THE EPITAPH: VOL. 57 - FAMILY FUN AND CARNAGE EDITION!
DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS (2022) - SWEET TOOTH: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (2022) - TRICK OR TREAT SCOOBY-DOO! (2022) - BATMAN AND SUPERMAN: BATTLE OF THE SUPER SONS (2022) - 8-BIT CHRISTMAS (2021) - MORTAL KOMBAT LEGENDS: SNOW BLIND (2022) - THE BEAST (2022)
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Duration: 105 Minutes
Audio: Dolby Atmos, True HD 7.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p UHD Widescreen
Director: Jared Stern
Cast: Dwayne Johnson,Kevin Hart, Kate McKinnon, John Krasinski, Vanessa Bayer, Natasha Lyonne, Diego Luna, Marc Maron, Thomas Middleditch, Ben Schwartz, Keanu Reeves
In the digital-animated DC League of Super-Pets Superman's (John Krasinski) super-pet Krypto the Super-Dog (Dwayne "Don't call me The Rock" Johnson) are the best of friends, a crime-fighting duo, but Krypto is pretty jealous of Supe's new girlfriend Lois Lane (Olivia Wilde), and feels he's second fiddle. Supe's being the cool-guy he is see's this is having a effect on his super-pal, and sets out to find a new animal friend at the per shelter to keep his pal happy. At the animal shelter there's a guinea pig Lulu (Kate McKinnon) with a chip on his shoulder who was once a lab-rat for Lex Luthor (Marc Maron), and who has certainly picked-up a few of Luthor's more villainous attributes. She hatches a plan to do what Lex has been unable to - destroy the Justice League; Batman (Keanu Reeves), Wonder Woman (Jameela Jamil), The Flash (John Early), Cyborg (Daveed Diggs), Green Lantern (Dascha Polanco), and Aquaman (Jemaine Clement). She succeeds in stripping Supes of his power, and Krypto, too, and imprisoning the human heroes, but in the process accidentally imbues her animal shelter cohorts with super-powers. Luckily for the world the strays are more heroic than Lulu, and they team-up with the powerless Krypto to form the rag-tag DC League of Super-Pets. The team is comprised of a size-changing potbellied pig PB (Vanessa Bayer), super-speed empowered turtle Merton (Natasha Lyonne), and the telekinetic squirrel Chip (Diego Luna). I expected to hate this, but I did not. The animation looks quite wonderful and the story, while not original aside from the heroes being pets, is pretty fun stuff with superhero hijinks, physical gags, and the prerequisite heart-string tugs (which actually work). The voice vast here is pretty great as well, but the star for me is the charmingly effective animation and action-sequences. This is not only great family entertainment but if you're a superhero junkie this is kid-friendly catnip.
Special Features:
- How to Draw Krypto (7 min)
- Behind the Super Voices (15 Min)
- Super-Pets Animation 101 (8 min)
- Find the Easter Eggs (8 min)
- The World of Super-Pets (4 min)
- Deleted Scenes (21 min)
- Slipcover
- UHD Digital Copy
SWEET TOOTH: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (2022) Blu-ray
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 480 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Cast: Christian Convery, Nonso Anozie, Adeel Akhtar, Aliza Vellani, Stefania LaVie, Dania Ramirez, James Brolin
- From. The DC Vault: Batman The Animated Series - "The Demon's Quest, Part Two" (22 min) Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 480 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Cast: Christian Convery, Nonso Anozie, Adeel Akhtar, Aliza Vellani, Stefania LaVie, Dania Ramirez, James Brolin
In the Netflix Original Sweet Tooth, based on a DC comic property, an event dubbed "The Great Crumble" wreaked havoc on the world a decade ago, the release of a virus called "The Sick" has caused the emergence of animal-human hybrids to be born causing humans to both fear and hunt them, unsure if they were the cause or the result of the Crumble. Our protaganist at the start is a hybrid deer-boy named Gus (Christian Convery) who is raised in the relative safety of a remote cabin by Pubba (Will Forte). Things turn sour and Gus is separated from Pubba, and eventually teams-up with a loner named Jepperd (Nonso Anozie) aka Big Man. Together they adventure across what's left of America in search of answers, discovering enemies out to eradicate the hybrids and allies in an hybrid underground. Produced and developed by Jim Mickle (Stakeland), who directed the majority of the eight episodes, this is a gripping adventure tale set in a dystopian and apocalyptic future, but it's not as grim as something like Stakeland, it does get dark (but not as dark as the comic) and it's more hopeful, charming and has a great storyteller narration laid over it by James Brolin. This is top-notch stuff, sadly the 3-disc Blu-ray release is absolutely bare-bones, but it's a bingeable show and holds-up on re-watch, a definite recommend.
