Blu-Ray Review: Captain America The Winter Soldier

Mitchell Stein- In quite possibly what is the most brilliant Marvel movie yet to date, Captain America returns to the big screen, in an unbelievable nail-biting adventure that keeps you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. It's intelligent story keeps the movie fast-paced and suspenseful, and the characters that fill it are all incredibly enjoyable to watch move the story along. Marvel has yet created another masterpiece and set Anthony and Joe Russo to direct it. Major kudos go out to Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely for giving it such an entertaining and suspenseful story, being far more than just "your average comic book movie", but rather a political spy thriller, but with the same action and excitement you'd expect from Marvel.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a major game-changer for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, preparing us for what's to come in Avengers: Age of Ultron, and by the looks of it so far, we're in for a pretty awesome ride.
Finally, this awesome adventure is available to own on Blu-Ray, so let's take a quick look at the Blu-Ray release to see if it matches up with the theatrical film.

Most notably, there's On The Front Line: An Inside Look at Captain America's Battlegrounds which gives insight from the Russo brothers and stunt coordinators at the wonderfully-choreographed battle sequences of the film and some behind-the-scenes looks at how they filmed some of the iconic scenes of the movie.
Along with that, there's Steve Rogers' Notebook, which is a short two minute feature about Steve's notebook, and specifically how the notebook was edited for international versions of the film according to the culture. Also there's another short delightful feature, On Set With Anthony Mackie: Cut the Check! with Anthony Mackie, a.k.a Falcon, (a.k.a your new favorite Marvel character) and how Mackie has brought life to the character on set, ending off each of his perfect scenes with "Cut the Check!". I have no idea where Mackie even thought up the idea, but it's pretty hilarious.

That's not it though! There's also an awesome Audio Commentary, four deleted scenes, and a hilarious blooper reel. The deleted scenes are rather short but still perfectly incredible, and the reason it was likely cut was due to the movie's time duration.

In the end, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a worthy Blu-Ray release, adding fun and exciting bonus features to an already brilliant movie. I very much reccomend you pick up a copy of this fantastic masterpiece.

Film: 4.5/5 
Blu-Ray Bonus Features: 3.5/5

Blu-Ray Reviews: Tarzan, Hercules, Three Musketeers, Ichabod and Toad

Mitchell Stein- With the debut of five classic Disney features last week on Blu-Ray, we're here to review all of the releases and see if they stack up with their previous home releases, in technical aspect and in special bonus features.

TARZAN: 

Tarzan is by far one of the most brilliant well-done Disney movies of all-time and very much under-appreciated, blending beautiful stunning animation, spectacular story, wonderful music and great characters into the mix creates a terrific instant Disney classic which remains one of the greatest to this day. Chris Buck (who will later go on to direct Frozen) and Kevin Lima take the helm to direct, and Phil Collins lends his talents to supply the wonderful music to the movie.

Sadly, there's not much bonus features to be found in this new Tarzan release. The bonus features are lazily recycled from the old VHS features, and still lack in picture quality. The features remain great, but without any new exclusive Blu-Ray features, this release doesn't hold up.

(Read Ryan's Animated Review on Tarzan right here)

HERCULES: 

In my personal opinion, following the high standards that films like The Lion King and Aladdin set before it, Hercules doesn't stand-up as a very memorable Disney film and is easily forgettable. The story is rushed, the characters are boring and the relationship between Meg and Hercules feels forced.

Regardless, the movie still earns it's spot in the Disney movie family and has a major fan-base. But those fans will be disaappointed to find out that no new Blu-Ray bonus features can be found in this release, and just like Tarzan, it blandly recycles old bonus features from VHS, along with the grainy footage it always had. With lack of bonus features and an mostly under-appreciated film, this release doesn't hold up either.

(Read Ryan's Animated Review of Hercules right here)

The Three Musketeers: 
Disney's Fab Five star in a fun adventure with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy at the helm playing the roles of The Three Muskateers. There's really nothing too major about this film, besides it being another fun film from the famous and ever so popular mouse. Just like the other re-releases of this month, bonus features are lacking and there's not much extra entertainment to be found, with the exception of "Get Up and Dance" and a few Deleted Scenes and Sing-Alongs. A fun film, but seriously Disney, that's three releases in one day without any worthwhile features. Please get you act together and set this straight for your next upcoming features on home release.

