'Shrek 2' may set off biggest DVD sales season

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

The ogre Shrek, with the voice of Mike Myers, is back in "Shrek 2," which is being released on DVD today to much fanfare. Advertiser library photo

Whether "Shrek 2" possessed all the charm and wit of the original is debatable, but you would be hard-pressed to find a kid or a grown-up who wasn't thoroughly entertained by its effort to recapture what made the original film such a treat, while adding new characters such as Jennifer Saunders' wicked fairy godmother and Antonio Banderas' scheming Puss in Boots for flavor.

Available in wide-screen and full-screen formats, the Special Edition (DreamWorks) includes commentary by the directors and writers, the inevitable bloopers and a featurette on the advances in CGI technology. The bulk of the extras are kid stuff; there are 20 "Shrek"-inspired games and activities.

'Looney' collection

Old-school animation fans may be even more excited about "Looney Tunes: Golden Collection Volume 2," an equally well-compiled successor to last year's celebration of classic Warner Bros. shorts. The four discs contain 60 cartoons, most of which have been previously available on laser disc or VHS, but some making their home video debut.

The first disc showcases Bugs Bunny Superstar and includes the great "Gorilla My Dreams" from 1948 and 1944's "Little Red Riding Rabbit," while discs two and three are devoted to chases, which means that the Road Runner, Tweety and the late, great animator Chuck Jones are showcased.

The final disc is composed of the great parodies, which means a lot of caricatures of Hollywood stars and people in the news. The attraction for true believers, though, is the inclusion of two Jones-directed classics, 1955's "One Froggy Evening" — the brilliant, dialogue-free short that introduced the original tune "The Michigan Rag" — and 1957's "What's Opera, Doc?" in which Elmer Fudd famously chases Bugs through a production of Wagner's "Der Ring Des Nibelungen " with Elmer singing "Kill the Wabbit!" to "Ride of the Valkyries."

Boxed set $5,250

Amazon has assembled the ultimate gift for the serious DVD collector: a boxed set — and that's a big box — of all 241 titles in the Criterion Collection, from Altman's "Three Women" to Kurosawa's "Yojimbo." (Unfortunately the out-of-print-titles like "The Bank Dick" and "Dead Ringers" could not be included, since the release rights have reverted to other companies.) If you bought them separately at list price, the tab would be $7,500 and change; Amazon offers this instant library for $5,250 and free shipping.

Strangelove's back

It's not Criterion, but the new 40th Anniversary Special Edition of Stanley Kubrick's satirical 1964 classic "Dr. Strangelove" (ColumbiaTriStar) is certainly up to those standards.

The two-disc set, packaged in a slip case, appends Kubrick's comic assault on the military-industrial complex, starring Sterling Hayden as the bomb-and-bodily-fluids-obsessed Gen. Jack D. Ripper, George C. Scott as panicky, statistics-spouting Gen. Buck Turgidson and Peter Sellers as just about everybody else, with hours of extras.

Drug-filled jamming

"Festival Express" (New Line) did get a brief theatrical showing, but if you're a fan of Janis Joplin, the Band, the Grateful Dead and the much-missed Delaney & Bonnie, or just a sucker for the 1960s, you'll want a ticket on this memorable trip.

It's a much-belated account of an attempt to mount a traveling rock festival, via train, through Canada in 1970.

The best of it may have been the result of substance-fueled jam sessions on the train, where you can hear Jerry Garcia, Rick Danko and Delaney Bramlett running through traditional songs. Joplin, who would be dead a few weeks later, is at the top of the game in her stage performances. Some 50 minutes of footage not seen in the movie version includes more from Joplin and Buddy Guy, along with rare footage of Ian and Sylvia, Tom Rush and the too-cool-to-be-forgotten Seatrain.

A couple of stars-to-be show what's ahead in the dark and original 1991 Australian drama "Proof," with an excellent performance from a young Hugo Weaving of "The Matrix" as a bitter blind man who is obsessed with chronicling his life by taking photographs he cannot see, and a weird triangle formed with a restaurant employee, played by Russell Crowe, who befriends him and his housekeeper (Genevieve Picot).