Next up: Classics on Blu-ray

MORE GIFT IDEAS:

* GIFT & BOXED SETS
* TV ON BLU
* CLASSICS
* THE BEST OF THE YEAR

Animation just doesn’t get any better than the work of Hayao Miyazaki. His latest film, Ponyo is also his first on Blu-ray. This is not only a perfect gift for kids and animation fans but also for film fans of all ages.

Highest possible recommendation!!

READ MORE: Ponyo Blu-ray Disc Review

AMAZON: $21.99

I reviewed the Fantastic Mr. Fox Blu-ray way back in March and, let me tell you, I’m still surprised at how much I enjoyed it! I’m a fan of Wes Anderson but didn’t think I’d care for this stop-motion animation take on the classic Roald Dahl tale. What a pleasant surprise! It’s a great film with a stellar presentation on Blu-ray disc.

READ MORE: Fantastic Mr. Fox Blu-ray Disc Review

AMAZON: $17.49

Highly recommended!!

READ MORE: Neon Genesis Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone Blu-ray Disc Review

AMAZON: $16.49

I’m still hoping to get my hands on a copy of The Secret of Kells Blu-ray disc (hint hint!) but understand that it’s stellar in just about every possible way. The film itself is one of the best animated films to be released in years and worth your every attention. If the Blu-ray lives up to its reputation of having a killer transfer and great audio, this one could end up with a special place on my Blu-ray “shelf-of-honour“.

READ MORE: Oscar nominated animated film The Secret of Kells coming to Blu-ray

AMAZON: $18.49

Disney is really killing it with the Blu-ray releases of their classic catalogue titles. And Beauty and the Beast is one of the most significant, as it truly ushered in the modern renaissance of the studio’s 2D animated offerings. The film looks unbelievably great on Blu-ray and features tons of amazing special features. Again, another pick that’ll please animation AND film fans alike.

READ MORE: Beauty and the Beast: Diamond Edition Blu-ray Disc Review

AMAZON: $19.49

I’m really steamed that I missed out How to Train Your Dragon. By all accounts, this is one of the best animated films to come out in the past number of years and the finest work of Dreamworks animations studios since the original Shrek. I just might have to grab a copy of the Blu-ray disc for my niece and nephew for Christmas, just so that I can finally get to see it myself!

AMAZON: $18.99

Warner Home Video and DC Comics continued their onslaught of animated superhero adaptations throughout the year, releasing four new Blu-ray discs in 2010, culminating with the DC Showcase collection of exceptional short films this past month. My favourite disc of the lot (though I enjoyed them all) is the Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths disc, which features a fun dimension-hopping story, great character designs and a slate of decent special features. But they’re all highly recommended for fans of the comics.

READ MORE:

• Batman: Under the Red Hood Blu-ray Disc Review
• Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths Blu-ray Disc Review
• Superman/Batman: Apocalypse Blu-ray Disc Review

AMAZON: $18.99, $20.99, $10.99, $9.99

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs doesn’t look like a whole hell of a lot but it’s one of my girlfriend’s favourite films of the entire year (and I thought it was pretty all right too!) Released way back of the beginning of January the title is now available in a Blu-ray 3D edition as well as the standard, old Blu-ray combo pack.

READ MORE: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Blu-ray Disc Review

AMAZON: $14.99

As I said before, Disney is on a roll with its Blu-ray releases of catalogue animation titles. Fantasia and its sister film, Fantasia 2000 both look and sound stellar in high-def. It’s unfortunate that most of the old DVD special features have been relegated to an online BD-Live archive, providing the sole option of streaming the content to your screen, as opposed to putting it on a local disc. Don’t let this single shortcoming keep you from adding this exceptional presentation of a classic film to your collection. Recommended!

READ MORE: Fantasia / Fantasia 2000 Blu-ray Disc Review

AMAZON: $27.99

FUNimation has been releasing some great anime series on Blu-ray this year. Not all of them were created in HD, so the studio has been tirelessly improving their up-conversion process (taking the standard definition material and turning it into HD goodness!) to provide the best looking presentation possible. And you know, they’re doing a bang up job. The titles above are among my favourite released this year, with Eden of the East being one of the best looking, best written, most compelling animated series I’ve seen in an age. It especially comes highly recommended!

