WALL-E, Pixar’s 2008 masterwork, has been added to the Criterion Collection, a selected list of movies regarded to be “essential classic and contemporary films.” Its inclusion means that the picture will be released on a special-edition 4K Blu-ray with a slew of extras.
It’s not the first time the film has been released in 4K, but the box art for the Criterion edition is much superior to that of the normal 4K Blu-ray. It may also feature a slightly better HDR master (it comes with Dolby Vision HDR and HDR10 Plus versions, vs normal HDR10 for the ordinary release), and its three-disc collection contains stuff like director Andrew Stanton’s student film, a Pixar documentary, writing notes, and production artwork.
As Polygon’s Tasha Robinson notes, WALL-E is the first Disney / Pixar film added to the collection, and one of just a handful of animated films chosen by Criterion. Personally, I can’t think of a more deserving Pixar film; despite being extremely short on dialogue, it manages to capture the attention of both kids and adults (though for different reasons — I first saw it when I was nine and loved the adorable robots; nowadays I watch it as a cautionary tale mixed with the most wholesome love story ever).
WALL-E will be released on November 22nd by Criterion, along with a 4K restoration of Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, which is another outstanding but very different film.
