Tagged: Shout Factory

Shout! Factory brings ULTRASEVEN to US DVD

HenshinJustice.com reports that Shout Factory will release the second series in the legendary Ultraman franchise, Ultraseven on DVD in time for Christmas.

The eponymous hero, from The Land Of Light in the mysterious Nebula M-78, visits Earth and is fascinated by its creatures, especially humans. Taking the visage of a man he saved from a climbing accident, he pledges himself to protecting the world from various aliens and monsters that plague it.  Taking the name “Dan Moroboshi”, he works with the human military force the Ultra Garrison, and unbeknownst to them, fights the monsters hand-to-hand in his giant form.

The series, the first of many sequels to Ultraman, was first broadcast in Japan in 1967.  Ted Turner’s syndication company originally planned to dub the series into English back in 1985, the project was not completed and broadcast until 1994 on their cable channel TNT.  Not all episodes were completed, and while the adaptation was fairly well done and not “camped up” in any way, there were some edits to some episodes for tone and violence. One episode, “Crystallized Corpuscles” was banned entirely, and never broadcast.

At this date, it’s not been specified if the episodes will be the uncut Japanese originals, or if they will feature English subtitles or the TNT dubbed soundtrack.  Watch this proverbial space for more detail.

Amazon has already listed the set (ahead of Shout’s official announcement) as being released December 11th, with a price of $34.98, already nicely discounted from its list price of $49.97.

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REVIEW: Astonishing X-Men: Torn

astonising_x_men_torn_motion_comic_middle-1005259Joss Whedon’s take on the X-Men is the series that keeps on giving. Winner of the Will Eisner Award winner for Best Continuing Series, it first it became a series of motion comics, adapting the 25 issue run, and in a few weeks, it will be turned into a series of prose novel adaptations (by Peter David, due out September 5). Why? Whedon understands character, action, and using larger than life people to work as metaphors for life. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was really about surviving high school and being a mutant in the comics is dealing with prejudice and fear of the unknown. But, unlike so many others, Whedon tends to leaven his work with humor and character traits that amuse and surprise.

Astonishing X-Men was created as a showcase series for Whedon but he was accompanied by acclaimed artist John Cassaday, who brought a photorealistic style to characters that have tended to be drawn with great exaggeration by artists ever since their 1963 debut. Grounding the visuals with Whedon’s writing style made for one of those magical pairings which seems to happen with less and less regularity.

Cassaday’s visuals work wonderfully on the printed page but less so given the limitations of the motion comic format. Serialized for the web, these have been collecting in a series of DVDs from Shout! Factory and Torn is the latest installment, out this week. As noted when we reviewed Dangerous, motion comics is this weird hybrid that is really a modern day version of the cardboard cutout animation first used in Marvel Super-Heroes back in the 1960s.

Wisely, they retained as much of Cassaday’s artwork as was practical and the dialogue has that Whedon ring, although as usual the voice casting leaves something to be desired. Cassaday worked with Atomic Cartoons and Neal Adams to bring some life to his four-color efforts.

Torn adapts issues #13-18 and pits the merry mutants against the less merry Hellfire Club – featuring Xavier’s twin sister Cassandra Nova, Emma Frost, Perfection, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and the deadly Sebastian Shaw. We learn that the enigmatic Emma Frost is conjuring up a psychic project of the villainous alliance because she was being blackmailed by Nova. Whedon also pauses to deepen Scott Summers by letting us learn of a childhood trauma that manifested in his losing control of his optic blasts.

Whedon’s affection for teen characters remains evident as it is Kitty Pryde who winds up saving the day this time.  He has some fun with the simmering Kitty/Colossus relationship, displaying some nice character-based humor. Similarly, when Emma plays mind games with the team, it mixes painful memories with humorous situations, giving us some fresh insights into the team.

The six chapters, totaling 81 minutes, are nicely adapted into animated installments and keeps the momentum moving even when the visuals are overly static. If you love this run in all its incarnations, then you want this. Or you could wait a bit and get all the motion comics series on a Blu-ray, coming later this year.

Astonishing X-Men Motion Comics to be Collected on Blu-ray

astonishing-x-men-torn-hits-dvd-august-14-300x112-5067390Shout! Factory has announced that they will be collecting the Astonishing X-Men Motion Comics in one Blu-ray release this November, in time for the holidays. Based on the acclaimed run by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday, the four story arcs will be united on disc for the first time.

Here’s the formal press release:

The Astonishing X-Men 2-Disc Blu-ray Collection is the perfect gift for the ultimate Marvel fan. This collection is available in stores nationwide November 13, 2012 from Shout! Factory, in association with Marvel Knights Animation. The 2-Disc Blu-ray collection boasts all four Astonishing X-Men adventures from Joss Whedon, the mastermind behind the massive hit film Marvel’s The Avengers, and award-winning artist John Cassaday. As one of the most important X-Men stories of all-time, it features over 5 hours of engaging animation combined with non-stop action, as well as all-new cover art illustration by Cassaday. The ASTONISHING X-MEN BLU RAY COLLECTION is priced to own at $34.99 SRP.

