Sheena Blu-Ray Review (Retro VHS Look Series)
By Paul Rudoff on May. 9, 2019 at 11:38 PM in Home Video

Sheena arrives on Blu-ray as part of Mill Creek Entertainment's Retro VHS Look Series, part of a growing trend of physical media releases with packaging designed to look like the VHS videocassettes of the 1980s and 1990s. I have reviewed several other titles in the series here on The Corner Penthouse.

Sheena (1984) is the story of Janet Ames, a precocious little blonde girl, accompanying her archeologist parents in deepest, darkest Africa. Orphaned in Zambouli territory, she is renamed Sheena (Tanya Roberts) by the noble tribe who teach her to communicate telepathically with all creatures. Sheena gets a firsthand lesson in love from Vic Casey (Ted Wass), a wisecracking TV journalist. In Africa for a story on a royal football player, Prince Otwani (Trevor Thomas), Vic soon finds himself embroiled in a web of political intrigue. When the evil prince decides to invade the Zamboulis' land, it is up to Sheena to rescue Vic and save her idyllic kingdom!

Based on the 1938 comic "Sheena, Queen of the Jungle" by Will Eisner and Jerry Iger (who go uncredited as creators of the character in this motion picture), Sheena can be easily described as "Tarzan with tits". That's an apt description considering that Sheena's fine feminine form is on display in not one, but TWO bathing scenes in this PG rated movie (the PG-13 rating had not quite come into existence yet). Embodying Sheena is Tanya Roberts, coming off of her brief but memorable stint on Charlie's Angels from 1980 to 1981, in addition to her role in the 1982 cult classic The Beastmaster, and her nude pictorial in the October 1982 issue of Playboy (alt url). Tanya's acting can initially seem very stilted and wooden, but I think it works for the character since she doesn't have much experience communicating with the "outside world".

The "outside world" comes into her life via sports journalist, Vic Casey, portrayed by Ted Wass. TV viewers of my generation will remember him as Nick Russo, Blossom's father on the early 1990s series Blossom. The earlier generation will know him as Danny Dallas on the 1970s sitcom spoof SOAP. Ted imbues Vic with a likeability that helps breathe life...and FUR...into the movie.

Sheena is generally considered a "bad" movie. It was nominated for five Golden Raspberry Awards at the 5th annual ceremony held in 1985 - Worst Picture, Worst Director (John Guillermin), Worst Actress (Tanya Roberts), Worst Screenplay, and Worst Musical Score - but the film failed to win a Razzie in any category. Honestly, I didn't think it was that bad at all. It's definitely campy, though. Sheena's telepathic control of animals, like fellow classic comic book character Aquaman, was kinda goofy - especially because she holds her fist up to her forehead to do it. There's something absurdly wrong with the story of a little blonde white girl being worshipped by a tribe of black people, who claim her as their own, and don't tell her about her real mother or her past. The music score by Richard Hartley gets the job done, and I especially love the plucky guitar theme, best heard during the opening title sequence in which Sheena rides her zebra (really a painted horse) in slow motion, many years before Baywatch.

Sheena is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio with a runtime of 1:56:21. On the audio side, there is only an English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio track. There are only English SDH subtitles. As is the case with most Mill Creek Entertainment releases, there are no special features - just like the original videocassette!

The real "bonus feature" here is the vintage-looking VHS-inspired slipsleeve, with faux wear and tear, and fake "rental stickers" on it, while giving the appearance of a videocassette being pulled out from the right side (though the original VHS may have been in a bottom-loading box), complete with tape label side on the right spine. Here's a complete look at this special slipsleeve. Click on it to get a better look.
The front artwork is based on the U.S. Goodtimes Home Video re-release VHS box art, as seen below. The Goodtimes release, which was duplicated in the crappy LP speed, was the one my family owned when I was a kid. The back of the slipsleeve bears a similarity to the original VHS box art, but using different photos.

This colorful box design is different from the original RCA/Columbia release, which was plain white with the legendary red border that company was known for in the 1980s. Interestingly, the faux rental stickers on Mill Creek's slipsleeve are the REAL rental stickers that appear on the scans of this release at VHS Collector. Not "inspired by", but an actual copy-and-paste of the real stickers from the box scan. Some might have negative things to say about this, but I love how the folks at Mill Creek made sure that the retro VHS slipsleeve was fairly authentic to the real original VHS box art(s); rental stickers included! This is better than just something that looks retro.

The case artwork underneath is of a modern style, which means that the VHS-style slipsleeve may only be available for a limited time. In the photo below, the slipsleeve cover is on the left and the case artwork underneath is on the right.

Interestingly, a careful examination of the case artwork (not the slipsleeve) reveals the text "2-Disc Set" in black against a dark background on the bottom of the spine. Obviously, there is only one disc here, so that's an error. Mill Creek doesn't usually do Blu-ray/DVD combo packs, so I have to wonder why it was even there in the first place.

If you're not already aware of Mill Creek Entertainment, they are a budget company, which results in their products having a lower cost than the big studios. Right now, Sheena is listed on Amazon for less than $10. The 1984 theatrical feature film is also included in Mill Creek's Sheena: Queen of the Jungle Collection - The Movie and TV Series 6-DVD set; which also includes the complete 2000-2002 syndicated TV series starring Gena Lee Nolin, and five episodes of the 1955-1956 TV series starring Irish McCalla. The first disc includes the 1984 film and these episodes of the 1955 series: "The Rival Queen", "The Leopard Men", "The Renegades", "The Sacred River", and "The Test". The remaining five discs include all 35 episodes of the 2000 Gena Lee Nolin series.

The Retro VHS Look Series includes the following Blu-ray releases. Do note that there is a new 1990s-centric Retro VHS Look Series from Mill Creek. That is a separate series from this one.
• Happy Birthday To Me (1981)
• Neighbors (1981)
• Silent Rage (1982)
• Krull (1983)
• Hardbodies (1984)
• Sheena (1984)
• Songwriter (1984)
• The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)
• Who's Harry Crumb? (1989)
• Last Action Hero (1993)
• Neighbors (1981)
• Silent Rage (1982)
• Krull (1983)
• Hardbodies (1984)
• Sheena (1984)
• Songwriter (1984)
• The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)
• Who's Harry Crumb? (1989)
• Last Action Hero (1993)
Images used come from the Internet Movie Database gallery of the film. The Blu-ray has been provided by Mill Creek Entertainment for review on this site.
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