DVD Diggers

Welcome back to this week’s edition of DVD Diggers, recommended by four out of five doctors. We just didn’t have enough money to bribe that fifth doctor too.

I need to apologize to everyone for this week’s DVD Diggers, but I’m angry. Several months ago I complained in my review of The Flight of the Navigator that Disney needed to learn a lesson. Now I’m the biggest Disney fan out there. I can’t wait to see Disney cartoons in the theater, I make an almost yearly pilgramage to Walt Disney World, I wear Disney underoos around the house… okay, maybe that last one was too much information for some of you, but the fact remains I’m a Disney fan. I’m tired of seeing classic Disney movies released to DVD with poor treatment - no extras, or maybe if we’re lucky a theatrical trailer. No looking back at what they did. No meeting with the cast now to see where they’ve gone - Nothing. This week it’s the same thing for three cult classic Disney flicks: Darby O’Gill and the Little People, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Watcher in the Woods. I know none of these are your average Mickey Mouse movie, but trust me, the audience for any of these are the type of people who bought your 25th Anniversary TRON set several years ago. They want extras! They want to know what it was like working with Bette Davis, or filming the carousel scene. Disney is doing these movies a huge disservice, not only by releasing them bare bones, but also releasing them in the beginning of August! These are scary movies for the most part. Why not put them out closer to Halloween? It’s just a poor move and shoddy treatment of movies that deserve better.

I’m also angry about a pairing I saw coming out this week. We all know it’s become recent practice to put two movies together, usually a good movie paired with a not so good movie. I guess the theory is the good movie will help clear out the stock of the not so good movie by selling both at a lower price. I can understand that principle, but I’ve gotta ask – what has Donnie Darko done to deserve being paired with Swimfan? At this point anyone who loves Donnie Darko already has a copy, or is waiting for the upcoming Director’s Cut. They are not going to buy a copy of Donnie Darko to get a second rate stalker movie. Pairing these two movies would be like putting Beavis and Butthead Do America with Gone With The Wind. It’s just not done.

Finally I’m angry about the turn around time on DVDs as of late. It takes us a year to get Elf on DVD, but Hidalgo gets a quick turn around with a release this week. Before you go to the store for Hidalgo do yourself a favor – look at that name. “Hi-dal-go”. There’s no “L” before the “D”. It’s not Hildalgo. Ask for the right name and the rental store clerk might not look down upon you – and is there anything worse then getting looked down on by a minimum wage earning Kevin Smith wanna be?

Meanwhile, It feels like it was only yesterday that I reviewed 13 Going on 30, yet this week it comes out on DVD. Unlike the Disney classics and Hidalgo (which is put out by Buena Vista, which is a Disney company), it’s getting the royal treatment with a “Special Edition” that actually has a decent amount of extras, including some classic 80’s music videos. And hey, if you love those extras, then you’ll be interested in Turbo-Boosting your way through Season One of “Knight Rider”. If you don’t see Josh around the site this week that’s where he’ll be – alone at home with his television and David Hasselhoff. Scary picture, huh? Well, at least it’s not with “Gidget” which also gets a release this week.

I had The Princess Diaries: Special Edition on my list to talk about this week, but frankly I can’t remember why. It’s a double dip “Special Edition” being released just in time to tie in with the theatrical sequel. However, it does star Anne Hathaway, and with everyone around Cinema Blend bogarting my Keira Knightly lust I’ve decided to turn my affections toward Hathaway. However, if Keira wanted to call me instead of Matt or Tay, I wouldn’t turn down the phone call - I’d even accept a collect call. Just don’t call while I’m watching Hathaway.