Additionally, ASTONISHING X-MEN: UNSTOPPABLE will be available separately on DVD on the same day and is priced to own at $14.97 SRP.

Venture into the minds of Joss Whedon and John Cassady through Marvel Knights Animation based on their Eisner Award winning take on Marvel’s infamous mutant heroes. This must-have 2-disc Blu-ray collection contains:

ASTONISHING X-MEN:  GIFTED

Can the X-Men protect the world’s mutants against a powerful new alien menace and the “cure” that threatens to rid them of their unique abilities forever? This DVD features the first story arc of the ASTONISHING X-MEN 3-part series. Extensive bonus content includes: a conversation with Joe Quesada and Neal Adams, ASTONISHING X-MEN “Rise Up” music video, ASTONISHING X-MEN – GIFTED trailer, visual history of the characters, behind-the-scenes, Marvel Super Heroes™: What The — ?, artists gallery – John Cassaday, and additional trailers.

ASTONISHING X-MEN: DANGEROUS

In the second installment of the Astonishing X-Men arc, the tragic death of a student at the Xavier Institute reveals that a powerful enemy is working from inside the mansion to destroy the X-Men.  It’s an enemy who knows all their weaknesses and can predict their every move.  This new foe doesn’t want wealth, power or world domination – it only wants them dead.  As the X-Men fight for their lives, they learn they’ve been deceived by one of their own.  Even if they survive, the team will never be the same.

ASTONISHING X-MEN: TORN

This third installment of the Astonishing X-Men story arc brings more action and adventure as Emma Frost’s erratic behavior has the X-Men spinning in a nonstop downward spiral. Will an unlikely union be the final straw? After secretly lying in wait for months, the new Hellfire Club makes its move!

ASTONISHING X-MEN: UNSTOPPABLE

Strap yourselves in, folks! The final arc on Astonishing X-Men! After the shocking and brain-smashing events of recent issues, the X-Men are off to protect the Earth from its destruction at the hands of the Breakworld. And when it’s all over, nothing will ever be the same! No, really, we mean it! Whedon and Cassaday prove they are more than Astonishing: They are unstoppable!

Marvel Knights Animation remains true to the heritage of panel-by-panel graphic storytelling, boasting groundbreaking illustrations, sensational soundscapes, and of course, the explosiveness of the Mighty Marvel Universe. Behind every image and every word lies the genius of Marvel’s celebrated creators.

As excitement builds for this Blu-ray collection, Shout! Factory and Marvel Knights Animation will announce in-depth bonus features and additional news in forthcoming months.

REVIEW: Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous

Motion comics remain a bizarre hybrid of comic book storytelling and the most limited of animation (reminding one of nothing more than the 1960s Marvel Super-Heroes animation, which was reviled for the longest time. Marvel Comics has been good about exploring every new form of technology and motion comics are included. They launched the line with an adaptation of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men run beginning with Gifted. Now, capitalizing on Whedon’s direction of The Avengers, the second arc, Dangerous (issues 7-12), has been released on DVD by Shout! Factory.

The stripped down disc contains the complete run without extras or any clue there was a previous volume. However, watching the nine to eleven minute segments, you may be lost by references to the previous story. The story is the one when the Danger Room becomes sentient and considers the mutants “oppressors”, unleashing a damaged Sentinel after them.

The story runs nearly ninety minutes and if you liked the comic, you will enjoy this. For those unfamiliar with the title, it will be confusing. An adaptation should have tinkered with the script to allow context to be added or references beyond the storyline to be deleted. Whedon’s gift for dialogue and character, thankfully, remains intact.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjMzksNepNI[/youtube]

The motion aspect is exceptionally limited, especially compared with other efforts such as The Watchmen. And as usual, I find fault with a great many of the actors cast doing the voices. The foreign accents are comically thick and you can’t always reconcile the character you’re seeing with the voice you’re hearing.

This is for the diehard collector only, but at $14.97, it’s priced to move and might be a worth a look to see Cassady and colorist Laura Martin’s work on the screen.

The Adventures of Tintin

In a matter of weeks, Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson will be bringing Hergé’s Tintin to the screen in sumptuous motion capture. The Belgium hero has been around for nearly a century and is insanely popular throughout Europe, where the film is already playing to big crowds who are happy with the adaptation.

Cashing in on the crazy is Shout! Factory, reissuing the 1991 animated [[[Adventures of Tintin]]] as a two-disc DVD. This was the second time the graphic albums were adapted for animation and I watched the first one as a kid and my children saw this edition.  Produced as a collaboration between France’s Ellipse and Canada’s more familiar Nelvana, they ape Hergé’s style rather well.

When these first ran on American television, they were criticized for the liberties taken and that obviously has not changed with time. We can, though appreciate the attempts to bring these stories to life for an audience unfamiliar with the source material. Without the comparison, they work pretty well and move at a nice clip.

