Author: Robert Greenberger

Nnewts Book One: Escape from the Lizzarks
By Doug TenNapel
186 pages, Scholastic Graphix, $19.99 (hc)/$10.99 (pb)

There is no doubt Doug TenNapel is a highly imaginative and creative storyteller. I look forward to the day when he works with an editor to bring out the very best in his worldbuilding and stories. After a series of one-off stories, including Cardboard, Tommysaurus Rex, Ghostopolis, and Bad Island, he embarks on a series set in a new reality.

In Nnewts, he pits amphibians versus lizards in a realm that is far from Earth and focuses on Herk, a young Nnewt who yearns for being fully amphibious but his weak legs, a product from birth, prohibit that. Still, when disaster strikes Nnewtown, he is the sole person to make it out and embarks on the Hero’s Journey to find help.

At one juncture, he encounters the Lizard God and a few things are revealed including the god stole Nnewt’s proper legs to hamper him since he is the, gasp, “chosen one”. Nnewt manages to steal his true legs, attach them as if they were clip-ons and continues on his way, with one angry god in pursuit.

There’s a lot of charm to TenNapel’s designs and the color work from Katherine Garner, enhances the story’s mood and atmosphere. Once more, there remain storytelling gaffes that spoil the fun and adventure. Early on, two characters debate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches versus ham and cheese sandwiches. In another reality, neither would exist and feel thoroughly out of place. Other times, problems arise and are resolved a little too quickly for proper suspense.

When Nnewt finds out he’s the “one” there’s no pause for the impact of those words or that the Lizard God stole his legs years early. The emotional payoff is thoroughly missing throughout the story. At one point he meets the King of None who explains how they will stay in touch then the method is never used, even when it could have helped out plucky little hero.

The first volume draws to a close with the revelation that there may be one “other”, a brother he never knew. In fact, the story ends with a cliffhanger so it’s nearly 200 pages of setup and no delivery. There’s no satisfaction to reading what is essentially chapter one which is a shame because there is a lot of promise to this world.

The migration of young adult dystopias from bookshelf to silver screen has been a mixed bag, some being incredibly faithful, some less so. However, we have reached a point where these depressing, unrealistic worlds have saturated the screen category to the point where they seem cut from the same pattern. Now, I admit, far too many films adhere to the predictable three act structure but in this sub-genre, the seams are far more obvious with a lot less variety. As a result, it befalls to the producer and director to find a way to be interesting.

This fall we welcomed the latest contestant in this competition and The Maze Runner, based on the novel trilogy by James Dashner, wins points for atmosphere. After that, it is stunningly dull. In this near-future world, some great solar flames have laid waste to most of the world. As a result, a disease known as the Flare has continued to thin humanity and a dedicated group has taken it upon themselves to spend countless billions designing and building a maze to test selected teenagers to see who is a good candidate for the cure. Or something like that.

We don’t learn a lot of this until the final minutes of the movie and the majority of the time is devoted to the teens trapped within the maze. A new one arrives once a month, coming laden with fresh supplies to sustain the group. The massive door to the maze opens on a schedule and over the years, they have tried to map the ever-changing configuration in order to get free. Of course, it’s not that simple with huge, mechanical beasties chasing them.

Enter Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), the latest arrival, who at first lacks his immediate memories, including his own name, part of the process of transition it appears. The largely anonymous gang shows him the ropes and before you know it; his very presence seems to have upended the “natural” order of things. And before too much longer, the one and only girl Teresa (Kaya Scodelario) arrives with a note saying she is the last.

The screenplay from Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, and T.S. Nowlin spends far too little time on developing the characters or their Lord of the Flies existence. What do they do between maze runnings? There’s no sense of sports, arts, warfare….anything. There are rules and there appear to be factions but only when they need to serve the story. We’re left following Thomas as he navigates the gang and the maze, accompanied by Teresa. A girl surrounded by a bunch of teenagers who haven’t seen a female in years and no one tries to befriend, touch, kiss, or romance her? Absurd. The flat emotional tone, except for utter terror, robs the film of energy and blame goes to director Wes Ball who, in his debut, seemed more interested in the atmosphere and effects than the characters.

The film has been released as a digital download from 20^th Century Home Entertainment and will be out on disc Tuesday. The digital picture is swell along with the sound and it comes with the full array of special features to be found on the Blu-ray disc. (I still dislike watching movies at my desk but maybe I’m just behind the times.)

These include Deleted Scenes (with optional Audio Commentary by Ball), none of which address my issues with the story. There’s a worthy five-part Navigating The Maze: The Making of The Maze Runner, with some interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits; The “Chuck Diaries”; Gag Reel; Visual Effects Reels and Ball’s short film Ruin. The Audio Commentary by Ball and Nowlin is pretty straight-forward. There are two nicely produced Digital Comics that build out the world just a bit.

We think of Marvel Studios as having the golden touch with can’t-miss hit films one after the other. As a result, our selective memory obscures Hulk and Iron Man 2 (and for some, though not me, Iron Man 3) as creatively underwhelming. Instead, we look at the box office totals only and, ahem, marvel at their track record. As a result, some had their knives out ready to skewer the studio for being audacious enough to offer up Guardians of the Galaxy. After all, who ever heard of them? How quickly one forgets. Critics were saying the same thing in 2008 when Iron Man arrived, wondering if enough non-geeks would turn out to see a B-list hero with a former addict in the lead.

Even the entertaining trailers, which clearly signaled the tone was going to be substantially lighter, couldn’t make people hold their judgment. Then the film opened. The results speak for themselves as the movie was a top ten success around the world and just in time for the holidays Walt Disney Home Entertainment has released the movie as a Combo Pack (Blu-ray, DD, digital) and has been offering it as a digital download for weeks.

The second time around is just as entertaining thanks to director James Gunn, rising above the crap that was Movie 43, bringing a sense scale along with some genuine human humor. With pitch-perfect casting and top-notch effects, the rag-tag band of adventurers and assassins are brought together with pleasing results.

Admittedly, the story from Nicole Perlman and Gunn was pretty mundane: yet another object of immense power is up for grabs and everyone wants it without fully understanding the consequences of unleashing such energy. Dissipate forces come together to do what is right and save the day but not without some pain and suffering along the way. However, the movie’s straight-forward story is nicely enhanced by setting it against our first real look at the cosmic aspects of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, filled with lots of colorfully-hued humanoids and cultures that are far advanced than dear old Earth.

Each of the five Guardians – Peter Quill, the Star Lord (Chris Pratt), Thanos’ adopted daughter Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), mercenary Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), and his companion Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) – wants the object for different reasons and don’t immediately bond. When all four of them wind up in the same place at the same time, each gets to one-up the other but all wind up imprisoned anyway where their fifth member enters the fray.

Meantime, the religious zealot Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) wants the orb to help him eliminate the hated Xandarians, led by Nova Prime (an underused Glenn Close). But the one who desires it the most is Thanos (Josh Brolin), since has been the force behind the others powerful objects across the last few Marvel movies. It’s out first look at the major threat, who first cameoed at the end of The Avengers, and Gunn admits in the commentary he had to be shoehorned a bit and it sort of shows if you look.

As each member of the team is revealed we see their underlying desires, most of which are fairly simple and you feel for Peter, snatched from Earth the day his mother died, or Rocket,  painfully enhanced mammalian lifeform lonely in a heavily populated universe, or even Gamora, ready to betray her father and rival “sister” Nebula (Karen Gillan).

The object is too powerful to let Thanos obtain it so they leave it with the Nova Corps but no doubt it won’t stay with them for long. As a chapter in Phase Two, culminating this summer with The Avengers: Age of Ultron, it furthers some of the cosmology and metastory very nicely but that is all background to a story of five people finding a place in the universe where they can themselves. Here, Gunn does wonderful work with his cast, mixing human moments with action, thrills, and yes, lots of humor.

The 1970s soundtrack also undercuts the melodrama and lets the wider audience connect with the story and characters. All in all, a very satisfying experience.

On high definition, the transfer is lovely and the colors are rich without being overwhelming. The 7.1 DTS-HDMA is sharp which helps you hear the dialogue, sound effects and soundtrack without a problem.

The special features, like the film itself, do not take themselves too seriously with fun 8-bit computer graphics connecting the various vignettes found in the multiple Making-of featurettes. You get enough of a taste to understand how they designed the look of the aliens, the world, the starships, makeups, and special effects. The gag reel is as funny as one would expect and the revelation is Pace, having a dandy time as Ronan. Gunn’s audio commentary points out some nice touches you would miss otherwise and shows his appreciation for performers he’s worked with in most of his other films, notably Michael Rooker and Gunn’s brother Sean. One interesting take-away from the bonus pieces is how much Rocket is the result of Sean Gunn’s stand-in work, Cooper’s voice work, and the CGI animators so no one person should get the credit for the indelible creation.

Finally, there’s a brief look at Joss Whedon on the set of the new Avengers film so you see some of the new performers at work sans special effects so while you learn nothing new, it does its job of keeping you highly anticipating its May release.

Opening Batman: The Complete Series, I said, “This is my childhood in a box.” When the ABC series debuted in January 1966, I was seven, the exact perfect age to be utterly captivated by seeing a comic book faithfully adapted to the small screen. Without fail, I was glued to the television set on Wednesday and Thursday evenings right until the final episode aired in March 1968, leaving indelible images in my mind. These were reinforced just a few years later when local syndicated reruns burned the stories, sounds, and characters deeper into my psyche.

I was too young to understand the context of the show and its impact on popular culture, DC Comics, or the world of licensing. I didn’t get the wry jokes, it’s knowing pop camp approach to storytelling, or how it cleverly worked on multiple levels (a rare occurrence on prime time back then). Instead, I just knew that it was the Dynamic Duo getting into amazing fights, escaping inventive death traps, and keeping Gotham City safe.

As the show continued to be rerun, I grew up and came to appreciate the challenges confronting William Dozier, hired by 20^th Century Fox to adapt the character. He wanted Dick Tracy or Superman, but those rights weren’t available. 20^th settled for Batman in 1964, just as the character was being reinvented by editor Julius Schwartz, saving the Gotham Guardian from possible cancellation after a decade of benign neglect. It was also a time of convergence as a new wave of influences was seeping throughout American culture. The Beatles had stormed America. Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol were rewriting the rules of modern art. Fashion designers were shortening skirts and introducing brighter colors. American households were buying more and more color televisions so by that fateful January nearly all of prime time programming was being broadcast in color, in some cases highly saturated color.

Batman was also the beneficiary of good scheduling. ABC had several shows perform poorly that fall so conceived the marketing concept of a Second Season launching right after the holidays. As a result, it received tremendous marketing and a hungry audience awaited that first fateful episode.

Lorenzo Semple Jr. worked with Dozier to set the tone that would be slyly wink at the parents, offer sexy molls to the teens, and pure action for the main viewers: the kids like me. His two-parter was almost perfect with Frank Gorshin’s manic Riddler, Neil Hamilton’s stoic Commissioner Gordon, Jill St. John as the distracting femme, and of course, Adam West and Burt Ward as our dashing heroes. The camera angles, jazzy soundtrack, and brilliant colors all came together and ignited Batmania.

The 120 episodes comprising the three seasons are incredibly uneven in their quality, especially the full second season which seemed to exhaust all concerned. There is lazy acting, very bad writing, and increasingly implausible storylines and death traps as the camp overshadowed the other aspects that made the initial season so memorable. Also, as the second season rolled onward, rather than continue to mine the comic books for villains plot lines, the writing staff seemed encouraged to find roles to fit available actors or try and match two decades of inventiveness from DC’s stable of writers, led by Bill Finger, Batman’s co-creator. It’s a shame Finger only got to write one two-parter given how much of his DNA can be found throughout the show, from the origin story (mentioned rarely) to the oversized props.

But when the series was good it was very, very good and rewatching them as an adult, some even got better. The performances from the core villains, starting with Gorshin but including Burgess Meredith (Penguin), Cesar Romero (Joker), Victor Buono (King Tut, the only original creation that worked) and Julie Newmar (Catwoman) showcase some genuinely fine performances and its clear all are enjoying their work. Newmar’s Catwoman was slinky to the 7-year-old and downright sexy and alluring to his adult self. They get to chew the scenery with gusto but credit also has to be given to silent film star Hamilton and Alan Napier (Alfred) who worked hard to ground their characters, so the absurdities were heightened.

By season three, ABC saw the craze was dying out and cut the show from two nights to one, cramming a lot of story into thirty minutes while also introducing Yvonne Craig as Batgirl, a logical way to extend the franchise. Her cute face and balletic moves endeared her to males of every age while girls finally had their own positive role models. But even she was not enough to save an oversaturated public and like a brightly burning candle at the end of its wick, the light went out.

As has been made clear through the years, there were numerous reasons why the series remained unavailable before this week. The best coverage appears to be at Wired but one good thing has come from the delay: technology has advanced to a degree where the digital restoration work is the highlight. The colors are more vibrant, the detail to the costumes and props is riveting, and the care means we’re getting the best possible version of these now cherished episodes.

