Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment saw an opening and
took it. Sometimes it’s hard for a
mega-studio to react to market conditions, but kudos to Disney for the move
they made with director David Lowery's remake of Pete's Dragon.
The studio got out early with a Dec. 6 street date for director
Steven Spielberg’s The BFG and we fully expected them to let Pete’s Dragon finish out
the last of its theatrical run and then get marching orders for the same early
December street-date Tuesday. But
along came Universal Pictures about ten days ago and did a double-thumping of The
BFG with news that both The Secret Life of Pets and Jason
Bourne would be available as DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD product
offerings on Dec. 6.
Tossing Pete’s Dragon into that mix would
have been pure folly; an “oh well” after thought … a total surrender.
Instead, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment took one
look at the release calendar and saw that no one else had a major theatrical
release scheduled for the home entertainment market place on Nov. 29. Sure, there were Kubo and the Two Strings, War
Dogs and Hell or High Water all scheduled for release on Nov. 22, but
nothing for the following week.
Boom! Pete and his magical
friend found a home!
On Nov. 29 there will be a stand-alone DVD edition and
Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack, but in keeping with Disney’s steadfast refusal to join
the 4K Ultra HD movement, there will be no 4K Ultra HD SKU for this CGI marvel.
The ARR works out to 109 days and domestic ticket sales were
right at $75 million.
Bonus features include commentary from film
editor-turned-director David Lowery, who is joined by writer Toby Halbrooks and
the film’s stars, Oakes Fegley as Pete and Oona Laurence as his sidekick,
Natalie, plus there is a blooper reel and a pair of music videos — The
Lumineers’ haunting, “Nobody Knows” and Lindsey Stirling teams with Andrew
McMahon for “Something Wild.”
Additionally, there is a video diary from filmmaker David
Lowery titled “Notes to Self: A Director’s Diary” and three featurettes — “Making
Magic,” “Disappearing Moments” and “Welcome to New Zealand.”
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