A couple weeks ago, Paramount sent over the trio of Forrest Gump (on Blu-ray), It's A Wonderful Life (also Blu), and the new White Christmas 2-DVD Special Edition. Paramount is really neck-and-neck with WB when it comes to variety of catalog titles on Blu-ray.

Shots taken with my Canon Powershot at rapid pace.

The Gump disc's resolution upgrade is most evident thanks to the abundant detail evident in each frame of Zemeckis' multi-period film, from costuming to trees and dust and brush. Richer color depth and so on are in there, but the big difference visually is how fluidly you can watch the picture without unintended distractions. The lower-res afforded by DVD caused a lot of blur and unintentional optical illusions in checkered or otherwise patterned fabric. All those sweeping aerial shots, and particularly the very busy Vietnam scenes are crystal-clear now. It's a smoother ride overall that requires less corneal gymnastics. I'll be looking at the new extras tomorrow or Thursday, so more on that front then.

It's A Wonderful Life includes the colorized version on a separate Blu-ray disc, so I thankfully never have to touch it. The original trailer is included in the best shape possible, and as has often been the case on catalog titles, it's a great comparative piece to how lovely and sumptuous with detail the Blu-ray picture is. It, like Gump, includes a $10 rebate for owners of previous DVD editions. This is a wise move for studios that want people to switch to Blu-ray.

The White Christmas Special Edition adds a pile of new featurettes and some promo materials for the national tour of the stage show that's become a big hit over th past few years. New features include: Backstage Stories from White Christmas, Rosemary's Old Kentucky Home, Bing Crosby: Christmas Crooner, Danny Kaye: Joy to the World, Irving Berlin's White Christmas, and White Christmas: From Page to Stage. I've never been very much a fan of the movie, but give it a shot thanks to Danny Kaye.