The series comes in a variety of packages and price points but reviewers were sent the Limited Edition box set which has all the bells and whistles you could want, starting with the sound chip in the packaging letting you hear the Neil Hefti theme. There’s the Hot Wheels diecast metal Batmobile, complete with Batcave background panel and a sampling of 44 of Norm Saunder’s fine artwork from the Topps Batman trading cards from that era. Within the colorful box is a small book with photos from Adam West’s collection, which is a nice assortment of familiar and new images.

There are twelve discs in the box, the final one being nothing but special features. If there
is any fault in the collection it is that many strong opportunities were missed in favor of some overly simplified, gimme pieces. The Bat-gadgets and villain props should have received recognition and in some ways George Barris’ groundbreaking work on the Batmobile is underplayed while no real mention is made of the Batboat, Batcopter, or Batgirl’s frilly cycle. Craig herself is oddly missing from all the interviews, which is a shame since she is one of the few remaining performers still left. None of the secondary players even get a chance to discuss what it has meant to be on the show. Finally, a piece about the comic book’s influences on the show, including which issues provided inspiration, would be in order but the comic is often left out of the discussions at all.

Which is not to underplay the value of the extras we do get. We start with the West-centric Hanging with Batman (29:56), a career retrospective that shows what the struggling actor’s career was like before receiving this part. Perhaps not enough is done about the dry spells of the 1970s and 1980s before his career renaissance at the hands of my generation who were now in a position to hire him.

Holy Memorabilia Batman! (29:59) heavily spotlights collector and radio personality Ralph Garman and Guinness record holder Kevin Silva as both show off their vast collections. West even visits Garman’s home and tries on a replica cowl, having fun at the same time even he seems awed by how much stuff was generated in so short a period of time. Fiberglass replica master Mark Racop is the only one to give the cool car and Barris their due.

Batman Born! Building the World of Batman (29:41) is the one piece that takes a serious, academic approach to putting the show’s phenomenal success into perspective. Of course, much of that comes from former DC president Paul Levitz, who can reliably be counted on for such things along with the ubiquitous Michael Uslan, West, Ward, Newmar, animation director Bruce Timm and even comics historian Andy Mangles helps flesh things out. This should have been the disc’s centerpiece and needed far more time to properly explore the subject.

On the other hand, Bats of the Round Table (45:08) sees West host a conversation with director Kevin Smith, Garman, actor Phil Morris, and DC Comics’ copublisher Jim Lee. Why on Earth is Morris there? There needed to be people with more gravitas to make the conversation more useful and less gushing. (And someone should have been there to correct all the misstatements of fact.) If you skip any feature, this is the one.

West recorded audio commentary for the episodes some time back and it would have been nice to have them here. Instead, we get the interesting Inventing Batman in the Words of Adam West, as he sits with his pilot script and walks us through how he developed his performance, showing off his original handwritten notes. As result, we can rewatch “Hi Diddle Riddle” and “Smack in the Middle” and see an actor working on his craft but you’re dying to hear him riff about working with Gorshin or St. John, et. al.

Na Na Na Batman! (12:15) is a filler feature where the camera crew wandered the Warner Bros soundstages and interviewed cast and crew from their other series about Batman. Some of it cute but given what’s missing, this stands out as a very cheap marketing ploy.

Finally, we have Bat Rarities! Straight from the Vault, nicely cleaned up versions of things we’ve seen before but want now.  We have the mini-Batgirl TV pilot (7:54); Adam West and Burton Gervis’ screen test (including solo Gervis moments proving he, now named Burt Ward, deserved the role (6:16); a screen test featuring Lyle Waggoner and Peter Deyell, making it clear why Deyell did not get the role while Waggoner would have been interesting (4:23); and an archival clip of James Blakeley, the series’ Post-production Supervisor, which is interesting since he was the one to develop the way of splicing in Joe Letterese’s onomatopoeia text during fights (2:24).

Summing it up: given how long fans of all ages have been waiting for this released, Warner Home Entertainment does not disappoint. For those curious about the frenzy, these are the versions you want to sample in their clean, crisp, uncut glory.

All things come to an end and the true death arrived for HBO’s True Blood earlier this year. This week, HBO Home Entertainment offers up The Complete Seventh Season along with a mammoth complete series box set. In looking back on the series, it probably hung around a little longer than necessary, especially as things spiraled from over-the-top to insane crazy after series creator Alan Ball left.