READ MORE:

• Top 5 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of May 18 – DRAGONBALL Z KAI: PART ONE
• Top 5 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of May 25 – FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD PART 1
• Top 5 New Blu-ray releases for the Week of October 19 – Eden of the East: The Complete Series

AMAZON: $37.99, $19.99, $69.98, $19.99

I’m not a big fan of the Family Guy but I kinda get how their Star Wars spoof episodes are so popular. Anyway, all three shows will be available for the first time in this brand new Blu-ray boxed set on December 21st.

AMAZON: $27.99

Far from Disney’s absolute best animated film but a decent return to form as the studio’s first hand-drawn effort in years, The Princess and the Frog is a great choice for any young girl who loves a musical rags-to-princess story.

READ MORE: The Princess and the Frog Blu-ray Disc Review

AMAZON: $28.99

And while we’re on the subject of Disney and the films that little girl’s might like, it’s hard to beat the revisionist (it’s hard to believe this is the same character from J.M. Barrie‘s Peter Pan!) direct-to-video Tinkerbell series. These things have been consistently entertaining and this years’ entry, The Great Fairy Rescue is no exception.

READ MORE: Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue Blu-ray Disc Review

AMAZON: $18.49

ANIMATION ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY
Clicking an image will take you to Amazon.com where you can learn more about and purchase the Blu-ray disc:

MORE GIFT IDEAS:

* GIFT & BOXED SETS
* TV ON BLU
* CLASSICS
* THE BEST OF THE YEAR

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After the amazing job that Gainax and FUNimation did with the Blu-ray release of Evangelion 1.11, you better believe I’m sitting up and paying close attention to any and all follow up material. And while the trailer above doesn’t advertise the North American release of Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance on Blu-ray, it does provide a stunning glimpse of what we can expect in the near future. The film, now running 112 minutes with all the animation upgrades and additions, will be released on Blu in Japan on May 26th, in Germany on July 16th and who-knows-when in the US and Canada.

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This is reference quality work. This “Rebuild” of the series, as it’s referred to, has taken an old, animated giant-robot adventure and buffed, polished and magically re-assembled that grainy, square-shaped footage into this sparkling, new widescreen extravaganza! I was honestly taken aback when the film began. It’s really that stunning. And, though I hadn’t watched an episode of Evangelion in over a decade, I could tell that it was radically different!

This 100-minute film combines the content of six of the original half-hour episodes, smashing the slowly unraveling plot points and character moments into a more feature-friendly structure, along the way jettisoning some of the details that made the show so popular to begin with. A lot of scenes have been replaced with newly created ones, featuring all new hand-drawn and cgi animation. And for the most part it’s seamless. If you’re a long time fan, you’ll most likely be amazed at how new it all feels, while remaining the same old Evangelion you loved fifteen years ago. If you’re new to the story, you won’t know the difference. But that won’t make the details of this ambitious combination of giant-robot-battle epic and religious parable any less confusing. It’s always been confusing. If you didn’t like it before, this “Rebuild” won’t change your mind. But it sure will look fantastic while trying!

Even if you don’t find Evangelion‘s convoluted tale appealing, you won’t be able to avoid being sucked in by the Blu-ray discs sumptuous visuals. This is a reference quality presentation on all levels! The good folks at Funimation have really outdone themselves, giving us a Blu-ray that can stand up to, if not best every high-def effort from Disney – not an easy thing to do when you’re talking about the transfer and encode of 2D animation, something that Disney have, to date, done better than any other studio. I can’t find a flaw here. And I feel like this disc will be one I put on again and again, for the sheer pleasure of its visuals. Oh yeah, and the two Dolby TrueHD 6.1 audio tracks, both original Japanese and dubbed English, match those visuals in their perfection. What a great looking and sounding disc!

Sadly, I have to report that the Neon Genesis Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone Blu-ray Disc fumbles in the special features department. I was really hoping for even a short featurette that would explain the reasoning for and the process of creating this “Rebuild” but the best the disc does is provide a couple of montage videos, with examples of progress on new effects and animation. There are numerous music video remixes, some “News Flashes” and an unending stream of trailers but nothing that amounts to the kind of informational or entertaining experience you hope for.

The best thing about the Blu-ray, outside of the flawless presentation of the film itself, is the beautiful packaging. It’s wonderfully designed, with a reflective-foil side-sliding sleeve that blankets the interior digipack, containing the disc and a nice little 20-page booklet that offers some explanation as to why we’re getting a new Evangelion after all these years.

True anime fans should not be without the Neon Genesis Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone Blu-ray Disc in their collection. Yes. It’s that good.

