Why So Blu?

Amazon’s Deal of the Week – The Sound of Music Limited Edition Box Set for $38.99 (57% off)!

At last the hills are alive with the Sound of Music on Blu-ray! This is is one of my all time favorite musicals (a genre that doesn’t have that many movies that interest me) and one of the movies that never fails to cheer me up.  After all, it was brilliantly directed by Robert Wise and has a stellar cast, great songs and choreography, and breathtaking panoramic visuals that just beg for the Blu-ray treatment.  This movie was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won Best Picture, Best Director (Robert Wise), Best Musical Score, Best Editing, and Best Sound.  Julie Andrews was absolutely fantastic in this and this became one of her signature roles (the other being Mary Poppins).  If you’d like to read my review of the stand-alone Blu-ray release for this movie, you can do that here, but this is the ultimate box set that has even more goodies than the one I reviewed! This deal lasts this week only so make sure you get your copy while you can!What you can find in the set:

20th Century Fox outdid themselves with this release which is fitting since The Sound of Music is the movie that saved the studio from the financial ruin caused by Cleopatra.  There are so many extras it took me the good part of a day to watch all of them but each one of them was interesting and enjoyable.  Every one of them is in HD except for the vintage ones which is understandable and expected.  I will also mention that although it appears that you must click on a ton of items to start each featurette, at the bottom right of the screen there is an index icon that will allow to select play all which will save you a lot of time.

Limited Edition Extras:

• 45th Anniversary soundtrack
• 100-Page “My Favorite Things” scrapbook
• Snapshots from Salzburg
• Reproduction of the original 1965 Souvenir program
• Exclusive “My Favorite Things” Music Box with letter of authenticity

Blu-ray Disc 1:

Your Favorite Things: An Interactive Celebration — All-New Immersive Viewing Experience with Behind-the-Scenes Images, On-Screen Lyrics, Trivia Track and Location Quiz – This is very cool addition to the set.  It allows you to select as many of these options are you are interested in to be viewed in a picture in picture mode.  I can see this adding a lot of re-playability since most people won’t want all of the options turned on at the same time due to picture space.

Music Machine Sing-Along – Allows you to sync up whatever playlist of songs you want to hear.

Audio Commentaries – Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer, Charmian Carr, Choreographer Dee Dee Wood, and Johannes von Trapp (the youngest son of Maria and Georg) share one commentary and Director Robert Wise has a solo one. It’s very cool that they managed to record so many people involved in the movie but unfortunately they weren’t all recorded together.  I’m just glad they were able to include Robert Wise’s commentary before his untimely passing.

BD-LIVE**: Live Lookup™ Powered by IMDb^{® –} Basically a link to the movie’s IMDb page if you are connected to the internet.

Blu-ray Disc 2:

Musical Stages  – An “interactive backlot tour,” Musical Stages offers you the chance to select items within the Von Trapp home which will allow you to watch one of the following featurettes below.  Every song gets an overview of it’s background and details about how it worked within the film.  For instance, I discovered that although Christopher Plummer was recorded singing the songs (and doing it well in my opinion), he was dubbed by Bill Carter.  The Mother Superior played by Peggy Wood was also dubbed but that was at the actress’s request as she felt unable to pull off Climb Ev’ry Mountain.

• Maria in the 21st Century
• Restoring a Classic: Bloom and Grow Forever
• Edelweiss
• I Have Confidence
• My Favorite Things
• Sixteen Going on Seventeen
• After the Escape
• R&H: Partnership at its Peak
• Shaping the Story
• The Von Trapps Today
• Climb Ev’ry Mountain
• Stage Vs. Screen
• Maria
• The Sound of Music
• Maria and the Musical
• Cutting Room Floor
• Something Good
• The Lonely Goatherd
• Do-Re-Mi
• So Long, Farewell
• A Generous Heart
• Final Dream: Oscar Hammerstein Remembered
• Stories from Broadway
• Restoring a Classic: A Glorious Sound

A City of Song – Much like the interactive selection process of the Van Trapp home, except here you select locations based on a map of Salzburg.

• Mellweg: Maria’s Mountain
• Nonnberg: Maria’s Abbey
• Residenzplatz: Scenes of Joy and Sorrow
• Siegmundplatz: The Horse Pond
• von Trapp Villa: A Place of Harmony
• Frohnburg: A Facade Fit for Hollywood
• Gazebo: A New Home at Hellbrunn
• Mozartsteg – A Bridge to the Past
• Werfen: Planning a Picnic
• Winkler Terrace: The Ultimate View
• Mirabell Gardens: Do-Re-Mi-rabell
• Leopoldskron: Story of a Lake
• Salzburg Marionette Theatre: Pulling Strings
• Mondsee Cathedral: A Marriage of Fact and Fiction
• Rock Riding School: Staging a Festival
• St. Peter’s Cemetery: Safe Haven
• Rossfeld: A Dangerous Escape
• The Sound of Music Tour: A Living Story

Vintage Programs – The studio was nice enough to include special features from past releases, including some period and behind the scenes featurettes.  There are also some audio only interviews but I will take anything I can get!

• The Sound of Music: From Fact to Phenomenon
• My Favorite Things: Julie Andrews Remembers
• Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer: A Reminiscence
• From Liesl to Gretl
• Salzburg Sight and Sound
• On Location with The Sound of Music
• When You Know the Notes to Sing: A Sing-along Phenomenon
• Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of American Music, 1985
• Rodgers and Hammerstein: The Sound of Movies, 1996
• Location Interviews (audio only, 11:49)
• Reissue Interview with Julie Andrews and Robert Wise, 1973
• A Telegram from Daniel Truhitte
• Ernest Lehman: Master Storyteller

Rare Treasures

• Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall: The Pratt Family Singers
• The Julie Andrews Hour: Julie Andrews and Maria von Trapp
• Screen Tests
• 40th Anniversary DVD Introduction by Julie Andrews
• Pre-production, Production, and Publicity Galleries

Publicity

• Fox Movietone News Academy Awards
• Trailers and Teasers
• TV Spots
• Radio Spots

DVD Disc:

• Feature Film In Standard Definition
  • Newly Remastered Picture and Sound
  • Optional Sing-Along Track
• Music Machine Sing-Along
• The Sound of Music Tour – A Living Story

Order your copy today!