Keen to rake in a healthy home entertainment return for Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny after Indy’s big comeback failed to set the cinema box office alight as much as hoped, Disney has revealed in its announcement today of the film’s 4K Blu-ray release that it’s gone to town in impressive fashion with most aspects of the film’s physical media release. Though there is one limitation of the 4K release that might set some AV fans’ teeth on edge.
Starting with the good news, the 4K disc will carry the film in a 2.39:1 aspect ratio mastered in high dynamic range video as well as 4K resolution, with a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. As well as a decent looking standard edition, the film will be available from Best Buy in a very handsome-looking limited-edition 4K SteelBook. Plus there will be a Walmart exclusive edition of the 4K Blu-ray that will come with custom artwork and a limited-edition enamel pin.
Disney’s new-found appreciation for physical media and its fans will see The Dial Of Destiny accompanied in the 4K Blu-ray package by more than two hours of bonus content. Including, brilliantly, the option to watch the entire film accompanied by only John Williams’ score (mixed in 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos on the 4K disc, vs 7.1 Dolby Digital on the HD Blu-ray).
While Disney adds a rider in its press information about the Dial Of Destiny release suggesting that bonus features may vary by product and retailer, it also details what appears to be a fairly in-depth five-chapter Making Of documentary as follows:
- “Chapter 1 – Prologue – Harrison Ford leaps back into action as Indiana Jones! Journey to 1944 as this featurette reveals the filmmakers, characters, stunts, locations, and incredible visual effects that make up the thrilling opening of Dial of Destiny!
- Chapter 2 – New York – Blast off to adventure as James Mangold showcases the re-creation of 1969 Manhattan for the Moon Parade chase. This featurette spotlights Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) as John Williams conducts his beautiful new theme for this compelling character.
- Chapter 3 – Morocco – The man in the hat is back! Explore Morocco as this featurette breaks down the white-knuckle stunts of the medina tuk-tuk chase and hotel brawl. Meet Teddy (Ethann Isidore), Indy’s precocious new ally in the hunt for the dial!
- Chapter 4 – Sicily – Meet Renaldo (Antonio Banderas) as he guides our heroes on a perilous underwater treasure hunt! Catch up with Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge on location in Sicily and explore the caverns, traps, and bugs surrounding Archimedes’ tomb!
- Chapter 5 – Finale – This featurette breaks down the thrilling climax to the Indiana Jones series. Cast and filmmakers James Mangold, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, John Williams, Steven Spielberg, and Harrison Ford bid farewell to one of the greatest heroes of all time.”
The one concern about The Dial Of Destiny 4K Blu-ray release (aside from it only carrying an HDR10 master rather than a Dolby Vision HDR one) is that despite the film being a substantial 154 minutes long, Disney has opted to ship it on a 66GB disc rather than the 100GB alternative. This means the picture has the potential to look more compressed than it might have done if Disney had shelled out for the extra 34GB on the bigger capacity disc.
This is hardly a new development for Disney. All of its 4K Blu-ray releases bar, tellingly, the two recently released Avatar films, have also appeared on 66GB discs. But the Avatar releases had raised hopes that maybe Disney had finally accepted that very long films will likely always benefit from having more storage space to play with.
It’s not inevitable that the Dial Of Destiny 4K Blu-ray picture quality won’t look impressive; not least because video compression systems have improved greatly in recent years. But there’s no getting round the fact that the first Avatar film only runs eight minutes longer than The Dial Of Destiny, yet someone involved in that Avatar 4K Blu-ray production (quite possibly James Cameron himself) deemed a 100GB disc necessary.
All will become (hopefully crystal) clear when the Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny 4K disc comes out on December 5, we guess. Fingers crossed Disney’s rejuvenated physical media department has given Indiana Jones the home entertainment send off he deserves.
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