Author: Robert Greenberger

I must admit that I missed Dexter’s Laboratory when it originally aired on the Cartoon Network from 1996-2003. Friends raved about its charm and humor and the brilliance of animator Genndy Tartakovsky. So, the arrival of Dexter’s Laboratory: The Complete Series is welcome. On sale today from Warner Home Entertainment, the set includes all 78 episodes plus the special Dexter’s Laboratory: Ego Trip.

According to the press release, the show is about half-Einstein, half-third grader Dexter.  This boy genius creates the most amazing inventions in the top-secret and highly advanced laboratory attached to his room.  But his genius can’t stop his space-brained sister Dee Dee from messing up and his work and pushing his buttons.  Or his annoying rival Mandark Astronomonov from constantly trying to one-up him.  Can Dexter use his intelligence to solve his problems?  Time to fight fire with…SCIENCE!

Well, who doesn’t love science?

What’s nice here is that Dexter and his rival are both very smart third graders, and the series celebrates smart people. Mom and Dad are somehow entirely clueless to the secrets hidden in Dexter’s bedroom, an annoying trope. However, Dee Dee finds the gadgets and gizmos and is clever enough to use them.

In addition to Dexter’s exploits, the first two seasons included segments featuring Monkey, Dexter’s pet lab-monkey, and the Justice Friends, a trio of superheroes sharing an apartment.

The show wasn’t afraid to experiment, such as the second season’s finale, the 25-minute “Last But Not Beast”. And after working on The PowerPuff Girls, Tartakovsky came back for Ego Trip, intending it to be the last word on Dexter.

Tartakovsky’s quirky sense of humor is clear in these seasons, especially when compared with the work of Chris Savino, who stepped in to run the series after the show seemingly ended and Tartakovsky moved on to Samurai Jack. The look and feel were okay but lacked the spark that made Dexter so funny.

The strong voice cast of Christine Cavanaugh, Allison Moore, Kath Soucie, Jeff Bennett, Kat Cressida, Eddie Deezen, and Candi Milo helped convey that sense of whimsy. After Cavanaugh died recently, Tartakovsky said he couldn’t imagine rebooting the show without her.

Interestingly, “Dial M for Monkey: Barbequor” and “Rude Removal” were banned from broadcast and are absent from the collection, making it a little less complete.

The 1080p transfer is just fine, retaining the sharp colors and images from the series; the Dolby Digital Audiotrack is equally good, so these are fine to rewatch at home.

No Special features were included.

Spider-Man: Cosmic Chaos!
By Mike Maihack
Amulet/96 pagers/#1299 (hardcover), $9.99 (digital)

I like Mike Maihack’s artwork, which I find accessible and lots of fun. I feel bad for taking him to task for his popular Cleopatra in Space, but that was years ago, and lately, he’s been producing material far more to my liking.

Here, we have the third of his Spider-Man team-up books aimed at 6-9-year-olds. His storytelling sensibilities are sharp and approachable. Maihack told School Library Journal, “For a more established character like Spidey, it was about tapping into his friendly and neighborly disposition toward everything. Those are both things I could completely connect with. After that, I find it pretty intuitive to know how each character is going to react when you confront them with other characters or toss them into a giant mess of a situation. No matter where they come from, I discover ways of making them my own.”

So, we have a Spider-Man missing the angst who is adventuring in stories scaled to the readership, which includes simplified versions of the Marvel Universe’s denizens. In this story, he finds himself in space, trying to return the Silver Surfer’s surfboard to him. Along the way, he finds himself coming into possession of a vurbfzax, a cosmic talisman. Just seven were manufactured as rare premiums in Celestrio’s cereal and Rocket warns, “Combining all seven can have universe-shattering consequences!” (I suppose this is for readers too young to know about the Infinity Stones.)

Of course, all seven will be brought together, and cosmic wackiness ensures, bringing in Ego the Living Planet, Galactus, the Watcher, and the Collector. Things are looking pretty bad until the resolution presents itself in a surprising way.

There are some fine running gags about waffles and dolphins, and the core essence of the Marvel characters is nicely distilled for easy accessibility.

The packed story actually unfolds in a well-paced way, never crowding the artwork and making sure the characters each get a chance to shine.

This one makes for solid reading if you have someone looking for summer adventures.

As an avid child of television, Friday nights were something to look forward to as ABC had the coolest shows from 8-11 p.m. Nestled between The Patridge Family and The Odd Couple was Room 222, more a dramedy than a straightforward sitcom. As school let out in January 1974, the network clearly wasn’t done with classes as just over a year later, they debuted a true sitcom: Welcome Back, Kotter.

