Mike Spring
What’s New in Home Video & Pop Culture – December 16th, 2025
Well, as will become abundantly clear in a moment, the studios have flooded shelves over the past few weeks with fourth quarter holiday releases, and now they’re almost done for the year. This will be my last weekly column until the new year, but be sure to check out this week’s big release of my 2025 Home Video & Pop Culture Annual Gift Guide! It’s gonna be jam-packed as always. In the meantime, here’s a few last home video releases for the year! Happy holidays!
In This Week’s Column:
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
- The Handmaid’s Tale: The Complete Series (DVD)
- Tom & Jerry: Tom & Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958) (DVD)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray)
Official Synopsis:
A shell-shocking saga of mutants, martial arts and New York mayhem, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles trilogy brought comic book grit, practical effects wizardry and pizza-fuelled fun to a generation of moviegoers, helping turn four sewer-dwelling brothers into global pop culture icons.
Launching in 1990 with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, director Steve Barron’s gritty, high-energy adaptation of the underground comic became a box office phenomenon, fusing martial arts action, streetwise humor and the groundbreaking animatronics of Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. The 1991 sequel The Secret of the Ooze is an irresistibly fun second slice: a deep-dive into the turtles’ origins where new mutant foes Tokka and Rahzar are thrown in the mix… double the stakes, double the pizza! Rounding out the trilogy, 1993’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III sends the heroes in a half shell back to feudal Japan in a time-travel adventure full of samurai showdowns, ancient legends and comic chaos.
Restored in glorious 4K and packed with extras, this radical set celebrates the legacy of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael in one of the most iconic franchises of the era, blending innovative effects, comic-book heart and early ’90s attitude.
The Movies:
When I look at the entirety of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise – which encompasses comic books, cartoons, toys, video games, and so much more – it’s very clear to me where my favorites lie. I am a die-hard Ninja Turtles fan, but if I had to rank my favorite TMNT properties out of all the various iterations of all the various forms of media, it would go:
- The original black & white comics by Eastman and Laird
- The 1990 live action movie
- The 2013 animated series
- The coin-op arcade game from the 1990s
- The original Saturday morning cartoon
As you can see, that 1990 live action movie is right at the top of the list. Not only is it one of my favorite Ninja Turtles iterations, it’s actually one of my all-time favorite movies. And it’s crazy to me that 35 years later, it still not only holds up on its own merits, but it remains easily the best Ninja Turtles movie yet.
After teasing it for years, Arrow Video – my favorite purveyors of home video greatness – has released the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy, a 4K Ultra HD box set (also available on Blu-ray) that includes all three of the original live action films plus an insane amount of bonus features. For my money, the original trilogy is a bit of series of diminishing returns. I love the first movie with all my heart; it does a great job of capturing the flavor and feel of the original Eastman & Laird comic books. The second movie is fun but it gets cheesy in places. The third film is… well, it’s not that good.
But this box set is for the completist as well as for the fan who loves all three films. And frankly, it’s worth it just for the deluxe treatment the first movie gets. There are hours of extra features and the film looks the best it’s looked on home video… well, pretty much ever. In short, if you’re a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan, this is an absolute must-have in my opinion.
The 4K Video/Audio:
All three films have gotten a 4K Ultra HD upgrade, but there’s no denying that the age of the films is a factor. You’re not going to mistake them for movies made in the last five years, but overall they look outstanding. The first film especially boasts deep, rich colors that stay true to the original movie’s darker color palette. Shadow delineation is strong during the many night scenes, and image clarity is fine and sharp. There is also a nice level of grain that returns the cinematic feel of the movie without being too much or too little. The surround soundtracks aren’t 100% immersive, but they do kick in nicely during the action scenes and give all your speakers a workout. With a thumping low end bass channel, clear dialogue, and brassy pop music, there’s nothing to complain about on the audio front either.
