You’d think a stop motion animated movie with a Hollywood cast from a beloved filmmaker would have something to offer in the bonus features.

That is and isn’t the case on the Isle of Dogs Blu-ray. All that’s found in the “Extras” menu on the Blu-ray disc are “Promotional Featurettes”, a “Gallery” and the “Theatrical Trailer”.

I can’t find the 15 pictures from the gallery online, but everything else was released on the Fox Searchlight YouTube channel when the movie was beginning its run in theaters in March and April.

Every feature covers aspects of the making of the film with commentary from the cast and filmmakers. Every physically made set and puppet seems to get a few seconds of screentime. That’s great, but I’m not kidding about “a few seconds.” Don’t expect a particular scene or character in the movie to be fleshed out.

“Promotional Featurettes”

The first feature focuses on the animators performing tasks like lip-syncing the animals and working on their movements.

You know the generic interviews on the DVDs where the cast has to talk about their characters? Here, they replace the actors with the dog puppets. Not so generic anymore. To make it even better, the filmmakers had a great sense of humor and used a bit of the actor’s rambling to make this a feature something to behold.

On YouTube, they allow you to turn the video in 360 degrees and see a time lapse of the puppeteers creating the movements, which makes YouTube better than the Blu-ray in this case. There’s even a little message at the end of the feature on the Blu-ray that tells you to go on Google to watch the video in virtual reality.

This one is more of an in-depth look at the design of the puppets. You’ll see the artists putting freckles on Greta Gerwig’s character and placing sheared animal hairs on the dog puppets.

“An Ode to Dogs on Set” features footage of dogs running around the animation studio with audio of Bryan Cranston, Gerwig and more talking about man’s best friend. It’s unfortunately a bit too much footage of the movie than the actual dogs on the set. Plus, the feature is only a couple of minutes long. Come on, Wes Anderson.

This feature goes over the set design. Designers talk about handcrafting garbage and the coherent and organized design one could expect a Wes Anderson movie to be like.

Anybody who thinks the water or fire involved computer effects needs to give the next video a watch. It’s truly amazing what these animators do.

“Theatrical Trailer”

Wes Anderson has made his fans wait for bonus features in the past. He has released two films on Blu-ray through the theatrical distributor upon initial release and then let the crew at Criterion make the next iteration of the Blu-ray.

Moonrise Kingdom had three measly bonus features on its original Blu-ray and then came to Criterion three years later with an audio commentary, 20 minutes of iPhone home movies from Edward Norton, 18 minutes of behind-the-scenes videos and more. Similar story for Fantastic Mr. Fox where a bonus feature-heavy Criterion release came four years after the original Blu-ray. Even worse, judging by the lists of bonus features on Blu-ray.com, it doesn’t even appear that all of the content from Moonrise or Fox is ported to their respective Criterion releases.

Moonrise and Fox have been the only Wes Anderson movies to receive this treatment while the five pre-Fox Wes Anderson movies were all initially released on Criterion. And all with substantial amounts of bonus features.

The Grand Budapest Hotel was released in theaters and on Blu-ray in 2014 with more content than the original release of Moonrise but a hair less than the original Fox Blu-ray.

Criterion has not announced a release for Grand Budapest or Isle of Dogs.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle debuted atop the Blu-ray seller chart for the week of Tuesday, Mar. 20. It was also the first week of release for Pitch Perfect 3, but the comedy failed to top the second week sales of Justice League.

Releasing 22 years after its predecessor, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ended up being the fifth highest-grossing movie of 2017. It came out tens of millions of dollars ahead of the likes of Spider-Man: Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Thor: Ragnarok and Wonder Woman and became the biggest movie for most of its stars such as Jack Black and Kevin Hart. Even more impressive, it’s the second biggest box office hit in Sony Pictures’ history behind Skyfall. One could imagine how excited the studio is for this Blu-ray release.

58% of Jumanji’s sales were in Blu-rays. The movie also received a 4K Blu-ray and a steelbook from Best Buy.

Justice League came in second after its debut week in first place. The Ben Affleck-Gal Gadot-Ezra Miller-Jason Momoa-Ray Fisher-Henry Cavill action flick ended up as one of the biggest movies of the year but the lowest-grossing offering of the DC franchise. Imagine if somebody told Warner Bros. that their R-rated clown movie would surpass Justice League at the box office.

61% of Justice League’s sales were in Blu-rays, and the movie sold 37% as many Blu-rays and 35% as many total units as Jumanji. Justice League is also available as a 4K Blu-ray, a 3D Blu-ray, a steelbook from Best Buy, a digibook from Target and a regular Blu-ray with pins from Wal-Mart.

