Category Archives: TV

DVDs, Kiddie Fun, TV

Shuffling along to spread news of a welcome war: “Card Wars”

When we stumbled upon Adventure Time, we knew Cartoon Network wasn’t the only people having magical (mis)adventures. Then, in the fourteenth episode of the series’ fourth season, we aced it when we stumbled up Card Wars.

Shades of Huck Finn . . . of sorts. The series follows the adventures of human boy Finn (voiced by Jeremy Shada), and his best friend and adoptive brother Jake (voiced by John DiMaggio), who happens to be a dog with magical powers. Yep, he can change shape, growing and shrinking at will. Oh, they live in the Land of Ooo.
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Jake begs Finn to play his favorite trading card game (thus Card Wars),  but things take a turn for the worse when Jake becomes overly competitive, insisting on playing for a “cool guy cup” and the “dweeb cup”. Trust us: This is some funny stuff.

Adventure Time: Card Wars (Cartoon Network) is a nifty DVD that will have you shuffling through 16 episodes, including the original Card Wars. The DVD also comes packaged with an exclusive Card Wars playing card, making this DVD a must have for fans, collectors and the huge following that Card Wars has accrued since the episode, app and physical game debuted.

Old maid anyone?

Celebrity Chatter, TV

“American Masters” celebrates its 30th anniversary with the launch of “In Their Own Words: The American Masters Digital Archive”

Everything old is new again. And in the case of THIRTEEN’s American Masters, the old is very new and very special. The series made in debut in 1986 on PBS with Private Conversations: On the Set of “Death of a Salesman,“ a cinéma vérité documentary about the making of Arthur Miller’s masterpiece for network television, and its stars Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich.

Today, American Masters celebrates its 30th anniversary with the launch of In Their Own Words: The American Masters Digital Archive and the American Masters Podcast, featuring previously unreleased interviews filmed for the documentary series: 2,156 tapes, approximately 1,388 digitized hours, 800-plus interviews and counting.

A selection of short-form videos showcasing interviews with David Bowie, Gloria Steinem, Herbie Hancock, Bernadette Peters, Mike Nichols and other luminaries discussing America’s most enduring artistic and cultural giants are available now on the American Masters website (pbs.org/americanmasters). New videos will be released on an ongoing basis as the archive is digitized.

The American Masters Podcast, hosted by series executive producer Michael Kantor, will feature long-form interviews from In Their Own Words. The first season, “Women on Women,” presents interviews with influential women discussing women cultural icons. Episode one features Gloria Steinem in conversation with the late, multiple Emmy-winning filmmaker Gail Levin taking a critical look at the life and career of Marilyn Monroe from 2006’s American Masters Marilyn: Still Life. New episodes will be released biweekly on the American Masters website, iTunes, Soundcloud and Stitcher.

All full-length, digitized interviews will be archived by the American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB), a collaboration between WGBH and the Library of Congress to preserve and make accessible significant historical content created by public media.
“I’m thrilled that the National Endowment for the Arts has provided major funding to get this project off the ground so we can finally share gems from the cutting room floor with the public,” says Michael Kantor, executive producer of American Masters. “Series creator Susan Lacy built a rich library of more than 200 documentary films, which is a treasure trove of American arts, culture and intellect, and the amazing interviews that informed these films are largely unseen. While we are still seeking funds to create a comprehensive, interactive digital archive website, we are confident that In Their Own Words and the American Masters Podcast will inspire and entertain a broad audience both today and in the future.”
Here, A gem of Betty White chatting about her (and my) pal Carol Burnett.

Bottersnikes & Gumbles, Kiddie Fun, TV

“Bottersnikes & Gumbles” are ready to hit Netflix . . . get ready to g(r)umble!

Great things do come in small packages. Bottersnikes & Gumbles, a new award-winning CGI animated series, is set to make its U.S. and Canada debut with 26 episodes on August 19 on Netflix.  Full of action, suspense and laughs, each 11-minute episode is set to thrill the imaginations of kids . . . though we hear the show’s spokesperson suggests the small-screen sagas are for kids “aged 6 and older,” we think it’s perfect for kids of all ages!

image001 (1)Bottersnikes & Gumbles follows the adventures of three young Gumbles, Tink, Bounce and Willi,who love nothing better than to “gumble” all day long, which means crazy, stretchy capers around their junk valley, while carefully avoiding getting tin-canned by their lazy, grumpy neighbors the Bottersnikes, led by the foul tempered and vain Bottersnikes King.  Endless battles ensue involving plenty of stealth, trickery, daring rescues and narrow escapes as the Gumbles try to outwit the Bottersnikes in every episode.

Bottersnikes & Gumbles earned this year’s Pulcinella Award for Best Kids TV Series at the international animation festival, Cartoons on the Bay, in Venice and was nominated for a Logie Award in Australia for Most Outstanding Children’s Programme.

Bottersnikes & Gumbles has been developed and adapted from the characters and world as they first appeared in the much-loved Bottersnikes and Gumbles books by S.A. Wakefield, with illustrations by Desmond Digby. The books were published in the UK and Australia between 1967 and 1989.

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“I wonder if Sam Wakefield ever imagined this when he wrote the original books in the 1960s?,” asks Patrick Egerton, Executive Producer at Cheeky Little Media.  “Making this show, and bringing these much loved characters to life has been amazing.”

Adds Darren Price, Executive Creative Director, Mighty Nice: “The original books created a truly unique, often hilarious, fantasy world of imaginative creatures, personalities and situations. Taking it further with animation has been a hugely rewarding experience. Netflix viewers, get ready to gumble!”

 

 

DVDs, TV

Dead body found in The Chunnel. We guarantee an addiction to “The Tunnel”.

From the makers of Broadchurch comes a new thriller that has to have mass appeal.  The Tunnel is set against the backdrop of Europe in crisis . . . and what a crisis it is. When a prominent French politician is found dead in the middle of the Channel Tunnel, straddling the border between the UK and France, detectives Karl Roebuck (superbly played by Stephen Dillane) and Elise Wassermann (an excellent  Clémence Poésy) are sent to investigate on behalf of their respective countries. The case takes a surreal turn when a shocking discovery is made at the crime scene, forcing the French and British police into an uneasy partnership. As the serial killer uses ever more elaborate and ingenious methods to highlight the moral bankruptcy of modern society, Karl and Elise are drawn deeper into his increasingly personal agenda.

The Tunnel has already addicted PBS viewers (the series airs Sunday through August 21); the Blu-ray and DVD will be released on August 9 by PBS Distribution. The DVD and Blu-ray editions also include 20 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage, cast interviews, and more. The program will also be available for digital download.

We won’t reveal anything else, except to remind you that faces may look quite familiar: In addition to Dillane and Poésy, The Tunnel also features Angel Coulby as Laura Roebuck, James Frain as John Sumner, Joseph Mawle as Stephen Beaumont, Keeley Hawes as Suze Beaumont, Tom Bateman as Danny Hillier, Jeanne Balibar as Charlotte Jubin, Thibaut de Montalembert as Olivier Pujol, Jack Lowden as Adam Roebuck, Cedric Vieira as Philippe Viot and Sigrid Bouaziz as Cecille Cabrillac.