Techtite Feature Article!

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DVD:

Best DVD, Animated Film: Disney's Cinderella, Platinum Edition. What's really cool about these Platinum Editions are the "Gift Sets" that include a hardcover storybook based on the film, and some lobby card quality art prints, all in a box that fits on any standard DVD shelf. Yet with or without the gift set there are nice extras, especially for a film originally released almost 50 years ago.

Best DVD, Action or Drama: Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith. Very Strong With The Force, this episode was.

Best DVD, Reality TV Series: The Amazing Race Season One. Finally on DVD...and with reason.

Best DVD, Animated TV Series: Star Wars Clone Wars. An enjoyable look at how cool the trilogy would've been, had The Clone Wars been episode 2, Episode 2's rise of the Emperor was Episode One, and we never saw "Phantom Menace's" Jar-Jar Binks filled shenanigans at all.

Best DVD, Classic TV: He-Man, Season One, Volume One. This was made with a lot of care and thought for the series' fans, and it shows. Two recently filmed featurettes show the cast and crew as they look today, via around an hour of brand new documentary video. Two artwork cards are included in the DVD set, as drawn by modern comic book artists. Yet the feature we really love is how every "chapter" menu includes bonus trivia pertaining to that episode. Few TV series DVD sets offer such trivia within their chapter menus. In fact; most new DVDs don't even offer a chapter menu. If only all "older" TV series sets on DVD put as much care in their work as this one did.

...and a few more awards worth mentioning:

Most Amusing "Gift Set" Item: Seinfeld's "Puffy Shirt". But we don't want to look like a pirate! Don't worry! This "puffy shirt" is only a miniature keepsake, suitable for any DVD shelf, collectibles cabinet, or desk. Put it next to your Seinfeld seasons with style...puffy shirts notwithstanding.

You Probably Didn't Buy It But We Love It: Jack and the Beanstalk. Any lover of anime will love this cult hit from the 1970's, where the story of Jack is given a witty Japanese-animation style, complete with perfect English voice acting and surprisingly toe-tapping musical numbers.

Best "Easter Egg"/Hidden Extra: Rapper Yoda, SWE3: Revenge of the Sith. Put disc one in any DVD player and choose the settings menu. In this menu press 1138 (or "10 - 1 - 3 - 8" on some remotes). If you put the numbers in slow enough for your DVD player to recognize the key presses, a video should automatically play, of a CGI "gag" made by the special FX team. Clone Troopers bob their head as Yoda raps. The more cynical fans are livid at this. We're just too busy laughing.

Best New Holiday DVD: The He-Man & She-Ra Christmas Special. If only the many Rankin/Bass holiday specials got special treatment like this. Not only is the 1980's TV special offered in crystal clarity with perfect audio, but the extras on the disc include a music video based on She-Ra's originally planned, "For the Honor of Love" theme song, plus two brand new featurettes, 2 "art cards" in-box, character profiles, trivia about the special episode, a computer .pdf  of the script, and a montage of the many "ending morals" the series offered through the years. Coooool...!

Worst DVD, Overall: Thundercats Season One, Volume One, Disc One. Was this some sort of joke? The series was great; this DVD set is not. Yet the worst disc of all would have to be disc one. The pilot episode is so poorly digitized that the video image actually "flickers" at one point, like a cheap video tape recorded in EP mode. I don't expect digital restoration to the point of crystal clarity, but flickering video? This was inexcusable. Likewise for the second episode, whose English audio track inexplicably lacks any background music audio, making the experience...well, bad, and that's as nice as we can get with this one. It has been said that you can get replacement discs by mail for disc one, but this is too little too late. What was someone thinking here?