Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Tabs Mar. 23 As The Release Date For Soul

In the surreal world of Covid-19 it no longer comes as a surprise that records are being set on a routine basis for the most expensive direct-to-video releases of all time.   Indeed, it is hard to understand the long-term economics of spending a reported $150 million on the production of a Pixar animated film only to turn to streaming and home entertainment packaged media as the end-all revenue stream.

Maybe the magic of studio accounting justifies it.  

In any case, the greatest strength of the so-called “Hollywood” studios (only one is actually physically located in Hollywood) was the distribution system that they created, controlled and dominated for the last 90 years.   Production, marketing, advertising, promotion and theatrical distribution turned into an art form.  If you take the theatrical-launch mechanism out of the equation, then the studio’s greatest strength; dominance, disappears.  

So, you change the model to who owns the “streaming” platforms and which “mousetrap” can generate the most viewing minutes (measured in the billions).  If that is the future of “Hollywood,” then why do you need the illusion of “Hollywood?”   You no longer need a studio, and all that goes with it, you just need a collection of content-providers … and they can be anywhere.  

The $150 million film in question this week is the directing team of Peter Docter (who also co-wrote … eight-time Oscar nominee, including four-times for writing: Toy Story, WALL-E, Up and Inside Out) and Kemp Powers’ Soul, starring the voice of Jamie Foxx.

Its domestic theatrical launch was canceled in favor of a Disney+ streaming debut and on Mar. 23 it will be available as a three-SKU home entertainment packaged media array of product selections.    There will be Combo Pack editions for both the 4K Ultra HD (with Blu-ray) and Blu-ray (with DVD) formats, plus a stand-alone DVD edition.

Bonus features include commentary from Docter and Powers, who are joined by producer Dana Murray (Oscar-nominated for Best Animated Short Film in 2018, Lou), a half-dozen deleted scenes and six production featurettes — “Not Your Average Joe,” “Astral Taffy,” “Pretty Deep for a Cartoon,” “Into the Zone: The Music and Sound of Soul,” “Soul Improvised” and “Jazz Greats.”