The Mix : What are people talking about today?

Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two Arrives in Oct.

Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two Arrives in Oct.

BURBANK, CA – The Justice League and Team RWBY take on their biggest adventure yet in Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two available to purchase Digitally on October 17, 2023 and on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray October 31, 2023.

Following Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part One, the new animated film from Rooster Teeth Animation, DC and Warner Bros. Animation, will see the Justice League and Team RWBY team up again in a whole new environment to take on Grimm, who has arrived on earth with even more powers.

Joining the voice cast in this second go around are Jamie Chung (Big Hero 6, Batman: Soul of the Dragon) as Black Canary, David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad, Ant-Man) as The Flash, Laura Bailey (The Legend of Vox Machina, Naruto: Shippûden) as Wonder Woman, Troy Baker (The Last of Us, BioShock Infinite) as Batman and Travis Willingham (Critical Role, Sofia The First) as Superman. Returning from Part One are Ozioma Akagha (Teen Titans Go!) as Vixen, Jeannie Tirado (Soul, Saints Row) as Green Lantern and Tru Valentino (The Rookie, The Cuphead Show!) as Cyborg alongside RWBY mainstays Lindsay Jones ​​(Camp Camp) as Ruby, Kara Eberle ​(​​RWBY: Ice Queendom​​)​ as Weiss, Arryn Zech ​(The Detective is Already Dead) as Blake, and Barbara Dunkelman (Blood Fest) as Yang.​​ The film also features the voices of Maxwell Friedman (AEW Dynamite, The Iron Claw), Christopher Sabat (Dragon Ball Z) and J. Michael Tatum (My Hero Academia).

The film was co-directed by Yssa Badiola (Camp Camp) and Dustin Matthews (RWBY franchise) from a script penned by Meghan Fitzmartin (Supernatural, Justice Society: World War II). Producers are Kimberly S. Moreau (Legion of Super Heroes), Ethan Spaulding (Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge) and Jim Krieg (Batman: Gotham by Gaslight) with Laura Yates ​(​​Boyhood, RWBY, Red vs. Blue​​) as supervising producer; and Sam Register and Michael Uslan executive producing.

Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen, Part Two be available October 17 to purchase Digitally from Amazon Prime Video, AppleTV, Google Play, Vudu and more.  4K Ultra HD and Blu-Ray Discs will be available on October 31 to purchase online and in-store at major retailers.  

SYNOPSIS

On the heels of successfully escaping a deadly digital trap, the members of the Justice League emerge in their own world to discover that Grimm, ravenous creatures from Remnant, have overtaken Earth! In order to defeat the monsters, they must call on their new friends – Team RWBY – for help!

SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE:

  • You look…Different: RWBY on Earth – Earth is not exactly the same as Remnant, the world where Team RWBY live. The enemies are different. The Justice League heroes are different. And Team RWBY’s powers? They’re all extremely different. In this featurette, we get a closer look at Team RWBY on Earth.
  • I’ve Got Your Back – In Part One, Justice League and RWBY members had to work together to save Remnant. Now in Part Two, on Earth, they all must work together to save each other. In this featurette, we get into the story behind so many of the characters saving each other both physically and emotionally.

Pricing and film information:

PRODUCT                                                                              SRP

4K Ultra HD + Digital                                                              $39.99 US

4K Ultra HD                                                                            $44.98 Canada

Blu-ray + Digital*                                                                     $29.98 US

Blu-ray                                                                                     $39.99 Canada

Audio: English Spanish

Subtitles: English, Spanish & French

Running Time: 74.45

Rating: PG for action/violence throughout and some language

*Digital version only available in the USA

Captain Marvel gets a new Villain

Captain Marvel gets a new Villain

New York, NY — This October, Carol Danvers flies higher, further, and faster into an all-new era written by Alyssa Wong and drawn by Marvel’s Stormbreaker artist Jan Bazaldua! In addition to a brand-new costume, CAPTAIN MARVEL #1 will also debut Carol Danvers’ deadly new archenemy as well as her surprising new ally!