The Adventures of Mr. Ichabod and Toad/ Fun and Fancy Free/The Reluctant Dragon 
An odd pair-up indeed, but I'm glad that these obscure forgotten Disney films are finally making their way to Blu-Ray. While not the most legendary and popular Disney films, Fun and Fancy Free stands up to be a fun entertaining film, pairing up the stories of Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk during the Second World War to keep the studio afloat.
Ichabod and Toad hit theaters in 1949 and still remains just a fun entertaining film, but not much more. It's easy to understand why these two films are forgotten easily, but it's good to finally see them get the Blu-Ray transfer. The only great bonus feature on the disc is the Disney forgotten classic The Reluctant Dragon and a great behind the scenes look at the making of Fun and Fancy Free...from 1997. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but the Blu-Ray transfer for the films look nice, but it still seems empty with old features.

(Ryan's Animated Reviews of Ichabod and Toad, review of Fun and Fancy Free)

Hercules, Tarzan, Ichabod and Toad and the Three Musketeers and now available wherever Blu-Rays are sold. 

Blu-Ray REVIEWS: Muppets Most Wanted, Bears

MUPPETS MOST WANTED REVIEW: 

Mitchell Stein- Get ready to do it all again! Muppets Most Wanted is finally available wherever DVDs/Blu-Rays are sold, and you should be nothing but thrilled. When it was released back in March, we had no shortage of positive things to say about the film in both my own review and Ryan's review posted at our sister site, The Muppet Mindset. The film is a brilliant crime caper set which takes the Muppets on a world tour through Eurpoe only to get caught up in the nefarious plans of the World's Most Dangerous Frog and Number One Criminal, Constantine and his assistant, Dominic. It's filled with brilliant gags, incredible songs, tremendous and hilarious acting, and a really fun story. If you haven't seen the film yet, it's worth it to pick it up on Blu-Ray for the bare film on it's own.


Luckily there's even more to be offered on this home release, titled The Unnecessarily Extended Edition including nearly fifteen minutes of extra footage that was cut from the original theatrical film! All of the songs are the original extended versions that you can hear on the soundtrack but were sadly cut from the final version. There's a whole bunch more gags and cameos that also appear, and it's perfect. I'm so glad we can finally see some of these scenes, but there's still a few missing out there which I wish would get onto the Blu-Ray and you can see just a bit of it in the B-Roll footage.

Sadly, the Statler and Waldorf Cut was just a mere two-minutes and not a commentary throughout the whole film as most fans were hoping for. There's not really much in this feature and it's easily overlooked. "Rizzo's Biggest Fan" is a hilarious short video with features Rizzo the Rat writing an angry anonymous letter to the crew of Muppets Most Wanted for the lack of Rizzo. "The Longer, Longest Blooper Reel Ever in Muppet History (We Think)" is hilarious, and features nine minutes of wacky blunders and mistakes. I love seeing the Muppet performers ad-lib hilarious lines after they mess up on a scene. It's hilarious, but it doesn't add much to the Blu-Ray itself. It also has the "I'll Get You Anything You Want" music video starring songwriter Bret McKenzie.. In short, the bonus features are short and delightful but highly lacks what could have been even greater, especially after the amount of features that were on The Muppets Blu-Ray release.

Ending off, Muppets Most Wanted is a fantastic new release from Disney, but follows Disney's recent pattern of lacking bonus features. I do hope Disney gets back on track soon and delivers every one of their new releases with a larger amount of more original bonus features. Muppets Most Wanted certainly deserves your time and money, but could surely do better with some more features.

Muppets Most Wanted: The Unnecessarily Extended Edition is now available to own on Blu-Ray. 

BEARS REVIEW: 

Mitchell Stein- Disneynatures' Bears tells the incredible true-story of Skye, a brown Grizzly bear and her two-born cubs survival through weather, animals, and other obstacles that get in their way after heading back into the world after a winter of hibernating. John C. Reily is stationed as the narrator, giving over the story and hilarious content through the journey bringing so much fun comedy relief to the film. The movie manages to speak to it's audience on an emotional level and it's by far more touching than the previous Disneynature movies.

The shots and scenes in this movie are breathtaking, whether the bears are walking through a forest, an Alaskan mountain, or taking a swim, the filmmakers set up each scene from a new angle and make you wonder how they even filmed that. The end credits sequence show just a bit of the filming process but barely scratches the surface. Luckily, a feature called How Did They Film That? is included on the release and gives a great background on the process the filmmakers go through to film these scenes.

The other features are not just entertaining, but educational as well. A Guide to Living With Bears allows us a look at the team interacting with the animals and share a bit of info about them too. The Future for the Bears is a feature which reminds us the importance of protecting the wilderness to ensure the survival of the animals and humans alike. Plus, there's Welcome to Alaska which is also a feature showing the team heading to the Alaskan mountains to follow Skye and her cubs on their journey and finally a music video of Carry On by Olivia Holt.

