Although the Sleeping Beauty fairytale has been around for much longer, Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty was inspired by the Pytor Ilyich Tchaikovsky ballet – some of Tchaikovsky’s music is even quoted in the score.

Sleeping Beauty is remarkable for a number of reasons: it was the first Disney film to be done in an angular, more medieval style in which every aspect of every scene was detailed and in focus; it was the first Disney film which Disney didn’t work on from beginning to end; it was the last Disney animation to use hand-inked final art. From the opening sequences, the film is more vibrant, more alive than any previous Disney animation – and it remains almost impossibly lovely to look at today.

As with previous Disney animations, the voice casting is superb: Mary Costa did both speaking and singing for Princess Aurora; Eleanor Audley’s Maleficent is pretty much the standard for evil females in animation, even now; and the Three Good Fairies – Flora [Verna Felton], Fauna [Barbara Jo Allen] and Merryweather [Barbara Luddy] – are quite possibly6 the best example of characters who not only provide comic relief, but are actually integral to the story.

The new restoration of Sleeping Beauty marks the first time since its original theatrical run that we can see the film in its original widescreen aspect ratio, with the additional edges of the film adding even more richness to the experience.

This 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition of the Disney classic also comes with enough Bonus Features to please the most discerning film buff: disc One: Audio Commentary by PIXAR CEO John Lasseter, Film Critic/Historian Leonard Maltin and current Disney Animator Andreas Deja; Once Upon a Dream Music Video by Emily Osment [Hannah Montana]; Disney Song Selection [plays just the actual song sequences from the film]; Princess Fun Facts – Pop-Up Video-style track that provides some historical background both for the film and princesses in general; Grand Canyon – a beautiful half-hour film that explores the Grand Canyon, set to the Grand Canyon Suite by Ferde Grofe; The Peter Tchaikovsky Story – an episode of the Wonderful World of Disney that featured a biographical film of Tchaikovsky’s life, plus sneak peeks at Sleeping Beauty. Disc Two: Briar Rose’s Enchanted Dance Game; Sleeping Beauty Fun With Language Game; Picture Perfect – The Making of Sleeping Beauty; Eyvind Earle – The Man and His Art; Alternate Opening; Sequence 8 [Forest Scene; Deleted songs; It Happens I Have a Penny [Version 1]; It Happens I Have a Penny [Version 2]; Art Galleries; Original Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough Attraction; Publicity; Four Artists Paint One Tree; Storyboard Sequences.

Grade: Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty: 50^th Anniversary Platinum Edition – A+

Grade: Features – A+

Final Grade: A+

Horror movies are notorious for many reasons other than the fact that people seem to enjoy a good scare now and then. For many first-time directors [see: Sam Raimi, John Carpenter], horror is attractive because fans are willing to buy into low-budget movies if they’re suitably original and/or smart, and/or fun. In the case of Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, two of the three apply.

Somewhere between Raimi and Joss Whedon, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer is a movie that has genuine with and more than a little gore – both components being sought after by horror aficionados. The film is a kind of origin story, telling of how Jack’s family was killed by a forest troll – leaving him prone to bouts of explosive anger.

Jack [Trevor Matthews] is a plumber who’s competent but not brilliant at his job and is taking a night course in chemistry to please his annoyingly strident girlfriend, Eve [Birds of Prey star Rachel Skarsten]. The problems begin when the class’ teacher, Professor Gordon Crowley [Robert Englund] asks him to fix the plumbing in his creepy old house at the top of an ominous hill. A weird smoke drifts into the home and possesses Crowley and before long, he’s ingested a demon’s heart – and not by choice!

One of the things that make Jack Brooks fun is the way it plays against convention. For example, in most genre movies, the audience wants the hero to get together with the girl. Here, we want him to bounce the squeaky shrew into the next town! Another is the kind of broad comedy we get from Englund’s Crowley. He doesn’t usually get to do this kind of shtick and he does it very well.

