'Bambi' Arrives As Disney Diamond Edition Blu-ray, March, 2011

Walt Disney Studios will release a Diamond Edition Blu-ray of the beloved Bambi March 1, 2011.
Released in 1942 as Disney's fifth full-length animated classic, the love for Bambi now spans multiple generations from grandparents to children today as it tells the tale of the "Prince of the Forest" and his friends, such as Thumper the rabbit and Flower, the bashful skunk. This upcoming edition from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment includes a newly enhanced digital restoration, enhanced picture and sound, games, activities and more.
The new Bambi Diamond Edition will be available as a 2-Disc Disney Combo Pack (Blu-ray + DVD), a High Definition Movie Download and a Standard Definition Movie Download. A standard definition DVD version of Bambi will be issued April 19, 2011.

Disney’s new “Second Screen” technology, which is being introduced for the very first time on the Bambi Diamond Edition, allows viewers to engage with film content on multiple media platforms. By downloading the Second Screen App onto an internet-connected computer or iPad and synching it to the movie, consumers will be able to use the interactive elements like animated flipbooks, galleries, photos, trivia and more.
Walt Disney broke the longstanding animation tradition by casting child actors in the roles of Bambi’s young animals, including Bobby Stewart as Baby Bambi, Donnie Dunagan as Young Bambi, Hardie Albright as Adolescent Bambi and Peter Behn as Young Thumper. The cast also includes Sam Edwards as Adult Thumper, John Sutherland as Adult Bambi, Paula Winslowe as Bambi’s Mother and Sterling Holloway (the voice of Winnie the Pooh and The Jungle Book’s Kaa, the snake) as adult Flower.
Bambi was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Song (“Love Is a Song,”), Best Sound Recording, and Best Music Score of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.  The picture is No. 3 on the list of American Film Institute’s Top 10 Animated Films of All Times. And in 2004, the movie was commemorated with a first-class U.S. postage stamp and in the 1990’s the film inspired astronomers to name a pair of asteroids after the Thumper (April 20, 1993) and Bambi (October 17, 1995).

Bonus Features:
Backstage Disney:

• Inside Walt’s Story Meetings-Enhanced Edition 
• 2 Never Before Seen Deleted Scenes 
• Deleted Song: “Twitterpated”
• Blu-ray Galleries

Family Play: Games & Activities:
Disney’s Big Book of Knowledge: Bambi Edition— An interactive educational gaming experience that uses the film as a learning tool. Players can customize their own Big Book of Knowledge and learn all about forest creatures, seasons and more Each time a player completes a task, they are rewarded with new stickers to decorate their Big Book of Knowledge.
Digital Exclusive: The Golden Age

Classic DVD Bonus Features:

• "The Making Of Bambi: A Prince is Born."
• "Tricks of the Trade" (excerpt)—In an episode from the 1957 Disneyland TV show, Walt Disney narrates the story of the multiplane camera, an animation innovation crucial to the production of Bambi.
• Inside the Disney Archives—Disney Supervising Animator Andreas Deja guides viewers through Disney’s Animation Research Library, where artwork from past Disney animated feature films is stored, including early story sketches of Bobo the rabbit,” (who became Thumper),  glass paintings made for the multiplane camera and more.
• The Old Mill—Winner of the 1937 Academy Award for Best Short Subject/Cartoon, "The Old Mill" was a testing ground for several techniques critical to Disney's artistic vision for Bambi, including the multiplane camera, animating realistic animals and experimenting with such natural occurrences such as wind, rain and lightning. 
• DisneyPedia: Bambi’s Forest Friends 

'Space: 1999' Complete Season One Blu-Ray Coming December 14

On December 14, A&E Home Entertainment will release Space:1999, the Complete Season One Blu-ray Edition.
Created by British TV producer Gerry Anderson, who gave us the "supermarionation" of  Fireball XL5, Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, this innovative 1970s science fiction program starred Oscar Winner Martin Landau and Emmy Award Winner Barbara Bain (from TV's Mission Impossible) Commander John Koening (Martin Landau) and Dr. Helena Russell, leading a team lost in space. When an explosion at a lunar nuclear waste dump sends the moon out of Earth’s orbit, Moonbase Alpha is sent into the unknown regions of deep space. The show was smart - brainy, in fact - yet also had plenty of action and adventure as well. Plus, the pre-Star Wars special effects from Oscar winner Brian Johnson (Alien, The Empire Strikes Back), were pretty dazzling in its day for TV.
The Blu-ray set features all 24 Season One episodes, newly recorded 5.1 Surround Sound mixes and numerous extras, including bonus material seeing U.S. release for the first time.

Special features include:

• Original 'as broadcast' mono track
• Music-only tracks on all episodes except ‘Breakaway’ and ‘Dragon’s Domain’
• Anderson commentary on ‘Breakaway’ and ‘Dragon’s Domain’
• Extensive HD image galleries of rare and previously unseen stills
• HD image galleries of gum and cigarette cards
• HD restored, textless titles
• "These Episodes" featurettes
• "Memories of Space” featurette
• Sylvia Anderson interview
• Series One textless generic titles
• "Concept and Creation" featurette
• Special effects and design featurette
• Text episode commentaries on The Last Sunset and Space Brain’
• "Clapperboard" two-part special on the work of Gerry Anderson from 1975
• "Guardian of Piri Remembered"
• Barry Gray's theme demo
• Alternative opening and closing titles
• Martin Landau and Barbara Bain US Premier intro and outro
• SFX plates and deleted SFX scenes - with music track 

A celebrated cult series, Space: 1999, also still available as complete series megaset from A&E, ran from 1975 to 1977.