Alex
& Me (Blu-ray
w/DVD)/Dorothy & The
Wizard Of Oz: Emerald City
(DVD/both 2018/Warner)/Nella
The Princess Knight: Royal Quests
(2018/Nickelodeon DVD)/PJ
Masks: Save The Summer
(2015/Fox DVD)/Popeye The
Sailor Man (1936 - 1957
Theatrical shorts/Umbrella Region Free PAL Import DVD Set)/The
Sandlot: 25th
Anniversary Edition
(1993/Fox Blu-ray w/DVD)
Picture:
B+ & C+/C+/C+/C+/C/B+ & B Sound: C+ &
C/C+/C+/C+/C+/B+ & B Extras: A/D/D/D/D/B Main Programs:
C+/C+/C/C/C+/B
PLEASE
NOTE:
The Popeye
Import DVD set is now only available from our friends at Umbrella
Entertainment in Australia, can only play on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K
Blu-ray players that can handle the PAL DVD and can be ordered from
the link below.
Here's
more child/family titles just released...
Reagan
Willis had only one dream, to play on the top girls soccer team and
to be like her hero Alex Morgan. After failing to make the cut to
join the top soccer team she accidentally hits her head and suddenly
Alex Morgan appears in front of her (which only she can see) and
tells her not to give up and even gives her tips on how to improve
her soccer skills. Now, along with her 'Alex', Reagan instead joins
with another underdog team and shows that they might have not made
the cut to be on the top girl's soccer team, but they are not out of
the game in Alex
& Me
(2018).
Reagan
loves soccer and she idolizes Alex Morgan, a female champion soccer
player. Reagan loves Alex so much she has a shrine to her with a full
life sized poster of her, but after years of living in her brother's
shadow and not making the cut to join the team of her dreams, she was
just about to lose faith until she hits her head and the poster on
her wall comes to life. Now, Alex Morgan tells her not to give up,
but to continue to work hard and that a true champion isn't just
talent, but it also takes hard work and dedication. So instead of
giving up she joins another group of outcast girls soccer team, but
when they are about to lose their field, Reagan and her team decides
to hold a game/fund raiser to save their team.
This
was your typical feel good sports movie, in someways it reminded me
of the movie from the '80s, Sidekicks.
A young child dreaming of their hero with their imaginary hero
helping them to believe in themselves and become the true champion
(and in the end they actually get to meet their hero/heroine too).
Extras include Getting
to know Alex Morgan,
Aspire
to Inspire: Success In Hard Work,
Soccer, Script
to Set: A Playbook on Alex & Me,
Outtakes and trailers.
The
next three titles are basic, single DVD editions continuing TV series
we previously reviewed with about the same quality as before (all
elsewhere on this site) including Dorothy
& The Wizard Of Oz: Emerald City
(based on the 1939 movie classic), Nella
The Princess Knight: Royal Quests
(Nickelodeon's hope for a new TV show) and PJ
Masks: Save The Summer
(a very Superhero-lite series that can be amusing, but only goes so
far.
Oz
is easily the most watchable of the three and is most likely to
receive repeat viewing by its intended audience, but none have any
extras and do not seem to want to stretch beyond expectations, which
is too safe considering how competitive the marker is for young
viewers. Fans will go for it, but how many exist now (or later) is
anyones guess.
Before
we were set to post this set of reviews, we were notified that Popeye
just happens to celebrate his 85th Anniversary as an animated
character on July 14, 2018. Eight decades! There was a time he was
even more popular than Superman in the 1930s to early 1940s, so it is
with some irony that we received a new Popeye
The Sailor Man
DVD set, even if it is an import from Umbrella in Australia.
Covering some of the theatrical shorts from 1936 (The Fleischer
Studios) to 1957 (Famous Studios starting in the early 1940s), it
includes decent copies of three of the early color Popeye shorts
(most were black and white for years) and they were all color by the
end of their run.
Two
DVDs fit 34 shorts in all, the same ones Warner issued on DVD
recently, but these copies are often not always great and we get no
extras, so it is not the ultimate set, though keep in mind none of
these shorts have hit Blu-ray yet! The higher quality of the PAL
video format only helps so much too. This will suffice for some
until those Blu-rays somehow roll around.
The
classic kids film The
Sandlot
(1993) lands on Blu-ray five years after its 25th Anniversary disc
and doesn't offer too much new in terms of extras (a digital copy is
the only thing missing from the previous release). Still, if you
don't have this film on Blu-ray (or are just a hardcore fan still
trying to forget the dreaded direct to video sequel), then this
release is worth picking up.
The
Sandlot
stars Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Patrick Renna, Chauncey Leopardi, Marty
York, and Brandon Quintin Adams with direction by David Mickey Evans.
The
period piece film centers around Scotty Smalls (Gury) who is the new
kid in town and not too sports-savvy like all of the other kids.
Hoping to fit in, he steals his stepdad's baseball signed by Babe
Ruth and hits it into the wrong yard... one that's guarded by a
ferocious dog. As the boys devise a plan to get it back, they end up
coming to terms with lots of other life lessons along the way.
Presented
in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 2.39:1 and
a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless track, the film looks great
after all these years and has a nice detailed transfer that's pretty
good for Blu-ray disc. Of course, this film has been released on DVD
and lesser formats over the years so a quick comparison of new and
old, you can plainly see the difference. There's also that new
digital copy that we were mentioning above, that's really the only
new about this release.
Special
Features...
Featurettes
Trailers/TV
Spots
TOPPS
baseball cards
Insert
booklet
Slipcover
Full
color poster
The
Sandlot
joins other Fox releases that are landing on disc again but sans
anything too new in the way of features. While some may be a bit
discouraged by this, it is still nice that the studio is taking
notice of this film from their back catalog. Hopefully, when it's
released again, it will be on 4K UHD disc.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the Blu-ray
of Alex is as good as anything on the list, but it is nothing special
outside of just looking good, so Sandlot
might offer a bit more character. The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Masks,
Nella
and Oz
are about even with good color and as much sharpness as the old
format can offer, but it also makes one wonder why no Blu-rays have
been issued of any of these either.
The
1.33 X 1 image on the Popeye
DVDs are a mixed bag as noted, with the dye-transfer,
three-strip Technicolor version of the shorts looking decent color
wise, but the black and white shorts are rough and some of the later
color shorts have color that can be off.
As
for sound, Alex
has a DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix like Sandlot,
but a lack of character or memorability again limits performance.
The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Oz
is about even with the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Nella
and Masks,
but these are not very loud in the first place. They are
professional at best. Popeye
has lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono that is a generation down or so, so
be careful of volume switching or high volume playback, so like the
image quality, the sound needs some work and was better on the U.S.
Warner DVDs.
To
order the
Popeye
Umbrella import DVD set, go to this link for it and other hard to
find titles:
http://www.umbrellaent.com.au/
-
Nicholas Sheffo, Ricky Chiang (Alex)
& James
Lockhart (Sandlot)
https://www.facebook.com/jamesharlandlockhartv/