The graphic albums adapted for the first season include The Crab with the Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, Red Rackham’s Treasure, Cigars of the Pharaoh, The Blue Lotus, The Black Island, and The Calculus Affair. Each album is spread over two episodes making for five hours of action, although the violence is markedly toned down by the writers including Toby Mullally, Eric Rondeaux, Martin Brossolet, Amelie Aubert, Dennise Fordham and Alex Boon. You can tell the animators paid close attention to the albums, replicating angles and scenes almost verbatim.

The video transfers well and Shout! does a nice job with the packaging and production even if they are totally devoid of any extra material. This is here only because of the big budget production, but for those who grew up on these, they will be a welcome addition during the holiday season.

Revisit the World of M.A.S.K.

Revisit the World of M.A.S.K.

We told you a while back that the animated series M.A.S.K. was coming to DVD at long last. For those less familiar with the series, our friends at Shout! Factory provided us with this slide show.


M.A.S.K.: The Complete Original Series DVD box set debuts on August 9, 2011 from Shout! Factory, in collaboration with FremantleMedia Enterprises. Poised to attract an audience of kids, young adults and parents who grew up with this animated series, this 12-DVD box set contains all 65 action-packed episodes – known to fans as the original series aired in 1985, as well as insightful bonus features.

Led by multimillionaire Matt Trakker, the Mobile Armored Strike Kommand — better known simply as M.A.S.K. — defends the world against Miles Mayhem and his nefarious international criminal organization V.E.N.O.M., the very same group responsible for the death of Trakker’s teenage brother. With his own son, Scott, and a secret strike force including his friends — engineer Bruce Sato, courageous historian Hondo MacLean, mechanic Buddy Hawks, rocker Brad Turner, computer expert Alex Sector, stunt driver Dusty Hayes and beautiful martial artist Gloria Baker — it’s up to Trakker, equipped with special power-granting masks and a garage of special militarized vehicles, to keep the world safe from Mayhem and the villainy of V.E.N.O.M (Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem).

Throughout the years, M.A.S.K. boasts a large fan following and spawned a series of toy line, comic books and video games. The complete original series of M.A.S.K. has been sub-licensed to home video distribution to Shout! Factory by FremantleMedia Enterprises.

Conan the Adventurer Season One Coming to DVD

Conan the Adventurer Season One Coming to DVD

Conan the Adventurer (animated series)

Image via Wikipedia

Yeah, we sort of forgot this animated series even existed but to celebrate the Cimmerian’s return to the Big Screen, Shout! Factory is releasing the first season on two discs, coming out this Tuesday.
Here’s a refresher:

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Win a Copy of Transformers: The Japanese Collection – Headmasters

transformers_japanese-_headmasters-_product_shot-272x450-5803484Capitalizing on the popularity of Paramount Pictures’ third installment in the live action Transformers franchises, Shout! Factory is releasing the long-awaited Japanese animated series which we talked about previously. The DVD set is coming out on Tuesday and to celebrate, we have one copy to give away to a lucky fan.

All you have to do is give us your best educated guess what the total domestic box office revenue of Transformers: Dark of the Moon will be when the theaters close at the end of business on Monday, concluding the holiday weekend. We want your guess by 11:59 Monday evening and the winning tally will be based on the finals as released by our friends at Box Office Mojo on Tuesday.

Meantime, here’s a look back at The Transformers: The Japanese Collection — Headmasters. The four disc set will come complete with Original Japnese Audio, English Subtitles, and an Art Gallery.

M.A.S.K.: The Complete Original Series Arrives in August

One of the earliest comics series I inherited as an editor was M.A.S.K., based on the toys and cartoon series. I have no recollection how or why DC Comics acquired the comics rights but it was handed to Mike Gold shortly after he arrived on staff. He tapped the versatile Mike Fleisher as the writer, helping burn off contractual obligations. Better, he assigned the artwork to Curt Swan who needed something regular to produce after losing the Superman assignments. Inking was Kurt Schaffenberger so at least it looked good. I helped Mike get the series up and running then edited it a few issues before I handed it off to Mike Carlin to wrap up.

I never played with the toys or watched the cartoon, but thanks to Shout! Factory that can be rectified as seen in the following press release:

This Summer, loyal fans and collectors can finally bring home one of the most enduring animated adventures from the 80’s when the long-awaited M.A.S.K.: The Complete Original Series DVD box set debuts nationwide on August 9, 2011 from Shout! Factory, incollaboration with FremantleMedia Enterprises. Poised to attract an audience of kids, young adults and parents who grew up with this animated series, this 12-DVD box set contains all 65 action-packed episodes – known to fans as the original series aired in 1985, as well as insightful bonus features.  A must-have for collectors to complete their pop culture video library, M.A.S.K.: The Complete Original Series is available for pre-order now from Amazon.com and major retailers. (more…)