New to Blu: October 9 – 15

Spider-Man: Far From Home

➢ “As with Spider-Man: Homecoming, Far From Home arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of Columbia Pictures/Sony rather than Disney. This immediately brings an advantage in the shape of a Dolby Vision master – something Disney hasn’t bothered with on any of its releases since Black Panther. I’d actually say that Dolby Vision delivers some of the most substantial gains I’ve seen to date on Far From Home for people with TVs and 4K Blu-ray players able to take advantage of it.”

➢ “Perhaps the most significant improvement of this transfer comes by way of the Dolby Vision capabilities, which renders the film’s colour spectrum in vivid detail. Not only are colours more accurately represented, but also the increase in saturation and luminance adds a whole new level of nuance to the film’s visual palette.” — SuperHeroHype.

➢ “The digitally photographed Spider-Man: Far from Home swings onto Blu-ray with a practically picture-perfect 1080p transfer. The picture is clear, rich, and pushes the Blu-ray format to its limits. Every detail is sharp, robustly defined, and complex.” — Blu-ray.com.

Toy Story 4

➢ “As good as Toy Story 4 looks in 1080p, the Ultra HD rendering takes it to another level, entirely, making for a visually engaging, faithful and, gratifying video presentation. Wow! … While this is not what I would regard as an aggressive Atmos mix, it is an active one, that complimented the source material.” — AVSForum.

➢ “The image here is flat out spectacular. This is the only movie I’ve seen in Dolby Cinema and it looked wonderful there, but it looks even better at home where the HDR highlights can truly pop …  Despite showing in Dolby Cinema theaters, there is no Dolby Vision layer here.” — Reference Home Theatre.

➢ “Disney’s Blu-ray release of Toy Story 4 is an exceptional one, presented in a 1080p AVC-encoded transfer preserving the film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 2.39:1. Colors are well-saturated … The movie was reportedly completed as a 4K digital intermediate … and the additional resolution, even when downscaled at 1080p, adds a lot of detail to the image.” — Home Theater Forum.

☞ Also new are Shadow (“filled with an impressive array of blacks, whites and grays with just a hint of tone, often for skin”), Finding Steve McQueen and Annabelle Comes Home (“resolution is excellent“).

There’s an unprecedented slate of 4K-UHD re-issues — Brave, Maleficent, Aladdin (1992), Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, Ratatouille, Cars, Cars 2, Inside Out, The Good Dinosaur, Guardians of the Galaxy, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange — while being dusted off on Blu-ray are ultimate and extended editions of The Last of the Mohicans and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

And anime fans can choose from Steins;gate 0 – Part 1 (eps 1-12), Dragon Ball Super – Part 8 (eps 92-104), Overlord – Complete Season 3, Black Clover: Season 1 – Part 5, Megalobox – Complete Series, Assassination Classroom – Complete Season 1 and Space Battleship Tiramisu: Complete Season 1.