DVD Review: Forbidden Planet - Ultimate Collector's Edition

Fans waited for several years for Warner Bros. to reissue the early classic of science fiction, Forbidden Planet. Fortunately, for the movie's 50th anniversary in 2006, the studio put together a whopper of a collection for one of the genre's crowning achievements.

The movie has never looked better, and on DVD, its striking visuals are a feast for the eyes. In particular, the matte paintings that served as the lovely planet scapes contain enough wonder to fire up the imagination. While the sort of rough terrain that is depcited in this movie may have been standard for alien planets in films that followed in the 1960s, films of the last several decades have lost the sense of wonder and awe of Forbidden Planet's vision of what Star Trek would later call the final frontier. The movie's visual effects continue to hold up quite well.

The film is loosely based on Shakespeare's The Tempest, and deals with different sides of human nature fighting against each other. Despite its contemporaries in 1950s science fiction cinema - which are showcased on disc 2's excellent Watch The Skies documentary - this is mature subject matter, and - like 1951's The Day The Earth Stood Still - sets a very high standard for science fiction films. If you look back at the films of the last 50 years, you'll see that many more than not didn't live up to it. Indeed, it was Forbidden Planet's contemporaries and the tiny budgets they had to work with, that gave the genre the reputation as kiddie fare. That's an unfair label for such a thoughtful and challenging part of cinema history, and one look at Forbidden Planet and you will see it is undeserved.

With impressive performances by Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Neilson, the film is perhaps best remembered for the introduction of Robby The Robot, perhaps the first robotic movie star and grandfather of R2-D2 and C-3PO. The robot captured audiences' imaginations and even went on to have something of a career of his own, appearing in other movies and various television shows, including "The Thin Man" (that episode is included on the set), "The Man From U.N.C.L.E.," "The Addams Family," "Lost In Space," and two episodes of "The Twilight Zone". Robby even showed up in an episode of Pamela Anderson's sitcom "Stacked" in 2005.

The DVD set includes reproductions of lobby cards for both Forbidden Planet and The Invisible Boy (which, as Robby The Robot's second movie, is also included here), as are several documentaries and fascinating deleted scenes and lost footage from the main feature. The set also includes a 4-inch replica of Robby The Robot, and all comes packaged in a handsome tin that makes use of the film's original poster artwork. And to top it all off, the set comes with a coupon for a free copy of that movie poster.

The importance of this film on the genre can't be overstated. Indeed, it's vision of space exploration and the use of technology had a very obvious and strong impact on the development of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek, which has been a cornerstone of science fiction for more than 40 years. Historical impact aside, Forbidden Planet is a compelling movie which will spark your curiosity and imagination and make you wonder about the nature of men.

Warner Bros. deserves credit for doing such an impressive job on the DVD document of this movie. If only all our old favorites could fare as well. This is one of the best DVDs of the year.

More info: Science Fiction Filmsite: Forbidden Planet

Robots Of The Silver Screen

DVD Review: The Simpsons - The Complete Ninth Season

Hard to believe that season sets of The Simpsons started coming out five and a half years ago, and we're just now up to season nine. These are sure coming out slowly. But the good news is they're worth the wait.

Season 9 continues the tradition of great themed packaging and clean transfers of the episodes, not to mention extras that include commentary on every episode, which is a rarity for television DVDs. The theme for this season's DVD set is music, which makes sense since saxophonist Lisa is the featured player on the cover (and the corresponding "head" package).

The fold-out portrait inside is of the Simpsons extended cast paying tribute to the cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The set's booklet is an issue of "Rocking Stone" magazine, with details and photos from each episode. The set also includes postcards of The Simpsons' Rolling Stone covers from several years ago, in which the animated characters recreate the covers of The Beatles' Abbey Road, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA, and Nirvana's Nevermind. Other postcards recall images of Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Miles Davis.

The episodes include some great moments in Simpsons history. The premiere is "The City Of New York Vs. Homer Simpson," in which Homer must retreive the family car from where Barney illegally parked it at World Trade Plaza. The show aired four years before 9/11 and promiently features the Twin Towers, among other New York landmarks. The episode was rumored to have been "retired," but it is here as we remember it.