Most of the effects are practical – with the exception of enhancing the weird smoke that gets Crowley, the computer was used only to paint out wires and stunt mats. The result is some extremely fun “mutants;” one of the best Cyclops since Harryhausen [only here, it’s a man in a rubber suit], and some hentai-like tentacles. Of course, there’s also a big rubber demon that is more funny than scary [since it’s pretty much immobile], but the mix definitely gives Jack Brooks the kind of horror/comedy play that has elevated Raimi and Whedon to stardom.

Director and co-writer Jon Knautz keeps the pacing up and isn’t afraid to go for delicious moments of pure camp as well some genuine chills. First-time actor [and co-producer] Trevor Matthews seems to be having a lot of fun as the calmness-challenged Jack, who finally finds a way to put his temper to good use, while Skarsten is fine as the shrill, obnoxious Eve. The script is pretty tight, there are some clever uses of characters like the star student, Janice [Stefanie Drummond] but, is it just me, or are there a lot of star students named Janice?

As one might expect from an Anchor Bay DVD, there a lot of features here, too: Audio commentary by Knautz, Matthews, Producer Patrick white and Composer Ryan shore; Behind the Scenes – a fifty-minute making of featurette; Creating the Monsters; Creating the Music; World Premiere: Sitges, Spain; Five Deleted Scenes; Storyboard Comparisons; Conceptual Art Gallery; On Set Still Gallery and the Theatrical Trailer.

Grade: Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer – B

Grade: Features – A

Final Grade: B+

Originally a short film by Dez Vylenz for his film school thesis, The Mindscape of Alan Moore is an expanded ramble by Moore on various subjects – from Watchmen to the reasons he one day decided to tell his friends and family that he was a magician.

The format is incredibly simple: Moore sits on a comfy chair in his living room and speaks for almost ninety minutes. Given that he comes across as your favorite eccentric professor – the on whose lectures you never miss – this is not a hardship. Moore is an engaging speaker and is always witty and direct.

As he speaks, director Vylenz uses various means to enhance Moore’s subjects. There are some good old-fashioned psychedelic lightshow effects; CG animations that illustrate points Moore makes about concepts like “ideaspace,” and even live-action recreations of moments from some of Moore’s best known comics work: V for Vendetta [V putting on his unique mask], Watchmen [Rorschach perched on a rooftop looking out over the city], three instances of a blond guy in a trenchcoat, smoking as he wanders the streets of London [yup, it’s Constantine – though we only find that out in the end credits and the director’s commentary.

If you’re wondering what all the fuss about Moore is, The Mindscape of Alan Moore will give you a glimpse of his genius/madness – whichever you may take it to be. If you’re already a fan, it will give you some insights into the man that may actually enhance your enjoyment of his writings.

Features: Disc 1: Scene Specific Audio Commentary by Dez Vylenz; Making a Mindscape – a narration-free video diary of the film’s making; Director Interview – Dez Vylenz – Producer/Writer/Director; Interview: Brian Kinney – Special Make-Up Effects; Interview with Drew Richards – Music composer/Sound Designer; Trailer 1 [Lustmord St.], and Trailer 2 [Drew Richards St.]. Disc 2: Interviews From the comics World – Melinda Gebbie [The Lost girls w. Moore], Dave Gibbons [Watchmen], Paul Gravette [Author/Comics Historian], David Lloyd [V for Vendetta], Kevin O’Neill [League of Extraordinary Gentlemen], and Jose´ Villarubia [Promethea].

Grade: The Mindscape of Alan Moore – A

Grade: Features – A+

Final Grade: A

Ten years ago, ABC premiered a new half hour series the likes of which had never been seen before. With its single-camera walk-and-talks and three camera set pieces, it was a hybrid both in terms of style and content, being both dramatic and comedic in equal measure. Sports Night, which chronicled the behind the scenes goings on of running an ESPN/Sports center type of show, introduced the television audience to the unique perspective of creator Aaron Sorkin and his quintessential director, Thomas “Tommy” Schlamme.