This release is great on many levels. There's five great packed bonus features to go with this absolutely tremendous movie, and it's all fantastic, leaving the music video to be the only one easily overlooked. I highly recommend you make sure to give this release a look. It's very much worth your time as well.

Bears is now available wherever DVDs and Blu-Rays are sold. 

Review: Iron Man & Captain America Heroes United

Mitchell Stein- Following the events of Iron Man & Hulk: Heroes United Captain America must team up with Iron Man in order to stop HYDRA and the Red Skull from taking over the globe with a new army of super soldiers. The two Avengers must face off the villainous Red Skull and his trigger-man, Taskmaster.

 From the moment it begins, Iron Man and Captain America is a visually stunning treat. Featured in a brand-new groundbreaking CG animation platform first unveiled in Iron Man and Hulk the film shows spectacular new animation which raises the bar in the direct-to-video superhero flicks, keeping Marvel ahead of the game once again, although the lip sync isn't very exact with what the characters are saying, the design and the animation, (especially in the battle sequences) are stunning. Kudos the entire VFX and animation team on the great work.

With Leo Riley, one of the men responsible for the brilliant short-lived television series Tron Uprising, it's not much of a shock of the greatness of this film. The entire film is fast-paced and hilarious, with a talented voice cast as well. Credit is also due to writers Henry Gilroy and Brandon Aurman for the story. Ever since Marvel's The Avengers, the studio has been on a roll, on and off-screen and expanding into their short television shows and direct-to-video films. With Guardians of the Galaxy released just last week, I hope the DTV universe will continue to expand to those franchises as well.

For Marvel fans, I'd highly recommend this film. It's a great new addition to the DTV Marvel universe, and is far more enjoyable than Iron Man and Hulk was and features longtime legendary Marvel antihero Taskmaster. There's not much of a shortage of fun to be had in this film. Strangely enough, there is no additional scene found at the end of the credits which the last film did have. I hope this is still more to come from this series and the team, even though there is no sneak pek at what is yet to come.

Unfortunately, unlike it's previous film, this feature is only available in Digital form through Disney Movies Anywhere and iTunes, and there's no bonus features. The film alone stands up greatly, but it does make me upset that this isn't available in DVD/Blu-Ray form and is missing the bonus features it deserves.

Hulk and Iron Man: Heroes United is now available to own on Disney Digital Copy 

Resurrection: Season One DVD Review

Mitchell Stein- What if someone you lost somehow turned up at your doorstep once again as if not a day has gone by? Disney-owned ABC’s television show Resurrection follows the story of a young boy named Jacob ends up back in the small-town of Arcadia, Missouri, although Jacob passed away over three decades earlier.

Without giving away anything from the series’ first season, it’s entertaining but far from being as big of a breakout show as it may have intended to become. It’s an entertaining and promising first season to what will hopefully be an even more gripping second season (which was officially picked up for a second season by ABC) and luckily with only eight episodes, it doesn’t lose track of itself. It manages to stay on track and get very much to the point. It’s perfectly eerie, and doesn’t end up at stupidity of the undead which is seen by most television shows. In some shows on television, death is just a normal thing that the characters go through as if it were an average routine and somehow end up back alive again, taking death as a very simple thing, leaving missed opportunities of dark, and sophisticated story-plots behind. Luckily, Resurrection takes on a bit of a more serious side in that note. It keeps well to the dark-ness of death and attempts to dive in enough just not to go far enough in that world, taking the story more carefully and not becoming a ridiculous zombie-fest.  

Many people will argue that Resurrection is a bad copy of the 2012 French series The Returned. I haven’t seen a single episode of the latter, so I will not be comparing the two TV series at any given moment, so fear not. Although they have similar basics in plot, the two television shows are not based off of each other. ABC’s adaption is based off the best-selling novel The Returned by Jason Mott, although that novel has the same title, the television show is not based off of that either. I will not be comparing this to the novel at no time as well, but rather looking at this as a completely original television series.

As I watch several episodes of the series, I notice many missed opportunities in story, with minor plot holes and several points that just seem out of context and a bit ridiculous in my opinion. I guess the shows’ staff felt that we needed to care about the characters, so they added silly problems and silly remorse that they feel sorry for, leaving me to wonder why they bothered. It’s better to develop a character over time rather than launching a character with a shaky back-story. People don’t start liking characters in their first few episodes. It takes time to grow onto characters and develop them over time rather than starting them off in situations where we are supposed to feel moved. In television, the timing in situations like this matter a lot. In its pilot episode, we’re expected to care about six different characters and their problems when we don’t even know what half of their names are.

