In honor of the upcoming Ultraman movie, Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legend The Movie, several monsters from the Ultraman franchise appeared on a Japanese variety show to "audition" for parts in the movie. They showed off their most menacing dance skills for the assembled Ultramen, an impressive feat given those unwieldy-looking rubber suits.

Ultra Monsters dance to ‘Thriller' [Pink Tentacle]

It looks like we've got the Science Patrol here, and possibly a journey to Ultraman's home planet. Plus, get a load of all those monsters. Screw Avatar - this is going to be the best alien movie in December hands-down. I am so excited that I'm doing Godzilla's version of the Highland Fling.

Mega Monster Battle via IMDB

Thanks, Avery Battles!

Deadgirl
What to do when you find a corpse chained to a table, and then discover that said corpse isn't actually dead? If nothing else, this dark comedy horror will make you realize that any answers you'd come up with to that question would be better than what happens here.

Doctor Who: The Next Doctor
Davids Tennant and Morrissey team up to take on Dervla Kirwan's villainous Miss Hartigan as the BBC mysteriously release last year's Christmas special after the already-out Planet Of The Dead special. Well, it is all time-travel, I guess...?

Primeval Vol. 2
The unintended end of the series can be found in this 3 disc box set that, despite the confusing title, actually contains the third season of the now-canceled show.

Sanctuary: The Complete First Season
See? This is how you name your DVD releases, clear and simple. Although, if they'd wanted to be completely descriptive, they would've called it The Complete First Season With Commentaries On All The Episodes, The Original Webisodes And Some Other Special Features. But that may have taken up too much room on the packaging.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Clone Commandos
A second selection of episodes from the first season of the Cartoon Network show that reminds people that, while war may be hell, Star Wars is just a pretty bad heck. Or perhaps a goshdarnit, at most.

X-Men Vol. 3: The Marvel Collection
X-Men Vol. 4: The Marvel Collection
Two more collections of episodes from the 1990s cartoon to remind people that, before there were X-Men movies that didn't match up to the Batman ones, there were X-Men cartoons that didn't match up to the Batman ones. But then again, I liked Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, so what do I know?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Talking of X-Men movies, here's this summer's installment, allowing you to study the acting talents of Will-I-Am at your leisure. Also, with the ability to skip chapters, you can pretend that Gambit doesn't exist, which will immediately make the movie better.

Sept 22
Battle for Terra
It was the CGI movie you kept seeing trailers for, but don't actually remember seeing in theaters - and now it's out on DVD for you to ignore at home, too.

Clive Barker's Book Of Blood
Yes, yes; it was Books of Blood when the books were originally written, but times are hard for everyone, and movie didn't have the largest of budgets, so some cutbacks were inevitable (It's actually premiering on Syfy this week, for those who want a preview).

The Haunted World of El Superbeasto
If the idea of an animated movie based on a comic book about a superheroic masked wrestler created by Rob Zombie doesn't interest you, maybe the cast list - which includes Paul Giamatti, Rosario Dawson and Brian Posehn - will. Otherwise, we can't help you.

Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins
Because, sometimes, you need a live action reboot of the Scooby Doo franchise by the man who directed the Flintstones live action movies. Of course, when we say "need," we may be using that word incorrectly. Nonetheless, this direct-to-DVD epic shows the first meeting of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scoob, and without the disturbing presence of either Sarah Michelle Gellar or Freddie Prinze Jr. So... potential win after all?

Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection Box Set
Star Trek: The Next Generation Motion Picture Collection Box Set
Paramount finds a new way to recycle the Star Trek movies with these new era-specific box sets. We look forward to the inevitable Star Trek: The Good Ones, You Know What We Mean box set within a year (Also: Am I the only one who was surprised to find out that there were four TNG movies, even though I've actually seen them all? I think I subconsciously try to pretend that Insurrection and Nemesis don't actually exist).

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete Second Season
Your chance to relive the only Terminator that mattered this year, despite that whole cancellation thing, with six discs full of episodes, commentaries and special features. Buy it in the hope that someone at Fox will change their mind when they see the sales figures.

Sept 29
Batman Collection: 4 Film Favorites Box Set
Those "film favorites" would be the Michael Keaton/Val Kilmer/George Clooney movies, by the way. It seems fair, because to add in either of the Chris Nolan-era movies - or even the 1966 Adam West one - would make any of these four seem somewhat lacking in comparison (Okay, maybe not Batman Returns).

Blade Collection: 4 Film Favorites Box Set
I know what you're thinking: "There were only three Blade movies, how can they have a 4 DVD box set?" The answer lies in including the pilot for the short-lived TV show in there, which seems like a slight cheat to me, but that's why I'm not a Warners Home Entertainment executive.

Hardware
Finally making it to DVD, Richard Stanley's 2000AD-inspired robot horror movie from 1990 finds a new, uncut and uncensored form to ensure that old-school fans will want to pick it up as well. If nothing else, how often do you see Iggy Pop and Lemmy in the same movie?

Monsters Vs. Aliens
Dreamworks Animation's love letter to old school B-movies proved to be much better than expected when it was released in theaters earlier this year, and the DVD - with special features on the making of the movie, deleted scenes and, bizarrely, a Dreamworks Animation Video Jukebox - aims on taking even more advantage of the impressionable hearts, minds and wallets of kids of all ages.

The Real Ghostbusters Complete Collection Box Set
25 discs of animated paranormal activity, as the entire five year run of the 1980s (and early '90s) cartoon (including Slimer spin-off) gets collected in this insanely comprehensive box set that also has twelve hours of special features. You may never have to leave the house again. Or, at least, not for a few weeks.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
The latest DC animated movie adapts Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness' fun, over the top tale of President Lex Luthor trying to turn the world against our favorite superheroes, only to (a) go insane in the process and (b) lead to the creation of a giant Superman/Batman composite robot. If they've not changed too much, this could be the guilty pleasure of the fall.

