{"id":121,"date":"2025-10-03T15:18:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/?p=121"},"modified":"2025-10-03T15:18:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T15:18:41","slug":"criterions-the-wes-anderson-archive-is-the-blu-ray-box-set-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/?p=121","title":{"rendered":"Criterion\u2019s \u201cThe Wes Anderson Archive\u201d is the Blu-ray Box Set of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Collectors of physical media need to get their hands on Criterion\u2019s box set of the year, a beautiful collection of the first ten films by writer\/director Wes Anderson<\/a>. Criterion has released Wes Anderson films before, but this is the first time they\u2019ve assembled them into a box set, and they\u2019ve marked the occasion with new 4K digital masters of all of the films, while also releasing the new 4K editions with new special features individually for \u201cIsle of Dogs<\/a>\u201d and \u201cThe French Dispatch<\/a>.\u201d The set comes in a very Anderson-esque box that makes it look like each film is in a small journal, complete with reprints of various essays along with more recently commissioned entries. For example, you can read Martin Scorsese\u2019s Esquire<\/em> piece on \u201cBottle Rocket<\/a>\u201d all the way to Richard Brody\u2019s examination of \u201cThe French Dispatch.\u201d Just the reading material alone makes for an interesting analysis of an essential modern filmmaker with other essays by James L. Brooks, Bilge Ebiri, Moeko Fujii, Kent Jones, Dave Kehr, Geoffrey O\u2019Brien, Erica Wagner, and more.<\/p>\n

Of course, the most important element of any box set is the films themselves, and \u201cThe Wes Anderson Archive\u201d really does feel like taking a film school class on the influence and trajectory of its creator. Anderson\u2019s distinctive stye, one that\u2019s arguably become more pronounced with each film, can be witnessed merely by viewing all ten works in this set. It\u2019s fascinating to go from the relatively simple comedy of \u201cBottle Rocket\u201d to the more expressive tableaus of \u201cRushmore<\/a>\u201d to what many consider Anderson\u2019s perfect distillation of his early and later films in \u201cThe Royal Tenenbaums<\/a>.\u201d \u201cThe Life Aquatic<\/a>\u201d and \u201cThe Darjeeling Limited<\/a>\u201d feel like a double feature in terms of style, which then shifts further after Anderson\u2019s foray into stop-motion in \u201cFantastic Mr. Fox<\/a>.\u201d His 7th<\/sup> film, \u201cMoonrise Kingdom<\/a>,\u201d remains his most underrated in my opinion, a move away from the overly composed work of his lesser films into something that feels more like his first three. Of course, the set closes out with the Best Picture nominee \u201cThe Grand Budapest Hotel<\/a>,\u201d his second stop-motion flick in \u201cIsle of Dogs,\u201d and his tenth film, \u201cThe French Dispatch\u201d. (If you want the full dozen, go pick up \u201cAsteroid City<\/a>\u201d and \u201cThe Phoenician Scheme<\/a>\u201d in their standalone, non-Criterion editions or wait for this company to eventually get around to them. Both feel inevitable.)<\/p>\n

A sampling of the films to discern their 4K quality is mostly positive. \u201cTenenbaums\u201d has some passages that look a little visually degraded, for example, but \u201cLife Aquatic\u201d really pops, as does \u201cFantastic Mr. Fox\u201d. Of course, the newest additions spark off the screen, and each film has been accompanied by 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio tracks that allow Anderson\u2019s use of music to resonate.<\/p>\n

Finally, the set includes dozens (literally) of hours of special features. The first eight films in this set were previously available on DVD or standard Blu-ray through Criterion, and all of their special features have been imported. And we all know how deep Criterion reaches when they assemble bonus material. Not only do you get insightful commentaries but incredible exclusives like the \u201cMax Fischer Players Present\u201d segments produced for the 1999 MTV Movie Awards, a segment produced by Albert Maysles around the time of \u201cTenenbaums,\u201d home movies shot by Ed Norton on the set of \u201cMoonrise,\u201d and video essays from our very own Matt Zoller Seitz and the legendary David Bordwell on \u201cGrand Budapest Hotel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Criterion Collection has released remarkable Blu-ray box sets in the past, usually around this time of the year, ready for holiday wish lists. Comprehensive \u201cfilm classes in a box\u201d for Agnes Varda, Ingmar Bergman, Wong Kar-wai and even the Godzilla legacy have been essentials in the past. It\u2019s quite the thing to say that this is one of their best.<\/p>\n

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Collectors of physical media need to get their hands on Criterion\u2019s box set of the year, a beautiful collection of the first ten films by writer\/director Wes Anderson. Criterion has released Wes Anderson films before, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}