"The Principle And The Pauper" features Martin Sheen as the real Seymour Skinner. Sheen plays a variation of his role as Capt. Williard in Francis Ford Coppolla's Apocalypse Now, and while the episode is not one that sits well with Simpsons fans (it strains credibility that the Principle Skinner we've come to know all these years isn't the real Skinner), the show is a nice parody of Sheen's Apocalypse Now character, although it doesn't really get to be the parody of the movie and the Vietnam film genre that it could have been.

Other highlights from the season include "The Cartridge Family," in which Homer laments the waiting period for buying a gun because "I'm angry now!"; "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace," one of the series' Christmas episodes in which Bart burns down the family tree and presents; "Simpson Tide," in which Homer and friends join the Navy and sing a hilarious version of the famous Village People tune; and the 200th episode, "Trash of the Titans," in which both Steve Martin and U2 guest star -- any show that can get rock and roll superstars like Bono to sing "The Garbage Man Can" to the tune of the "The Candyman Can" deserves some kind of award.

Suffice it to say that the extras are what we expect from the Simpsons DVDs and are what other television shows should produce. Besides the commentaries, there are loads of deleted scenes, an overview of the season from creator Matt Groening, animation, sketch and storyboard features and even a preview of 2007's Simpsons Movie.

With 2007 poised to be a big year for the Simpsons (it will complete its 18th season, begin its 19th, and have its first feature film in the summer), the release of the season set DVDs should increase. Two sets a year just isn't enough for a show that has such a rich history.

Many fans will lament the decline in quality they feel the series suffered as it aged, but in truth, the show has remained remarkably consistent in its 18 years. If anyone tells you the show wasn't worth watching after the fifth or sixth year, you can take out The Complete Ninth Season and prove them wrong.

More info: The Simpsons Channel

The Simpsons.com Episode Guide

That Movie Sucks! What's It Doing In Your Collection?

Batman & Robin. The Godfather III. The Matrix Revolutions. A View To A Kill. Superman IV: The Quest For Peace. Battle For The Planet Of The Apes. Alien 3. Trail Of The Pink Panther. All of these are virtually unwatchable sequels to movies that captured our imaginations and made us want more. And all of these probably ended up in DVD collections of movie fans who otherwise loathe these films. Why? Blame the box set.

The trend in DVD collections - which is a good idea - is to be as inclusive as possible when making a document of a television or movie series. That's why you see extras like bloopers, making-of documentaries, screen tests, film trailers, TV ads, and so forth. But it also means you include the bad installments with the good. Where a TV show is concerned, that's sort of what you bargain for: you wouldn't expect something labeled "the complete first season" to exclude episodes that failed to meet expectations. But in the case of movie series, it means you will end up with some films in your collection that you never thought would be there.

Take for example, the recent box set Superman: The Ultimate Collection (click here for review), or last year's Batman: The Motion Picture Collection box set. Both contain worthy films, but each contain films that are so poorly thought-out and executed that the series themselves went on long exiles from movie screens while they were creatively re-thought. Batman Forever and Batman & Robin, director Joel Schumacher's attempt to revive the campy spirit of the '60s Batman, were so awful that they're better off forgotten. (The 1966-1969 Adam West series, on the other hand, retains its charm and its cool.) Similarly, Superman III (which teamed the Man of Steel up with comedian Richard Pryor) and Superman IV lacked the epic scope that the series needed to hold its head high. The results were films that belong on the Saturday-morning kiddie circuit.

The real problem is sequelitis. Far too often, sequels become parodies, instead of respecting the source material and the original film. The James Bond films descended into parody on several occassions. The latest Bond film, Casino Royale, is an outstanding installment in the series that resurrects the gripping spy drama of From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty's Secret Service, and rejects the silliness of A View To A Kill, Moonraker and Die Another Day.

The danger in making these sequels comes because the filmmakers want you to have a good time seeing old friends. Who didn't laugh when the characters we'd followed for two great Star Wars films appeared in Return of the Jedi in funny circumstances? Unfortunately, that film struggles to build any dramatic tension because the characters and situations are too often played for laughs. (Look, See-Threepio is mistaken for a god by the teddy-bear people! Oh, and he's embarrassed!) Contrast that with a sequel like Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2, which builds on the tension from the first movie and becomes a better film in its own right.

