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No description on the "Video journal of Waris Ahluwalia (Vikram)" feature yet, though.

The video journal will be on Disc 2.

1-Disc Edition
OAR (16x9), 2.0, 5.1 and DTS English, English and Spanish subtitles

* Deleted Scenes
* Director Commentary on select scenes
* Original Theatrical Trailer
* Interviews with cast and crew with behind-the-scenes footage

2-Disc Edition
OAR (16x9), 2.0, 5.1 and DTS English, English and Spanish subtitles

Disc 1
* Deleted Scenes
* Director Commentary on select scenes
* Original Theatrical Trailer
* Interviews with cast and crew with behind-the-scenes footage

Disc 2
* Video journal of an on-the-set intern
* Seu Jorge musical performances: Songs of David Bowie
* “The Life Aquatic – A Movie” An Albert Maysles documentary
* Cast and crew interviews
* Video journal of Waris Ahluwalia (Vikram)
* Interview with the screenwriters and Antonio Monda
* Interview with composer Mark Mothersbaugh

From what it appears no audio commentary by Wes Anderson.

What really surprises me is, that Criterion is lowering themselves to releasing the film in two different editions, as the 1-disc will cost $29.99 and the 2-disc $32.99. It is also interesting, that only the 2-disc has a seal saying "directorial approved". Considering a mere $3 difference on list price, I really wonder what the deal is here, and further considering the expenses of single disc case and different print vs. the relatively small provenue gained here, I wonder if the profit margin wouldn't be the same or even higher if Criterion chose to release the 2-disc by it self.

Source

What amazes me is that in that info they state a spanish subtitles, while Criterion had never released such....


Axel.

What really surprises me is, that Criterion is lowering themselves to releasing the film in two different editions, as the 1-disc will cost $29.99 and the 2-disc $32.99.

It seems to me that Criterion will be releasing the 2 disc while Buena Vista will be releasing the 1 disc regular edition. This is similar to what they have done in the past with Armageddon, The Rock and Rushmore. In MSRP, is only a $3.00 difference between both editions but the 2 disc will probably retail for $19.99 - $23.99 while the other will go for $14.99 and will later on have a price drop to $10 so the price difference between the two will be $5 - $10. Is as simple as to say that the 1 disc is for casual movie fans and rental stores and the 2 disc is for film enthusiast and DVD collectors.

Dvdane wrote:From what it appears no audio commentary by Wes Anderson.

Er... you just listed a director's commentary.

Dvdane wrote:What really surprises me is, that Criterion is lowering themselves to releasing the film in two different editions, as the 1-disc will cost $29.99 and the 2-disc $32.99.

Geez, you guys are so overtly critical of basic and logical business decisions. This film needs every bit of push it can get, seeing as how poorly it did theatrically. Instead of trying to market useless editions like the transfer-only Rushmore disc, they're trying to give the single edition a fighting chance. These days, a lot of retailers won't carry two-discs after a limited period of initial release. Some prefer single discs because they are easier to stock at Targets and Walmarts (yes I know, *hissssss*) whose requests have resulted in more distribution of single disc editions for non-mainstream films like Punch Drunk Love, Day of the Dead and The Hills Have Eyes.

If Buena Vista makes more money back on the making of the film (thus helping Anderson) and makes more people aware of Criterion and the filmmaker, why in the world would you want to attack them? They are clearly putting a lot of work into both the construction and marketing of the film, which is exemplified by our surprise and confusion at how multi-faceted the plan is. They are doing doing this film justice when it's box office and critical responses sure as hell didn't warrant it. Yet some of you are still torching every little decision they make because one edition is simpler or one supplement was from a press package.

Pretty soon the DVD packages and Jon Mulvaney's email responses are going to get criticized for low word count, further blamed upon the petty demands of their Universal and Buena Vista's licensing divisons. Yeesh.

dx23 wrote:This is similar to what they have done in the past with Armageddon, The Rock and Rushmore.

Exactly. And seeing as how Tenenbaums was the first of the new major release from Criterion to be available only as a 2 disc, it's extremely likely that both Criterion and Buena Vista ended up experiencing a lot of retailer headaches from the difficulty of restocking a larger product over time or having to deal with/discard the extra discs for rentals.

Seeing as how they are just going back into a previous practice, then the only conclusion is that the 2 disc only plan didn't work. Also like Tenenbaums, Buena Vista probably still chickened out on distributing a barebones disc, settling instead for Criterion to handle both editions. Why shouldn't people stuck with the single edition not get some basic special features?

It's not with the may-releases, which gives Criterion extra time to fill in the missing spine-numbers.

And with Hoop Dreams priced at 29,95 with a commentary, I'm fairly certain the tLA double disc will also be a lower-tier.

Why do you think this is not up at the Criterion site yet? Seems odd.

denti alligator wrote:Why do you think this is not up at the Criterion site yet? Seems odd.

Criterion's (as opposed to Touchstone/Buena Vista's) artwork is available online, which means the full listing should be posted later this week.

On the Criterion-Cover list on my website, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is listed both as #292 and #300!!!

Looks like I was right when I said there were going to be two different spine numbers.

JusteLeblanc wrote:

Looks like I was right when I said there were going to be two different spine numbers.

Is two spine numbers really necessary? Especially when the first disc is identical, as well as the cover art? It seems a little retarded.

It looks like a typo in the HTML. I'm assuming you just type in the URL for the image, with the spine number. You put 300 twice. There is no image up for 292

There's a pretty good, short interview with Anderson about the film here. No mention of the DVD, but some interesting stuff nevertheless.

jase gott wrote:

4LOM wrote:On the Criterion-Cover list on my website, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" is listed both as #292 and #300!!!

i think there's a typo in you html code. pls verify.

