Just in time for Halloween, okay it’s actually quite early for that, Monsters vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space is out on DVD. The story revolves around innocent jack-o-lanterns are actually nefarious aliens. Eee gads! Here’s the trailer:
The DVD of Robot Chicken Star Wars 3 arrives in stores today, featuring the entire hour-long special. Here’s the promo clip:
A new Megamind short, titled Button of Doom, has been released along with the Megamind Two-Disc DVD Combo) today. Here’s a trailer for the new short:
The Despicable Me DVD releases tomorrow, and the Blu-Ray version features 3 Mini-Movies featuring the Minions: Banana, Orientation Day and Home Makeover. Here’s a clip from Banana:
The Family Guy team has a great deal of experience in the realm of Star Wars spoofs, having first delivered Blue Harvest (spoofs Episode IV: A New Hope) and Something, Something, Something, Dark Side (sends up Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back). As you might expect, next up is their Return of the Jedi spoof, which is due out on DVD on December 21st. Here’s the trailer for Family Guy: It’s A Trap!:
by Dan Forgione
On multiple occasions we have posted about the personal short film Leonardo, by Pixar story artist and director Jim Capobianco. 
After ten years in production on this pet project, the finished product has garnered numerous accolades and screenings at various festivals across the globe. [watch a trailer here]
With the recent DVD release of the film, Leonardo: The Complete Codex, and in conjunction with his upcoming appearance at the CTN Expo in Burbank this weekend, Jim was kind enough to send us a copy to check out. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a great short about Leonardo daVinci’s creative quest to explore his dream of flight. Animated traditionally on paper, the film takes inspiration from daVinci’s very own notebooks, complete with rough, and sometimes even unfinished, animation, timing and drawing notations, and subtle color variations of the parchment-like background. Through accurate depictions of flying inventions daVinci himself drew, we are treated to a number of gags, some of which have a Warner Bros. feel to them, as the film’s hero makes several failed attempts to test fly his inventions, and leads to a conclusion that often alters the lives of many great men, even today.
If you’re a fan of traditional animation, and collect DVDs for the sole purpose of checking out the DVD extras, then you don’t want to miss out on getting a copy of the film. In my opinion, it is what every DVD should come packaged with. Inside the well crafted packaging made from recycled materials and images from the film, you are treated to a bunch of cool extras, including 4 versions of the film with commentary at various stages in production, stills of preproduction sketches, as well as final designs, descriptions and facts about various inventions that can be seen throughout the film.
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