Or take the Star Trek films, which go back and forth between worthy and unworthy so much it's like a tennis match. In Generations, we see the beloved character of Data finally get the emotional awareness he'd sought for seven years on The Next Generation. But the payoff isn't at all satisfying - instead, we see Data played for laughs throughout the film, as if the character and the actor had little of substance to offer (which we know isn't the case). Similar problems arose with Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, with Kirk, Spock and the others constantly finding themselves in embarassing situations.

The decision to make the audience laugh, to try to make the film like a reunion party with your old friends is how sequels descend into parody. They don't feel like creative decisions; they feel like marketing choices, and those are the kinds of decisions that result in bad films. (They don't have to, though. For example, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a very funny movie, but it respects the characters and the material that came before it, and as a result, is a successful film. That's the power of good writing. What's the old saying? Dying is easy; comedy is hard.)

Another common problem among sequels is to simply use the title of the movie as a brand name slapped on a generic product. Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible films are one such exercise, as they have almost nothing in common with the 1960s television show and are simply action films with a familiar title affixed. (Mission: Impossible 2, directed by John Woo, is so full of movie cliches and empty plot devices that it might just be the worst film ever made.)

If there is a silver lining to having bad sequels in your collection it is the documentaries and commentaries that sometimes accompany them. Since no one in their right mind would claim Batman & Robin is a good film, the commentary on the disc has the director admitting as much, taking responsibility and examing what went wrong. Not only does it make for interesting listening, but audiences can hope studios are listening too, and taking notes, so the next film doesn't make those mistakes and put the film franchise into exile for another extended period.

Watch out, though. Because if Joel Schumacher ever gets near the set of The Hobbit, we'll know studios weren't paying attention.

More info: The 25 Worst Sequels Ever Made (Entertainment Weekly)

Commentary Tracks Of The Damned: Batman & Robin

DVD Review: Saturday Night Live - The Complete First Season

If Lenny Bruce had survived, there's no doubt he would have been one of the hosts of Saturday Night Live when the show was in its early, formative years. That's because Bruce, who broke the rules of conventional comedy and satirical commentary (and who died in 1966), is the spiritual father of the Not-Ready-For-Prime-Time Players and the revolution they won on the television airwaves and in American culture.

As it turns out, the first episode of Saturday Night Live was hosted by another counter-culture hero, George Carlin, whose distrust of authority and willingness to mock all our sacred cows is at the heart of his act and, ultimately, is the basis for SNL's attitude and its winning style that has sustained the show (in high times and low times) for 32 years. As originally carried out, SNL was barrier-breaking comedy, doing and saying things on TV - and in our living rooms - they were once considered unthinkable. It was subversive, and ultimately a cultural shift. SNL became the mainstream, and in the process, launched the careers of some of our most celebrated comedic actors. The show became the place to be seen, and today, even politicians want some face time on SNL.

Universal's Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season is a great surprise, since it is one of those releases that fans never thought would see the light of day. DVD fans are all too aware of the complexities of securing music rights, and SNL's huge parade of musical guests over the years made season-set releases unlikely at best. Given the lack of SNL DVD releases from the early years (only single-disc best-of releases for John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner exist), the first season set fills a very empty void.

The eight discs in this set include 24 episodes, which were each 90 minutes long when aired (subtracting the commercials, the episodes are slightly more than an hour each on DVD). While the discs aren't perfect (strangely, for what is classified a "complete" season, it lacks some minor elements from the shows, like the portrait "bumpers" that were inserted before commercial breaks), let's not quibble. For all intents and purposes, these are the complete shows, and it's SNL at its most creative.

The elements of SNL that are still part of the show were right there in the first season - opening skit, "live from New York..." intro, host monologue, commercial parodies, sketch comedy, Weekend Update, musical guests, and so on. Chevy Chase (in his only season with the show) has a confidence and a comedic smugness that shines above those who have followed in his footsteps. Belushi opens the first sketch of the first show, with his bad-boy misanthropic sneer already present. Ackroyd, Radner, Laraine Newman, Jane Curtain, and Garrett Morris round out the cast, and each one finds their place to shine in the first year. Even Jim Henson's Muppets and the creative team behind The Muppet Show put in some appearances, and you can see the predecessors to such characters as Yoda and Alf.

