Animated documentary, offbeat Brynner film released

Here are some of the new DVDs landing on shelves this week.

"Waltz With Bashir" (Sony Classics/Blu-ray, 2008; R for violence, language, nudity, sex; $39.95). Ari Folman's animated documentary — yes, animated documentary — is quite an accomplishment, as the filmmaker looks back on his time in the Israeli army more than 25 years ago.

Folman examines the nature of youthful events vs. middle-age memories, and whether the chaos of war is an excuse for certain action — or inaction. Are we complicit in horrifying events if we simply watch and fail to intervene?

As a teen soldier, Folman was sent to Lebanon in 1982 during the Israeli occupation, and now he uses his documentarian skills to interview fellow soldiers about what occurred there, using animated re-creations of events and memories, and even hallucinations.

Extras: widescreen, audio commentary, featurettes

"Catlow" (Warner, 1971, PG-13, $14.97). Yul Brynner takes an atypical comic role in this offbeat Western based on a Louis L'Amour novel. The film alternates between broad comedy and more serious action with Brynner as a gunslinger on the run from an old friend who's now a lawman (the always sturdy Richard Crenna) and a particularly nasty, ruthless killer (Leonard Nimoy, playing against type; he also has a nude scene!).

Extras: widescreen, trailer

"Phoebe in Wonderland" (Image, 2008, PG-13, $27.98). This is one of those love-it or hate-it movies, depending on how you respond to the story of a troubled young girl (Elle Fanning, younger sister of Dakota) whose obsessive-compulsive behavior puzzles her parents (Felicity Huffman, Bill Pullman) and frustrates her school principal (Campbell Scott).

When she bonds with an eccentric drama teacher (Patricia Clarkson) who is casting "Alice in Wonderland," Phoebe begins to see those around her as fanciful characters in daydreams of Lewis Carroll's stories.

Extras: widescreen

"Alice's House" (IndiePix, 2009, $24.95). Sad and sleazy tale of a Brazilian wife and mother who works as a manicurist and gets no respect from her cheating husband or despicable three sons, and who views her mother's life as a dead end she fears she will repeat. So she has an affair with a former childhood sweetheart as a means of escape.

Extras: widescreen, in Portuguese with English subtitles, featurettes, trailers

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