New on DVD: Almodóvar, animation, and a fun flick you probably missed

Another terrific movie from Pedro Almodóvar, two very different animated releases, and one of last year's best movies that you most likely didn't see, all new on DVD this week.

If the movie-within-the-movie of Broken Embraces looks familiar, it's just because director Pedro Almodóvar is restaging scenes from his classic screwball farce Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. But Embraces is no comedy, instead dealing with the doomed love affair between a filmmaker (Lluís Homar) and his leading lady (Penélope Cruz, in the role for which she should have gotten her Oscar nod this year), who happens to be the mistress of the billionaire funding the movie they're making. 

While it's not at the level of such immortal Almodóvar movies as All About My Mother or Law of Desire, Broken Embraces is nonetheless a gorgeous piece of work, loaded with great performances and homages to the auteur's favorite movies. The DVD features lots of goodies, including a new short film by Almodóvar.

Fresh from its Oscar nominations in the Best Song and Best Animated Feature categories, Disney's The Princess and the Frog makes its way to DVD in various versions. It's a return to the old-school 2-D animation for which the studio is famous; here's hoping that the movie's relative lack of box-office success — it wasn't a flop by any means, but it definitely under-performed — won't mean we get nothing but all CGI all the time.

Not that CGI can't produce terrific animated features, such as Astro Boy, a remake of the classic Japanese anime shorts. I wasn't expecting much from this version, but I was amazed to discover a film that was both funny and touching. (But hey, I really liked Meet the Robinsons, so what do I know?) Who can resist a film whose voice cast includes both Matt Lucas and Nathan Lane?

Mystery Science Theater 3000 fans will rejoice over the Volume XVII box set, which not only features series faves like The Final Sacrifice ("Rowsdower!") and The Beatniks but also the rarely-repeated The Crawling Eye, which was the very first episode that the MST3K cast did for national TV. (For The Comedy Channel, which existed pre–Comedy Central, to be exact.)

Finally, one of my favorite movies that flew under a lot of people's radar in 2009 was Bandslam, from gay writer-director Todd Graff. Like his first feature, Camp, this one also deals with talented teens with an itch for performing, although this time around it's about garage bands getting ready for a big annual competition. It's a smart and hip movie, but unfortunately its target audience — music-savvy teens — were probably warded off by the presence of Disney Channel starlets Vanessa Hudgens (playing against type as a nerdy girl with a Daria deadpan) and Aly Michalka. Give this one a shot — it's a delight.