This Week on Blu-ray: February 7-13

For the week of February 7th, Walt Disney Home Entertainment will release Byron Howard and Jared Bush's Encanto, featuring the voices of Stephanie Beatriz, Diane Guerrero, Wilmer Valderrama, Angie Cepeda, and Rhenzy Feliz. The 60th film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Encanto was released over the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, grossing over $40 million over the five-day holiday weekend, on its way to just over $94 million domestically. While its numbers would ordinarily be disappointing, the box office for Encanto actually made it the highest-grossing animated film of 2021 at the time. Internationally, things were a bit better, with over $140 million. The film has also received critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Animated. This week, Disney's 4K UHD disc features Dolby Atmos audio and HDR picture, while several extras are on the Blu-ray, including a sing along version of the film, the theatrical short film Far from the Tree, deleted scenes, featurettes and outtakes. Additionally, a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook edition, a Target Exclusive with Limited Edition Lithographs and a Walmart Exclusive with Limited Edition Enamel Pin will also be available.

Reviewing the 4K UHD disc of Encanto, Martin Liebman says, in part: "The colors dazzle and delight with great intensity beyond the Blu-ray, which looks comparatively light and less deep and dynamic in comparison. The movie thrives with this more vivid color output. Add in superior white crispness and black level depth and all is well here...its superiority over 1080p is immediately evident. It looks great in all areas of concern". For a full disc breakdown, read Martin's 4K UHD review and Blu-ray review.

Also new this week on 4K UHD and Blu-ray, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release Johannes Roberts' Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, starring Kaya Scodelario, Hannah John-Kamen, Robbie Amell, Neal McDonough, and Tom Hopper. The seventh film in the film franchise, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City serves as a reboot of the series that previously starred Mila Jovovich in six films directed by Paul W.S. Anderson. Also opening over the Thanksgiving holiday, the film ultimately grossed over $16 million domestically and over $38 million globally.

Studio description: Returning to the origins of the massively popular RESIDENT EVIL franchise, fan and filmmaker Johannes Roberts brings the games to life for a whole new generation of fans. In RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY, once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company's exodus left the city a wasteland…with great evil brewing below the surface. When that evil is unleashed, a group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and make it through the night.

Sony's 4K UHD release for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City features Dolby Atmos audio. Extras on the included Blu-ray are "Replicating the DNA", "Cops, Corpses and Chaos" and "Zombies, Lickers and the Horrors of Resident Evil". Additionally, a Limited Edition SteelBook will also be available.

New this week on 4K UHD and Blu-ray from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is Reinaldo Marcus Green's King Richard, starring Will Smith, Aunjanue Ellis, Jon Bernthal, Saniyya Sidney, and Demi Singleton. Studio description: Based on the true story that will inspire the world, Warner Bros. Pictures' "King Richard" follows the journey of Richard Williams, an undeterred father instrumental in raising two of the most extraordinarily gifted athletes of all time, who will end up changing the sport of tennis forever. Two-time Oscar nominee Will Smith ("Ali," "The Pursuit of Happyness," "Bad Boys for Life") stars as Richard, under the direction of Reinaldo Marcus Green ("Monsters and Men"). Driven by a clear vision of their future and using unconventional methods, Richard has a plan that will take Venus and Serena Williams from the streets of Compton, California to the global stage as legendary icons. The profoundly moving film shows the power of family, perseverance and unwavering belief as a means to achieve the impossible and impact the world.

Warner's 4K UHD and Blu-ray releases of King Richard feature Dolby Atmos audio. Extras on the Blu-ray include deleted scenes and three featurettes.

Also coming from Warner this week on 4K UHD and Blu-ray is an all new DC animated movie, Shinsuke Terasawa's Catwoman: Hunted, starring the voices of Elizabeth Gillies, Stephanie Beatriz, Jonathan Banks, Keith David, Kelly Hu and Lauren Cohan. Note that in addition to standard packaging, a Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook edition will also be available.

