Winx Club creator Iginio Straffi turns his considerable
talents — and his Loreto, Italy-based Rainbow animation studio — to the
production of his first non-Winx Club animated feature film, Gladiators
of Rome. And it’s a beauty —
the production values are easily on a par with any animated feature-length film
coming out of Hollywood these days.
Of note, the script is
from Michael J. Wilson, whose body of work includes Ice Age and Shark
Tale … and trade reports indicate that the film arrives with a
production budget that comes in at over $40 million (it’s all up there on the
screen).
Paramount Home Media
Distribution has tabbed Feb. 17 for the domestic DVD debut of Gladiators
of Rome, which follows its Nov. 11 Oscar-qualifying theatrical showcase
run.
Following the eruption of
Mount Vesuvius and the destruction of Pompeii, Timo (voiced by John Schwab) is
adopted and raised by General Chirone, who just happens to run the local
gladiator school.
Before you go whoa, what’s
up with that plot, you have to put the thoughts of Stanley Kubrick’s Spartacus
and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator out of your mind when it comes to this particular
gladiator school … this is a kid’s film, complete with a quartet of mischievous
tiny-tike gladiators and a hero who has zero combat skills.
Of course he’s a
disappointment to his adopted father in terms of ever becoming a “Hero of
Rome,” but it’s not important. Being a
gladiator is just not in Timo, that is, until he falls in love with Lucilla (Jo
Wyatt), the daughter of General Chirone, who has been off studying in
Greece. Her arrival home is a like a
thunderbolt out of the blue and so he sets out to impress her by becoming a
gladiator.
The first stop is to
recruit his goofy cohorts Ciccius and Mauritius (comic relief) and then with
their help track down a sorceress in the nearby spooky woods, who — as legend
has it — will be the source of a magic potion that will make him an
instant gladiator. That doesn’t work
out so well … yuck!!!
Instead, our boy Timo has
to actually work hard and train to become a real gladiator. Enter Diana, the Goddess of Hunt, who takes
the pathetic Timo under her wing and trains him to be the greatest gladiator of
them all … that is if he can defeat his boyhood nemesis, Cassio, in the arena!
Also added to the release
calendar this week from Paramount Home Media are no less than five
family-friendly animated releases and a trio of TV-on-DVD SKUs.
First up, Mar. 3 brings
the Nickelodeon release of Paw Patrol: Marshall & Chase on the Case,
which teams fire pup Marshall with police pup Chase in over 90 minutes worth of
Paw Patrol fun!
Arriving on the same
date, Mar. 3, is a double-disc DVD set titled Bubble Guppies: Fin-Tastic
Collection. This features
nearly four hours worth of adventures starring Molly, Gil, Goby, Deema and the
rest of Nickelodeon’s underwater pals.
Mar. 10 brings three more
kidvid sections on DVD … Blue's Clues: Get Clued Into School
(a three-disc collection), Legend of Korra: Book Four - Balance
(2 disc set) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 3, Volume 1.
On the TV series front,
Mar. 10 will see Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C.: The Complete Series, Matlock's Greatest Cases —
a 12-episode collection on three DVDs — and Petticoat Junction: Family
Favorites (eight hand-picked episodes).
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