Lionsgate Home Entertainment has announced two catalog titles for Blu-ray release on February 22, 2011: the 1982 animated film The Last Unicorn (in a BD/DVD combo pack) and Memento: 10th Anniversary Edition, with an all-new high definition transfer, approved by director Christopher Nolan.
The Last Unicorn
This movie, based on a best-selling fantasy novel by Peter S. Beagle, was produced by Rankin/Bass and animated by the Japanese studio Topcraft, many of whose members later joined Studio Ghibli.
Special features include:
Audio commentary with writer Peter S. Beagle and publisher Connor Cochran (new)
The Tail of the Last Unicorn
Game: Escape the Red Bull
Schmendrick's Magical Gallery
Original theatrical trailer
Making-of featurette (new)
Art contest gallery (new)
Memento
This psychological thriller, written and directed by Christopher Nolan, had been one of the first Blu-ray releases from Sony Pictures. Earlier this year (see Blu-ray.com, May 12), Lionsgate had announced that it had become the exclusive home entertainment distributor for Newmarket Films, including a large majority of the studio's library - especially Memento.
Special features will include:
Audio commentary with Christopher Nolan
New featurette with Nolan discussing the legacy of the film
Really, ya list Unicorn before Memento? Memento is a great, intelligent-yet-cool film that marked Nolan as someone to watch. Now, as long as they don't hide the extras in the god-awful fashion of the Special Edition.
As if I just bought The Last Unicorn on DVD. I would've totally waited if I thought there was an actual chance of it being released on BD. I just bought the Memento Steelbook, too. I think I'm happy with that, too. Everyone's trying to cash in on Nolan right now.
Seriously?! I just snagged the Canadian SteelBook release! :-(
Sure the SteelBook is cool (in fact it's very cool - each letter of the title is embossed with a soft smooth glossy finish that stands out over the slick matte brushed metal texture on the rest of the cover) - but I'm not gonna stare at the case for 2 hours. Transfer quality trumps packaging in a case like this. If only I'd waited!
I really hope it carries over the DVD easter egg of watching the film in chronological order, any fan of the movie (or movies in general) deserves to deconstruct the film at least once that way to fully understand Nolan's genious
I knew there'd be a new Memento transfer eventually, but it seemed to be taking forever. So I figured I'd help speed up the announcement and went and bought the older version. And BAM! They announce the new one. You're welcome everybody. I do what I can
Glad I waited on getting this from a separate seller, since Amazon and hardly anybody else has had it available.
F13BluRay - I believe the answer to your question is that Sony lost their rights to Lionsgate or something. I'm not exactly sure myself, but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere along those lines, because it hasn't been available on Amazon except by individual sellers. At least since I've recently checked.
Even though, I think a Nolan-approved transfer and a commentary by the director would be worth the double-dip. Especially since the original transfer supposedly wasn't very strong (because I haven't had a thorough viewing myself). I wonder if Nolan would push for new transfers for Batman Begins and perhaps The Dark Knight? I don't suppose those are director-approved? If I was Nolan, I would want very strong transfers for all my films. But it's nice to know Inception's supposedly gotten a strong transfer and Insomnia has one too. I need to check into that one.
However, I'll be waiting for a review for this new transfer. I'm also a little anxious to add the film to my collection. Nolan, lately has stood out in my mind as the best filmmaker of our present time, who can continually deliver great films. Here's waiting to see how The Dark Knight Rises turns out and what he'll do afterwards.
"A new Memento BD? Really? I have the first one and I don't remember it being bad. How much detail could we really be missing? Help me out here.... "
A new company (Lionsgate) now owns the distribution rights. So the old (Sony) one is OOP and they're just putting out their own version. It may (or may not) be an improvement.
I do hope they'll fix the color-timing glitch from the current _Memento_ BD - there's one shot where the first few frames incorrectly retain the color timing from the previous shot, and then suddenly the correct colors "pop" into place.
The Collector's Edition DVD had the same error, but the original DVD did not, so it's definitely transfer-related.
Regardless, I will almost certainly be buying the re-issue. :-)
@Adam - I think he was asking if 'this' release included the chronological one.
Then again, maybe it's easter egg on here too!
I'm waiting for a review of this before i get either version. If the New Featurette is just a 5-minute interview, then i'll go with the UK Fox release which sounds pretty sweet and includes everything from the 3-disc set.
I've been waiting since Blu-rays first came out...hoping that The Last Unicorn would released
I'll definately be buying this on day one...One of my all time favorite animated films...this one has the best soundtrack ever...I still listen to the songs on my ipod all the time.
This would be the fifth time I've bought memento on home video. standard dvd, special edition dvd, standard blu-ray, steelbook blu-ray and 10th anniversary blu-ray. my concern, however, is that given the significance and popularity of this film (and the number of times it has been released on home video) there should be more special features/extras.
The last unicorn is a pleasent bd release surprise, i'll get that. what ever happen to the remake, i was so exited because i think christopher lee was involved. as for memento, one of my favorite nolan films.
Memento's my favorite movie of all-time and I've been avoiding that first Blu-ray release, I was even considering giving in to buying it for a cheap price last night online but, I'm glad I held off on that.
And this when I've just this evening decided to get round to watching the Last Unicorn DVD that I got last December… I should do that with more things I'd like to get a BD release. ;-P
But best of all about this is the involvement of Beagle and Cochran in the extras, which I hope shows that they and Lionsgate have finally settled on a solution to their feud over Beagle not earning royalties from his most famous creation. That said, I'm reluctant to support people that I've now learnt have acquired several of the, in their words, "only a handful" of 35 mm prints still existing only to cut apart the majority of them to sell the frames… (>_>) If parts of them were badly damaged this would a be perfectly fine way of making use of the parts that aren't; not if it's limiting people from seeing a screenable print projected, as it was intended to be. But to get back to the positive: a BD release is either way still welcome!