The series ran until May 1979, and its superb casting catapulted John Travolta to superstardom. Born from standup comic Gabe Kapler’s routines about his Brooklyn high school experiences, the premise saw Gabe Kotter return to his alma mater, James Buchanan High, this time as a teacher. He was assigned the lowest performing students, dubbed the Sweathogs, of which he was once one.

Filmed before an audience on videotape, it closely resembled the other popular half-hour shows of the era. What set it apart was the cast and humor, which were less topical than Norman Lear’s CBS offerings but sharper than the lowest common denominator sitcoms. The series has lingered in memory, given the cast and humor, which are still found on cable. Warner Home Entertainment has periodically released single-season sets and the complete series. Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete Series is now available on traditional DVD for a brand new generation.

From John Sebastian’s memorable title track to Kotter’s homelife, the sitcom didn’t confine itself to the traditional school setting. Most episodes opened and closed with Kotter and his wife Julie (Marcia Strassman), and fairly quickly, she found herself at the school or the Sweathogs in their apartment.

The regulars were distinct and multicultural, from handsome dimbulb Vinnie Barbarino (Travolta) to Black athlete Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), to Epstein (Robert Hegyes), a Puerto-Rican, whose forged notes from “Epstein’s Mother” were always good for a laugh to Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo), who was just the odd man out in most things. Their catchphrases— “Up your nose with a rubber hose!” for example—were less than creative, but the ensemble played well with one another. Kapler’s Groucho Marx impressions were timely given the 70’s revived interest in the Marx Brothers and gave the parents something to laugh with.

The simple dilemmas of the day rarely involved academics and were filled with life lessons and laughs. The show’s first two seasons are the strongest, and now that I am a high school teacher and have my own cadre of Sweathogs to deal with, I nod a lot in appreciation for Kotter’s issues. The full scope of a teacher’s responsibilities could have been better mined, but at least the series treated the profession with respect.

You can watch and laugh at most of the episodes today, even if excusing some of the prevalent casual sexism at the time. To freshen the series, rather than give Julie something interesting to do, she was saddled with raising twins. In the final season, they finally caught up with the Women’s Lib movement and had her become a school secretary and occasional fill-in teacher. It was long before a female Sweathog, Angie (Melonie Haller), was added, and it was just her. The assistant principal, Michael Woodman (John Sylvester White), was perhaps the show’s most stereotypical character.

As the series progressed, Travolta became a bigger and bigger celebrity, so he wound up making just ten guest appearances in the final season. Kapler himself was periodically absent when he and actor-turned-producer James Komack feuded. The other issue is that the cast aged out of passing for high school students (an issue that plagued series such as Smallville and Glee).

The collection is presented in 1.33:1 4×3 transfers, possibly the best that can be done with video series. It’s fine as a time capsule. The Dolby Digital and English 2.0 mono soundtracks are upgrades from previous editions.

Whereas previous editions had some interesting extras like screen tests, this version has zero special features which is a shame.

Before Buffy, there was Nikita. French filmmaker Luc Besson’s fifth film caused an international stir as he provided the world with a female protagonist with a dark edge reflecting the times. His 1990 film, La Femme Nikita, proved such a smash that it was remade in America as Point of No Return and spawned a Canadian television series (1997-2001) and Nakita, the CW series (2010-2013).

Anne Parillaud’s depiction of a woman given a second chance was mesmerizing and unforgettable, giving the movie an enduring appeal. As part of Sony Home Entertainment’s 100th-anniversary celebration, the original film is now available in an upgraded 4k UHD steel book edition.

We watch the transformation of a juvenile delinquent, guilty of killing a police officer during a robbery, taken by a secret government organization that faked her death. For three years, she is weaned off her drug addiction and trained and transformed into Nikita, a deadly operative always on call to her handlers. There are several lovely set pieces that establish just how effective their training has been. And that might have been fine for an action film, but Besson, who also wrote the screenplay, added in a psychological element that gave us something different.

Nikita, who goes by the name Marie, tries to live a normal life, even falling for Marco (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a store clerk. As he grows curious about the lack of family and friends, she convinces her handler, Bob (Tchéky Karyo), to pose as an uncle. That holds him off for now.

Things build up as Bob summons her to assassinate a target when she and Marco are together. The tension is nicely built as they talk through the bathroom door, and she manages to complete her mission, although it makes her question her life.

Later, after a botched mission, the Centre sends Victor (Jean Reno) to clean the mess, and the two get tangled up for the remainder of the story. Their escapades make Nikita question her choices, setting up a satisfying conclusion that leaves Parillaud convinced there is no need for a sequel. Filmmakers around the world have tried their own hand at adapting this story, which speaks to the strength of Besson and Parillaud’s work.

