DVD Collectors Online

Ratatouille, a review by Tom

Title: Ratatouille
Year: 2007
Director: Brad Bird
Rating: PG
Length: 111 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.39
Audio: English: PCM 5.1, English: Dolby Digital Surround EX
Subtitles: English

Stars:
Patton Oswalt
Ian Holm
Lou Romano
Brian Dennehy
Peter Sohn

Plot:
From the creators of Cars and The IncrediblesRatatouille for the first time with revolutionary clarity and spectacular audio enhancement. It's a rare treat you'll enjoy again and again.

Extras:
"Your Friend the Rat" & "Lifted" Shorts
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Scene Access
Trailers

Another really great Pixar movie! Highly recommended! A fun story and great animation.
As usual, Pixar make the human characters more cartoony, instead of trying to be ultra-realistic only to fail at it. The backgrounds/sets are really great.

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Reviews on January 3rd, 2009)

Tonari no Totoro, a review by dfmorgan

Tonari no Totoro (1988/Japan) (Japan) Director: Hayao Miyazaki Writing: Hayao Miyazaki (Original Material By), Hayao Miyazaki (Screenwriter) Length: 86 min. Video: Widescreen 1.85:1 Audio: Japanese: DTS-HD Master Audio: 2-Channel Stereo, English: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo, Cantonese: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo, French: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, German: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, Italian: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, Korean: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround, Mandarin: Dolby Digital: Dolby Surround Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean

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Stars:
Noriko Hidaka as Satsuki Kusakabe (Voice)
Chika Sakamoto as Mei Kusakabe (Voice)
Hitoshi Takagi as Totoro (Voice)
Shigesato Itoi as Tatsuo (Satsuki & Mei's Father) (Voice)
Sumi Shimamoto as Yasuko (Satsuki & Mei's Mother) (Voice)

Plot:
Critically acclaimed as one of the most delightful and charming family films ever, My Neighbor Totoro is a stunning animated treat full of magical adventure from Hayao Miyazaki.

Follow the adventures of Satsuki and her four-year-old sister Mei when they move into a new home in the countryside. To their delight, they discover that their new neighbor is a mysterious forest spirit called Totoro-who can be seen only through the eyes of a child. Totoro introduces them to extraordinary characters-including a cat that doubles as a bus!-and takes them on an incredible journey.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Feature Trailers
• Bonus Trailers
• Featurettes
• Storyboard Comparisons
• Picture-in-picture

My original review of the R1 DVD is here.

Still a truly marvellous film and this Blu-ray edition enhances it with some added depth and colourings from the added resolution.

Rating: Still a double

(From Ghibli Blu's on July 29th, 2012)

Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon, a review by Tom

21. Graduation Day, Part 1 (1999-05-18)
Writer: Joss Whedon (Created By), Joss Whedon (Writer)
Director: Joss Whedon
Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers), Nicholas Brendon (Xander Harris), Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg), Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase), David Boreanaz (Angel), Seth Green (Oz), Anthony Stewart Head (Giles), Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers), Harry Groener (Mayor Richard Wilkins), Alexis Denisof (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce), Mercedes McNab (Harmony Kendall), Ethan Erickson (Percy), Emma Caulfield (Anya/Anyanka), Eliza Dushku (Faith), Armin Shimerman (Principal Snyder), James Lurie (Mr. Miller), Hal Robinson (Lester), Adrian Neil (Vamp Lackey #1), John Rosenfeld (Vamp Lackey #2)

I always liked the fight between Buffy and Faith at the end of this episode. I also like the romance building between Anya and Xander, which began in the previous episode and will be explored further in the upcoming seasons. And Willow's distaste for Anya is always fun, which has begun in Doppelgangland when she proposed (under the guise of Vampire Willow) to start killing by beginning with her (Anya).
Nice touch with the hangman playing. Interesting to see, that also in the US it seems to be common to play games in class at the end of a school year.

Rating:

(From Tom's Buffy and Angel Marathon on March 6th, 2009)