Home Video Picks & Passes 09.15.19

The classic Aladdin is a pick.

(photo: via IMBD)

Aladdin (1991) — PICK

Aladdin (2019) — PASS

Mary Magdalene (2019) — PASS


Animation extravaganza! Not only are there new Blu-ray/DVD/digital copy editions of almost all non-Toy Story Pixar movies, you can also pick up new Blu-ray/DVD special editions of the classic A Charlie Brown Christmas, the not-so-classic A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and a couple of quality Disney offerings, including Tangled and the classic Aladdin. (Don’t be fooled by the unnecessary, inferior live-action Aladdin remake, also new on home video.)

As regards Pixar offerings — it’s easier to say which to skip! Cars 2 and The Good Dinosaur are skippable; your call on A Bug’s Life and Finding Dory. Everything else is excellent; the best include Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Wall-E and Inside Out.

In non-animated fare, Garth Davis’ Mary Magdalene, starring Rooney Mara as the Magdalene and Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus, is a mixed bag, with too many problems to recommend. While it gets some of the Gospel ethic right, it ends with a feminist critique of the Christian Church in its foundations while ironically undermining Jesus’ own challenge to the patriarchal norms of his day.

 

CAVEAT SPECTATOR: Aladdin (1991): Some scary/intense bits. The same caveat applies to most Pixar movies (but not Charlie Brown films).

Palestinian Christians celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at Holy Family Church in Gaza City on March 31, amid the ongoing battles Israel and the Hamas militant group.

People Explain ‘Why I Go to Mass’

‘Why go to Mass on Sundays? It is not enough to answer that it is a precept of the Church. … We Christians need to participate in Sunday Mass because only with the grace of Jesus, with his living presence in us and among us, can we put into practice his commandment, and thus be his credible witnesses.’ —Pope Francis