Criterion Collection

[James]

I'm glad you're excited for it, and obviously it's gotten great reviews, but man, the trailer did nothing for me. I guess I'm really not a cat person. The animation style was not really to my liking, either. Still, great to see Criterion try another animation release.

Not sure this is a movie that really lended itself to a trailer! Usually you show the most exciting or funniest bits to get people excited. This is not a movie with a lot of big exciting or funny bits you can wrap up with a two minute bow. So totally understandable. Despite that, a great movie!

[Dan]

Criterion has announced they will be releasing a huge 4K box-set at the end of September in the form of:

The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years

As the title notates, the set covers the first ten feature films directed by Wes Anderson. These include his two stop-motion titles Fantastic Mr. Fox and Isle of Dogs, the latter entering the collection for the first time via the set and an individual release.



Criterion's bonus features of Isle of Dogs is very hefty compared to the original Fox blu-ray release:

• New 4K digital master, supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Audio commentary featuring Anderson and actor Jeff Goldblum
• Feature-length storyboard animatic
• The Making of “Isle of Dogs,” featuring animators, puppet makers, modelers, sculptors, set dressers, illustrators, production designers, and more
• The Visual Comedy of “Isle of Dogs,” a video essay by filmmakers Taylor Ramos & Tony Zhou
• Jupiter in the Studio, featuring actor F. Murray Abraham touring the set
• Animation tests, visual-effects breakdowns, and behind-the-scenes and time-lapse footage
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Moeko Fujii and a poster by cover artist Katsuhiro Otomo

[Ben]

As much as I often like his films, I’m really only down for less than half of them (Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic, Fantastic Fox, Grand Budapest) or half if you include Isle Of Dogs, which I need to give another view. Glad to finally be able to nab a belated CC version of that film the but the others either don’t reach the heights or are all very samey, with Anderson now becoming almost a pastiche of his own style. The visuals have swamped the characters or any semblance of plot in the last three or so films; I found Dispatch and Asteroid City to be pretty choreful (yes, I just coined a word) to get through.

[Dan]

Turns out, Isle of Dogs won't be the only new animated feature entering the Criterion Collection in September.

1278. Flow



The 4K release is scheduled for September 23 with the following special features:

• 4K digital transfer, with 7.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, approved by director Gints Zilbalodis
• 4K digital master of Away (2019), Zilbalodis’s debut feature
• New audio commentary featuring Zilbalodis
• Full feature-length animatic
• New interviews with Zilbalodis and cowriter-coproducer Matīss Kaža
• Dream Cat (2025), a making-of documentary produced for Latvian Television
• Aqua (2012) and Priorities (2014), short films by Zilbalodis with new commentaries by the director
• Unused-shot reel, with new commentary by Zilbalodis
• Trailers, TV spots, and proof-of-concept teasers
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio

[Ben]

Yeah, we knew it was coming, but not when…so this is good confirmation.

Should just point out, though, that Curzon also have a nice Limited Edition coming to the UK June 30th, with (I’ll do it Dan style)…

• 4K UHD with the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Rigid slipcase with a digipak
• Booklet featuring a new essay by Michael Leader, an interview with Gints Zilbalodis, and a gallery of concept art for the film.
• Double-sided poster
• Sticker sheet
• Three trading cards (of five possible designs)
• Aqua - short film by Gints Zilbalodis
• Priorities - short film by Gints Zilbalodis
• Interactive Flow quiz
• Animatic version of Flow
• The animation of Flow - Blender Conference 2024
• Dream Cat - behind-the-scenes documentary
• Masterclass and Q&A with Gints Zilbalodis
• Oscars reaction video
• Trailers
• English SDH subtitles

I was holding out to see what CC would offer, and packaging aside, looks like they win on extras. There’s no confirmation of a BD, but they retain the animatic, add a commentary and gain an entire other feature in addition to the previous shorts. I was on the fence at picking this up, as I didn’t find it quite as enthralling as others, but can do without the tat of the Curzon — though the booklet sounds nice — and the Criterion on sale might bumph up an order come November, and less space on the shelf too! I’m not sure this was really more than a one-time view, but I’ll likely get it for the extras and another go a couple of years down the line.

[Dan]

There will be a regular BD release of the CC edition, if that was concerning to you Ben. Hell, there'll even be a DVD release.

An interesting note about the 4K release is that the 4K disc itself will contain not just Flow, but also Away as well. The blu rays, both the regular BD release and those accompanying with the 4K disc, are 2 discs.