Nov 14, 2008 (The Buffalo News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
One is a clunky and lonely little robot who falls in love with a sleek search robot; the other is a big, red monster who carries a torch for his fiery girlfriend. They are the title characters from "WALL-E" and "Hellboy II," two of the hottest new DVD releases.

"WALL-E " (Disney, available Tuesday) comes in five versions: a single-disc standard DVD ($29.99), three-disc DVD ($39.99), Bluray double disc ($35.99) and Blu-ray triple disc ($40.99). A two-disc standard DVD is also available ($41.99), but that's Canada-French only.

Everyone is in love with the movie, so I'll concentrate on giving you a rundown of what's on the various releases.

All versions come with "Presto," the animated short you saw in theaters with "WALL-E"; the cute new "Burn-E" short (exclusive to DVD); a commentary by director Andrew Stanton; two deleted scenes; and the informative feature "Animation Sound Design: Building Worlds From the Sound Up." Be sure to look for Easter eggs, too.

The multidisc sets all have the following extras:
--"Robots," a section for families that includes the "Lots of Bots" storybook challenge for kids, as well as a round-up of funny moments in "Wall-E's Treasures & Trinkets."

--"Humans" is a section labeled for film fans with behind-the-scenes features. "WALL-E and Eve," for example, looks at the differences in the two robots, comparing them to what would happen if "Buster Keaton made a movie with Sigourney Weaver." Also included: "The Imperfect Lens: Creating the Look of 'WALL-E,' " "Captain's Log: The Evolution of Humans," "Notes on a Score," "Life of a Shot: Deconstructing the Pixar Process" and "Robo-Everything," a look at the character design.

--"The Pixar Story" is an excellent documentary that shows the evolution of Pixar and computer animation from its beginning as a dream of guys like John Lasseter and Ed Catmull to what it is today. George Lucas and Lucasfilm, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and movies such as "Tron" and "Young Sherlock Holmes" also play roles in this story.

The third disc in the threedisc set is a digital copy of the movie.
The Blu-ray sets come with "Geek Track," an in-movie pop-up feature that has trivia and obscure references; plus "The Axiom Arcade," a retro suite of video games with a "Wall-E" twist, including "Eve's Bot Blaster" and "Burn-E's Break Through." They also have the Disney BD-Live Network that allows fans of the movie to chat and send messages to others.

-- -- --
In a time when superhero and comic-book movies have forgotten how to have fun, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro is here to remind us that you can laugh and save the world at the same time.

Just watch "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (Univer -sal, available now), del Toro's follow-up to his 2004 "Hellboy" movie, based on characters created for Dark Horse Comics by Mike Mignola.

Refreshingly funny and sarcastic, the movies are built around the title character, who is a literal demon from hell (note the red color, cutoff horns and tail). But the candy-loving Hellboy (Ron Perlman) is a good demon, of sorts, working for the U. S. government in snuffing out the really bad guys.

As the full title suggests for "Hellboy II," Big Red will have to fight the powerful Golden Army, unleashed by the elvish prince Nuada in his war against humans.

"Hellboy II" is being released as a single-disc standard DVD ($29.98), a threedisc DVD ($34.98), a two-disc Blu-ray ($39.98) and Blu-ray collector's set ($69.98).

The Blu-ray, single and three-disc sets all include commentaries (with director Guillermo del Toro, as well as actors Blair, Jeffrey Tambor and Luke Goss); seven mini-documentaries that take viewers on the set; a troll market tour with del Toro; and deleted scenes with optional commentary by del Toro.

The Blu-ray and three-disc set come with other features as well that remind us of just how much of a cool guy and film fan del Toro is.

"The Director's Notebook" shows us image scans and text from del Toro's notebook that has cryptic notes about dialogue, plus storyboards and sketches. It's fascinating, if only we could read it.

"If you speak Spanish, it's pretty useful," del Toro says, reminding us that "Berlitz is always open" to learn the language.

"Hellboy: In Service of the Demon" is an in-depth, two-hour feature on the making of the movie. It has 19 chapters on such topics as costumes, make-up, the creation of the glorious Angel of Death and a look at changes from the first "Hellboy" film to this sequel.

"Production Workshop: Professor Broom's Puppet Theatre" gives us three looks at the scene where the professor tells young Hellboy a story. We'll see del Toro's original sketch ("My drawings are horrible," he says), the more detailed storyboard and the final sequence as seen on film.

An image gallery and concept art gallery are included. The third disc in the set is a digital download of the movie.

The Blu-ray feature, "BD-Live," allows you to share things online, such as your favorite scenes from the movie or your own Hellboy adventure. Also included: a comic-book back-story interactive feature, interactive vignettes from set visits and a scene explorer feature.

The collector's set also has a collectible Golden Army statuette, limited edition poster and director's journal.

--Speaking of del Toro, the man with a love for everything horror supplies commentaries for several episodes of "Night Gallery: Season Two" ($59.98, Universal, available Tuesday).

This five-disc set has 22 episodes of the anthology series from the creative mind of "The Twilight Zone's" Rod Serling. "Revisiting the Gallery: A Look Back" is a 30-minute documentary on the series featuring interviews with some of the show's directors, including John Badham and Jeannot Szwarc.

Other bonus features: Artist Tom Wright details how he created the thought-provoking paintings that are integral to each episode in "Art Gallery: The Paintings in Rod Serling's Night Gallery"; and additional commentaries by authors Scott Skelton and Jim Benson.

Coming Tuesday
"Encounters at the End of the World" (Image Entertainment), "Garden Party" (Lionsgate), "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2" (Warner) and "Tropic Thunder" (Dream-Works).

"Bones: Season 3 -- Totally Decomposed" (Fox), "Daniel Boone: The Final Season " (Liberation Entertainment) and "Doctor Who: Season Four" (BBC/WHV).--

truberto@buffnews.com
To see more of The Buffalo News, N.Y., or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to
http://www.buffalonews.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email
tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax
to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave.,
Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]

Discussions: