Leading our list of home video releases for the week are a set of early Popeye cartoons from Warner Home Video and a special editions of the Disney features The Jungle Book 2 and The Sword in the Stone. Also debuting on DVD are episodes of the new Cartoon Network series Transformers Animated and the Adult Swim anime favorite Blood +.
Popeye the Sailor 1938-1940 Vol. 2 is a two-disc set containing 31 re-mastered and uncut black-and-white theatrical shorts from the legendary Max Fleischer. Retailing for $34.98, the box includes a 20-minute color cartoon and three hours of bonus features. Extras include commentaries by historians, animators and filmmakers; ‘Popeye Popumentaries” offering closer looks at Eugene the Jeep, Poopdeck Pappy and the voices of Olive Oyl; the documentary Out of the Inkwell: The Fleischer Story; a featurette debating whether Popeye or Superman was America’s first superhero; an early Max Fleischer short and art gallery; a Popeye pencil test; a storyboard reel, a vintage audio recording from I’m Popeye the Sailor Man; and an audio interview with Jack Mercer.
Warner also today released Popeye & Friends, Vol. 1, a disc offering eight full-color cartoons from the Hanna-Barbera show The All-New Popeye Hour. The release includes the installments ‘Ship Ahoy’ and ‘Popeye the Plumber,’ and lists for $14.97.
The Jungle Book 2: Special Edition revisits the 2003 theatrical release which features the voices of John Goodman, Haley Joel Osment, John Rhys-Davies and Phil Collins. The title carries a suggested retail price of $29.99 and includes deleted scenes, music videos, behind-the-scenes featurettes and games.
A vintage Disney production gets some new magic with The Sword in the Stone: 45 Anniversary Special Edition. Arthurian legend and medieval magic clash when a young apprentice named Wart gets a shot at greatness with some help from the wizard Merlin in this 1963 animated family flick. Bonus features include various animated shorts, Disney’s song selection and a new interactive challenge titled Merlin’s Magical Academy Game.
A handful of TV episodes are joined together to form Transformers Animated: Transform & Roll Out. In this movie, a ragtag group of Autobots led by Optimus Prime are in a remote sector of Cybertron cleaning space bridges when they stumble upon the most import artifact in Trandformers history’the Allspark. With the Decepticons in hot pursuit, this new band of Autobots must fight for their lives and the future of their world, eventually crash landing on an unknown planet called Earth. The Paramount Home Entertainment release lists for $16.99.
Blood +: Vol. 2 offers five episodes of the anime series seen on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim block. Based on the popular feature film Blood: The Last Vampire, the show is produced by Aniplex Inc., in association with Sony Pictures Television, and features music from Academy Award-winning composer Hans Zimmer. Animation is produced by Production IG. The Sony release carries a suggested retail price of 24.96.
