Up
4-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack
Directed by Pete Docter & Bob Peterson
Starring (voices): Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagai, Delroy Lindo
Walt Disney Pictures Home Entertainment
Release date: November 10, 2009

I never got to see the latest Disney/Pixar feature Up when it was out in theaters this summer, though I did get to view 20 minutes of the film at a convention early this year. What I saw at the time was what seemed like a cute little story about an elderly man named Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) who, in an effort to relocate his house, ties thousands of balloons to it. Strangely enough, the balloons do the trick, and away the man goes off on an adventure in his flying house. Along for the ride is Russell, a boy scout, who manages to get on Carl’s last nerve. At some point, talking dogs come into the picture and that’s where I lost my interest in Up.

I really should have known better, what with this being a Disney/Pixar effort, and let’s face it, with beloved films like Toy Story and Monsters Inc., you know anything from this studio is going to be good … real good.

From the preview, I could tell that Up would be a movie kids would love: there’s a little boy for them to relate to; a house that flies away on thousands of colorful balloons; and real-world dogs that somehow manage to speak. What I didn’t know was what a compelling story Up had, and how for the first 20 or so minutes of the film, I would be in tears.

Yes, tears [...]

The Gold Box deal of the day over at Amazon today is Absolutely Fabulous: Absolutely Everything DVD set for only $54.99 (that’s 58% off the list price of $129.98).

This limited edition 9-disc DVD set includes all five seasons of the hit British comedy, Absolutely Fabulous, which starred Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley, along with over four hours of bonus features [...]

In case you’re not already aware — a special Facebook page has been created by the marketing team behind Tim Burton‘s 3-D new vision of Alice in Wonderland. The page is called The Disloyal Subjects of the Mad Hatter and it’s a place for fans read and see new bits of fun from the movie as they are released and described by the Hatter (Johnny Depp) himself.

As per his own description, the Hatter has three new things that he will be releasing, but as you can see, they will not all be released with each other. The first of the three that is now out to see is a brand new poster for the film. It features the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) book-ended by Tweedledee and Tweedledum (Matt Lucas), and standing opposite of the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter) with the giant head of the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) floating in the sky. [...]

Coming to Blu-ray this November 17 is the 10th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray of Fight Club, the 1999 film starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton. To coincide with this event, we here at Geeks of Doom have five (5) copies to give away to some lucky readers!

Five (5) winners will each receive:
– One (1) Fight Club 10th Anniversary Blu-ray Edition

TO ENTER: There’s just two simple steps:

(1) Make sure you’re subscribed to the Geeks of Doom email digest. If you’re not then click here and sign up. (If you’re already a subscriber, then go right to the next step.)

(2) Fill out the entry form with your contact information and in the Fight Club Rules field, answer the following question: What would YOUR rules of Fight Club be? [There are no "right" answers, just tell us your thoughts.]

Good luck! [...]

We are yet another Monday closer to the New Moon premiere my dear Twihards and I for one am ready to combust — no, really, I mean it, I totally am, I don’t know how much more waiting I can take.

The latest New Moon video release, from the folks over at Collider, only stokes those flames. In this 10-minute behind the scenes clip, which you can watch here below, we are treated to some never before seen (at least by my eyes, and I don’t allow them to miss much that’s Twilight Saga-related) footage of the vamps, wolves, and the fragile human. We get a glimpse of luscious lips…err…Taylor Lautner as Jacob (I know, you keep thinking it, but I keep not listening LALALALALA I don’t care if he’s only 17) getting cabled up for his first wolf transformation scene where he leaps over poor confused Bella in an effort to save her from Paul (Alex Meraz), his quick tempered pack mate who’s just been bitch slapped. Do note in this nifty behind the scenes gem that we get to see a little more of Paul from behind then we probably get to see in the movie (don’t judge me, you probably would have rewound it 5 times too…in slow motion).

SPOILER ALERT (although really, who doesn’t know this stuff already?) [...]

The new game from publisher Bethesda — the brilliant developers of classics like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Fallout 3 — and developer A2M, WET is a game that immediately grabs your eye when you see it. Its look of pure Grindhouse-esq exploitation cinema of the 70s leads you to believe that you’re about to play a Quentin Tarantino movie, and whether you ultimately like the game or not, that alone is worth giving it a fair go.

