short circuits

A brief look at new and noteworthy experiences among DVDs, video games, gadgets and the Web.

DVD

'Birds of Prey' takes flight The summer-long parade of superheroes continues today with the DVD release of "Birds of Prey: The Complete Series" (Warner, $40). The short-lived 2002 series was canceled after only 13 episodes and forgotten by the studio, but not by its obsessive fans. The dramatic live-action series follows the adventures of three gifted women: Helena (Ashley Scott), the daughter of Batman and Catwoman; Dinah (Rachel Skarsten), a clairvoyant teen; the wheelchair-bound Barbara (Dinah Meyer), the onetime Batgirl who reinvented herself as the Oracle after being disabled by the Joker. The four-disc set includes the series' unaired pilot and all 30 episodes of the animated Web series "Gotham Girls." Oddly, the pilot has an enhanced-widescreen presentation, while the actual "Birds of Prey" episodes don't.

Also out today: "The Bank Job," "College Road Trip," "Dallas" (Season 9), "Eureka" (Season 2), "Penelope," "Reno 911" (Season 5), "Saving Grace" (Season 1), "Shutter," "Step Up 2: The Streets," "Swamp Thing: The Series" (Vol. 2).

ONLINE VIDEO

Lion is king again The sweet story of Christian the lion goes back nearly 40 years, but it resurfaced last week when it was featured on the myth-busting website Snopes (www.snopes.com/photos/animals/christian.asp). In 1969, friends John Rendall and Ace Bourke (sometimes cited as Berg) bought a lion cub after finding it in a cramped cage in a London store. They raised the little fella, Christian, as well as they could in the city until he grew too big too handle. Christian ended up at an African preserve, where he finally acclimated to the wild, finding a mate and raising cubs. The men, who hadn't seen Christian in more than a year, wanted to see the lion one last time but were warned that it would be a wasted trip. They went anyway. Vintage clips on YouTube show what happened: The seemingly wild, full-grown lion slowly approached the men before bounding toward them, hugging and licking his former owners in a joyous reunion. A high-quality version (www.startribune.com/a/?4549) offers more footage, to the tune of Whitney Houston's "I Always Love You," but a shorter clip (www.startribune.com/a/?4550), backed by Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," is more emotionally wrenching.

RANDY A. SALAS