I will say for the show’s sake it’s a good thing that it was picked up for a mid-season premiere, with only eight episodes in its first season. This way it doesn’t lose track of itself and manages to stay on-course. A 24 episode season would quickly fall apart and lose sight of its story and get dragged out, so it’s pleasing to see it short and straight to the point.

Aside from that, there are a lot of things that are really well-done directing wise, with a lot of really great camera movements and great shots. Many things fall into place well in terms of the cinematography that is executed in the show. Even without any major visual effects, the technical aspects work well. Working alongside with its great musical score, some scenes are directed well in the sense that really move you and create emotional balance between characters when some others can push you off the edge of your seat wanting more. The two are well balanced and I really enjoy the directing aspect for that reason.

Resurrection is fairly entertaining but by no means the breakout show of 2014, a role dominated by many other shows that stole the spotlight such as The Blacklist, Sleepy Hollow, Agents of SHIELD and others and Resurrection didn’t quite garner the amount of viewers the others have, but it did well enough for another season which will most likely be a lot more promising.

The bonus features in this release add to the entertainment, but a really big lack of features with only four in total. There’s a great feature named Resurrection: Building a Mystery which was very entertaining and dove deeper into the mystery of the show, which I won’t share details of due to spoilers. There’s also Deleted Scenes and Bloopers and On Location in Georgia which behind the scene footage at the set of the series. It’s decent overall, but with such a short season, I feel there should have been a bit more to this DVD to make it all the worthwhile to purchase.

Overall, Resurrection is an entertaining show, but rather shaky at times in its plot, but it still remains one of the most promising first seasons of the 2014 television season. Season two should be very promising and far more enjoyable. I think after a few episodes the show founds its footing and will stay on-track throughout its second season. 

Resurrection: The Complete First Season is now available on DVD. 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and Captain America: The Winter Soldier coming 9/9!

No Level Seven clearance needed for this announcement! As announced by Marvel Home Entertainment on Friday, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is coming to Blu-Ray combo pack September 9th 2014 along with the entire first season of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D on DVD. The releases feature making-of-videos, behind the scenes, deleted scenes.

SHIELD's bonus features include Marvel: Assembling a Universe, the very same special that aired on television earlier this year, VFX Breakdowns, and Journey into S.D.C.C. which spotlights the show at it's first appearance in San Diego Comic Con last summer.

With the Winter Soldier tying into the SHIELD television show, it would only make sense to release the two Marvel productions on the same day. The Winter Soldier will be available on Blu-Ray Combo Pack and DVD September 9th with a digital release on Disney's Digital platform Disney Movies Anywhere on August 19th.

In case you missed it, read our review of the season finale and season one of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D  (Spoilers).

UPDATED: A trailer for the Blu-Ray release has been released on June 3rd:

FULL Bonus Feature Details:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: 

• Journey into S.D.C.C.
• Marvel Studios: Assembling a Universe
• 5 Behind the Scenes Field Reports
• VFX Breakdowns, 
• Audio Commentaries, 
• Gag Reels 
• Deleted Scenes

Captain America: 

       Making-of Featurettes
·       Audio Commentary
·       Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scenes
·       Bloopers
                ·       And More…
1 Disc DVD:
·       Making-of Featurette
·       Never-Before-Seen Deleted Scene

Muppet Blu-Ray Reviews: The Muppet Movie- The Nearly 35th Anniversary Edition

Dwayne Fletcher- For nearly 35 years the Muppet Movie has been seen in theaters, and homes fulfilling Kermit's dream that started it all, to "Make millions of people happy", and finding that rainbow connection with "the Lovers, the Dreamers and most importantly you.

Since the movie's debut in 1979 it has been released to home video, beta laser disk, and DVD over 16 times in just the United States alone, When the Walt Disney Company bought the rights to the Muppets, they to got into the act and in 2005 released not only The Muppet Movie, but also  The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Christmas Carol, and Muppet Treasure Island. All of these movies where relessed under a special edition banner titled "Kermit's 50th Anniversary" With this release all four movies gained at least one bonus feature entitled "Pepe's Profiles:" which would profile one of the Muppet stars.
Kermit the Frog, Mrs Piggy, The Great Gonzo, and Fozzie Bear where all featured and interviewed by Pepe, and there other friends Rizzo the Rat, Bunsan Honeydew, Beaker, Statler, Waldorf, and Sam the Eagle share there thoughts of the one being profiled.  For The Muppet Movie the 2005 release did not include the Jim Frawley's Camera Tests, which were included with Sony's release back in 2001.

