One of the many Rankin/Bass collaborations that families have made a part of their holiday traditions, The Year Without a Santa Claus comes to DVD with a standard full-frame transfer that preserves the original broadcast aspect ratio. The closed-captioned English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Mono. English and French subtitles are accessible. There are no supplemental materials on this disc, but anyone looking for family friendly viewing will be more than happy with this title.

One of those rare films to attain cult, critical, and popular success, fans of Little Shop of Horrors will be both pleased and disappointed by this Warner Home Video DVD release. There is no faulting the widescreen anamorphic transfer that returns the film to its theatrical aspect ratio, nor the equally fine Dolby Digital audio transfer. Another bonus has the witty Alan Menken and Howard Ashman score on a separate audio track, while Frank Oz's audio commentary gets viewers inside of what was a very hard shoot. Director Oz is on the record as saying that his rather dry demeanor was the basis for the Muppet Bert of Sesame Street fame and he erases any doubt of that in his insightful, if humorously monotone, commentary track. There is also a fun "Outtake Reel" from the shooting which reveals why fans of the movie have reason to be disappointed in this DVD. For a few seconds of outtakes, viewers can see part of the original ending of the movie, in which the monstrous giant plants take over the world. Shot at great expense, the original, darker ending was replaced with a more upbeat (though still cynical) conclusion. In a bizarre move, Warner Home Video has botched both of its DVD releases of Little Shop of Horrors. The first release only showed the film with the original ending while this second release only gives viewers the theatrical version. Can a third DVD release that combines all the features of the first two versions and has both endings be far behind?

Like DVDs of many older movies, the Warner Bros. DVD of Ladyhawke is nice to look at and listen to as far as picture quality and sound goes, but short of special features. Ladyhawke is the story of a man (Rutger Hauer) and a woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) who are lovers cursed by an evil enchantment that keeps them apart when they're together. Matthew Broderick also stars as a pickpocket and petty thief who aids them in their effort to break the curse. The movie is an early one in both the careers of Broderick and Pfeiffer, and as such interesting from that perspective, if not for the unique subject matter. The DVD presents the movie in a standard full-frame version on one side, and in widescreen on the other side. The soundtrack has been remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The only real extras on the disc, beside the usual DVD features (scene access, interactive menus), are production notes and the theatrical trailer. Although the film is about magic, there is nothing very magical about this disc.