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Video: 4/5
Audio: 4/5
Extras: 4/5
Just in time for the second installments launch in theaters, Disney brings their big budget The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to Blu-ray as a 2-disc special edition. I have to admit I wasn't the biggest fan of this film when I saw it originally in theaters. I usually go for this kind of film but this one just didn't strike a chord with me at all. On this second viewing my feelings are pretty much the same. I just have trouble connecting with the characters and I don't like the toned down nature of the film. Obviously Disney wanted something that would be family friendly but I think this hurts the scope and emotional impact. Warner has managed to balance these issues with their popular Harry Potter series, but Disney missed that mark in my opinion. Nevertheless audiences seemed to love this one given its box office haul so I'm sure there are plenty of fans eager to see it on Blu-ray. One word of note though, this is the theatrical cut of the film. An extended edition was released on DVD sometime ago and I was honestly surprised it was not included for this release.

Video: 4/5
Audio: 2.5/5
Extras: 2/5
I'm always on the lookout for new animated fare, regardless of what country it is from. When I saw an import HD DVD was available for Asterix and the Vikings I went ahead and picked it up. The film was getting reasonably good word of mouth and the character looked vaguely familiar from my younger days. Unfortunately this one didn't play out real well. The animation style looked good and I was impressed with the mix of 3D and cell animation, but the story was geared too much to the younger crowd and my wife and I just couldn't get into it. The film does have its funny moments, but the story moves at a pretty slow pace and the forced inclusion of "hip" culture didn't work well for it overall.

Panasonic recently announced the upcoming release of its new DMP-BD50 Blu-ray player, which I got to see in person on May 9 at the Panasonic Hollywood Labs right next to Universal Studios in Los Angeles. The BD50 follows the <A href="http://ultimateavmag.com/hddiscplayers/1107panabd30/">DMP-BD30</A>, which was the first standalone BD player to conform to Final Standard Profile 1.1 (aka BonusView). As you might expect, the new player is fully equipped for BD-Live (Profile 2.0), which lets it access the supplementary Internet content and online interactive features that are planned for future Blu-ray releases by connecting the player to a broadband access point such as a home-network router.

Did you miss the Futuresonic 2008 Festival this year? If so, you also missed Aleks Kolkowski's seminar during the Urban Festival of Art, Music, and Ideas. Mr. Kolkowski is using a vintage record cutting lathe to create 45rpm records on your own...