One of the fun things cartoons do that live action shows don’t is mess with their intros. The Simpsons are famous for constantly changing the couch gag and what Bart writes on the blackboard, while Family Guy have occasionally had characters interrupt the chorus line in theirs. But while most of the episodes on the South Park: The Complete Twenty-Third Season Blu-ray and DVD sets have very different openings as well, the changes go far beyond the start of the show.
Long before the Avengers movies got heroes from multiple movies to join forces, Kevin Smith pulled it off, and almost as well, with 2001’s Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back, in which the titular two-some were joined by characters from such previous Smith films as Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Mallrats. And now he’s doing it again with the indirect sequel Jay And Silent Bob Reboot. But while it’s good to see the guys again, it’s hard not to wish both the film and the Blu-ray and DVD collections for it were a little better.
While I may not believe that time travel is scientifically possible, part of me hopes that it is…if only so I can one day go back in time to make sure the Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo pack, 4K Ultra HD/ Blu-ray/Digital combo pack, and DVD versions of the action-packed sci-movie Terminator: Dark Fate are as good as the movie itself. Because as it stands now, all three come up short, especially the last one.
As some people who’ve purchased video games and eBooks have discovered the hard way, digital is not necessarily forever. Or available if your Internet goes out (which is sadly more of a problem than you might expect). Which is why I applaud the good people at Paramount Home Video and CBS Home Entertainment who’ve seen fit to release seasonal sets for the premiere show of CBS Access, Star Trek: Discovery, the latest of which, Star Trek: Discovery: Season Two, is now out on Blu-ray and DVD.
Like its predecessor, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame feature an almost overwhelming number of characters familiar to fans of both the Marvel movies and the comics that inspired them. And while it’s a bit of a bummer the same can’t be said for the extras on Avengers: Endgame 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray/Digital combo pack, the Blu-ray/Digital combo pack, and, especially, the DVD, they are still a good way to watch this rather spectacular end to this epic saga.
While the most important part of any movie collection is the movie itself, that doesn’t mean movie fans don’t care a lot about the extras. Which is why it’s always a bummer when they’re incomplete, or one version doesn’t have all of the available extras. Such is the sad state of affairs with the 3D 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD versions of cyberpunk sci-fi movie Alita: Battle Angel. Not only is the latter edition missing most of the available extras, but the former two also come up short when compared to the digital version.
When Captain Marvel came out earlier this year, people applauded Marvel for finally giving a female superhero her own movie, while pointing out that it shouldn’t have taken nearly two-dozen films. So it’s a little odd that the home versions of Captain Marvel — a Blu-ray/Digital combo pack, and 4K/Blu-ray/Digital combo pack, and DVD — would themselves be unfair towards people who don’t have HD TVs, and even then for people who’d rather buy this movie digitally.
One of the interesting things about South Park is how they’ve had running gags and call backs, but don’t go back to a subject once they’ve taken it on. But having been around for more than two decades, some of those subjects have evolved, or just not gone away. And so it is that in some of the episodes presented in South Park: The Complete Twenty-Second Season Blu-ray and DVD, they not only tackle new cultural issues but some old though still relevant ones as well.