Batman: The Movie Coming To Blu-Ray July 1st!

HOLY HIGH DEFINITION, BATMAN!

BATMAN: THE MOVIE -- SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY DISC

The 1966 Caped-Crusading Classic Starring Adam West Dashes Onto Blu-Ray Disc July 1 From Fox Home Entertainment!

Dynamic Disc Features New, Exclusive High Definition Extras, Plus A BD Industry First, Nelson Riddle’s Cool Jazz Score Presented As An Isolated Music Track In Lossless Audio!

CENTURY CITY, Calif. – Citizens of Gotham City shall fear not when the heroic Caped Crusader and his crime-fighting chum, Boy Wonder, stop dastardly villains from de-hydrating the planet in the original full-length bat-film, BATMAN: THE MOVIE SPECIAL EDITION, arriving on high definition Blu-Ray Disc for the first time July 1st from Fox Home Entertainment. Starring Adam West (Batman) and Burt Ward (Robin), this 1966 spin-off of the popular “Batman” television series features all four of the hero’s most diabolical and cunning adversaries: the clown prince of crime, The Joker (Cesar Romero); the count of criminal conundrums, The Riddler (Frank Gorshin); the pompous waddling master of fowl play, The Penguin (Burgess Meredith); and the fiendish feline, The Catwoman (Lee Meriwether). Directed by Leslie H. Martinson (PT 109, Rescue from Gilligan’s Island), who later won a Golden Gryphon for his efforts, the colorful and over-the-top film featured a groovy and swank score by Academy Award® winner* Nelson Riddle.

Brimming with brand new and exclusive high definition bat-features, the Blu-ray Disc includes “Batman: A Dynamic Legacy,” a tribute to the caped crusader and look at Gotham’s evil villains in “Gotham City’s Most Wanted”; a 360 degree navigational tour of the Batmobile; and an isolated score in 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio (Lossless), an industry first for Blu-Ray Disc that allows viewers to listen to the score only. The Special Edition also includes interviews and commentary by actors West, Ward, and screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr., featurettes, trivia track, galleries and trailers.

The BATMAN: THE MOVIE SPECIAL EDITION Blu-Ray Disc will be available for the suggested retail price of $39.98 U.S. / $49.98 Canada. Prebook is June 4th.

DVD Special Features:
The Batman: The Movie Special Edition Blu-Ray Disc is presented in widescreen with English 5.1 DTS HD Lossless Audio, English and French Mono and includes English, French and Spanish subtitles. Bonus features include:

• Commentary by actors Adam West and Burt Ward
• Commentary by screenwriter Lorenzo Semple, Jr.
• Isolated Score Track 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio (Lossless)
• All-new high-definition featurettes:
o Batman: A Dynamic Legacy
o Caped Crusaders: A Heroes Tribute
o Gotham City’s Most Wanted
• 2001 35th Anniversary Piece Featuring Interviews with Adam West and Burt Ward
• The Batmobile Revealed with George Barris
• The Batmobile Interactive Tour – A 360 Degree Navigational Tour
• BATMAN on Location: Mapping the Movie
• Holy Pop-Up Trivia Track, Batman!
• Original Teaser and Theatrical Trailers
• Galleries:
o From the Vaults of Adam West
o Interactive Pressbook
o Posters
o Production Stills
o Behind the Scenes
o Premiere

Synopsis
The four greatest super-criminals of The United Underworld - The Catwoman, The Joker, The Riddler and The Penguin – combine forces to dispose of Batman and Robin as they launch their fantastic plot to control the entire world. Can the dynamic duo stop The United Underworld before it’s too late?

A recognized global industry leader, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC (TCFHE) is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray Disc (BD) as well as acquisitions and original productions. The company also releases all products around the globe for MGM Home Entertainment. Each year TCFHE introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets from mass merchants and warehouse clubs to specialty stores and e-commerce throughout the world. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC is a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, a News Corporation company.

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BATMAN: THE MOVIE -- SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY DISC
Street Date: July 1, 2008
Pre-book Date: June 4, 2008
DVD Price: $39.98 U.S. / $49.98 Canada
Catalog #: 2252370
Total Running Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Closed Captioned: Yes

Check out this Batman featurette, "Surviving the Set", "Theater of the Absurd", and "Becoming Robin", all on YouTube!

"They're Young, They're Beautiful, They Kill People"

"I was arguing with Jack Warner about 'Bonnie and Clyde,' and he said to me, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fine, kid, that's your opinion.' Then he says, 'You have your opinion, but you do know whose name is up on the water tower, right?' So I said, 'Yeah, hey, look, it's got my initials!' "

-- Warren Beatty, qouted from Geoff Boucher's great LA Times article about the genesis and impact of Bonnie & Clyde. Read it here!

More Muppet Madness Coming To DVD

MUPPETCENTRAL.COM: The Muppet Show Season 3 arrives May 20
Disney plans to release the Season Three 4-Disc Set of The Muppet Show nine months after Season Two
By Greg James, Muppet Central - January 25, 2008

It's time to play the music. It's time to light the lights. It's time to mark your calendars!