In addition to Carlin, the choice of hosts honor those who made the SNL brand of comedy possible. Richard Pryor is host to an early show, and this was during his most creative period. Buck Henry (co-creator of Get Smart, see below) hosts the show twice in the first season. Henry, despite his meek appearance and polite tones, was an early master of biting political satire, and was never one avoid sacred cows. Paul Simon, Rob Reiner, Robert Klein, Lily Tomlin, and Elliot Gould also hosted during the first season.

The DVD set looks very classy and gives the show the respect it deserves. Still, it is rather big and bulky (even for eight discs) and the 32-page booklet that accompanies the set could have used some relevant liner notes on the history of the show. But the set is a true achievement, both in that it shows that acquiring music rights need not prevent a DVD document of a cultural landmark, and in the content of SNL's first season, which became the template for sketch comedy, political satire and helped define what we consider "funny."

More info: Saturday Night Live.com

Saturday Night Archives

DVD Review: Superman - The Ultimate Collector's Edition

Warner Bros. has been at the forefront of great DVD packages for the last several years. Their releases are loaded with content and almost always come in the most striking packages. Their 14-disc mammoth edition of Superman: The Ultimate Collector's Edition is no exception. It is a magnificent grouping of great, mediocre and not-so-good Superman films.

It should also be noted that first pressings of of this edition have two discs that Warner is replacing. Disc 1, which contains the 1978 version of Superman: The Movie, is being replaced because it doesn't have the 2.0 audio that was the film's original soundtrack. Disc 8, containing the film Superman III, is also being replaced because it is supposed to be a deluxe edition (with bonus materials) but only contains the original bare-bones disc. Anyone who bought the set can replace the discs by calling Warner at 800-553-6937. (Thanks to the good folks at TheDigitalBits.com for the information.)

Richard Donner's Superman: The Movie is an American classic. One of the very best films ever made, it is also likely the very best comic-book movie. Donner taps into our shared history and presents the Superman mythology we came to know in as realistic a way as possible. Not only will you believe a man can fly (as the film's tagline told audiences in December 1978), you will believe that great men of destiny walk among us, in the wheat fields of our small towns and in the skyscrapers of our metropolises. As impressive as Christopher Reeve turned out to be as Superman (for some, he eclipsed even the great George Reeves who played the character in the wonderful 1950s TV show), it is his father figures that steal the movie. Marlon Brando creates an indelible mark as Superman's natural father, Jor-El, with such subtly that it is no wonder director Bryan Singer went back and used what he could of Brando for his 2006 Superman Returns film. Equally indelible is Glenn Ford as Superman's adoptive father, Jonathan Kent. Ford shows the wisdom and the strength in the common man, and as a character who tends the land, represents common American ideals and dedication. Indeed, it is Kent's words that resonate with Superman at the end of the film and make him decide to defy Jor-El's decrees and embark on the course of action he chooses.

Perhaps most significant about this set is the inclusion of Donner's version of Superman II. Donner was fired from the production of Superman II in a dispute with the producers, who then hired Richard Lester (no filmmaking slouch -- Lester directed another film classic, A Hard Day's Night, in 1964). But Lester's film lacks the epic scale that Donner used so well in the first film. As a result, Lester's version of II uses comedy more than it should and the film, while entertaining and a good installment in the series, isn't what it could have been. Donner's cut restores as much of his work as possible, and as much of his tone as it could. You'll have to judge which is the better and more satisfying film. There is little doubt, however, that the best parts of II are Donner's.

Lester stayed on with the series to make the bizarre Superman III, which co-starred Richard Pryor. All traces of Donner's epic are gone, and instead this is a very comedic film, and not at all suitable for serious Superman fans. The same goes for Superman IV, which landed in theaters without much of a splash in 1987, and is largely a forgotten part of the series. It's probably better off that way.

