Star Wars – Rebels: Complete Season One
Bridging the gap between the film trilogies, Rebels’ initial season inches its way towards being epic, setting up what promises to be an even stronger second season. |
Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem
The caped crusader gets yet another incarnation, this time living in a high tech Gotham threatened with computer terrorism by The Joker. Kids will enjoy the many guest stars and action aplenty. |
Lego Justice League: Attack Of The Legion Of Doom
There’s nothing more fun than mixing Lego and superheroes, as in this kid-friendly movie starring DC’s biggest heroes. Add in a great extra on the sound, and you have a hit! |
Justice League: Gods And Monsters
A darker League from an alternate timeline must fight the law while solving a murder mystery. Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett craft a wonderfully unique tale for this DC animated movie. |
Adventure Time: The Complete Fifth Season
Season number five of the Cartoon Network phenomenon is here to dazzle us with strange romance, endearingly bizarre characters, and of course mathematical adventures. |
Spirited Away
Miyazaki’s greatest film finally comes to Blu-ray, with top-notch technical quality showing this masterpiece in the best possible light. |
Insider Access To Inside Out
The sneak peek at Pixar’s latest was a worthwhile evening that included some nice bonus features, but the main attraction was Pete Docter’s extraordinary film. |
Batman Vs. Robin: Exclusive Figure Edition
The script tries hard to make a sophisticated story of father-son conflict, but the movie’s action-fueled direction brings it close to being just another fight-filled exercise in excess. |
More Cartoons For Victory!
More Thunderbean greatness! Foreign propaganda, rare Private Snafu Quick Facts, footage from the First Motion Picture Unit, and rarities from Disney and UPA make this an outstanding collection of wartime shorts. |
Noveltoons: Original Classics
Thunderbean shows us how Famous Studios lived up to the Fleischer name, at least in the 1940s, with this collection of wonderful cartoons. Those that thought Famous meant “second rate” are in for a surprise. |
Tinker Bell And The Legend Of The Neverbeast
The Disney Fairy series gets a little darker with this tale of a monster-like creature, but the movie stays true to the messages of friendship and learning positive life lessons. |
The Kingdom Of Dreams And Madness
This wonderful documentary grants a fascinating glimpse at how Studio Ghibli functioned in its final year with master director Hayao Miyazaki. |
The Wind Rises
The final Miyazaki is a fictional account of the life of a major figure in Japanese history. It’s a tricky and even controversial subject, leading to conflicted viewer reactions, but the filmmaker’s craft has never been stronger. |
Kiki’s Delivery Service
This charming Studio Ghibli film about a good little witch lands on Blu-ray with improved picture, and all of the improtant DVD features. |
Princess Mononoke
The Studio Ghibli masterpiece finally comes to Blu-ray, sporting a vastly improved picture and new-to-disc supplements, but dropping the literal translation subtitle track. |
Phineas And Ferb Star Wars
Disney allows its hit TV show to cross over with its newly bought Lucasfilm franchise, and the result is a fun celebration of both. |
Star Wars – The Clone Wars: The Lost Missions
The post-cancellation episodes of the excellent Star Wars program push the mythology further, and accomplish the task of making the prequels better, simply by giving them context. |
Adventure Time: The Complete Fourth Season
Cable television’s most popular show reins in the craziness just enough to produce a season’s worth of charming stories that are about as insane as ever, but are becoming more cohesive, heartfelt, and often even poignant. |
Jack And The Cuckoo-Clock Heart
The astounding clock-punk rock opera masterpiece from Europe comes to North America. Read the review to find out more about one of the year’s best releases. |
Thunder And The House Of Magic
Shout! Factory brings us a wonderful animated movie from Europe that may not transcend the family film genre, but it does provide quality entertainment, while also providing one of the best 3D experiences out there. |
Son Of Batman
Talia al Ghul has a surprise for Batman, in the form of an arrogant but accomplished ten-year-old. It’s a great premise, but the presentation has some problems in terms of believability and basic taste. |
Green Lantern: The Animated Series
The film was a bust, but it did lead to the production of what turned out to be a very fine cartoon show. Sleek CGI animation, strong scripts, and intriguing characters add to an already great sci-fi concept, and make the show impressive. |
The Pirate Fairy
This fun family film keeps up the quality of the Fairies franchise, serving as a clever prequel to Peter Pan, while in some ways almost being a super-hero film for little girls. |
The Venture Bros.: The Fifth Season
The latest season of the [adult swim] fan favorite sees the rebirth and fall of SPHINX, The Monarch gain his revenge on Doctor Venture (or so he says), and the recently graduated Venture Bros. clumsily finding their way in the world, even as family secrets come to light. |
Adventure Time: The Complete Third Season
The third season of the hit show keeps the strange stuff, while developing relationships a little further. Above all, it stays entertaining and creative in a way that can captivate both kids and adults. |
Justice League: War
A younger version of the Justice League comes together as it battles Darkseid, not to mention a stale script and unappealing characterization. There are kernels of goodness here, though, as well as a nice set of bonus features. |
The Puppetoon Movie
George Pal’s amazing “replacement animation” shorts are now in HD. This two-disc set has three features, loads of bonus shorts, and a bevy of bonuses. This just could be the release of 2013! |
The Smurfs 2
The sequel is much like the first, but this time the focus is on Smurfette and her families. This is a primo example of kids films in the modern age, with lots of CGI as well as old-fashioned slapstick. |
Marine Boy: The Complete First Season
As some of us clamor for more 1960s classics, Warner Archive surprises us with instead digging up an obscure anime production from that era, dubbed by the Speed Racer team. |
Help! …It’s The Hair Bear Bunch!: The Complete Series
It’s not all that original, but this 1971 escape-from-the-zoo show did predate Madagascar by a few decades. It also provides the typical mix of good-natured humor and great voice actors that Hanna-Barbera fans love. |