The epic new run will kick off when a horrific cosmic entity known as the Undone realizes that Captain Marvel is the only hero mighty enough to stop it from devouring Earth whole and sends its mysterious herald, the Omen, ahead to take Carol off the board! When the Omen’s plan to imprison Captain Marvel goes awry, Carol finds herself linked to a street-smart young thief named Yuna. Yuna represents the only chance Carol has to escape the Omen’s trap, but Yuna is no hero, and they’ll have to learn from each other if they have a chance even confronting the Undone! Fans can meet both the Omen and Yuna now in Stephen Segovia’s CAPTAIN MARVEL #2 cover as well as Jan Bazaldua’s original design sheets!

BOUND BY THE NEGA-BANDS! When cat burglar Yuna Yang set out to steal the legendary Nega-Bands, she was looking for a quick paycheck. What she got was a free ticket to the Negative Zone and permanent entanglement with Captain Marvel! Permanent until death, that is. And it doesn’t look like Yuna’s gonna make it to old age – not with new villain, the Omen, hot on her tail and hungry for the Bands’ power!

On the characters, Wong shared: “The Omen is a villain with corruptive magic, a mysterious connection to the Negative Zone, and the ability to devour energy. She’s been looking forward to meeting Carol for a hot minute. Yuna Yang is a full-time college student and recreational cat burglar, morally flexible with a heart of… gold? Her hunt for the Nega-Bands leads her straight to Carol–and into trouble. I love a good reluctant team-up story. Pairing the leader of the Avengers with a casual, cheerful criminal leads to a fun dynamic and all kinds of shenanigans. As for the Omen… well, turns out Carol and Yuna’s lives might intersect more than they think.”

Meet Wyn, Avatar of the Powers-That-Be in Marvel’s G.O.D.S.

Meet Wyn, Avatar of the Powers-That-Be in Marvel’s G.O.D.S.

New York, NY— August 25, 2023 — At the crossroads of science and magic, agents of opposing factions operate on the behest of the pantheon of abstract cosmic beings such as Eternity, Infinity, and the Living Tribunal. This October, they emerge from the shadows as their war erupts into the wider Marvel Universe in Jonathan Hickman and Valerio Schiti’s G.O.D.S.!

The highly-anticipated series will introduce fans to an exciting new cast of characters, some of whom readers have already met this summer in special bonus pages in select titles. From powerful mystics to daring scientists to chaos bringers, these characters exist outside the fight between good and evil and devote their time to upholding the very building blocks of creation. They may be new to readers, but they’ve been scheming and clashing with each other for eons and are privy to startling truths your favorite heroes and villains wish they knew!  Over the next week, some of the major players of G.O.D.S. will be spotlighted in special teasers and concept art. First up is Wyn, Avatar of THE-POWERS-THAT-BE!

Titans: The Fourth and Final Season Arrives on Disc in Oct.

Titans: The Fourth and Final Season Arrives on Disc in Oct.

BURBANK, CA – After three explosive seasons, the hit TV show inspired by DC comic book characters concludes in Titans: The Fourth and Final Season, arriving on Blu-ray and DVD on October 17, 2023. A gritty take on the Teen Titans franchise, Titans follows a group of young superheroes from the DC Universe. As they come of age and try to find where they belong, the Titans must defend against supervillains, dark conspiracies, corrupt laboratories, and demonic possessions – across Metropolis and beyond.​

Also available on October 17, is Titans: The Complete Series on Blu-ray and DVD, which includes all four seasons of the comic-inspired series in one set.

Season four stars Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson/Nightwing, Anna Diop as Kory Anders/Starfire, Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth/Raven, Ryan Potter as Gar Logan/Beast Boy, Joshua Orpin as Connor Kent/Superboy, Jay Lycurgo as Tim Drake with Franka Potente as May Bennett/Mother Mayhem and Joseph Morgan as Sebastian Sanger/Brother Blood.

Titans is produced by Berlanti Productions in association with Warner Bros. Executive producers for the fourth season of Titans are Akiva Goldsman, Geoff Johns, Greg Walker, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Richard Hatem

Titans: The Fourth and Final Season and Titans: The Complete Series will be available on Blu-ray and DVD to purchase online and in-store at major retailers on October 17, 2023.

Synopsis:

Having saved Gotham, the Titans hit the road to head back to San Francisco. But after a stop in Metropolis, they find themselves in the crosshairs of a supernatural cult with powers unlike anything they’ve faced before.

