This Week in Blu-ray / DVD Releases: Disney Shorts, The Blacklist

By John Law

August 17th 2015, 11:27pm

This Week: Disney shorties for summer, Frozen hotties visit Once Upon a Time, and the guys who discovered The Who.

► If you buy every animated movie Disney puts out, chances are you already own everything in the DISNEY SHORT FILMS COLLECTION. If not, this is a fantastic collection of the company’s modern mini gems, including Oscar winner ‘Paperman,’ the return of Mickey Mouse in ‘Get a Horse,’ and the one your kids will watch a few hundred times, ‘Frozen Fever.’ Includes 12 shorts, averaging six to eight minutes each.

► In 1964, novice filmmakers Kit Lambert and Chris Stamp set out to make an underground movie about the British rock scene. They ended up discovering, and eventually managing, The Who. James D. Cooper’s fascinating doc LAMBERT AND STAMP revisits this musical lottery win with fresh interviews from Pete Townsend, Roger Daltry and Stamp himself, before he died in 2012 (Lambert died in 1981). With The Beatles and Rolling Stones changing the world, the two producers were crucial in making The Who stand out, becoming virtual members of the band. Some remarkable early Who footage here. Blu-ray includes a 1967 Who promotional film.

► Season 2 of THE BLACKLIST wasn’t so much a sophomore slump as a sophomore status quo. The series continues its ‘bad guy of the week’ formula while doling out just enough mythology and continuing storylines to keep you interested, though hardly hooked. Through it all, James Spader continues to lay on the creepy charm as fugitive Raymond Reddington, who surrenders to the FBO in order to help them nail the assorted scumbags on his personal shit list. Season finale – with a prominent character now wanted by the FBI – hints at a third season which could thankfully shake things up. It starts Sept. 24.

► In STRANGERLAND, Nicole Kidman and Joseph Fiennes move to the Australian desert town of Nathgari only for their two teenaged kids to go missing after a dust storm hits. As the townspeople join the search, rumours spread and the locals turn against the newcomers. Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce co-star.

► The gold mine that is Disney’s ‘Frozen’ continued into the fourth season of ONCE UPON A TIME, in which Elsa finds herself in present-day Storybrooke searching for her sister. Elsewhere, a villain brigade which includes Cruella De Vil and Maleficent attempt to rewrite everyone’s fairy tale stories. Ratings took a tumble but it’ll be back for a fifth season, starting Sept. 27. The worst part of this mediocre show is that even if we ever see a series or movie based on Bill Winningham’s ‘Fables,’ the great Vertigo comic that it ripped off, fans will think ‘Once Upon a Time’ did the concept first.

► As that forlorn DVD cover makes obvious, there isn’t much happy about the 11th season of GREY’S ANATOMY. A failing marriage, a dead baby, and – as you may have heard – the death of a series regular in the show’s 241st episode ‘How to Save a Life.’ This was also the first season without Sandra Oh, who left after ten years before the writers could do any more horrible things to her. Still, the show has earned a grudging respect for its longevity and still impressive ratings.

► You just knew last year’s top rated new show would have NCIS in the title. NCIS: NEW ORLEANS, the third series in the franchise, offers a new crew led by Scott Bakula cracking cases of national security in The Big Easy. Lucas Black, Zoe McLellan and the great CCH Pounder hit their marks, but the change of scenery can’t hide how predictable and by-the-numbers this prime time comfort food is. Extras include a deeper look at the Halloween episode ‘Master of Horror,’ and how the crew put the Mardi Gras episode together.

► The documentary THE UNBELIEVERS follows physicist Lawrence Krauss and atheist Richard Dawkins as they speak around the globe stressing science and reason over religion. Which, you can imagine, makes them a few enemies along the way. Ricky Gervais, Woody Allen, Sarah Silverman and Stephen Colbert are among their fans. Two-disc set includes 80 minutes of deleted scenes and extended interviews.

Also out this week: