As for the Blu-ray, it has one major special feature that is a Blu-ray exclusive. The audio commentary track is partially upgraded into a picture-in-picture track. I say partially upgraded, because not only do you hear from the writer / directors discuss the movie, but there are also other people interviewed for this section, as well as behind-the-scenes footage. Also, you can choose which part is in the picture-in-picture. That is to say, you can watch the movie full screen with the video commentary track in the small section, or watch the video commentary track in full screen with the movie in the small section. Assuming you've seen the movie, the latter is the better option. This is an excellent track and would be worth a 30% premium on the price of the DVD by itself. As for the technical presentation, the video is incredible given its source. The movie was filmed using consumer handheld camera, which cost a couple thousand dollars each, as opposed to $50,000 for a professional model. Because of this there are some issues, some minor, so more noticeable. For instance, I don't think the cameras dealt with the harsh sunlight very well. That said, this is still a major upgrade from the DVD and better than most Blu-rays I've reviewed. As for the audio, it's nearly flawless. It's nearly flawless and this is a movie that pushes the audio to the limits. It's a $13 million movie with an audio track that you can use to show off your home theater system. I wasn't expecting that.

So after praising the Blu-ray, you expect it's going to be a rather expense disc, right? Wrong. The list price is only $5 more than the two-disc DVD and only $10 more than the single-disc DVD. However, as I'm writing this, the Blu-ray is just $18.99, which is much cheaper than the two-disc DVD and only 50 cents more than the single-disc DVD. That's cheap enough that it's worth a blind buy. Nice one, Lionsgate.

Dora the Explorer - Dora's Christmas - Buy from Amazon
Two notes to start. Firstly, the latest DVD from the popular franchise came out earlier in the month, but didn't arrive till this week. Secondly, it's a poorly named DVD, as only one of the four episodes deals with Christmas, but it is the episode that leads the program.

• A Present For Santa - Dora and Boots are celebrating Christmas and even have a present the got for Santa and they plan to wait up all night to give it to him. However, they quickly fall asleep and miss him, so they have to travel to the North Pole to give it to him.
• Rapido, Tico! - Boots is eagerly awaiting the mail truck because he's supposed to get a fire truck in the mail. But when it arrives, there's a hole in the box and his toy is missing. So they are off to find it.
• Quack Quack - Dora and Boots are coloring a picture of a duck and her five eggs. But when the picture comes to life, one of the eggs is blown to another page of the coloring book. It is up to Dora and Boots to find the duckling and rescue it.
• School Pet - Dora and Boots are at school and want to show you their classroom pet, Mimo the hamster. However, someone left its cage door and Mimo is missing. Can Dora, Boots and the rest of her friends rescue Mimo?

Despite the lack of Christmas content on Dora's Christmas, fans of Dora the Explorer will find good value on this DVD and it is worth adding to your collection.

The season starts with Dr. Richard Kimble on a bus when the bus is stopped by the police looking for an escaped convict. Lucky for him, it's another escaped convict. Unfortunately for him, he's stabbed in the escape attempt and he's sent to the prison hospital where he is recognized and blackmailed. It's an excellent start to another excellent season. Other strong episodes include Trial by Fire where Dr. Kimble learns there was a witness who also saw the one-armed man, but a secret from his past could jeopardize his testimony. Landscape with Running Figures is a two-part episode featuring Lt. Philip Gerard, as well as his wife. While those two are on vacation, Lt. Gerard hears Dr. Kimble is in the area so he goes off to chase him. This infuriates his wife so much that she decides to take the bus home. By an amazing coincidence, Dr. Kimble is on the same bus, and when it crashes, he helps her to safety, only in the accident she's temporally lost her sight, so she doesn't recognize Dr. Kimble, and of course he doesn't know who she is. Not every episode is as strong with Crack in a Crystal Ball and Stranger in the Mirror being only mediocre. But I figure about half of the 16 episodes presented here have strong replay value.

As always, part of the fun of watching these old shows is looking out for guest stars, and this DVD is excellent in that regard. Guest shots include Ed Asner, Marion Ross, and three members of Star Trek, William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, and James Doohan. (Clint Howard also has a guest shot, and he too appeared in one episode of Star Trek.)

There are no extras on the 4-disc set, nor are there any subtitles. There are play all buttons and proper chapter placements. There are also some issues with the video quality this time around. The show is more than 40 years old, so you can't expect a pristine video transfer, but in a few times it was very distracting.

