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Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > War > Drama > LIterature > Crime > Police > Fantasy > Animation > Vietnam > America’s National Treasures + Call Of The Wild – The Complete Series (2000) + The Commish – Season Two + Dungeons & Dragons – Into The Magic Realm + The Fight For Freedom + He-Man & The Masters Of Th

America’s National Treasures + Call Of The Wild – The Complete Series (2000) + The Commish – Season Two + Dungeons & Dragons – Into The Magic Realm + The Fight For Freedom + He-Man & The Masters Of The Universe – Battle For Eterna + Renegade – Season Two + That Was Nam – The Collection (Mill Creek DVDs)

 

Picture: C (Treasure, He-Man: C+)     Sound: C (Treasure, He-Man: C+)     Extras: D (Treasure: C+/He-Man: C)     Episodes: C (Treasure: B-/Nam: B)

 

 

The latest wave of Mill Creek DVDs includes repeats, continuations or variants of past titles covered.  We have added links where applicable:

 

America’s National Treasures is a documentary mini-series that shows how Theodore Roosevelt did what he could to preserve some of the best lands in the entire country and the great legacy he left behind.  This runs 7-hours, was shot in HD and gives “virtual tours” of all the many locales covered.  Extras include directions to actually visit, stills, informative text and lists of dates & states where they are. Bo Svenson hosts the first section and Jordan Murphy the rest.  This is nicely done and an informative, pleasant surprise.

 

 

Call Of The Wild – The Complete Series (2000) is the only TV series version we could find, though we did do this odd 3-D version from another company:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9393/Call+Of+The+Wild+3-D+(2009/Vivendi

 

This series is a bit better, shot in 16mm film and despite the poor picture performance here (the show seems to be finished on videotape and has aliasing errors.  However, this is more serious and a little more ambitious than the 3-D version, so those very interested might want to see it.  First shown on the Animal Planet network, Michael Sloane (The Equalizer, Switch, Columbo, Harry O, Quincy) wrote some of the teleplays and Shane Meier is the young male protagonist.

 

 

The Commish – Season Two is finally the follow-up volume to the debut season, which we covered twice, including this first time:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1693/Commish+-+First+Season

 

The performance is weaker like the last Mill Creek set and the show is very much the same, but it took a serious dip for me by being repetitious and boring by the sophomore outing and I was never a big fan to begin with.  22 hour-long shows are in this set with no extras.

 

 

Dungeons & Dragons – Into The Magic Realm is a single of the animated series we only caught up with recently when Mill Creek issued two separate DVDs at the same time of the show, which we covered at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9115/Dungeons+&+Dragons:+The+Animated

 

This is essential episodes 10 – 17 of the larger set, so the earlier single covers the first 9 shows.  At their low prices, you might as well get the larger set.

 

 

The Fight For Freedom is a documentary mini-series breaking down WWII into ten battles and despite the glut of such shows on WWII, this Pacific Media-produced version is interesting and is viable and decent despite the poor quality.

 

 

He-Man & The Masters Of The Universe – Battle For Eterna is a single off of the 2002 revival of the 1980s hit series that two of us have covered completely, so you can start with this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/9094/Cobra/Daybreak/He-Man+&+The+Mast

 

Of course, the older versions are out of print and PDF DVD-ROM scripts and commentary track on the “Orko’s Garden” episode are included as extras, the few among all the titles in this review.

 

 

Renegade – Season Two is another show that took forever to get to a sophomore DVD release after the first season was issued twice, the first edition (out-of-print) that we reviewed years ago at this link:

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1857/Renegade+-+Season+One

 

The next season was also already getting formulaic, sloppy and Lorenzo Lamas became tired very quickly, yet it was a moderate hit for whatever reason.  If you must, start with the first season before considering moving on to this one.

 

 

That Was Nam – The Collection is easily the best collection here, claiming 80 documentaries (equal to 36 hours) of inexplicably, rarely-seen footage of the Vietnam conflict that should have been widely available and in the best condition since the events shown happened.  If so, we might not be in the trouble we are in today.  As a result, picture quality varies and sound can be aged, but some of this has been censored for too long and “conveniently” ignored by too many with darker political motivations, so the 9-DVD set is a very welcome special interest documentary set with vital content as relevant as ever.

 

 

All the shows are in 1.33 X 1 framing, save the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on He-Man and Treasures, plus various aspect ratios on the war documentary sets.  All have picture issues, like aliasing, digititis and second-generation picture reproduction, but some of it is more tolerable and excusable than others.  Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is the sound on all the DVDs, with Stereo on Treasures, and aged, even harsh sound on the rest.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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