Video/Audio:
The video presentation is from the 2005 relesse,which has been transformed into high definition. Before the movie was released Disney made a video showcasing how the blu-ray version would look aginst the DVD. It would appear that the DVD version had some sort of dark-ish tint to it, when done in high definition that tint is removed and a much brighter, and more colorful picture is shown. The audio does not appear to have been enhanced.

Menus: 

With this release we have new interactive menus. The artwork of the menus is felt artwork, with moving illustrations. There are three different backgrounds, all with different instrumentals from the movie. The first one starts with the sun and pans down to Kermit sitting on a log with his banjo the first musical bars of "Rainbow Connection" are played and other memorable scenes from the movie.

Bonus Features: 
The Blu-ray has a few new noteworthy bonus features that have never been released before and are Not included in the newly reissued DVD, they are as follows.

Frog-E-Oke Sing Along: This feature is a Sing a long of three songs from the movie. Rainbow Connection, Movin Right Along, and Can You Picture That each with there very own video with some new shots of Kermit, Fozzie and Animal dancing. Each video has the lyrics popping up in different ways to fit with the backgrounds. Viweres can also access this feature with Disney intermission When you pause the movie these three sing alongs will play until you start the movie again. You can also turn the intermission off by simply going to Set Up  on the main menu.

 Jim Frawley's Extended Camera Test:  The camera test has returned and is better then ever! This is an extended version then what was originally released by Sony in 2001. This is the first time that the Muppets where shot outside of a studio, and the tests where to not only see how the Muppets would look but how they would fit. In the extended sections we see more interaction with Kermit, Fozzie, and Sweetums. This feature is a must see for any Jim Henson and Frank Oz fan, as they take the Muppets out into the real world for the first time, testing how they survive outside the regular studio. The results were perfect.


Doc Hopper's Commercials: This is an extended scen that shows the full complete commercial with Doc Hopper singing and dancing in a frog suit. After watching this you can get more of an idea why Kermit though it was so terrible.


Original Trailers: There are two trailers for the movie. One is the teaser trailer, and the other is the original theater trailer. Each trailer showcase a different array of shots from the movie, with a different narration of each one.


Pepe's Profiles: Kermit - A Frog's Life This is the only feature that is inculded in the newly relessed DVD. The featuer is from the 2005 release, and it featuers Pepe the King Prawn interviwing Kermit the Frog. It also has sevral of Kermit's friends shareing there thoughts and birthday wishes.

Hidden Easter Egg Bicycle Outtakes: This feature is a rare gimps of how some of the wide shots of the Muppets riding bikes are done. We see four to five diffrent takes of Kermit riding his bike and some of the small problems that occurred to make sure that the shot would look as real and believable as possible.
To access this hidden feature on the main menu go down to Sneak Peaks Then click right and a button of Kermit on a bike will appear, hit enter and the feature will begin.

As you can see there is a good mix of new, and some not so new features. The feaatures really showcase a little bit more depth into the movie and how it was made. In the writers mind having the movie released in high definition was a bonus itself.


Final Thoughts: The Muppet Movie is a very important part of the Muppets history. it showcases the Muppets at there finest from. They where funny, sweet and charming. The movie itself is still relevant to this day, with the exception of some of the guest star cameos. This Blu-ray edition is a must have for the seasoned Muppet fan to the newest Muppet fan. If not for the bonus features but for being able to watch this movie beautiful high definition.

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

Muppet Blu-Ray Reviews: Of Pirates and Pigs Collection

Dwayne Fletcher- Stop the Presses and shiver my timbers, Walt Disney Home Entertainment has released not one but two classic Muppet movies in high definition blu-ray! This release came as a surprise, and a shock to a lot of fans, due to the odd pairing of these two movies. None the less I am proud, and honored to review The Great Muppet Caper/Muppet Treasure Island: Of Pirates and Pigs Collection. This is the fourth, and fifth Muppet movie to be released on Disney Blu-ray.. The first was A Muppet Christmas Carol, followed by the 2011 movie The Muppets. Third and most recently was The Muppet Movie and now these two great movies as well. With this collection Disney has now released all of the Muppet movies that they have the rights to. Two other movies The Muppets Take Manhattan, and Muppets from Space are currently owned by Sony, and have also been
released to Blu-ray.