Pitch Perfect 3 rounded out the top three Blu-ray sellers of the week. Despite this third acapalla adventure grossing over four times its production budget, the movie took in about $100 million less at the box office than its predecessor. That being said, Pitch Perfect 3 is also the second highest grossing movie of 2017 that was directed by a woman following Wonder Woman. For female directors at the box office last year, Wonder Woman made $821.8 million and is the 10th biggest movie of the year, Pitch Perfect 3 made $183.8 million and is the 48th highest-grossing movie of 2017, and Lady Bird is currently the 82nd biggest 2017 release with $69.9 million in the bank. (*cough* give women some franchises *cough*)

57% of Pitch Perfect 3’s sales were in Blu-rays, and it sold 32% as many Blu-rays and total units as Jumanji. There’s a 4K Blu-ray, a steelbook from Best Buy and a special edition from Target with 30 more minutes of content. There’s also a trilogy box set now available.

Coco, in its fourth week of release, placed fourth on the Blu-ray charts followed by Thor: Ragnarok in its third week. Downsizing, the “Matt Damon shrinks to a small size” drama, debuted in eighth place.

The top ten Blu-rays of the week of Tuesday, Mar. 20:

1. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (NEW)
2. Justice League (Week 2)
3. Pitch Perfect 3 (NEW)
4. Coco (Week 4)
5. Thor: Ragnarok (Week 5)
6. Ferdinand (Week 2)
7. The Shape of Water (Week 2)
8. Downsizing (NEW)
9. Spider-Man: Homecoming (Week 23)
10. Lady and the Tramp (Week 4 of re-release)

The week of Mar. 27 saw the debuts of season one of the FX series Legion, season three of the USA series Mr. Robot and Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.

SOURCES: Blu-ray.com and Box Office Mojo.

The first week of 2018 brings two well-received wide releases to Blu-ray. High-energy biopics American Made and Battle of the Sexes will join a new remaster of The Breakfast Club by Criterion. Throw in the indies Breathe with Andrew Garfield and Brad’s Status with Ben Stiller and it’s a crowded first opening week of the year.

Here are some of the Blu-ray releases for the week of Tuesday, Jan. 2, according to Blu-ray.com.

2017 MOVIE RELEASES

American Made – After taking in about $135 million at the box office since opening in September, Tom Cruise flies to your Blu-ray collection as a pilot drug-running for the CIA. Fans of the film will find about 10 minutes of deleted scenes among other bonus content of the cast and crew talking about the film. A 4K version will be available with a Blu-ray and a digital copy. The standard Blu-ray comes with a DVD and the digital copy.

Battle of the Sexes – The good reviews, lack of serious competition and the star power of Emma Stone and Steve Carell couldn’t bring this movie to success. After pulling in less than $20 million at the box office, maybe the movie will translate into a bigger hit at home — especially with Stone and Carell scoring Golden Globe nominations. The Billie Jean King biopic comes with conversations with the cast, crew and King. The Blu-ray itself comes with a DVD and a digital copy.

Brad’s Status – The second feature by School of Rock co-star/writer Mike White (he played Jack Black’s roommate) has Ben Stiller taking his son to colleges as he rethinks his life after seeing his old friends have become more “successful” than him. Talks with Stiller and White will be there as bonus content. The Blu-ray comes with a digital copy.

Breathe – Andrew Garfield stars in the true story of a 28-year-old who is paralyzed from the neck down by polio and becomes an advocate for the disabled. The movie is the first to be directed by Andy Serkis, the motion-capture king behind Gollum, Caesar and Snoke. The deleted scenes and a featurette with the cast and crew are sure to take your breath away. The Blu-ray comes with a digital copy.

oh, look, kevin spacey’s last movie also came out…Rebel in the Rye didn’t make it out in time for the holiday season…..missed opportunity for a stocking stuffer….

REMASTERS

The Breakfast Club – The John Hughes classic gets its second upgrade on Blu-ray. The first release was a 25th anniversary edition, which was then followed by a 30th anniversary edition with a new transfer. Now, three years after that, Criterion joins the club. There are over 50 minutes of never-before-released deleted scenes, two audio interviews with Hughes totaling over an hour, another hour of interviews with cast and crew and a lot more. An old DVD audio commentary with Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson from the previous Blu-rays is also available. Look for this one to be reviewed on Resident Entertainment soon.

Next week has box office sensation It, box office blunder Friend Request, the My Little Pony movie and the Thurgood Marshall biopic with Chadwick Boseman.