WET follows Rubi Malone (Eliza Dushku), a bad-ass problem solver who gets what needs to be done, done…so long as the price is right. The game opens with her chasing down a man who steals what she was paid to acquire, which leads to an epic chase right off the gun that ends in a freeway car chase that would bring a tear to the eye of Michael Bay. As it turns out, the item she was paid to retrieve is a human heart that would save the man who hired you’s father. A year later, this man (Malcolm McDowell) comes back to thank her for the heart, and to hire her for another job: to find and bring back his AWOL son. This job sets off a chain of events that are a little too spoilery to share here, but let us just say that Rubi isn’t thrilled about how things go, and many, many, many, many people die because of it. [...]

A Christmas Carol
Disney Digital 3D
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Starring Jim Carrey, Gary Oldman, Bob Hoskins
Rated PG
Release date: November 6, 2009

Even though I haven’t even put the Halloween decorations away, this past Friday I went to see Disney’s A Christmas Carol because, well, it combines two of my favorite things: Disney and Christmas! I chose the Disney Digital 3D version as opposed to the IMAX version, since I had my 5-year-old, Mini CrueChik, and my 8-year-old, WiiDude (he picked that tag, is he cool or what?), with me and I thought the IMAX version would be too intense, mostly for the little one.

Disney’s version of the classic Charles Dickens tale did not disappoint. The opening scenes, with credits still rolling, were absolutely breathtaking, flying over a snow covered Dickensian London. Your first glimpse of Ebenezer Scrooge comes as he’s grumping down the street, humbugging at carolers and children playing in the snow. Scrooge is voiced by Jim Carrey, whose face is definitely hidden in the animation of the ultimate miser.

The beginning of the story was a little slow for Mini CrueChik and WiiDude, but I appreciated Disney giving a little backstory on just how screwed up Scrooge is, like seeing him remove the tuppence from the eyes of the corpse Jacob Marley, his lifelong friend and business partner, before allowing the undertaker to take him away (eww) [...]

I finally saw Disney/Pixar’s Up this weekend, and while I went into it figuring I’d probably like it but not love it, I ended up absolutely loving it.

I was finishing up my review for the Up 4-Disc Combo Pack, which will be released this Tuesday, November 10, when I noticed that there’s a pre-order deal for it.

If you pre-order the Combo Pack, which includes the Blu-ray version as well as the standard DVD and a Digital Copy, you can get $10 off a second Blu-ray title from a select list: UP Combo Pack Deal. The select list includes great Blu-ray sets for movies like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Bolt, Sleeping Beauty, the Pirate of the Caribbean trilogy set, and much more.

Choose from the list and enter promo code DISNEYBD checkout to receive your credit. Remember, the Up 4-Disc Combo Pack comes out this Tuesday, which means you have to pre-order it with the purchase of your second Blu-ray title before then.

If you’re not sure whether to get the 4-disc Blu-ray version or the 2-disc standard DVD version, right now they are both $19.99. The Blu-ray version comes with an extra disc of bonus features not included in the single- and 2-disc versions, plus it comes with a standard DVD copy that you can watch an any DVD player. Getting the Blu-ray version is obviously the better deal, and it seems like this is standard practice for Disney Blu-ray releases [...]

The “SNL Digital Short” segments on Saturday Night Live are using highly entertaining and the one that aired on last night’s show was definitely that. The short, titled “Firelight,” is horror mash-up parody of Twilight that was just hilarious.

I don’t want to say what the mash-up was, because the reveal is so funny, I don’t want to spoil it for you. But seriously, watch the video here below (though the preview image in the video spoils it, so just click on it quickly). I promise you will laugh.

Singer Taylor Swift, who was the host of last night’s show, played the part of Bella, the human high school girl who in the original story falls in love with a vampire. In the parody, she falls in love with another classic monster, and there’s even a love triangle with yet another classic monster! [...]

Everyone loves tauntauns, right? Every since one of them kept Luke from freezing to death in The Empire Strikes Back, fans of the Star Wars saga have had a soft spot for these reptomammals. (We know they make great sleeping bags.)

