DIGIGODS 2017 GIFT GUIDE!

Tune in to Wade and Tim’s special 2017 Holiday DigiGods podcast featuring amazing giveaways and amazing guests, including Christmas expert and author of “Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas,” Alonso Duralde. Deadline to get your emails in for the giveaways is Sunday, November 26^th, so don’t wait!

For handy access, featured titles are categorized below. Follow the links to purchase.

MOVIES

An Offer You Can’t Refuse

The Godfather Trilogy: Omerta Edition (Blu-ray)
The Annotated Godfather: The Complete Screenplay
The Godfather Notebook

Francis Coppola’s 45-year-old masterpiece and its sequels have never looked better. In addition to a glorious new limited edition Blu-ray release of the trilogy from Paramount, there’s also Coppola’s own notebook – essentially a scrapbook of production ephemera – as well as the fascinating annotated screenplay. If you’ve got a fan in the family – this is a no-brainer.

The Gift of Murder

Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express (DVD)
The Best of Agatha Christie – Volumes 1 & 2 (DVD)
Alfred Hitchcock: The Ultimate Collection (Blu-ray)

With Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Express resurrecting Agatha Christie for the big screen, Acorn has smartly re-released the popular David Suchet version along with two other volumes of beloved Christie mysteries for television. Universal, meanwhile, has spruced up its Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection with a bit of television material, now refashioned as the Ultimate Edition – still one of the best Blu-ray boxed sets available.

Hope for the Holidays

Bob Hope: The Ultimate Movie Collection (DVD)
Thanks for the Memories: The Bob Hope Specials Deluxe Collection (DVD)

Thanks to Universal and Time Life, the legend of Bob Hope will be everywhere this holiday season. Universal’s Bob Hope: The Ultimate Movie Collection brings together twenty-one beloved Hope movies previous released in separate editions and collections while Time Life’s Thanks for the Memories adds another thirty-seven hours of memorable specials, including legendary USO shows.

Hotter Potter

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (4k UHD Blu-ray)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (4k UHD Blu-ray)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (4k UHD Blu-ray)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (4k UHD Blu-ray)

With the release of the first four Harry Potter films on 4k UHD Blu-ray, Warner Bros. officially makes the Harry Potter series the first movie franchise to transition entirely to the 4k format. Potter fans who already have the first set of 4k releases will thrill to find these four under the tree.

Trifles with Subtitles

Eight Films by Jean Rouch (DVD)
OSS 117: Five Film Collection (Blu-ray)
The Sissi Collection (Film Movement Classics) (Blu-ray)
My Journey Through French Cinema (Blu-ray)

Gifting a foreign film fan this season? Hard to go wrong with any of these sets – Icarus’ Jean Rouch set is a revelatory journey through the career of a seminal filmmaker and New Wave inspiration while Kino’s OSS 117 boxed set brings the original five films featuring the French answer to 007 to North American DVD for the very first time. The Sissi Collection from Film Movement, meanwhile, resurrects one of Romy Schneider’s most popular roles as the famed Austrian Empress Sissi. Lastly, for the French cinema aficionado, there’s Bertrand Tavernier’s three-hour tribute documentary, My Journey Through French Cinema – a glorious education in some of the greatest films ever made.

Timely Tins

Westworld: Season One (4k UHD Blu-ray)
Justice League: The New Frontier Commemorative Edition – Blu-Ray Steelbook (Blu-ray)

Something old and something new: HBO’s reimagined Westworld gets a first season 4k release in a dazzling tin befitting its high-tech profile while the 2008 Justice League origin film, Justice League: The New Frontier, also gets a timely tin to coincide with the new live action feature film, Justice League. For the Justice League fan deeply disappointed with the new movie – this will surely brighten his or her spirits.

Awesome Boxes

Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology (Blu-ray)
Horror Hall of Fame Gift Set – 26 Classic Horror Films (DVD)
Mystery Science Theater 3000: Vol. XXXIX (DVD)
The Three Stooges – Big Box of Nyuks (DVD)
Transformers: 5-Movie Collection (Blu-ray)

A little something for everyone with these specialized boxes – for Stooges fans, Transformers buffs, Mystery Science fanatics, classic horror aficionados or just plain ol’ cinephiles looking to bone up on that sensational early era in the 1920s and ‘30s when Hollywood actually employed women to make movies – and lots of them.

