New on DVD: 'Sweeney Todd,' 'Alvin and Chipmunks' and more

"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"One and two discs, Paramount Home Entertainment, $29.99/$39.99, rated RJohnny Depp shows that he can sing, and Tim Burton shows why he's the perfect director to adapt Stephen Sondheim's offbeat Broadway hit for the screen. Helena Bonham Carter co-stars as the pie-shop proprietor in Victorian London who finds ingenious uses for the bodies that Depp's vengeful barber dispatches. The single-disc DVD comes with a documentary, "Burton + Depp + Carter = Todd"; the two-disc version adds nine additional features covering the history of the project, the making of the movie and more."Alvin and the Chipmunks"Fox Home Entertainment, $29.98, rated PGThe singing chipmunk trio of Alvin, Simon and Theodore are back, though they were cuter in their old animated guise than in this live-action, CGI-animated format. The little rodents are voiced by Justin Long, Matthew Gray Gubler and Jesse McCartney, while Jason Lee plays Dave Seville, their stage manager and surrogate dad. DVD bonus features include two behind-the-scenes features about the Chipmunks' illustrious history and music. For "old school" Chipmunks fans, Paramount has brought out a special-edition DVD of 1987's "The Chipmunk Adventure" for $16.99."The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder: John, Paul, Tom & Ringo"Two discs, Shout! Factory, $24.99, not ratedJohn Lennon's last televised interview, in 1975 -- five years before he was shot down -- was on "The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder." That interview is included here in a "John Lennon Tribute," broadcast a day after Lennon's death, along with interviews from 1979 with Paul McCartney, then riding high with Wings, and from 1981 with Ringo Starr, who had just released his "Stop and Smell the Roses" album."John From Cincinnati"Three discs, HBO Video, $59.99, rated TV-MADespite being made by David Milch, the creator of the brilliant HBO series "Deadwood," this story of three generations of surfers in the Southern California town of Imperial Beach whose lives are affected by a mysterious stranger just didn't click. In addition to the 10 episodes, the DVD includes a behind-the-scenes feature on Episode 6, "Making a Dream Sequence"; and two audio commentaries by Milch."Father Knows Best: Season One"Four discs, Shout! Factory, $34.99, not ratedActually, it was Mother who really knew best on this popular but bland 1950s TV sitcom, starring Robert Young and Jane Wyatt as the near-perfect parents, and Elinor Donahue, Billy Gray and Lauren Chapin as their almost-perfect children in a small-town America devoid of social problems. All 26 first-season (1954-55) episodes are included, along with a never-widely-seen 1959 episode created for the U.S. government, Robert Young's home movies, behind-the-scenes color footage, interviews with cast and crew members, and more."Terry Jones' Medieval Lives"Two discs, BBC Video, $29.98, not ratedMonty Python's Terry Jones continues his rampage through history with this eight-part series that aired on the History Channel in 2004. You'll never look at knights in shining armor, damsels in distress or pious monks the same way again. The DVD includes a bonus feature, "Gladiators: The Brutal Truth."Plus:"David Attenborough: Wildlife Specials" (not rated)"The BBC Natural History Collection Featuring Planet Earth" (not rated)"Becker: The First Season" (not rated)"Blue Man Group's How To Be a Megastar Live!" (not rated)"Country Matters" (not rated)"The Cutting Edge: Chasing the Dream" (rated PG-13)"The Bette Davis Collection, Volume 3": "In This Our Life," "The Old Maid," "All This and Heaven Too," "The Great Lie," "Deception" and "Watch on the Rhine" (not rated)"Extreme Movie" (not rated)"Eye of the Beast" (not rated)"Fiorile" (not rated)"The Good Night" (rated R)"Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II" (rated R)"Kaos" (not rated)"Martin: The Complete Fourth Season" (not rated)"New Street Law: The Complete Second Season" (not rated)"The Night of the Shooting Stars" (not rated)"What Love Is" (rated R)(Contact Bruce Dancis at bdancis(at)sacbee.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)

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