Reviewing the 4K UHD disc of Catwoman: Hunted, Randy Miller is pleased with the A/V presentation, saying that the film's "particular style lends itself to a slightly better 4K, HDR-enhanced presentation than most DCAU productions...this 2160p transfer appears quite a bit more refined in direct comparison, especially where gradiences and shadow details are cornered. Colors are nicely saturated with no apparent bleeding, even the most vivid hues like those at the opening costume party, bright neon lights, or Batwoman's crimson red wig, This is typically where HDR enhancement excels: not simply boosted overall levels but carefully fine-tuned highlights". For a full disc breakdown, read Randy's 4K UHD review and Blu-ray review.

Also Warner this week is a Blu-ray for Stargirl: The Complete Second Season. The three-disc set contains all 13 hour-long episodes as well as the featurette "Never Alone: Heroes and Allies" and a gag reel.

Finally from Warner this week is another edition to the Warner Archive Collection, Mervyn LeRoy's Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), starring Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and Guy Kibbee.

Official description: A Broadway producer has the talent, the tunes, the theater and everything else he needs to put on a show – except the dough. Not to worry, say Ginger Rogers and the other leggy chorines decked out in giant coins. Everyone will soon be singing "We're in the Money." Soon after 42nd Street, the brothers Warner again kicked the Depression blues out the stage door and into a back alley. Mervyn Le Roy directs the snappy non-musical portions involving three wonderfully silly love matches (including Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler). And Busby Berkeley brings his peerless magic to the production numbers, his camera swooping and gliding to showstoppers that are naughty ("Pettin' in the Park"), neon-lit ("The Shadow Waltz") and soul-searing ("Remember My Forgotten Man"). Solid cinema gold!

Warner's Blu-ray for Gold Diggers of 1933 has been remastered from the best preservation elements. Extras include the featurette "FDR's New Deal...Broadway Bound", three vintage WB cartoons (I've Got to Sing a Torch Song, Pettin' in the Park and We're in the Money) and three vintage WB short films.

Note: The clip below features a scene from Gold Diggers of 1933 as included in the film That's Dancing! (1985).

In other catalog news this week, Kino Lorber has a 4K UHD upgrade for Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot, starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, Pat O'Brien, and George Raft.

Kino's 4K UHD release features Dolby Vision HDR and a new audio commentary by film historian Joseph McBride, Author of Billy Wilder: Dancing on the Edge. An archival audio commentary with Paul Diamond (Son of I.A.L. Diamond) and screenwriters Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel is also included, while a special features Blu-ray contains over two hours of archival video extras, such as documentaries, featurettes, interviews and more.

Also from Kino this week is a Blu-ray for Alberto De Martino's The Antichrist, starring starring Carla Gravina, Mel Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, George Coulouris, and Alida Valli. Description: Low-budget 1970s Italian occult horror. Carlo Gravina stars as Hipolita, a paralysed and mentally disturbed young woman who becomes possessed by the spirit of a witch and goes on a murderous rampage. The family housekeeper Irene (Alida Valli) enlists the help of an old monk, Father Mittner (George Colouris), to perform an exorcism and put an end to the madness.

Kino's Blu-ray for The Antichrist comes from a new 4K master prepared by StudioCanal. Extras include a new audio commentary by author and critic Lee Gambin and critic Sally Christie, as well as the archival featurette Raising Hell with Alberto De Martino and composer Ennio Morricone, alternate openeing credits under the title The Tempter and a TV spot.

Also this week, Shout Factory has a Blu-ray for Carl Reiner's Summer School, starring Mark Harmon, Kirstie Alley, Robin Thomas, Patrick Labyorteaux, Courtney Thorne-Smith and Dean Cameron.

Shout's Blu-ray for Summer School includes School's In For Summer - A new interview with actor Richard Steven Horvitz. Archival extras include an audio commentary with Carl Reiner and Mark Harmon, the featurette Inside The Teacher's Lounge, Summer School Yearbook a theatrical trailer and a photo gallery.

Finally this week, we have two more new catalog titles on Blu-ray from Paramount Home Media Distribution. First is Sidney Lumet's Murder on the Orient Express (1974), starring Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, and Jacqueline Bisset.

And next, is Colin Higgins' Foul Play (1978), starring Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, Burgess Meredith, Dudley Moore, and Rachel Roberts.