New Release: National Lampoon's Animal House Blu-ray

Animal House movie scene

"Toga, toga, toga," Belushi cried ... and comedy history was made in Animal House.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment continued to tap its library of awesome comedies from the 1970s and 1980s with the premiere of 1978 ’s classic National Lampoon’s Animal House on Blu-ray on July 26, 2011.

We don’t have to sit hear and tell you anything you haven’t already heard about the Delta House fraternity and its roster of animals, including such superstar frat boys as John Belushi (whose Blues Brothers comes to Blu-ray the same day), Tim Matheson (No Strings Attached), Tom Hulce (Amadeus), Stephen Furst (TV’s Bablyon 5) and Bruce McGill (TV’s Rizzoli & Isles). Throw in Donald Sutherland (The Mechanic), Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark) and John Vernon (Dirty Harry) as the evil Dean Wormer, and you’ve got one helluva toga party going on!

The new Blu-ray disc doesn’t have any new special features, but it imports a bunch of extras that have been seen in various Animal House DVD editions over the years, most recently in the 30th Anniversary DVD released in 2008. Here’s what we’re looking at:

  • “The Yearbook: An Animal House Reunion:” An original documentary on the film, featuring interviews with director John Landis , producers Ivan Reitman and Matty Simmons, cast members Tim Matheson, Karen Allen, Stephen Furst, Peter Riegart, John Vernon and Kevin Bacon, composer Elmer Bernstein and writers Chris Miller and Harold Ramis, plus behind-the-scenes footage and clips with John Belushi.
  • “Where Are They Now? A Delta Alumni Update:” A mockumentary movie featuring the original cast.
  • “Scene It? Animal House:” Relive favorite moments from the favorite fraternity through movie clips, trivia questions and an array of on-screen puzzlers with these two games.
  • Theatrical trailer

Plus, the Blu-ray includes Universal’s usual apps:

  • U-Control feature that lets the viewer access bonus materials without leaving the movie
  • Pocket Blu which allows smartphones and computers to work seamlessly with a network-connected Blu-ray player
  • UHear feature that allows viewers to skip back a few seconds if they missed dialog

The Blu-ray carries a list price of $26.98.

This is not the high-definition debut of Animal House, which was released on the now-defunct HD DVD format in 2008.

 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.