The Yeti, Co-Starring William Sadler & Cobin Bernsen

Honestly, it is far better when a film calls that mythical snow-beast a yeti rather than an “abominable snowman.” The former is much quicker to type and easier to pronounce, so this film already has points in its favor. In the late 1940s, Alaska wasn’t even a state yet. Largely seen as a wild and snowy frontier, there could have been anything up there, as far as most Americans were concerned—and in this film, they weren’t wrong. Oil man Merriell Sunday Sr. went there looking for oil, but he found something else instead. Cartographer Ellie Bannister agrees to guide the search party looking for him and her explorer father, Hollis Bannister, in director-screenwriters Gene Gallerano & William Pisciotta’s The Yeti, which releases this coming Tuesday on DVD and BluRay.

Supposedly old man Sunday was scouting for oil, but Bannister knows her eccentric old man wouldn’t waste his time on that, no matter how much money the tycoon offered. Nevertheless, they have been out of contact for far too long, so she agrees to join the rescue operation organized by Merriell Sunday Jr. (who definitely displays deep-seated father issues).

Somehow, they land in the middle of a massive storm that even interferes with Bannister’s compass. Consequntly, they get lost, quickly and badly. Viewers definitely wouldn’t enjoy getting lost with the entitled Junior Sunday or the abrasive good old boy demolition specialist Daniel “Dynamite” Hewitt—and neither does Bannister. However, comms specialist Booker (who was the Enola Gay’s radio man) is a good guy and scarred war hero Leander Coates has her back too, despite his mildly psychotic tendencies. Of course, when the yeti (or yetis) attack, all bets are off.

Gallerano & Pisciotta serve up several hat-tips to the Indiana Jones movies that are rather endearing. However, some of the deliberately retro practical effects are a little too successful, looking more like genuine cheesiness rather than loving homages. Frankly, the film shows symptoms of an identity crisis, because the blood-spurting gore clashes with the nostalgia.

However, the two old pros, William Sadler and Corbin Bernsen, elevate all their scenes as Hollis Bannister and Sunday Senior, respectively. They are both entertainingly flinty and grizzled. Playing against his usual over-the-top type, Jim Cummings is a surprisingly steadying presence as salt-of-the-earth Booker. Plus, Linc Hand delivers truly withering death stares as brooding Coates.

Chill Out, Scooby-Doo, on Cartoon Network

You might think Casey Kasem was from Shangra-La, considering the voice-over artist dubbed that “meddling kid,” Shaggy Rogers well into his eighties. Unfortunately, time catches up to even the eternally youthful. Although Kasem once again performed as Shaggy in this feature, it was animation legend Josph Barbera’s final Scooby project. It was also dedicated to the memory of late Disney and Hanna-Barbera animator Iwao Takamoto, a longtime contributor to the Scooby franchise. Scooby and Shaggy have outlived them all, presumably thanks to diet and exercise (all that running from monsters). They get another workout (this time at high altitude) in Joe Sichta’s Chill Out, Scooby Doo, which airs on the Cartoon Network.

Fred, Daphne, and Velma thought they were meeting Scooby and Shaggy in Paris for a well-earned vacation. Instead, Rogers and our favorite Great Dane are lured to the Himalayas by cryptid-hunter Alphonse LeFleur, by the promise of an all-you-can-eat flight. He intends to use the duo as bait for the Yeti.

Fortunately, Scooby and Shaggy quickly ditch LaFleur, reconnecting with an old friend, cryptozoologist Del Chillman, who now happens to be the local DJ, even though he only has one regular listener, Minga, the sister of Pemba the sherpa. Unfortunately, Pemba’s latest client is clearly up to no good. Professor Jeffries hopes to plunder the crystals of Shangra-La, right under the nose of the High Lama. There is also the Yeti, who clearly enjoys chasing Scooby and Shaggy. In fact, he pursues them right into Shangra-La.

As straight-to-DVD features go, Chill Out really plays like an extended episode of the various Mystery Incorporated series. Even by the franchise standards, the humor is shamelessly goofy and logic immediately goes out the window. For instance, the rest of the meddling kids manage to drive their van from Paris to Himalayas, within the first act.

The Primevals, on BluRay

Thanks to writers with three names, like Edgar Rice Burroughs, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, we want to believe there could be a lost world nestled in a hidden valley or under the Earth’s surface. That is exactly what a scientific expedition finds in late stop-motion animator and special effects artist David Allen’s long-lost labor of love. Instead of dinosaurs, they find yeti and aliens, but the vibes are definitely in the tradition of The Lost World and The Land Time Forgot. Decades in the making, Allen’s fantastical feature was constantly interrupted by financing woes and ultimately his untimely death. However, he captured the footage he needed with his cast and left behind sufficient creature-models for his colleagues and producers to finally finish The Primevals, which releases this Tuesday on BluRay.

Matt Connor’s doctoral thesis crashed and burned, because he argued for the existence of the yeti. He is therefore quite interested when his advisor, Dr. Claire Collier unveils a genuine yeti body, smuggled out of a very angry Nepal, for the museum’s collection. Of course, to really understand the yeti, they a live specimen, so off they go to India, where crusty hunter-adventurer Rondo Montana (surely a hat-tip to Rondo Hatton) will guide them across the border.

On the trail of the yeti, they fall into an underground cavern that opens up into a “land before time.” There are neanderthal people, but they are terrified by a race of lizard-people aliens. It is reptile creatures who stirred up the yeti, using them in gladiatorial games with the poor hairy hominids. It was one of those electrically stimulated yeti that killed their sherpa’s brother in the moody prologue.

