Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has been releasing a lot of the Disney animated classics on Blu-ray since last summer. It’s a new thing that the division has been doing, as they want to get all of the classics out on the format as fast as they can. While this strategy has drawn mixed responses (particularly with the picture quality on some titles, or the fact that a few films are packaged with their much-derided direct-to-video sequels), it’s still good to see that these films are finally hitting the format for the first time.
Weeks ago, we got word on the upcoming Blu-ray releases of Oliver & Company (coming August 6th) and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (coming August 27th). It seemed like Disney would release at least two more titles that month given how they released a total of four canon animated classics on Blu-ray last August, three in March and three more next month. It turns out, two more titles are in fact coming to Blu-ray on the same day as Oliver & Company…
The first of which is one of the last animated films that Walt Disney himself was involved with, The Sword in the Stone! Blu-ray.com has announced that the film will be hitting the format on August 6th. This upcoming release sports an all-new cover and the disc will keep a majority of the bonus features from the previous DVD releases including the two short subjects: The Brave Little Tailor and A Knight For a Day. A new alternative opening will be included on the disc as well, so that’s something to look forward to!
What’s the other film? It’s another medieval-set Disney classic from the Xerox era, Robin Hood! The cover is a modified version of the Most Wanted Edition DVD cover from 2006. The Blu-ray will keep many of the bonuses from that somewhat barebones DVD but it will include a never-before-seen deleted storyline titled “Love Letters”, another interesting thing to look forward to. If anything, it should contain a certain fully animated sequence that was cut from the film at last minute. Later this year, the films turn 50 and 40 years old respectively.
It’s also notable that two versions of each will be available: A combo pack with the Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Copy alongside a standard Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. Disney hasn’t done this for a lot of their non-Diamond titles as of late, so it’s a bit surprising to see that they’re doing this for these two films. Right now, it is unknown whether two versions of Oliver and Winnie will be available or not.
Will you be getting these two classics when they hit Blu-ray? What film(s) do you think Disney will release on the format after August? Sound off below!
