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Search Results:
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Displaying records 11 through 20 of 1686 |
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Price: $29.99
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Sale: $16.00
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Brand: PIXAR STUDIOS
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Manufacturer: Disney/Pixar
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Number of Items: 2
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Description: The folks at Pixar can do no wrong with Monsters, Inc., the studio's fourth feature film, which stretches the computer animation format in terms of both technical complexity and emotional impact. The giant, blue-furred James P. "Sulley" Sullivan (wonderfully voiced by John Goodman) is a scare-monster extraordinaire in the hidden world of Monstropolis, where the scaring of kids is an imperative in order to keep the entire city running. Beyond the competition to be the best at the business, Sullivan and his assistant, the one-eyed Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal), discover what happens when the real world interacts with theirs in the form of a 2-year-old baby girl dubbed "Boo," who accidentally sneaks into the monster world with Sulley one night. Director Pete Doctor and codirectors David Silverman and Lee Unkrich follow the Pixar (Toy Story) blueprint with an imaginative scenario, fun characters, and ace comic timing. By the last heart-tugging shot, kids may never look at monsters the same, nor artists at what computer animation can do in the hands of magicians. --Doug Thomas
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Price: $64.98
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Sale: $25.99
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Brand: Warner Brothers
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Manufacturer: Turner Home Ent
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Number of Items: 4
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Description: Chuck Jones and other great studio animators sneered at the cheap look and lazy craftsmanship of Hanna Barbera's television cartoons in the 1960s, but there's no question HB's original, 35-year-old Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is enduringly beloved. The Complete First and Second Seasons includes all 25 stories first broadcast from September '69 to October '71, a growth period in which canine hero Scooby's voice (by Don Messick, who also voiced The Jetsons's pup, Astro) was gradually refined from murky garble to Scoob's more familiar, "Rrroowwrr"-inflected, human-like speech. This set also represents the pre-frills Scooby-Doo: no guest appearances by Don Knotts or Batman, no Scrappy-Doo--just adventure and occasional bubblegum pop tunes by Danny Janssen and sundry co-writers (e.g., "Pretty Mary Sunlite" in the episode "Don't Fool with a Phantom"). Watching all the shows back-to-back reveals evolving complexity in the scripts. Over time, Scooby-Doo's creators added multiple bad guys in cahoots with major villains, and developed sub-plots, backstories, and even appealing allies and friends of Mystery, Inc., a traveling band of young debunkers of supernatural phenomena. Riding around in their psychedelic Mystery Van, preppie leader Fred and his friends--haughty Daphne, brainy Velma, quasi-hippie Shaggy, and Shaggy's best pal, Scooby, an excitable Great Dane--chase down and are chased by alleged ghouls who generally turn out to be venal humans running various scams. Included here is Scooby-Doo's premiere, "What a Night for a Knight," in which the gang looks into the disappearance of a noted archaeologist and end up in a "haunted" museum. The fun "Go Away Ghost Ship" finds our heroes helping a shipping company daunted by the apparent ghost of pirate Red Beard, while the silly classic "A Tiki Scare Is No Fair" concerns a Hawaiian vacation for Mystery, Inc. disrupted by a witch doctor. --Tom Keogh
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Price: $64.98
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Sale: $43.99
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Brand: Warner Brothers
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Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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Number of Items: 4
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Description: Fifteen cartoons dating from World War II give Volume 6 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection more focus than previous sets. Many of the 1940's cartoons remain very funny. Bugs Bunny dresses up as Brunnhilda and rides in to the strains of "Tannhauser" in "Herr Meets Hare" (1945), a gag Chuck Jones re-used to greater effect in "What's Opera, Doc" a dozen years later. In "Russian Rhapsody" (1940) some of the gremlins who sabotage Hitler's bomber are caricatures of the Warner Bros. artists. Chuck Jones appears as a chunky, pinkish-tan homunculus swinging a mallet; Friz Freleng is a little green man with a saw-like nose. Younger viewers may find the references to wartime shortages puzzling--or fail to recognize the caricatures of Hermann Goering, Hideki Tojo and Joseph Stalin. Some of the other cartoons can still bring down the house, including "Satan's Waitin'" (1954), in which Sylvester manages to lose all nine of his lives in pursuit of Tweety, and "Bear Feat" (1949), another exercise in futility for Jones' Three Bears. The early musicals featuring Bosko, Foxy (or Freddy Fox) and Buddy have not aged well. Created by Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising, these characters were modeled on Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, but lack charm and personality. Some more recent films reveal how social attitudes have changed. "Wild Wife," a spoof of a suburban housewife's tribulations, may have seemed hilarious in 1954; today, it's just a laundry list of sexist gags. Like the previous installments, Volume 6 comes loaded with extras. The rarest are five shorts Friz Freleng directed at MGM in 1938. Producer Fred Quimby lured Freleng away from Warner Bros.