Home Video

Bartok the bat in Anastasia. © 20th Century Fox.

Bluth Makes Anastasia Sequel. The team that created Fox's Anastasia, director Don Bluth, partner and producer Gary Goldman, and the Fox Animation Studio have finished a sequel called Bartok The Magnificent which will be released on video and DVD on November 16. The wisecracking bat, voiced by Hank Azaria, is promoted to headline the music-filled sequel, with Kelsey Grammer, Jennifer Tilly, Tim Curry and Catherine O'Hara taking on other voice roles. Bartok is the first major Fox direct-to-video title produced in-house at their Phoenix facility and the first sequel to a Fox theatrical release. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment has distributed Saban Entertainment's live-action Casper, A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy.

Don't Miss These New Anime Releases! Houston, Texas-based ADV Films released Galaxy Fraulein Yuna Returns on July 13 and Queen Emeraldas on July 27 in the US. Both ADV Films titles are available in subtitled and dubbed versions. For more information visit www.advfilms.com. New York City-based Central Park Media is releasing Record Of Lodoss War: Chronicles Of The Heroic Knight - A New Legend Begins, Midnight Panther: General Release Version, and The Slayers Next: The Forbidden Dance? on August 8 in the US, and Record Of Lodoss War: Chronicles Of The Heroic Knight - Demon Sword, Knights Of Ramune: True Destination, The Slayers Next: Secret Of The Giga Slave, and Patlabor: The Mobile Police - The Tv Series, Volume 7 all on September 14 in the US. Each Central Park title will be available in subtitled and dubbed versions. Iowa-based The Right Stuf International is releasing two more English-dubbed volumes of The Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Boldly Going Nowhere has a US street date of August 31, and Escape Times Three has a US street date of September 21. Both volumes include three episodes of the series.

The Beatles' Yellow Submarine. Courtesy of MGM Home Entertainment.

Yellow Submarine Returns To Video! Long-withheld due to a legal snag, this fall MGM Home Entertainment will be reissuing Yellow Submarine. This release will restore Yellow Submarine to its original English release length, which is said to be three and a half minutes longer than the US release, restoring the "Hey Bulldog" sequence that was cut for reasons of length for the original Amercian theatrical release. MGM/UA's new transfer is said to be bright and colorful, without a trace of the film dirt and scratches that mar the earlier video release. Also, the Beatles songs have been re-mixed from the original masters, and a new film soundtrack mix has been done in Dolby Digital 5.1. The film is being released on VHS, laser disc, and DVD, but apparently only the DVD will include extras. One of these extras is a contemporary making-of documentary, The Beatles Mod Odyssey. The US release date for all formats is September 14, 1999.

New Anime Releases For Fall 1999. A.D.V. Films is releasing the following titles in the US. City Hunter: Bay City Wars, and Sorcerer Hunters Volume 5 - Forbidden Desires, are being released on October 12, while Sakura Wars 2, Sakura Wars Dvd, and Variable Geo, are being released on October 26. All of these titles will be released in both English dubbed and Japanese with English subtitles. A.D.V.'s Softcel division, which specializes in titles with nudity, sex, and adult situations, is releasing Can Can Bunny and Countdown: Akira on September 14. Both are in Japanese with English subtitles.

Facets Gets Expanded. Agoura Hills, California-based Expanded Entertainment, which produced the Tournee of Animation and Animation Celebration in recent years, and compiled and distributed tapes of award-winning animated shorts, has sold its inventory to Chicago-based Facets Video, which also handles The Whole Toon Catalog. The titles include four Animation Celebration volumes, British Animation Invasion, six International Tournee of Animation volumes, The World's Greatest Animation, and several other titles. Once Facets' stock is gone, that's it for these titles, and many of these films may never again be released on video. Whole Toon can be contacted at Tel. (800) 331-6197.


Robin Hood box art.	Alice in Wonderland box art.	© 1999 Warner Home Video.

New U.S. Home Entertainment Releases. This list of upcoming home entertainment releases includes some new titles, but most of them are new only to DVD. Disney has just re-released Robin Hood and Alice In Wonderland; their live-action Return To Oz, which includes some stop-motion by Will Vinton Studios, will be released on DVD and VHS on August 10. Touchstone's Who Framed Roger Rabbit? will be released on DVD on September 28. Warner Bros. has just released 1999's animated The King And I on both VHS and DVD; Wallace And Gromit: The Complete Collection (which includes A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, and A Close Shave), Rankin/Bass' stop-motion holiday special Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, and the Eric Fogel-created stop-motion Celebrity Deathmatch: Greatest Hits, which includes Noel Gallagher vs. Liam Gallagher, Spike Lee vs. Quentin Tarantino, Cindy Crawford vs. Janeane Garofalo, Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon, Adam Sandler vs. Chris Rock, Celine Dion vs. Keith Flint, Nick Diamond vs. Alien, will all be released on DVD on September 7. Bandai Entertainment will release two episodes of the popular anime TV series Cowboy Bebop, about outer space bounty hunters, on VHS on September 14; and Hanna-Barbera's next feature-length Scooby-Doo adventure, Scooby-Doo And The Witch's Ghost, will be released direct-to-video on October 5, just in time for Halloween.