Titans: The Fourth and Final Season Special Features Include:

Welcome to Metropolis (featurette) – After escaping the darkness of Gotham, the Titans make a stop in hopeful Metropolis, but what secrets does this new city hide?

Baptism of Blood (featurette) – An inside look at Sebastian Sanger’s evolution into the fearsome foe. Joseph Morgan and Specialty Costume Designer, Laura Jean Shannon, show us what it takes to bring Brother Blood to life on Titans.

Mystical Women (featurette) – Take an in-depth look at what powerful magic Mother Mayhem (Franka Potente) and Jinx (Lisa Ambalavanar) are bringing to the world of the Titans in season four.

Pricing and series information:

Titans: The Fourth and Final Season

Includes 12 one-hour episodes:

  1. Lex Luthor
  2. Mother Mayhem
  3. Jinx
  4. Super Super Mart
  5. Inside Man
  6. Brother Blood
  7. Caul’s Folly
  8. Dick & Carol & Ted & Kory
  9. Dude, Where’s My Gar?
  10. Game Over
  11. Project Starfire
  12. Titans Forever

PRODUCT                                                      SRP

Blu-ray                                                          $29.99 SRP US ($34.99 in Canada)

DVD                                                                $24.98 SRP US ($24.99 in Canada)

DVD Audio: English (5.1) DD

DVD Subtitles: English

Run Time: Approx. 720 minutes

Titans: The Complete Series

Includes 49 one-hour episodes.

PRODUCT                                                      SRP

Blu-ray                                                             $84.99 SRP US ($89.99 in Canada)

DVD                                                                $69.99 SRP US ($79.99 in Canada)

DVD Audio: English (5.1) DD

DVD Subtitles: English

Run Time: Approx. 2940 minutes.

Fortune & Glory by Brian Michael Bendis

Fortune & Glory by Brian Michael Bendis

I went through a Bendis kick, around the time a lot of the hip comics kids did, back in the mid-Aughts. I at first liked Powers, and then thought it ran at high speed away from everything that was originally good about it. I was mostly impressed by Alias. And I think I wandered away about the time he, inevitably, like every other new writer in comics, was fully subsumed into the Wednesday Crowd and started writing sharecropped superheroes all of the time.

{Spongebob Narrator Voice: Fifteen Years Later}

I just re-read Fortune & Glory , his least representative book. It was there in the app I used to find comics, since this spiffy new edition was just published in May, and I’m always up for nonfiction these days – the curse of the middle-aged man.

I see I didn’t actually review Fortune the first time I read it, back in 2007, so I might as well go into some of the details here. Bendis created this – he started off as a writer-artist, which might be forgotten, since he’s been just writing for a long time now – as a three-issue miniseries back in 1999. He’d done a few comics, mostly self-published, at that point – Goldfish, Jinx, Torso – all of which were dark mysteries and most of which I think were set in his native Cleveland. He was “hot” in the way it usually happens, though I doubt a self-publishing mystery series would pop now: his books were growing in popularity and getting media attention, so the bigger fish were starting to nose around.

In particular, Hollywood studios started reaching out, looking to option his books. Bendis had some loose contacts to actual Hollywood types, and was introduced to a newish producer here called David Spree, who became something of an advisor and also became “attached” to a couple of Bendis projects. Bendis also got a Hollywood agent, and started talking and taking meetings.

Fortune is the story of, basically, how those first three comics projects of his got him in the door to a whole bunch of places, got him a whole lot of meetings, and apparently led to a fair bit of money for options and writing the script for Goldfish…but did not, in the end, lead to any movies being made.

For Hollywood, though, that’s a massive success: Bendis got a new line of income, got taken seriously, and even pitched pretty strongly (with fellow comics writer Marc Andreyko, the idea that became the comic Torso) and successfully. The Torso movie, in particular, seems to have almost happened, though Bendis is vague about how it fell apart – my guess is that it was a “personality conflict,” probably not anywhere near him, and that the real story will only be told in memoirs thirty or so years down the line.

So this is a talking-heads book, heavy on the dialogue. I’m not sure if Bendis has been doing the Mamet-esque rat-tat-tat dialogue in his superhero books, but this is a real-world version of that, full of smiling tanned people lying to each other and Bendis’s cartoony avatar – that’s him on the cover – gamely making his way through the middle of a whole lot of bafflegab and bullshit and blatant lies.