Sony has upgraded the high-definition transfer so every frame sparkles with depth and clarity, making this disc the definitive video version of the film. The French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is excellent, although there is no Dolby Atmos option.

Surprisingly, the release is just the 4K disc, with no special features, no Blu-ray disc, or Digital HD code. In the steel case, the film sits alone, protected in its hard shell, somewhat like Nikita herself.

Few military regiments are better known than the 54^th Massachusetts, thanks to Ed Zwick’s brilliant 1989 film Glory. Based on the letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and the books Lay This Laurel (1973) by Lincoln Kirstein and One Gallant Rush (1965) by Peter Burchard, the screenwriter Kevin Jarre humanizes the black men who volunteered to fight for the union, most of whom died in battle.

When released, the movie was revelatory, catapulting Denzel Washington to the Hollywood A list with his Academy Award-winning performance as Private Silas Trip. He was surrounded by a strong supporting cast led by Andre Braugher and Morgan Freeman. As Shaw, Matthew Broderick completed his journey from heartthrob Ferris Bueller to an accomplished adult actor. His Shaw was courageous, bucking the hierarchy to get his men shoes and refusing his pay until the Army honored its promise of equal pay to the men. But we watched him struggle to connect with his soldiers whose experiences were entirely alien to him. They slowly formed a bond that was sealed with blood and honor.

The film was a major critical success. As part of Sony Home Entertainment’s centennial celebration, Glory is being released this week in a 4K Steelbook, complete with Blu-ray and Digital HD code. It’s largely the same pressing as the 2019 Ultra High Definition released but boasts superb Dolby Vision color grading. The haze of the battlefield, the campfire scenes, and the dress parade all shine in this transfer with excellent clarity. The Dolby Vision color grading is just stunning to watch on your home screen.

The Dolby Atmos soundtrack is carried over and sounds just fine, with dialogue, sound effects, and James Horner’s somber score well presented.

This new edition offers the same UHD Special Features and the Blu-ray is exactly as the 2009 previous edition. The UHD offers up Picture in Picture Video Commentary (1080p, 2:02:14) from Zwick, Broderick, and Freeman.

The Blu-ray offers Audio Commentary: Director Edward Zwick, Virtual Civil War Battlefield, The Voices of Glory, The True Story Continues, Original Theatrical Making-Of Featurette, and Deleted Scenes With optional director’s commentary.

David O. Russell was having a moment about a decade back, with a series of releases that Made him a director well worth paying attention to. The highlight was American Hustle, a black comedy focused on crime and corruption. It boasts a strong cast, led by Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Bradley Cooper, but nearly stealing the show was Jennifer Lawrence, still in the early stages of her career.

The film, out now in a new 4K Steelbook format from Sony Home Entertainment, is well worth a look if you missed it in 2013. A year earlier, Cooper and Lawrence danced their way into our hearts with the charming Silver Linings Playbook, and Russell brought them back for this caper, pitting them against one another.

Cooper is an FBI agent who forces con artists Bale and Adams into creating a sting operation intending to take down the May of Camden, New Jersey (Jeremy Renner, before he became the Mayor of Kingstown). Inspired by the real Abscam Operation from the 1970s, this tickled the fancy of filmgoers and the Academy, which bestowed ten Oscar nominations on the movie.

Rewatching it in this lovely 4K high-definition transfer, the movie sparkles afresh with very strong performances. The con seems straightforward until Lawrence’s Rosalyn Rosenfeld begins to stir the pot, confounding her husband Irving (Bale) and delighting the audience. There’s a lot going on, and the film demands that you pay attention. The leads are supported by many familiar faces, from Shea Whigham to Robert DeNiro to the veteran Anthony Zerbe.

Sony did right by the film during its 100th anniversary with a spectacular 4K Dolby Vision, featuring English Dolby Atmos + 5.1 audio HDR and Atmos, so it looks and sounds amazing.

The combo pack includes an excellent Blu-ray edition and Digital HD code. The only new Special Feature on the 4K disc are extended deleted scenes compared with the 2014 digital release. The Blu-0ray retains the previously released special features: Deleted and Extended Scenes (HD): Cry British (4:51), Brick (0:57), Carmine On Stage Singing (1:24), Backhand Like a Whip (2:48), Bad Sign (1:30), Stoop to Conquer (1:34), Live and Let Die (3:26), Evil Ways (4:01), Carmine on the Street (1:11), Richie is Duped (0:47), and Carmine Returns Home (0:54); The Making of American Hustle (HD, 16:35), and Theatrical trailer.