 Overall Presentation: 

The Of Pirates & Pigs collection presents both movies in high definition which means that both the video and audio presentation have been enhanced to a very high quality. The collection comes with a Blu ray disc and two DVD's. The DVD's however do not included any special features.

Video & Audio:    

The best part about the video, and audio for the Blu ray is the fact that they both have been enhanced to there best quality to date. The not so good part, is that for both the Blu ray, and DVD the video is presented in Pan to Scan full screen instead of a wide screen ratio. This is only a minor issue when you take into consideration how well the video, and audio look and sound compared to previous releases.


Menus: 

This collection has several different interactive menus to navigate through. The first two menus have stills from both movies. The first menu is a language select,and the second menu is the movie selection menu with both movies listed. The Muppet Treasure Island menu has several different shots from the movie and a selection of different options such as Special Features. Scene Selection, and so on. The Great Muppet Caper menu we find Kermit Fozzie and Gonzo in the red room developing pictures. There are several pictures from the movie moving around on strings and close pins for drying. The same options that are on Treasure Island are also found on this menu Both DVD's have the same menus as well.

Special Features: 

Both movies have there own special feathers, and are not included on the DVD's. They are as follows:

     The Great Muppet Caper:

•      Frog-E-Oke: “Steppin' Out With a Star”

•     Frog-E-Oke: “ Happiness Hotel” 

Like the Muppet Movie release these are fun sing along's that have different backgrounds pictures, and video from the movie.

Muppet Treasure Island: 

• Frog-E-Oke: “Cabin Fever” 

• The Tale of the Story Beyond the Tail: This is a classic feature from the 2002 release of the film.

• Audio Commentary by Gonzo, Rizzo and Brian Henson This is also from the 2002 release, however it is missing the hidden treasures portion of the commentary. Which during the commentary is odd because Gonzo and Rizzo have intros for each hidden treasure which are still included in the commentary

•   “Let The Good Shine Out” Music video This was a final musical number sung by Kermit the frog on the 1996 Muppet Treasure Island Sing along video.       

 Final Thoughts: 

Though this collection may be an odd paring of two Muppet movies, and the lack of special features. I for one could not be happier with this release. Disney could have done a little more with this release, but the fact that they have been released, and giving the care of being made into high definition has definetley made this release worth buying even if you already own both movies.    

Muppet Blu-Ray Reviews will return next week with a review of The Muppet Movie on Blu-Ray. 

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure Coming soon to DVD

Mitchell Stein- It looks like The Hardy Boys: The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure is heading to DVD once again. The Applegate Mystery originally premiered on The Mickey Mouse Club during it's second season in 1956. The story was based off of the Hardy Boys' first book, The Tower Treasure. 

Our pal Jason just alerted us that The Hardy Boys is coming soon to DVD once again, according to this list of eligible titles on the Disney Movie Rewards website. This will be the second time the episode were released on DVD. The first home release was in 2006 on the Walt Disney Treasures set, and included all nineteen episodes with a bonus feature, The Hardy Boys Unmasked. 

UPDATE: According to the Disney Movie Club website, The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure will be a DMC exclusive and only available to order for DMC members.

The second special The Mystery of the Ghost Farm has not been announced. No release date has been announced for the Applegate Treasure yet. Keep an eye out for future updates in our News Updates section of the blog for more info as it becomes available.

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

Upcoming Blu-Ray Announcements: May 7th 2014

Mitchell Stein- Hi ho! I'm back with another update of upcoming Blu-Ray releases that are available to own within the next few months from all companies under the Disney umbrella in order of release date. We first reported about a whole slew of upcoming releases way back in October, but now that all of those releases are out, we're back to bring you up to date on what can soon be available on your home collection! All dates are North American based.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse- Around the Clubhouse World:

An all new adventure from Mickey and his pals taking them on a journey throughout the globe, learning about different cultures and history of various different countries proving that it's a small world after all!

Release Date: May 20th 2014

Muppets Most Wanted- 
The Muppets' latest adventure is making it's way to DVD shelves August 5th 2014! Muppets Most Wanted takes the Muppet group on a world tour across Europe, only to get caught up in the diabolical plans of Constantine, the world's most dangerous frog, and his sidekick, Dominic (Ricky Gervais). Read our review right here.

Release Date: August 5th. 

UPDATED: Just announced! 

Sofia The First- The Enchanted Feast: 
Join Sofia and her friends on an all-new adventure coming this summer! When a wicked fairy disguises herself as a powerful sorceress and tries to steal Sofia's magic amulet, Sofia must learn to trust her instincts and speak up when she suspects someone is not who or what they say they are.  The film also will feature an appearance by Snow White.

