Three years ago, I wrote a comprehensive review of the Blu-ray for Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs the World Blu-ray roughly 18 hours after it arrived on my doorstep. The Blu-ray of his most recent movie arrived a couple of days ago, and I've finished plowing through every last featurette and commentary. The World's End hits Blu-ray in the US two weeks from today.
As always, screengrabs are taken direct from the disc, then resized to 1000pixel width and compressed from PNG to JPG.
Fans interested in the extras on the Extended Edition of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will be surprised to learn that those supplements actually begin on this Blu-ray. As clear as I can be: if you do not own The World's End on Blu-ray, you do not have all of the extras associated with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Spoiler alert: they might just include a couple of surprise cameos by none other than both Sirs Ian McKellen and Peter Jackson!*
*This may be a complete lie that is somehow also true.
The Movie
The World's End is about moving on and moving forward with your life. When I think of what ties it together with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz , it's that challenge of choosing to do what makes you and the people you care about as happy as possible. Plot-wise, it's a movie about a guy who clings to the glory days of his teen years, and the journey that he and his now-middle-aged friends go on subtextually alongside a re-enactment of a pub crawl they went on 20ish years ago. Along the way, they recapture things they've lost that they miss, they jettison angst that has been pent up over decades, and they ultimately face the notion of their personal worlds ending as they know them. Some bad things happen along the way, and resolve is tested. Heroes go on a journey , y'all.
I wish commercials and trailers weren't so tremendously spoilericious these days, but it cannot be helped anymore. If you haven't seen any of them, avoid them. If you haven't seen Shaun of the Dead and/or Hot Fuzz , that's fine. You can go back and watch them after you've seen this one.
Recommended "Crisis on Infinite Peggs and Frosts" Crossover Event Viewing Order
If you're obsessed with the notion of completionism, you should really start with Spaced, then watch Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz , and arguably, I would throw in Paul and The Adventures of Tintin, both of which feature Pegg and Frost as a duo. Consider them the side-diversion comics crossover event tie-ins. I like to think of Pegg and Frost as this generation's radically geekier Charters and Caldicott: worth following anywhere, but especially so when together.
The Look and Sound
Most people watching this disc won't appreciate the fact that this is now an exceptionally rare experience, in that you're watching a new film that was actually shot on film. Contrast and color look just great, and the 16mm sequences look right and not like they had a digital filter slapped on RED EPIC footage. The audio mix is really solid too, and another rare home experience where I can set the volume at a comfortable level and just leave it there the whole way through.
Audio/Subtitle Tracks, Non-Extra Amenities, and All-Region Concerns
(Added 11:30am CST) Along with all of the below, the US release includes Spanish subtitles and a Spanish dub track, along with a DVD and a hybrid iTunesHD/UltraViolet code for whichever service you prefer to use. For those needing French subtitles or audio, I would try ordering the Canadian release . The iTunes download does not include any iTunes Extras, but Apple have crippled that platform so much it barely matters. Physical media is king, baby. The DVD includes only the Pegg/Wright commentary, trailers, TV spots, and the "Completing the Golden Mile" as extras. The DVD is Region 1-locked, and the Blu-ray may or may not be Region A locked, I've no easy way to test and it isn't marked as such.
If you get the movie as part of the 3-movie set that includes Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, be advised that it contains only Blu-rays (not that DVDs are a huge loss at this point), and hybrid iTunes/UltraViolet codes for all three movies. Shaun and Fuzz include French audio and subs in addition to the Spanish found on World's End. Testing them myself, the Shaun code gave me an HD iTunes copy, whereas the Hot Fuzz one was SD and included iTunes Extras. The lack of HD on Fuzz could have been a result of my trying the downloads before actual release, admittedly. There is one extra feature exclusive to the 3-movie set and no other version that I'm aware of: interactive screenplays for all three movies linked to the Digital Copy codes. The offer is not yet active, so I couldn't test it, and it is marked to expire on 31 May 2014. Whether you have to redeem by then, or that's when the whole thing turns into a pumpkin, I've no way to know.
The Supplements
Total Running Time 03:15:33 (not including Commentaries)
Before anyone goes whining about how the timecode here compares to the Scott Pilgrim disc (which has just over five hours of extras not counting commentary), this is no less a very full, couch-bound weekend worth of soaking in the process behind a great and finely crafted film.
Deleted scene (0:55) I didn't miss it in the final product.
Out-takes (10:44) The gallery above doesn't really spoil any of the comedy of discomfort to be had in the gag reel, which leads with Pegg utterly and repeatedly flubbing the same line. True to the professionalism of his costars, none of them break the take themselves out of impatience. Whenever I suffer through "aspiring actors" asking questions about how to "make it" at festival Q&A's, I wish they would just watch stuff like this. When patience, time, and attention wear thin, how you work when things go wrong is what defines you to your coworkers.
Alternate Edits (4:32) Slight re-cuts of select sequences show just how precise of choices Wright makes throughout all his movies.
Edgar Wright and DP Bill Pope
Completing the Golden Mile: The Making of The World's End (48:06 split into two parts) This meaty plate of plenty offers generous (though concise) looks at all parts of the process, from casting and writing to effects and stunts and influences. As usual, Wright puts these together such that it's rewatchable each time you peel the disc from the shelf to watch the movie.