TRICK OR TREAT SCOOBY-DOO! (2022) DVD
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Rating:
Duration: 78 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 2.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Cecilia Aranovich
Cast: Grey DeLisle, Matthew Lillard, Kate Micucci
Kiddie-friendly TV animation must not sell very well, I say that because it always seems to be going to DVD and not getting HD releases... or is it a just to keep viewers coming back to streaming platforms to see HD content? Hmm.... anyway, here we have the very timely albeit DVD-only Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo Original Movie. I grew up a big fan of the original series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and the The New Scooby-Doo Movies, mostly in re-runs, and I think this colorful and well-animated Halloween tale hit a lot of the right notes. In it Mystery Inc. have cracked the case to top all cases - they've taken down Coco Diablo, genius the designer of all the monster costumes of all their greatest capers. The problem is that with her gone the cool cases have all dried up, and poor Fred is going batty looking for a new case to solve. Luckily there's a new villain in town and they're on the case, but they have to team-up with Coco Diablo, who Velma is crushing on hard, to get to the bottom of it. I loved this kiddie-friendly caper, it's got the charm of the older series and some slightly surreal animated moments that pleased me. A big get here for me is having Matthew Lillard back as the voice of Shaggy - this guy just is Shaggy, the best since Casey Kasem IMO. The DVD includes three bonus episodes of Scooby-Doo, over an hour's worth, that will keep the good times coming. This is a solid 78-minutes with those crime-solving Meddling Kids, and would make for quite a treat for the kiddos, and the young-at-heart this month. The series is also currently streaming on HBO Max.
Bonus Episodes:
- El Bandito (22 min)
- Headless Horseman of Halloween (24 min)
- To Switch a Witch (23 min)
- Slipcover
BATMAN AND SUPERMAN: BATTLE OF THE SUPER SONS
(2022) 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + DVD
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free (UHD), A (BD)
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 79 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p UHD Widescreen (1.78:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Matt Peters
Cast: Jack Dylan Glazer, Jack Griffo, Troy Baker, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Darin De Paul, Tom Kenny, Zeno Robinson, Nolan North, Myrna Velasco
(2022) 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + DVD
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: Region-Free (UHD), A (BD)
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 79 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p UHD Widescreen (1.78:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Matt Peters
Cast: Jack Dylan Glazer, Jack Griffo, Troy Baker, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Darin De Paul, Tom Kenny, Zeno Robinson, Nolan North, Myrna Velasco
The DCU live-action movie-verse is a bit of a hot-mess but the animated DC films have been, and are, top-notch more often that not. In that more often category is the new Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons, an action-packed animated film that combines 3-D digital rendering and traditional animation to make for a kick-ass superhero team-up starring the progeny of both Batman and Superman, who have to team-up to save the world from the alien hive-mind threat of Starro, after both their pops, along with the entire Justice League, are mind-controlled by the giant-sized alien starfish. This is pretty kick-ass stuff, some of the 3-D animation wasn't my favorite but the action and character team-up here is top-notch. Having just re-watched The Suicide Squad I was hungry for more Starro action and this animated film delivers the goods. The extras are a bit slim, we get a featurette that explores the Super Sons legacy, plus a pair of Batman The Animated Series episodes.
Special Features:
- Rival Sons: Jonathan and Damian (New Featurette) – Legacies collide as Jonathan Kent and Damian Wayne set aside their differences, forming an unlikely alliance to save the world.(15 min)
- From. The DC Vault: Batman The Animated Series - "The Demon's Quest, Part One" (22 Min)
8-BIT CHRISTMAS (2021)
DVD
Label: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Rating: PG-13
Duration: 98 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 16×9 Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Michael Dowse
Cast: Neil Patrick Harris, Winslow Fegley, June Diane Raphael, David Cross, Steve Zahn