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Man, I can’t escape those damn Oscars!! Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in…to writing about..them? (Sigh…I shouldn’t try to be witty or cleverly try to incorporate movie quotes into these intros, should I?) There are a couple of stand-out Hollywood titles here this week, both represented at the 82nd Academy Awards. Outside of those discs and an outstanding anime on Blu debut, this is a pretty barren week. It’s days like these that make me glad I didn’t decide to make this list a Top 10 every week.

1. PRECIOUS

Geez, after all the attention Precious is getting I’m really regretting not requesting a review copy of the Blu-ray disc. Every clip from the film seems to have some of the finest, most naturalistic performances I’ve seen in ages. Looks to be masterful work there. The Blu-ray has a lot of extras included on it, including a bunch of featurettes, a commentary track with director Lee Daniels and the screen test of the brilliant Gabourey Sidibe, star of the film. Precious won the Oscar for adapted screenplay and best supporting actress, Mo’nique.

Amazon: $23.99

2. UP IN THE AIR

I just watched Up in the Air. In fact, I chose to watch it over the Oscars (take that, MPAA!) And let me tell you, while it might not exactly live up to all the hype, it’s still a wonderful, if not predictable film. I’ll have a full review of the Blu-ray disc up shortly but in the meantime, this is the only disc on the list that I can unequivocally recommend. I only put Precious before it in the Top 5 list because of the two films, it was the one that took home the Oscar statues. Up in the Air was nominated for six Oscar awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Actress.

Amazon: $26.99

3. EVANGELION 1.11: YOU ARE (NOT) ALONE

I haven’t seen this disc yet and, if you read my previous post about the Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone Blu-ray, you’ll recall that I’m not a huge fan of the series. I can, however, tell you that over the last week or so, I’ve been privy to a host of comments about and reviews of this disc that lead me to believe it may be the best representation of anime on Blu yet! If you’re a fan of Eva, this is a must buy!!

UPDATE – Read my full review here: Neon Genesis Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone Blu-ray Disc Review

Amazon: $19.99

4. PARIS

If you’ve ever been to Paris, if you’ve ever fallen in love with the city – its alleys and streets, buildings, history, people, food – this film is going to make you want to buy a ticket back, as soon as humanly possible. Paris might not be a perfect film but it is a kind love-letter filled with entertaining character portraits. And who doesn’t love Juliette Binoche?!

Amazon: $24.99

5. HACHI: A DOG’S TALE

Okay, honestly, the title of this film just put me off right away. Also, I’m not a big fan of Richard Gere. But Hachi: A Dog’s Tale does have a few things going for it – it stars Joan Allen (who you may remember from the last two Bourne films), it’s based on a true story from Japan (the dog’s name is actually Hachiko, after the Japanese symbol for good luck) and it’s directed by the extremely talented Lasse Hallström (of The Cider House Rules fame.) That’s good enough to make it on the list today!

Amazon: $24.99

AND…

In the “I’m sure some of you will love it but I hated the original so much I pray the sequel Blu-ray self-destructs” category:

BOONDOCK SAINTS II: ALL SAINTS DAY

I don’t want to give this film too much press here. Just adding the image of the disc to this release page irks me to some degree. You see, I really hate the original Boondock Saints. I feel like it was everything that was wrong with cinema in the 90s – men posing, unloading hundreds of bullets and doing a lot of violent things in slow motion for the sake of being “cool”, in a vapid and derivative circus of style-above-substance cinema. Note to director Troy Duffy, you’re not John Woo. Even Woo has learned to reign in his old-brand of stylized violence lately. Get with the times, Duffy!

I include the disc here simply because I know that some of you are fans of the original. I don’t know why, but to each his own. The rest of you should be warned that this sequel is more of the same, only ten years older and ten times shittier.

Amazon: $19.99

ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLU-RAY THIS WEEK
Clicking an image will take you to Amazon.com where you can learn more about and purchase the Blu-ray disc:

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• Up In The Air Blu-ray Disc Review (2)

I’m not the biggest fan of Evangelion. More of a Macross and Miyazaki guy, myself. But that doesn’t temper my enthusiasm for the upcoming Blu-ray edition of Evangelion: 1.11 You Are (Not) Alone. There are some reviews of the disc kicking around the net already and from all indications, this thing looks and sounds brilliant! We can all see for ourselves soon enough as this first entry in the series hits the streets in a couple of weeks, on March 9th.

Also on The Blu-ray Blog: Neon Genesis Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone Blu-ray Disc Review

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