Featurettes (15:00) I came back around to these after watching almost everything else, and I'll be damned, but I feel like a lot of these were covered more thoroughly or better elsewhere, whether in commentaries or otherwise. None are a waste, but they may serve better as appetizers for digging into the rest of the disc with both hands.
- Director at Work (2:33)
- Pegg + Frost = Fried Gold (3:28)
- Friends Reunited (3:46)
- Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (5:13)
Filling in the Blanks: The Stunts and Effects of The World's End (27:40) A great look at Fight Choreographer Damien Walters' clean, articulate physicalization of English bar brawling along the lines of Hong Kong style violence. The behind-the-scenes footage is a great look at the arch precision needed to tackle this sort of visual ambition. What they ended up with was violent, but full of character and coherent action that lives just on this side of dance. The process shots and side-by-side comparisons for "CG" shots shows just how symbiotically the physical effects and computer work feed off one another so well. I was surprised in various cases as to how certain things were accomplished, and even upon rewatching the movie afterward, none of the movie magic was diminished for me. I've left out a lot of the most interesting visuals to be seen in the above gallery so that you can discover the lion's share of this thing for yourself.
Animatics (11:17) Standard animatic samples from a pair of key sequences: the opening, and the big climax
Hair and Makeup Tests (4:07) Pre-production camera tests, in which Rosamund Pike is delightfully engaged and active.
Rehearsal Footage (6:20) Practicing movement, stunts, effects shots, and timing in general, including the boys and their younger selves melding performances while Wright cackles along in the background.
Stunt Tapes (8:46) The pre-production tapes of stunt rehearsal for three sequences: the Bathroom, the Twins, and the Beehive.
VFX Breakdown (8:39) VFX Supervisor Frazer Churchill walks us through various effects sequences that employ practical and computer effects in concert with one another.
Bits and Pieces (3:23) Alternate takes and angles that show a few different reads, interpretations, and executions. Another good look at how much stamina these actors needed to survive the shoot.
There's Only One Gary King: osymyso's Inibri-8 Megamix (4:36) A supercut/mashup/remix of all sorts of things throughout the movie. I watched it three times.
Signs and Omens (7:51) Selective cutting to and highlighting of various clues, signposts, and background elements that reveal a very deep and textured production design that was meticulously or maniacally precise, whichever sounds more bent on world domination.
Edgar & Simon's Flip Chart (13:08) Another regular feature of Wright's home video productions, Edgar and Simon Pegg flip through the pad they used when they started the process of writing, rediscovering little things they had forgotten about while reminiscing.
TV Safe Version (3:41) Another favorite recurring bit on Wright discs, you get a sampling of how they overdub a ton of profanity for broadcast TV airing. This one gave me such an enormous fluffing British burger, I almost fell from my chair. Scott Pilgrim may still have it beat for sheer surrealist incomprehensibility.
The Man Who Would Be King (1:59) Do not miss this little gem tucked in with the TV spots and promos. I'm not listing or counting the other trailers, but this is one you wouldn't want to miss.
Commentaries and Trivia Track
The following are listed in the order I recommend you listen to them.
Writers: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
The duo dig into a great deal of the process of writing as it applied to their structuring things the way they were from the outset, picking away at character motivations and the nature of increasing one's aperture. That last bit sounds inspirational and stupid, but just listen to the track.
Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, and **SPOILER ALERT** Ian McKellan, Peter Jackson, and ROBERT DE NIRO!!!
As if out of nowhere, the sudden appearance of Sirs Ian and Peter turn this track into a Hobbit supplement, even without the participation of Martin Freeman, aka "Marfman" (as he prefers to be called by friends and strangers, we learn). I wish I knew which John Lewis they were talking about, since it probably isn't the US Civil Rights activist congressman. Wait, were they talking about a department store? This changes everything, so I must re-listen.
Technical: Edgar Wright with Director of Photography Bill Pope (activate Trivia Track on this one) This one benefits the most from being paired with the trivia track, which I am given to understand that Edgar Wright fashioned it with his very own two human hands. Many of the references in the trivia track are touched on in other featurettes, mini-docs, or the other two commentaries themselves, but there are a few gems you only get in text form. The more thorough elaboration allowed here in a number of ways allows Wright and Pope to put a nice button on the pile of other behind-the-scenes looks included on the disc.
Worth noting: Wright has confided that this Trivia Track is the last of its kind.
Final Thoughts
It is exceptionally rare that a new release gets this sort of attention, both in the production itself and the complimentary suite of behind-the-scenes extras on the home video release. With few weeks left to go, not only am I calling this a Top Shelf Disc, but it's a leading contender for one of the three best throughout all of 2013 in the New Release category. Buy without reservation. The World's End is available in the US as of 19 November 2013 both on its own ad as part of a 3-movie trilogy set that is Blu-ray-only (but includes hybrid iTunes/UltraViolet codes).
Order from Amazon and support this column (click here for the 3-movie set). Pre-order price on each respectively is around $24 for just TWE, and $43 for the three-movie set. I expect those prices to drop by street date. As of this writing, the Shaun and Fuzz Blu-rays run around $12 each new, and those editions do not include iTunes codes.