With an ensemble cast of first-rate actors [Robert Guillaume, Josh Charles, Peter Krause, Felicity Huffman, Sabrina Lloyd and Joshua Malina as the main characters and recurring players including Greg Baker, Kayla Blake, Timothy Davis-Reed, Suzanne Kellogg, Jeff Mooring and Ron Ostrow] who could shift from drama to comedy [and vice-versa] in the middle of a line – hell! In the middle of a word!; dialogue-heavy scripts that could be as much as sixty-to-seventy pages for a thirty-minute show, and that unique shooting style, Sports Night became a cult hit even while it was airing – and it influenced an entire wave of single-camera shows. It’s safe to say that The Office and Arrested Development would probably not have been sold if Sports Night hadn’t laid the groundwork.

The show was groundbreaking in content as well as style. Some of the best episodes carried controversy lightly on their shoulders – The Six Southern Gentlemen of Tennessee dealt with race and the Confederate flag; Jeremy Goodwin dated an “adult film actress” over a four-episode arc; The Head Coach, Dinner and the Morning Mail dealt with date rape by a sports star; co-anchor Dan begins therapy, and so much more – not for the sake of controversy, but always in service of telling a compelling story.

In a momentary burst of controversy, I’m going on record as saying that Sports Night is the only series I’ve ever seen that produced no bad eps. None. Zero. Nada. Bupkiss. Zilch. It is a series that I can watch over and over and enjoy as much as I did the first time I saw it. Most eps of Sports Night are such works of beauty that I even mist over – made melancholy by the way the series died early, while far lesser programs flourished [I’m looking at you, According to Jim!] . For me, Aaron Sorkin will always the creator of Sports Night and those other two shows.

The six-disc Shout!Factory box set does it justice.

Features include: two excellent commentaries by Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme for the series premiere, Pilot, and the series finale, Quo Vadimus; a terrific commentary by editor Jane Ashikaga for Small Town; two decent commentaries for The Six southern Gentlemen of Tennessee by Josh Charles, Peter Krause, Sabrina Lloyd and Robert Berlinger, and Eli’s Coming by Peter Krause and Robert Berlinger; three so-so-to-awful commentaries by various cast members for Sally, Kafelnikov and The Local Weather; Season One Bonus Disc: The Show – new interviews with cast and crew; Face-Off – ESPN’s Sports Center vs. Sports Night – the pros talk about what the show got right and… not so much; Season One Gag Reel; Season Two Bonus Disc: Looking Back – an intimate conversation with Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme; Inside the Locker room – a look at the technical innovations of Sports Night, and the Season Two Gag Reel.

Grade: Sports Night: The Complete Series – A+

Grade: Features: A+

Final Grade: A+

In May, 1977, NBC premiered a [very] short-lived satirical science fiction series created by Buck Henry – one of the duo behind Get Smart. The series was called Quark and it ran for seven weeks before it was unceremoniously cancelled. The series was based around a United Galactic Sanitation Patrol vessel captained by Adam Quark [Richard Benjamin].

Most of the components of the series were based on Star Trek – particularly the relationship between Quark and his Vegeton science officer, Ficus [Vegetons, being plants have no emotions] – The Captain’s “Space Notes;” the transporter [or at least its sound effects], and even one episode, Goodbye Polumbus, which was a send up of the classic Trek ep, Shore Leave.

Henry took the Get Smart template [smart stories about less than brilliant characters in important positions] and transferred it to Quark. The crew of the USGP ship included Gene/Jean [Tim Thomerson], a “transmute” who exhibited both male and female behaviors; Ficus [Richard Kelton], the aforementioned Vegeton; Bettys I & II [Trish and Cybill Barnstable], a human and her clone, both of them second in command [and both of them crazy about their captain], and Andy [Bobby Porter], a cowardly android/robot that Quark built from spare parts. They received their missions from Otto Palindrome [Conrad Janis], commander of Perma Station 1 and The Head [Alan Caillou], a disembodied giant head seen only on a video screen.

Besides the show’s riffs on Star Trek, it also poked fun at all manner of SF and space opera conventions. The episode, May the Source Be With You, had a pretty obvious target [and skewered it pretty thoroughly] and set the tone for the series. But the show was just hitting it stride with the two-part Flash Gordon spoof, All The Emperor’s Quasi-Norms, when it was taken from NBC’s schedule.

