Items filtered by date: December 2009

Okay... retail sources are telling us to expect Disney's animated The Princess and the Frog on 3/16 (available will be single-disc DVD and Blu-ray editions, along with a 3-disc Combo Pack including DVD, Blu-ray and a Digital Copy. Their live-action Old Dogs is also expected on 3/9.

Meanwhile, Universal is expected to release Brothers on 3/23.

Retailers are expecting Warner's Ninja Assassin on 3/16, followed by Sherlock Holmes and Under the Sea: IMAX on 3/30.

Fox's Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is tentatively set for 3/30.

Finally, retail sources in Europe are reporting that James Cameron's Avatar will arrive on 2D DVD and Blu-ray from Fox sometime in June. We can't vouch for this, but if they're accurate it's possible the title will street some time around then in the States as well. We're expecting that a Blu-ray 3D version will arrive later in 2010, in time for the holidays.

As always, the above information is to be considered unofficial and subject to change until the studios in question make official announcements. Stay tuned...

- Bill Hunt

With all the talk about digital downloading and the implosion of home video sales, it's easy to lose of the sight of the fact that 2009 was another fantastic year for home entertainment. Blu-ray took another quantum leap forward as it penetrated further into the mainstream, although I could do with a little less bells and whistles as the tub thumping of BD-Live turned out to be much ado about nothing and I continue to loathe easter eggs. And DVD proved that while it was down, it definitely wasn't out. And most of the studios began amping up their release of vintage catalog titles on Blu-ray with Warner Bros leading the way with the great (The Wizard of Oz) to the good (Gone With the Wind) to the kitschy (Logan's Run). It was exceptionally hard to narrow down my favorite titles of the year to only ten (and, all of my Top 10 are Blu-ray titles with a few standard def DVD titles singled out among my runner-up's), but after many bleary eyed hours of re-sampling the candidates, here is my list of The Best Discs of 2009. Let the kvetching begin.