The seventy episodes veered further and further from Charlaine Harris’s The Southern Vampire Mysteries novels and even she wrapped up her prose stories recognizing the time had come.

Bon Temps is under attack as things open up, picking up where season six dropped us. The Hep V Vampires are running amuck as many of our favorite supporting characters have been threatened. Pam continues her hunt for Eric leaving Sookie as the calming voice of reason and she’s not feeling all that steady. Meantime, Bill is on his own and every scene brings us closer to the end of his arc and there’s a sense of inevitable melancholy from the beginning.

His arc is the only one that gets the right amount of time to resolve. While things ratchet up in intensity, we watch one familiar face after another die in vastly imaginative ways. But it also brings several sub-plots to hasty or abrupt conclusions. Luke Grimes, who played James, walked away when he was unhappy with his story and was replaced with Australian actor Nathan Parsons, who is fine. The uneven pacing also serves to winnow down the cast for the final two episodes when the main figures take center stage. As usual, poor Tara gets the worst treatment as if the writers could never get a handle on her after the first brilliant season. Alcide’s departure barely gets noticed.

On the other, it’s nice to have Hoyt back and reaching a satisfying conclusion with Jessica so it isn’t all gruesome. With Jessica back in Hoy’t sarms, Jason needed someone to love – as befit his character from the first episode. However, how quickly he found it with Bridget and received Sookie’s blessing came way too fast for my taste.

And then we’re down to Bill, Eric, and Sookie the enduring triangle that was twisted like so much Silly Putty across the years. Is it entirely a happy or unhappy ending? Your call but it does wrap things up in a tidy package which is fine. The show grew more and more uneven through the seasons so this was about as good a wrap-up as one can expect. (And there’s a lovely cameo of novelist Charlaine Harris in the final episode, her way of saying bye-bye.)

As we have come to expect, the three disc set comes packed with the usual assortment of special features starting with audio commentaries for five of the ten episodes. Directors Howard Deutch, Gregg Fienberg, Angela Robinson, and, Simon Jayes; screenwriters Kate Barnow, Daniel Kenneth, Craig Chester, and Brian Buckner; and actors Kristen Bauer van Straten, Carrie Preston, Lauren Bowles, Chris Bauer, Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer all weigh in on the stories. It’s nice to hear from Paquin and Moyer in the final episode since they carried the emotional load and saying farewell to the show they fell in love with (along with one another).

There’s the fifteen minute True Death: The Final Days On Set, an informal look as the cast and crew wind up their work. Then there’s True Blood: A Farewell To Bon Temps, a twenty-eight minute retrospective that explores the attraction of vampires with Ball, Buckner, and the main cast offering their well-earned observations on that and other aspects of making the series. An updated True Blood Lines timeline is offered once again along with the previews and recaps.

Sing No Evil
By JP Ahonen and KP Alare
Abrams ComicArts, 181 pages, $24.95

Translating music, meant to be heard live, and print, meant to be imagined in one’s mind, is a challenging task. When the music is heavy metal, a very visceral sort of sound, the challenge is even harder. As a result, artist JP Ahonen and writer KP Alare are to be commended for trying but fail to achieve their goal. Sing No Evil, translated from NAME, is about music, friendship, love, rock, and sorcery. As a result, it wants to be too many things and falls short on every level.

The book is at its strongest when Ahonen fills spreads with the manic energy that goes into performing before a crowd. The words get out of the way and the pictures tell the story and we can imagine the chords and backbeat. Sprinkled across the book, they come as welcome breaks from a tedious story about a band that can’t get their collective act together even to perform at a local bar. We are meant to feel for Aksel, the guitarist who can’t sing and the stress his perfectionist attitude brings to his band Pekeros. The rest of the band — keyboard player Lily, bassist Kervinen and drummer Bear –cajole, support or scold Aksel. Lily is the most rounded of the characters in the story while there’s little appealing about Aksel. The dynamic should noticeably change when Lily recruits Aydin, the local pizza delivery guy, as their new singer, but he’s wallpaper. Kervinen is a seemingly ageless spiritual guide to Aksel but feels like a stock player.

Bear, by the way, is a real bear who fights off the urge to hibernate so they can make the band’s dream come true. Why the drummer is a real bear, who doesn’t speak but acts human in every other respect, serves to rob the story of feeling set in our world. And that’s before the demonic forces arrive in the final act.

