The Wes Anderson Archive: Ten Films, Twenty-Five Years

[denti alligator]

Where/what are the 10 illustrated books?

[dwk]

The films look like they are housed in individual digibooks (like The Princess Bride UHD). I figured people would be happy that it appears the discs are on hubs and not slots or envelopes.

[beamish14]

Really curious to see if the 4K of Bottle Rocket reinserts a shot Anderson deleted from the Blu-Ray

[ChunkyLover]

Really curious to see if the 4K of Bottle Rocket reinserts a shot Anderson deleted from the Blu-Ray

Are you referring to the "Job Opportunities" book insert/joke?

[beamish14]

Really curious to see if the 4K of Bottle Rocket reinserts a shot Anderson deleted from the Blu-Ray

Are you referring to the "Job Opportunities" book insert/joke?

Yes, which dates the film as being set in 1996

[andyli]

The 8 1/2 4K didn't take that long to appear after the Fellini set, right? 6 months or less?

The Fellini set was released in Nov. 2020, whereas the 8 1/2 4K in Dec. 2024, so a whopping four-year interim. I think the shortest interim record is held by Sawdust and Tinsel, which came one month after the Bergman set.

[Finch]

Thank you andyli. Hopefully it won't be 4 years this time.

[captveg]

I'm not sure the Fellini box is an ideal comparison as its HD only and not 4K. The 8½ 4K disc was a newly authored creation when the upgrade occurred. In the case of the eight Anderson films here the 4K discs are already finished for this box set. The individual releases are as ready to go as can be, aside from Criterion's sales strategy.

[Matt]

It's (uncharacteristically) smart for them to release the two newer films individually and simultaneously. That way we get to avoid all the inevitable "I have to buy a $500 box set to get Isle of Dogs ?!?" harrumphing. Now we can save our harrumphing for the years-long delay there will between this and individual 4K UHD releases of the previous films.

[andyli]

I'm wondering if the box set covers all the paper-based material from the eight titles over the years. Probably not. I just checked my Moonrise Kingdom release, which comes with a nice booklet, a map, a postcard and a flyer for 'Noyee’s Fludde'.

[adamfeldman]

If there was a significant discount for the box as compared to buying the individual 4ks I would have bought it for sure. The fact that it will be the same price as buying all the 4ks individually dissuades me, though — the lack of added value makes me question whether I actually want to own all these films, or whether I should pick and choose.

[DimitriL]

I suspect 4k exclusives from Disney immediately nuked any concept of a per-movie discount. Considering that Anderson has since moved on to other pastures, my guess is they squeezed the licensing for every penny they could get.

[Drucker]

I've never been a huge Anderson fan, so I don't own any of these releases, and I've seen most of these theatrically. But my wife and I bonded early on in our relationship about an experience of hers watching Darjeeling in Europe with non-English subtitles, and we specifically connected over the the "This Time Tomorrow" needle-drop. All that to say, I'll be buying this set! They got me!

[mfunk9786]

It's (uncharacteristically) smart for them to release the two newer films individually and simultaneously. That way we get to avoid all the inevitable "I have to buy a $500 box set to get Isle of Dogs ?!?" harrumphing. Now we can save our harrumphing for the years-long delay there will between this and individual 4K UHD releases of the previous films.

That's why I'm biting my tongue, selling my blu-rays, and just buying this box. Is what it is, but you're 100% correct that it'll be years until all of these come out in 4K, if ever. One of those tacked on announcements each month that's like "Ah, OK, Fantastic Mr. Fox in 4K. Makes sense." - but in 2027 it's going to be very annoying to see those

[Rupert Pupkin]

The thing is that "Moonrise Kingdom" is one of my favorite W.Anderson movie with Rushmore (for sic transit gloria, Olivia Williams , John Lennon's "Oh Yoko!") and The Royal Tenenbaum (for Gwyneth œuf course). The creek scene roflcopters Moonrise... reminds me Nicolas Roeg's nostalgic Walkabout. Darjeeling is on my favorite list too. I guess we all have our favorite list.
If Criterion put out some combo UHD+Blu-Ray single release, I expect the Royal... or Rushmore because that's probably the most "obvious" choice, but I think that for "Moonrise Kingdom" we will have to wait for a long time.
The packaging for Moonrise Kingdom is typical of Wes Anderson's style.
Really gorgeous; one of the best Criterion digipack.
In the meantime, I really wonder how the 4K transfer in UHD disk for Moonrise Kingdom will look like because it looks to me (but I'm probably wrong that the movie was shot in 16mm ?)
I guess I will have to wait for the test.
The box set is too expensive and above all, I really like the artwork/design for all the single releases that I have bought (even the keep case releases); thus I prefer to wait for a single release and see if I buy it again. But I think that Moonrise Kingdom won't be the first.

