THE EPITAPH VOL. 91:
ANIMATION, NOIR AND WEIRD DISEASES EDITION!
REGULAR SHOW: THE COMPLETE SERIES (2010-2017) - HOUSE: THE COMPLETE SERIES (2004-2012) - THE NICE GUYS (2016) - DAFFY DUCK'S QUACKBUSTERS (1988) - FRANKENSTEIN JR. AND THE IMPOSSIBLES (1966-1967)
BRIEF REMEMBRANCES OF THE RECENTLY RELEASED.
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Label: Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 3000 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo (Season 1-8), Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (Regular Show: The Movie) with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Voice Cast: J.G. Quintel, William Salyers, Sam Marin, Mark Hamill, Roger Craig Smith, Minty Lewis
Here it is, Cartoon Network’s Emmy Award-winning animated comedy series Regular Show, which ran from 2010-2017 presented in it's entirety on a single DVD set for the first time ever - all 245 episodes plus the movie! I only ever really saw this show at night when my old ass self would come to the living room and fin my sons Zack and Nick watching it, and I would plop down on the couch and watch a few episodes. Honestly, it was not for me, but I did enjoy the bonding time with the boys. I didn't hate it, but it just didn't "do it" for me. That's not a knock on the show, I was in my forties, not exactly the target demographic. Regular Show follows the lives of 20-seomthing best friends Mordecai (voiced by series creator J. G. Quintel), a BlueJay, and Rigby (William Salyers), a raccoon, who are groundskeepers at a park. They seemingly tend to distract themselves with oddball adventures with their gang of friends which includes their anthropomorphic gumball machine boss Benson (Sam Marin), anthropomorphic lollipop Pops (Marin, again), the hulking green-skinned monster-man Muscle Man (Marin, again), ghost-paL Hi-Five Ghost (Quintel, again), an his yeti-pal Skips (Star Wars' Mark Hamill). While the show was not for me I do know it was a wildly successful show for Cartoon Network with legions of fans, my boys included, so much so that there is a Regular Show project currently in production at Cartoon Network Studios. The 20-disc set arrives in a high-volume Epik-Pak case with most of the discs stacked 2-high on the high volume flipper trays, which I don't love, especially for scratch prone DVD, though after inspecting them none were scratched during shipping, which can only attribute to a minor miracle. The wrap is single-sided, on the inside is an insert that lists the episodes and special features. The first-pressing at least features a slipcover with he same artwork as the wrap. There's extras on this set, so many, but my son did note when checking the set out that it does not include the minisode shorts, most of which I have since watched on YouTube, but it's a shame that those are not included on the "complete series" set.
Special Features:
Season 1
- Episode Commentaries
- The Unaired Regular Show Pilot
- Animatic for the Unaired Pilot
-Animatic for The Power Original Pencil Tests from Saerom
- CG Test for Hodgepodge Monster
- 2010 Comic-Con Teaser Trailer
- The Naive Man from Lolliland Student Short
- Party Tonight" Music Video
- JG Pitches The Power
- Original Commercials
Season 2
- Episode Commentaries
- Interview with JG Quintel
- Sam Sings Mystery Karaoke
Season 3
- Episode Commentaries
- Four Things You Didn't Know About JG
- JG Answers Why
- Characters Come To Life: Live Episode Read
- Regular Show: The Movie
- Deleted Animatics
- Movie Animatics
- Original Board Pitch
- Concept Art & Movie Galleries Commentary
- Movie Trailer
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THE NICE GUYS (2016)
4K Ultra HD
Label: Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 115 Minutes 54 Seconds
Audio: English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1) with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Dolby Vision HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (2.39:1)
Director: Shane Black
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Russell Crowe, Angouri Rice, Margaret Qualley, Murielle Telio, Kim Basinger, Keith David, Matt Bomer, Beau Tally
The Shane Black directed The Nice Guys (2016) is set in 1970s Los Angeles, a neo-noir buddy-action flick about a down-on-his-luck alcoholic private eye named Holland March (Ryan Gosling, Drive) and a bitter, divorced for-hire enforcer named Jackson Healy (Russell Crowe, Heaven's Burning) who initially are at odds with each other after Healy is hired to break March's arm to deter him from investigating a murder, but who end-up teaming together to solve the case of a missing girl Amelia (Margaret Qualley, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and the death of a porn star Misty Mountains (Murielle Telio), their oddball team-up uncovering a conspiracy that comes back to Amelia's Justice Department connected mother (Kim Basinger, L.A. Confidential). It's a terrific setting, the smog-drenched L.A. locations and vintage clothing and cars are total eye-candy in a Once Upon A Time in Hollywood sort of way, the neo-noirish intrigue, interesting characters like March's precocious daughter Holly (Angourie Rice, Spider-Man: No Way Home) who is often gets herself mixed up into her father's investigations, the strippers aunt (Lois Smith, Resurrection) who swears she saw the stripper alive, after her reported death, and plenty of low-life thugs for hires including Older Guy (Keith David, The Thing), John Boy (Matt Bomer, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning) and Blueface (Beau Tally), and at the heart of it all is an "experimental" skin flick that threatens to expose a car industry secret that is apparently worth killing for. It's a terrific homage to misfit buddy-cop and noir flicks of yore, subverting tropes, lampooning the expectations a bit, and it's anchored by Gosling and Crower who have fantastic chemistry, with Crowe's character smacking a bit of his character Bud White from L.A. Confidential after being beaten down for decades by life and corruption. The 4K Ultra HD release is a 2K Digital Intermediate upscale but looks terrific, the previous 2016 Blu-ray was already a fantastic release but with the 4K resolution and HDR10/Dolby Vision color-grade it's a nice improvement in all the expected areas. We also get the archival featurettes from the Blu-ray, but like that release this one does not feature the film's trailer. No Slipcover or Digital Copy either, just the 4K Ultra HD disc.
