Adventure
Planet (2012/Arc DVD)/The
Boy From Space
(1971/BBC/BFI Region 2 PAL Import DVDs)/R.L.
Stein's Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?
(2014/Universal Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
C+/C+/B- & C Sound: B-/C+/B & B- Extras: C-/B-/C-
Main Programs: C/B-/C
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Boy From Space
Import DVD is now only available from our friends at BFI, can only be
played on DVD players that can handle the Region 2 PAL format and can
be ordered from the link below.
Here
are the latest children's titles, two of which are from overseas so
you don't miss them...
Kantana
Animation out of Thailand has made the surprisingly pro-environmental
CGI animated comedy Adventure
Planet
(2012, directed by Kompin Kemgumnird) that is colorful, likely
intended for 3D and has its moments as a young rich kid named Sam
(voiced by Drake Bell) is part of a camp when the environment starts
to get rough, something noticed by a young woman his age named Norva
and the younger Jorpe who can read nature and animals with an almost
psychic connection. Little creatures are starting to breed to worsen
global warming, while scientists are building a Cold Bomb to reverse
the process.
Then
it gets wilder and carried away. I liked this early on, but there
are a few too many moments of violent, aggressive behavior that I
found problematic, then the thing goes way over-the-top and silly
overboard in the last third. Running a long 81 minutes, Brooke
Shields, Jane Lynch and J.K Simmons are among the English voice
actors. This should be a curio of some kind, but they needed more
restraint.
A
trailer is the only extra, though you can get VUDU Digital Copy if
you wish.
The
Boy From Space
(1971) is an educational BBC TV show restored by the BBC and BFI for
a new Region 2 PAL Import DVD set release. An educational show, the
1971 show was shot on film about Dan and Helen (brother & sister)
finding out about telescopes when they get visited by the title
character who talks in then-computer-sounding talk. Not bad, an
updated version added more educational videotaped segments with Wordy
(whose head is like a spinning ball in an old electric typewriter)
and Cosmo hosting the episodes and asking the young viewers to think
about words.
Those
additions do not hurt, but the original filmed segments are decent
and though some aspects of them are dated, more than a few are not
and it is not sentimentalized or gives the title character phony,
silly treatment. Those shows hold up on their own without the
add-ons, but only slight difference in U.S. and British English
stopped this from becoming an import. I thought this would be
interesting and I was right, also fitting in well with where Doctor
Who was at the time. If you can play import DVDs and have
children, you might want to get this set.
A
feature-length version of the episodes edited as a telefilm, the
original 33 1/3 vinyl record with new images and set to a blank
screen and a compilation of animated educational sequences are the
extras on DVD 2, along with PDF DVD-ROM downloadable 1971 and 1979
pupil's pamphlets.
Finally
we have Peter Hewitt's adaption of R.L.
Stein's Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?
(2014) from the writer of the popular Goosebumps.
A silly horror comedy in the mode of those stories, there are some
mildly amusing moments, but the attempt to make a new Halloween
special people will remember fails at 91 long minutes, an odd
out-of-the-element Joan Rivers appearance and graveyard ghosts who
seem like second-rate versions of what you'd find on Filmation's 1976
The
Ghost Busters.
Fans of Stein might like this, but I found it flat, dull and
uninspired.
The
only extra is Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and
iTunes capable devices.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the Ghostly
Blu-ray has
some softness and motion blur, but it is the best performer on the
list, though its anamorphically enhanced DVD version is the softest,
poorest performer here. The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Time
is very colorful and looks like it might have been meant
for 3D, so I expect a Blu-ray or Blu-ray 3D would be really
impressive as the DVD holds its own in the format. The 1.33 X 1
image on the Space
episodes combine 16mm color film and PAL analog videotape, looking
good for its age throughout, even in the TV movie version.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Ghostly
Blu-ray is
the default highlight of that release with good sonics, mixing and
usually good recording, all the more a shame the final cut of the
release is so weak.
The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD version ties the same mix on
Time
as the second-best sonic presentation here, both well done. Time
would likely be amazing in a lossless 5.1 or 7.1 mix. The lossy
Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on Space
may not have new, stunning sonics, but the sound design is fun and
creative for an older TV show and has aged well for the most part.
You
can order The Boy From Space BFI Import Region 2 PAL DVD set
and many more great releases by searching for them at this link:
http://shop.bfi.org.uk/dvd-blu-ray.html
-
Nicholas Sheffo