The Primevals is a ton of fun, for two reasons. Allen’s stop-motion animation, creature design, make-up effects, otherworldly sets, and other assorted creations are extremely cool looking. Just as importantly, Allen and his posthumous collaborators always play it straight as an arrow. The camp (which is admittedly there in some of the dialogue) is unintentional.

This is not a spoof. It is a remarkably successful attempt to channel the magic of Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen classics like King Kong and Jason and the Argonauts. Frankly, the film Primevals most feels like, in terms of the movement and texture of the monster design and animation, might be Clash of the Titans, Harryhausen’s last great achievement in visual magic.

Doctor Who: The Abominable Snowmen

This would be the second invasion underway in 20^th Century Tibet. The first came when the Communist-dominated PRC occupied and annexed the sovereign nation in 1951. The second is the alien intelligence exerting a sinister influence over a remote Himalayan monastery. One of its tools happen to be hairy snow beasts. Fortunately, the Tardis finds its way there in “The Abominable Snowmen,” a formerly lost six-episode Doctor Who story-arc, recreated with animation and the original audio track, which releases today on BluRay.

Initially, the Second (Patrick Troughton) Doctor is thrilled to back in Tibet. He was there several hundred years prior, when he accepted one of the Detsen Monastery’s holy relics for safe keeping, during times of turmoil. The Doctor now hopes to return it, not knowing these too are times of trial for Detsen, but not because of the PLA invasion, which goes unmentioned during “Abominable Snowmen,” even though it was originally produced in 1967.

Unfortunately, the Doctor receives a rather rude welcome, thanks to English explorer Edward Travers, who stokes the suspicions of Khrisong, the Tibetan warrior protecting Detsen, against the Time Lord. Travers, who would return in a later mostly-lost Doctor Who adventure, mistakenly assumes the Doctor is a reporter or a rival hoping to exploit or sabotage his search for the Yeti.

Amazingly, Padmasambhava, the high lama of the monastery remembers the Doctor from his previous visit. However, the ancient monk is not himself. Something latched onto Padmasambhava during his astral wanderings and now holds the very senior monk in thrall. Its chief pawns happen to be the hirsute robotic creatures Travers reasonably took for Yetis. Whatever they are, they trap the Doctor’s bickering companions, Jamie and Victoria, in a cave at the end of the first episode.

The BBC’s penny-wise-pound-foolish tape-wiping practices in the 1960s and 1970s almost makes a nerd’s head explode. How much revenue have they missed out on by reusing recycling the tapes of old Doctor Who episodes or their production of Asimov’s Caves of Steel, starring Peter Cushing? In some cases, where the audio tracks still exist, they have resurrected missing Doctor Who episodes through original animation, as they have done for “Abominable Snowmen.” The original video survives for the second episode, which is included in the BluRay set, along with black-and-white and color animated recreations of all six installments. Arguably, the best way to experience the authentic viewing experience is by selection the black-and-white animation for episodes one and three through six and the surviving second live-action episode.

Regardless, it is nice to have a “new” vintage Doctor Who episode back in circulation, especially since it holds special behind-the-scenes significance, co-starring Jack Watling, who played Travers in multiple adventures, with his daughter, Victoria Watling, who portrayed the Doctor’s companion, Victoria Wakefield. The spartan Tibetan setting looks good both in the surviving episode and the black-and-white episodes. Admittedly, the big furry Yeti robots look weirdly cute instead of scary, but they are definitely in keeping with the low-budget aesthetic of vintage Doctor Who fans know and love.

Abominable: Oscar Qualified

It is an animated film, but it touches on several of China’s territorial disputes. The plucky young heroes are on the road to Mt. Everest, claimed by both China and Nepal, but the entire nation of Tibet is an occupied sovereign state. Yet, passions were really enflamed by the blink-and-you-missed-it appearance of China’s so-called “Nine-Dash Line” demarcating their illegal claim to hegemony over the South China Sea. It was on-screen long enough for Vietnam to ban the film and Malaysia to demand the scene be cut. Perversely, this time around, the Hollywood studio declined snip the offending image, presumably for fear of offending China. The geopolitical context is quite ugly, but the story and characters are cute in Jill Culton’s Abominable, a Chinese co-production co-directed by Todd Wilderman, which releases today on DVD.

Young Yi still mourns the loss of her father, from whom she first learned violin. As a coping mechanism, she works relentlessly, hoping to save enough money for the trip across China they always dreamed of taking. Then one night, she comes face to face with a giant hairy monster on the roof of her building.

The shy creature she dubs “Everest,” due to the clear homesick yearning inspired by a Mt. Everest billboard, is a fugitive from the sinister Burnish Corporation. Years ago, Mr. Burnish (an Anglo elite, naturally) swore he saw a yeti, but the world scoffed, so he has obsessively searched for another such beast ever since. Actually, Burnish (who looks a lot like Waldorf from the Muppets) is not nearly as nasty as his ambitious science advisor, Dr. Zara. She will be in hot pursuit behind Yi as she tries to lead Everest back home. She will have the dubious help of her enthusiastic little cousin Peng and the reluctant company of her popular, Fuerdai-esque neighbor Jin.

No doubt about it, Everest is just a big, endearing fur ball. His character design is rather simple, but totally charming. Yi is also likably earnest and resourceful. However, the best aspect of the animation are the strikingly scenic backdrops. From the sparkle of the Shanghai skyline to grandeur of Leshan Giant Buddha, Abominable truly looks terrific.