The Nightmare Before Christmas Digitally Remastered for DVD and BluRay

The Nightmare Before Christmas gets a digital makeover for a new DVD and BluRay Collector's Edition (Disney)

Tim Burton, the darkly demented and wickedly inspired creator of Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice, began his career in the unlikely setting of Walt Disney's bright and sunny G rated studios. And their improbable alliance continued when Disney's Touchstone Pictures produced the animated adaptation of Tim Burton's children's book The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993. Once again, Burton displayed a delightfully sick and twisted perspective that's not often seen in adult films let alone children's pictures. This past Tuesday, Walt Disney Home Entertainment re-issued The Nightmare Before Christmas in a digitally restored version for DVD and BluRay.

Prison Break Season 3 on DVD and Blu-Ray Today

Watch this exclusive KPBS clip from the DVD.

Generally speaking I don't watch too much TV. The reason being that I need to see so many movies that I don't often have time. Plus if I get hooked on a show, I hate not being certain that I can watch each week. (I don't have TiVo or even a VHS recorder so I can't record shows to watch later.) So what this means is that if I do catch up a TV show, it is usually on DVD. My friend has been hooked on Fox's Prison Break since it's debut in 2005. Of course her main attraction to the show was lead actor Wentworth Miller whom she described as "hot, oh yeah, hot." When I heard the premise of the show -- involving a man breaking into prison in order to break his innocent brother out -- I thought how can they possibly sustain that for more than a couple shows? Well they have sustained it, and to considerable acclaim.

Season three comes out on DVD today and season four launches on September 1 on Fox. Season three promises "New Prison. New Break." This time, Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller of The Human Stain) finds himself wrongly incarcerated in a Panamanian prison where the conditions are so bad that even the wardens have pulled out, leaving the prisoners in charge. I came into the show cold, not having seen a single earlier episode, and within a few minutes, it was pretty easy to pick up on the narrative. Nothing wildly innovative here but the show provides tensely cut episodes and solid acting, most notably from Miller, the ever fascinating William Fichtner, and Robert Knepper  (see the KPBS exclusive clip of him discussing his character of T-bag from the bonus features). I'm also highlighting the clip below featuring director Karen Gaviola because I like the fact she's a woman directing a male-centered action drama. It's always nice to point out that gender boundaries are far less of an issue now than they used to be... at least I hope that's the case. But we still could use more diversity behind the scenes.

Hey Dude, It’s Harold and Kumar on DVD and Blu Ray

John Cho and Kal Penn as the new Bob Hope and Bing Crosby? Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo comes out on DVD/Blu Ray this week. (Warner Brothers)

At the Harold and Kumar panel at Comic-Con this past Sunday, someone asked if they could be a stoner version of Hope and Crosby creating a whole new set of Road pictures for the new millennium. And I have to admit that thought crossed my mind too. As wacky as that sounds, it's kind of accurate because like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Harold and Kumar are buddies with an appealing chemistry and marked set of differences, and they keep hitting the road for comic adventures. I have to confess I took something of a slacker approach to covering the last H&K road pic, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay when it opened theatrically back in April. Instead, I made one of the teen critics hustle to get his review up in time for the film's opening. But if there's any film where such slacker behavior might be acceptable, Harold and Kumar would be it. So dudes, here's my belated review of what is now the DVD/Blu Ray release of Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo. (By the way, check out video highlights of their Comic-Con panel --and see how unlike Kumar Kal Penn is -- at the KPBS Comic-Con blog)

The Sword in the Stone: 45th Anniversary DVD

The once and future king... The Sword in the Stone (Walt Disney)

Although Disney tends to incur more wrath than praise from me these days, I have always had fond memories of its animated film The Sword in the Stone (1963). I think it was the last animated film from the studio that I fully embraced. I had always been interested in the legend of King Arthur so the film was immediately appealing to me as a child. Today (June 17) a new 45th anniversary DVD and Blu Ray Disc come out and they are well worth picking up. Artist, writer and longtime Disney employee Bill Peet found inspiration for the film in the 1938 T.H. White novel The Once and Future King. White's book provided all the necessary ingredients for a classic children's tale - a young hero, knights, magic, and the stuff of legends. Peet could have stayed a little truer to White's book to deliver a richer tale, but Peet's adaptation is appealing nonetheless.

