Criterion has announced its first collaboration with Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, which will bring the beloved 2008 animated feature WALL•E into the Criterion Collection family of premium home video releases this fall. The 4K UHD set will arrive packed with special features on November 22, with a price tag of SRP $49.95.
***
Synopsis: A high-water mark of digital animation, this prescient vision of a dystopian future from director Andrew Stanton (A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, Finding Dory) is packaged within a dazzling pop-science-fiction love story, making for an urgent fable for our troubled millennium.
It’s the 29th century, and humans have long since fled Earth for outer space, leaving WALL•E, the last functioning trash-compacting robot, to go about the work of cleaning up a pollution-choked planet, one piece of garbage at a time. When he meets EVE, a fellow automaton sent to detect plant life, the pair are launched on an intergalactic quest to return humanity to Earth.
Transporting us simultaneously back to cinema’s silent origins and forward light-years into the future, WALL•E is a soaring ode to the power of love and art to heal a dying world.
***
The Criterion Collection special edition release features a director-approved 4K digital remaster of the film, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack, with one 4K UHD disc of the film, presented in both Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10+, and two Blu-rays with the film and special features, as well as alternate 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio and stereo soundtracks.
Bonus Features:
- Two audio commentaries: one featuring Stanton and the other, character supervisor Bill Wise, co-producer Lindsey Collins, story artist Derek Thompson and lead animator Angus MacLane
- New featurettes 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 co-screenwriter Jim Reardon
- Deleted scenes featuring commentary by Stanton
- A Story (1987), a student film by Stanton
- BURN•E (2008), a short film by MacLane
- Trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- English descriptive audio
- PLUS: An essay by author Sam Wasson; selections from Stanton’s sketchbooks, script notes, and drawings; and artwork from the WALL•E team
