The Criterion Collection and Spirit Entertainment have announced their December disc releases, with Charlie Chaplin's The Circus arriving on Blu-ray and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio coming to 4K UHD, Blu-ray and DVD.
THE CIRCUS (USA 1928) | Blu-ray | 4 December 2023
In the last film he made during the silent era, Charlie Chaplin revels in the art of the circus, paying tribute to the acrobats and pantomimists who inspired his virtuoso pratfalls. After being mistaken for a pickpocket, Chaplin’s Tramp flees into the ring of a traveling circus and soon becomes the star of the show, falling for the troupe’s bareback rider along the way. Despite its famously troubled production, this gag-packed comedy ranks among Chaplin’s finest, thanks to some of the most audacious set pieces of the director-performer’s career, including a close brush with a lion and a climactic tightrope walk with a barrelful of monkeys. The Circus, which was rereleased in 1969 with a new score by Chaplin, is an uproarious high-wire act that showcases silent cinema’s most popular entertainer at the peak of his comic powers.
BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- New 4K digital restoration of Charlie Chaplin’s 1969 rerelease version of the film, featuring an original score by Chaplin, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New audio commentary featuring Chaplin biographer Jeffrey Vance
- Interview with Chaplin from 1969
- New interview with Chaplin’s son Eugene Chaplin
- In the Service of the Story, a new program on the film’s visual effects and production design by film scholar Craig Barron
- Chaplin Today: “The Circus,” a 2003 documentary on the film featuring filmmaker Emir Kusturica
- Excerpted audio interview from 1998 with Chaplin musical associate Eric James
- Unused café sequence with new score by composer Timothy Brock, and related outtakes with narration by comedy choreographer Dan Kamin
- Newly discovered outtakes featuring the Tramp and the circus rider
- Excerpts from the original recording session for the film’s opening song, “Swing Little Girl”
- Footage of the film’s 1928 Hollywood premiere
- Rerelease trailers
- PLUS: An essay by critic Pamela Hutchinson
GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO (USA/Mexico/France 2022)
UHD | Blu-ray | DVD | 18 December 2023
A classic tale is reborn through the inspired imagination of cinematic dream-weaver Guillermo del Toro, directing alongside Mark Gustafson. Realized through boundary-pushing, breathtakingly intricate stop-motion animation, this dark rendering of the fable of the puppet boy and his maker—which won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature—daringly transfers the story to Fascist Italy, where the irrepressible Pinocchio gradually learns what it means to be human through his experiences of war, death, and sacrifice. Featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, and Christoph Waltz, this Pinocchio imbues the oft-told tale with a bold new resonance about living with courage and compassion.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD & BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- 4K digital master, supervised by directors Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, with Dolby Atmos
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Handcarved Cinema, a new documentary featuring del Toro, Gustafson, and cast and crew, including the film’s puppet creators, production designers, and animation supervisor
- Directing Stop-Motion, a new program featuring del Toro and Gustafson
- New conversation between del Toro and film critic Farran Smith Nehme
- New interview with curator Ron Magliozzi on The Museum of Modern Art’s 2022 exhibition devoted to the film
- New program on the eight rules of animation that informed the film's production
- Panel discussion featuring del Toro, Gustafson, production designer Guy Davis, composer Alexandre Desplat, and sound designer Scott Martin Gershin, moderated by filmmaker James Cameron
- Conversation among del Toro, Gustafson, and author Neil Gaiman
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio
- PLUS: Essays by film critic Matt Zoller Seitz and author Cornelia Funke
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