--only to insist he adapt the comic strip "The Captain and the Kids," Rudolph Dirks' version of "The Katzenjammer Kids." Freleng correctly predicted the films would flop as the characters were "the meanest little bastards in the world," and soon returned to Warners. (Unrated, suitable for ages 6 and older: cartoon violence, ethnic stereotypes, mild risqué humor, alcohol & tobacco use) --Charles Solomon (1. Hare Trigger, 2. To Duck or Not to Duck, 3. Birth of a Notion, 4. My Little Duckaroo, 5. Crowing Pains, 6. Raw! Raw! Rooster! 7. Heaven Scent, 8. My Favorite Duck, 9. Jumpin' Jupiter, 10. Satan's Waitin', 11. Hook Line and Stinker, 12. Bear Feat, 13. Dog Gone South, 14. A Ham in a Role, 15. Often an Orphan, 16. Herr Meets Hare, 17. Russian Rhapsody, 18. Daffy the Commando, 19. Bosko the Doughboy, 20. Rookie Revue, 21. The Draft Horse, 22. Wacky Blackout, 23. The Ducktators, 24. The Weakly Reporter, 25. Fifth Column Mouse, 26. Meet John Doughboy, 27. Hollywood Canine Canteen, 28. By Word of Mouse, 29. Heir Conditioned, 30. Yankee Dood It, 31. Congo Jazz, 32. Smile Dam Ya, Smile! 33. The Booze Hangs High, 34. One More Time, 35. Bosko's Picture Show, 36. You Don't Know What You're Doin'! 37. We're in the Money! 38. Ride 'em Bosko, 39. Shuffle Off to Buffalo, 40. Bosko in Person, 41. The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon, 42. Buddie's Day Out, 43. Buddie's Beer Garden. 44. Buddie's Circus, 45. A Cartoonist's Nightmare, 46. Horton Hatches the Egg, 47. Lights Fantastic, 48. Fresh Airedale, 49. Chow Hound, 50. The Oily American, 51. It's Hummer Time, 52. Rocket Bye Baby, 53. Goo Goo Goliath, 54. Wild Wife, 55. Much Ado About Nutting, 56. The Hole idea, 57. Now Hear This, 58. Martian Through Georgia, 59. Page Miss Glory. 60. Norman Normal)
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Price: $35.99
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Sale: $14.50
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Brand: Warner Brothers
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Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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Number of Items: 3
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Description: An over-the-top, sensory overload experience determined to replicate its frantic, television-anime origins, Speed Racer is wild enough to induce a headache or wow a viewer with one dazzling effect after another. Adapted for the big screen as a live-action feature, Speed Racer is written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, the sibling team behind the intensely satisfying The Matrix and its busier, less interesting sequels. Where the rich mythmaking of The Matrix was entirely accessible, however, Speed Racer's overwhelming and gratuitously complicated story exposition is an enormous challenge to follow, let alone embrace. After a while, one simply surrenders to the unbroken din of dialogue concerning corporate chicanery, corruption in the sport of racing, and a value conflict between racing as a family business versus multinational cash cow. At the same time, the film's hyper-real equivalent of the old Speed Racer cartoon's great whoosh of color, motion, and edgy production design--such as inventive uses of scene-changing wipes, bold framing, shifting perspectives--are more overbearing than fun. Emile Hirsch plays Speed Racer, younger brother of a deceased racing legend, Rex, and son of car designer Pops (John Goodman). The latter invented Speed's Mach 5, and is singularly unimpressed by an offer from a giant conglomerate that would lock Speed into exclusive racing services. Speed opts instead for family loyalty, incurring the wrath of the conglomerate's unctuous head (Roger Allam). With family honor on the line and the affections of girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) behind him, Speed hits the track in hopes of fulfilling his destiny as a master racer. The cast is largely enjoyable, including Susan Sarandon as Speed's mom, Matthew Fox as mysterious Racer X, and a pair of chimps as the irrepressible Chim-Chim. All well and good, but in a movie that lives or dies by the excitement level of races that look like computer-animated Hot Wheels action, Speed Racer is a dreary adventure. --Tom Keogh
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Price: $14.98
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Sale: $7.78
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Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox
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Number of Items: 1
