More animation is coming to Blu-ray Disc.
Kung Fu Panda will be released by Paramount on November 11th, 2008.
This DreamWorks animated comedy pulled in over $200M in US box office, and no doubt will look great on Blu-ray Disc.
Transformers has been freshly listed for pre-order, scheduled for a September 2nd, 2008 release. This of course is one of the most anticipated Blu-ray releases of the year. Michael Bay is no doubt very pleased that his movie is getting released on his preferred format finally!
The retail price will be $39.99, or be one of the first to pre-order at Amazon for only $27.95.
Additionally, City Lights Pictures has Kiss of the Spider Woman coming to Blu-ray with no release date scheduled as of yet. The retail price will be $39.98, though you can pre-order at Amazon for $34.98.
Paramount and DreamWorks have many new titles on the way.
Firstly, DreamWorks Animation is bringing Shrek The Third to Blu-ray on September 16th, 2008. This is certainly a blockbuster title with a domestic box office of $322.7M. The retail price has been set at $29.99, bargain hunters will find it at Amazon for only $20.95.
They will also be releasing Madagascar on Blu-ray Disc on September 16th - a film that I personally think was way better than Shrek the Third. Retail is again $29.99, also at Amazon for only $20.95.
Paramount Home Video has Beowulf Director’s Cut coming to Blu-ray on July 29th, 2008. This movie was rendered from full motion captures of each scene - I recall a fascinating presentation at CES on how the film was made - I am looking forward to the Blu-ray release of this one for sure. Retail will be $39.99, only $27.95 at Amazon.
While we previously heard that a couple of the Jack Ryan films would be released on Blu-ray, we now see that all four from the Jack Ryan collection will be released on the same day. On July 29th, 2008 expect to see The Sum Of All Fears, Patriot Games, The Hunt For Red October and Clear And Present Danger. Each will have a retail price of $29.99, and will be only $20.95 at Amazon.
While most of these releases are really playing catch up with those already released on HD DVD, it is great to see Paramount releasing titles so aggressively.
Quite a lot of announcements from Paramount today, via DVD Times.
Firstly in July we will see a new wave of Paramount titles. There will be four titles arriving on 29th July 2008 - Beowulf Director’s Cut, Patriot Games, The Sum of All Fears and Top Gun. I am a little surprised that they didn’t do the Jack Ryan Box, but this is a good start none the less. Beowulf will feature Dolby True HD 5.1 Surround though it seems to have been dropped from Top Gun, which perhaps is an error since, if I recall correctly, the original release information in 2007 had lossless audio for Top Gun and for the most part Paramount does not seem to have re-authored these titles.
Moving on to September 2nd, we of course have Transformers coming out. There are a lot of new details though not all of the features are fixed yet. Interesting to see LPCM and Dolby TrueHD on this one. Making up for the lack of lossless audio on the HD DVD perhaps! It also appears that all of the extras are high definition video - something I hope to see more of moving forward.
Later in September we have more titles from DreamWorks Animation. One catch up title in the form of Shrek 3 and also Madagascar on September 16th. To be honest I thought Shrek 3 was pretty bad, though I imagine it will look nice. Madagascar on the other hand was quite fun and would stand up better to repeat watching in my opinion, partly due to an excellent performance from Sacha Baron Cohen, also known as Ali G or Borat.
While there is little information on the specs, I am sure that DreamWorks animation will do their best to have pristine looking and sounding releases. Now, bring on the original Shrek!
This could be the last of the Paramount watch articles, since today is the big day when Paramount rejoins the Blu-ray bandwagon.
Today we officially see the release of Bee Movie, Face/Off and Next as well as the return of the catalogue titles from the Viacom studios. However, it looks like a bit of a haphazard trickle as opposed to a flood of titles filling the shelves near and far.
Bee Movie appears to be pretty much a no show. I visited my local Fry’s Electronics store and found no sign of the title. Looking at Best Buy online I found it not available for store pick up in any of the 7 or so stores in my wider area. DVD Empire shows no stock on hand. Add that Amazon has it listed for June 3rd, and we seem to have a delay of some kind with the title.
That said, Amazon has Next listed for June 3rd also, and has no valid listing at all for Face/Off while I saw both of these titles clearly available at Fry’s today.
The return of the catalogue titles seems a bit hit and miss also - we see Amazon has shifted their dates back to June 3rd for these also and Fry’s had no sign of the catalogue re-issues - however there are reports that at least Wal-mart has the re-issues including Shooter which was sold out almost everywhere.
So Paramount and DreamWorks are back - I guess we can forgive them for having a hard time filling the supply chain after taking over half a year off from Blu-ray…
So it is looking like May 20 may not be such a huge week after all.
A quick check of the Amazon Pre-order page shows that all of the pre-order dates for the Paramount re-issues have changed from May 20 to June 3rd.
Also, I guess Mr Hunt at Digital Bits had it right and Cloverfield and There Will Be Blood will also be June 3rd as originally announced. It looks like Bee Movie may also have been moved back to June 3rd.
In any case, June 3rd is going to be a big day, with releases like Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector’s Edition, Semi-Pro, Signs, Weeds - Season Three and Meet The Spartans also being released that day.
Things are shaping up well! … albeit a couple of weeks later than expected.
Checking at Amazon today we see that (almost) all of the Paramount and DreamWorks titles are back - available for pre-order with a release date of May 20! This makes May 20 a super big day for releases…
The exceptions are Trading Places and Freedom Writers, which don’t appear to have been relisted yet.
So if you have been hanging out for these Paramount releases, you have a fresh shot at them now…
The title list:
Amazon.com has added yet another title from Viacom to the pre-order list.
Blades of Glory has been listed with no retail price or release date, though the price at Amazon is only $20.95 and the expected release date is May 20th, 2008 - yeah, next week!
Actually May 20 looks to be a huge week for Blu-ray releases, with not only the fresh Viacom releases like Bee Movie, but other studio titles like National Treasure, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (or the combo National Treasure / National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets), V for Vendetta, Short Circuit and Anger Management. Not to mention the first WWE title - WWE - Wrestlemania 24.
Additionally it appears that Paramount has bumped Cloverfield and There Will Be Blood to May 20th from their previous release date of June 3rd, making next week a pretty huge week for Blu-ray releases.
Update: Bill Hunt is reporting that the retailers are wrong and that the June 3rd date will be upheld for Cloverfield and There Will Be Blood.
DreamWorks Animation has Bee Movie coming to Blu-ray on May 20th, 2008.
The animated feature voiced by Jerry Seinfeld did $126M at the US Box Office.
This also marks the first title to be released on Blu-ray by the Animation arm of DreamWorks.
The title was announced for HD DVD but was never released.
The Blu-ray is expected to be packed with features including a picture in picture storyboard reel that runs for the whole film, additional online content and lossless audio.
The retail price is $39.99, you can pre-order it at Amazon for only$27.95.
We see that there is fresh stock of Mission: Impossible and Mission: Impossible II at Amazon today.
While we have seen limited stock of various titles come and go at Amazon, in the case of the Mission: Impossible titles there is no indication that there is only a tiny number available.
You can get Mission: Impossible for $19.95 and Mission: Impossible II for $20.95.
We will continue to keep watch and let you know if there is fresh stock of any other Paramount or DreamWorks titles moving forward.
