My DVD Collection 7.0

Happy very belated Holidays, everyone! With every Christmas comes news DVDs and Blu-Rays! Today, I'll show you my updated DVD collection!

These are movies I will be watching/have watched between December 25th and January 17th. I watched  Arthur Christmas that night as a Christmas present. The DVDs in this pile include Arthur Christmas, The Iron Giant, Kung Fu Panda, April and the Extraordinary World, the first Ice Age, An American Tail, The Incredibles, and Fantasia.

From top to bottom: Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2, Ed, Edd n Eddy: Edifying Ed-Ventures, Ed Edd n Eddy: Fools Day Par-Ed-Ise, Teacher's Pet, The Brave Little Toaster, Bambi, and Splash.

From top to bottom: Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, Jim Henson's The Christmas Toy, Muppets Magic From The Ed Sullivan Show, and seven Best of The Muppet Show DVDs.

From top to bottom: Peanuts Holiday Collection, Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (a 1978 TV special), a rare Walt Disney Treasures DVD, Prep and Landing, Freaky Friday, Fantasia 2000, and Brother Bear.

From top to bottom: Horton Hears a Who! (the 1970 TV special from toon legend Chuck Jones), another rare Walt Disney Treasures DVD, Toy Story That Time Forgot, Balto double feature, Toy Story of Terror!, Ghostbusters, and Short Circuit.
You may have noticed that there are now two tin Walt Disney Treasures DVDs in my collection. The first is Silly Symphonies: Historic Musical Animated Classics. This set contains 31 uncensored Silly Symphony cartoons, including the Oscar-winning Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, The Ugly Duckling, and The Old Mill. Only 150,000 copies were produced.

The other tin is Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studios: A Glimpse Behind the Studio Magic. This set contains the behind-the-scenes film The Reluctant Dragon, as well as three episodes of Walt Disney's TV show: The Story of the Animated Drawing, The Plausible Impossible, and Tricks of Our Trade. Only 125,000 copies of this rare DVD were produced.

Next up are my Muppet DVDs!

From left to right: Fraggle Rock Seasons 1-4, Sesame Street Old School Volumes 1 and 2, The Muppet Show Seasons 1-3, Best of The Muppet Show Volume 2 (Mark Hamill, Paul Simon, Raquel Welch), The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper/Muppet Treasure Island double feature, The Muppets Take Manhattan/Muppets From Space double feature, The Muppet Christmas Carol, and The Muppets 2011.

This section simply contains A Muppet Family Christmas and six more Best of The Muppet Show DVDs. If your're wondering where my Dinosaurs DVDs are, they're in a secret compartment where I can take them anywhere.

Left to right: The Jungle Book, The Princess Bride, Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 1, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Robots, 101 Dalmatians, Chicken Run, Mary Poppins, A Bug's Life, Groundhog Day, and The Simpsons Seasons 1-5.
Top to bottom: The Simpsons Season 6-8.

From top to bottom: Incredeibles 2, The Prince of Egypt, Moana, Frozen, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Coco, The Book of Life, Song of the Sea, Antz, WALL-E, Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of NIMH, The Peanuts Movie, Sleeping Beauty, Shrek, Hercules, and The Emperor's New Groove.

From top to bottom: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Lion King, The Land Before Time, Finding Nemo, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Lady and the Tramp, Tangled, The Little Mermaid, The Rescue Down Under, How to Train Your Dragon, Finding Dory, Tarzan, Enchanted, Babe, Zootopia, Inside Out, Ratatouille, and Up.

From top to bottom: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, The Great Mouse Detective, Anastasia, Beauty and the Beast (Blu-Ray), Bolt, Wreck-it Ralph, Monsters Inc, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Lilo & Stitch, Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Film Collection, Mulan, Ferngully: The Last Rainforest, Cinderella, and Big Hero 6.

From left to right: Home Alone, Pocahontas, Brave, The Good Dinosaur, Frankenweenie, Rio, How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (the TV special), Muppets Tonight, The Rescuers, Happy Feet, The Nightmare before Christmas, Schoolhouse Rock: 30th Anniversary Edition, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, Best of The Muppet Show Volume 7 (George Burns, Dom DeLuise, Bob Hope), Shrek 2, Banjo the Wooodpile Cat, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Beauty and the Beast (DVD), Jim Henson's The Storyteller, Walt Disney's Swiss Family Robinson, Hugo the Hippo, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 1990 film), Toy Story 2 (a different copy), The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The LEGO Movie, and Cartoon Vault.
I talked about the Cartoon Vault DVD back in July of 2017. Here's a link below in case you forgot.
https://asateriale.blogspot.com/2017/07/my-dvd-collection-40.html
Before Disney acquired the rights to the Muppets in 2004, The Jim Henson Company in conjunction with Time-Life Home Entertainment released 45 select episodes of The Muppet Show on DVD and VHS between 2001 and 2002, titled Best of The Muppet Show. Each DVD came with three episodes and some bonus features, including concept art and introductions from Brian Henson, Jim's son.

More about these DVDs are talked about here.
http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Best_of_the_Muppet_Show
As a bonus, I decided to show two DVDs I actually had for quite a while, as well as four books.

Two contrasting Nicktoons (Hey Arnold! and The Wild Thornberrys) on top of The World History of Animation by Stephen Cavalier, The Art of DreamWorks Animation by Ramin Zahed, Jim Henson: The Works by Christopher Finch, and The Art of Walt Disney (also by Christopher Finch).

Well, that wraps up my DVD collection for now! Tomorrow, we will see what 2019 has to offer for animated movies! There will be lots of sequels next year...

Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 1995-1997

Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 1995-1997
1995

There were two animated movies released in April. The first was the feature film debut of everyone's favorite dim-witted anthropomorphic dog Goofy, simply called A Goofy Movie. The film did actually well at the box-office and got favorable reviews. It's even a favorite of film critic and historian Leonard Maltin!

The second was Don Bluth's final film from Sullivan-Bluth Studios, The Pebble and the Penguin. The film did poorly at the box-office and got negative reviews. However, the VHS sales were good.

In June, Disney released their 33rd animated movie, Pocahontas. While the film was successful at the box-office, it got mixed reviews. However, Pocahontas did win the Oscars for Best Original Song and Best Original Score.

November saw the premiere of Toy Story, the world's first-ever computer animated feature film. The film grossed over 373 million dollars worldwide and received critical acclaim. Director John Lasseter even received an honorary Oscar for the completion of the first computer animated feature film.

And finally, in December, Amblimation released their third and final film, Balto. It did better at the box-office than their previous two movies, but had to compete against Toy Story.

1996

March saw the US release of Ghost in a Shell, another R-rated anime movie. It was about a half-android girl who must stop The Puppet Master, a government experimental super computer gone horribly wrong and starts hacking other networks.

Also released in March was All Dogs Go To Heaven 2. This movie is notorious for ruining the original film by turning Charlie Barkin, who was originally a gambling dog with a secret soft side, into an incompetent cheeseburger-loving doofus.

In April, Tim Burton released his second stop-motion film, James and the Giant Peach. While the film received good reviews, 'James' only earned 29 million dollars on a 38 million dollar budget.

In June, Disney released their 34th animated feature, The Hunchback of Notre Dame. While the film got better reviews than Pocahontas, it didn't meet box-office expectations.

And finally, in December, the famous dim-witted television duo, Beavis and Butt-Head, made their feature film debut with Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. In this film, Beavis and Butt-Head go on an adventure across the country to retrieve their stolen TV.

1997

In March, Turner Feature Animation released their second and final film, Cats Don't Dance. It's actually a bit like a predecessor to Illumination's Sing. Unfortunately, Cats Don't Dance was a box-office failure, but it did win the Annie Award for Best Animated Feature.

In June, from Ron Clements and John Musker, directors of The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, came Disney's 35th animated feature, Hercules. While the film got great reviews in every country except for Greece, Hercules didn't meet box-office expectations. However, it did get the Oscar nomination for Best Original Song.

And finally, in November, Don Bluth released his biggest hit since The Land before Time, Anastasia. This was the first film from Arizona-based animation studio Fox Animation Studios. Anastasia did very well at the box-office, got great reviews, and even got the Oscar nomination for Best Original Song. Sadly, it lost to James Cameron's Titanic.
I'm sorry that I didn't include Space Jam. For this project, I decided to exclude to all movies that are part animated and part live-action, with the exceptions of Walking With Dinosaurs and Sponge Out of Water.
That's all I have to say for this week's Animated Movies Throughout the Years! Tune in on
January 4th when we talk about animated movies from 1998, in which Disney brought us
to China and gave us an honorable movie, DreamWorks made their feature film debut
with The Prince of Egypt, and two CGI insect movies were released simultaneously.

Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 1992-1994

Animated Movies Throughout the Years: 1992-1994

1992

There were two animated movies released in April. The first was the
Australian-American Ferngully: The Last Rainforest. While the film
did well at the box-office, Ferngully got mixed reviews. However,
it has become a cult classic among animation buffs.

The second was Rock-a-Doodle, which is considered by fans as
Don Bluth's first bad film. The film didn't do that well at the
box-office, but the ridiculous plot and overabundance of unnecessary
songs may be reasons why.

July saw the release of Bebe's Kids. I honestly never seen
this movie, but I heard it was pretty bad.

In August, Japan and America collaborated together for a feature-length adaptation
of Windsor McKay's legendary comic Little Nemo. It was called Little Nemo:
Adventures in Slumber Land, with songs from the Sherman Brothers,
the same duo behind the songs for Mary Poppins and The Jungle
Book.

And finally, in November, Disney released their next big animated movie, Aladdin.
The film got really good reviews when it premiered, grossed over 500 million
dollars at the box-office, and won the Oscars for Best Original Song and Best
Original Score.

1993

Note: Walt Disney Feature Animation didn't release a single movie this year.

The first animated feature for the year was released in May, which was
Happily Ever After. It was an unofficial sequel to Walt Disney's Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs. The film was a box-office failure and got
rather negative reviews. Happily Ever After did so badly that Filmation,
the production house behind this movie, closed their doors for good.

In June, William Hannah and Joseph Barbara* released one of their last
animated movies, Once Upon a Forest. Unfortunately, the film tanked
at the box-office because it had to compete against Jurassic Park.

In July, the famous cat-and-mouse duo made their feature-film debut with
Tom and Jerry: The Movie. However, the film got rather negative reviews.
Many fans complained that Tom and Jerry can talk. In fact, when Gene
Siskel and Roger Ebert reviewed Tom and Jerry: The Movie, they gave
it two thumbs down. They also said ‘Let's hope that when they make a
Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote movie, that they don't start talking’.

October saw the release of Tim Burton's first stop-motion feature film,
The Nightmare before Christmas. The film did very well at the box-office,
got great reviews, and has since become a beloved holiday classic.

In November, Amblimation released their second film, We're Back! A
Dinosaur's Story. It was about a quartet of dinosaurs who get sent
forward through time to the 1990s to go to the New York Museum of
Natural History. While the film had superb character animation and
impressive vocal talents, We're Back! tanked at the box-office: It had
to compete against The Nightmare before Christmas, Mrs. Doubtfire,
and Schindler's List.

And finally, on Christmas, Batman made his animated feature debut with
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. Unfortunately, like other hand-drawn
animated movies that year, 'Batman' tanked at the box-office: It earned
only 5 million dollars on a 6 million dollar budget.

1994

The year unfortunately kicked off in March with Don Bluth's Thumbelina.
The film did poorly at the box-office, got rather negative reviews, and
even won the Razzi Award for Worst Original Song. It was the only
animated movie to win a Razzi for 20 years.

June saw the US release of The Princess and the Goblin, the first
animated movie to come out of Wales. However, it got very negative
reviews. 'Princess and the Goblin' did so badly that Hemdale, who
distributed the film, had to convince the critics of children to review the film.

Also in June, Disney released their beast of a film, The Lion King.
The film got very positive reviews, grossed over 780 million dollars
worldwide at the box-office, and won the Oscars for Best Original
Song and Best Original Score.

In October, Don Bluth released his worst-reviewed animated movie
ever, the overly cute A Troll in Central Park. The film earned only 70,000 dollars on
a 22 million dollar budget. John Pomeroy, a friend of Bluth's, even left the company to return to Disney.

There were two animated movies released in November. The first was
The Swan Princess, which is probably best described as a cross between
Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and, even though it didn't exist yet,
The Princess and the Frog. Unfortunately, 'Swan Princess' tanked at the
box-office, but has become a cult classic among some animation fans.

