The Herbs

Last week wasn't the best in terms of weather with Storm Brendan battering away for  couple of days with added heavy rain so with this so far having the coldest weather this year due I do have a few things to do  should it be too icy for me to be on foot.

 The Herbs were an late nineteen-sixties cartoon put together by the same people as Paddington Bear and indeed was written  by Michael Bond himself that I always loved for the  stories of the animals named after herbs such as Parsley the Lion and Dill the Dog and Sir basil and Lady Rosemary.
It doesn't take much for me to start singing:

I'm a very friendly lion called Parsley,

with a tail for doing jobs of every kind,

but I mustn't treat it roughly or too harshly,

for it's such a useful thing to have behind.

 I picked up a couple of dvd's of the show that do play in the Blu Ray machine to watch with Gordon Rollin's narrating when it's too bad to be out.
It can live with my Paddington, Ivor The Engine, Clangers,80's  Dangermouse and Bagpuss discs.

More Fairy Tail

Back to the guild after a gap with Collection Five covering episodes 49 through 60 of this sword and magic centred anime.

To begin with, the first few episodes on the disc are just  the conclusion of the Fighting Festival and the arrival of a reporter from Sorcery Weekly magazine.
We also see more about Lucy worrying about her love life, learn about about her father and Juvius attempting to use a potion supplied by a dodgy dealer.

The main theme running trough Series Two is the the uniting with Blue Pegasus, Lamia Scale and Cait Shelter to take on the powerful Dark Guild that marks the commencement Oración Seis arc where they are looking for a powerful weapon to spread darkness and this where more characters to the series are introduced.
The series remains gripping and very funny in parts.

Timed perfectly for this has been the demise of my five year old  Philips  multi-regional dvd player which wouldn't step up the disc to play anymore because the motor that did it died.

So coming soon will be this, a Toshiba SD1015 dvd player that is also multi-regional as I have a number of discs from North America that won't play on European (region two) specific players although my television like most over here can handle NTSC colour.
It also features a co-axial  digital output for better quality sound through a outboard digital to analogue convertor to my stereo unit.

Coraline

Typically the Baftas gave the award to Mr Fox rather than this for the best animated movie category for 2009. Grrr!
My copy of the DVD is 2D cos I have a visual impairment affecting my left eye that makes 3D movies and Magic Eye books a pain to view.
Although a bit scary in parts for younger children it is a tale of courage in defeating the deceptive other version of her life on the surface 'better' life on the other side as they try to trap her.

Grave of the Fireflies

Coming up to christmas so I have been adding to my collection of full length Studio Ghibi anime movies.

This, possibly the bleakest anime Studio Ghibi have put out is based on an semi-autobiographical novel by Akyluki Nosaka tells the story of two Japanese children Seita aged 14 and his four year old sister Setsuko struggling to survive in war torn Japan with daily American bombing raids and napalm being dropped.
Their mother was killed on a raid on air raid shelter while their father, enrolled in the Japanese Navy remains unknown, they are left to fend for themselves as best they can and even a brief period being looked after by an elderly aunt who is very cold and distant proves no salvation, they set up home in an abandoned air raid shelter.
For a period this brings a sense of peace and solitude as they enjoy watching the fireflies keeping them company, the increasingly worsening situation with its food rationing , Seita finds it an increasing struggle to feed himself and Setsuko to keep them both alive.

Kino's Journey

Kino's Journey ADV complete series

For centuries, those in search of self-discovery and knowledge of the world have hit the road in furtherance of those quests. Young Kino, along with her talking motorcycle Hermes, has the same goal -- to travel and observe and learn from different cultures. Staying exactly three days in each location, Kino and Hermes learn much about the world and themselves.In disc two Emerging Lanes, Kino discovers the joy inherent in a trip, without getting caught up in the destination. She realizes that the experience of the journey, and the diversions it brings, matters more than where she's going. As she chats with men working on railways, works hard, and encounters dramatic action in a Coliseum, Kino finds that what she learns along the way is the most important thing.

Wombling Free!

Well none of us of a certain age can forget the Wombles, ecological warriors and cute cuddly creatures from the 1970's and as a child i look forward to watching every episode.

Here's a link to the online Museum:

Tidy Bag - The Online Wombles Museum

This also has links to various currently available merchandise.
There is a lovely two DVD box set in recycled cardboard featuring all 60 original episodes in order which I recently purchased.

Out with the old

I first started buying DVD's about 2002 but It was only those titles that went straight to first time DVD release plus a few classic TV and Music releases I bought leaving a legacy of titles I had to use my trusty S-VHS recorder for.
At long long last I have been replacing a good many of my VHS tapes of movies with DVD versions since updating my DVD player a short while back.

I replaced recently the following:
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
The Wiz
Flash Gordon
ET
Staying Alive
Two Of A Kind
Streets Of Fire
Top Gun
Labyrinth
Cocktail
Days Of Thunder

The improvement over the tapes is hard to describe but they are sharper with better colour rendition