Release Date: August 5th, 2014

Hercules: 

It feels like we the fans have been asking Disney to release this one for a while now, as there's only a few Disney Animated films that haven't made their way to Blu-Ray yet. Hercules will hits Blu-Ray shelves along with Tarzan.

Release Date: August 12th 2014










Tarzan: 

Tarzan is swinging onto Blu-Ray once again in a brand-new special edition box set. Although it uses the same cover art as the DVD release from a few years back, this package will not include a DVD in the Blu-Ray combo pack. Bonus features have yet to be announced for this film as well.

Release Date: August 12th 2014

UPDATE: 

Bedknobs and Broomsticks is also coming to Blu-Ray August 12th 2014. Thanks Anthony for the update!

According to this D23 article, The Three Musketeers, starring Mickey, Donald and Goofy is coming to Blu-Ray this summer, although a public release date has not been listed online yet. We'll update this article as soon as the release date has been announced.

Thanks Anthony for the update once again!

Sleeping Beauty: Diamond Edition 

Speculated to be released coinciding with the home release of Maleficent (in theaters May 30th), Sleeping Beauty is returning to Blu-Ray once again. It is unknown as to why the release date was set for October rather than to coincide with the theater opening of Maleficent, and bonus features also have yet to be announced.

Release Date: October 7th 2014







That's all the Blu-Ray and DVDs announced for now! Looking forward to owning all of these on my shelf real soon. Which home releases are you looking forward to the most?

The Mickey Mindset: mickeymindset@gmail.com

The Pirate Fairy Blu-Ray Review

Mitchell Stein- I have to say out of all the young children’s Disney franchises, the Disney Fairies franchise is the one I’ll never understand. I’m obviously not the target audience for these films and television episodes, but it’s not one that I find the most enjoyable.

In The Pirate Fairy, we are introduced to a fairy named Zarina (Christina Hendricks) a fairy who is amazed by the powers of the Blue Pixie Dust and takes her ‘experimenting’ a little too far and causes much trouble on the entire fairy community, she decides to leave Pixie Hollow and joins up with some ruthless pirates led by James (Tom Hiddleston) and promises the pirates some things that come to backfire in the end. 

The film isn’t bad by any means, but it’s by far not one of my favorite of the Disney children franchises. The film sort-of acts as a prequel to Peter Pan, as some characters will develop into the characters well-known from their performance in Peter Pan. It's actually quite surprising with the amount of productions that surround the world of Peter Pan, including Disney Junior's Jake and the Neverland Pirates. 

There’s a great cast of voice actors, including Tom Hiddleston, fresh off his performances in Disney films Thor: The Dark World and Muppets Most Wanted. There’s a brand new song by Natasha Bedingfield which is named “What I Am” which is a pretty enjoyable song and sets the mood for the film well. Overall, if you’re a fan of Peter Pan you may want to give this one a look, and if you or your younger ones are fans of Tinker Bell and the rest of the fairies, this new film will not disappoint. In all honesty, it's got a much more enjoyable story-plot than the never ending franchises of arrogant talking vehicles with eyes on their windshields. At this point in the franchise, it holds up the best than any other previous long-standing Disney franchises and stays true to it's predecessors.

The bonus features stack up well too. There’s a “Crock-U-Mentary” which is a short documentary of real-life crocodiles and alligators, and possibly even more entertaining than the actual film. There’s a few deleted scenes and animated shorts starring Tinker Bell and fairies, A Legacy of Never Land special, taking you on an adventure through Never-Land with stories and other wacky elements and a few sing-alongs on top of that. There’s lots of fun to be had in this for the fans of the Disney Fairies.

One thing that had me really puzzled, (and a head’s up to parents!) is the fact that Disney chose to put in a trailer for the upcoming film, Maleficent on the Blu-Ray and DVD. The film is rated PG-13 for violence and frightening scenes, so why they chose to include it on a film that’s geared towards very young children is beyond my understanding and was an awful decision if you ask me. I never find myself commenting on the choice of trailers on a DVD, but this one really had me scratching my head. Other than that, everything was G-rated on the release.

The Pirate Fairy is now available wherever Blu-Rays are sold

Delivery Man Blu-Ray Review

Mitchell Stein- When David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) finds out he's the father to 533 children through donations he made to a fertility clinic twenty years earlier, he learns that a fraction of his children want to meet him. Against the will of his best friend and lawyer Brett (Chris Pratt) and while trying to mend the relationship that he has with his girlfriend Emma (Cobie Smulders), David decides to set out and see how his children turned out. Along the way he starts to find himself waist deep in the situation.

