Shout Factory! Kids has a wonderful selection of products that is now or will soon be available for purchase. Many will tickle the funny bone of fans from different generations and tastes. The following is a selection that the staff of Otaku no Culture has eyed while browsing their online catalogue.
In what’s coming, perhaps the biggest news is for Gerry Anderson fans as his library of works is being redistributed. See for yourself what the upcoming couple of months will reveal:
Fans of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Marionation will celebrate at the redistribution of the underwater adventure series Stingray. Stingray is the flagship of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (W.A.S.P.) and under the command of heroic Captain Troy Tempest they patrol beneath the world’s oceans protecting the human race from what evil lurks in its depths.
Shout! Factory took over the Anderson licence after the home release rights with A&E Home Video expired. Fans may find similar extras on this edition as on the A&E version minus the French end-credits sequence. Such an extra to someone wanting to relive television’s golden years may find this trivial. But to the Anderson collector they may have to go fishing in deeper waters for that A&E release and pay extra cash in the process.
Bronies and young fans can catch this 30th Anniversary release where the Ponys get ready to celebrate Spring. But when the evil Witch Hydia has other plans involving a hideous goo called Smooze, that may get ground to a halt! This movie features the voices of Danny DeVito, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Rhea Perlman, Tony Randall and many more.
This edition offers sing-along tracks for children.
The stray cat known as Thunder can soon a find a home amongst many a family now with this release. Before, it was only available through limited channels, and soon, it will be available as a pack that includes 3DTV Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD combo collection. To see a review, please click here. Now, instead of seeking this title through video on demand (VOD) or at theatres, children can delight to watching Thunder, the homeless kitty, find a new place to belong. The tale will certainly delight the cat-lover in us all.
Transformers fans who have grown accustomed to enjoying Rescue Bots when Robots in Disguise will not be coming for another couple of months will find some solace in this upcoming release. Honestly, Rescue Bots is not all that bad when the greater purpose is looked at. The program teaches children some good life lessons to consider.
In Jurassic Adventure, the Dinobots return!
The list of bonus features should do more than salivate the desires of the die-hard Gerry Anderson fan. Not only does the collection offer a comprehensive introduction but also it delves behind the scenes.
BONUS MATERIAL
- Gerry Anderson Audio Commentary on
“The Mysterons” and “Attack On Cloudbase” - Introduction to Captain Scarlet
- Gerry Anderson Biography and Filmography
- Character Biographies
- Spectrum ID Cards
- Vehicle Guides
- Gerry Anderson Interview: Early Career
- SPOTLIGHT ON CAPTAIN SCARLET – THE DIRECTING with Director Alan Perry
- SPOTLIGHT ON CAPTAIN SCARLET – THE PUPPETS with Puppeteer Mary Turner
- SPOTLIGHT ON CAPTAIN SCARLET – THE WRITING with Scriptwriter Shane Rimmer
Before Mighty Morphin Power Rangers ever appeared on television, there Was Super Sentai Zyuranger! Okay, the Dynamen could beat this track record, but interest in sentai (costumed heroes) did not achieve the pop culture phenomenon that it did until the dubbed and redited version, Power Rangers, hit the North American air waves. With this release, fans can see the series as it was intended.
In Japanese, the witch Bandora is all the more sinister. To see how Earth’s mightiest got recruited to take flight and fight will be hearty. And did anyone know that the mechs that’s supposed to save Earth were originally called Guardian Beasts?
Power Rangers Lost Galaxy: The Complete Series
A Farscape joke can easily be made with this seventh entry into the Power Rangers franchise. When there’s a insect-slug hybrid villain by the name of Scorpius, just what he looks like is hardly sinister when compared to his namesake in the Jim Henson Productions and Hallmark Entertainmentt product.
Power Rangers Lost Galaxy does take the adventure into outer space, and when the team has to protect Terra Venture, a colony ship, from extraterrestrial dangers, what happens here is an attempt to thwart everything the spider-villain and his human daughter, Trakeena, has in store.
Technically, Gerry Anderson’s look into deep space preceded Captain Scarlet and although the release order is unusual, perhaps the reason why is that Scarlet is more popular show of the two. In what’s offered, however, is definitely a love by Shout! Factory to have all his works slowly come out in due time.
BONUS MATERIAL
- Commentary by director Alan Pattillo on “Space City Special”
- Commentary by voice artist David Graham on “Doomed Planet”
- Featurette – “The Noble Art of Fireball XL5” with comic strip artist Mike Noble
One lonely penguin is on the loose, and to see what he’ll be after in this film will have young ones delight and applaud. In a tale where he meets up with humans, not all of them will be friendly! Doctor Block has stolen some Kakapo birds eggs and Jasper is out to save them. Thankfully he meets a young Emma who may be able to help. Along with a sailor simply known as Captain, the adventure they embark in will take them on a journey upon the seven seas. Let’s just hope they won’t sail into disaster….
Not everyone will be able to afford to buy the complete Pee-Wee’s Playhouse all in one go, and thankfully Shout! Factory is offering separate volume releases. The next set is scheduled just in time when the last two are probably finally viewed.
More Gerry Anderson love is being offered in a collection that will have completests most likely hoping all of his works will be re-released to video. With this volume release, fans can see what followed after Captain Scarlet.
In Joe 90, a young boy suddenly gets catapulted into the life of a super spy when his father invents a machine that’s capable of transferring the experience of one person into another. Known as a “BIG RAT” (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope Record And Transfer), this tool would prove to be indispensible because nobody would suspect a young child would be a master spy. Some Ben 10 fans may wonder if Man of Action may have been inspired by this classic series. A few ideas are similar, but for the most part, the two series direction and execution are different.