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Welcome to How to Spend $20, BOP’s look at the latest Blu-ray discs and DVDs to hit stores nationwide. This week: Jay Baruchel educates a magical creature, Ed Helms loses a tooth and SNL’s Gilly celebrates the Lord’s birthday.

Pick of the Week

For people who wish they were also named Hiccup: How to Train Your Dragon (available October 15)

How to Train Your Dragon is one of those somewhat rare animated movies I actually liked. Granted, I do like animated movies. Yet it seems like it usually takes something extra special for digitized characters to be embraced by me.

Anyway, How to Train Your Dragon is a delight of a movie about a Viking youth (Jay Baruchel) who aspires to be a dragon slayer like the rest of the land’s men and boys. Catch is, though, that he captures his first dragon and later befriends it instead of killing it. Dragon is a touching movie about the power of love and standing up for what you think is right – even if the choice you’re standing up for is an unpopular one.

And it's impressive to think Dragon is a product of DreamWorks Animation – the same studio behind Kung Fu Panda, which I also loved dearly. From time to time I forget that Pixar actually has reputable competition.

Disc includes: The Animators’ Corner featurette, trivia track, audio commentary, The Technical Artistry of Dragon featurette, Viking-Sized Cast featurette, deleted scenes, The Story Behind the Story featurette, Racing for the Gold featurette, How to Draw a Dragon featurette, Your Viking Profile featurette, Dreamworks video jukebox, Making the Story featurette





For people who think The Hangover was so good that it deserves another mention here on How to Spend $20: The Hangover (Extreme Edition)

Hard to believe The Hangover came out about 16 months ago, but ‘tis true. To commemorate the occasion – and, to give us something shiny to look at while we anxiously await the release of Hangover’s summer 2011 sequel – Warner Bros. is dishing out an “extreme” edition of the movie on Blu-ray and DVD.

Not too much is new over the original home media release, save for some extra featurettes and a stash of photos from the boys’ incredible night on the Vegas strip. Highlights include a missing tooth, a ferocious tiger and Mike Tyson serenading new friends with his rendition of Phil Collins’ “In the Air.”

The big rumor about the sequel for some time was that it was to take place in Amsterdam. Though Bradley Cooper claimed he thought it to be true, Hangover’s main brain, Todd Phillips, confirmed this month that it would actually be set in Bangkok and Los Angeles. Not sure what I think about that. Yet the fact that the people from the first movie
are back for a second feels promising.

Disc includes: Audio commentary, Hangover photos, The Madness of Ken Jeong featurette, The Dan Band! featurette, Three Best Friends Song featurette, Map of Destruction featurette

For people who like a little mayhem when celebrating the birth of Jesus: SNL: A Very Gilly Christmas

Just in time for Halloween is… SNL: A Very Gilly Christmas, a primetime special from the venerable late-night staple headlined by one of the show’s most despised characters.

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