The Home Video Santa has been busy.

The Criterion Collection has released Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio on 4K UHD a year after the film released briefly in theatres and then on Netflix. Fortunately, unlike most films that go straight to Netflix with or without a brief theatrical showing, this one has earned a much-deserved Criterion release that will keep it available for viewing by those who own it long after Netflix decides to cancel it.

While del Toro’s film follows the trajectory of Carlo Collodi’s oft-filmed 1883 novel, he has made so many changes and additions to the story that it really does need a distinguishable title. Adding his name to the title, though it may be due in some measure to vanity, does that.

The film moves the time period from the 1880s to the first World War and beyond. It has a back story that provides the motivation for elderly woodcarver Geppetto’s making of the marionette that becomes a real boy when Geppetto’s wish is granted by the Blue Fairy.

In del Toro’s version, Geppetto had a real-life son, Carlo, who is killed by an aerial attack on a church during World War I. Pinocchio is meant to take Carlo’s place but has ideas of his own.

An Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature, the stop-motion film was in contention for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Score, and Song, “Ciao Papa,” but failed to receive a nomination in any of those categories.

The 4K UHD Criterion release, which also includes an additional Blu-ray disc, contains a wealth of extras including the documentary, Directing Stop-Motion, and an interviewer with curator Ron Magliozzi on the Museum of Modern Art’s 2022 exhibition devoted to the film.

Shout Select has issued a 4K UHD Collector’s Editon of Jonathan Lynn’s 1985 film, Clue.

Based on the popular board game, first manufactured in 1949, the film takes place in 1954 with Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, Christopher Lloyd as Prof. Plum, Michael McKean as Mr. Green, Martin Mull as Col. Mustard, and Lesley Ann Warren as Miss Scarlet, the six suspects from the game. Tim Curry as the butler moderates the action.

Three endings were shot, and a different one was shown at each theater. All three are included on home video releases which play back to back unless you randomly select just one.

The film was the last of several spoofs of the old dark house mansion movies that included 1976’s Murder by Death and 1978’s remake of The Cat and the Canary. If you enjoyed those films, you’ll enjoy this one, and vice versa.

Director Lynn is mostly known for his British TV work. His only other film of note is 1992’s My Cousin Vinny.

Extras include new interviews with Lynn, associate producer Jeffrey Chernow, and historian Daniel Schweiger on John Morris’ memorable score.

Warner Archive has released beautifully rendered Blu-ray upgrades of four MGM classics, Anna Christie, Tarzan the Ape Man, The Great Ziegfeld, and Madame Bovary.

Clarence Brown’s 1930 film of Eugene O’Neill’s Anna Christie was Greta Garbo’s first talking picture.

Speculation ran high as to whether the Swedish star would be a success or a failure like so many other silent film legends once she opened her mouth. No worries, she succeeded brilliantly beginning with her first line, “Gimme a whiskey, ginger ale on the side, and don’t be stingy, baby!”

The most popular film at the box office that year, it was nominated for 3 Oscars for Best Actress, Director, and Cinematography. Had there been a category for supporting actresses, Marie Dressler would surely have been nominated for her portrayal of waterfront hag Marthy.

Extras include the simultaneously filmed German version and an early career retrospective of Garbo from a 1956 episode of TV’s MGM Parade.

W.S. Van Dyke’s 1932 film of Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan the Ape Man was the first of the definitive series that starred Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan and Maureen O’Sullivan as Jane. It is surpassed only by 1934’s Tarzan and His Mate which surely can’t be far behind in Warner’s release schedule.

Extras include the documentary, Tarzan: Silver Screen King of the Jungle.

Nominated for 7 Oscars and winner of 3 including Best Picture, Robert Z. Leonard’s 1936 film, The Great Ziegfeld starred William Powell as the great showman, Myrna Loy as his widow, Billie Burke, and Best Actress winner Luise Rainer as his common-law first wife, Anna Held.

The fourth film in which Powell and Loy co-starred, second billed Loy does not appear until 2 hours and 15 minutes into the 3-hour film for which Burke, who didn’t care much for the finished product, had script approval.

Still entertaining, the film’s most memorable scene is the last, a massive wedding cake sequence featuring Dennis Morgan, dubbed by Tony Martin, singing Irving Berlin’s “A Pretty Girl Is Like a Melody” for which the dance director won the film’s third Oscar.

Extras include the featurette: Ziegfeld on Film.

Vincente Minnelli’s 1949 film of Gustave Flaubert’s 19th Century novel Madame Bovary starred Jennifer Jones as the naïve doctor’s wife with romantic illusions, Van Heflin as her husband, and Louis Jourdan as one of her numerous lovers. James Mason appears as Flaubert who narrates from his 1857 obscenity trial for writing the novel.

An interesting work beautifully filmed in technicolor, the real gem of this disc is one of its extras, the 42-minute 1949 MGM short, Some of the Best, featuring scenes from films released in the first quarter century of the studio as well as scenes from forthcoming releases and the famed banquet in which every star making a film at MGM at the time appeared. Those that missed the banquet are shown in stills.

Happy viewing.