I really hate split-season sets, but The Fugitive is such a good show that I'm inclined to forgive it. Season Three - Volume One has 16 episodes over four discs and all are worth watching and more than half have serious replay value. The price-per-minute is a little high, but it is still worth picking up.

The first season was a little rough with some issues in tone. At times it can be a little melodramatic, and several of the characters are underutilized. (In fact, one of the characters, Amanda Bowles played by Erica Leerhsen, leaves the show halfway through the season, which is a damn shame, since she was my favorite of the side characters. The uneven tone of the show really hurts the overall effectiveness, but there are still some outstanding episodes. Heart, about a young girl in need of a heart transplant, but who first needs a stable home to qualify, is an amazing episode, even though the ending was pretty obvious. After Nick Fallin became her legal guardian, you knew she couldn't survive the heart transplant surgery, because that would cause too much of a change in the show. It's an issue of suspension of disbelief. It's too hard to believe they would make such a major change in a show that early in its run.

The only extras on the 6-disc set include three 30-second promos, which is hardly a special feature at all. There are also to subtitles, no play-all buttons, but there are proper chapter placements.

The Guardian got off to a very rough start and it is clear the creators didn't quite have the tone of the show fully developed. There are some great episodes on Season One, but the early struggles and the lack of substantive extras reduce its value to a rental.

Ice Age - Dawn of the Dinosaurs starts off where The Meltdown ends, namely with Manny and Ellie expecting their first kid. Diego realizes he's out of shape, something he blames on being part of the herd, which has made him soft. With Manny and Ellie preoccupied and Diego planning on leaving, Sid feels left out and wants to start a family of his own. While contemplating the best way to do this, he stumbles into an ice cave and 'rescues' three eggs, which hatch rather quickly making Sid the proud mother of three baby Tyrannosaurus Rexes. Unable to control his kids, the destruction they cause it only limited because their real mother comes and takes them back, and in the process kidnaps Sid. Now it is up to Manny, Ellie, and Diego to travel to the lost world to rescue him, with the help of their guide in this new world, Buck.

Ice Age - Dawn of the Dinosaurs was the biggest hit from the franchise domestically and it set record after record internationally. However, after watching the movie my reaction to that is, 'Huh?' It's not a bad movie, per se, but it feels so very average. There are some improvements over the first two installments, including a cool new character and great animation scenes, but the story is just not as compelling. The action scenes started to feel repetitive, while none of the characters have much of an arc and the arcs they did have were not capitalized on very well. Diego wanting to strike out on his own and meeting Buck could have been really interesting; however, it was practically only used for a couple of jokes. Still, it is worth watching once for fans of digital animation, and if you have kids, they will likely want to watch it enough times that it is worth picking up.

Extras on the first disc include an audio commentary track with the directors, animators, producers, etc. ... and that's it. According to the press kit I got with the screener, this is all that's on the DVD, which is unacceptable for this type of release. This is absolutely only worth a rental.

The second disc is the 'Scrat Pack' portion of the DVD with Scrat Pack and it has a number of extras starting with a trio of short films featuring Scrat: Gone Nutty, No Time For Nuts, and The Sabre-Toothed Squirrel: Natures Nutty Buddy. I was never a big fan of this character, so keep that it mind when I call these shorts merely mediocre on average. I did like the time travel humor of No Time For Nuts, but I have no desire to watch the other two again. There are also two shorter live-action clips about the 'real life' discover of a sabre-toothed squirrel found frozen in the ice, but these are less successful than the animated shorts. There are a handful of making of featurettes starting with the fluffy Fox Movie Channel Present feature, as well as two focusing on two of the new characters, Buck and Scratte. Other minor extras include a music video, and an instructional video on how to draw Scrat. Overall this is a good selection of extras, but I can't imagine it really needed to be on two discs and it costs 50% more.

The Blu-ray does have some exclusives extras, but I won't know what those are for sure till it arrives. And it won't be shipped till Tuesday, so look for an update to this review next week. However, since it costs less than $1 more than the 2-disc set, and it includes all of the extras on the 2-disc set, there's no reason not to buy this one if you are interested in the movie.

Technically, Ice Age - Dawn of the Dinosaurs is easily the best of the franchise, but storywise it is the weakest. That said, there's more than enough here to entertain kids, even if their parents won't be quite as enthralled. If you are just interested in renting the movie, then the DVD is just fine. However, if you want extras, you'll need to grab the DVD with Scrat Pack, but the Blu-ray is by far the better deal.

