New to Blu: November 3-9 (Movies)

The 45th anniversary edition of The Sound of Music should have heralded this week’s bumper back-catalogue Blu-ray slate.

But, for reasons unknown, 20th Century Fox has delayed the NZ release until Easter.

However, the studio is offering a Triple Play release of another of its musicals from Wednesday, Moulin Rouge, and next week will bow The Rocky Horror Picture Show on Blu-ray.

Also out this week is a “meticulously restored” edition of the Humphrey Bogart-Katharine Hepburn WWI romance on a Congo riverboat, The African Queen.

Blu-ray.com acknowledges the 1.37:1-framed transfer “doesn’t sparkle like a new release but nevertheless looks as beautiful and pristine as one could hope of a classic movie approaching its 60th birthday”.

It also praised the sole extra, a making-of hour with contributions from filmmakers and film historians.

Other back-catalogue highlights include Tremors, 28 Days Later, the Man With No Name and Robocop trilogies, Mr Bean’s Holiday, Mr Bean: Ultimate Disaster Movie and repackaged “combo packs” of Aliens in the Attic, the Alvin and the Chipmunks movies, Dragonball: Evolution, Robots, Tooth Fairy, Night at the Museum and its sequel, Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief, Ice Age 3 and Fantastic Mr Fox.

The week’s only ‘new’ movies on Blu-ray are Get Him to the Greek and Sex & the City 2 while opera buffs can collect The Nutcracker: Tchaikovsky (Bregenz Festival, 2009), Wagner: Rienzi (Deutsche Opera Berlin, 2010), Mozart: Don Giovanni and Mozart: Cosi Fan Tutte.