Thundarr The Barbarian: The Complete Series (Blu-ray Review)
Warner Archive Collection has show no bias in terms of its quest of restoration projects across the catalog. In addition to golden era Hollywood movies, musicals, horror films and the like, there have been plenty of animated titles getting attention. April saw Thundarr The Barbarian resurrected and put on Blu-ray. Now, while it looks like a Hanna Barbara event, it is actually not. However, the show did come from people who spun out of there and modeled their business practice off of them. Thundarr The Barbarian will be arriving as a 3-disc set, newly restored, and porting over a previous bonus featurette that is a retrospective on the series as a whole. Before Arnold was Conan, before He-Man won over the hearts of children around the globe, there was Thundarr The Barbarian. And you can own every episode by using the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review.
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Last year, there was the doom and gloom word that catalog titles were damned in the eyes of Disney. That only their fresh, shiny new stuff “might” be getting 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray releases. Sorry about all of you that love those classic Fox titles, they care even less on those. Everything was going all into the era of Disney+. However, a stunner and sign of hope came with the announcement of Speed (and Heat) coming to the 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray format. And I can attest that Speed is very real. Word has it that the remaining Alien films will be coming too. Now, its unclear whether this is Disney’s doing or if this is some sort of clean up from things already finished or worked on at Fox before the buyout. Nonetheless, I’ll take the win and enjoyment. Speed is hitting the streets, well, online stores on May 4th. So, step aside star wars, Keanu and Sandra are going to give you some force this year. You can pre-order this using the paid Amazon Associates link following the review.
This felt inevitable after Warner Archive Collection released the original Josie and the Pussycats complete series a few months back as they’ve been going down, restoring and releasing their Hanna Barbera line. Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space was a sequel/spin-off/rebranding of the show that took off in 1972. Unfortunately it didn’t last too long, but did indeed keep Josie and her Pussycats going for another year. Warner Archive has restored this to go along with the original series on your shelf. A nice two disc set, but includes no extras this time around. They released it on April 13th. So, you can go ahead and order yourself a copy using the paid Amazon Associates link following the review. Amazon, which is now sort of the main hub for all things Warner Archive Collection. Let’s just hope this sub-label of Warner Bros home video keeps alive as they do some of the very best work in the business these days!
The Bill Murray directed Quick Change came as a nice surprise to the April slate of releases from Warner Archive Collection. It found itself a quick kill at the 1990 box office, finding itself debuting in the bottom half of the top ten and out of theaters altogether after three weeks. In its defense, it came out around the same time as a lot of big name iconic films were making a push (Ghost, Dick Tracy), but couldn’t even manage to best even The Adventures of Ford Fairlane. Nonetheless, it has managed to find a cult following and life on home video. The film also produced plenty of surprise and excitement when this Blu-ray was announced. I’m not so sure I can say the same for the now out of print Blu-ray for that Renny-Harlin/Andrew Dice Clay vehicle (Which admittedly is quite something in its own right). You can pre-order it now using the paid Amazon Associates link at the bottom of the page to have around release day, April 27th.
If it hadn’t been for the Twitter super buzz for it back in February, Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar might have flown by on my radar. For some reason, I hadn’t caught wind of it until then, oddly enough. I was going to rent it, but the review copy request came in the very next week and the release date for Blu-ray wasn’t that far away. So I practiced patience and here we are. It arrived on April 6th and comes complete with some deleted material and featurettes for the film. You can land yourself a brand new copy of it on Blu-ray, at the (currently) low price of $14.96 by using the pad Amazon Associates link that follows the review. You don’t really have to if you don’t want to, but it helps the site (and our self esteem) just a hair if you do. Plus, we are saving up to get matching pairs of culottes for the photo for our Why So Blu holiday card we are sending out at the end of the year. And you know you want to see Gerard in culottes, right?
The Doctor X debut on Blu-ray from Warner Archive Collection kills two birds with one stone in many regards. One, it brings more 1930s non-Universal horror to Blu-ray in prestigious fashion. Two, it continues Warner Archive’s roll out of the filmography of the great Michael Curtiz. They’ve also added some fresh new bonus materials to this release a la The Curse of Frankenstein. Curtiz isn’t synonymous with horror, but he did put out three significant titles during the 1930s and now two of them are on Blu-ray from Warner Archive (The other is The Mystery of the Wax Museum, a fantastic release). You can also watch the film in its rarely seen color form and the black and white version, which technically are two completely different productions as they are different takes during the shoot. It’ll be available on April 20th. You can find a paid Amazon Associates pre-order link to use following the review if you’d like to help the site just a hair.
Wonder Woman 1984 had the unfortunate fate of constantly pushing back its release date. Even prior to a few pandemic related moves, the film had already shuffled a couple of times. After so much moving and shaking, enough had been enough and Warner Bros made the bold move of releasing it in theaters and on HBO MAX parallel to one another on Christmas Day. A move that kick started their notion to release all theatrical films on HBO MAX for 1 month for 2021. And, sigh of relief, it has been given a 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray home video release. Hitting stores last week on March 30, it was complete with a nice slew of bonus features and a Dolby Atmos track. A nice follow to the HBO MAX release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League to keep the DC movie hype train going. You can order it now, and you do have the option to use the paid Amazon Associates link following the review if you so choose to do.
I don’t know what’s up with Pixar and Disney lately, but their films have been of the straight to Disney+ fashion in handling releases with the global pandemic. That started with Soul which debuted on the streaming platform at no extra charge like previous releases had done (Luca will go straight to Disney+ later this year). The film was originally supposed to be released last summer only to be bumped and then dumped (Sorry, I wanted a rhyme). It received plenty of worthy acclaim and was a nice gesture to have to watch for free on the Christmas holiday. Wonderfully, though, it has arrived on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray, keeping physical media as a continued viable option. Soul was released on March 23rd, featuring plenty of solid extras as well as a native 4K image (Sometimes for some reason these get downres’d to a 2K digital intermediate). You can own it and see all the goodness by using the paid Amazon Associates link that follows the review at the bottom of this page.
A nice surprise from the continued quality output from Sony, was their restoration and release of the cult classic science fiction film Gattaca. Its not hitting a celebratory milestone until next year (Released in 1997, it’ll celebrate 25 years in 2022). The Andrew Niccol film has long been popular on home video since the days of VHS, so its no surprise it will continue to make format jumps with a 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray released. Unfortunately, no new bonus materials are being included but the old ones are being ported over. Gattaca has been given a new restoration as well as an Atmos audio mix for this release. In its first iteration, the film will be put into collectible steelbook packaging with some rather groovy orange art. Released on March 23, you can order the film to upgrade your previous disc and add to your collection by using the trusty paid Amazon Associates link at the bottom of this page following the review.
Monster Hunter quietly appeared in homes just before the new year. With the pandemic seemingly never ending, viewers got a little escape into a not-so-distant future with a fun and escapist fantasy action film. Does the film stand up to others in its field. Do Paul W.S. Anderson and his wife and muse Milla Jovavich deliver the goods? Or are we just watching “Resident Evil: Monsters too!” Find out more in our super late coverage below and grab your copy using the paid link at the end!