Sony has been struggling to find the secret formula to make their Spider-Verse movies satisfy audiences in the same way Marvel Studios has managed for the last decade-plus. Boiled down, it seems to come form a lack of coherent vision and weak scripts.

The critical despair and box office indifference to Madame Web is misplaced because it’s not the worst of the lot, but viewers are clearly tired of Sony misfires, which doesn’t bode well for the forthcoming Kraven.

The incredibly weak script from director SJ Clarkson, Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, and Claire Parke mars the potential found deep within the very disappointing Madame Web, out now from Sony Home Entertainment. The basic premise that four women are brought together as part of a woven tapestry of spider-powers is fine, as is importing Ezekiel (Tahar Rahim) from the Spider-Man comics to be the bad guy.

However, the script them all. Cassie Webb (Dakota Johnson) is scarred after her mother, Constance Webb (Kerry Bishé)’s death, hardening herself with a shell of indifference even as she works as an EMT, which requires a desire to interact with mankind. Her only friend, it seems, is Richard Parker (Adam Scott), whose pregnant wife Mary (Emma Roberts) is carrying an unnamed baby boy (Peter, for those who miss the breadcrumbs).

At the same time, Ezekiel, who is responsible for the death of Cassie’s mother, receives the psychic impression that three young women are a threat to his future. He maniacally and one-dimensionally tries to find and kill them to save his life, coming across Cassie, who, as fate would have it, unites the girls.

Cassie’s emergence as a leader and mothering figure for Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), Anya Corazon (Isabela Merced), and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor), all abandoned by their own parents, could have been a wonderful arc. Instead, she herself abandons them for a week to track the Amazonian spider tribe and learn more about her powers and destiny. We see little of what happens to the girls during this time, which is a wasted opportunity. While a worthy goal, the abandonment derails the core plot. The three teens aren’t deep, with surface personalities that rob the actresses from doing anything meaningful.

And then we get to the climax, which sees cars crash, buildings burn, and Cassie coming into her own. It’s all cookie-cutter and less than original. The potential is squandered from beginning to end, yet another Sony misfire demonstrating that they just don’t know how to make these super-hero movies work. SJ Clarkson’s direction is perfunctory when it could have been revelatory.

The movie is available in all the usual formats, including the reviewed Blu-ray, which has a superb 2.39:1, 1080p High Definition transfer, and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. A digital HD code is also included.

The disc is rounded out with a fine, if unexceptional collection of Special Features including Future Vision (7 Minutes), Casting the Web (9:09), Oracle of the Page (4:54), Gag Reel (4:31), Fight Like a Spider (5:31), Easter Eggs – The Many Threads of Madame Web (3:55), and a single Deleted Scene – You Died (1:00).

Devour: A Graphic Novel
By Jazmine Joyner & Anthony Pugh
Abrams ComicArts – Megascope/208 pages/$24.99

Anansi has had a bit of a revival in the last decade or so. The African trickster god has played a significant role in comics and prose, soon to conquer television in the adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys. Until then, we can sit back and enjoy this debut work from writer Jazmine Joyner, who makes their fiction debut after writing for numerous places, including /film, SyFy Wire, Ms En Scnee, And Comics MNT.

The Turner house stands in a small town in a Louisiana suburb. It’s been around for a long time and garnered much gossip and speculation. When its current occupant, Vassie, develops dementia, her son brings his family to live and care for her.

The only daughter, Patsy, is a talented artist who carefully navigates her way through her new high school, making just one friend, fellow artist Stu Everett. Most of her time, though, is spent at home, and the reason becomes clear: as the sole female in the waning family line, she is destined to replace Vassie as the guardian of Anansi.

Deep in the basement, trapped in a pocket dimension underground, a manifestation of the story-hungry spider screams for release. Slowly but surely, Patys comes to accept that Vassie’s stories and her magic are both real. She does not take well to having this destiny revealed to her and eventually takes comfort when her brother Demetrius is taken into their confidence.

Nearby are the Everetts, white rednecks who harbor a decades-old grudge against the Turners, feeling the plot of land is rightfully theirs. Their enmity and bitterness represent the lingering racism that mires the deep South to the past. They want to learn the Turner house’s secrets, hoping to find a way to gain control of the property once and for all.

The various threads are leisurely paced, giving plenty of room for the plot to percolate and boil in the story’s final quarter. The sense of dread is palpable throughout, and the Truner family is nicely delineated. The Everetts, though, are one-dimensional stereotypes that I wish were as nuanced as their black counterparts.

