And they are NOT pleased. I’ve been getting hundreds of e-mails about this today, and I actually considered posting a few of the more “choice” examples. But many are just too expletive laden for public consumption. More than a few, however, suggested that if Fox and The Simpsons team weren’t going to give fans the option to purchase the episodes legally on disc anymore, they were just going to pirate them instead. And honestly, it’s hard to blame them for feeling that way. Several readers also pointed out, very wisely I think, that this announcement is almost certainly related to the launch of the new Simpsons World website and app which, much like the recent South Park/Hulu deal, gives fans access to every episode of the show behind a subscriber pay-wall. Yeah. A nice idea in theory, but the fans I’m hearing from are none too happy about it. And at least Cartoon Network and the South Park team are (wisely) continuing to support Blu-ray and DVD. I have no doubt that the Simpsons World thing is incredibly lucrative but whoever made this decision (whether it was Fox or The Simpsons people or both), abandoning millions of loyal supporters of the show on Blu-ray and DVD is just about as stupid and misguided as it gets. Guess they finally ran out of unicorns.
Side note: We mentioned yesterday that Jean hinted maybe there could be an eventual Complete Series package on disc. The good Dr. Jahnke had this reaction on Facebook: “This hypothetical Complete Simpsons box set makes me laugh. We’re talking about a show that’s probably going to end up running 30 seasons or more. It’ll cost a thousand dollars and have to be packaged in a scale model of Springfield.” Indeed. Highly unlikely EVER to happen. Anyway, be sure to join us on Facebook (if you haven’t already) and add your thoughts to the discussion.
All right, switching gears, we do have one piece of GOOD release news for you today: Warner Archive has just revealed that it’s going to be releasing Ladyhawke (1985) on Blu-ray in the coming weeks. We don’t have a street date yet, but the disc will be a BD-50 with 5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio, English SDH and the original trailer. The artwork is below – we’ll post the Amazon link as soon as it’s available.
Also it looks like some of Shout! and Scream’s recently announced Blu-ray titles are now available for pre-order on Amazon. We’ve added some cover art pre-order links below.
And finally today, Arrow Video has set Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace for Blu-ray release on 12/31. A little closer on the calendar, they’ve also set Walerian Borowczyk’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne for Blu-ray/DVD Combo release on 5/12.
Here’s a look at those Shout/Scream Blu-ray titles...
Don’t forget that the new season of Game of Thrones kicks off this Sunday night on HBO! Meanwhile, we’ll see you back here on Monday. Peace out.
- Bill Hunt