The creators try too hard, stuff too much extraneous stuff into the story, robbing it of any real emotional depth so we wind up caring little for the band members or whether they achieve success or are another failed act.

The artwork and strong sense of color makes the book interesting to look at but just further emphasizes how weak the characters are and overall storyline is. I gather Ahonen is best known for Northern Overexposure, something I am unfamiliar with but I’d be interested in seeing what else he can do. Right now, though, this book is just plain disappointing.

When your father is a god, your life is bound to be pretty interesting. As a result, it is never less than astonishing how often the story of Hercules ignores the rich source material, transplanting the demigod to whatever environment is currently in vogue with diminished results. Twice this year, we were treated to variant interpretations of the Greek myth with vastly different results. Coming in second and by far the inferior of the two, Brett Ratner’s Hercules is one of the weakest films of the year. Once more one wonders how Ratner keeps getting hired since clearly his limited directorial vision has been spent.

The film, out now from Paramount Home Entertainment, claims to be inspired by Radical Comics’ The Thracian Wars limited series, but veers far enough from it to be another story entirely. Hercules (Dwayne Johnson), cursed by Zeus’ wife Hera, has completed his twelve labors but remains a lost soul, wandering Earth. Thrace’s King Cotys (John Hurt) and General Sitacles (Peter Mullan) hire him to train their army, preparing it for a forthcoming war against Rheseus’ (Tobias Santelmann) forces. Herc, accompanied by his nephew Iolaus (Reece Ritchie), the amazon Atalanta (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal), and  Autolycus (Rufus Sewell), and his own nephew Iolaus (Reece Ritchie). Here’s a chance for screenwriters Ryan J. Condal and Evan Spiliotopoulos to breathe life into these people, using the late, great Steve Moore’s comics as inspiration. Instead, they come from central casting and the actors do little to make them interesting.

There are some nice moments but they come few and far between mindless, violent action and flat by-the-numbers strorytelling. You are not surprised by the plot twists, robbing you of the cathartic thrills a movie like this should be delivering.

These sword & sandal epics always look great when shot right and here, the high definition transfer is crisp, clean, and colorful. It is equally paired with the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack.

Among the extras is an extended cut that adds about three more minutes of vapid stuff, so you wonder why they bothered. Ratner and Producer Beau Flynn provide an audio commentary that acknowledges the dozens of previous screen incarnations and pays too little attention to the Radical publication. There’s An Introduction (5:32) from Ratner and Johnson; Hercules and His Mercenaries (11:07), which explores the supporting cast; Weapons! (5:24); The Bessi Battle (11:54), showcase the preparation going into filming the battle; The Effects of Hercules (12:28);  and an entertaining assortment of Deleted/Extended Scenes (15 clips, 14:38).

How to Train Your Dragon was an immensely successful adaptation of Cressida Cowell’s charming children’s book. The story ended nicely and had we never revisited the village of Berk, we would have been satisfied. However, in film, success demands milking the cow as far as audiences allow so we now have a sequel. Unlike so many other money grabbing attempts, this once actually advances the characters without rehashing the past.

Growing up is never easy, it has fueled countless movies and novels through the years so it is a challenge to effectively tell a sequel to a beloved children’s tale where the characters actually change. DreamWorks Animation, though, accepted the challenge when they green lit a follow-up to 2010’s smash hit. The sequel arrived to great critical acclaim in the summer and now, Fox Home Entertainment is making it available now via digital download with the Blu-ray edition to follow on Tuesday.

Everything about this film feels more grounded and more mature with the animators carefully aging our main characters five years so Hiccup (voice of Jay Baruchel)  is a hairy teenager. Having achieved the unthinkable, peace with the dragons, they have integrated to make the village of Berk a unique place in the world. As a result, we pick up and see Hiccup, aboard Toothless, as they go out exploring. The problem now is that Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler) wants him to come home and succeed him as chief.

First, though, Hiccup and Astrid (America Ferrara)  have to prevent Berk from being destroyed by a dragon army led by the mad Drago Bludvist (Djimon Hounsou). Through convoluted means, he now can hypnotize dragons and winds up taking control of Toothless, leading the siege that claims Stoick’s life while Toothless remains a prisoner. However, he is far from alone as he also encounters Valka (Cate Blanchett), a dragonrider who is revealed to be his long-lost mother.

