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Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Ultimate Edition Blu-ray Disc Review

HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE: ULTIMATE EDITION (2001, Blu-ray released December 8, 2009 – MSRP $49.99)

Harry Potter and the Philosopher Stone: Ultimate Edition Blu-rayOh boy. Here we go. If you’re opposed to reading another gushing tribute to a brilliant Warner Home Video boxed set package, you’d do well to click away from this post! The Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Ultimate Edition Blu-ray Disc set is fantastically wonderful in almost every way! And I’m going to sing its praises ’till I can’t sing no more!

My god. What can I possibly say about this set that isn’t going to make me sound like a drooling fanboy. Which, I’ll have you know, I’m not!…um…It’s just that, well…these films and these Blu-ray collections are winning me over and making me want MORE, MORE, MORE! I liked Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (or Sorcerer’s Stone if you live in the USA) well enough when I first saw it in the theatre, way back in 2001. It had a fanciful, very British feel to me. Akin to movies like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in my mind. Over the years, as I have had further opportunities to re-watch the film and invest myself in its sequels, I’ve found myself becoming a fan of the over-arching narrative – the epic Potter tale, if you will – than of any one of the individual films on their own.

What these new boxed sets have done (Warner has also released a Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: Ultimate Edition set with a further 6 films to follow in this format) is ramp up my fandom to 11! And its not just the excellent, comprehensive treatment of the content that’s got me so excited. It’s also the beautiful packaging!

When removed from the paper slipcase around it, the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone disc package looks like a fine, thick, leather-bound book volume. These things don’t belong stuffed in among your regular, everyday Blu-ray discs. They belong up on your book shelf, beside your hardcover editions of the Harry Potter series. The contents are held enclosed by a flap that is sealed by a magnetic clasp. Beautiful detail! Inside, the 3 discs are housed in their own digipack folder aside an envelope containing the digital copy and some collectables and a really nice hardcover book. Colour me impressed!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Ultimate Edition Blu-ray

The Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone discs themselves are equally as impressive. Well, at least two of the three discs are. The third disc in the set is a welcome addition in that it is an exact copy of the original releases bonus content disc. Sadly, it hasn’t been updated in any way and is still a bugger to navigate. It forces you to jump through a lot of hoops to get those extras. Nevertheless, I’m happy to have it included in the package, even though it’s only a DVD. The other two, both Blu-ray discs, are where the content really shines.

Disc One of the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone set includes two versions of the feature, the theatrical and extended cuts, available through seamless branching. This was an issue for me until a few days ago. You see, my review copy was buggered. It would play up to the Quidditch match and then freeze. I thought it might be my player having trouble with a layer change or the seamless branching so I brought it around to friends and family. It played the same way everywhere. Luckily, I was able to exchange the set at a local retailer and my new copy is perfect! The video and audio are wonderful here. Not as clean as a film made in 2009 but wonderful nonetheless. Despite Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone being previously available on Blu, I would hazard a guess that this is a brand new encode. It looks slightly better to my eyes. But maybe that’s just me. I didn’t A/B the two version available on Blu but my guess is that this new edition looks a little better.

Disc One also features Chris Columbus in an “In Movie Experience” on the theatrical cut of the film. This is essentially Warner’s Maximum Movie Mode, where the director walks you through the creation of the film, with the occasional picture-in-picture popping up to illustrate detail using artwork and behind-the-scenes footage. Great stuff here!

Disc Two is amazing! One of the most incredible things these new boxed sets has to offer is that they each contain a segment of the new 8-part documentary series called “Creating the World of Harry Potter“. “Part 1: The Magic Begins” clocks in at around an hour and is absolutely spectacular. Almost worth the price of the set itself. It follows the creation of the film from inception to debut, featuring new interviews with everyone involved, along with tons of old photos, behind the scenes videos and screentests of the actors. This is a stunning look at the both the film that started the cinematic phenomenon as well as the franchise itself.

Take a look at the full feature list in our previous post here.

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8 comments for “Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Ultimate Edition Blu-ray Disc Review”

  1. [...] my full review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of [...]

    Posted by Blu-ray Holiday Gift Guide 2009 | The Blu-Ray Blog | January 17, 2010, 11:16 pm
  2. Hi, nice review. You sound quite excited about this set, it makes want to get it. But I have a little concern about the audio tracks. Is there a French track included? I know the Chamber of Secrets is in French, but can’t find the answer about this one.

    Posted by jesse94 | January 29, 2010, 3:14 pm
  3. Hi Jesse. Yeah, I really love these sets. No hype here. I adore them. So, there appears to be French audio (doublé au Quebec!) and subs on the disc. Hope that helps!

    Posted by brenden | January 29, 2010, 5:12 pm
  4. Super, thanks a lot. I’ll keep reading you.

    Posted by jesse94 | January 29, 2010, 5:26 pm
  5. Hi, I was thinking about importing this set, it’s much cheaper in Canada than here in Brazil. However, do you know what audio and subtitle options are available? Thank you for your help.

    Posted by Rodrigo Barros | August 13, 2010, 6:39 pm
  6. Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (Blu-ray) ultimate edition is not the same as Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone (Blu-ray) ultimate edition! One represents American stupidity insisting on changing the name (which never made sense). Lookup Philosopher’s Stone in the dictionary. It’s there. But lookup Sorcerer’s Stone (there is no such thing).

    Posted by Neal Meyering | October 22, 2010, 1:40 am
  7. [...] Goblet of Fire get the full-on, Ultimate Edition Blu-ray treatment this year, joining the wonderful Philosopher Stone and Chamber of Secrets sets of 2009. Both films carry over their nearly-perfect high-def [...]

    Posted by Blu-ray Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Gift Sets | December 7, 2010, 2:55 pm

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