Bendis was always a better writer than artist; I think he says that, in almost exactly those words, somewhere in this book. So it’s not surprising in retrospect that he turned in the drawing board to focus on the word processor. This is, I think, one of the last big projects he drew, and it’s fun and cartoony and full of energy – I don’t think a story this personal and “here’s what happened to me” would work as well drawn by someone else – so it was a suitable way to wind down that part of his career.

And the Hollywood stuff is entertaining, in the vein of a million other Hollywood stories from the past century or so: the names change, but the story is always the same.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

Marv Wolfman Returns to Dracula for What If? Dark

Marv Wolfman Returns to Dracula for What If? Dark

New York, NY— August 21, 2023 — Home to some of the most memorable and thought-provoking stories in the Marvel Comics mythos, WHAT IF? was the series where anything could happen! Now it’s back in WHAT IF…? DARK, a new series of special one-shots where the imaginations of comic creators run wild with dark twists on iconic stories! This November, Marvel Comics is proud to welcome back legendary writer Marv Wolfman as he teams up with artist David Cutler in WHAT IF…? DARK: TOMB OF DRACULA #1!

Wolfman redefined comic book horror storytelling in his groundbreaking run of The Tomb of Dracula where he introduced Dracula to the Marvel Universe and co-created Blade and the daughter of Dracula, Lilith Drake. Now decades later, he’ll revisit his mythology-molding work with a new What If…? story that asks the question, “WHAT IF…the legendary Dracula transformed BLADE the vampire slayer…into a vampire?!”

“In 1972, I was a fledgling comics writer who mostly wrote short 2- to 8-page ‘monster’ stories when Editor Roy Thomas asked if I’d like to write Tomb of Dracula, my very first series for Marvel, and the book that would jump-start my career,” Wolfman recollected. “So it is a real thrill now that 50-plus years later Marvel asked me to once again dive into that pool with this very special What If…? story, and to bring back that great cast of characters that artist Gene Colan and I created so many years ago. Thank you, Marvel, for giving me the chance to play with old friends one last time.“

“Getting Marv back on TOMB OF DRACULA is a bucket list check-off,” says Exec. Editor Nick Lowe. “He hasn’t lost a step and the opportunity to pair him with David Cutler and Scott Hanna to make a story that’s both love letter and one of the scariest and creepiest and NEW vampire stories I’ve read made it all the better!”

The House by Paco Roca

The House by Paco Roca

Some books have things that are easy to write about; some don’t. The more naturalistic a book is, the harder I find it to dig into – the more it’s just people living their lives, and the point of the book is seeing them, feeling some comparison to your own life, and making larger connections in your head.

A review can’t do any of that work for the reader. At best, it can point in interesting directions. At worst, it can short-circuit that process, making the book look facile and cheap and dull. Let’s see if I can find some interesting things to point towards, and avoid making vague windy claims.

The House  is a low-key graphic novel, by Spanish illustrator and cartoonist Paco Roca, about three grown siblings – two brothers and their sister – over the course of a few weekends, maybe two or three months – which they spend, separately or together, in the vacation home their father built in their youth but which they haven’t visited much at all for several years.

That father died about a year ago; they’re cleaning the old place up to sell it.

That’s the story. That’s what happens. First Jose, the younger brother, with his relatively new partner Silvia comes to do some desultory clean-out – we see for ourselves that he’s the unhandy brother before the other characters tell us. Then the older brother Vicente, then sister Carla visit the house, to do repairs and clean things out. First separately, then together. They each have their own small cluster of family – spouses, children – and they bicker, in that comfortable quiet way families do, with each other over what to do with the old place and how to handle it and how good any of them are at specific things. They talk with their neighbor, an old friend of their father’s.

Behind all of this is, of course, their father’s death, and how they lived through it – what they did and didn’t do and how they reacted and who did what and who ran away and avoided what. There are no big revelations, but there are things they haven’t talked about before, things that they haven’t said to each other. There are things the reader will understand that the siblings probably don’t; we get a wider, more expansive view of the story than any of them.

Roca intertwines that with flashbacks, mixing moments across decades, using a muted palette of colors to indicate scene shifts and changes of emphasis. His short, fat pages – this book is smaller than an album, and in landscape format – often do more than one thing at a time, with scenes that sit side-by-side to comment on each other or that bounce back and forth from the past to the present.

