New to Blu: September 26-October 2

With the start of the school holidays, Blu-ray distributors are casting their nets wide with pirates, vampires, witches and a whale of a tale.

The Pirates! Band of Misfits sets sail on both 2D and 3D Blu-ray, plus a swag of HD extras that includes an 18-minute short featuring the Pirate Captain as a late-night talk show host.

“Filmed digitally and in native 3D the image exhibits everything that you’d expect, with a bright colourful picture, plenty of depth to the picture and many ‘wow’ 3D moments.”

“The film comes across mostly fine in high def. Colours are excellent, detail and clarity are superb and the both sound and image are free of dirt and damage …

“However, during the opening Columbia logo banding is immediately apparent and it crops up throughout the feature whenever mist or particularly complicated cloud formations are involved.

“It’s by no means a major problem, but can prove distracting once you’ve spotted its presence.

“Elsewhere there are no flaws to speak of and this goes for the soundtrack too, here present as DTS-HD Master Audio.”

“Mirror Mirror‘s 1080p/AVC-encoded Blu-ray presentation is across-the-board stunning. Shot digitally with Sony’s F35 high definition camera, the image is very nearly noiseless, even the darkest scenes.

“What grabs you immediately, though, is just how sharp the picture is, from start to finish.”

“The image carries a great sense of depth and pop, and the sumptuous production design dazzles.

“Some of the stylistic choices and digital tinkering aren’t totally refined, but the overall picture manages to impress greatly.”

“Dark Shadows is true to its name, with fleshy, oppressive shadows … Looks exactly like it should. It won’t drop jaws, but it won’t leave fans with anything to complain about either.”

Extras are limited to deleted scenes and half-an-hour of behind-the-scenes “Focus Points” that can be watched separately or during the movie.

“Big Miracle is presented in a 1080p AVC 2.40:1 transfer that mostly works well, melding CGI with live action and mechanical effects without showing the seams.

“Flesh tones are accurate, and a satisfying amount of detail is present, as we should expect from a good HD transfer.

“The only issue I had here is a distracting amount of noise that pops up several times due to the sheer white-on-white effect of filming out on the ice with a grey-white sky as a backdrop.”

Also new are The Five-Year Engagement, the animated Resident Evil: Damnation and the direct-to-disc Jeff Who Lives at Home and Hick.

Collectors can choose from the $240 Bond 50: James Bond 007 Collection and boxed seasons of Boardwalk Empire (1-2) and True Blood (1-4).

The only new music release is Freddie Mercury: The Great Pretender.