So, have you ever wanted to learn how to draw a tauntaun? Well, now’s your chance, as writer and artist David Petersen, creator of the best-selling Mouse Guard comic book series, has given the official Star Wars site a step-by-step tutorial on how to draw these lovable furry mounts.

The tutorial has a list of supplies for you to use, and is complete with 14 easy-to-follow steps accompanied by instructional drawings. In the end, you’ll have a tauntaun standing on the snowy tundra of Hoth, with the option to add color to your creation.

If you enjoy drawing characters from Star Wars or want to learn how, then check back at Geeks of Doom real soon for your chance to win a copy of Draw Star Wars: The Clone Wars [...]

The 1981 R-rated animated feature Heavy Metal is now online to watch for free at Crackle.

Due to its rating, you have to sign in to watch it, but sign-up is free and quick and there’s even an option to sign in using your Facebook account (even quicker). While the movie is free to watch, it does have periodic but quick commercial interruptions.

John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Harold Ramis, among others, voice the characters in this scifi animated film, based on the Heavy Metal magazine. The soundtrack is packed with great tunes from Stevie Nicks, Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick, and more, including the title track by Sammy Hagar [...]

Sir Ian McKellen recently spoke to MTV while promoting his re-imagining of the 1967 mini-series The Prisoner. It did not take long before the conversation jumped to the obvious priority of all news seekers: Guillermo del Toro and Peter Jackson‘s two-movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit. Topics discussed mainly hovered around his urge to return to the epic fantasy role that netted him an Academy Award nomination, the surprise arrival part of the script and the security lengths being taken to ensure its safety, and also his curiosity when it comes to del Toro and his directing methods.

McKellen states that he longs to become the “fantastic” Gandalf character again and can’t wait for production to start. He also speaks about how he and Jackson both preferred the original Gandalf the Grey character before he took on his god-like White persona. “He was more humane somehow. He was the guy who liked to hang out with the Hobbits and drink too much and smoke too much,” McKellen admits. [...]

The Secret Saturdays
Volume 1-2
Created by Jay Stephens
Featuring the voices of Phil Morris, Nicole Sullivan, Diedrich Bader, Sam Lerner, Fred Tatasciore, Will Friedle, Corey Burton
Cartoon Network

The Cartoon Network’s The Secret Saturdays is a throwback cartoon that tips their hats off to various cartoons and genres of yesteryear. The cartoon focuses on the Saturday family, a team of crypto-zoologists (or scientists that search for strange creatures), as they go on adventures of exploration and various forms of daring-do. Along the way, they deal with their own rogue gallery of rival crypto-zoologists and various other supped up big baddies.

While I am definitely not the demographic for this cartoon, I must say that I actually enjoyed the cartoon a lot. I am a fan of mythical beasts like Bigfoot or The Loch Ness and I am glad to see an actual cartoon focused on it. The writing and overall tone of the series reminded me a lot of the old Hanna Barbera cartoons, mostly notably Johnny Quest. The creators also throw in a Fantastic Four vibe into the mix and that gels very nicely with the series as a whole (and with yours truly). There is definitely a lot of humor and action that is not family friendly but, I dare say it, adult friendly too [...]

The Gathering Storm
Written by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
Publisher: Tor Books
Released: October 27, 2009

It’s time for fans of Robert Jordan‘s Wheel of Time series to stand up and celebrate. The release of a new book is upon us. Even more than just a new book, this is the beginning of the end; the final book in the series. Okay, so there’s actually three books remaining, but they were meant by Jordan to be one book. Unfortunately (or perhaps, very fortunately depending on your point of view), the story became too large to release as one volume, so the editors decided to break the final book into three parts, the first of which, titled The Gathering Storm, saw release on October 27th, 2009, with the other two seeing release at a later date, hopefully in 2010 and 2011.

Unfortunately, the book split isn’t the big story about this release. No, the big story concerning this book was the untimely passing of original author Robert Jordan on September 16, 2007. With Jordan’s passing, many feared that we would never see the end to his sprawling series. Fortunately, Jordan had written a large portion of the book before his passing, and left detailed notes on the rest and writer Brandon Sanderson was quickly chosen by Jordan’s editor and wife to finish the series, putting fans’ minds at ease [...]