Ultraman: The Complete Series
...Or, perhaps, it could be this: A 4 disc box set collecting all 39 episodes of the mid-60s Japanese TV show that brought the madness and production values of Godzilla movies to television on a weekly basis. Robot superheroes versus monsters courtesy of Eiji Tsuburaya? Works for me.

Like the movie preview, we've split this preview into months (and, inside those months, into weekly releases), but with releases still unconfirmed and unannounced, we've pushed November and December together. Don't worry; it'll make sense when you click on the links below.

September
October
November/December

According to Variety, Chinese audiences are boycotting Ultraman after Chinese PM Jiabao complained that his grandson spent too much time watching the show during a recent visit to a Chinese animation studio:

I sometimes take care of my grandson, [b]ut he always watches 'Ultraman.' He should watch more Chinese cartoons... [Chinese animators] should play a leading role in bringing Chinese culture to the world ... Let Chinese children watch more of their own history and its own country's animation.

The effect of the comments has been weird and widespread; Chinese broadcasters have moved non-Chinese animation later in their schedules, replacing it with homegrown fare in order to snare audiences when they're young, although some see the move as something approaching racism - and a sign of strained relations with Japan. The solution to the problem may be for the Chinese government to support the country's animation industry with more than just words; production of animated movies in the country was up 66% last year from the year before, but Jin Delong of the State Administration of Radio, Film and TV, feels that progress needs to be made in more than just quantity:

There is a long way to go before the animation industry prospers. We still have a lot of issues to resolve, for example, encouraging creativity ... and combining creativity with the market.

It's the kind of problem that would take a superhero to fix... as long as he's from China, of course.

China gets 'Ultra' sensitive [Variety]

[Ultra 2008 via Twitch]

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• Tiger Man from Buck Rogers: Princess Ardala may have been bitchy and vampy, but she didn't have a lot of muscle. So, she had this sword-wielding, shield-bearing muscly bald dude do her bidding for her. Buck couldn't hit a girl (although Wilma sure could), so he frequently went toe to toe with this guy.
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• Omega Man from... Omega Man: This Charlton Heston starrer was the second adaptation of the I Am Legend novel, leaving him as the last person on Earth. No idea why they didn't just call this thing I Am Legend, but maybe Omega sounded a lot more sci fi high tech to good old chuck.
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• Hawk from Buck Rogers: Okay, I've been referring to this guy as Hawk Man for years now. Turns out I was wrong, and he's just called Hawk. Which still seems a bit too simple. Doesn't he look more like an Owl?
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• Mega Man from the countless Mega Man video games: This little guy might be tiny in size, but his heroic actions were "mega," and he's become one of the most recognizable characters in the video game universe. After all, you fight Dr. Wily and his robot minions all day, and you you're going to end up with some recognition.
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• David Bowie in The Man Who Fell To Earth: Bowie became "the man" in this 1976 film who came to Earth looking for water. Although he may have been Thomas Jerome Newton, he'll always be "The Man" to us.
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• Demolition Man: Sylvester Stallone plays a retardo cop from the past who destroys everything in his path in order to get the job done. The proof? Right here:
  T.V. Reporter: [to John Spartan] "How can you justify destroying a $7 million dollar mini mall to rescue a girl whose ransom was only $25,000 dollars?"
  Little Girl: "FUCK YOU, LADY!"
  John Spartan: "Ha! Good answer"
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• The Invisible Man: Claude Rains sucks down a secret formula that turns both him, and his name, invisible. He's forever known by his invisible moniker afterwards, and the name Claude Rains just doesn't have that spark anymore. Sadly, this also gave birth to Kevin Bacon in Hollow Man. Egads.
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• Ultraman: This Japanese supercop was part of the Science Patrol, and activated when the normal Hayata uses the Beta Capsule, and becomes the giant, ass-kicking monster fighting Ultraman. I guess they wanted to be sure you still knew he was a man.
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• The entire slew of comic book "mans": For decades there have been a slew of "man" (and "woman) characters spewing forth from the pages of comic books. They gave us Superman, Batman, Ant-Man, Wonder Man, Giant Man, Spider-Man, and pretty much everything-you-can-think-of man.

After reviving the lost art of marionettes in Team America, this time Parker and Stone are bringing back man-in-rubber-suit action for a pastiche of Japanese monster movies. We've heard a rumor that Eiji Tsuburaya Productions, creators of Ultraman and many classic Kaiju costumes, may be working on this movie. But it's also possible that Nickelodeon, which is producing the movie, may use its own in-house staff.

The script, by J.F. Lawton (Pretty Woman), sounds silly enough to fit in with classics like Baseketball and Orgazmo. The Smith family moves to Japan, and Mr. Smith has a hard time convincing his eight-year-old son Johnny that Japan isn't all robots, ninjas and giant monsters, like he's seen on TV. But then it turns out pop culture has represented Japan perfectly. Johnny befriends a family of ninjas next door, while his dad discovers that all the giant monster attacks make his life difficult. When Mr. Smith's plan to build robots to defeat the giant monsters fails, Johnny decides to go to Monster Island to convince the somewhat-nice Megamonster to help save Japan.

Judging from Lawton's comments, Giant Monsters will revel in the cheesiness of guys in rubber suits whomping each other. But here's hoping the movie does more than just re-create all the old monster-movie wackiness. Parker and Trey are at their best when they take a tired stereotype and give it a weird extra twist, but it may be hard for them to do that when they're playing outside their native idiom and toning it down for the kids. Parker/Stone image by INF/Goff. [IESB]