Beauty and the Beast was a tale old as time put to song old as rhyme when Disney’s animated classic first appeared 26 years ago. The first fully animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, it won for Best Original Score and Best Original Song (the beloved title tune). Now it’s been remade as a live-action feature that is 45 minutes longer than the previous version.

While there has been some carping by audiences regarding the additional time taken to flesh out the story, there isn’t a single wasted minute in my estimation. The extra time is diligently used to provide a back story for both Belle (Beauty) and the Beast and includes three new songs, “How Does a Moment Last Forever,” first sung by Kevin Kline as Belle’s father, reprised by Emma Watson as Belle and by Celine Dion over the end credits; “Days in the Sun” sung by the Beast’s household; and “Evermore” sung by Dan Stevens as the Beast and by Josh Groban over the end credits. Three of the songs from the original – “Belle,” “Gaston,” and “Be Our Guest” – have additional lyrics. The additional lyrics used in “Gaston” were written by Howard Ashman for the 1991 animated version, but not used.

Emma Watson turned down the female lead in La La Land to play Belle, while Ryan Gosling, who was offered the role of the Beast, turned it down to play the male lead in La La Land. It turned out happily for both. Gosling received an Oscar nomination for his performance while Watson got to play her favorite childhood character.

Bill Condon, who previously directed the award-winning musical Dreamgirls and prior to that earned an Oscar nomination for his adaptation of the musical Chicago, certainly has a proven affinity for the genre. In addition to Harry Potter‘s Watson and Downton Abbey‘s Stevens, his sterling cast includes Luke Evans (Dracula Untold), Josh Gad (Frozen), the afore-mentioned Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda), Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge!), Ian McKellen (Condon’s Gods and Monsters), Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks), newcomer Nathan Mack, Audra McDonald (The Sound of Music Live!), Stanley Tucci (The Devil Wears Prada), and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Concussion). They all live up to expectations and then some.

Cinematography is by Tobias Schliesser (Mr. Holmes).

The Blu-ray release includes tons of extras including a magical table read by cast members. The DVD is limited to a video of Ariana Grande and John Legend performing the title tune which they also do in the end credits.

Released on Blu-ray and DVD the same day as the live-action Beauty and the Beast, Disney has re-released one of its signature animated films, Bambi, now celebrating its 75th anniversary. Along with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Dumbo, and several lesser classics. Disney briefly releases these films to the home video market, then withdraws them and re-issues them seven years later. Having mastered these films to perfection, they are now being re-released in a transfer identical to the previous one, albeit with a different mix of extras. If you already own them there is really no need to buy the latest edition unless you really crave the artwork on the new cover.

Nominated for a 2016 Oscar for Best Animated Feature, the sweetly done French comedy My Life as a Zucchini was not released in the U.S. until February 2017 after the dialogue could be re-recorded in English. Rules for animated films are different than for regular features.

The story is about a young boy who accidentally kills his alcoholic mother and is consequently sent to a foster home for difficult children where he learns life lessons before being adopted by a kindly cop. It’s the kind of thing that used to be standard fare for B-films of the 1930s through the 1950s and is well worth seeing.

My Life as a Zucchini is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Christian Carion’s Come What May sheds light on a mostly forgotten piece of recent French history. Anticipating the German invasion of their country in May 1940, millions of people from the north of France journeyed to the south, literally burning bridges behind them. 93,000 children were lost in the two-week exodus. The film concentrates on one village, in which the exodus is led by the mayor, the director’s grandfather. The central characters are a German resistance fighter masquerading as a Flemish refugee and his eight-year-old son who become separated. Although their characters are fictional, what happens to them is a composite of actual events that took place during the exodus. The film is extremely well acted by August Diehl as the father and Joshio Marlon as the son, with strong support from Olivier Gourmet and Mathilde Seigner as the mayor and his wife, Alice Isaaz as a dedicated schoolteacher, and Matthew Rhys as a lost Scottish soldier.

Come What May is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Arnold Schwarzeneggar gives his best performance as the hardworking laborer who can’t get over the loss of his wife and pregnant daughter in a plane crash in Elliott Lester’s Aftermath. Scoot McNairy as the traffic controller who is blamed for the accident, matches Schwarzenegger’s fine work. The problem is that the film leads to an inevitable conclusion that you see coming from the get-go. Both actors deserved better.

Aftermath is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Maximilian Schell earned one of his three Oscar nominations for the little seen 1975 film The Man in the Glass Booth, which was part of the American Film Theater, a series of fourteen film versions of famous plays released between 1973 and 1975. It was the only one of the fourteen for which an actor was nominated for an Oscar.

Schell is at his best as the guilt-ridden Holocaust survivor who has amassed a fortune with no one to leave it to, who is kidnapped by the Israelis and put on trial as a Nazi war criminal alleged to have stolen the identity of one of the men killed in the concentration camp. The ending of Robert Shaw’s controversial play caused an uproar when it was presented on Broadway although it did earn Tony nominations for Best Play, Direction (Harold Pinter), and Actor (Donald Pleasance). The film, directed by Artur Hiller, was much better received by the lucky few who saw it in theaters and the still too few who have seen it subsequently.

All fourteen films of the American Film Theater have been released on standard DVD by Kino Lorber. The Man in the Glass Booth and Laurence Olivier’s production of Three Sisters are the first to be given Blu-ray releases.

This week’s new releases include John Wick: Chapter 2 and the Criterion Edition of They Live by Night.