The Bonus Features:
- Double-sided foldout poster featuring original artwork from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the “Map of the Kappa Realm”, a stylised re-creation of the ancient scroll that appears in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
- Two additional double-sided foldout posters featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Florey
- Eight character trading cards
- Roy’s Pizza loyalty card
- Four character stickers
- Theatrical trailers for each film
- Image gallery for each film
TMNT –
- Brand new commentary with director Steve Barron
- Brand new commentary with comic book expert and podcast host Dave Baxter
- Rising When We Fall, a newly filmed interview with director Steve Barron
- Turtle Talk, a newly filmed interview with actors Robbie Rist, Brian Tochi, Ernie Reyes Jr and Kenn Scott
- O’Neil on the Beat, a newly filmed interview with actor Judith Hoag
- Wet Behind the Shells, a newly filmed interview with producer Simon Fields
- Beneath the Shell, a newly filmed interview with puppet coordinator and second unit director Brian Henson, and Rob Tygner, puppeteer for both Splinter and Leonardo
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turf, a newly filmed featurette exploring the film’s locations in New York City and North Carolina
- Alternate UK version with unique footage prepared for censorship reasons, presented in 4K via seamless branching
- Alternate ending from VHS workprint
- Alternate Korean footage
TMNT II –
- Brand new commentary with director Michael Pressman moderated by filmmaker Gillian Wallace Horvat
- John Du Prez to the Rescue, a newly filmed interview with composer of the trilogy John Du Prez
- Hard Cores, a newly filmed interview with Kenny Wilson, mould shop supervisor at Jim Henson’s Creature Shop
- The Secret of the Edit, a newly filmed interview with editor Steve Mirkovich
- Behind the Shells, an archive featurette from 1991
TMNT III –
- Brand new commentary with director Stuart Gillard
- Daimyos & Demons, a newly filmed interview with actor Sab Shimono
- Rebel Rebel, a newly filmed interview with actor Vivian Wu
- Alternate UK opening
Digital Copy Included: No
The Handmaid’s Tale: The Complete Series (DVD)
Official Synopsis:
In a dystopian future where fertility rates have dropped to dangerous levels, what was once the United States is now a totalitarian, Christian fundamentalist society that subjugates women. As one of the few remaining women able to bear children, June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) must serve as a “handmaid” to a ruthless government official (Joseph Fiennes) and his wife (Yvonne Strahovski). Debuting in 2017, this acclaimed adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel co-stars Alexis Bledel, Madeline Brewer.
The Show:
Hulu’s hit series based on the Margaret Atwood novel returns to home video for the final time: The Handmaid’s Tale: The Complete Series makes its debut just in time for the holidays.
I’ve always found it interesting when TV shows run for multiple seasons when they’re based on a single source novel; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Now I personally never really got sucked into the world of The Handmaid’s Tale but judging by the show’s popularity (and the number of Handmaid’s Tale Halloween costumes the past couple of years), nobody was complaining that they kept getting more of June Osborne and company. This chunky new box set includes all six seasons and 66 episodes across 20 discs, and it includes all of the original extra features from the various seasons’ home video releases as well.
Of course, part of what made The Handmaid’s Tale a part of the cultural zeitgeist is its topical nature. While it was set in a dystopic future, it was hard not to see parallels between the events in the show and some real world events that have happened over the past decade. It’s a tense and harrowing show, and if you get stressed out easily you may want to take the show one or two episodes at a time rather than binging the entire thing in a couple of marathon sessions.
The Bonus Features:
- Season 1: “Script to Screen,” “Hope in Gilead”.
- Season 2: “Off Book: Dressing Dystopia”.
- Season 3: “Power Play – Gilead’s Women Fight Back”.
- Season 4: Cast, crew, and superfans discuss one burning question per episode.
- Season 6: “Inside the Episode” for all 10 episodes.
Digital Copy Included: No
Tom & Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958) (DVD)
Official Synopsis:
The complete collection of Hanna Barbera’s Oscar-winning masterpieces at last! ? Every lit stick of dynamite. Every fur-flying chase. Every back-firing mouse trap. Restored. Complete. Uncut. The ultimate compilation of animation’s favorite feuding duo – Tom & Jerry. All 114 theatrical cartoon shorts, the entire series, as originally released to theaters by MGM during the Golden Age of Hollywood. For the first time ever, all in one set – they are now all yours. ? Every friend, foe and foil, from Little Quacker, to Spike and Tyke – and not forgetting the lady of the house, Dinah – in the stories, the situations, the hardships and courtships; from Times Square to the Hollywood Bowl; as guardsmen in the French Revolution to tall-tales out west – It’s ALL here in the Tom & Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958).?
The Movies:
I never knew how much I missed Tom & Jerry until I sat down to dive into this new collection. When I was a kid, Saturday mornings and after school TV consisted of, mostly, whatever was on TV. So that included a lot of Looney Tunes cartoons, reruns of The Flintstones and The Jetsons, and similar fare. And while I enjoyed all of them, nothing got me as excited as Tom & Jerry. The slapstick humor and the brilliance of the physical choreography was always amazing, and I used to watch it and just laugh non-stop.
It turns out, that’s pretty much still how I react when I watch it. I marvel at how well-constructed and, frankly, perfect the cartoons are, even after over half a century. This new Tom & Jerry collection compiles all 114 theatrical shorts that were released between 1940 and 1958, effectively the entire original run. Every Tom & Jerry cartoon that you’ve seen, that you’ve forgotten that you’ve seen, and that you haven’t seen is included here, and it’s a treasure trove of animated genius.
Over the course of five discs, you get about 14 hours of short cartoons. There’s obviously too many to list here, but suffice it to say that you get your fix of cartoon comedy but you also get a complete historical archive of one of cinema’s greatest cartoon franchises. Tom & Jerry: The Golden Era Anthology (1940-1958) is an amazing set for fans of everyone’s favorite cat and mouse duo.
The Bonus Features:
- 20 Audio Commentaries by animation experts
Digital Copy Included: No