Much of the series has held up pretty well, but there are instances where the silliness doesn’t quite make it. Overall, though, even some of the effects hold up – the transporter is more colorful than Trek’s and the series did show a fair number of actual alien lifeforms [some of which changed shapes disconcertingly – check out Captain Walker who is radically different in each of two eps].

Final Grade: B+

Tim Burton is a genius. That’s been made apparent by films like Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood, among others. He might not have directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, but it comes from his story and all the major design work, a goodly chunk of the song lyrics and the story are his – and Henry Selick does a marvelous job of bringing them to life.

The story – about how Jack Skellington, Pumpkin King of Halloweentown, gets bored with his life and decides to try his hand at Christmas – is bizarre, but only in the best of ways. It’s a holiday mashup, with Jack having “Sandy Claws” kidnapped so that he can deliver Christmas presents [and his idea of cool prezzies is certainly not anyone else’s. It’s a funny, scary and occasional poignant film that accepts the premise that kids like to be a bit scared now and then [and that stories fro kids do not have to be all sweet and nice...].

This new release comes in a box that features a 3-D plastic bust of Jack, which looks amazing. There is also a third disc which contains the digital copy for download to your computer or portable viewing device. Other features include: Commentary by Burton, Selik and composer Danny Elfman; What’s This? Jack’s Haunted Mansion Holiday Tour with Actual Narration, plus an optional Trivia Track, and Off Track – a look at how the Tour was adapted for Jack; Tim Burton’s Original Poem, read by Christopher Lee; The Making of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas; Disc Two: The Uncut Version of Frankenweenie [with new intro by Burton]; Burton’s first animated short, Vincent; Deleted Scenes [Deleted Storyboard Sequences and Deleted Animated Scenes – all with intros by Burton]; The worlds of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas – Halloweentown, Christmastown, The Real World; Storyboard-to-Film Comparison; Posters; Teaser Trailer, and Theatrical Trailer.

Grade: The Nightmare Before Christmas – A

Grade: Features – A+

Final Grade: A

Even with the writers strike, Grey’s anatomy finished the season with seventeen episodes. The problem was that it wasn’t the show’s best [or even third best] season. Somehow, amidst all the bed hopping, gossiping and medical arcs, the show’s creative team seemed to lack focus. One of the most glaring mistakes was having best friends Izzie [Katharine Heigl] and George [T.R. Knight] fall in love. Another was having Dr. Mark “McSteamy” Sloan’s [Eric Dane] behavior prompt both a boycott of his surgeries by all the nurses, and the required filling out and signing – by every hospital employee – of a form in which they divulged the names of every hospital employee with whom they had had sex. The episode, The Becoming, was on pretty shaky ground legally and the farcical subplot almost detracted from an arc involving a pair of gay soldiers – one of whom had a terminal brain tumor and had decided to try an experimental procedure devised by Drs. Derek “McDreamy” Shepard [Patrick Dempsey] and Meredith Grey [Ellen Pompeo].

On the plus side, the season introduced Meredith to the concept of therapy; introduced a nurse, Rose [Lauren Stamile], who caught Derek’s attention while he and Meredith were not together; the trials of the experimental procedure for treating brain tumors, which served to keep Derek and Meredith in close proximity; the introduction of Dr. Erica Hahn [Brooke Smith]; the introduction of Meredith’s half-sister, Lexie Grey [Chyler Leigh]; the crumbling of Bailey’s [Chandra Wilson] marriage, and the possibility that Erica and Callie [Sara Ramirez] were lesbians.

Most likely the problem was dealing with plots that had to include twelve regulars plus a number of recurring players as well as a host of guest stars. By the end of the season things were back on track and the final three eps really cooked. Which is not to say that all the earlier eps sucked. Very few were actually bad – and several were very good, especially Forever Young – in which a busload of high school students and their driver were hurt. That episode juxtaposed the cliques of high school with the cliques that had grown in the hospital – without anyone even seeming to notice [except rose, who was introduced in the ep].

