This is three-day-old news by now, but I haven’t seen much commentary on this story.  The Adventures of Tintin, a co-production between Canada’s Nelvana and France’s Ellipsanime, will see its 39 episodes released on DVD through Shout! Factory.  This “multi-year agreement” will exploit the upcoming 2011 release of The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn, the Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson/Weta Digital motion-capture film.

This news is notable for the American company attached to the Adventures of Tintin DVD releases.  Shout! Factory has released Canadian content before, most notably SCTV, ReBoot and Transformers: Beast Wars.

On September 14, 2010, Mill Creek Entertainment and Cookie Jar Group will release a complete series set of The Legend of White Fang.  This story has previously been mentioned by TVShowsonDVD.com.

The Legend of White Fang originally aired in Canada on Family Channel, while HBO aired the series in the US.  The Legend of White Fang was produced when Cookie Jar was known as CINAR.

I remember The Legend of White Fang from its Global run, sometime in the mid-1990s.  For a show mainly aired as CanCon-mandated filler, the series was surprisingly decent.  Pierre Berton was even The Legend of White Fang‘s historical consultant.

Truth be known, The Legend of White Fang was a bit boring at times, a problem CINAR shows often had in the 1990s.  I’d still take The Legend of White Fang over Sharky & George, The Smoggies and…ugh…C.L.Y.D.E.

What gets me is how Mill Creek Entertainment and Cookie Jar Group sell this set.  The box set front cover image is of a generic posterized husky.  The cartoon did not look that good.

Also, Mill Creek and Cookie Jar have this habit of passing off unrelated items from the Cookie Jar archives as “extras.”  Seriously, what do Busytown Mysteries, Flight Squad and The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures have to do with a loose Jack London book adaptation?

This isn’t even a new phenomenon.  Mill Creek and Cookie Jar pulled this stunt with the Dark Oracle series set.  It’s annoying.

Here are the opening credits to The Legend of White Fang.  You can see YTV logos and a horrible Canadian flag animation circa 2000 plastered over the credits.  The show got around.

Little Britain USA (Comedy Network: premiered January 20, 2010, 10:00 PM ET/PT) is the HBO portover of Little Britain, a BBC sketch comedy series.  For those not familiar with Little Britain, the show is a sketch comedy travelogue, focusing on many recurring characters each episode.  Matt Lucas and David Walliams play almost all of the main characters, while some guy in a scarf narrates.

Among the figures of fun are Welsh homosexualist Daffyd Thomas, “paraplegic” Andy and caretaker Lou, morbidly obese Bubbles DeVere and chav Vicky Pollard.  Each character has a catchphrase and/or marketable personality trait.

I’m not going to describe Little Britain beyond this point.  It is to British comedy what The Red Green Show is to Canadian comedy.  Although characters change often, most Little Britain sketches end with a catchphrase uttered and a British stereotype lampooned.  It’s essentially the same show every episode, a tradition which is carried over to Little Britain USA.

I have viewed Little Britain‘s first three series.  The first series focuses on eccentricities, keeping the shock humour to acceptable levels.

By the third series, the show falls into dreary-as-shit repetition.  Daffyd Thomas says “I am a gay” and acts like a poseur.  Marjorie Dawes makes fun of fatties and picks on the token Indian.  Carol Beer acts rude, coughs, and says “computer says no.”  Every.  Single.  Episode.  Hell, I haven’t even touched Maggie Blackamoor and her vomitous reactions to progress.

I want to like Little Britain USA, but again, same jokes with the same punchlines.  Lucas and Walliams go through the motions way too often, despite the inclusion of new characters like Phyllis (Walliams) and Mr. Doggy.  Want to see a sheriff (Walliams) get sexually aroused over guns?  It’s here, whether you like it or not.

There are a few clever bits in Little Britain USA, like Mildred (Lucas) talking to Connor (Walliams) about all the drugs she’s put into her body over the years.  On the flip side, there’s a sketch about muscleheads Mark and Tom being muscleheaded.  Oh, their genitals are tiny.  Full-frontal nudity and pantomimed anal sex ensue, not that those things translate into hilarity.

The thing I most hate about Little Britain USA is its overloud laugh track.  Lucas and Walliams’ material can stand on its own.  Why have the canned laughter?  Do people need to be prodded into laughing every time Andy gets off his wheelchair and pisses in the pool?

Fans of Little Britain will no doubt like Little Britain USA.  It’s a well-known formula in a different flavour, like Coca-Cola with Lemon.  I can’t get into Little Britain USA for this reason.  Lucas and Walliams are capable of better material.

Instead of adapting Little Britain for American audiences, Lucas and Walliams should have blown the show up and began anew.  They’ve gone as far as they can with the Little Britain format.  At least Tom Baker doesn’t suck on this show, but we all know that going in.