Resurrecting the series is Superman Returns, which was released in 2006. Bryan Singer brings back the epic filmmaking, as well as the biblical allegory. Returns is a sequel to the works of Donner, as it pretty much ignores the intervening works, and is all the more satisfying because of it. It was a stroke of inspiration for Singer to use John Williams' incredible score for the first movie as the basis for his film's music. Hearing that grand soundtrack once again takes the audience back to a time in 1978 when the score was first heard in movie theaters, making movie-goers feel that they were seeing something truly spectacular and unlike anything that had come before. Returns is a great film, and a return to form for the series. We can only hope Singer is allowed to continue his vision in the next film (said to be titled The Man Of Steel) without the studio interference that marooned the Donner vision for 25 years.

The extras for the set are impressive. Remastered versions of the Fleisher Brothers' Superman cartoons of the 1940s are included, and although these fell into the public domain many years ago, they have never looked better. The Kevin Burns documentary Look Up In The Sky!: The Amazing Story Of Superman (released individually earlier this year) is included, as is a three-hour documentary on the making of Superman Returns. There are extensive extras for Superman: The Movie, including making of- documentaries, screen tests, deleted scenes and a wonderful music-only track with John Williams' score (which is quite possibly his best ever). It's all put together in a large tin with the classic Superman "S" embossed on it (the great "glass" S from Superman: The Movie), a lenticular slipcover, a color booklet, comic book reproduction and more.

This is a box set worthy of the legend of Superman.

More info: Blue Tights Network

Superman Homepage

DVD Review: Star Trek - The Animated Series

Paramount's release of Star Trek: The Animated Series has been long-awaited, as it is the last of the Star Trek properties to make it to DVD. Many longtime fans are divided on the show's relevance and its merit. We come down on the side that respects the show and appreciates the talent that went into making this most unusual of Saturday-morning cartoons -- one that actually didn't underestimate the intelligence of the audience.

The DVD captures the show in it's glory: The animation, though limited, is clear and crisp, and the colors are vibrant. The artwork for the show had great style and design, and was actually influential on what would be seen in later Star Trek movies and television series. In fact, there is a special feature in the set that points out which elements from the animated show made their way into the feature films and the later TV spinoffs, and there are more than you would think.

The show also expanded the mythology of the original series by presenting sequels to some of the best known episodes. The Guardian of Forever, Harry Mudd, Spock's parents, Cyrano Jones and the tribbles, the Klingons and more make appearances in these 22 episodes. And while some will quibble that the show's stories are not canon, few dispute the effect that writer D.C. Fontana's episode "Yesteryear" had on the 40-year history of the franchise. Her take on Spock's upbringing and his homeworld's culture, not to mention the conflict the character experienced from his parents' very different heritages, is one of the very best episodes of any Star Trek series. That the show enlisted Mark Lenard to return as the voice of Sarek, Spock's father, illustrated that this was a class operation.

It's usually easy to distinguish between releases that are classics and those that are purely nostalgic. (For example, Warner Bros.' Batman: The Animated Series will stand the test of time as a classic; Hanna Barbera's Super Friends is nostalgia.) But Star Trek: The Animated Series strattles the line between classic and nostalgia. It may never be as adored as its live-action predecessor, but fans who want a fuller experience from the Star Trek saga miss it at their peril.

More info: Star Trek: Animated

Guide To Star Trek: The Animated Series

DualDisc: A Failure Of Format

Amid the current format war between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray disc, it is worth a moment to stop and consider the fate of another format: DualDisc, a CD/DVD hybrid, which seems ill-considered at best and a cheap gimmick at worst.

The DualDisc format was mostly used by the music industry in the last two years as a way to give their consumers an incentive to buy their products. It was, in short, a sales gimmick. The double-sided disc contained one side which was a CD and the other which was a DVD. The biggest problem with it was that the CD side didn't meet the specifications to carry the official "compact disc" label and wasn't even playable in many CD players! Out of five CD players I tried, the CD side of DualDiscs would not work in three of them. One of the players in which it wouldn't work was the CD player in my computer, meaning I could not import the songs to an iPod.

