Fantasy - Page 37

Manufacturer: BBC Home Entertainment Brand: Warner Manufacturing

Being Human returns for a gripping second season as vampire Mitchell (Aidan Turner), werewolf George (Russell Tovey), and ghost Annie (Lenora Crichlow) encounter new enemies in their fight to lead something close to normal lives. It’s tough being supernatural. Mitchell’s romance with a feisty doctor is disrupted by a vampire community in disarray. George’s relationship with a new girlfriend is undermined by an uncontrollable twist in his werewolf existence. Annie has a brutal reminder that life as a spirit is full of challenges. All three are threatened by CenSSA, a religious organization committed to the destruction or conversion of supernatural freaks, operated by the mysterious Professor Jaggat and the sinister, cold-hearted Kemp. Just when your inner demons might be conquered, it’s the outer demons who won’t go away. Fans will pounce on the second season of Being Human, the beloved series about a trio of supernatural beings--a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost--who just want to lead normal lives. In the first episode, George (the lycanthrope, played by Russell Tovey) is trying to make his relationship with Nina (Sinead Keenan) work, only he doesn't know that he's passed his curse on to her; rakishly handsome Mitchell (the bloodsucker, Adrian Turner) meets a new doctor at the hospital and feels an immediate attraction; and ever-chipper Annie (the specter, Lenora Crichlow) sets out to get a job. Unfortunately for them, a gaunt fanatic named Kemp wants to destroy them and all their kind. The series seeks to juggle domestic story lines about relationships and family with grand conspiracies and bloody murders. The result never meshes--in one scene, Mitchell conspires with a police chief to cover up vampire murders, and in another he, George, and Annie are flopped on the couch, chatting like college freshmen about having sex. Either sequence could be enjoyable, but trying to slam them together undercuts both. It doesn't help that the characters squeal and whine like sullen teenager...

Manufacturer: Funimation Brand: Funimation Model: 26514942

Goku embarks on a journey to test his strength against the best of the best!Driven by his promise to a heartbroken young boy, Goku completes his training under Master Korin and prepares for a brutal rematch with Mercenary Tao! These two powerful warriors trade blows in a furious flurry of Dodon Rays and Kamehameha Waves, but that’s only the beginning of this adventure.The Red Ribbon Army continues to cast a dark shadow across the land as they inch ever closer to attaining ultimate power. Only Goku can halt their reign of terror and resurrect a fallen friend, but first he’ll have to fight for possession of the seven Dragon Balls!To complete his quest, Goku must beat a fortune-teller at her own game; slam the door on Demon Land; tame the dread Inoshikacho, and survive a beating from a masked dead man. His journey will be filled with danger, but with each victory, Goku gains the strength needed to emerge victorious from the upcoming World Martial Arts Tournament!Don’t miss the coming of age of the greatest warrior the world has ever known in Dragon Ball Season Three!

Manufacturer: Blue Underground Brand: Ryko Distribution

Muscular Larn rescues damsel Teegra from sorcerer Lord Nelkron. Animated by Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta. The mighty-muscled heroes and big-bottomed babes of fantasy artist Frank Frazetta inspired animator Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat, Wizards) to create the swords-and-sorcery epic Fire and Ice. Bakshi uses a technique called rotoscoping, which uses live-action film of actors as the template for animation, allowing him to put realistic action into fantastic environments. The verisimilitude of movement in a cartoon can be startling, but that's about all Fire and Ice has to offer; the wafer-thin story, overwrought characters, and clumsy dialogue are vapid cliches. Of much greater interest are the extras in this two-disc set, including a making-of feature that demonstrates the painstaking process of rotoscoping; enthusiastic commentary from Bakshi, who's a jovial, down-to-earth guy with a thick Brooklyn accent; deliriously fatuous diary notes from one of the actors; and a feature-length documentary called Frazetta: Painting with Fire, which reveals the artist to be more intriguing than any of the barbarians he's famous for. The effusive praise of other fantasy artists and "Frazetta historians" occasionally veers into Spinal Tap territory, but it's fascinating watching Frazetta turn from a 1950s James-Dean-style tough guy into the king of fantasy art. Though his work is often dismissed as adolescent kitsch, the documentary persuasively argues that Frazetta deservedly dominates his corner of the art world. --Bret Fetzer

Manufacturer: Funimation Brand: Funimation Model: 0

Survival is the order of the day as Yusuke and his allies face off against the worst that the Demon World has to offer. Locked into a competition set up by the criminal underground, more than the fighters’ lives are on the line as the Dark Tournament unfolds round by brutal round. Pain and suffering are redefined, a demon from the past is reawakened, and the mysterious masked fighter will step forth. Their situation is worse than grim as the Tournament Finals are set to begin. Known as the "Toguro" or "Dark Tournament" Saga, the second season of the fantasy-adventure Yu Yu Hakusho, focuses on Team Urameshi's entry in the supernatural Dark Tournament, the demonic equivalent of a WWF tag-team smack down. Yusuke Urameshi abandons his duties as a "spirit detective" to lead his comrades Kuwabara, Kurama, Genkai, and Hiei, into battle. They fight a variety of bizarre, powerful demons in one-on-one matches. But what happens outside the Tournament Arena may prove more important. Yusuke finally hatches the "spirit egg" he acquired after his death a year earlier. Phuu, a creature who looks like a cross between a blue penguin and Ryo-Ohki in Tenchi Muyo, emerges from the glowing shell--a symbol of Yusuke's hidden kind heart. Knowing that Yusuke isn't strong enough to take on the Terminator-like Toguro, Genkai teaches him the "Spirit Wave Ball." Yusuke can't really handle that much power, and he suffers horribly as he struggles to master it. Having passed her ultimate technique on to her student, Genkai meets her destiny calmly. The season ends with the first match of the Tournament finals: Team Urameshi vs. Team Toguro. The outcome isn't really in question, but getting there will be more than half the fun. This season of Yu Yu Hakusho feels a lot like Dragon Ball, as the heroes and villains punch each other out of the arena, through walls, etc. Like Goku, Yusuke relishes nothing so much as a good fight: he and Jin the Wind-Tamer are delighted to find a worthy opponent in each other. The combination of camaraderie...

Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Brand: Warner Manufacturing

Cult Camp Classics Vol. 1 - Sci Fi Thrillers (DVD)]]> Featuring three enjoyably "awful" movies from 1958-59, Cult Camp Classics, Vol. 1: Sci-Fi Thrillers turns nuclear radiation into cause for celebration, especially if you enjoy movies with extra cheese. With the Cold War in full swing and society's worries blamed on the threat of nuclear annihilation, sci-fi buffs (like future filmmakers Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, and John Landis) could see a new monster movie almost every week. Many of them came from Allied Artists, the low-budget B-movie production company (formerly Monogram) that rose from the ghetto of "poverty row" distribution to produce countless exploitation thrillers between 1946 and 1979. The '50s saw the rise of nuclear monster thrillers, and Allied popularized the trend with its own menagerie of giant, irradiated creatures. The key to Allied's success was its crowd-pleasing combination of exploitable ingredients, and what better way to combine sci-fi, sex, and horror than to unleash a towering babe with an attitude problem? That's exactly what Allied did with Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, a now-classic campfest in which a spurned wife (Allison Hayes) is irradiated by a glowing alien space-ball, grows to a height of (you guessed it), and exacts revenge upon her cheating husband (William Hudson). A year before she bared her shapely backside as Playboy's Playmate of the Month for July 1959, Yvette Vickers costars as Hudson's scheming mistress, giving the film an extra boost of sex appeal. With bargain-priced effects including a giant floppy-fingered hand, hilarious process shots, and cheesy models destroyed by the world's biggest bitch (for whom it is still possible to feel some sympathetic compassion), the movie's not as good as its celebrated poster (which now adorns movie-geek T-shirts around the world), but it's still a lot of fun. The Giant Behemoth was director Eugene Lourie's obvious attempt to capitalize on his 1953 hit The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, starring a gigantic paleosaurus rising fro...

Manufacturer: Funimation Brand: Funimation Model: 26514943

Goku's headed for a showdown with a sinister green fiend! A new breed of evil - more powerful than anything ever experienced - is taking the world's greatest martial artists down for the count. Goku is quick to join the fight, but he's about to meet his match in the form of King Piccolo. This menacing monster has the power to pulverize the planet, and his murderous rampage will not stop until he controls the power of the seven magic Dragon Balls.When Krillin is the first hero cut down by the monster's minion, the stage is set for a brutal grudge match between Goku and Piccolo. Earth's greatest champion vows to avenge the loss of his best friend, but first, he must journey to Korin Tower on a quest for the Ultra Divine Water: a magical elixir that could give him the strength to save humanity - or send him straight to the grave!The books are no longer included with the DVD. You can download a copy of the booklet from the Toei website, info below:Digital booklets are now available on each of the Toei sites. You can find the download links in the DVD/Blu-Ray section of each website near the summary information for each product.http://dragonballz.com/dvdbluray.aspx?id=421http://www.dragonball.com/dvd-blu-ray.aspxhttp://www.dragonballgt.com/dvd-blu-ray.aspx

Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Brand: Warner Home Video Model: 1000181951

The otherworldly TV phenomenon that is Supernatural makes history entering another world: as the first-ever live-action television show to be reimagined as an animé series. The internationally acclaimed animation powerhouse Madhouse Studios produces the show with the blessing of original series creator Eric Kripke. With storylines mirroring Supernatural’s first two seasons plus supplemental tales derived from prequels and spinoffs, this 3-Disc, 22-Episode Collection expands the dimensions of the familiar Winchester mythology. Journey down the backroads of America with brothers Sam and Dean as they search for clues to their father’s disappearance, hunt down the supernatural in all its unearthly forms and enter into the unexpected mystery of their destinies – in vibrant, exciting animé. The OAV Supernatural: The Anime Series (2011) is an anime first: an American live-action show reworked as a Japanese animation series. (The original Supernatural debuted in 2005 on the WB, and continues on the CW.) Sam and Dean Winchester are Hunters--licensed officers who tool around the United States in a classic black Chevy Impala, pursuing demons, ghosts, vampires, and other evil spirits. They're also looking for their father, a Hunter who's chasing the evil entity that killed their mother. Almost all the specters strike attractive young women, and the series soon devolves into a damsel-in-distress formula, with Sam and Dean arriving in the nick of time to dispatch the threat with silver bullets, salt, and fire. Some of the episodes are reworked from the original program; others are new story lines for the characters. But too many of them play like a mash-up of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Hardy Boys. Supernatural: The Anime Series recalls old live-action-based Saturday morning shows like The Karate Kid and Fonz and the Happy Days Gang. The designs for the characters are stiff, and the animation remains minimal, with still drawings accompanying voice-over dialogue. Although there are occasional int...