The story, from writer/director Dean DuBois, nicely parallels the further maturation of both boy and dragon. Toothless may have the harder experience to recover from considering he is coerced into attacking a place he calls home and being somewhat responsible for the death of Hiccup’s dad.

At story’s end, Hiccup has been through the emotional wringer although he fortunately winds up in a better place as a result of the experiences, making one and all proud. Now, don’t get me wrong, despite the heavier emotional tone, the movie still has plenty of action and humor with excellent animation.

Streaming this via Digital HD is clean and clear so if that’s your preference, you have little fear. Additionally, the digitals download and Blu-ray come chock full of extras. First up is the short, entertaining adventure Dawn of the Dragon Racers (26:37). The bonus features include Fishleg’s Dragon Stats (12:04); Drago’s War Machines (2:56), as Gobber the Belch narrates an inside look at the fierce creatures; Berk’s Dragon World (4:19); Hiccup’s Inventions in Flight (3:32), and an assortment of  Deleted Scenes (12:13). Additionally, there is some interesting commentary from the production team: Simon Otto, Bonnie Arnold, Dean DeBlois, and Pierre-Olivier Vincent. Where No One Goes: The Making of How To Train Your Dragon 2 (54:39)– Writer-Director DeBlois guides us through how this went from notion to film.

We’re now in the first sweeps period of the current television season and its fair to say that while several new series are entertaining, few are measuring up to our increased expectations. As a result, it’s refreshing to see that in one week, one of the smartest shows is returning albeit for a truncated final season.

Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom debuted on HBO in June 2012 and was immediately declared better than Studio 60 but still no West Wing. It has remained, though, a riveting series that reminds us that serious journalism remains an elusive ideal on television. The series is set in the immediate past, using real world events so the audience can focus on how the noble, flawed characters react and cover the stories.

The second season, out tomorrow (Election Day appropriately enough) in a three-disc box set from HBO Home Entertainment, has a major arc showing how the team ran a story after doing their due diligence only to have it blow up in their face. Using flash forewards and flashbacks, we see how things unfolded to the point where  ANC’s lawyer (Marcie Gay Harden) interviews the key players to figure out how things really happened and what to do. In the meantime, several of the core characters also have their own trials and tribulations, enriching each episode.

We pick up the season later in 2012 as the nation readies itself for Election Day and we see producer Jim Harper (John Gallagher Jr.), unable to get over his fractured relationship with Maggie (Alison Pill), assign himself aboard Mitt Romeny’s press bus, giving us a fresh look at the tedium of campaign coverage and the risks one takes when asking the hard questions the road-weary veterans refuse to ask. Along the way, a budding friendship with rival reporter Hallie Shea (Grace Gummer) begins.

Maggie, meanwhile, pitches a story in Africa and travels to a Ugandan orphanage where horrific things happen, emotionally and psychologically scaring her. Already broken up with Don (Thomas Sadoski) because of her enduring affection for Jim, she’s on the verge of a major breakdown.

The big story, though, is Operation Genoa, brought to MacKenzie Hale’s (Emily Mortimer) attention by Jim’s fill-in, Jerry Dantana (Hamish Linklater). As they investigate it, we see Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston) insist the Red Team vet the story time and again before everyone is comfortable with going live with the story of US Marines using Sarin gas in Afghanistan.

The most frustrated member of the staff may be Neal (Dev Patel) who is trying to get Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) to take the Occupy Wall Street movement seriously.

The season unfolds across nine densely packed episodes covering August through November but at its heart is the romance between Will and Mac, so their engagement is a satisfying high point as the season draws to a close. It’s more strongly written while remaining optimistic about the noble profession of journalism, imbuing the entire ANC staff from owner Leona (Jane Fonda) down to the lowliest intern (Riley Voelkel) with high-minded ideals. If only more dramas aimed so high.

The discs are crisp and fine to watch with good sound. We get four audio commentaries that are largely disappointing as creator Aaron Sorkin, producer Alan Poul and some of the cast meander about everything under the sun rather than enlighten the audience with the whys and wherefores of the season. The most interesting revelation is that during production, Sorkin realized he had written himself into a corner and revised upwards of 60% of the first three episodes and HBO allowed them to reshoot. Among the handful of deleted scenes is one from the first version of the season opener, spotlighting Oliva Munn’s Sloan, who emerges as the strongest character of the season. Each episode comes with the previously broadcast Inside the Episode, with Sorkin providing some good insights.