The Royal... already looks damned good in blu-ray and you can tell that if Criterion don't fuck up a 4K UHD transfer could be stellar.

[Lowry_Sam]

I've never been a huge Anderson fan,

And I thought I was the only one here. I can wait for my closet visit invitation to pick up this, the Godzilla, Olympic & CC40 boxes.
:-"

[captveg]

It's (uncharacteristically) smart for them to release the two newer films individually and simultaneously. That way we get to avoid all the inevitable "I have to buy a $500 box set to get Isle of Dogs ?!?" harrumphing. Now we can save our harrumphing for the years-long delay there will between this and individual 4K UHD releases of the previous films.

That's why I'm biting my tongue, selling my blu-rays, and just buying this box. Is what it is, but you're 100% correct that it'll be years until all of these come out in 4K, if ever. One of those tacked on announcements each month that's like "Ah, OK, Fantastic Mr. Fox in 4K. Makes sense." - but in 2027 it's going to be very annoying to see those

I imagine it'll feel a lot like the 4K upgrades we've been getting for the MGM titles Kino licensed and released on 4K already before Criterion wrestled them back.

[DimitriL]

In the meantime, I really wonder how the 4K transfer in UHD disk for Moonrise Kingdom will look like because it looks to me (but I'm probably wrong that the movie was shot in 16mm ?)

You’re kind of correct - it was shot in 16mm, but Super 16mm. Basically, it’s the same film size as 16mm but it uses the much more of the stock’s possible image area, including where one side of sprocket would holes normally go (known as single-perf). It blows-up to 35mm very nicely because of the increased quality, and will probably look great on 4k.

[dvakman]

I briefly flirted with purchasing this set, but I don't have a 4K player and it all seems a tad exorbitant for future proofing. I'm sorry to miss out on the books, though.

Criterion informed me that of the Blu-rays in the set, all are identical to the standalone releases except for Darjeeling Limited, which will be a new encode and color grade supervised by Wes.

With only three out of twenty discs with new material that I could immediately enjoy, I'm going to purchase the 4K standalones of Isle of Dogs and French Dispatch instead (I still future proof when I have the option).

[swo17]

From IndieWire:

“I’m not big on, ‘let’s make a new version,’” said Anderson. “For me, it’s like the movie has gone out and it sort of belongs to the audience at that point.”

That said, Anderson did take advantage of the process to spend time fixing things he hadn’t been 100 percent pleased with in the previous releases, while also overseeing how his films translated to the new video and audio formats, which isn’t always a straight one-to-one.

“In the process of this Criterion box set, for instance, there were things that we could refine,” said Anderson. “There were things that didn’t translate quite right in the original home video versions that we corrected.”

[dvakman]

Having just seen Wes' latest film (and in light of his latest three projects), I start to wonder whether this box will be considered obsolete in the near future or if it will turn out to be the "all the Wes that you really need" box for a lot of people.

[black&huge]

If they edit out the n word in Rushmore no big loss

[Never Cursed]

Having just seen Wes' latest film (and in light of his latest three projects), I start to wonder whether this box will be considered obsolete in the near future or if it will turn out to be the "all the Wes that you really need" box for a lot of people.

Not having the Henry Sugar films on disc is a major omission. I know that Criterion likely could not swing them, so I won't blame them, but it's a huge shame that they are only available streaming (or as WEB-DLs)

[dwk]

I assume the Netflix shorts will eventually get released, since I dont think he'd drop the Criterion clause from his contract.

When they get around to the films not in the boxset they should release them in digibooks to match the packaging of the titles in this set.

[Never Cursed]

I hope so. If they were only in the set, I'd have considered buying it. As it is, I'm only gonna spring for the Isle of Dogs standalone