Features include: two expanded episodes – Forever Young and The Becoming; three audio commentaries: Chyler Leigh and Associate Producer Karin Gleason on the season premiere, A change is Gonna Come; Lauren Stamile and Executive Producer/Director Rob Corn on Forever Young, and Sandra Oh and Director Julie Anne Robinson on The Becoming; New docs on the Block - featurette on the three new members of the cast – Chyler Leigh, Brooke Smith and Lauren Stamile; On Set with Patrick and Eric – the boys of Grey’s goofin’; Good Medicine: Favorite Scenes; Dissecting Grey’s Anatomy: Deleted Scenes [optional commentary would have been nice here...]; In Stitches: Season four Outtakes, and One Quick Cut – Grey’s from day one to the first part of season four in four minutes.

Grade: Grey’s Anatomy, Season Four – B-

Grade: Features – A

Final Grade: B

Last season’s addition of two new couples [one gay] to the inhabitants of Wisteria Lane sparked a season of television that ranked right up with the first season’s deliriously/deliciously funny first year. Of course, one member of one couple was a former resident of Wisteria Lane who was returning after a dozen years. Katherine [Dana Delaney] and Adam [Nathan Fillion] Mayfair and her daughter, Dylan Davis [Lyndsy Fonseca] brought one of the season’s darkest secrets with them, while the gay couple, Bob Hunter [Tuc Watkins] and Lee McDermott [Kevin Rahm] brought the world’s ugliest lawn ornament.

Katherine brought one other thing to the show – competition for Bree in the Make-Martha-Stewart-Look-Like-a-Piker Sweepstakes and Adam’s profession [gynecologist] led to some unusual [and unusually funny scenes early in the season. Meanwhile, Lynette [Felicity Huffman] and Tom Scavo [Doug Savant] had to deal with Tom’s daughter from his first marriage, Kayla [Rachel Fox] – a true demon seed if ever there was one. Add to that the Carlos-Gaby-Victor triangle; prospective in-laws; Edie’s usual machinations and the drama of a gay wedding… sorry, commitment ceremony… and that would do for an entire season on any other show. Then, there was the tornado…

The balance between the dramatic and comedic aspects of the series has never been better and the cast really tore into the material. Season four even spawned an episode that could contend for FX and set design Emmys with the tornado and aftermath episodes. If Marc Cherry decided to end the series tomorrow, it could have no better send-off.

Continuing his innovations, Marc Cherry came up with a great concept for the DVD package for season four: Couples’ Commentaries. Each of five episodes has a commentary track by the actors who play one of the main couples on the show, plus there are two additional commentaries of the traditional nature.

Features: Audio Commentaries: Marc Cherry, Bob Dailey and Jeff Greenstein on the season premiere, “Now You Know,” and Marc Cherry, Nicollette Sheridan and David Warren on Mother Said; Couples’ Commentaries: Marcia Cross and Kyle MacLachlan on Now I Know, Don’t Be Scared; Dana Delaney and Nathan Fillion on Distant Past; Eva Longoria Parker and Ricardo Antonio Chavira on Something’s Coming; Felicity Huffman and Doug Savant on Welcome to Kanagawa, and Teri Hatcher and James Denton on Mother said; Getting Desperate: From Beginning to End – following the making of Something’s Coming; Spare Time: Hanging With the Men of Wisteria Lane; Cherry-Picked: Creator Marc Cherry’s Favorite Scenes [with optional commentary]; Alternate ending [with optional commentary]; Deleted Scenes [with optional commentary], and a Blooper Reel. There is also an eight-page booklet designed as a Fairview Reality flyer with realtor’s descriptions of the eight houses we’ve seen in the show, along with ads for local businesses and a list of episode titles and some [but not all] of the bonus features [at the least, they could have included the list of commentary tracks].

Grade: Desperate Housewives, Season 4 – A

Grade: Features – A

Final Grade: A

April 6, 1968 – just over twenty-four hours after Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, James Brown took the stage at the Boston Gardens for a concert that was televised live – and simulcast on radio – and what riots had been on the brink of turning the city into a conflagration, simply went away.

Shout Factory’s three DVD set I Got the Feelin’ – James Brown in the ‘60s features The Night James Brown Saved Boston, a look back at what might just be the single most important music concert in history. Combining documentary footage of the riots that followed King’s assassination with clips from news reports of his death and interviews with members of Brown’s band, his manager, the former Mayor of Boston [who almost cancelled the concert], the Reverend Al Sharpton and more, the documentary that takes up disc one, paints a picture of an extraordinary evening that left Boston relatively unscathed while every other major city in America burned.