The DVD portion of the DualDisc usually contained the audio from the CD in multi-channel sound and about a half hour or less of related video (the artist in the studio, a music video, etc.). While it is nice for those with multi-channel stereos to be able to listen in 5.1 surround sound, those kinds of stereo systems are not in the majority of homes, at least, not yet. Most people buying a CD will listen in the car, a boom box, or on the computer, none of which accomodate the intricacies of 5.1 DVD sound. Moreover, niche multi-channel products like SA-CD (Super-Audio CD) and DVD-A (DVD-Audio) failed, in part because of the format war between them and in part because the market didn't exist for higher-ticket items that required higher-ticket systems (and the fragile market that did exist couldn't withstand a format war).

The music industry no doubt felt it needed to provide an incentive for people to buy their CDs, especially with sales falling. The music industry constantly points to file-sharing and digital downloads as the reason for falling sales. It is worth noting, however, that academic studies suggest that not only does file-sharing not hurt sales, it actually helps encourage sales. There is something dishonest about pointing to every file downloaded as a "lost sale," as if every person who ever enjoyed a song on the radio would have gone out and bought the record.

One thing is certain: Selling consumers CD/DVD hybrids that wouldn't actually play in a lot of CD players couldn't have helped sales. Memo to the music industry: Fewer disposable pop stars, more artistry; Fewer gimmicks, more substance.

More info: Wikipedia: DualDisc

Music sharing doesn't kill CD sales

DVD Review: Get Smart - The Complete Series

Since the earliest days of TV-on-DVD sets, fans have been collecting their favorite shows, often in elaborate box sets filled with extras. The early ones are still the templates - The X-Files, Star Trek: The Next Generation - but one thing that has always irked fans is that once a series was completed on DVD, studios would often release a box set containing the entire series, often in an even more elaborate box or with even more extras. The West Wing and Friends recently saw the entire series collected in beautiful box sets -- which is useless to fans who supported the release of those show's individual seasons. Many fine shows (like Paramount's Taxi) were released in season sets without any extras at all, and many fans have started collecting a favorite program, only to find the DVDs discontinued (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Happy Days, Mork & Mindy, and many more).

Fortunately, Time Life and HBO Video have turned this trend on its head with the release of Get Smart: The Complete Series. The 1965-1970 series was long-sought-after by DVD fans (indeed, the show was in the top five of most requested shows on TVShowsonDVD.com for years) and it remained a holy grail of sorts for fans looking for their favorite shows on their favorite shiny discs.

Released in late November, Get Smart is perhaps the crowning achievement in TV-on-DVD. Here are all five seasons of the show, on 25 discs in 5 season sets, all collected in a phone-booth package (reminiscent of the show's classic opening). If you're a fan of the show (and who wouldn't be?), you already know this is one of the very best comedies that television had to offer. It began in the mid-60s, just as America was deep in the Cold War and James Bond was all the cultural rage. The show worked on a variety of levels: it had slapstick humor, political satire and adult innuendo. It remains a cultural landmark; a bedrock of comedy and for a generation, a definition of humor.

Technically, the DVDs are among the most advanced yet. They have motion menus, with introductions to every bit of content by Barbara Feldon, the show's "99." The video quality is outstanding. It's amazing that a 40-year old television program can look as crisp and as clear as this one does. Add in the fact that the episodes are uncut (replacing several minutes to each show that have been lost to syndication over the years), and you will feel like you've never seen the show before, even if you have been a fan for decades.

Time Life recruited some of the best DVD talent around for this collection. Paul Brownstein produced the set, and he has also produced DVDs for The Twilight Zone and The Dick Van Dyke Show, both of which are among the best TV-on-DVD sets. Like those, this one is loaded with content, with extras that many fans never knew existed. One charming piece is an NBC fall preview special with Get Smart star Don Adams hosting -- as Maxwell Smart. Time Life also recruited many Get Smart fans for help with the DVD set, and it shows. This is a hardcore fan's dream come true.

The season sets are said to be planned for individual release in the next year or so, but Time Life offers the whole set now, and they have exclusive rights to the sale of the show for a year. No need to wait - this is the best the show is going to get. More broadly, it shows how television shows should be produced for DVD. For these reasons and more, Get Smart: The Complete Series is the DVD box set of the year.

More info: WouldYouBelieve.com

Time Life DVD

DVD Comment

This blog will be devoted to reviews of current and previous DVD releases. I figured since I have so many of them, I ought to do something creative with them.