It’s quietly magnificent, a universal story told precisely and well, using all of the language of comics to show this family in all their depth and complexity. Pages echo each other, colors indicate where and when we are, body language tells us what people are thinking and feeling, dialogue is natural and telling in both what it says and what it doesn’t. And, most importantly, it all comes together in the reader’s head: it’s the kind of story that shows rather than tells, that leads the reader on a journey without just throwing up obvious signposts for plot beats. Anyone who’s been in a relatively functional family will recognize a lot of this, and sympathize with at least some of the characters – if you have a sibling too much like Jose or Vicente, maybe not all of them!

One last note: I see I’ve neglected to mention the translator, Andrea Rosenberg, who is only credited in the backmatter. Obviously, the main body of the work is Roca’s, but all of the words in this English-language edition are via Rosenberg, and their strength speaks to that work.

Reposted from The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent.

2007’s The Mist Creeps onto 4k Ultra HD in October

2007’s The Mist Creeps onto 4k Ultra HD in October

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
Based on the novel by Stephen King, The Mist, arrives on a SteelBook® in a National 4K HD™ (+ Blu-ray™ + Digital), plus a Best Buy exclusive release, on October 3rd from Lionsgate. Both releases include the color version and the alternate black & white version of the film. When a mysterious mist, and the supernatural creatures within, fall across their town in the wake of a violent storm, a group of local citizens must fend for themselves while trapped inside a local supermarket. They soon begin to realize that the real danger may not be from the monsters outside but from tension and mistrust within. Written, directed, and produced by Frank Darabont and starring Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones, and William Sadler, The Mist will be available nationally for the suggested retail price of $34.99 and a Best Buy exclusive of $37.99.

OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
From legendary frightmaster Stephen King and Academy Award® nominated writer-producer-director Frank Darabont comes one of the most tense and terrifying films since The Shining. After a mysterious mist envelops a small New England town, a group of locals trapped in a supermarket must battle a siege of otherworldly creatures . . . and the fears that threaten to tear them apart. Starring Thomas Jane and Oscar® winner Marcia Gay Harden.

CAST
Thomas Jane Boogie Nights, The Punisher (2004)
Marcia Gay Harden Miller’s Crossing, Pollock
Laurie Holden The Walking Dead
Andre Braugher Gideon’s Crossing, Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Toby Jones Infamous, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy
William Sadler The Shawshank Redemption, Die Hard 2

SPECIAL FEATURES
ALTERNATE BLACK & WHITE VERSION INCLUDED

AUDIO COMMENTARY WITH WRITER-DIRECTOR FRANK DARABONT AND PRODUCER DENISE HUTH

BLU-RAY™ ONLY:
• DELETED SCENES WITH OPTIONAL COMMENTARY BY FRANK DARABONT
• A CONVERSATION WITH STEPHEN KING AND FRANK DARABONT
• OVER 2 HOURS OF TOTAL BONUS MATERIAL

PROGRAM INFORMATION

National 4K HD™ + Blu-ray™ + Digital Date: 10/3/23
National 4K HD™ + Blu-ray™ + Digital SRP: $34.99
BEST BUY EXCLUSIVE National 4K HD™ + Blu-ray™ + Digital SRP: $37.99

Year of Production: 2007

Title Copyright: The Mist © 2007, Artwork & Supplementary Materials ®, ™ & © 2023 Lions Gate Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Type: Color and black & white feature

Rating: R for violence, terror and gore, and language

Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller

Closed-Captioned: n/a

4K Ultra HD Subtitles: English, Spanish, and French Subtitles • English SDH†

Blu-Ray Subtitles: English, Spanish, and French Subtitles • English SDH†

Feature Run Time: 126 minutes

4K Ultra HD Format: 2160p Ultra High Definition • 16×9 (1.85:1) Presentation

4K Ultra HD Audio: Dolby Vision • English Dolby Atmos • English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD (Blu-ray™ Only)

Blu-ray Format: 2160p Ultra High Definition • 16×9 (1.85:1) Presentation

Blu-ray Audio: Dolby Vision • English Dolby Atmos • English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD (Blu-ray™ Only)

