Live action and animation mesh in two of today’s top home video releases. Paying tongue-in-cheek homage to its 2D classics while spinning a modern-day fairytale, Disney’s Enchanted offers light-hearted, musical fun while Warner Bros. post-apocalyptic zombie thriller I Am Legend serves up action, adventure and a dark vision of the near future. Both films were major fall box office hits.
Earning star Amy Adams an Oscar nomination, Enchanted is a romantic comedy about a fairytale princess whose run-in with an evil queen finds her plucked from the animated world and dropped into modern-day New York City. The film opens with classic Disney-style animation. James Baxter and Andreas Deja served as supervising animators on the sequences, which reflect such timeless favorites as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Directed by Kevin Lima (Tarzan, A Goofy Movie), the pic also features CG animation for non-human characters that are brought into the real world. Visual effects were provided by Tippett Studio, Reel FX, Radium and Weta Digital.
DVD bonus materials include the behind-the-scenes featurette Fantasy Comes to Life, Pip’s Predicament: A Pop-Up Adventure, deleted scenes, bloopers. The Blu-ray version also includes ‘The D Files,’ which challenges viewers to identify all of the film’s references to classic Disney films, as well as a music video for the song ‘Ever, Ever After,’ performed by Carrie Underwood.
One of 2007 biggest surprise hits, I Am Legend is the third cinematic adaptation of Richard Matheson’s classic novel of the same name. The film stars Will Smith as a scientist who manages to survive a plague that has wiped out humanity, leaving only night-dwelling mutants for him to contend with. Sony Pictures Imageworks, under visual effects supervisor Jim Berney, handled the lion’s share of the vfx work, including the completely CG zombified humans.
I Am Legend is available as a singe-disc release containing the theatrical version, while a two-disc special edition includes an alternate theatrical version with a very different ending. The deluxe version also offers behind-the-scenes featurettes and four DVD-ROM animated comics based on the movie.
Among the TV offerings making their way to shelves today are Warner Bros.’ The Pebbles and Bam-Bam Show, a two-disc set with 16 episodes of the animated Flintstones spin-off, and Pup Named Scooby-Doo: The Complete First Season with 13 episodes and behind-the-scenes featurettes available on two discs. From Fox Home Entertainment comes Dennis the Menace: Trouble, Trouble Everywhere, featuring seven episodes of the animated TV series.
