Negative Space: animated
- The Complete Superman Collection
- The Fleischer studios released seventeen “Superman” animated shorts during the forties. While the storylines are lacking, the animation is very interesting: shadowy, with art-deco backgrounds and ‘props’.
- Heavy Metal
- Columbia usually does a great job on their DVDs, and this is no exception. “Heavy Metal” is a very fun set of animations. The DVD has a nice collection of extras. The commentary appears to be not over the movie, but over a “rough cut” of the movie.
- The Hobbit
- This enchanting version of Tolkien’s Hobbit is a fine movie, but a horrible DVD. Sound effects and dialogue have been removed for no apparent reason. I can’t see any reason to buy this unless you’d be just as happy watching it with the sound off.
- How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- Aaw! How sweet! Also includes “Horton Hears a Who”, the heavily politicized elephant tale. It isn’t quite as good as “Grinch”, but it’s still quite entertaining. This double feature is a pretty good deal if you like those cartoons.
- Scooby Doo’s Original Mysteries
- The first five episodes of the Scooby Doo cartoon on DVD. Oh, heaven! And not one of them gripes about “And I would have done it, too, if it weren’t for those [expletive] kids!”
- Underdog
- “There’s no need to no fear, Underdog is here!” Yipes! Let’s see how many characters I can remember. Underdog, Simon Barsinister, Overcat, Sweet Polly Purebred? What was his secret identity? What was the shoeshine boy’s name?
- Wallace & Gromit
- Possibly the best children’s/adult’s animation to come out since the sixties. Consists of three half-hour shows, “A Grand Day Out”, “The Wrong Trousers”, and “A Close Shave”. Wallace and Gromit work on both a child’s and an adult’s level, making it truly a work “for all ages”.
- Yellow Submarine
- I only recently saw this movie in the limited theatrical re-release. Very impressive. Good songs, great imagery, decent jokes (and bad jokes, too), and a very interesting and different animation style.
