Big Picture Big Sound

Not one but two iconic comedies from The Carter Era make their long-awaited Blu-ray debut this July 26th, as Universal Studios Home Entertainment releases National Lampoon's Animal House and The Blues Brothers. Both films are the handiwork of director John Landis and star the taken-too-soon John Belushi, and in a bit of good news for home theater buffs, both have also been newly remastered in high definition to look their best on Blu-ray.

National Lampoon's Animal House was the movie that put Landis, Belushi and a certain comedy magazine "on the map" in a big way in the late '70s. An ode to college life as it probably never was, it pits the party beasts of Delta House, the worst fraternity on the campus of Faber College, against the snooty boys of Omega House as well as the unamused Dean Wormer.

The supporting cast of the most popular college comedy of all-time includes a pre-Amadeus Tom Hulce, a young Kevin Bacon in his first credited screen role, Tim Matheson, Karen Allen, Stephen Furst and John Vernon. And Otis Day and the Knights' performance of "Shout" has since become a toga party staple worldwide.

The disc will feature a host of Blu-ray exclusives, starting with Universal's U-CONTROL in-movie extras, namely Scene Companion (picture-in-picture cast and crew interviews during key scenes) and The Music of Animal House (to identify the songs in the film, create a custom playlist of favorites and even purchase them from iTunes). The disc will also be BD-Live-enabled with support for the pocket BLU app for select portable devices (now including the iPad), for enhanced content and control. uHEAR, meanwhile, assures we won't miss a word of dialogue thanks to a convenient backward skip of a few seconds that also switches on the subtitles.

Among the additional features are the documentary "The Yearbook: An Animal House Reunion," the mockumentary "Where Are They Now? A Delta Alumni Update" and the interactive Scene It? Animal House game.

Belushi returned with his Saturday Night Live cohort Dan Aykroyd to form The Blues Brothers, a sprawling musical comedy like nothing before or since. Jake (Belushi) is released from prison and along with his brother Elwood (Aykroyd) soon finds himself "on a mission from God," to raise the money needed to save the church orphanage where they were raised. To that end they reunite their band, play some timeless tunes, and test the patience of a host of musical legends including Ray Charles, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Cab Calloway.

The Blues Brothers Blu-ray (yes, already thinking up appropriate puns for this one) will support BD-Live and pocket BLU, in addition to My Scenes bookmarking and uHEAR. To satisfy as many fans as possible, the disc will also provide both the original theatrical version of the movie plus the extended version with 15 minutes of restored footage. Featurettes include "Stories Behind the Making of The Blues Brothers," "Transposing the Music" and "Remembering John." This one is clearly lighter on the extras, so here's hoping that the the audio quality at least makes up the difference.

Each of these Blu-rays carries a suggested retail price of $26.98 but are already discounted and up for pre-order at Amazon.com, with the protection of their Pre-order Price Guarantee for that extra jolt of consumer confidence.

Where to Buy:

• Pre-Order National Lampoon's Animal House Blu-ray on Amazon.com
• Pre-Order The Blues Brothers Blu-ray on Amazon.com