A number of TV favorites arrive on DVD today, led by season releases of the hit Nickelodeon series Avatar: The Last Air Bender and [adult swim] staple The Venture Bros. Classic toon fans can also pick up the volume 3 set of episodes from the 1972 series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, while Universal Studios offers up the Riddick Trilogy, which includes both live-action features and Peter Chung’s animated adventure.
Avatar: The Last Air Bender Book 1: Water, Volume 3 offers chapters 9-12, four stories serialized in the hit anime-inspired cartoon series. “The Waterbending Scroll” finds Aang mastering the complicated waterbending techniques just in time to take on a gang of cutthroat pirates, while “Jet” has Aang and pals befriend an adolescent boy leading a Robin Hood-like rebellion against the firebending tribe. “The Great Divide” has our heroes mediating a truce between refugees, and “The Storm’ goes back in time to depict how Aang came to be encased in ice. DVD extras include a look behind the scenes with the voices of the series. The Paramount Home Entertainment release lists for $16.99.
The Venture Bros.: Season One hits shelves as a two-disc set complete with all 13 episodes of the series about sons of famous scientist who travel the wold getting into silly adventures with the family bodyguard, a former secret agent. Warner Home Video has included commentaries by cast and creators, the pilot episode ‘The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay,’ bonus episode “A Very Venture Christmas’ and a behind the scenes look at the upcoming live-action movie. The set carries a suggested retail price of $29.98.
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, Vol. 3: The Original Animated TV Series includes episodes #25-36, originally on CBS between 1975 and 1976. Also included is a bonus 12-track audio CD featuring original music from the animated series made available for the first time. Distributed by Urban Works, the single-disc release is listed at $19.99.
Vin Diesel is the universe’s No. 1 bad boy in Riddick Trilogy, a two-disc compilation of the original 2000 sleeper sci-fi hit Pitch Black, the 2004 follow-up The Chronicles of Riddick, and the anime gap bridger, The Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Fury, directed by Peter Chung of Aeon Flux fame. Bonus materials include feature commentary with Diesel, director David Twohy, producer Tom Engleman and visual effects supervisor Peter Chiang; making-of documentaries; a featurette titled Peter Chung’The Mind of an Animator; The Chronicles of Riddick Visual Encyclopedia; deleted scenes; Toomb’s chase log; visual effects featurettes, and interactive 360′ views of sets used in the films. Universal lists the set at $19.98.
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