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Description: This epic Lucasfilm fantasy serves up enough magical adventure to satisfy fans of the genre, though it treads familiar territory. With abundant parallels to Star Wars, the story (by George Lucas) follows the exploits of the little farmer Willow (Warwick Davis), an aspiring sorcerer appointed to deliver an infant princess from the evil queen (Jean Marsh) to whom the child is a crucial threat. Val Kilmer plays the warrior who joins Willow's campaign with the evil queen's daughter (Joanne Whalley, who later married Kilmer). Impressive production values, stunning locations (in England, Wales, and New Zealand) and dazzling special effects energize the routine fantasy plot, which alternates between rousing action and cute sentiment while failing to engage the viewer's emotions. A parental warning is appropriate: director Ron Howard has a light touch aimed at younger viewers, but doesn't shy away from grisly swordplay and at least one monster (a wicked two-headed dragon) that could induce nightmares. --Jeff Shannon
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Price: $27.98
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Sale: $19.91
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Brand: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAIN.
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Manufacturer: Universal Studios
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Number of Items: 3
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Description: Filmmaker Robert Zemeckis topped his breakaway hit Romancing the Stone with Back to the Future, a joyous comedy with a dazzling hook: what would it be like to meet your parents in their youth? Billed as a special-effects comedy, the imaginative film (the top box-office smash of 1985) has staying power because of the heart behind Zemeckis and Bob Gale's script. High schooler Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox, during the height of his TV success) is catapulted back to the '50s where he sees his parents in their teens, and accidentally changes the history of how Mom and Dad met. Filled with the humorous ideology of the '50s, filtered through the knowledge of the '80s (actor Ronald Reagan is president, ha!), the film comes off as a Twilight Zone episode written by Preston Sturges. Filled with memorable effects and two wonderfully off-key, perfectly cast performances: Christopher Lloyd as the crazy scientist who builds the time machine (a DeLorean luxury car) and Crispin Glover as Marty's geeky dad. --Doug Thomas Critics and audiences didn't seem too happy with Back to the Future, Part II, the inventive, perhaps too clever sequel. Director Zemeckis and cast bent over backwards to add layers of time-travel complication, and while it surely exercises the brain it isn't necessarily funny in the same way that its predecessor was. It's well worth a visit, though, just to appreciate the imagination that went into it, particularly in a finale that has Marty watching his own actions from the first film. --Tom Keogh Shot back-to-back with the second chapter in the trilogy, Back to the Future, Part III is less hectic than that film and has the same sweet spirit of the first, albeit in a whole new setting. This time, Marty ends up in the Old West of 1885, trying to prevent the death of mad scientist Christopher Lloyd at the hands of gunman Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson, who had a recurring role as the bully Biff). Director Zemeckis successfully blends exciting special effects with the traditions of a Western and comes up with something original and fun. --Tom Keogh
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Price: $19.97
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Sale: $11.92
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Brand: Warner Brothers
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Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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Number of Items: 1
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Description: The Music Man was one of the last great movie musicals from any studio, and it proved to be that rarest of events: a Broadway show that was measurably improved by its transition to the screen. Robert Preston made his musical debut--both live and on film--as "Professor" Harold Hill, the upbeat charlatan who promises to teach a small-town boys band by the "think system." But it's the part Preston was born to play and the one for which he will always be best remembered. Composer Meredith Willson based The Music Man on his own small-town Midwestern boyhood, circa 1912, a quasi-mythical place where the old-maid librarian looks and sings like Shirley Jones. The boy himself is an adorable Ron Howard, lisp-singing "Gary, Indiana." Willson's entire score, featuring a combination of what are now standards, such as "Goodnight My Someone" and "Till There Was You" and show-specific numbers ("Trouble," "76 Trombones"), is never less than infectious. This dazzling special edition is also as bright and sunny as any 4th of July in Iowa could ever hope to be. --Robert Windeler
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Price: $19.98
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Sale: $8.23
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Brand: Warner Brothers
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Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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Number of Items: 1