Special Features:
- Always Bet On Black (5:27)
- Worst, Detectives, Ever: Making of The Nice Guys (6:16)
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HOUSE, MD: THE COMPLETE SERIES (2004-2012)
39-Disc Blu-ray Set
Label: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 7765 Minutes or 129 Hours 25 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Cast: Hugh Laurie, Lisa Edelstein, Robert Sean Leonard, Jennifer Morrison, Omar Epps, Robert Sean Leonard, Jennifer Morrison, Jesse Spencer, Peter Jacobson, Kal Penn, Olivia Wilde, Amber Tamblyn, Odette Annable, Charlyne Yi
All right you House-heads, it's here, the complete series on one 39-disc Blu-ray set from UPHE. I do love me this show, even if it waned during the final seasons, but so interesting was the premise, and so curious was it's lead characters, the opioid addicted cynical curmudgeon Dr. Gregory House
All right you House-heads, it's here, the complete series on one 39-disc Blu-ray set from UPHE. I do love me this show, even if it waned during the final seasons, but so interesting was the premise, and so curious was it's lead characters, the opioid addicted cynical curmudgeon Dr. Gregory House
(Hugh Laurie, Stuart Little) that my wife and I watched it right up till the end. Curiously we never re-watched the series, even though I had the first two seasons on DVD, but why watch SD why I can re-watch it n HD!?! I have sampled various episodes from all eight seasons, but we are currently smack dab in the middle of season two, so it looks like we are gonna be watching the whole set in short order.
If you're unfamiliar with the show it's about the titular misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the Princeton–Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey, the main cast includes Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein, The Kominsky Method) the Dean of Medicine who is always at odds with House, his much put-upon best-pal Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), the Head of Oncology, and his young team of doctor specialist which throughout the series included Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps, Dracula 2000), Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer, TV's Chicago Hope), Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison, Stir of Echoes), Dr. Christopher Taub (Peter Jacobson, AMC's Fear the Walking Dead), Dr. Remy Hadley (Olivia Wilde, Don't Worry Darling), Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle), Dr. Martha Masters (Amber Tamblyn, Y The Last Man), Dr. Chi Park (Charlyne Yi, Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich) and Dr. Jessica Adams (Odette Annable, Cloverfield). If you love medical dramas and mysteries this is a show that is gonna scratch that itch and then some. The Blu-rays looks solid, while I never thought the show was amazing looking with it's muted and overly dark hospital interior settings the transfers are quite handsome with pleasing primaries and deep black levels, with uncompressed audio, and optional English subtitles. The 39-disc Blu-ray set arrives in nine keepcases, each season getting a dedicated keepcase with a flipper tray housing 5-discs each, with the exception of season 4 which is only 4-discs. There's no stacked discs here folks, which I appreciated. These discs average 2-5 episodes per disc. These are housed in a sideloading slipbox, which like the Seinfeld and Friends sets is pretty shabby to be honest, but also perfectly fine, The keepcase artworks all feature different promotional images of the cast on the front covers with differently colored backgrounds, using the same background colors and images used for the previous DVD season set releases. On the backside of the wraps we get a disc episode guide with synopsis, plus a list of the special features on each season. The discs themselves are uniform, the background colors and promotional image matching the corresponding wrap artwork and colors, featuring the House, M.D. logo, indicating the season, disc and numbers.
