Saturday, January 06, 2007
Mini-DVD Review: The New Adventures of He-Man Volume 1 (Dec. 26)
The New Adventures of He-Man - Volume 1 (BCI, $49.98) brings the first 33 episodes from the series only season. BCI did a VERY nice job with the original series, and this set is right on par I think. The series had just one season, and probably isn't as popular as the original series. I don't remember much about this series at all actually. Like the original He-Man, this was a first-run syndicated series and aired weekdays after school in 1990-91, so every day was basically a new episode. BCI will create two volumes for this series, which is a smart move and will be treated in the same manner just like the original series. So, of the 65 episodes, we got them on just two six-disc sets...not bad at all. Plus extras are included. In this series, He-Man heads to the future to the planet Primus. No more planet Eternia, but the villain Skeletor is back! The main villain in this really is Flogg and his mutants. This is certainly a new beginning and different from the original series, but still good! None of the original characters are back but He-Man and Skeletor. The menu screen has the options of Play All, Episodes, and Settings, with nice animated menus. When we select a sub-menu we get a nice transition music or even a nice transition video. When we select Settings, we change from English to Spanish, or vice versa. When we go to Episodes, nice animation and music plays with the episode title listed, you can choose play or select chapters to get to a scene faster. The director and writers of each episode are listed along with a nice long synopsis of the episode. Like the original series DVDs, these are the most informative episode menus I have ever seen. Nicely done! Chapters sub-menu has 4 stops with a nice little video in the box of each and interesting facts from Gleep on the right...again informative! The video is pretty good and the audio is also decent. There is one episode on disc 5 that had to be digitally remastered. I guess it had terrible prints, but the remastered episode looks great! The packaging is the same style as the original series, a nice outer box with a very nice looking digipak. There are nice images on the digipak along with memorable quotes from the episodes on this set. Each disc has its own section, so no overlapping and easy to take out. A nice episode booklet comes with the set that details so much along with two collectible 4 X 6 cards by two wonderful artists. On the episodes itself, each one runs just over 22 minutes or so. The bonus features are all on disc six. All the extras are listed on the main menu. The first option is Documentary Features, there are two of them: "Creating the New Adventures of He-Man" and this runs 28:04. Find out how the show got started and what it is about...great interviews. The next documentary is "The Comic Book Adventures of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" and this runs 25:16. This documentary shows us the 1982 comics and more! Then the next extra is called "Character Profiles." 50 detailed profiles of various Characters, Guest Characters and Technologies. When selecting one from each category, you get some text and you can play a little clip related to what you chose. Very cool. Then we have the series bible and scripts from episodes that can be accessed on your computer via DVD-ROM. They are in PDF format, so you will need Adobe Acrobat. Then we have four very short commercial bumpers that was used in first-run syndication. The total run time for all 4 in total is just 15 seconds. I wish they would have just kept this in the actual episodes. Finally, we have an Image Gallery where we can see 19 cool images. There is also a trailers section for other BCI/Ink & Paint DVDs such as She-Ra, Flash Gordon and the original He-Man.
This is indeed a wonderful set and BCI continues the He-Man brand in a great and quality way. I don't remember much about this show, but thanks to BCI, I can relive this and try to remember. Volume 2, which will have the final 32 episodes should be out in early 2007, I would think. They are releasing spin-off She-Ra as we speak and two more sets are still to come! By the power of good and the way of the magic, the battle begins anew, but buying this DVD is still the old way by clicking on the link below!
-- Reviewed by Pavan
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Friday, May 23
Happy's Place - "Sisters Ink" (NBC, 8:00PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When Isabella gifts Bobbie matching sister mugs, Bobbie is forced to quickly think of an equally thoughtful gift, resulting in Isabella expecting the sisters to get matching tattoos; Steve and Takoda investigate where Emmett has been sneaking off.
Happy's Place - "Whiskey Business" (NBC, 8:30PM ET/PT) (Repeat)
When Steve drops his favorite pen down a crack in the bar, Bobbie decides to pry the bar open to find it, discovering a very valuable bottle of whiskey in the process; Steve is thrown by Emmett's reaction to breaking a knife that Steve gifted him.
Sitcom Stars on Talk Shows (Week of May 19)
Friday, May 23
- Milly Alcock (Sirens) - Watch Milly on a repeat of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon at 11:35pm on NBC.
- Michael Urie (Shrinking/Krapopolis/Partners), Jessica Williams (Shrinking/Love Life/Just for Kicks) and Luke Tennie (Shrinking) - Michael, Jessica and Luke are guests on a repeat of After Midnight at 12:37am on CBS.
- Sarah Jessica Parker (And Just Like That.../Divorce/Sex and the City/Square Pegs) - Sarah talks all things And Just Like That... on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
- Method Man (Method & Red) - Method Man talks about his new film Bad Shabbos on Live with Kelly and Mark, so check your local listings.
- Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso) - Hannah talks about Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning on CBS Mornings sometime between 7-9am.
- Joe Jonas (Jonas) - NBC's Today catches up with Joe sometime between 7-9am.
- Kerry Washington (UnPrisoned) - Kerry talks about Shadow Force on a repeat of The View on ABC at 11am ET/10am CT-PT.
- David Hyde Pierce (Frasier) - NBC's Today catches up with David in the 9am hour.
- Rebel Wilson (Super Fun Night) - Rebel joins Sherri to talk about starring in the new film Juliet & Romeo on a repeat of Sherri, so check your local listings.
- Terri J. Vaughn (She the People/Mann & Wife/Meet the Browns/All of Us/The Steve Harvey Show) - Terri talks about starring in the new Netflix series She the People on a repeat of Sherri, so check your local listings.
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