Where the heck is the Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl Blu-ray?

[Dalekbuster523Bluray]

Seriously, what the heck, BBC?

Almost a month since it aired, and still no Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray release listed.

What's going on?

[darrellmaclaine]

As far as I know it is a possibility, and we are to assume it would be through BBC Studios. But nothing on it so far, and it could well never happen - Were-Rabbit has only ever come out here in that huge DreamWorks box set. There has never been a UK Blu-ray of Chicken Run, the other DreamWorks films are box set exclusives, the Sony movies are OOP, and the last new Aardman project to hit UK physical media was Farmageddon in 2019. So there is clearly minimal interest in a sustained physical media presence for their feature work. Likewise, Adventures On Mossy Bottom Farm and The Flight Before Christmas have never hit disc here, nor has their Sky Kids stuff.

Aardman have now officially ended their Netflix deal. There were issues they were clashing on re: how much creative control Netflix wanted, but another was definitely the level of control and ownership over further exploitation and home media was one of the sticking points - Aardman suffered financial losses last year that they wouldn't have done had they been able to monetise Dawn Of The Nugget better by doing a full cinema run, home media and a TV sale, which was the original plan for it when it was still potentially with StudioCanal and DreamWorks were briefly back on the scene. But it still might be that Netflix have a worldwide contractual hold period over Vengeance Most Fowl being redistributed - they certainly had the power to get their credit made more prominent on their streaming version and may still be throwing their weight around.

All Aardman's future deals are tied up with the BBC (who are taking over Shaun the Sheep again for its Netflix-less seventh series), Mattel (who are funding the Pingu reboot Aardman are making), The Pokémon Company (who have commissioned an open-ended development for a stop motion Pokémon project that may become either a TV series or a feature film), and Sky (who are continuing with Very Small Creatures).

[Caladriusse]

Yes

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Chicken Run
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

Any way to tell someone at Aardman that they should be released? Do they regularly check their social media accounts?

[Deadend45]

Aardman needs time to boot up its DNR machine.

[Nedoflanders]

With it now being in the hands of Studio Canal, I wouldn't be surprised if Chicken Run finally gets a UK Blu-ray. Being the 25th anniversary this year, they might go a littler further and give us a 4K.

[Dalekbuster523Bluray]

Originally Posted by darrellmaclaine

As far as I know it is a possibility, and we are to assume it would be through BBC Studios. But nothing on it so far, and it could well never happen - Were-Rabbit has only ever come out here in that huge DreamWorks box set. There has never been a UK Blu-ray of Chicken Run, the other DreamWorks films are box set exclusives, the Sony movies are OOP, and the last new Aardman project to hit UK physical media was Farmageddon in 2019. So there is clearly minimal interest in a sustained physical media presence for their feature work. Likewise, Adventures On Mossy Bottom Farm and The Flight Before Christmas have never hit disc here, nor has their Sky Kids stuff.

Aardman have now officially ended their Netflix deal. There were issues they were clashing on re: how much creative control Netflix wanted, but another was definitely the level of control and ownership over further exploitation and home media was one of the sticking points - Aardman suffered financial losses last year that they wouldn't have done had they been able to monetise Dawn Of The Nugget better by doing a full cinema run, home media and a TV sale, which was the original plan for it when it was still potentially with StudioCanal and DreamWorks were briefly back on the scene. But it still might be that Netflix have a worldwide contractual hold period over Vengeance Most Fowl being redistributed - they certainly had the power to get their credit made more prominent on their streaming version and may still be throwing their weight around.

All Aardman's future deals are tied up with the BBC (who are taking over Shaun the Sheep again for its Netflix-less seventh series), Mattel (who are funding the Pingu reboot Aardman are making), The Pokémon Company (who have commissioned an open-ended development for a stop motion Pokémon project that may become either a TV series or a feature film), and Sky (who are continuing with Very Small Creatures).

It's ridiculous. Vengeance Most Fowl and Dawn Of The Nugget both should get physical releases ASAP.

[darrellmaclaine]

Originally Posted by Nedoflanders

With it now being in the hands of Studio Canal, I wouldn't be surprised if Chicken Run finally gets a UK Blu-ray. Being the 25th anniversary this year, they might go a littler further and give us a 4K.

StudioCanal and Aardman parted on very bad terms, and the Chicken Run sequel was supposed to be with them before Netflix took it over and sent it even further through production hell. I can't see SC wanting to refresh their association by inadvertently highlighting a point of professional embarrassment.

Netflix have a long-term hold on the sequel being redistributed, but even if they didn't Aardman don't have a physical media distributor for their library - StudioCanal were handling catalogue as well for a while, and Momentum before that. They seem to favour larger, longer term deals, but there isn't a label left who are a natural fit.

[darrellmaclaine]

Originally Posted by Caladriusse

Yes

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Chicken Run
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget

Any way to tell someone at Aardman that they should be released? Do they regularly check their social media accounts?

There is an Australian 3-pack of Chicken Run, Flushed Away and Were-Rabbit that should fill your early gaps. They all exist on Blu-ray, just not easily here.

[Nedoflanders]

Originally Posted by darrellmaclaine

StudioCanal and Aardman parted on very bad terms, and the Chicken Run sequel was supposed to be with them before Netflix took it over and sent it even further through production hell. I can't see SC wanting to refresh their association by inadvertently highlighting a point of professional embarrassment.

Netflix have a long-term hold on the sequel being redistributed, but even if they didn't Aardman don't have a physical media distributor for their library - StudioCanal were handling catalogue as well for a while, and Momentum before that. They seem to favour larger, longer term deals, but there isn't a label left who are a natural fit.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I believe Chicken Run belongs to Pathé UK, whose archive is now distributed by Studio Canal - and it certainly aired on TV over the Christmas period with the SC ident.

