I promised Ben I’d try to help out more with these posts, especially this week while he is working on that big film fest of his over in merry ol’ England. (Time has been precious for me recently, as we have a newborn in our home, little Parker James.) And what better way to start out my post than by pointing you towards my latest review, that being for The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh: The Friendship Edition. If you have the previous DVD release, there is no reason to upgrade; but for those of you waiting on a re-release for the opportunity to pick up this classic piece of Disney magic, this is a fine disc. In any event, read the review to find out more about Pooh and the classic featurettes that make up the movie. Oh, and we’ll be announcing the Pooh contest winners shortly too!

In case you’ve been thinking that Animated Views has been looking a little stale recently, have no fear. We (especially Ben and James) have been busy behind the scenes preparing for some big things in the offing. Ben has already mentioned about our recent staff drive, and I’m quite excited to say that it looks like we have some fine additions that we will be announcing soon. Our new recruits have been working on some great stuff, and we’re bursting to show you. Animated Views will continue marching towards our vision of what we view its potential to be, thanks to some talented newcomers. We’re just working on getting them all up to speed, but soon now you will see the results of their efforts. That means more features, more reviews, enhanced contests, and more interviews. Speaking of which, Josh also has a number of great interviews coming up soon, to add to his already impressive collection of exclusives. I also know I will be begging off “baby duty” a lot this summer in order to type up tons of reviews. Thanks for your support, Tessie!

You may wish to remember that the DVD shelves this week see the arrival of Warner’s new Filmation sets for Superman and Batman. We’ll have reviews of these shortly, and I for one am anxious to see if they stack up at all with BCI’s terrific efforts on their own Filmation titles. July is here soon, which promises plenty of DVD excitement for animation lovers, and we’ll be covering as many of those titles as we possibly can. BCI, Warner Home Video, Disney and others have been very generous with supplying us with viewing copies (many thanks!), and we’ll be happy to help you sort out which titles will be appealing to you and worth your purchasing dollar. It’s a golden age for animation collectors right now, and we’re loving it.

-Rand