The Criterion Collection has been one of the leaders in high-end home video since 1984. Over those 35+ years, they’ve released hundreds of movies on laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K, covering every conceivable genre, style, and international cinema. But Criterion has never released a movie from Disney or Pixar before.
The first ever will be this fall’s 4K release of WALL-E, one of Pixar’s most beloved films, featuring the story of a little robot cleaning up what remains of an abandoned, dystopian Earth. The new Criterion edition of Wall-E was supervised and approved by director Andrew Stanton and comes with a slew of special features, including…
- 4K digital master, approved by director Andrew Stanton, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- Two audio commentaries: one featuring Stanton and the other, character supervisor Bill Wise, coproducer Lindsey Collins, story artist Derek Thompson, and lead animator Angus MacLane
New programs on Stanton’s cinematic influences and production designer Ralph Eggleston’s color scripts - Tour of the Pixar Living Archive with Stanton
- Behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film, including segments from early animation reels
- The Pixar Story (2007), a documentary by Leslie Iwerks
- More than a dozen documentaries exploring the film’s production and robots
- Anatomy of a Scene: The Plant, a masterclass with Stanton
- “WALL-E”: A to Z, a new program featuring Stanton and coscreenwriter Jim Reardon
- Deleted scenes featuring commentary by Stanton
- A Story (1987), a student film by Stanton
- BURN-E (2008), a short film by MacLane
Here is the cover art for the disc, by Jason Raish:
It’s not as if WALL-E wasn’t already available on a variety of home video formats — you can watch it right now on Disney+ if you’re a subscriber — but Criterion’s discs are a cut above the rest. More importantly, if Disney and Pixar are now working with Criterion, that opens the doors to many more potential Criterion releases of Disney classics, with the kinds of in-depth special features and extras that you generally can’t find on streaming or most standard home video releases. The possibilities there are really exciting.
The Criterion Collection 4K UHD edition of WALL-E will be available on November 22.