The seventy-five minute documentary includes television footage from Brown’s concert and shows his mastery of his music and his uncanny ability to read an audience. In one sequence, fans climb up on stage after Brown has waved the police back. Instead of showing fear, Brown shames them into leaving the stage – and carries on. The set’s first DVD also includes well over an hour of extra interview footage that adds to our understanding of the magnitude of what Brown did that night.

James Brown Live at the Apollo ’68 features performances culled from Brown’s performances at the legendary Apollo Theater and his performance of Out of sight from the acclaimed concert film, The T.A.M.I. show. One again, we can see the power that Brown had to command an audience’s attention – and devotion.

The final disc of the set is James Brown Live at the Boston Garden – April 5, 1968. Yup, it’s the concert that Brown gave the night after the Martin Luther King assassination. The DVD is a combination of the televised show plus additional audio from the FM radio simulcast. Despite the fact that the public television station remote crew had never recorded anything like the Brown concert [they had been doing classical concerts, primarily], the WGBH crew manages to capture the raw energy and power of Brown’s performance.

Besides the monumental importance of the Boston concert in terms of helping keep the city’s black population from falling into rioting, this disc shows that – even with an inexperienced crew televising the event – Brown was a masterful entertainer. His band is as tight as a band can be and yet swings like mad. Brown’s vocals pivot from a hushed moan to a full on wail in the turn of a phrase. The music is all. Brown uses his music to project hope and life into an arena – and city – where it had been thought lost only the night before. It’s a masterful performance – perhaps the best single performance of Brown’s long and illustrious career.

The set also includes a twenty-four page booklet that details the life of James Brown.

Grade: I Got the Feelin’ – James Brown in the ‘60s – A+

Grade: Features: B+

Final Grade: A

One of the mixed blessings of the continuing advancement of CG effects is that they make it possible for movies that might not otherwise exist to reach the public – usually in the form of sequels and/or prequels to theatrical films that earned enough to warrant a sequel/prequel, but maybe not quite enough to warrant a blockbuster – like The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior.

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior is, essentially, the story of how the young Mathayus [Michael Copon] became the warrior who would eventually become the Scorpion King. TSK2 is a jaunty little B-movie given more flare than it deserves by director Russell Mulcahy [Highlander], who almost made the resident Evil franchise interesting. Of course, in his RE movie, he didn’t have to contend with the stolid Randy Couture as Sargon, the brutish trainer of would-be Black Scorpion warriors and assassin of the king. Couture looks good in fight sequences, but has the acting chops of Howdy Doody.

Still, the adventures of Mathayus and his friends, Layla [Karen David] and the poet Aristophenes of Naxos – not Aristophenes of Corinth [that hack!] – [Simon Quarterman], are rousing fun in the tradition of spear & sandal/sword & sorcery epics of the sixties. You’ve got travel to exotic lands, messed up myths, and even an angry/jealous/lonely goddess [Astarte, played with cheerful malevolence by Natalie Becker].

Mulcahy keeps things moving at a quick enough pace that you might not even notice a scantily clad member of the group suddenly sprouting a couple of dangerous [and long] swords, and the effects are above average for a direct-to-DVD release. Plus, we get the usual gang of just-there-to-die-horribly characters to add the possibility of danger.

For a straight-to-DVD fantasy, TSK2 has a pretty decent assortment of bonus features: Deleted Scenes; Gag Reel; Fight Like an Akkadian: Black Scorpion Boot Camp [again, not quite the in-depth look at training it suggests, but still fun] Making of TSK2 [more a behind-the-scenes glimpse than an actual look at the making of the film]; Becoming Sargon: One on One Randy Couture [Couture discusses his time making the film]; On set With The Beautiful Leading Ladies [behind-the-scenes with Karen David and Natalie Becker]; Creating a Whole New World [Production design], and The Visual Effects of TSK2.

Grade: The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior – B-

Grade: Features: B+

Final Grade: B