Today’s crop of home video releases has a decidedly retro vibe with classic animated TV properties getting multi-disc editions. Astro Boy: The Complete Series features all installments of the recently revived anime show and The Wind in the Willows: The Complete First Series offers a trip down stop-motion memory lane.
The five-disc Astro Boy set includes 50 episodes, including 29 that have never been seen in North America. This is Sony Pictures Television Int’l’s 2003 incarnation of the franchise, which creator Osamu Tezuka first introduced to Japanese manga readers in 1951. A black-and-white toon series emerged in 1963, followed by a color update in 1980. This latest version aired on Kids’ WB! in the fall of 2004.
The Astro Boy series tells a Pinocchio-esque tale of a robot boy, modeled after the deceased son of a research scientist, who becomes a renowned superhero complete with laser-firing fingers, keen hearing and jet-powered boots. Animated mostly at Tezuka Pro in Beijing, the show consists primarily of traditional 2D images, with some CG worked in.
Included on one disc is the featurette Remaking of Astro Boy. The Sony release carries a suggested retail price of $49.95.
Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s book comes to animated life in The Wind in the Willows: The Complete First Season. This two-disc set features 13 episodes from the first of five seasons of the stop-motion series animated by Cosgrove Hall. Produced in the 1980s, the show follows the musical adventures friends Mole, Rat, Badger and Toad. The A&E Home Video release lists for $29.95. Also available from A& E is the original The Wind in the Willows TV special, which carries a suggested retail price of $19.95.
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