In an effort to jump start the kinda sluggish-to-catch-on (for good reasons) new DVD format, Disney announced plans to release five of their classics in Blu-Ray over the next two years.

The films are “Pinocchio,� “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,� “Fantasia,� “Fantasia 2000� and “Beauty and the Beast.� The company had previously announced plans to introduce one such title, “Sleeping Beauty.�

All the DVDs will include unusual features geared toward a generation that embraces interactivity and social networking. Viewers can watch a movie in tandem with friends in other locations, while they chat using a laptop or cellphone (the comments appear on the screen).

Viewers will also be able to compete against others around the world at trivia or send what Disney is calling movie mail, video images of themselves that appear within the context of the movie.

Such activities are possible because of a technology called BD Live that connects Blu-ray discs with the Internet.

Truthfully, the extras sound kind of dopey (ZING), and Fantasia 2000 is kind of a screwy pick. But hey, if I can traumatize entertain my kid with Monstro, fighting dinosaurs, and giant, mountain-dwelling demons in HD, I’m all for it.

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A Japanese Steven Seagal DVD box set gets the ironically righteous treatment it deserves.

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Well, this ought to make some nerds very, very happy. “Freakazoid,” that other Bruce Timm cartoon that was created under Spielberg’s short-lived television animation phase, is coming to DVD in July! It didn’t last long – only two seasons – but I have fond memories of the show. One can only hope the reality lives up to those beer-hazed recollections.

Oh yeah – Tiny Toons is getting a fat release too. Full press reease after the jump.

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After taking the ’90s off from making zombie flicks, genre master George A. Romero seems to be making up for lost time. First came 2005’s criminally underrated Land of the Dead, and now, just three years later, comes Diary of the Dead.

Diary is a much smaller film than Land — actually, it’s probably closer in size and scope to Night of the Living Dead than any of Romero’s other films — borrowing the Blair Witch/Cannibal Holocaust self-shot-shaky-cam formula, and focuses on a small group of young film students trying to survive the first night of the zombie outbreak. But like all of Romero’s zombie films, this one has an ax to grind with society: blogging and homemade media. Listening to Romero in the DVD’s commentary and making-of docs (all of which are very entertaining in their own right), it’s surprising and fascinating just how pissed off/disturbed he is with everyone being given a voice via the internet. One would think that one of the founders of do-it-yourself filmmaking would be excited by that prospect, but not so. Still, it’s Romero’s honesty and opinions that have always made his movies a little more interesting and weird than the usual crap, and Diary is no exception. And as usual, he makes a pretty good case.

It’s not a masterpiece, and that’s fine. Diary is simply a great Romero horror flick, nothing more and nothing less, coming with all the highs and lows of his previous work: It has excellent gross-out effects, it’s creepy, silly, intentionally funny, unintentionally funny, hammers you on the head with its themes and opinions, has okay acting, and is an overall really fun time.

KEY EXTRAS:

FEATURE COMMENTARY: by writer/director George A. Romero, Director of Photography Adam Swica and Editor Michael Doherty

Worth Watching For: Romero’s criticism of blogging culture, as well as insight into how hard some shots (particularly the opening scene) were to pull off.

FOR THE RECORD: Feature-length documentary on the making of the flick

Worth Watching For: The interviews with Romero. He was obviously fired up by not having to answer to studio bigwigs, and his enthusiasm is infectious.

More Fun Stuff:

THE ROOTS: The inspiration for the film

THE FIRST WEEK: A set visit

FAMILIAR VOICES: Cameo outtakes

MYSPACE CONTEST WINNERS: 5 zombie films from filmmaker fans

KFR Grade:
Movie — B+
DVD — A-

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Relegated to umptillion VHS and DVD versions over the years after slipping into the public domain, Night of the Living Dead gets ANOTHER DVD release thanks to Dimension Extreme, who is cannily trying to move a few more copies of the film off the interest in the new DVD of Romero’s latest zombie epic, the flawed but entertaining — and somewhat aesthetically similar — Diary of the Dead.

Perhaps one of the most important and influential American films ever made, Romero’s still-spooky and unsettling low-budget chiller channeled late-1960s anxiety into the invention of an entire sub-genre of horror, and set off a global revolution in horror film, independent filmmaking, grindhouse/cult cinema, and any combination of the three you can possibly think of. All in all, Romero has made technically better and more interesting films, but Night remains his most consistent and effective.

Not sure how this newest DVD ranks with the other editions, but if you haven’t seen Night before, this is a quality way to do it. The film will never look perfect because of the low-budget, inexperienced conditions under which it was made, but that’s also a huge part of the movie’s raw, unnerving, and realistic aesthetic. This print here is nice and crisp, and the sound is clear too, so that’s that.

However, most fans will want to dish out some more hard-earned cash to spring for this version’s generous

EXTRAS:

-Audio Commentaries:
1) Romero, Producer/Actor Karl Hardman, Actress Marilyn Eastman, co-writer John Russo
2) Producer Russell W. Streiner, Production Manager Vince Survinski, Actors Judity O’Dea, Bill Hinzman, Kyra Schon, & Keith Wayne

-ONE FOR THE FIRE: The Legacy of Night of the Living Dead Documentary

-SPEAK OF THE DEAD: Conversation with George A. Romero

-BEN SPEAKS: The Last Interview with Duane Jones

-Original Theatrical Trailer

-Still Gallery (does anyone really look at these…?)

-PDF of original screenplay

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One of the few ’80s toons that actually holds up (thanks to solid creators like head writer J. Michael Straczynski), The Real Ghostbusters has been curiously absent from DVD shelves, with the exception of some random, half-assed single discs put out by Sony. TVShowsonDVD is now reporting, however, that Time-Life will release a massive 26-disc (!) box set this Fall, collecting the entire series. The set will include both the Real Ghostbusters episodes and the renamed, more kid-friendly Slimer! And the Real Ghostbusters episodes.

Now all we need is the upcoming Ghostbusters video games to not suck, and we’ll be in business.

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My Criterion Collection newsletter told me this:

Dear Criterion Collection Newsletter subscriber (THAT’S ME! – ed.),

We’ve got some exciting news for this fall, and we wanted you to hear it first.

Our first Blu-ray discs are coming! We’ve picked a little over a dozen titles from the collection for Blu-ray treatment, and we’ll begin rolling them out in October. These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions.

Holy shit, people. This is going to be amazing. Here’s the list of their first 13 Blu-ray titles:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

This is all good stuff, but I’m really looking forward to Chungking Express and Walkabout, which apparently will have a new transfer.

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A funny thing happened when I received this DVD in the mail. I immediately called my brother and, chuckling with sadly predictable Gen X smartass irony, told him what 80s TV show box set I had in my hand. His revealing response: “What the hell is that?”

My bro was the target audience for Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors when it debuted in 1985, and he had no memory of it. I was a couple years older at the time and remember specifically avoiding the show because it looked so epically lame.

This was in the mid 80s — the heyday of TV cartoons for licensed properties — and poor little programs like Jayce had to fight with unstoppable juggernauts like Transformers, G.I. Joe, Thundercats, Voltron, He-Man, Robotech, and dozens of others vying for the attention of little dudes all over the country. To say Jayce had an uphill battle to capture eyeballs and wallets is a vast understatement.

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