The story focuses on Arthur before he becomes king, when he was a scrawny lad known only as Wart. As the story begins, England is without a king, and is living in a dark age. The prophecy promises that whoever can pull a sword that has been embedded in an anvil will become the next king. But so far no one has been able to do it. Then along comes Wart, and Merlin, a magician, senses that he is destined for greatness. So Merlin takes it upon himself to educate the boy and his lessons make up much of the film.

I know that people have complained about the animation style of The Sword in the Stone, and while it may not be as lush as such early Disney films as Snow White and the Seven Dwarves or Fantasia, it has a charm all its own. Earlier Disney animated features were made either by multiple directors or by a team of sequence directors working under a supervising director but The Sword in the Stone was helmed by one man, veteran animator Wolfgang Reitherman (one of Disney's famed "Nine Old Men"). The animation style of this 1963 feature reveals some of the cost-cutting techniques that were now being implemented after the 1959 Sleeping Beauty failed to deliver the kind of box office returns the studio was hoping for. The characters in The Sword in the Stone are rather angular and there's not a lot of detail in the frame, plus Merlin is animated in a more comic manner than one might have liked for this great wizard -- yet despite all this, I enjoy the film and the character of young Wart. I love the way Wart is allowed to be such a kid but not in a smartalecky or cute way. He's curious, a bit goofy, a good but sometimes reluctant student, and visually his youthfulness is emphasized by clothes that leave the lad swimming in the excess space. But the clothes that are too big also foreshadow what Wart will eventually grow up to be, a King.

I've never been a fan of the musical interludes in the Disney films (live action or animated) but at least the songs here are minimal and not too annoying. You can, if you choose, watch with the lyrics on screen -- if you feel the need to sing-a-long. Surprisingly, a bonus feature about the song-writing brothers Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman proves quite interesting. Their discussion of how they approached writing the songs and the inclusion of two songs that were cut from the final film is well worth checking out. One of the deleted songs is called Magic Key and has Merlin explaining how knowledge is the key, now there's a lesson people could still learn from.

Most of the other bonus features are unimpressive. A gallery of sketches and concept art is enjoyable to scan through but the "All-New Merlin's Magical Academy Game" is pretty lame as it tries to be fun, educational and not to labor intensive for the studio to have produced. There are a pair of shorts included: the so-so Knight for a Day with Goofy and the delightful Brave Little Tailor with Mickey facing a giant (I love the sign at the beginning that warns "Giant at large").

The Sword in the Stone 45th Anniversary Edition (rated G for all audiences) remains a charmer and I'm glad to replace my old VHS with this new edition.

Companion viewing: Excalibur, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Camelot, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

The Game Plan on DVD

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson serenades Madison Pettis in The Game Plan (Disney)

Since I missed reviewing The Game Plan (out on DVD and Blu-Ray January 22) when it opened in theaters, I thought I would catch up with it on DVD. After all we’re in the midst of a Super Bowl fever that just got deflated for San Diego this past weekend. If the Charger’s play-off game had been a Disney movie, LT would have leaped off the bench in the final reel to lead the team to victory in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter. So for any Charger fans licking their wounds, maybe a football movie with a guaranteed happy ending will serve as consolation.

Shoot ‘Em Up on DVD

Now available on DVD

Okay, I don't usually write about the DVD release of a film but I have to highlight a film that I loved from last year but which failed to generate much interest at the box office. It's not a high and lofty work of art but it is easily the most fun you'll have at an American action movie. Shoot 'Em Up (coming out on DVD January 1) delivers breathtakingly choreographed action sequences that play out like wildly elaborate Rube Goldberg devices. Clive Owen stars as a man who knows how to handle guns and women (and sometime both at the same time). He comes to the aid of an infant whose mother was killed by mobsters. Paul Giamatti is a bean counting hit man and Monica Bellucci is a luscious prostitute. Plus the film wins the award for the most innovative weapon -- a carrot. I bet Bugs didn't realize the veggie he was chewing on could be lethal but first time director Michael Davis shows that in the proper hands it can be an instrument of death.

If you are an action junkie like I am, this is the high octane fix you've been waiting for. The DVD includes the following bonus features:

Audio Commentary

Ballet of Bullets: The Making of Shoot 'Em Up

Michael Davis' Original Animatics with Optional Commentary

Deleted Scenes

Theatrical Trailer

Addictive Re-mix Trailer

Red Band (R-rated) Trailer

Here's my original review of the film, including interviews with actor Clive Owen and director Michael Davis . This film kicks ass!