Wil Wheaton is something of a fanboy favorite for the people. He’s a former child star, best known as the lead in the Rob Reiner adaptation of Stephen King’s Stand by Me, and also as Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He’s done tons of other stuff along with these two better-known titles, but the best thing about him is that he’s grown into a regular everyday guy and fan of many things geek, which puts him high on our list of coolest celebrities in the universe.

One thing that we didn’t know about Mr. Wheaton — and you probably didn’t know it either — is that he was actually in J.J. Abrams‘ Star Trek. That’s right, Wes Crusher of Next Generation was in the new Trek.

On the official Wil Wheaton blog, the actor and writer shared the whole story yesterday, and it is quite the amusing tale indeed. [...]

In yet another announcement regarding a classic cartoon character, it appears as though there is a Yogi Bear movie in the works, and it’s actually set to begin filming next month. Naturally, this will be another hybrid movie that will mix live-action humans with the former cartoons getting their CGI makeover. This comes from an [...]

A few months ago, William Shatner made an appearance on The Tonight Show to recite Sarah Palin’s tweets after the Alaska governor’s resignation.

Now, for the past two evenings, Shatner returned to the late night talk show to poetically recite the tweets of Levi Johnston, Palin’s teenager daughter’s baby daddy. In last night’s episode, host Conan O’Brien revealed that the first set of tweets was actually from Levi “imposter” account, therefore Shatner was brought back on to do a set of Levi’s quote that were verified.

Check out the videos here below of Shatner, accompanied by bass and bongos.

Also on the Shatner front, the actor best known as Captain James T. Kirk of Star Trek fame, unveiled his new Captain Kirk wax figure at Madame Tussaud’s on Hollywood Blvd in California on November 4, 2009. Check out the video of the event [...]

Star Trek is coming to DVD, Blu-ray, and digital download on November 17, 2009.

Like with many big-name summer blockbusters, Star Trek is getting a few retail exclusive releases at select stores like Target and Best Buy. I don’t usually concern myself too much with different versions of DVDs, unless an exclusive strikes my interest. In this case, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek was my absolute favorite movie of the year (not surprising, since I’m a Trek fanatic), so naturally, I know how to think carefully on which version of the home entertainment release I’ll be choosing.

Check out the list of retail exclusives for the U.S. and Canada here below and feel free to help me decide which I’ll be getting! [...]

The follow-up to Frank Beddor‘s Hatter M graphic novel series, Hatter M, Vol. 2: Mad With Wonder, was released last month along with his latest The Looking Glass Wars novel, ArchEnemy. Also, coming soon will be the online MMO card game Card Soldier Wars.

For this event, we here at Geeks of Doom have three (3) copies of Hatter M: Vol. 2: Mad With Wonder to give away to some lucky readers!

Three (3) winners will each receive:
– One (1) Hatter M: Vol. 2: Mad With Wonder graphic novel

About Hatter M, Vol. 2: Mad With Wonder:

It’s a mad, mad, mad world as Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan’s maniacal quest to find Alyss continues! In Volume 2, Mad With Wonder, Hatter follows the Glow from London to the battlefields of America ‘s Civil War in search of the Princess who must some day be Queen. The America that Hatter encounters is a sprawling, wounded, boiling landscape of innocence and energy run amok [...]

It seems like every post these days has a list-off of all of the toys and board games being made into movies, so we’re not even going to worry about it here. Now it’s being reported that Sony Pictures have acquired the rights to Hasbro’s strategy game, Risk, and will indeed be turning it into a movie. The game was created in 1957 by French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse. Who knows, maybe they can go to war with Universal’s Battleship movie! (Read: ‘Hancock’ Director Peter Berg To Helm ‘Battleship’ Movie; 2011 Release).

Once again, there isn’t really a storyline to Risk, so you have to imagine that this will ultimately just become some kind of a war movie in which nations battle for world domination. Two scenarios are most logical: in one, they could go back in time and create the movie within one of the first two World Wars; in the other, they could go futuristic and make a movie about World War III, which is probably the most likely of paths. [...]