Speed Racer, Chuck and Beetlejuice On DVD/Blu-ray (September 15, 2008)
Flashy SPEED RACER zooms onto DVD and Blu-ray, plus vfx-heavy TV shows CHUCK and PUSHING DAISIES debut their first seasons on DVD.
SPEED RACER On DVD And Blu-ray
Start your engines and fasten your seatbelts for the high-octane adventure SPEED RACER from Warner Home Video, combining heartfelt family humor and groundbreaking visual effects. Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is a natural behind the wheel of his thunderous Mach 5. With support from Pops and Mom Racer (John Goodman and Susan Sarandon), girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), younger brother Spritle (Paulie Litt) and the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox), Speed takes on fierce competitors to save his family's business and protect the sport he loves. When Speed steps onto the track, it's not just a race. It's an adrenaline-fueled, high-speed charge to the finish.
Once again, the Wachowskis look to the past -- in this case anime -- to break new ground with digital cinema, which is where the future of movies is headed. And in SPEED RACER, which contains more than 2,000 vfx shots from nearly a dozen studios (Digital Domain, BUF, Evil Eye Pictures, Sony Pictures Imageworks, CIS Hollywood, Rainmaker, Rising Sun Pictures, ILM, CafeFX, Look! Effects, Lola Visual Effects, Gentle Giant Studios and Halon Ent.), they have literally found the perfect vehicle to explore the power of idealistic virtue and artistic freedom through the essence of anime. From the opening images of racing car drawings in a flipbook, the metaphor of Eadweard Muybridge's objects in motion is conveyed through a number of references right on through "Bullet Time" and beyond (with zebras, no less). But with SPEED RACER, we have a whole new convergence of escapist interactive thrills where anything is possible.
"They were in a frame of mind to re-imagine something that influenced them as young people," recalled John Gaeta, who, with Dan Glass, spearheaded the internal vfx production effort with many of their previous collaborators from THE MATRIX trilogy. "As we now know, they are appreciators of anime. And like late baby boomers or Gen-Xers, SPEED RACER was one of the first animes to land and grab people's attention [back in the '60s]. Really, when you look back at that cartoon and its production values, it's very simplistic animation -- more so than most. But you don't remember it that way. It reminds me of NARNIA in that it has a different energy and magic reading it as an adult as opposed to reading it as a child. If you do look at the story threads, they are quite edgy, and there's a lot going on concerning the relationships and obstacles in terms of the family against all purveyors of fixed racing and corporate espionage. The first conversation had to do with the story of the family against all odds, and then a good action subtext for them to glitterize and modernize and Wachowskiize in the way that they would love to see cars today."
DVD Special Features Include:
--"Spritle in the Big Leagues" set tour featurette
--"Speed Racer: Super Charged!" featurette
--Online Digital Copy (extra charge)
Blu-ray Special Features Include:
--"Spritle in the Big Leagues" featurette
--"Speed Racer: Supercharged!" featurette
--"Speed Racer: Car-Fu Cinema" featurette on special effects
--Speed Racer: Crucible Challenge interactive game
--Digital Copy
CHUCK: The Complete First Season On DVD
Catch up with your favorite computer geek turned government operative as he saves the world one secret mission at a time with CHUCK: The Complete First Season on DVD September 16, 2008 from Warner Home Video. Executive producers Josh Schwartz (THE O.C., GOSSIP GIRL) and McG (CHARLIE'S ANGELS, WE ARE MARSHALL) merge techno-gadgetry, martial-arts smack downs, narrow escapes and gorgeous spies in short shorts into an action comedy about a millennium every guy. When a 20-something computer geek (Zachary Levi) inadvertently downloads critical government secrets into his brain, he becomes the CIA's most valuable asset, and must be protected by undercover agents John Casey (Adam Baldwin) and the beautiful Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski).
SPEED RACER On DVD And Blu-ray
Start your engines and fasten your seatbelts for the high-octane adventure SPEED RACER from Warner Home Video, combining heartfelt family humor and groundbreaking visual effects. Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is a natural behind the wheel of his thunderous Mach 5. With support from Pops and Mom Racer (John Goodman and Susan Sarandon), girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci), younger brother Spritle (Paulie Litt) and the mysterious Racer X (Matthew Fox), Speed takes on fierce competitors to save his family's business and protect the sport he loves. When Speed steps onto the track, it's not just a race. It's an adrenaline-fueled, high-speed charge to the finish.
Once again, the Wachowskis look to the past -- in this case anime -- to break new ground with digital cinema, which is where the future of movies is headed. And in SPEED RACER, which contains more than 2,000 vfx shots from nearly a dozen studios (Digital Domain, BUF, Evil Eye Pictures, Sony Pictures Imageworks, CIS Hollywood, Rainmaker, Rising Sun Pictures, ILM, CafeFX, Look! Effects, Lola Visual Effects, Gentle Giant Studios and Halon Ent.), they have literally found the perfect vehicle to explore the power of idealistic virtue and artistic freedom through the essence of anime. From the opening images of racing car drawings in a flipbook, the metaphor of Eadweard Muybridge's objects in motion is conveyed through a number of references right on through "Bullet Time" and beyond (with zebras, no less). But with SPEED RACER, we have a whole new convergence of escapist interactive thrills where anything is possible.
"They were in a frame of mind to re-imagine something that influenced them as young people," recalled John Gaeta, who, with Dan Glass, spearheaded the internal vfx production effort with many of their previous collaborators from THE MATRIX trilogy. "As we now know, they are appreciators of anime. And like late baby boomers or Gen-Xers, SPEED RACER was one of the first animes to land and grab people's attention [back in the '60s]. Really, when you look back at that cartoon and its production values, it's very simplistic animation -- more so than most. But you don't remember it that way. It reminds me of NARNIA in that it has a different energy and magic reading it as an adult as opposed to reading it as a child. If you do look at the story threads, they are quite edgy, and there's a lot going on concerning the relationships and obstacles in terms of the family against all purveyors of fixed racing and corporate espionage. The first conversation had to do with the story of the family against all odds, and then a good action subtext for them to glitterize and modernize and Wachowskiize in the way that they would love to see cars today."
DVD Special Features Include:
--"Spritle in the Big Leagues" set tour featurette
--"Speed Racer: Super Charged!" featurette
--Online Digital Copy (extra charge)
Blu-ray Special Features Include:
--"Spritle in the Big Leagues" featurette
--"Speed Racer: Supercharged!" featurette
--"Speed Racer: Car-Fu Cinema" featurette on special effects
--Speed Racer: Crucible Challenge interactive game
--Digital Copy
CHUCK: The Complete First Season On DVD
Catch up with your favorite computer geek turned government operative as he saves the world one secret mission at a time with CHUCK: The Complete First Season on DVD September 16, 2008 from Warner Home Video. Executive producers Josh Schwartz (THE O.C., GOSSIP GIRL) and McG (CHARLIE'S ANGELS, WE ARE MARSHALL) merge techno-gadgetry, martial-arts smack downs, narrow escapes and gorgeous spies in short shorts into an action comedy about a millennium every guy. When a 20-something computer geek (Zachary Levi) inadvertently downloads critical government secrets into his brain, he becomes the CIA's most valuable asset, and must be protected by undercover agents John Casey (Adam Baldwin) and the beautiful Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski).
Printer-friendly version
Post new comment