Amazon has listed a pre-order for Sylvain Chomet‘s brilliant film, The Illusionist, the director’s animated adaptation of an unfilmed script by famed director Jacques Tati. The US page doesn’t include any details of the release outside of the suggested price ($38.96) but the Canadian page reveals that Sony plans to have the disc in stores on May 10. Two questions now remain – what special features will be included on the disc and when will we see Chomet’s Les Triplettes de Belleville on Blu-ray? UK and French releases might provide some clues.
Pathé released The Illusionist on Blu-ray on February 9th in France, both on its own and packaged with Chomet’s earlier film, Les Triplettes de Belleville. Reviews claim that the image is astounding but the DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 is problematic, with center channel information doubled though the left surround. Pathé claims the audio oddity is not an error but an artistic choice. However you might feel about the audio, there’s no question that the disc really drops the ball in the special features department, including only an image gallery, trailer and a 3-minute featurette.
Fox opted not to release The Illusionist on Blu-ray in the UK but graced the DVD edition of the film with a 77-minute interview with Chomet at Edinburgh Film Festival, along with the Pathé Blu-ray features.
It’s hard to say whether or not Sony will license the interview for the North American Blu-ray release of The Illusionist or, in fact, what features will be provided, if any at all. The one thing we can tell for sure, at this point, is that the studio has no apparent plans to release Les Triplettes de Belleville on Blu-ray, despite still holding the license for US distribution (held by Alliance in Canada). For those considering an import of the French Blu-ray discs, take note that the films are presented in 24fps but the menus on the discs are 50hz and may not be compatible with your Blu-ray player/display.
Rest assured, we’ll keep you updated with any news that pops up on either of these titles.
![L'Illusionniste (César 2011 du Meilleur Film d'Animation) [Blu-ray]](/wp_content/uploads/2011/03/51Qvwt9SGyL._SL500_AA300_.jpg "L'Illusionniste (César 2011 du Meilleur Film d'Animation) [Blu-ray]")
![L'Illusionniste + Les Triplettes de Belleville [Blu-ray]](/wp_content/uploads/2011/03/51vtCBJySWL._SL500_AA300_.jpg "L'Illusionniste + Les Triplettes de Belleville [Blu-ray]")
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