Clear your schedule and stock up the fridge — it’s a big home video week and you’re going to be spending some quality time with your couch.
First, it’s time to update a classic with the release of Sleeping Beauty: Diamond Edition (Disney, $36.99 Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy, $29.99 DVD). This edition features the restored 1959 classic in pristine high-definition and includes new special features: deleted scenes, including one revealing deleted character “The Vulture”; a sing-along with Aurora; an alternate scene and more.
Here’s a trailer for the pic:
Check out our coverage of how Disney brought this classic to Blu-ray in the December 2014 issue of Animation Magazine. Subscribe here and never miss an issue!
A more recent hit is Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (Shout! Factory, $24.97 Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy, $16.97 DVD), a French release arriving in an English-language edition. Based on the novel and album by Mathias Malzieu, who co-directs with Stephane Berla, this is a charming and romantic tale of a boy born on the coldest day ever and forced to use a cuckoo clock instead of his frozen heart.
Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is featured in the December 2014 issue of Animation Magazine.
Few animated TV shows have as devoted a fan base as Adventure Time, which makes the release of Adventure Time: The Complete Fourth Season (Warner Bros., $32.07 Blu-ray, $26.95 DVD) a must-own for many fans. In addition to the full fourth season, this release includes a 19-minute Distant Bands: The Music of Adventure Time featurette with series creator Pendleton Ward, creative director Pat McHale, and storyboard artists Jesse Moynihan and Rebecca Sugar offering their commentary on the important role music plays in the series. In addition, each episode will feature commentary with the cast and crew.
When it comes to crazy and funny, few shows beat out Cartoon Network’s hit Rick and Morty: Season 1 (Warner Bros., $29.02 Blu-ray and digital copy, $24.98 DVD). This release includes an exclusive, 16-page comic book created by Dan Harmon (Community) and Justin Roiland (House of Cosbys), as well as guest commentary tracks from industry luminaries like The Simpsons writers, Pendleton Ward and Kent Osborne (Adventure Time), and Robert Kirkman and Scott Gimple (The Walking Dead).
Rick and Morty creators Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland in talk all about the first season and making this set worth your time and money in the December 2014 issue of Animation Magazine.
Even the kids section is bursting with new release, including Alpha and Omega 2: A Howl-iday Adventure (Lionsgate, $14.99 Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy, $14.98 DVD and digital copy) and The Little Penguin: Pororo’s Racing Adventure (Lionsgate, $14.98 DVD and digital copy).
More hit TV toons can found with the release of Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated: The Complete Season Two (Warner Bros., $26.99), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete First Season (Paramount, $34.99) and Paw Patrol: Winter Rescues (Paramount, $14.99 DVD).
And Warner Bros. is in a re-packaging mode this week, with the release of The Amazing World of Gumball and Friends (Warner Bros., $9.97), The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack and Friends (Warner Bros., $9.97), Regular Show and Friends (Warner Bros., $9.97), Samurai Jack and Friends (Warner Bros., $9.97), Tom & Jerry and Friends: Volume 2 (Warner Bros., $9.97) and Tom & Jerry: Santa’s Little Helper (Warner Bros., $19.98).
Not to be outdone, more classic TV teens can be found in Woody Woodpecker and Friends: Holiday Favorites (Universal, $14.98), Rocko’s Modern Life: The Good, The Bad & The Wallaby (Paramount, $5.97) and Animaniacs: Wakko’s Wish (Warner Bros., $19.97)
In the anime section, there’s plenty of, uh, eye candy this week with Bodacious Space Pirates: The Complete Collection (Section23 Films, $89.98 Blu-ray, $69.98 DVD), Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods (FUNimation, $34.98 Blu-ray and DVD, $29.98 uncut DVD), Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn Part 4 (Widowmaker Films, $29.99 DVD), Gargantia: The Complete Series (VIZ Media, $69.99 Blu-ray and DVD, $44.82 DVD), Rozen Maiden Zuruckspulen: The Complete Collection (Section23 Films, $59.98) and Xtra Credit (Widowmaker Films, $14.99 DVD).
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