Doctor Zhivago Blu-ray and More Canadian Release Dates

Among the newly announced dates and titles for Canada are the following:

Alliance: Defender makes its DVD debut April 13, as well as Lesbian Vampire Killers ($25.99 DVD/$30.99 BR).

Mongrel Media: Doug Pray's documentary Art and Copy will be available on DVD April 6 for $34.95. Loft is (finally!) being released in Canada March 23 for $29.95, and Petropolis will be released March 30 for $29.95, and will include webisodes, narrated slideshow, Media B-roll, and trailer.

Universal: Is this idea really worth giving a second spin? Universal's first two flipper BR/DVD combos in Canada will be Out of Africa and The Jackal; the former is cinematically important, whereas the latter is rabbit rubbish, and both will street April 27 for $30.99 each. The Digital Bits found significant playback issues with the studio's first efforts to place HD-DVD content on the A-side (go HERE, and scoot down to the entry "1/12/10"), and DVD content on the B-side, and one hopes the glue that sandwiches the two discs together will last a while.

Warner Bros.: Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings comes back remastered on DVD ($24.98) and Blu-ray ($34.97). Now that Bakshi's LOTR is an "animated classic," it also comes with a new featurette, "Forging Through the Darkness: The Ralph Bakshi Vision for LOTR."

April 27th brings the first two volumes of Looney Tunes Super Stars, with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck getting their own themed collection. Each single disc set comes with 15 remastered cartoons previously unavailable on DVD, and will retail for $24.98.

Doctor Zhivago debuts on Blu-ray in a 45th Anniversary Edition May 4 for $37.99. The Blu-ray book format will contain 44 pages of of essays, as well as a wan sampler CD featuring 8 score selections. New to the anniversary edition is a documentary "Doctor Zhivago: A Celebration, Parts 1 & 2," as well as the extras present on the prior 2-disc DVD release from 2001.


- MRH