Thanks ... and sorry for this mistake. It was a type and I changed it.

Sorry to divert attention back to the film, but I’ve only just seen this. Now, keep in mind I adored The Royal Tenenbaums and is probably my favourite film of the decade thus far. It is therefore with more than a little surprise that I say how much I loathed The Life Aquatic. It’s a wincingly precious, emotionally numb, narratively shambolic car-wreck of a film in which virtually nothing works.

I simply can’t understand the rationale behind gathering together a supporting cast of top-notch character actors and not giving any of them a character to work with. All the secondary characters are just plot devices and scenery dressing. Klaus is just an exaggerated rehash of Eli Cash’s “outsider-looking-in” role from Tenenbaums. In fact, the entire cast (with the possible exception of Willem Dafoe) have an infuriating tendency to deliberately throw away lines that could in theory be funny, but are destroyed with a disinterested, shrugged-off delivery that’s supposedly to make the absurd sound naturalistic but just comes across as an irritatingly superior strain of boredom, as if aiming for a laugh is somehow too lowly a goal. Everyone in this movie is just too cool to care.

From the appearance of the finished film, it seems as if Anderson spent 10% of pre-production time on the script, 5% on rehearsals and 85% in the props room. It’s no small wonder the set decorator doesn’t share the director’s title card Welles/Toland-stylee. Anderson seems to have completely lost the ability to create a flowing narrative. Plenty of stuff happens, but there’s never the feeling that any of it is building on what has come before or that it’s leading anywhere.

Even Anderson’s visuals and soundtrack I didn’t find nearly as interesting as I expected to. The documentary-style zooms and handheld camerawork just seemed incongruous in a film that seemed to specialise in a total lack of urgency or plausibility. Even the use of David Bowie wasn’t especially sharp – unlike Rushmore or Tenenbaums where the music seems inseparable from the sequences they accompany, the use of ‘Life on Mars’, ‘Queen Bitch’ and others just seemed to be in there for Anderson’s fondness of them rather than any particular dramatic impact.

The film’s main problem is the lack of genuine charm. I didn’t see one thing in it is as daft and unreservedly lovely as the dalmation mice from Tenenbaums. The ultra-detached uber-ironic tone and relentless parade of quirky details simply murdered this movie – we’re allowed to peer through the window at all the fun and toys, but we’re never actually invited in.

I didn’t like it.

Narshty wrote: In fact, the entire cast (with the possible exception of Willem Dafoe) have an infuriating tendency to deliberately throw away lines that could in theory be funny, but are destroyed with a disinterested, shrugged-off delivery that’s supposedly to make the absurd sound naturalistic but just comes across as an irritatingly superior strain of boredom, as if aiming for a laugh is somehow too lowly a goal. Everyone in this movie is just too cool to care.

I can understand you not liking the film - although I say a minimum of two viewings is requisite for any Wes Anderson film - but the quoted statement above strikes me as odd. Isn't this Anderson's style? Think of Luke Wilson saying how he never wanted to answer any boating related question ever again. Or Paltrow responding to the question, "Do you still love me at least?" with an unaffected, "I do kind of." For me, that's a good deal of Anderson's brilliance - dialogue that most directors would want broad he plays small. I guess what I'm saying is, I don't understand how you could like The Royal Tenenbaums so well and be irritated by this specific thing.

And just to clarify, I'm not trying to insult your taste or anything - I can completely understand how one would dislike the film - it just seems strange that you identify a part of the film that seems (to me, at least) indicative of Anderson's work as a whole.

This is up on Criterion's site.

There seem to be a very large amount of extras on this, so I don't imagine anyone having a problem with that aspect. But I was hoping for a nice essay (Kent Jones on Royal Tenenbaums was a treat). Shame.

Hey, what happened to the video journal from the actor who played Vikram? It was on the initial supplements lists, but was not reprinting on either The Digital Bits or Criterion's own official webpage.

It's up at Criterion's site:

http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=300

With a main-page blurb:

Two Releases of The Life Aquatic Coming This Spring

The Criterion Collection, in collaboration with Buena Vista Home Entertainment, is currently working on two separate editions of Wes Anderson's nautical adventure-comedy The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. The single-disc edition of The Life Aquatic will feature a new high-definition digital transfer, audio commentary by Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach, ten deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes featurette, and the theatrical trailer. The double-disc edition will include the entire contents of the single-disc, as well as a new documentary chronicling the production of the movie by Albert Maysles and Antonio Ferrera, an episode of an Italian talk show featuring an interview with Anderson and Baumbach, multiple interviews with the cast and crew, and much more. Look for both editions of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou this May!

Strange that this appeared on a Sunday.

denti alligator wrote:Strange that this appeared on a Sunday.

It was actually posted on Friday (in the US)

It's 30 CAD at DVDSoon.

Sai wrote:It's 30 CAD at DVDSoon.

It's $27.29 cnd at amazon.ca

Jon Mulvaney said the Vikram video journal is not a supplement on the release of the Life Aquatic, for whomever was interested. I guess it was pulled...

JM says it's a FULL commentary not select scene.

I don't think so. However, I think that everyone does, me excluding.

Let's face it, guys - you were all apalled when the explosions and gun-shots came on in the movie. And that's why you don't like it. Because that (for you, at least) is sinonimous with selling out to the Hollywood formula.

I, for once, enjoyed the movie for the adventure that it is. And it was one heck of a ride!