For those who don't remember this show, Mannix stars Mike Connors as Joe Mannix, a P.I. who takes on tough cases with street smarts and gut intuition. In the first season, much of the show centered on the conflict between him and his boss (Joseph Campanella) at Intertech, which relied on high tech computers to help solve crimes. Season two he left that firm and started out on his own with the help of his secretary, Peggy Fair, (played by Gail Fisher, one of the first African-American woman to have a regular role on TV). I really liked the interplay between Mike Connors and Joseph Campanella, as well as the 1960s high tech, so I really liked the first season. However, the ratings were not good, so there were major changes in the show for season two. These changes caused a bit a hiccup for season two, but by season three the show was running like a well oiled machine. In fact, this season the show earned two Emmy nominations, including a win for Gail Fisher, the first African-American woman, as well as two Golden Globe Nominations, including a win for Mike Connors.

My only complaint about the show is the lack of a really strong hook. Without Intertech, the show is just an archetypalP.I. show. Granted, it's very well written and the two leads are excellent, but I'm just saying it's a crowded, crowded field with plenty of competition out there.

Sadly, there are no extras on the 6-disc set, nor are there subtitles. There are play all buttons and proper chapter placements.

Mannix - Season Three was the first season the show took home any major hardware with the two leads winning an Emmy and a Golden Globe. It's easy to see why, and nearly every episode on this 6-disc set has high replay value.

Requiem for a Dream - Blu-ray - Buy from Amazon
This Blu-ray was part of a large collection of late arrivals that I've slowly been trying to get to over the past month. I was planning on getting completely caught up by this week, but on Friday another package of late arrivals was dropped off.

The film focuses on the lives of four people whose lives are destroyed by addiction. Jared Leto stars as Harry, who is the center of the film. The film starts with him and his friend, Tyrone, stealing his mother's TV set to hock it for drug money. However, they have bigger plans and instead of just buying and using drugs, they want to become dealers for their source so they can earn a lot of money and improve their lives. Specifically, he plans to use this money to help his girlfriend, Marion, start a clothing store, while Tyrone just wants to get out of the neighborhood and make his mother proud. This is not a wise plan. So far this film is very similar to a lot of drug-addiction movies; however, the twist is Harry's mother, Sara, also becomes addicted to drugs, specifically a regimen her doctor puts her on to help her lose weight. By showing this side of addiction, the film goes from just another heroin horror story to something more. We do see the heroin horror story and what can happen to addicts, including not just the obvious health problems, but the things people will do to get drugs. Sara's story shows that it is not just illegal narcotics that can destroy lives.

Darren Aronofsky started his career ten years ago with Pi, the ultra-low budget movie about mathematics and obsession. Requiem for a Dream was his anticipated follow-up, which had a higher budget, but was still a small film in most regards. And it is not a film that is destined for mainstream success; it is just too intense for that. There are also a lot of stylistic devices used throughout the movie that like high speed montages, split screens, etc. that undoubtedly turned off more than a few moviegoers. Both nihilistic and stylistic, the film will either draw you in or turn you off. There's really no middle ground here. I fall into the former category, but I understand a lot of the complaints made against it. This is, after all, a movie about self-destructive behavior, so while it is a good movie, it is not a pleasant movie. On the other hand, some have complained about the repetitive nature of some of the visuals, but this is a movie about addiction, which is a repetitive behavior. It only makes sense that we see the same montage of getting high over and over again. Overall I would say the is a movie that most people should see, even if many of them will have trouble getting through it all.

Extras on the Blu-ray are the same as the previous DVD release: two audio commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes footage with audio commentary track, deleted scenes with audio commentary track, and interview of Hubert Selby, Jr. by Ellen Burstyn. (Hubert Selby, Jr. wrote the novel the film was based on and helped adapt it for the screen.) None of these extras are presented in High Definition, which is rather disappointing. Likewise, the audio / video presentation is a little disappointing. Granted, it is a low-budget film and the video and audio are better than any of the previous releases were, but it is still not among the best I've seen. Then again, on Amazon it costs just $10, which is nearly impossible to beat. (In fact, the DVD is more expensive at the moment.)

Requiem for a Dream is probably not the type of film most people think of when they think of High Definition. And it is true that the Blu-ray is merely adequate compared to most catalogue releases. That said, this is a movie that is worth watching and given the price, it is hard to recommend anything less than a solid purchase.