The second was The Pagemaster, the first of two animated movies from
Turner Feature Animation. It was about an overprotective young boy who
goes on an adventure in the library with three talking books: Horror, Fantasy,
and Adventure. Sadly, the film tanked at the box-office. *In case you're wondering who they were, William Hannah and Joseph Barbera were the creators of the world-famous Tom and Jerry cartoons for MGM during the 1940s. After leaving MGM in 1957, Will and Joe decided to make their own studio called Hannah-Barbera Productions, in which they would create beloved animated TV shows like The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and Scooby-Doo. What made their animated productions different from Disney and Warner Bros at the time was the fact that the same backgrounds would be used over and over again. Hannah-Barbera Productions also produced some animated feature films, such as 1973's Charlotte's Web. In 1994, Hannah-Barbera started a division called Cartoon Network Studios, which was focused on original programming for the then-new channel Cartoon Network. Some of their work includes Dexter's Laboratory, The PowerPuff Girls, Samurai Jack, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, Regular Show, Steven Universe, and Over the Garden Wall, just to name a few. That's all I have to say for this week's Animated Movies Throughout the Years! Tune in next week when we talk about animated movies from 1995-1997, in which Pixar brought toys to life and changed animation forever, Disney tried to adapt a play from Victor Hugo into an animated feature film, and Don Bluth made his return to quality filmmaking with Anastasia.

Movie Review: The Star Part 2

Movie Review: The Star Part 2                                                                                                   12-9-18

From Sony Pictures Animation, The Jim Henson Company, and Walden Media comes The Star, based on the story of the birth of Jesus. Bo is a donkey who dreams of a life beyond the grain mill. One day, he finds the courage to break free and teams up with a lamb named Ruth and a dove named Dave with lofty expectations. Along with three wisecracking camels and some eccentric stable animals, Bo and his friends follow a star in the sky on the adventure of their dreams, and become part of the greatest story ever told.

Now, what do I think of The Star? Well, it obviously doesn't hold a candle to The Prince of Egypt, but is much better than another Biblical animated film, 2007's The Ten Commandments. It looked something like this.

THIS is from 2007?! That looks like something from the 1990s!

Instead of being animated at Sony Pictures Imageworks, like Surf's Up, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Hotel Transylvania, The Star was animated at Cinesite in Montreal.

Now what do I think of this movie? Well, to be honest, I found it disappointing. The Star has paper-thin characters, unfunny jokes, and a story that should've focused on Mary and Joseph, voiced by Gina Rodriguez and Zachery Levi. I can't believe that I'd ever say this, but I actually think I prefer some of the characters in The Secret Life of Pets, which was also made after an overabundance of talking animal movies from different studios, instead of this.

You would also think that since Abby, the pygmy jerboa voiced by Kristen Chenoweth, was featured a lot in the promotional material, she would end up being a major character, right? Wrong. She only has about five minutes of screen time in the entire film. In fact, you could remove Abby from the story and it would still be the same!

In conclusion, while not as bad as The Emoji Movie or the Korean-produced Spark: A Space Tail, The Star is a film that might charm younger viewers, but doesn't have much for teens or adults. If you want to watch a good biblical animated film other than The Prince of Egypt, I recommend the half-hour Disney short film, The Small One. It's included on most DVD releases of Mickey's Christmas Carol. The Small One looked something like this.

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5.

Movie Review: The Star Part 1

Movie Review: The Star Part 1                                                                                                12-8-18

I know what some of you are thinking. 'Why are you reviewing this piece of CG fodder?' Well, I decided to review The Star because it was co-produced by The Jim Henson Company. This is partially a big deal for me because I admire Jim Henson as much as Schroeder admires Beethoven.

While he was professionally known as a puppeteer, Jim Henson actually had a fascination with computer animated characters, and even had an idea of making a special about computer graphics with a brief appearance of a CGI Kermit.

In 1989, Jim Henson's dream can true with a new Muppet: Waldo C Graphic, a computer generated Muppet who was controlled in real time by a remote control glove.

After Jim's death in 1990, following the success of Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park, Jim Henson's Creature Shop decided to start making CG characters. One of their first CG characters was a bee named Tizzy, who would appear as a regular character during the first two seasons of The Animal Show with Stinky and Jake.

During the second half of the 90s, computers threatened the future of puppets and animatronics. The Creature Shop needed to find a way to make animatronics and computer graphics live symbiotically. Not only did they make CG characters that were controlled by animatronics, but they also experimented with motion capture, including unused CGI centaurs for a proposed film adaptation of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

Today, The Jim Henson Company no longer does puppetry, since only Disney and Sesame Street can use the term 'Muppet'. Instead, they had created successful preschool CG animated TV shows like Sid the Science Kid, Dinosaur Train, and Splash & Bubbles.

In 2017, The Jim Henson Company teamed up with Sony Pictures Animation, Walden Media, Affirm Pictures, and Franklin Entertainment to make a low-budget animated film based upon the story of the first Christmas: The Star.

To be continued in Part 2, which will be posted tomorrrow...