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.

Gregory Maguire had no idea what he was unleashing when he wrote Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West in 1995. Since then, a tremendous amount of energy has been spent on revisiting the antagonists from fairy tales to modern fiction in an effort to explain their motivations. Quite often, the opponent is more interesting than the protagonist so there’s an appetite to understanding what made them “evil”.

Another trend has been taking the classic fairy tales and first making them into palatable Disney animated fare followed by live-action adaptations and stage editions. By combining the above, we arrive this year with Maleficent. Perhaps the single most arresting visual in the Disney rogues gallery, this cunning sorcerer has given generations nightmares since the cartoon version arrived in 1959.

With Angelina Jolie as the title character, this had the making of a fascinating character story hidden under layers of action, adventure, and humor as she cursed young Aurora who went on to become known as Sleeping Beauty.  The pedigree both before and behind the camera promised a grand experience which is why the final product, out Tuesday as a DVD Combo Pack, is so disappointing.

Linda Woolverton, who has virtually lived writing fairy tales for Disney since Beauty and the Beast in 1991, seemed a perfect choice for the project. She dutifully did her homework and found a key to understand why Maleficent was evil. In the Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm retelling of the story, she was a fairy and fairies, after all, have wings. Once she asked, “where are Maleficent’s wings?” that he story was found.
The film tells of young Maleficent (Ella Purnell and Isobelle Molloy), an orphan fairy, who is somehow the leader of the mystic realm known only as the Moors. When an orphan human, Stefan (Michael Higgins, later Sharlto Copley), wanders from his adjoining lands, an unlikely friendship develops. But then he vanishes and the next time we see him he is a servant to King Henry (Kenneth Cranham) and we’re told, but never shown, he had become greedy. Instead, Henry leads a vast army towards the Moors where he is repelled by Maleficent and her enchanted allies where he is mortally wounded.

Stefan renews his acquaintance with Maleficent in order to kill her and become heir to the throne. When he drugs her, after forgiving him his absence, he finds he cannot end her life but instead steals her wings, effectively ruining her and winning him the throne. Now she’s pissed and seethes and rages and summons heretofore unseen occult energies and becomes the recognizable evil power.

Woolverton is so busy building up Maleficent and making her sympathetic that she’s forgotten to make the humans anything more than one-dimensional beings. Why does Henry want to conquer the Moors? There is no apparent enmity between them nor reason to gain the land? Why is Stefan so ambitious, forgetting his friendship? Everything the humans robs the film of being a well-rounded story.

Similarly, the three fairies who arrive to first bless then care for Stefan’s daughter Aurora (Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Eleanor Worthington Cox and finally Elle Fanning) are played for comedic effect but fail at being funny, just inept, wasting the talents of Imelda Staunton (Knotgrass), Juno Temple (Thistlewit), and Lesley Manville (Flittle). The crow Diaval (Sam Riley) is enchanted by the witch and is at least interesting to watch. Memorable supporting players would have made this a far stronger film.

The most interesting development Woolverton and director Robert Stromberg bring to the story is the quasi-mother/daughter relationship between Maleficent and Aurora, who is gifted with such a kind soul that she mistakes Maleficent not as the bane of her existence but as her fairy godmother. This leads a fine twist in the retelling of this classic tale.

The effects are swell, the dragon transformation and climax strong but the underlying motivations are so weak that it really robs the film of the strength of its themes. As a result, this 97 minute story disappoints more than it thrills. Clearly, though, I am in the majority since its worldwide box office is over $750 million.

The film comes as a Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD combo pack and the high definition transfer is rich and wonderful to watch. The 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is a fine companion so young girls everywhere should enjoy it time and again.

For the adults, there are some nice Bonus Features, notably the five Deleted Scenes, at least two of which address the issues I raise above. Aurora: Becoming a Beauty is a lightweight look at how much Elle Fanning enjoyed becoming a princess. From Fairy Tale to Feature Film features Woolverton talking about the process without anywhere near enough time tracing the source material. Building an Epic Battle looks at the cinemagic involved in this particular action sequence while Maleficent Revealed looks at the rest of the digital effects but does so without much in the way of explanation o you just stare at before and after images as they speed by. Classic Couture examines the fine apparel worn by the characters (and probably deserves an Oscar nomination).