Harry Potter Ultimate Editions Coming

[VagueSimplicity]

At first I was excited about these two new Ultimate Editions, but now I think I'll just stick with the BDs I have. The extended editions were really the only thing selling me.

I'll still get the first two Ultimate Editions (when they're cheaper) only because I hear they have better picture and sound quality than the original BDs. But I'll just wait for the they day release all 8 Ultimate Editions together (which they likely will), I'll just get that.

Honestly, though, no actual ultimate or director's cut.

[ajmrowland]

well,m the promotional; material will make good historical reference as little as ten years from now. When Sony does trailers for their Blu-rays, they always use the theatrical previews. the difference is astounding.

[SpringHeelJack]

I figure I'll still buy these as I own none of the standard editions on Blu-ray, but it still bums me out. I feel this doesn't bode well for "Order of the Phoenix" next year. So much for the extra eight hours of footage or whatever.

[PeterPanfan]

I still need to get CoS... I only have the Ultimate Edition of SS.

Question: When Deathly Hallows is released to DVD and Blu-Ray, will it be immedietly released as an Ultimate Edition as well? Or will we have to wait?

[disneyboy20022]

Also today, we've got a follow up for you on those two new Harry Potter Ultimate Edition box sets - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire will both street on DVD and Blu-ray on 10/19. As you know, we've confirmed that there will be no extended cut of these films on the discs, unlike the first two Potter UEs, and a lot of you wanted to know why. We asked Warner Home Video for a little more information, and what they essentially said was that they would do an extended version if there was significant or important scenes left out by the filmmakers - scenes that would add more than just length to the film if they were restored. So Warner gave the filmmakers the option to create extended cuts, but in the case of both Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire, the directors felt that the best material was already in the film, so there was really no need. Anyway, I just thought some of you would like to know.

http://thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

[SpringHeelJack]

I mean, that's nice respecting the directors' wishes and all, but the extended cuts already exist, so at some point they already made them without consulting the directors, and it's not like these releases were ever referred to as a "Director's Cut" or something like that.

...all I want is not to end up buying these again on Blu-ray when "Prisoner of Azkaban" is re-released with an extra fifteen minutes of newly-restored footage.

[magicalwands]

Is that really what they said, WB? Alright, come Order of the Phoenix, I will be holding them to that quote because I KNOW Yates had to cut SO much of that film. I am so anxious to see a complete film!

[Disneykid]

I actually feel a lot better about PoA and GoF and take back what I said before about WB going the cheap and easy route. I respect filmmaker integrity, and if they don't wish to show the other deleted scenes, that's their right. This also means that Chris Columbus personally okayed SS and CoS' extended cuts and likewise didn't want to show us the additional footage missing from SS. I do know that just a few months ago, Mike Newell said he went back and watched GoF for the first time since its release and felt pretty happy with it compared to how he did initially. I just figured that since he was so disappointed back in 2005 over losing 20 minutes, he'd use this opportunity to rectify that.

Am I disappointed that Cuaron and Newell didn't just pull a Peter Jackson and give us extended cuts when the theatrical's still their preferred version? Yes. I love PoA, but it feels the least substantial in the series (OotP, despite being shorter, feels a bit meatier), and while not much was filmed and cut out, any little bit helps, especially the Sirius break-in that we've only seen the after-effect of. GoF had substantial stuff cut out, most notably Dumbledore's Priori Incantantum explanation. Despite all this, though, I won't argue about it any further since these are Cuaron and Newell's films.

So now the rest of the series is in David Yates' hands. This worries me since he cut down OotP willingly, not because of studio pressure like Columbus and Newell. I don't mind HBP not getting one so much (though if they could throw in the currently-released deleted scenes, I'll be very happy), nor with DH since that one's going to be so detailed. but OotP drastically needs it. If he's 100% satisfied with the theatrical version, great, but surely he must know how much fans are dying to see that extra 45 minutes (something I admit kind of baffles me about Cuaron and Newell). If he didn't think anyone cared, he wouldn't have mentioned those 45 minutes, and repeatedly at that. I guess we'll find out next year...

And for those interested, this video shows photos of unreleased deleted scenes from films 3-6:

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And this video focuses solely on HBP, adding more to what was shown above (a couple of these ended up on the DVD and BD):

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[azul017]

Did anyone buy the third and fourth film Ultimate Editions yet? I'd like to hear your thoughts on the music featurette included with Goblet of Fire, is there any interviews with Alexandre Desplat included?

And some menu screens would be nice too.

[Disneykid]

I haven't bought Years 3 and 4, yet, since I plan on using birthday money this weekend to buy them. Someone on blu-ray.com did mention that the Music and Sound documentary is only about 50 minutes, I guess to balance out how long the Characters documentary was since each is supposed to be an hour or so.

