tickle
Dance, Dance, Dance

Little Miss Sunshine Presents: Fun in the Sun -

Find Little Miss Sunshine
Meet Little Miss Sunshine
How to Draw Little Miss Sunshine
Dance, Dance, Dance

In the age of arguably adult-styled kids' cartoons like Spongebob Squarepants, Chowder, and the Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, the cute and cuddly simplicity of the Mr. Men show is something I think both kids and parents will enjoy!

RECOMMENDED!

Show: A
Extra Features: C

- Mike Spring
Editor