Reviews Archive for Ben Simon

Thunderbean Roundup: Van Beuren Studio Cartoons and Other Strange and Commercial Rarities

Ben Simon and Randall Cyrenne review Uncensored Animation, Tom And Jerry, Strangest Cartoons, Toddle Tales & Rainbow Parades and Cartoon Commercials!

Curious George: A Very Monkey Christmas

Curious George returns for the holidays in a delightful little animated special that should appeal to his many young fans and put a warm smile on the faces of some adults too!

Superman: The Complete Animated Series

Resonant stories, excellent vocal performances and tons of well crafted action and pre-digital effects sequences mark Superman: Animated out as a very well realized slice of modern DC animation.

Walt Disney Treasures: Zorro – The Complete First Season

Walt Disney’s television take on the original caped crusader is a fantastic series that breaks through the nostalgia to remain terrific entertainment!

Plastic Man: The Complete Collection

Ruby-Spears (and not Hanna-Barbera as the packaging insists) animated superhero comedy adventure is fun if inconsistent, but even though the limited extra are fanplastic, the transfers here have been stretched to the limit.

Ruby-Spears’ Superman: DC Comics Classic Collection

The Man Of Steel’s 1988 animated series is a surprisingly epic, mature and quality made show that bridges the gap between the Christopher Reeve movies and later animated versions.

Inside The Box: Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs DVD and Blu-ray Disc Comparisons

Still not sure which version of Snow White is right for you? With the DVD now available, we delve into all the options including a peek inside the deluxe big red box!

A Christmas Carol

Scrooge himself and the Ghost Of Christmas Present finally break the motion-capture spell in this magically spirited film, but the obvious and merely adequate production design and other characters can’t but fall unfortunate victims to the process…

Up

Disney/Pixar’s latest triumph isn’t quite the all-out masterpiece it has been hailed as, its soggy central act lifted by an outstanding opening and exciting climax, but it looks and sounds beautiful and is serviced well enough on its Blu-ray debut.

Monsters, Inc.

Pixar’s fourth film makes it to Blu-ray in an absolutely stunning hi-def experience, but despite an abundance of discs (a second BD, DVD and Digital Copy), there’s little new here and even some missing ingredients.

The Prisoner: The Complete Series

Online discounts bring Patrick McGoohan’s classic groundbreaking thriller adventure down to a more reasonable saving, but the restored HD image and supplements, including a comprehensive new documentary is well worth the price anyway!

Merry Madagascar

DreamWorks Animation’s second seasonal special amplifies everything that is good and bad about their Madagascar franchise, from the decent squashy animation to loud, shouty dialogue, with too much screen time, as usual, handed to lemur King Julien.

Fantastic Mr Fox

Forget whatever you’ve heard: Mr Fox is a Wes Anderson film pure and simple, and marks that rare occasion when a live-action director brings a unique, and genuinely Fantastic, new perspective to the animation medium.

Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs

Though still pretty cool, the Ice Age franchise needs to come up with some new directions if it’s going to remain fresh, and although fair value, this Blu-ray and DVD combo features an odd mix of old and new material.

Cars: Ultimate Gift Pack

Pixar’s gleaming fender took an albeit minor dent with Cars, here driven around the block one more time with both original DVD and Blu-ray releases accompanied by McQueen and Mater model cars and gift set packaging.

A Muppet Christmas: Letters To Santa

There’s little genuine Christmas cheer enclosed with these Letters, I’m very sorry to write, in this labored and unauthentic special, which is probably not destined to become a Christmas classic and where the old Muppets magic fails to sparkle.

Michael Jackson’s This Is It

High School Musical director Kenny Ortega gives fans a chance to see Michael Jackson in rehearsal for his never-to-be London concerts.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs: Diamond Edition

In short, Disney’s new Diamond Edition of Walt’s first boasts a beautifully clean new transfer, but for all the bells and whistles, the supplements are not the fairest in the land.

Warner Archive: The Our Gang Collection

Those original little rascals return in a delightfully nostalgic but exhaustive collection of all 52 of their MGM-produced Our Gang shorts!

Disneynature: Earth

Disneynature’s first outing cribs its material from the BBC’s Planet Earth but provides an almost perfectly formed cut-down of events that will amaze newcomers to this footage.

Disney Princess Enchanted Tales (with Bonus Disc)

This product line extension is back and should again be avoided by collectors, even if they’re tempted by a new, scantly packed and redundant bonus disc.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition

All four Turtles movies in one box, and although the first three films unfortunately miss out on extras, the set gains points with its collectible physical extras.

Race To Witch Mountain

Disney’s modern update of its own 1975 thriller isn’t as shameless as it might have been, providing the same kind of thrills for today’s audience that the original did back in original release, but the discs are very poor in terms of supplements, making this Race a rental at best.

Warner Archive: Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze

Warner’s Archive Collection offers up overlooked and rarely seen movies, including the George Pal-produced tongue in cheek adventure Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze.

Warner Archive: Freebie And The Bean

Warner’s Archive Collection offers up overlooked and rarely seen movies, including the prototype cop-buddy comedy Freebie And The Bean.

Warner Archive: Captain Nemo And The Underwater City

Warner’s Archive Collection offers up overlooked and rarely seen movies, including the exciting matinee style adventure Captain Nemo And The Underwater City.

Warner Archive: A Distant Trumpet

Warner’s Archive Collection offers up overlooked and rarely seen movies, including legendary director Raoul Walsh’s T A Distant Trumpet.

Warner Archive: Captain Sindbad

Warner’s Archive Collection offers up overlooked and rarely seen movies, including Byron Haskin’s Captain Sindbad reviewed here.

Warner Archive: The Big Circus

Warner’s Archive Collection offers up overlooked and rarely seen movies, including Irwin Allen’s The Big Circus reviewed here.

Watchmen: Director’s Cut

Love it or hate it, director Zack Snyder’s immensely intricate translation of Moore/Gibbons’ landmark graphic novel is an impressive achievement, and this more cohesive Director’s Cut is stunningly served in a high definition set.