Special Features:
Season 1
- Dr. House
- Medical Cases
- The Concept
- Set Tour
- House-isms
- Casting Session with Hugh Laurie
Season 2
- "Autopsy" Commentary with Executive Producers David Shore and Katie Jacobs
- Alternate Take from "Daddy's Boy"
- The Valley Girl Version
- Alternate Take from "Sleeping Dog's Lie
- The Valley Girl Version
- Blooper Reel
- It Could Be Lupus...
- "No Reason" Commentary with Executive Producers David Shore and Katie Jacobs
- An Evening with House
Season 3
- Alternate Take from "Cane & Able"
- The Angry Valley Girl Edition
- "Half-Wit" Commentary with Creator/Executive Producer David Shore and Executive Producer/Director Katie Jacobs
- House Soundtrack Sessions with Band from TV
- Anatomy of an Episode "The Jerk"
- Blood Needles & Body Parts: The House Prop Department
- Open House: The Production Office
- Blooper Reel
Season 4
"House's Head" Commentary with Creator/Executive Producer David Shore and Executive Producer/Director Katie Jacobs
- House-s Soap: Prescription Passion
- New Beginnings
- Meet the Writers
- The Visual Effects of House
- Anatomy of a Scene: The Bus Crash
- My Favorite Episodes So Far...
Season 5
- House Meets a Milestone: The 100th Episode
- "Locked In" Commentary with Executive Producers David Foster and Writer/Executive Producers Russell Friend & Garrett Lerner
- Keeping It Real: Accuracy in Writing
- Dr. Mom Cuddy's Storyline
- House Guests: Casting the Show
- Anatomy of a Teaser
Season 6
- Before Broken: An Original Short featuring Hugh Laurie and shot on location with no script and no plan, experience House's emotional journey at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital from an up-close and intimate perspective as originally envisioned by director/executive producer Katie Jacobs in this original short.
- A New House for House
- New Faces in a New House
- Crazy Cool Episode "Epic Fail"
- "Broken" Commentary with Director/Executive Producer Katie Jacobs, Writer/Executive Producer Russell Friend ans Writer/Executive Producer Garrett Lerner
- Wilson" Commentary with Series Star Sean Leonard and Writer/Supervising Producer David Foster M.D.
- "5 to 9" Commentary with Series Star Lisa Edelstein and Writer/ Executive Producer Thomas Moran
- A Different POV: Hugh Laurie Directs
- "Help Me" Commentary with Director/Co-Executive Producer Greg Taiwanese and Technical Advisor Larry Collins
Season 7
- Meet Martha Masters
- Huddy Dissected
- Anatomy of an Episode "Bombshells"
- Thirteen Returns
- "Bombshells" Commentary Director Greg Yaitanes and Series Star Lisa Edelstein
- "The Dig" Commentary with Writers Sara Hess and David Homeland
- "Moving On" Commentary with Creator/Executive Producers David Shore and Director/Executive Producer Greg Yaitanes
Season 8
- House, M.D. Swan Song
- The Doctor Directs: Behind the Scenes with Hugh Laurie
- Everybody Dies: A Postmortem
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DAFFY DUCK'S QUACKBUSTERS (1988)
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 79 Minutes 19 Seconds
Audio: English DTS HD-MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.37:1)
Directors: Greg Ford, Terry Lennon
Voice Cast: Mel Blanc, Julie Bennet, Roy Firestone, B.J. Ward
The delightful Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988) is an animated compilation film featuring vintage comed-horror WB toons from the vaults spanning the 40s through the 60's, re-edited, re-dubbed, and re-packaged with a new animated wraparound story that sort of brings it all together, the title itself an obvious riff on Ghostbusters. Unlike most of the WB cartoon compilations we actually get two new animated shorts exclusive to this release, these come byway of The Night of the Living Duck (1988) and The Duxorcist (1988). The wraparound features Daffy Duck as opens up the ghostbusting Ghouls 'R' Us agency and pitching his wares on TV. The vintage toons include Daffy Dilly (1948),The Prize Pest (1951) , Hyde and Go Tweet (1960), Claws for Alarm (1954), Transylvania 6-5000 (1963), The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961) , Punch Trunk (1953) and Jumpin' Jupiter (1955), which have been re-edited and re-dubbed by the legendary voice actor Mel Blanc, this being of of his very last voice gigs before his passing in the summer of 1989.
