Star Trek: The Animated Series
The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek
Blu-ray Edition
Created by Gene Roddenberry
Directed by Hal Sutherland, Bill Reed
Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Majel Barrett
Paramount Home Entertainment
Release Date: November 15, 2016

When the original Star Trek was cancelled in 1969 after three seasons, it left a void with fans who wanted NBC to renew the television series about the starship Enterprise and its crew’s five-year mission to explore new worlds and new civilizations. Audiences grew to love William Shatner‘s Captain Kirk and his first officer, the half-human half-Vulcan Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy, but the ratings just weren’t high enough after the show was moved for the third season to a Friday night “death” slot. While Star Trek got to live on in syndication, it wasn’t until 1973 that new life was breathed into it with Star Trek: The Animated Series, produced by Filmation, the company behind Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.

Based on our coverage of Moana, we know that Maui (voiced by Dwayne Johnson) is a rather arrogant demi-god who needs a lesson in humility. Enter Moana (voiced by Auli’i Cravalho), a natural born navigator who is on a quest to save her native home island of Motonui.

It will be very interesting to see how a young teenager will put up with someone who is as obnoxious and confident as Maui, and we start to see just a little bit of the chemistry between the two in two new clips from the film. One which will showcase Johnson’s talents as a singer, and the other when the two meet each other for the first time. Check it out below.

South Park
Season 19
Blu-ray | DVD | Digital
Created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone
Studio: Comedy Central
Release Date: September 6, 2016

For nearly twenty years, South Park has forced the world to walk on eggshells. Famous for its non-PC, ultra-controversial take on pop culture and world events, the animated Comedy Central series from creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone lets no one get away from a weekly 30-minute roasting in cartoon form. Everyone and everything from Mel Gibson and Scientology, to racism, politics, and foreign affairs have been tackled and put to task. What was left for them to do? What new direction could they possibly take? For the first time in the show’s history, the 19th season was entirely serialized, all focusing on a new principal’s takeover of South Park Elementary and the town’s movement towards a wholly PC attitude.

Trollhunters, the upcoming animated series from Netflix and DreamWorks Animations, had a big presence at this year’s New York Comic-Con this weekend. The trailer and poster were revealed at a panel for the series, which launches on Netflix this December, and I got a chance to participate in roundtable press interviews with several members of the voice cast, as well as executive producer Guillermo Del Toro, who co-wrote the book upon which the series is based.

Up first were voice actors Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) and Charlie Saxton (Betas). Check out the roundtable interview here below.

Beauty and the Beast
25th Anniversary Edition
Blu-ray Combo Pack
Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise
Music by Alan Menken
Cast: Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Angela Lansbury, Bradley Michael Pierce, Rex Everhart, Jesse Corti, Hal Smith, Jo Anne Worley
Distributor: Walt Disney Studios
Release Date: September 20, 2016

Disney’s 1991 animated feature Beauty and the Beast, which is based on the classic French fairy tale of the same name, sees an intelligent young woman named Belle who’s grown tired of her predictable small-town life. She wants to read and learn, and yearns for adventure, which makes her an oddity amongst her fellow villagers, who think a beautiful girl like her should just settle down and have a family. But she’s not interested in that. She repeatedly rejects the proposals from the town’s hunk Gaston, a vain and musclebound airhead who swears he won’t relent until Belle agrees to marry him.

Belle eventually ends up at the castle of a prince who’s been magically transformed into a beast. In an effort to save her father, the young girl abandons her dreams of adventure and agrees to remain indefinitely at the Beast’s home, which is staffed by enchanted inanimate objects. (These were his servants who were also cursed.) Unbeknownst to Belle, there’s something that can reverse the spell placed on the Beast, but if it doesn’t happen in time, the irritable prince will remain forever in his monstrous form. In the meantime, Belle’s persistent suitor Gaston will do anything to have her, even if it means harming those she cares about.