Luke's going to be covering both PoA and GoF, so I'll allow him to post more detailed thoughts. I'll just come back here when I've bought them and post whether or not Desplat shows up at all. A part of me wants to say no since it looks like they're saving the DH stuff for the documentaries that show up on those, similarly to how SS' "The Magic Begins" just focused on that installment. That means we probably won't see the Gringotts dragon in PoA's "Creatures" documentary, either.

[ajmrowland]

We dont see the Greengotts Dragon in the "Creatures" part. We do see trolls doing ballet, though.

That's in addition to the Basilisk, Aragog, Buckbeak, the Horntail, Dobby, Kreature, Thestrals, Pixies, Mandrakes, etc.

I dont even recall Fluffy being there and Norbert, being a dragon, isnt mentioned at all.

[Mickeyfan1990]

Reviews for the Harry Potter abnd The Prisoner of Azkaban UE:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Harry-Pot ... -ray/5721/

and for Goblet Of Fire:
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Harry-Pot ... -ray/5720/

[PeterPanfan]

Just wondering, does anyone know when OotP and HBP are supposed to come out?

[Mickeyfan1990]

Possibly next year.

[Disneykid]

Someone on Blu-ray.com's forums has a brother that designs menus for WB. He was told that Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince are expected sometime around November of next year and that they won't have extended cuts. Instead, they'll carry 3-D versions of the films along with 2-D. The color scheme for Phoenix will be green while Prince will be light blue. Both sets will include trailers, the PiP content from the HD-DVD and BDs, all of the previous features, and the new Creating the World of Harry Potter segments. He hasn't heard, yet, what, if any, TV specials will be included.

I'm really ticked off that extended cuts are apparently now exclusive to just the Columbus films. WB said Cuaron and Newell declined on ones for their films, which I respect, but now I'm finding it suspicious that Yates feels the same way. He openly admitted that he cut down OotP too much in his effort to make the shortest Harry Potter film.

HBP and DH:1 are dang near perfect, so while I'd like for those to get extended cuts, I won't complain if they don't. OotP, however, really needs one as a lot of substantial material was filmed and removed. I want to hear directly from Yates himself that he passed on the option of extended cuts, otherwise I'm going to remain dubious.

And for those suspicious over the Blu-ray.com guy's sources, he was the one who verified that GoF would be getting its PiP track, trailers, and TV specials even when the WB press release left those out. He's also confirmed that the standard DVD/BD of Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is expected in March while Part 2 is coming in November to cross promote the UE's of OotP and HBP. He said Part 2 will pretty much be barebones because WB wants to save most of the content for the UE to make it more special.

[PeterPanfan]

Thanks, Kelvin!

One more question, if you could answer it: I've held off getting HBP on Blu in hopes that the UE would exceed it; do you know if all the features (including the JK Rowling special) will be ported over? Because if not, I'll just buy it now.

[2099net]

He said Part 2 will pretty much be barebones because WB wants to save most of the content for the UE to make it more special.

Well, that's all well and good for the US (and Japan?). What about the rest of the world where the UEs are not being released?

[JiminyCrick91]

And for those suspicious over the Blu-ray.com guy's sources, he was the one who verified that GoF would be getting its PiP track, trailers, and TV specials even when the WB press release left those out. He's also confirmed that the standard DVD/BD of Deathly Hallows: Part 1 is expected in March while Part 2 is coming in November to cross promote the UE's of OotP and HBP. He said Part 2 will pretty much be barebones because WB wants to save most of the content for the UE to make it more special.

Well that's too bad for me. I like having two disc DVDs (although one had a bonus disc). I had planned to continue with thouse sets til the end and wait for 2012 or whenever for the complete ultimate blu-ray set that is sure to come. I already dislike that PoA does not come in the same sort of case as PS and CoS or has a slipcover like the rest of them and now this... I love to have uniformity in my film collection.


-Skyler

[Disneykid]

Thanks, Kelvin!

One more question, if you could answer it: I've held off getting HBP on Blu in hopes that the UE would exceed it; do you know if all the features (including the JK Rowling special) will be ported over? Because if not, I'll just buy it now.

The Blu-ray.com poster confirmed that the UE of HBP will have everything from the current release. Even if he didn't confirm it, I would've expected it, anyway. All of the UEs so far take the exact same bonus features disc from the old releases, redo the movie ones, and add a third filled with new content. So if you can, hold off on buying it till the UE comes out.

Netty, does WB region lock their BDs? If so, that definitely sucks for other regions.

[PeterPanfan]

Okay, thanks; that's good, so that I don't have to buy two versions!