New to Blu: April 27-May 3

The 45^th anniversary edition of The Sound of Music at last lands here on Blu-ray – just in time for its 46^th anniversary.

It’s one of a slew of back-catalogue classics coming out this week but has taken nearly six months longer to go on sale here than in the US or UK.

Moreover, only the triple-disc version is being released here, not the gift set that’s sold out on Amazon UK but still can be bought for $US45 from Amazon’s US site.

The NZ price for the Blu-ray, DVD and digital copy is $35, which makes Amazon UK’s £8.89 special, with free shipping to NZ if you spend £25 or more, the best buy.

Reviewers raved about the HD transfer of the 70mm musical, which was scanned at 8K from the original 65mm negatives and downsized to a 4K master: “perfectly balanced colour, contrast, and an astounding clarity” (High-Def Digest); “features a wonderful grained quality that maintains a wholly film-like and organic appearance” (The Cinema Laser); “a revelation … looks spectacular” (The Digital Bits).

They were just as effusive about the 7.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and extras that spill on to a second Blu-ray disc.

Also out this week are the original True Grit, American Beauty and the Meet the Parents trilogy: the latest in the franchise, Little Fockers, and for the first time on Blu-ray, its predecessors, Meet the Parents and Meet the Fockers.

Little Fockers earned the worst reviews from movie critics but Blu-ray reviewers thought it boasted the best transfer of the three, albeit not demo quality.