Buena Vista Home Entertainment has just announced the release of the highly anticipated "The Muppet Show: Season Three" DVD box set. The four-disc "special edition" set will include all 24 episodes from the third season of "The Muppet Show" along with an impressive collection of bonus features. The fully-loaded DVD box set of the complete third season is planned to hit store shelves on May 20, 2008. That's less than 117 days away.

Below is a full list of the DVD features which include the classic 1968 documentary "The Muppets on Puppets" (hosted by Jim Henson and Rowlf the Dog), plus a new documentary entitled "The Making of The Muppets". Disney has also released an early glimpse at the cover art for the set, featuring the face of Fozzie Bear. Like the first two seasons, the set will feature collectible fuzzy packaging.

Episode Listing:

• Kris Kristofferson & Rita Coolidge
• Leo Sayer
• Roy Clark
• Gilda Radner
• Pearl Bailey
• Jean Stapleton
• Alice Cooper
• Loretta Lynn
• Liberace
• Marisa Berenson
• Raquel Welch
• James Coco
• Helen Reddy
• Harry Belafonte
• Lesley Ann Warren
• Danny Kaye
• Spike Milligan
• Leslie Uggams
• Elke Sommer
• Sylvester Stallone
• Roger Miller
• Roy Rogers & Dale Evans
• Lynn Redgrave
• Cheryl Ladd

Bonus Features:
• "The Making of The Muppets" documentary
• "The Muppets on Puppets" vintage documentary
• ...and much more!

Retail Specifications:
• 4-disc DVD collection
• $39.99 suggested retail price
• Release date: May 20, 2008

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Sweet! You can pre-order the set at Amazon for $35.99 and free shipping. Buy it today and keep those box sets coming... there's three more seasons to go!

A Catalogue Of Things I Was Determined Not To Do At My Wedding

Still, I love the Super Mario cakes! Enjoy.

Thanks to uberreview.com, and geekologie.com.

Super-Cool Close Encounters DVD Hits Stores

Finally! A DVD release with all three cuts of the film - the original 1977 theatrical release, 1980's Special Edition, and 1998's Collector's Edition (basically the Special Edition with the mothership interior stuff removed). You can get it on standard format DVD ($28.99 + shipping at Amazon), or Blu-ray ($32.95+shipping). This is the best idea since Criterion released their laserdisc version (you could program your player to watch either the theatrical version or the Special Edition)! Filmmakers can tweak their films all they like - I just want to be able to pick the version that I want to watch!

This July 24th... The Wolfman's Got 'Nards

A 20th anniversary, two-disc set of The Monster Squad's being released - I'm assuming this is its debut on DVD. I remember liking it at the time, but who knows how it'll seem to me now? I'll probably rent it for a nostalgia wallow.

Ace In The Hole Comes To DVD

Ace In The Hole (aka The Big Carnival) is making its home video debut as a Criterion title - excellent!

The film itself is one of Wilder's darkest, extremely cynical - even for him! You'll also get another intense, eccentric performance from Kirk Douglas. Keep your eyes peeled for it this July!

Don't Hold Your Breath Dept.

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Despite controversy, Disney could unlock ’Song of the South’
By TRAVIS REED - Associated Press Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Walt Disney Co.’s 1946 film “Song of the South” was historic. It was Disney’s first big live-action picture and produced one of the company’s most famous songs — the Oscar-winning “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah.” It also provided the inspiration for the Splash Mountain rides at Disney’s theme parks.

But the movie remains hidden in the Disney archives — never released on video in the United States and criticized as racist for its depiction of Southern plantation blacks. The film’s 60th anniversary passed last year without a whisper of official rerelease, which is unusual for Disney, but President and CEO Bob Iger recently said the company was reconsidering.

The film’s reissue would surely spark debate, but it could also sell big. Nearly 115,000 people have signed an online petition urging Disney to make the movie available, and out-of-print international copies routinely sell online for $50 to $90, some even more than $100.

Iger was answering a shareholder’s inquiry about the movie for the second straight year at Disney’s annual meeting in New Orleans. This month the Disney chief made a rerelease sound more possible.

“The question of ‘Song of the South’ comes up periodically, in fact it was raised at last year’s annual meeting,” Iger said. “And since that time, we’ve decided to take a look at it again because we’ve had numerous requests about bringing it out. Our concern was that a film that was made so many decades ago being brought out today perhaps could be either misinterpreted or that it would be somewhat challenging in terms of providing the appropriate context.”

“Song of the South” was re-shown in theaters in 1956, 1972, 1980 and 1986. Both animated and live-action, it tells the story of a young white boy, Johnny, who goes to live on his grandparents’ Georgia plantation when his parents split up. Johnny is charmed by Uncle Remus — a popular black servant — and his fables of Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear and Brer Fox, which are actual black folk tales. (An honorary Oscar to James Baskett for his portrayal of Uncle Remus.)

