Criterion Collection

[Randall]

While I'm intrigued to see Infernal Affairs, there's nothing here this month that I really need to own. (I'm happy with my old Malcolm X Blu-ray digibook.) With all the other boutique labels doing so amazingly well nowadays, they've been gobbling up a lot of US and UK studio films that I am interested in. Meanwhile, Criterion's offerings the past few years, with a few notable exceptions, have veered more into areas that I don't really collect - which is great, since they're always more expensive than some of the other labels. It's also great that Criterion has necessarily taken on a sharper focus into foreign films, arthouse and indie films, and lesser known directors, for those that are interested.

[Ben]

If you’re only intrigued, that UK set should still be pretty reasonably priced Rand!

[Daniel]

We're proud to announce our first collaboration with @Pixar: WALL•E (2008), directed by Andrew Stanton, entering the Collection on 4K this November!

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
4K digital master, approved by director Andrew Stanton, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film, presented in both Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+, and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
Alternate 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio and stereo soundtracks
Two audio commentaries: one featuring Stanton and the other, character supervisor Bill Wise, coproducer Lindsey Collins, story artist Derek Thompson, and lead animator Angus MacLane
New programs on Stanton’s cinematic influences and production designer Ralph Eggleston’s color scripts
Tour of the Pixar Living Archive with Stanton
Behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, including segments from early animation reels
The Pixar Story (2007), a documentary by Leslie Iwerks
More than a dozen documentaries exploring the film’s production and robots
Anatomy of a Scene: The Plant, a masterclass with Stanton
“WALL•E”: A to Z, a new program featuring Stanton and coscreenwriter Jim Reardon
Deleted scenes featuring commentary by Stanton
A Story (1987), a student film by Stanton
BURN•E (2008), a short film by MacLane
Trailers
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
English descriptive audio
PLUS: An essay by author Sam Wasson; selections from Stanton’s sketchbooks, script notes, and drawings; and artwork from the WALL•E team

Wow.

Maybe we'll finally get Song of the South this way!

[Randall]

This seems so out of left field! But it's a great choice, given the uniqueness of the film, and it's bound to appeal to more film snobs than other Pixar films. Any more animation in the Collection is always a good thing, though it already has a 4K release, and was only finished in 2K anyway.

The mind boggles at perhaps having future Disney-Criterion collaborations. A Criterion SOTS may still be a pipe dream, though I'd love to see it happen.

[Ben]

I’m struggling to get my head around the usefulness of this edition!? Where are the major new extras? Most of this is all out in Disney's current Blus and 4K…?

[Randall]

Um, what else would you want? Two commentaries, over a dozen featurettes, and at least three new programs, plus the booklet. While many may not deem it worth the upgrade, it's a pretty packed edition already.

True, I'd prefer to see some love given to a film not already on HD or 4K, but it seems like this new edition of Wall-E does offer a fair bit that's new, in addition to a boatload of old stuff.

[EricJ]

The idea of "When are we going to get a Criterion Pixar?" dates ALLLL the way back to the primitive, feudal, stone-knives-and-bearskins days of DVD and Criterion in the late 90's--Twenty-five years ago.
Back when studios didn't care about DVD or laserdisc, Voyager/Criterion pretty much had the industry all to themselves, and studios could let them have whatever titles they were fool enough to release for a, quote, "geek-niche" audience, better them than us.

As a result, the myth arose that Criterion was the When Mommy Says No, Grandma Says Yes label that would release anything--whether it be "Armageddon" or "This is Spinal Tap"--if you wrote in nicely enough and were sincere enough a cult-film fan for the Great Pumpkin not to pass you by.
And then...studios discovered DVD. And all of a sudden, Disney and MGM didn't want other studios muscling in on their territory, and even David Fincher and Michael Bay couldn't do special favors for Criterion like they could back in the days of "The Rock" and "The Game".
And Criterion had to fall back either on what they did own, namely Janus Films/Rialto restorations, or go out and rescue poor PD orphans like Carnival of Souls.

But myths die hard with the geek fans. Heck, we still have fans thinking "When is Criterion going to do an anime title?", left over from the late 90's, when we all wrote in wishing that Criterion would do a Nausicaa disc when mean ol' Disney wouldn't, so there.
I'm guessing we've come full circle now, now that Disney doesn't think catalog discs are even worth DMC releases anymore, but that doesn't mean fans' "wishes have come true".

[Dacey]

[Dan]

To say I was shocked when I saw this would be an understatement. This is an auto-buy for me. And since it's coming out in November, that means Barnes and Noble sale.

[Randall]

Eric basically summed it up. The fact that Disney allowed Pixar to license out a film to Criterion is both awesome and sad. Very cool for us Criterion collectors who date back to the LaserDisc days (I had Akira!), but sad in that it is an indication of maybe how little Disney cares about home video themselves anymore.

Personally, I'd love to see a CC disc of The Shaggy Dog, but maybe that's just me.

[EricJ]

Basically, third-party labels SAVED physical discs, because they could foster their own cults online, on Facebook and social media--seeing as most DVD and Blu fans had learned to buy them at Amazon/online anyway, since retail wouldn't sell them--while the studios pumped money into big-box displays, wondered why retail sales were so low and didn't bother anymore.

Universal and Columbia essentially threw their back catalogs away, Shout Factory, Criterion and Kino picked them up, and by the time the small labels could announce them, there'd be fan-love threads for every new title announcement on Twitter.
(You wanna talk "cults"? How about the people who blind-buy anything BECAUSE it's Criterion? I didn't think such people still existed after 2002 and 2010, after DVD and Blu each stopped becoming rarities.)

[Ben]

I still don’t get WALL-E though. "It’s a pretty stacked edition already" already applies to the current editions out there. Heck, the original DVD release was absolutely stacked. This basically has all those same extras including the promotional short (which feels a bit "cheap" as an extra on a Criterion title) and The Pixar Story doc, which will hopefully at least be in HD. Yeah, it’s phenom that Disney is licensing to Criterion, because as sad as that is, it’s also hopefully a sign that we might get some gems not even on the format, maybe even including some other Touchstones that deserve to be in there with supplements that an independent company can get access to (Quiz Show, please, with the original episode of Twenty One as an extra).

I’ll get this new one, but I’m more excited about what this potentially means (well, I was kind of already there with The Girl Can’t Help It, because that’s also now a Disney title) over that we get WALL-E again, albeit with two or three new extras.

[EricJ]

A Criterion SOTS may still be a pipe dream, though I'd love to see it happen.

At the risk of digging up old 90's-fanboy "Save us, Criterion! " ghosts, wouldn't be a bad idea, at that--
Disney's only objection is to whether they're seen releasing it, but that doesn't apply to anyone else taking the plunge.

Only obstacle is finding out just HOW the heck we got Wall-E in the first place, whether Criterion's gotten into a new deal with Disney, or just with film-geek Pixar, or whether it was just a personal gift from Andrew Stanton.
(See, this is the kind of thing that keeps raising our hopes, and making it that much harder to drive a stake through the old myths...And remember back when we thought Amazon was "taking petitions" for unreleased disks? How naive were we??)

[droosan]

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[Farerb]

I ordered it and yet I kind of feel disappointed that it's not one of Walt's films or Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin or The Lion King that could have gotten an actual 4K scan and restoration and could actually be a huge improvement over what exists now. Hopefully they'll release them in the future.