TARZAN

TARZAN: Special Edition – Although only a moderate hit with the kiddie crowd at the time of its release, this Disney adaptation may adhere closest to the spirit of Edgar Rice Burrough’s original ape man novels...if you forget about the touchy-feely Phil Collins songs, that is. Visually, Tarzan is one of the studio’s most lush and organic efforts of the modern era, set against a jungle backdrop that is almost prehistorically beautiful. Tarzan himself moves with an athletic grace that could never be realized outside of animation, while the action scenes are nothing short of astounding! One can’t help but wonder what kind of masterpiece might have developed had the marketing folks not required Rosie O’Donnell’s voice as his wisecracking monkey sidekick. Oh well, it’s still a sight to behold and Minnie Driver does a bang up job with portrayal of Jane as the exuberantly naïve love interest. This new edition includes a remixed soundtrack, music videos, point-n-click games, plus deleted scenes (in storyboard form) and filmmaker’s commentary. THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE: New Groove Edition – The mouse house’s first desperate attempt to salvage their traditional 2D features (the final nail in the coffin would be the underappreciated Treasure Planet) was drastically retooled during production. The result is a unique mix of Looney Tune attitude and Tex Avery violence that serves as a send up of the old Disney stand-bys. After the self-centered Emperor Kuzco (David Spade) is turned into a llama by a scheming advisor, he hooks up with a humble villager (John Goodman) who agrees to help on the condition the Emperor not build his summer retreat atop his ancestral home. The moral lessons aren’t bogged down by pop songs and the whole ‘toon has an edge that starts with the risky voice casting (Spade is annoyingly entertaining, but Patrick Warburton as Kronk gets all the best lines). It’s fast, funny and frenetic. Extras include deleted scenes, a couple of music videos, games, behind-the-scenes segment and audio commentary. BIONICLE 3: WEB OF SHADOWS – Still not sure what a Bionicle is? Well, they’re made out of Legos, and a random search of most 10-year-old boys’ rooms will turn up a few. But the mythology invented for these toys tops anything the marketing chumps working on He-Man ever came up with. I mean, take Web of Shadows for instance. Just when I had figured out that the Toa were mystical mecha-warriors with the elemental powers, the movie goes and introduces a whole new herd of spider-robots called Visorak who’ve captured the Matorn and infected the Toa with a virus that will turn them into monsters called Toa Hordika, which means they’ll never make it back to Metru Nui. Stopped reading that about mid-sentence, did you? Don’t worry, you don’t have to understand it. The 3D animation is on par with the previous installments, which is surprisingly good. Just pop in the DVD and let it baby-sit your pre-teen boy for 76 minutes. You don’t even have to worry about the tip. Extras include character backgrounds, an animatic version of the Bionicle comic book and more.