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Description: Hollywood's legendary "woman's director," George Cukor (The Women, The Philadelphia Story), transformed Audrey Hepburn into street-urchin-turned-proper-lady Eliza Doolittle in this film version of the Lerner and Loewe musical. Based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, My Fair Lady stars Rex Harrison as linguist Henry Higgins (Harrison also played the role, opposite Julie Andrews, on stage), who draws Eliza into a social experiment that works almost too well. The letterbox edition of this film on video certainly pays tribute to the pageantry of Cukor's set, but it also underscores a certain visual stiffness that can slow viewer enthusiasm just a tad. But it's really star wattage that keeps this film exciting, that and such great songs as "On the Street Where You Live" and "I Could Have Danced All Night." Actor Jeremy Brett, who gained a huge following later in life portraying Sherlock Holmes, is quite electric as Eliza's determined suitor. --Tom Keogh
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Price: $28.98
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Sale: $4.71
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Brand: Warner Brothers
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Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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Number of Items: 1
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Description: An over-the-top, sensory overload experience determined to replicate its frantic, television-anime origins, Speed Racer is wild enough to induce a headache or wow a viewer with one dazzling effect after another. Adapted for the big screen as a live-action feature, Speed Racer is written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, the sibling team behind the intensely satisfying The Matrix and its busier, less interesting sequels. Where the rich mythmaking of The Matrix was entirely accessible, however, Speed Racer's overwhelming and gratuitously complicated story exposition is an enormous challenge to follow, let alone embrace. After a while, one simply surrenders to the unbroken din of dialogue concerning corporate chicanery, corruption in the sport of racing, and a value conflict between racing as a family business versus multinational cash cow. At the same time, the film's hyper-real equivalent of the old Speed Racer cartoon's great whoosh of color, motion, and edgy production design--such as inventive uses of scene-changing wipes, bold framing, shifting perspectives--are more overbearing than fun. Emile Hirsch plays Speed Racer, younger brother of a deceased racing legend, Rex, and son of car designer Pops (John Goodman). The latter invented Speed's Mach 5, and is singularly unimpressed by an offer from a giant conglomerate that would lock Speed into exclusive racing services. Speed opts instead for family loyalty, incurring the wrath of the conglomerate's unctuous head (Roger Allam). With family honor on the line and the affections of girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) behind him, Speed hits the track in hopes of fulfilling his destiny as a master racer. The cast is largely enjoyable, including Susan Sarandon as Speed's mom, Matthew Fox as mysterious Racer X, and a pair of chimps as the irrepressible Chim-Chim. All well and good, but in a movie that lives or dies by the excitement level of races that look like computer-animated Hot Wheels action, Speed Racer is a dreary adventure. --Tom Keogh
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Price: $19.98
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Sale: $7.49
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Brand: Warner Brothers
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Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
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Number of Items: 1
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Description: This all-time classic now has Horton Hears a Who! on the same video for a great double bill. How the Grinch Stole Christmas To heck with the kids--this is one of the best holiday presents you can give yourself. Adapted from the children's book by Dr. Seuss, this charming story is one to watch every holiday season. It is just edgy enough to help you forget the more cloying aspects of Christmas, yet it is also sweet enough to remind you of the reason for all that holiday cheer. Animation genius Chuck Jones directed this 1966 television production featuring the voice of Boris Karloff as the mean greenie. Bitter and selfish, the Grinch decides to steal Christmas away from the Whos, the sweet little folk who live at the bottom of his mountain home. When little Cindy Loo Who returns his hateful act with kindness, she melts the old miser's heart. There are many reasons to watch this: inventive wordplay, Karloff's impressive narration, and a very memorable soundtrack. --Rochelle O'Gorman Horton Hears a Who! Chuck Jones was chief animator on this lively adaptation of the famous book by Dr. Seuss. The story of a friendly elephant named Horton who discovers--deep inside a daisy--a tiny city called Whoville with tiny, intelligent residents--this film (fleshed out a bit from the source) is strong on character and has striking, appealing visuals. The little folks of Whoville, with their natural air of aristocracy, are a kick, and when they come to see Horton as a hero for his democratic view of all life big and small, the effect is quite touching. This should be a real treat for kids already familiar with the book, and just might inspire those who haven't read it to pick it up. --Tom Keogh
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Displaying records 11 through 20 of 1686
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