I don't see how releasing the original film on physical media would highlight a point of professional embarrassment for SC. After all, they didn't exactly withdraw completely or reject the sequel.

[darrellmaclaine]

Originally Posted by Nedoflanders

I don't see how releasing the original film on physical media would highlight a point of professional embarrassment for SC. After all, they didn't exactly withdraw completely or reject the sequel.

That's exactly what StudioCanal did do - after Early Man bombed, they walked away from a 5 picture deal (Chicken Run 2 would have been the fourth), and wouldn't distribute the third (Farmageddon) in the US. They wrote down all the legal and development work on Chicken Run 2 including the process of untangling DreamWorks' option on it.

Ironically Early Man was itself damaged goods - it was originally developed in the 2000s as part of the DreamWorks deal - the visual development work reverted to Aardman and John Cleese's script for it stayed with DreamWorks where it was turned into The Croods.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Don't Aardman have a US distro arrangement with Shout for most stuff not currently under other companies like Canal and Netflix?

[Brayden96]

Would be surprised if it got a 4K release since BBC don't seem to care for it. But yeah, Blu-ray they should.

As for Chicken Run 2, that's completely Netflix I am afraid.

As for the older movies? Chicken Run, Were-Rabbit and Flushed Away are obviously under Universal who literally keep dreep feeding DreamWorks Animation titles on 4K. Like seriously, it shouldn't take 4 years to release the Shrek franchise and barely anything else at the same time lol.

As for their two with Sony, Sony sadly don't care to release their own animated movies on 4K unless it's Spider-Man.

[darrellmaclaine]

Originally Posted by SpaceBlackKnight

Don't Aardman have a US distro arrangement with Shout for most stuff not currently under other companies like Canal and Netflix?

They do, it's just a little confusing because mods have moved this thread from the UK forum into the US one! Which is doubly confusing because if Vengeance Most Fowl *does* get a disc (and it's looking like it won't anywhere) it won't be in the US, due to Netflix's rod of iron. It is possible in the UK, but the BBC would rather endlessly rerelease the original shorts instead.

[Dalekbuster523Bluray]

Originally Posted by Brayden96

Would be surprised if it got a 4K release since BBC don't seem to care for it.

It's annoying as Doctor Who Chibnall era onwards should have got 4K releases.

[Mosley likes BFDI]

BBC in the UK will do a 4K very soon and hopefully Shout! Studios will do one in the US.

[Brayden96]

Originally Posted by Dalekbuster523Bluray

It's annoying as Doctor Who Chibnall era onwards should have got 4K releases.

Yep. They upscaled Twice Upon a Time and Sherlock series 1 and then just gave up. Would have loved to have purchased 2018-2022 on 4K.

[darrellmaclaine]

Originally Posted by Mosley likes BFDI

BBC in the UK will do a 4K very soon and hopefully Shout! Studios will do one in the US.

If the BBC don't announce a release for this Easter they are hugely unlikely to be doing one at all, and in the US Netflix have exclusivity so it's blocked. I am sadly leaning on the assumption that it will never see a release.

There are three masters of the film by the way across different markets. The Netflix/BBC credits are swapped around according to platform, and while the US version is 24p 4K, the BBC master is 1080i50 with natively interlaced end credits and pitch-corrected audio (and obviously runs a couple of minutes shorter). There is also a 24fps 4K version of the UK/BBC edit that the limited theatrical engagement used, which you'd hope would be the video master if a Blu-ray were to happen.

It looks unlikely it'll win the Oscar either - that'll undeservedly go to Inside Out 2 - but if it did, it might help its cause.

[Dalekbuster523Bluray]

Originally Posted by Brayden96

Yep. They upscaled Twice Upon a Time and Sherlock series 1 and then just gave up. Would have loved to have purchased 2018-2022 on 4K.

Twice Upon A Time looked amazing for a release that wasn't true 4K as well.

[Brayden96]

Originally Posted by darrellmaclaine

If the BBC don't announce a release for this Easter they are hugely unlikely to be doing one at all, and in the US Netflix have exclusivity so it's blocked. I am sadly leaning on the assumption that it will never see a release.

There are three masters of the film by the way across different markets. The Netflix/BBC credits are swapped around according to platform, and while the US version is 24p 4K, the BBC master is 1080i50 with natively interlaced end credits and pitch-corrected audio (and obviously runs a couple of minutes shorter). There is also a 24fps 4K version of the UK/BBC edit that the limited theatrical engagement used, which you'd hope would be the video master if a Blu-ray were to happen.

It looks unlikely it'll win the Oscar either - that'll undeservedly go to Inside Out 2 - but if it did, it might help its cause.

Wild Robot should win imo but I reckon the Oscars will copy the Globes

[darrellmaclaine]

Originally Posted by Brayden96

Wild Robot should win imo but I reckon the Oscars will copy the Globes

Disney have it sewn up - they are in reputation management mode at the moment and trying to restore the status of Pixar/WDFA. They will make sure Inside Out 2 wins, despite the fact it's a fairly mediocre film and a fraction as good as the original.

Aardman never win it anymore, not for 20 years, and Netflix won't be pushing hard for it either given they've just ended their Aardman deal.

The Wild Robot is fine, certainly a highlight for DreamWorks, but I find its reputation a little overblown. It also looks very ugly, almost indistinguishable from generative AI. It'll be weird if they win the Oscar after closing the animation department that made it.

I haven't seen Flow or that Australian one.