Some Sunday afternoon sillyness…

Star Trek Meets Monty Python

Everytime they release one of these, it just makes me wish they’d bring back the Muppet Show…

Robot Chicken is ba-ba-baw-baaack! Season 3 of the toy murderin’, attention’ span shatterin’ TV series comes to DVD on the 25th January 2010.

No cow is too sacred, no star too celestial to escape the Robot Chicken treatment. Created by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich, Robot Chicken Season 3 delivers 20 fifteen?minute episodes of fastly-paced sketches featuring an impressive list of vocal talent from creator Seth Green and an impressive cast of Hollywood names.

In its native USA, Robot Chicken has gone on to become Adult Swim’s highest rated original show, winning an Emmy© for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation in 2006 and 2007. It was recently nominated for two more Emmy© awards for the Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II special.

The People Behind The Poultry

All of this mayhem started over a love of toys. Having worked throughout the comic book industry, Matthew Senreich rose through the ranks at comic bible Wizard to become editor of their Toy Fare publication. While attending the annual Comic Con in San Diego he ran into actor Seth Green (Austin Powers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Family Guy) and a friendship blossomed over their mutual love of action figures. An idea was struck to take a knowing swipe at everything from Star Wars to George Bush by animating their beloved toys – every man’s dream right? But where did the obscure title come from? Seth Green explains, “Um, “Robot Chicken” was a dish from the Chinese restaurant where we ordered take?out.”

Robot Chicken, Season 3

Highlights from Robot Chicken Season 3 include Sarah Michelle Geller pedaling a Japanese yeast infection cream; Albert Einstein and his wife have couple’s therapy and Governor Schwarzenegger investigates the illegal immigration issue with Speedy Gonzales and Dora the Explorer.

Special features

Chicken Nuggets – Gag Reel – VFX Comparison – Alternate Audio – Deleted Animatics – Deleted Scenes – Studio tour – Video blogs – Commentary on all 20 Episodes

Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Darkside

Ahh, today it feels like Christmases of my youth. It’s freezing cold out site and threating to snow. The tree is up. And I’ve just finished watching Star Wars on TV. Or rather Family Guy‘s take on The Empire Strikes Back – “Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Darkside” available exclusively on Blu-ray (BD) and DVD on 28 December from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

As with the Family Guy take on ‘A New Hope’ (Blue Harvest), we follow the adventures of Luke (Chris), Leia (Lois), Han Solo (Peter) and Chewbacca (Brian) as they are pursued across the galaxy by the evil Sith Lord, Darth Vader (Stewie). Like the original, the rebels are hiding out on the remote ice world of Hoth (cue AT-ATs with worms, Tauntauns with heads of old comedians, and the Wampa being replaced by Cookie Monster). Luke then takes the advice of Obi-Wan Kenobi (Herbert) and learn the ways of the ‘farce’ (by watching Val Wilder DVDs) under Jedi Master Yoda (Carl), and Han, Leia and Chewy head to Cloud City, only to be faced by Vader, and a giant chicken Boba Fett. Oh and Fox, you HAVE to produce some Peter/Han frozen in carbonite figures!

The thing I loved about Blue Harvest, which also comes across in Something, Something, Something, Darkside is that despite the fact they are obviously playing for laughs, theres still a lot of respect for the original source material, and they hit all the favourite lines and plot points of the film they’re spoofing. The use of the rotoscoped original film footage and sound effects and really makes this feel part of the Star Wars family. As with Blue Harvest I also loved they end on Peter (Seth Macfarlane) and Chris (Seth Green) arguing over whether the Robot Chicken Star Wars stuff was better (Robot Chicken being Seth’s own project, although Seth does voice the Emperor.)

“Family Guy” Something, Something, Something, Darkside” Blu-ray and DVD features bonus materials including digital copy, animatics and Family Guy trivia. There’s also a clip of the read through for the upcoming Return of the Jedi homage – “We Have a Bad Feeling About This”, which is sounding fantastic too, and I can’t wait!

9/10

Proof that everything can be improved by the addition of Muppets.

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, bought history to life in the heart of London’s West End on Monday night, when the famous Bond Street statues of Sir Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, roused from their years of silence to talk politics, current affairs and life on the bench. The astonishing technological feat was to mark the launch of Night at the Museum 2, released on DVD and Blu-ray on Monday 9^th November and offered passers-by a unique and educational evening’s entertainment.

The illusion that Churchill and Roosevelt were deep in conversation was created using HMC Interactive’s patented Incision™ Technology. A team of digital artists spent two months planning the stunt which used a series of light projections to give the impression that the statue’s eyes and mouths were moving. The voices were provided by lookalike actors and the script written by renowned writer Jon Holmes who writes with Jon Culshaw.

Night at the Museum 2 is out now on DVD and Blu-ray.