The Disney-owned film, under the Touchstone Pictures banner is based on the Quebec french film Starbuck, and adapted for an American film by director Ken Scott.
The film starts off with some nice comedic moments from Vince Vaughn's character playing the typical immature adult. However, it gradually shifts into a more sentimental film. As we watch David interact with his children, often ranging from some comical moments with them, but then we get the genuine and sincere moments where David begins to open his eyes to the world. From the outside, the film looks like another average comedy, but in the long run it runs so much deeper and sentimental. It is a major treat to see Vince Vaughn's character interact with younger actors who play his children and as he takes on a more serious role that we rarely see from the actor in his films. When Vaughn has to express his sentimental side, he really nails it.

Apart from the sentimental moments, Vaughn also has lots of fun chemistry with Chris Pratt (Parks and Rec, The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy) who plays his best friend and is the father of four children, who is constantly discouraging David to go after any of his 533 kids. The relationship between the two characters is brilliant and there's some good and funny moments together. Pratt delivers much of the film's comedy himself and easily steals the show in most of the scenes.

There's more fun to be found on the Blu-Ray with the bonus features, even though there's not many in number to be found. My favorite feature would have to be Building Family which takes a look at the casting of 142 different actors to play David's children in the film. Lots of behind the scenes looks, interviews and such are to be found. It's an interesting look at the behind the scenes work that went into this movie.
Then, there's Vince Vaughn: Off the Cuff where Vince Vaughn does improv. Really! Talk about great bonus features!

Then, there's Bloopers, and a Deleted Scene. As I said, not an enormous amount of bonus features to be found, but they're a lot of fun and it adds to the home release of the movie quite well.

Overall, Delivery Man earns the ranks as one of the surprise "feel-good" films of the year. It will have you laughing and by the end it can leave you with tears of joy and a smile on your face.



Touchstone's Delivery Man is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD. Rated PG-13. 

Saving Mr. Banks Blu-Ray Review

Mitchell Stein- Released yesterday on Blu-Ray, Saving Mr. Banks tells the true story of how Walt Disney wooed P.L. Travers to the rights of her book, Mary Poppins to create the famous film adaption. Mary Poppins is well known for its music, special effects and it’s heartfelt story. 

Saving Mr. Banks shows us the entire journey up until the movie started going into production. Oddly enough, the story seems to end before the filming takes place, but this movie really just offers a “behind-the-scenes” look at what it took just to receive the rights, and it’s quite an exciting journey.

The film’s cast is brilliant. While Tom Hanks may not look a lot like Walt Disney, the spirit of Walt lives on. In fact, there’s a sequence where Tom plays a scene from an actual Walt Disney clip word for word, and he does a spot-on impression of it, he’s a really fantastic actor and I can’t think of anyone better to play the role of Walt.

Emma Thompson steals the stage with her performance of the troubled and unhappy P.L. Travers. The story not only circulates around Travers, but it also offers flashbacks at Travers’s early life, and shows us her troubled childhood, and why she is unhappy with some of the things today.

The film’s detail is fantastic. How many people would have noticed Walt’s Smoke Tree Ranch tie clip on his tie? There’s many elements of the film’s set design that really speak to the die-hard Disney fans like myself. From the vintage items in Walt’s office to the detail in 1960’s Disneyland, The detail is just incredible and I applaud the film’s set design department. 

As for the Blu-Ray release, I have to say I am shocked at the lack of bonus features to be found. When the film tells the in-depth story of the creation of Mary Poppins, the Blu-Ray bonus features barely give any insight into the creation or during the filming of Mary Poppins.

The Walt Disney Studios: From Poppins to Present offers a look at the famed Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank and looking back to what it was like during the filming of Mary Poppins in the 1960’s. There’s also Deleted Scenes and Let’s Go Fly A Kite, which shows the cast and crew break out into a chorus of the popular Mary Poppins song on the last day of filming. It’s fun, but doesn’t really make up for the lack of bonus features. 

Overall, the film is great and the features could’ve used some more peeks at what it took to bring Poppins to the big screen, or even some behind the scenes look at the making of Saving Mr. Banks, especially with the amount of detail that went into the film. What usually pushes me to buy the Blu-Ray over the DVD version is when the Blu-Ray has a lot more bonus features. I was pleased incredibly with the film, but I was disappointed in the amount of bonus features.  Hopefully this will be corrected when the film is re-released in a couple of years.

Saving Mr. Banks is now available on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital Copy