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[Blu-ray Review] ‘Star Wars Rebels: Season Two’ is Fun for the Entire Galaxy

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Season one of Disney’s Star Wars Rebels is wonderful. So wonderful in fact that I was a tad bit worried that season two would end up slightly disappointing since it had such large shoes to fill. Happily I can say that within the first few minutes of the opening episode of season two those worries were quickly put to bed.

For those of you that haven’t caught on to Rebels yet I have to say it’s a must-watch for Star Wars fans. The show is cannon and takes places 14 years after the events of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and five years before Episode IV: A New Hope. It’s similar to a lot of the franchise in that this particularly series follows a small group of Rebels attempting to do battle with the Galactic Empire. What makes Rebels so interesting is that this is still the fairly early stages of the Empire and they’re still in the process of gaining control over the galaxy. This doesn’t mean the Rebels are playing on even footing of course, they’re still a ragtag group consisting of misfits and outcasts, but it does make things a little less certain and a lot more interesting.

The first season of Rebels introduced us to our 5 main characters – Ezra, Kanan, Here, Sabine and Zeb – but it was more of a quick overview of each one. Yeah, we got to know little things about them, but the show never took a deep dive into the personality of each of them individually. This is because in season one virtually every episode features the team doing battle as a whole. All of this makes sense, of course. In season one the table was being set.

With an idea of what’s going on already established, season two gets to dig a little bit more into the rich backstories of characters and really let the world building take shape. There’s still plenty of episodes featuring the team as a whole fighting in epic battles, but a lot more time is spent giving characters their own episodes to shine. The show no longer has to make sure all 5 members of the Ghost crew get equal screen time per episode. Ezra, Sabine, Zeb, all get to go off on their own separate missions.

It’s that ability to create an entire universe in great detail and allow each character to have their shining moment that makes Rebels such a joy to watch. There’s a lot more freedom that allows the characters to breathe and grow organically in the television format that isn’t really available in the films, at least not to the same degree. And it’s not that stand alone episodes don’t further the overall story arc of the series, because they do, they just do so in a way that allows the focus from each episode to shift.

In addition to further building up pre-established characters from the first season, Rebels introduced a slew of new characters from all strokes of the galaxy, some of which Star Wars fans are very familiar with. The show stealer is without a doubt Darth Vader (James Earl Jones returning to do the voice!). Vader only appears in a handful of episodes but he is the primary villain out to capture and destroy our heroes. This is Vader at his darkest, his most sinister. There isn’t an ounce of good in this Vader.

The Blu-ray is fantastic. The 3D CGI animation and visual style inspired by the original Star Wars concept art by Ralph McQuarrie looks glorious. Before I got into the series I was actually a bit worried about how the animation would work out. Having CGI animation look this good for a television show is tricky business. There could easily be inconsistences from episode to episode with the timeframe to get things done, but thankfully that isn’t the case. Every episode is beautifully animated and the Blu-ray brings everything to life in a wonderful 1080p transfer.

The special features on season two aren’t as loaded as they are on season one, but there’s still plenty of bonus context to scratch your Star Wars itch. Much like season one, this season comes with all the Rebels Recon segments offering behind-the-scene looks at each episode. There’s a short, but really cool feature called Connection the Galaxy that lets the viewer know how Rebels connects with the rest of the Star Wars universe. And finally there is a little feature on the history between Vader and Ahsoka.

Star Wars Rebels is everything one could possibly want in a Star Wars television show. It’s fun and exciting but isn’t afraid to show the dark side of the force. I can’t recommend this enough and I cannot wait for season three!

Star Wars Rebels: Complete Season Two is available on Blu-ray from Disney now.

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Chris Coffel is originally from Phoenix, AZ and now resides in Portland, OR. He once scored 26 goals in a game of FIFA. He likes the Phoenix Suns, Paul Simon and 'The 'Burbs.' Oh and cats. He also likes cats.

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‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]

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Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.

Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.

Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.

And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.

While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.

Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.

Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!

Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.

Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.

Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!

More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.

So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.

If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.

Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.

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