Hey Hey Anime

91 Days – The Complete Series (Blu-ray/DVD)
In This Corner of the World (Blu-ray/DVD)
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Limited Edition (Blu-ray)
Myriad Colors Phantom World – The Complete Series (Blu-ray/DVD)
One-Punch Man Limited Edition (Blu-ray/DVD)
Orange: The Complete Series LE (Blu-ray/DVD)
ReLIFE Season One – LE (Blu-ray/DVD)
Rosario + Vampire / Rosario + Vampire Capu 2 – The Complete Series (Blu-ray/DVD)
SERVAMP Season One (Blu-ray/DVD)
Space Dandy – The Complete Series (Blu-ray/DVD)
Your Name (Blu-ray/DVD)

Thanks to Anime specialists like Funimation and Viz Media, there’s no shortage of great Japanese anime available on Blu-ray and DVD this holiday season, including last year’s popular awards season favorite Your Name. This year, that honor is likely to go to Shout! Factory’s In This Corner of the World. Either way, the offerings for anime fans are rich and deep.

Total Television

“Complete Series” boxed sets are a holiday tradition – but not all boxed sets are created equal. This year is one of the most bounteous harvests in years with an anniversary Buffy the Vampire Slayer set, the long, long, long overdue complete Green Acres from Shout! Factory, the complete Laugh-In from Time Life and the classic The Red Skelton Hour. We’ve also thrown in Mill Creek’s complete sets of I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched for good measure – because they’re awesome.

For Kids!

Albert: A Small Tree with a Big Dream (DVD)
All I Want for Christmas is You (Blu-ray/DVD)
Elena of Avalor: Celebrations to Remember (DVD)
Happy Holidays Garfield (DVD)
Mickey Mouse: Merry & Scary – Holiday Collection (DVD)
Mouse and Mole at Christmas Time (DVD)
Once Upon a Sesame Street Christmas (DVD)
PAW Patrol: The Great Snow Rescue (DVD)
Peanuts Holiday Collection (4k UHD Blu-ray)
PJ Masks: Hello Christmas! (DVD)

A host of holiday-themed titles for the kids this year, highlighted by the 4k UHD Blu-ray debut of the Peanuts Holiday Collection, Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You and the charming Albert: A Small Tree with a Big Dream.

For Everyone!

Christmas with the Andersons (DVD)
A Cinderella Christmas (DVD)
Married by Christmas (DVD)
A Puppy For Christmas (DVD)
Saving Christmas (DVD)

Every year, a host of mediocre direct-to-dvd Christmas movies hit shelves, ending up a few weeks later in dollar bins. This season has five that rise above – four of them from Monarch and one – Saving Christmas, featuring Ed Asner reprising his role as Santa from Elf – from Lionsgate.

Classic TeeVee Christmas

The Brady Bunch: A Very Brady Christmas (DVD)
The Carol Burnett Show: Carol’s Lost Christmas (DVD)
Frasier: Christmas Episodes (DVD)
The Honeymooners: Christmas Laughter (DVD)
Murdoch Mysteries: Once Upon a Murdoch Christmas (Blu-ray)
Sabrina, The Teenage Witch: Christmas Episodes (DVD)

Some of the best Christmas television has come from episodic Christmas specials from popular television shows. Here are some of the very best – all new to DVD this season.

Christmas Fear

Once Upon a Time at Christmas (DVD)
Red Christmas (Blu-ray)
Silent Night, Deadly Night (Blu-ray)

Christmas-themed horror films are a thing. Always have been. Even the late Bob Clark – revered for his beloved Christmas classic A Christmas Story – launched his career with the 1974 slasher film Black Christmas. We’re not recommending these – just making mention. Because we’re all about equal time.

Anniversary Christmas Classics

Holiday Inn – 75th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York – 25th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)
Miracle on 34th Street – 70th Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray)

Three beloved Christmas classics are enjoying anniversary releases this season – but if you can only settle on one, make it Miracle on 34^th Street.

BOOKS

Disney

Catch My Breath (Walt Disney Animation Studios Artist Showcase Series)
Ink & Paint: The Women of Walt Disney’s Animation
Oswald The Lucky Rabbit: The Search for the Lost Disney Cartoons
Tale as Old as Time: The Art and Making of Beauty and the Beast
Once Upon a Dream: From Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty to Disney’s Maleficent
Guardians of the Galaxy: Creating Marvel’s Spacefaring Super Heroes – The Complete Comics History

Disney Publishing makes some of the best coffee table books out there – they are sensational gifts, for adults and children alike. You can’t go wrong with any of them.

Film History

Cecil B. DeMille: The Art of the Hollywood Epic
The Dawn of Technicolor
Saul Bass: Anatomy of Film Design
Styling the Stars: Lost Treasures from the Twentieth Century Fox Archive
King Vidor’s The Crowd: The Making of a Silent Classic

These aren’t exactly new, but they’re still some of the best movie books in recent years and well worthy of a look.

Fan-Tastic

The Art of Ghost in the Shell
Star Trek: Treknology
WWE Absolutely Everything You Need to Know

The live action Ghost in the Shell flopped, but as a topic for a coffee table book it’s terrific. Star Trek Fans will thrill to the real-world validation of Treknology while wrestling fans will absolutely love Absolutely Everything You Need to Know which more than lives up to its title.