Anthony Pugh’s artwork conveys the horror and the ordinary with clear storytelling and fine coloring. Some of his figures are stiff, or the proportions feel off, but this veteran illustrator at least provides details and backgrounds, grounding the story’s fantastic elements in a realistic setting.  

Unfortunately, the story does not end but continues into another volume. What’s here is good, but a done-in-one might have felt more satisfactory.

“Wednesday’s child is full of woe.”

When Charles Addams was helping turn his amusing gothic New Yorker cartoons into a television series, the little girl needed a name, and he used a line from an old-time children’s poem. He’d been at the drawing board with these characters since 1938, although Gomez and Morticia’s daughter didn’t arrive until 1944. At different times, she was older or younger than her sibling, Pugsley.

Ever since her arrival, Wednesday has been a fixture, her pale skin, pig-tailed black hair, and solemn expression imprinted on future generations of Goth girls. From Lisa Loring to Christina Ricci, the live-action look has endured as the character has aged from her purported six years old in the original series pilot to 18 in the 2010 Broadway musical adaptation.

Miles Millar and Alfred Gough, no strangers to teenage angst after a decade-plus at Smallville, settled on a 15-16-year-old incarnation for their delightful Netflix series Wednesday. Removing her from home, she is sent to attend school at Nevermore Academy, where she intends on honing her detective skills but makes friends, finds young love, and far more than she bargained for in eight captivating episodes.

Tim Burton’s macabre touch is seen throughout, and he finally gets a chance to work on the property since he was first circling the 1991 film adaptation. The off-kilter characters and set decoration all feature his hallmark touches, making the show visually compelling.

At first, she doesn’t want to make friends, fall in love, or interact with anyone, but as she gets to know her roommate, Enid (Emma Myers), she finds herself drawn into the lives of others. Then, when someone dies, she begins to investigate, bringing her in contact with the Vermont locals who have an uneasy relationship with the school.

This is Ortega’s show, and she is front and center, called up to be brilliant at almost everything, mental or physical. Today, mention the show, and you immediately think of her memorable dance sequence, which apparently exhausted the actors. She shines here, enlivening every scene she is in, and communicates so much through her deadpan expression.

She’s ably surrounded by a fine supporting cast, including Gwendoline Christie as Larissa Weems, the principal, who was once a roommate with Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones, when they attended Nevermore; Ricci as Marilyn Thornhill, the botany teacher/dorm mother to Wednesday and Enid; Joy Sunday as Bianca Barclay, a siren; and Percy Hynes White as Xavier Thorpe, an art student. Wednesday is also accompanied by Thing (Victor Dorobantu), the disembodied hand that she has grown up with, maybe the only being she truly cares about.

The series has been renewed for a second season, and a spinoff focusing on Uncle Fester (Fred Armisen) was recently announced. This single-disc Blu-ray is a great way to see the series, with a sharp 1080p digital transfer and fine DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track. Sadly, no Special Features were included.

Phenomena: Matilde’s Quest (Phenomena Book 2)

By Brian Michael Bendis and André Lima Araújo

Abrams ComicArts/156 pages/$24.99

It has to be said that writer Brian Michael Bendis rarely, if ever, repeats himself. His Ultimate Spider-Man is unlike his New Avengers, which is nothing like his Legion of Super-Heroes, his self-created Takio, or Murder Inc. He is incredibly prolific and highly original, with a gift for dialogue and character that always makes his stories engaging.

Here, he and André Lima Araújo have created a new science fiction world and populated it with all manner of organic and technological wonder. In 2022, we first met the trio of hotheaded Boldon, the outcast Matilde, and Spike and their exploits on a nearly unrecognizable Earth. An event dubbed the Phenomena, something shrouded in mystery, resulted in a towering wall separating two warring cultures.

In book one, The Golden City of Eyes, the protagonists meet and unite for the common good despite their drastic differences. They have traveled through several villages, and with each adventure, their legend begins to grow. As they arrive at Valentia Verona, once London, they must confront their legacy, and here, Bendis explores just whose story it is. Boldon complains that storytellers are stealing his story, but its enduring nature provides some new lessons.

The first volume was a little off-putting and confusing with the races and worldbuilding. Here, everything is put in its proper context, a neat feat considering all the new characters introduced. From the title, you know it’s Matilde’s story, and she proves to be an endearing figure, especially after she crosses the wall and confronts the enemy with a simple question.

Araújo (A Righteous Thirst for Vengeance) provides impressive black-and-white artwork that switches from the intimate to the magnificent, opening up this new Earth in interesting ways. All the characters are well-delineated, and his line work is intricate and appealing.

This clearly is the second volume in a trilogy, with Boldon’s story yet to be explored. This volume works fine on its own, but is a strong second chapter in this series.