This Just In

[Warrior Poet]

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith?

Nope! Even better!

Just received my DVD copy of the Limited Edition Fire and Ice, including the Frazetta: Painting With Fire documentary, as well as season 1 of Deadwood.

Actually, I know nothing about Deadwood, but looked into it after recommendations from some of the fine folks here at EN World, and as a long-time fan of westerns (both "traditional" and "contemporary"), I'm looking forward to the series.

Animated Sword-and-Sorcery pulp action, and gritty well-written westerns! Woo hoo!

Warrior Poet

 

[Viking Bastard]

I've been thinking about checking out Deadwood for a long time, but I still haven't gotten around to it.

 

[Desdichado]

I didn't know Fire and Ice had a DVD release! Heck, I looked for it on Netflix just a few months ago.

Looks like I'll have to check again...

 

[S. Baldrick]

I thought Deadwood Season 1 was great. However, the series uses language that would make a sailor blush. David Mammet was never this harsh at his peak. If that doesn't bother you (it didn't bother me), then I think that you will enjoy it.

 

[Warrior Poet]

However, the series uses language that would make a sailor blush. David Mammet was never this harsh at his peak. If that doesn't bother you (it didn't bother me), then I think that you will enjoy it.

Doesn't bother me. I won't have time to start the series tonight, but this weekend, it'll be time to open a few beers and put the DVDs through their paces!

Warrior Poet

 

[Warrior Poet]

I didn't know Fire and Ice had a DVD release! Heck, I looked for it on Netflix just a few months ago.

Looks like I'll have to check again...

I found it on Amazon.com. I think there's two different releases. One is just the film. The other is the limited edition 2-disc set, which has, among other things, audio commentary by Bakshi (yes!), making of, Bakshi talks about Frazetta (yes!), diary notes from Sean Hannon ( no idea?), still gallery of behind-the-scenes stuff (no vid back then, I guess; it was '83, after all ), the entire Painting With Fire documentary on Frazetta (RIGHT ON!) including the various interviews with Frank, Bernie Wrightson, etc.

I'm very excited. The boards need a hopping-up-and-down smiley!

Warrior Poet

 

[Dagger75]

I would watch Deadwood before Revenge of the Sith, then Fire and Ice, then you might want to do something fun before you sit through Revenge of the Sith.

 

[Warrior Poet]

OK, got a chance to watch some of the extras on the Fire and Ice disks last night, for a few minutes.

The digital remastering looks great. The on-set photos from Sean Hannon (turns out he was the physical actor who played Nekron, but was not the voice actor) were really cool, and the making-of mini movie was neat to see how they did animation [CROTCHETY OLD TIMER] back in my day! [/CROTCHETY OLD TIMER] Storyboards, hand drawn cells, background paintings, calculating stuff out on an adding machine, typewriters, the whole bit. Really cool to see, and I kept saying things like, "I remember that!" and "I had a pair of vans just like those!"

Fascinating stuff. Interesting tidbit: one of the main background painters for the film? Thomas Kinkade. Yep, that Thomas Kinkade, the one who does all the winter wonderland sort of paintings, and the little miniature house things and so forth (at least, I think it's that Thomas Kinkade). Wild.

Anyway, very interesting. Also got a few minutes into the Frazetta documentary. Frazetta is the king. No other fantasy artist has the effect that his art does, in my opinion. There are many great artists that inspire me to pick up a book or roll dice or map out a campaign or jot down a story idea, but Frazetta is the one who makes me want to physically take up a sword and go conquer a kingdom and stand in victory atop a pile of vanquished foes with a lusty sorceress clutching my, uh, legs.

Thanks, Frank. You rock.

Warrior Poet

 

[Warrior Poet]

I would watch Deadwood before Revenge of the Sith, then Fire and Ice, then you might want to do something fun before you sit through Revenge of the Sith.

Yeah, actually, I don't even own Revenge of the Sith, I was just throwing that out there because it was the release day and I know which DVDs I would rather get (and did!) . I saw eps. I - III in the theater, and, really, that's probably all I needed to see of them. I've got my worn copies of eps. IV - VI, and I'd rather throw those on the DVD.

But as for Deadwood, I'm really psyched to start that series this weekend! The box set it came in is really well put together, really nice quality binding and gatefolds and printing. Plus there's a ton of extras, including lots of cast commentaries, production commentaries, historical stuff, etc.

Woo hoo, can't wait!

Warrior Poet

 

[Desdichado]

Yeah, actually, I don't even own Revenge of the Sith, I was just throwing that out there because it was the release day and I know which DVDs I would rather get (and did!) . I saw eps. I - III in the theater, and, really, that's probably all I needed to see of them. I've got my worn copies of eps. IV - VI, and I'd rather throw those on the DVD.

I've bought all the others, so I can't very well stop now. Besides, Ep. III was quite a bit better than I and II, so if I have those, my standards are obviously fairly low.

I still can't decide which I like better, though--my (relatively) shiny IV-VI DVDs, or my old VHS releases right before they went away forever to be replaced by the Special Editions.

Oh, and I've now got Fire & Ice on my Netflix queue. It went in at number 178 or something like that, but I moved it up near the top. Just have to finish watching all the episodes of Miracles first.