It’s spending time, folks! Whether you’re taking advantage of holiday Blu-ray deals for yourself or adding to the collections of friends and family, you can’t avoid picking up a few new discs this month. If you’re having trouble finding the perfect gift or just looking for a list of the best new discs that were released this year, you’ll find it all below.
All links will take you over to Amazon.com, where you can learn more about the titles we’re excited about. And don’t forget that you can help support our work here at The Blu-ray Blog by making your purchases through those Amazon links (just click the images!). Thank you so much for reading and have a happy holiday season!
INCREDIBLE FILMS IN INCREDIBLE GIFT SETS
I’m blown away by the work Warner Home Video has been doing lately. They’re really knocking it out of the park. And this gorgeous, red-velvet encased Gone With The Wind: 70th Anniversary Blu-ray Box is indicative of their efforts. Featuring a host of collectibles, the film soundtrack on CD, a 6-hour documentary on the history of MGM, 8-hours of special features and a spot-on perfect film transfer, this box set is the ultimate gift for any film lover. Perhaps bested only by…
I didn’t get a review copy of this to check it out for myself but if all the reports I’ve read are any indication, this is the boxed set of the year. With a ton of extra content, goo-gahs and a perfect 8K film transfer, you can’t go wrong picking up the Wizard of Oz: 70th Anniversary Blu-ray boxed set.
And speaking of the awesome work of Warner Home Video, take a gander at these beautiful new Harry Potter: Ultimate Edition boxed sets…
These things are absolutely spectacular. I’ve got these first two (all the films will receive this treatment eventually, so we can expect to see films 3 and 4 released in the next year) and they take my breath away. The packaging of each set feels and looks like a perfect little hardcover book.
Both the Philosopher’s Stone (or Sorcerer’s Stone, if you live in the USA) and Chamber of Secrets sets contain the theatrical and Extended cuts of the films, along with a nice hardcover book and lots of special features. The best of which is a single part each of the amazing new 8-part documentary series, “Creating the World of Harry Potter“. Each “episode”, one per set, is over an hour long and includes so much detail and behind the scenes footage that any Potter fan would be happy to find these boxed sets under the tree this year!
Read my full review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Not to be outdone, Paramount brings us a beautiful, classy gift set of one of the most exciting, best films of the summer of 2009! This is the Amazon.com exclusive, limited edition Star Trek: Starship Enterprise replica set. Modeled directly from the digital files used to create the ship in the film and limited to only 5000 units, this beautiful model is crafted from solid metal with chrome, textured steel and pewter finishes and measures over 8″ long.
I’m sure I don’t need to gush any more about the incredible Blu-ray set contained within the package. If you have any doubts about it, read my Star Trek review here.
Paramount also brings us this Chocolate Box gift set of the Forrest Gump Sapphire Edition Blu-ray disc. This is for fans only, as the contents of the box don’t really add that much to the experience of the disc. The Blu-ray is outstanding, however and would be a welcome gift for any film lover!
Read my full Forrest Gump Blu-ray review.
I loved Up (read my review of the amazing Blu-ray disc here) and I think this Luxo Jr. gift set is one of the nicest gift sets on the market at the moment. It’s a working Luxo-style lamp that holds the Up Blu-ray discs in its base. Awesome! It’s tough to get a hold of, so if you’re at all interested head over to Amazon.com ASAP and grab one!
I loved the Snow White Blu-ray that Disney released earlier this year (read my full review here). If you have an animation lover or film lover on your list, you won’t go wrong picking up this gift set for them. The box contains the Blu-ray disc set, a red velour covered jewelry box with 8 cloissoné pins of Snow White and the dwarfs, an envelope of eight lithographs of original line art and a beautiful hardbound 160 page book.
This boxed set from Warner is simply magnificent. And if you know anyone who is a crazy Watchmen fan, this is the ideal gift. The Watchmen: Ultimate Cut gift set includes the longest version of the film that will ever be available, including the animated Black Freighter cartoon edited into the live-action footage! This is as close to the original graphic novel as this film can get.
Add that to a ridiculous amount of bonus features (new commentary tracks, new featurettes, video journals, the “Under the Hood” doc and all 12 chapters of the Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic disc!) tucked inside a gorgeous black box and you’ve got the ultimate Watchmen package home video can offer.
This Mel Brooks Collection boxed set is totally not my bag. I’ve never been a fan. I mean, I love Young Frankenstein as much as the next guy but watching all 9 of these Blu-ray discs would be tantamount to torture for yours truly. That being said, one of my best pals is a Mel Brooks nut and would be ecstatic to find this under his Christmas tree.
Continue on to Page 2 of our Holiday Gift Guide for the best TV on Blu-ray!
[...] fanatic in your life. If you’re having trouble finding something, we recommend using our handy-dandy gift guide, full of ideas from boxed gift sets to the best Blu-ray player in the world. If you still [...]