This compilation has some great vintage bits that have been re-jiggered, plus the two new shorts are pretty great as well. In The Night of the Living Duck (1988) Daffy is a nightclub singer, voiced by crooner Mel Torme, the club full of cool-looking monsters including Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolfman, as well as "Schmodzilla", who the duck manages to upset. "The Duxorcist" has Daffy being summoned to the home of Melissa Duck who turns out to be possessed, this one owing lots to Ghostbusters with a refrigerator and levitation gags, and I love the style of both of the new entries.Other classic WB toons that feature in the film in re-jiggered fashion include Hyde and Go Tweet (1960) featuring Sylvester the cat and a monstrous Tweety, Claws for Alarm (1954) features Porky and Sylvester at a haunted roadside motel, the classic Transylvania 6-5000 (1963) with Bigs Bunny at the castle of Count Bloodcount, The Abominable Snow Rabbit (1961) with Bugs and Daffy encountering Hugo the Abominable Snowman. It's one of the better WB compilation flicks in my opinion, I dig the Ghostbusters riff of the wraparound story, and the new for '88 shorts stand pretty well alongside the classic comedy-horror themed shorts. The new restoration from Warner Archive looks absolutely marvelous with bold colors, intact grain and gorgeous animation lines, all of which makes this just a wonderful nostalgia trip for lovers of vintage animation. See screenshots from this release HERE. Extras include the Matinee Version of the film, plus 7 "Modern" WB shorts spanning 1980-2000, including the widescreen version of Little Go Beep (2000).
Special Features:
- Matinee Version (79:19)
- 7 "modern era" Looney Tunes shorts all in HD: Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 241/2th Century (1980) (6:41), The Duxorcist (1988) (7:45), Little Go Beep (2000) (7:58), Night of the Living Duck (1988) (6:12), Superior Duck (1996) (6:41), Blooper Bunny (1991)(8:29) and Invasion of the Bunny Snatchers (1992) (11:29)
- Theatrical Trailer (7:58)
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FRANKENSTEIN JR. AND THE IMPOSSIBLES (1966-1967)
2-Disc Blu-ray Set
Label: Warner Archive
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 383 Minutes
Audio: English DTS HD-MA 2.0 Dual-Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Fullscreen (1.33:1)
Directors: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
Voice Cast: Dick Beals, Ted Cassidy, Paul Frees, Don Messick, Hal Smith, John Stephenson
More Hanna-Barbera animation treats from the Warner Archive! This time it's the complete two season set of the superhero half-hour double-feature Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles which rans from 1966-1967. This was well before my time but I know I've seen these in my youth at some point in the 70s airing on TV. The half-hour episodes were split into two different cartoon, and they switch up the running order throughout the series. We got Frankenstein Jr. featuring hero boy-genius Buzz Conroy (voiced by Dick Beals) who builds the powerful robot Frankenstein Jr. (voiced by Ted Cassidy, Lurch from '60s The Addam 's Family) which he powers with his energy ring, with assistance from his father Professor Conroy (voiced by John Stephenson, The Flintstones). Each episode Buzz and "Frankie" face-off against goofy comic villains like The Alien Brain from Outer Space, Spyder-Man, The Shocking Electrical Monster, The Menace from the Wax Museum, and so on. It;s pretty goofy stuff but I love it, reminding me a bit of Frank Miller and Geof Darrow's comic book Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, which was also made into a short-lived TV series in the 90s. I am sure there are earlier Japanese shows this cribbed from, but I am not too familiar with any of them and this is my closet touchstone so to speak.
The second half of the episode would be the crime-fighting adventures of The Impossible, comprised of costumed heroes Multi Man (Voiced by Don Messick, the voice of Scooby-Doo!), Coil Man (voiced by Hal Smith, The Andy Griffith Show) and Fluid Man (voiced by Paul Frees, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town) , whose alter ego are the beatnik fab-three who tour the world and often find themselves fighting super-villains like Spinner (Hal Smith, again), Doll Man (Messick, again) and Professor Stretch (Frees, again), all of whom appeared multiple times, as well as villains of the week like Smogula (Alan Reed, The Flintstones), Timeatron (Keye Luke from the Charlie Chan flicks from the '30s) and Mother Gruesome (June Foray, The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show). This sort of brought to mind stuff like Josie and the Pussycats with more of a superhero disguised as musicians angle to it. There's lots of punny dialogue that was pretty hip for the era, perhaps a bit strange now to modern ears, but still curious in an entertaining way. The superpowers of the heroes are a bit lacking, with fluid man transforming into various fluid presentations ala Zan from the Super Friends; while Coil Man literally turns into a coil which was verry silly. The best of the trio is easily team-leader Multiple Man who can multiply himself, which at least is useful in more instances. I won't lie, some of the musical numbers of pretty fun in a schlocky low-rent Beatlemania sort of way. The 2-disc collects all 18 episode remastered in High Definition from 4K scans of the original camera negatives of the series, and they look terrific!
Special Features:
- Monster Rock: The Adventures of Frankenstein Jr. & The Impossible
Buy it:
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