Remus’ stories include “The Tar Baby,” a phrase Republican presidential hopefuls John McCain and Mitt Romney have been criticized for using to describe difficult situations. In “Song of the South,” it was a trick Brer Fox and Brer Bear used to catch the rabbit — dressing a lump of hot tar as a person to ensnare their prey. To some, it’s now a derogatory term for blacks, regardless of context.

The movie doesn’t reveal whether it takes place before or after the Civil War, and never refers to blacks on the plantation as slaves. It makes clear they work for the family, living down dirt roads in wood shacks while the white characters stay in a mansion. Remus and other black characters’ dialogue is full of “ain’t nevers,” “ain’t nobodys,” “you tells,” and “dem dayses.”

“In today’s environment, ‘Song of the South’ probably doesn’t have a lot of meaning, especially to the younger audiences,” said James Pappas, associate professor of African-American Studies at the University of New York at Buffalo. “Older audiences probably would have more of a connection with the stereotypes, which were considered harmless at the time.”

Pappas said it’s not clear that the movie is intentionally racist, but it inappropriately projects Remus as a happy, laughing storyteller even though he’s a plantation worker.

However, Pappas said he thinks the movie should be rereleased because of its historical significance. He said it should be prefaced, and closed, with present-day statements.

“I think it’s important that these images are shown today so that especially young people can understand this historical context for some of the blatant stereotyping that’s done today,” Pappas said.

From a financial standpoint, Iger acknowledged last year that Disney stood to gain from rereleasing “Song.” The company’s movies are popular with collectors, and Disney has kept sales strong by tightly controlling when they’re available.

Christian Willis, a 26-year-old IT administrator in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., started a “Song of the South” fan site in 1999 to showcase memorabilia. He soon expanded it into a clearinghouse for information on the movie that now averages more than 800 hits a day and manages the online petition.

Willis said he doesn’t think the movie is racist, just from a different time.

“Stereotypes did exist on the screen,” he said. “But if you look at other films of that time period, I think ‘Song of the South’ was really quite tame in that regard. I think Disney did make an effort to show African-Americans in a more positive light.”

Though Willis is hopeful, there’s still no telling when — or if — the movie could come out (beyond its copyright lapsing decades from now).

In a statement to The Associated Press, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Disney’s distribution arm, said: “‘Song of the South’ is one of a handful of titles that has not seen a home distribution window. To this point, we have not discounted nor committed to any distribution window concerning this title.”
———
On the Net:
http://www.songofthesouth.net

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I just can't imagine Disney releasing this title on home video. There are plenty of films that are more volatile and potentially damaging - "Birth Of A Nation" and "Triumph of the Will" are both available on DVD - but releasing this film under the Disney banner would be a pretty controversial move, at best.

I'm not personally offended by "Song of the South", and I do think it has historic importance, but I understand if a lot of people don't think it should be shelved next to "Bear In The Big Blue House" at the video store.

Ultimately, I'm not sure "Song" is really worth the struggle. Take away the lures of its scarcity and political incorrectness, and... I don't think it's all that compelling a film. The biggest loss (to me) is that the general public can't see the animated segments, which to me are by far the most entertaining parts of the movie. It's got some of the best comic animation ever to come out of the studio, combining the energy of the Warner Brothers/MGM studios with Disney's technical finesse.

R.I.P. VHS

VARIETY: VHS, 30, dies of loneliness
The home-entertainment format lived a fruitful life
By DIANE GARRETT

After a long illness, the groundbreaking home-entertainment format VHS has died of natural causes in the United States. The format was 30 years old.

No services are planned.

The format had been expected to survive until January, but high-def formats and next-generation vidgame consoles hastened its final decline.

"It's pretty much over," concurred Buena Vista Home Entertainment general manager North America Lori MacPherson on Tuesday.

VHS is survived by a child, DVD, and by Tivo, VOD and DirecTV. It was preceded in death by Betamax, Divx, mini-discs and laserdiscs.

Although it had been ailing, the format's death became official in this, the video biz's all-important fourth quarter. Retailers decided to pull the plug, saying there was no longer shelf space.

As a tribute to the late, great VHS, Toys 'R' Us will continue to carry a few titles like "Barney," and some dollar video chains will still handle cassettes for those who cannot deal with the death of the format.

Born Vertical Helical Scan to parent JVC of Japan, the tape had a difficult childhood as it was forced to compete with Sony's Betamax format.

After its youthful Betamax battles, the longer-playing VHS tapes eventually became the format of choice for millions of consumers. VHS enjoyed a lucrative career, transforming the way people watched movies and changing the economics of the film biz. VHS hit its peak with "The Lion King," which sold more than 30 million vidcassettes Stateside.

The format flourished until DVDs launched in 1997. After a fruitful career, VHS tapes started to retire from center stage in 2003 when DVDs became more popular for the first time.

Since their retirement, VHS tapes have made occasional appearances in children's entertainment and as a format for collectors seeking titles not released on DVD. VHS continued to make as much as $300 million a year until this year, when studios stopped manufacturing the tapes.

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So Variety's trying to write like The Onion now. Weird.