I’m a big fan of when studios go above and beyond to make their 4K UHD home releases feel like the best experience that I can get. This is why I applaud Christopher Nolan, because all of his physical media releases come with the IMAX ratios, so while you’re not getting the massive screen that a movie theater can offer, you’re not getting a dramatically lesser experience and missing out on the expanded ratio completely.
Not every studio does that for home releases, and one of the biggest examples of that is Disney. Disney, unlike Nolan, has a streaming service, which means exclusive features help sweeten the pot. For Disney+, that typically means holding back features like Dolby Vision and IMAX Enhanced. This has been the case for numerous films, and practically all the MCU movies fit these criteria. It’s gotten to the point where I pretty much know a Disney home release isn’t going to be the best that it can be on 4K Blu-ray.
However, there are some exceptions to this rule, and if the upcoming release of The Mandalorian and Grogu is anything to go by, maybe the tides are turning. This movie will have its theatrical 2:39:1 aspect ratio along with a fullscreen 1:78:1 ratio on both the 4K Blu-ray, regular Blu-ray, and even the DVD. It’s just one example, but having a tent pole franchise such as Star Wars come with the IMAX ratios feels like good news.
A sign of things to come, or maybe it’s just a one-time thing
No way of knowing
For years, Disney has felt stagnant when it comes to home media releases. It’s especially been the case since the closure of the Disney Movie Club. There’s a treasure trove of films begging to see the light of day and numerous others that could use a remaster. This is why it feels a little bit shocking to see a major film such as The Mandalorian and Grogu launch with the IMAX scenes intact. It’s not often that a Disney release impresses me like that, so I hope it’s a sign of things to come.
There have been some outliers in the past, such as Guardians of the Galaxy Part 3, so it’s not like Disney can’t do this type of thing. Maybe it’s the case of a director advocating for it; maybe it’s not. Guardians 3 is the only one in the series to have expanded scenes on the disc, so I wonder if director James Gunn fought for it.
Whatever the case is, I hope this is a sign of things to come. Avengers: Doomsday hits theaters later this year, so it’ll be a while before we find out if it has expanded scenes on the disc, but I hope that it does. There’s no sense in having all of these features locked behind the Disney+ paywall. It’s led me to not consider many Disney 4K releases, and that might be part of the plan. However, it also hasn’t led me to sign up for Disney+ and watch things in the expanded format. I have all the Star Wars films on 4K Blu-ray, and none of them have Dolby Vision or the IMAX ratio, but I still watch on my disc instead of a streaming service.
For me specifically, this shows that I’m willing to still watch a disc over fancier bells and whistles on a streaming service. Maybe enough people are doing that for Disney to realize it’s a battle not worth fighting anymore. Of course, I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself here, since this is just one movie with an expanded ratio. I can’t count Spider-Man: Brand New Day since Sony will handle that release, so the next movie I have my eyes set on is Doomsday.
I feel that Disney could do better with its catalog
The Fox films need some love
Getting IMAX ratios and Dolby Vision is just one step of the process. While that’s great and all, I wish we didn’t have to fight to get movies released at all. When you look at rival studios, I think Warner Brothers (at least for now) is a good example of how to handle a back catalog. It’s great that we have movies like Rebel Without A Cause released in 4K because film preservation in the best quality is important. I love that Universal treats its Universal Monsters collection with the same type of care. These movies hold up, and they look excellent.
Meanwhile, movies like Sleeping Beauty, Hercules, Tarzan, and the list goes on all have no 4K releases in sight. I know Disney could do a great job with these because I have Cinderella and Snow White in this format, and they look phenomenal. You might think animation doesn’t benefit from a 4K bump, but it certainly does. There’s a lot that Disney has, especially after the Fox acquisition, that’s just dying to see the light of day like this. I’m sure these heavy hitters will come eventually, much like The Sound of Music did.
