The first season of the stop-motion animated [adult swim] hit, Robot Chicken, leads the pack of television favorites arriving on home video today. Other entries include Wonder Showzen Season 1, Avatar: Book 1 Vol. 2, Naruto Vol. 1: Enter Naruto, Outlaw Star: The Complete Collection, Gundam Wing: The Complete Collection, Astro Boy: Ultra Collector’s Edition Set, Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 2, A Boy Named Charlie Brown and Planet of the Apes: The Ultimate DVD Collection. Another highlight of today’s releases is Plymptons: The Complete Early Works of Bill Plympton.
Silly jabs at pop culture come in rapid-fire succession in Robot Chicken from creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich. The show employs action figures in sketch-comedy vignettes that skewer TV, movies, music and celebrities. The DVD retails for $29.98 and includes episode commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage, deleted scenes, the original “Sweet J Presents” skits, wire comparisons, alternate audio takes and animatics.
Even more twisted than Robot Chicken is MTV2’s Wonder Showzen, an adult-oriented Sesame Stree spoof that features edgy animated shorts from Augenblick Studios. The series has developed a dedicated cult following and has been renewed for a second season. The two-disc season one DVD offers all eight episodes, as well as special guest commentaries by Gordon Lish and Dick Gregory, Storytime with Flava Flav, auditions and outtakes, a sneek peek cartoon, a music video and a bonus mini-poster. The Paramount Home Entertainment release lists for $26.98.
In addition to today’s many anime releases comes a new set of episodes from Cartoon Network’s anime-inspired Avatar: The Last Airbender. Book 1 Water, Vol. 2 features chapters 5-8 (The King of Omashu, Imprisoned, Winter Solstice Part 1: The Spirit World and Winter Solstice Part 2: Avatar Roku), and also includes a featurette titled The Making of Avatar: From Real Life to Animation.
The fourteen-disc Planet of the Apes: The Ultimate DVD Collection from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment includes all five original theatrical releases, plus all episodes of the live-action and animated TV series and Tim Burtons 2001 remake of the original feature. The suggested retail price is $179.98.
Last, but certainly not least, is the collection of wacky animated shorts known as Plymptoons: The Complete Early Works of Bill Plympton. The compilation from New Video Group includes the films 25 Ways to Quit Smoking, Your Face, Boomtown, Plymptoons, How to Kiss, Love in the Fast Lane, One of Those Days, Self Portrait, Drawing Lesson #2 and Lucas, the Ear of Corn. The films all showed up on Sling Shot’s 1991 release titled Plymptoons: The Complete Works of Bill Plympton. The new features in this latest issue are two Bill Plympton documentaries, an exclusive sketch gallery and an animator biography. Plympton fans can pick it up for the suggested retail price of $26.95.
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