TVSquad

The always-informative Simpsons Channel has news from the always-informative TVShowsOnDVD.com about the upcoming DVD release of the Simpsons Movie. The information was relayed to TVShowsOnDVD through some folks in the industry, so everything I mention here is subject to change. Still, I couldn't resist this opportunity to whet fans' appetites.

The DVD will be out on December 18, and it will be circular. Also, the film will be available in both full screen and widescreen formats. I don't know why you'd want to buy full screen, unless you want to sit and pretend you're watching an extra-long episode of the TV series.

I'm sitting here watching Robot Chicken Star Wars online with video commentary from creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich, and in the opening sequence Green explains how the animators actual animated a real AT-AT toy to duplicate the Imperial Walker scene from The Empire Strikes Back. Green mistakenly refers to it as a Hasbro toy, but as all Star Wars fans know, it was Kenner that made the toys, not Hasbro.

Of course, the fact that I would even know that makes me exactly the sort of Star Wars geek the folks at Robot Chicken were aiming for. I hate to admit I wasn't as floored by the special as I was hoping, and somewhat disappointed to see sequences reused from past episodes, but it was clear, based on the special; the interludes with Green, Senreich and Breckin Meyer; and the aforementioned commentary, that these guys really love Star Wars, and that alone made it worthwhile.

[via Pop Candy]

I have to give an initial shout out to Fantabulizer for reminding me that, despite the end of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or, as I call it, "the greatest show ever"), Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett are still riffing away on bad movies as The Film Crew.

The three men are back in form riffing on wacky B movies, though this time they're not channeling through plastic puppets. Instead, their riffing is done like any ol' DVD audio commentary for movies that don't have commentaries, but should. You can go to their site now and vote for which of four movies you'd like to see them skewer first. Also, check out a trailer here. Sure, it's not quite the same as being back on the Satellite of Love, but it put this long-time fan back in his high school days where he began to amass his collection of VHS copies of MST3k taped from his parents' gigantic satellite dish.

[via Satellite News]

Well, I suppose that heading could have been a little more specific, since our ol' pal Flash has been seen in several live-action and animated incarnations since he first debuted on the comic pages in the 1930s. In this case, I'm talking about the animated series from Filmation that aired from 1979 to 1981, which IMDb has listed as The New Animated Adventures of Flash Gordon. I was quite young, so I don't remember this particular cartoon, but apparently it ran for a total of twenty-four episodes, all of which will be included on Flash Gordon - The Complete Series. You know, cause otherwise it would be called Flash Gordon - The Incomplete Series, and nobody would want to buy that. Tom Ruegger, a writer for the series, would later go on to write and produce for Steven Spielberg's Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, and Freakazoid. The DVD set will include a documentary and some audio commentaries. It comes out July 18.