Sadly, not as well. This time around there are only three or four episodes that really hit their mark. This includes Halloween Candy where an old man torments some trick or treaters. (Two notes on this one. Firstly, when you trick or treat, you ring the doorbell once. If you ring it more than that, you deserve to get a trick. Secondly, if someone gives you candy covered it glue, that's a pretty good trick. And as long as it is still in its wrapper, it's still good to eat.) In The Devil's Advocate Jerry Stiller stars as a talk show who specializes in hate-filled rants, and he's especially mad tonight. Jerry Stiller is excellent in this episode, even if the ending is telegraphed from the beginning. A New Lease on Life has a man moving into a room in a house at a fraction of the normal rent for the neighborhood, but there are some conditions. No microwave ovens, no nails in the walls, create plenty of organic trash, etc. Huh? Those are the best, but there are a few others that work. Ursa Minor starts out innocently enough with a little child doting on her new teddy bear, until neither parent remembers buying it. When weird things happening and the kid says her teddy is doing it. Monsters in My Room stars Seth Green has a little boy who claims there's a monster under his bed, in his closet, etc. But of course his mother and stepfather don't believe him ... till it's too late. They work on their own, but together they are too similar. Most of the rest are mediocre, or worse. The misses outnumber the hits here,

There is only one special feature on this three-disc set, an interview with George A. Romero, who talks about The Devil's Advocate, which was an episode he wrote. There are also play-all buttons, proper chapter placements, but no subtitles.

Tales from the Darkside was never among the best of the horror anthology TV shows and Season Two was not as strong as season one. If you are a fan of the genre, it is still worth checking out, but for most a rental will be enough.

It is autumn and the fairies of pixie hollow are preparing for the changing of the seasons. One of the most important parts of fall involves the creation of Blue Pixie Dust, which is used to renew the Pixie Dust Tree. Without Blue Pixie Dust, the Pixie Dust Tree would weaken and die, which would mean none of the fairies would be able to fly anymore. The fairies do this by creating the Autumn Scepter to hold up the Moonstone in the light of the blue Harvest Moon, which doesn't happen very often. Each time a different fairy group gets to design and this time it's the Tinker Fairies, and specifically that job that falls to Tinker Bell. She is of course honored to be given this job, but the stress starts to get to her and she snaps at Terrance after the scepter is destroyed just a few days before it needs to be done. The situation gets ever worse when she accidentally destroys the Moonstone. She does have one last chance, if she can find the Enchanted Mirror of Incanta she can use the last wish to repair the moonstone. But the journey will be perilous and because she doesn't want to tell anyone she broke the Moonstone, she has to go it alone.

Like the first film, this one is filled with charm and magic. The key to this film's success is of course the character of Tinker Bell, which has become an icon of Disney since she was introduced back in 1953. Even in that movie, the character had a lot of personality, despite the lack of dialogue and that character shines here. The story uses Tinker Bell's personality extremely well, as she's always been a little hotheaded. Easily frustrated, to say the least. (Although she seems to surround herself with guys that are frustrating, to say the least. If I was trying to work and I had to deal with someone like Terrance hovering over me like that, or waking me up with that ultra-cheery way I would threaten physical violence. So I think Tinker Bell was quite reasonable for a long time before she ultimately snapped.) In addition to the strong lead, this film they introduce a new character called Blaze, which was a risk, but one that paid off. Also, to be blunt, one of the key reasons why this film works is it is an adventure movie and not a musical. Granted, Disney had made numerous classic musicals, but musicals have a much greater potential for disaster. A couple generic and forgettable songs can kill a musical a lot easier than almost any single factor for almost any other genre. Overall it feels like a movie that was made for adults that kids can enjoy rather than a movie made for kids that adults will be forced to endure.

Extras on the Blu-ray start with a 4-minute short called Magical Guide to Pixie Hollow, which is a follow-up to the similar feature found with the first movie. There are four minutes of fake outtakes, which are fun to watch. There are also 16 minutes of deleted scenes, with introductions. (Some of the intros are longer than the scene.) They are presented in animatic form. Finally there is an 8-minute featurette of the Fairy Garden in Epcot Center. The disc is BD-Live enabled, while there is a Digital Copy of the movie. As for the technical presentation, the video is impeccable, which is to be expected for a digitally animated movie. It's 100% digital source, so there are no flaws that need to be corrected. The audio is strong, but not as spectacular.

I do not have the DVD, just the Blu-ray, so I'm not 100% sure if there are any High Definition exclusives, outside being BD-Live enabled. The Blu-ray costs 25% more than the DVD, which is a great price to pay for this type of release.

Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure maintains the high quality that the first movie set. The extras are on par with the first one as well, or at least close, and both the DVD and the Blu-ray are worth picking up.