Artist Name: Sara Deck

The Vision gets Focus in new Avengers Arc

The Vision gets Focus in new Avengers Arc

New York, NY— Right now, in the pages of Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa’s AVENGERS, fans are witnessing Earth’s Mightiest Heroes ascend toward an uncertain destiny! Entangled in the grand machinations of Kang the Conqueror’s quest for the “Missing Moment,” the Avengers are facing off against an interdimensional group of villains called the Ashen Combine. These deadly nihilists and their Impossibly City headquarters represent only the first of the Tribulation Events, a series of large-scale disasters the Avengers will have to overcome to prove themselves worthy of responsibility beyond measure! When the dust settles on this epic battle, the Avengers will assume command of a new base of operations in an effort to ease the heavy burden they’ve committed to. Their journey is just beginning, and with each explosive issue, the full scope of Kang’s agenda will reveal itself to the Avengers and readers alike…

MacKay and Villa will pivot into their second arc on the title in November’s AVENGERS #7. The Avengers defend the world – but they are beginning not to recognize the world as their own. What has happened to Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and…what has happened to the Vision? Find out in December’s AVENGERS #8, which features the return of the mysterious Twilight Court from last year’s Timeless #1! Trapped in a world, they never made, the Avengers struggle to break free – while one of their number fights their own hopeless battle against Myrddin and his Twilight Court! But Avengers never fight alone- and the most dangerous Avenger joins the conflict!

On his approach to the team’s epic clash against the Ashen Combine, MacKay told CBR in the latest installment of Earth’s Mightiest Spoilers: “It’s less about ‘stretching themselves too thin’ than it is about showing that the Avengers are the ones who have to step up when something like the Ashen Combine hits the world, even when it’s on disadvantageous footing. The Avengers don’t always have the luxury of assembling, and when you protect the entire planet, you’re going to have to make tactical decisions as to how to apply your strength. Because the Avengers’ strength isn’t solely limited to them standing together. The other side of the coin is that they’re a collection of powerful, experienced heroes whose reach is planetary and can deploy simultaneously against concurrent threats. Is it a challenge? Of course, it is. But the Avengers exist to be challenged and to triumph over those challenges.”

REVIEW: Babylon 5 The Road Home

REVIEW: Babylon 5 The Road Home

J. Michael Straczynski is back with a new installment in his imaginative Babylon 5 series. The difference this time is that it’s a 76-minute animated feature film, released this week from Warner Home Entertainment.

B5 launched into syndicated television sixteen years ago, featuring a somewhat darker, more nuanced approach to the future. It was filled before and behind the camera with people well-versed in the SF tropes, but used that to twist things and keep them fresh.

Here, Babylon 5 The Road Home, feels far more familiar. We’re set in the time after the Shadow War as we focus on President John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) and his wife Delenn (Rebecca Riedy) adjusting to running the 12-world Interstellar Alliance. Just as he leaves, he’s caught in the tried and true time warp allowing him to visit various parallel realities as we revisit more familiar characters and settings.

Familiarity, in this case, isn’t all bad since everyone who watched the show was happy to have more of what they liked. With so many of the cast now departed, new voices are recruited so things feel slightly off but that can’t be a fault; it’s a reality. Thankfully, we still have Peter Jurasik (Londo), Claudia Christian (Susan Ivanova), Tracy Scoggins (Elizabeth Lochley), Patricia Tallman (Lyta), and Bill Mumy (Lennier). The substitutions, such as genre vet Phil LaMarr as Dr. Stephen Franklin, are welcome.

Must you be familiar with the five seasons of the series (getting collected on disc in time for Christmas)? It certainly helps, but it’s a solid enough story that you get the gist even if the nuances may be missed.

Director Matt Peters does a nice job keeping things moving so you’re never bored, and you get to see beloved people and settings.

The film is available on disc in 4k Ultra HD and Blu-ray combos, along with streaming. The 1.78:1 ratio,  2160p, HDR-enhanced 4K transfer is above-average, with solid colors and smooth play. Accompanying it is an equally impressive DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix.

The discs come with an Audio Commentary featuring Straczynski, Boxleitner, and supervising producer Rick Morales. It’s nice to hear them reminisce and talk about the potential for additional animated stories.

Only the Blu-ray and streaming options include Babylon 5 Forever (17:57),where returning cast members and others chat about their journey back to B5.