15 December 2002: Xavier Amet’s French site has an analysis page about the film which puts forward some ideas which make sense to me. I’ve added a summary of his ideas to the Thoughts page, though a visit to the original is well recommended.
8 December 2002: Thanks to Alex Seltsikas for passing on the info that DVD Zone 2 now have the Belgian disc listed. It has DTS and the usual extras, but like the French DVD doesn’t have any English subtitles on it. At the moment the best disc with English on it looks like the Special Edition (see below). The best edition overall is currently the French Collector’s Edition which also includes the soundtrack CD of the film on a seperate disc (ie it’s two DVDs plus a CD).
7 December 2002: More DVD news… The Belgian ‘official’ Avalon site now refers to a DVD. This is a new DVD release with cover artwork I’ve not seen before, and is definitely a new release because it has the URL for the Belgian site on the cover. I’ve not been able to actually find this disc for sale anywhere, so if anyone tracks it down please let me know. The Memorial Box edition looks to have been discontinued on schedule back in July, but a consolation prize is now available in the form of a Region 3 Special Edition which lists most of the extras plus the Polish DTS soundtrack which I thought was going to be on the French edition. The Special Edition is listed at Movietyme, though they don’t have much detail about it. There’s more detail about it at www.dvdasian.com. As usual sites mentioned here don’t constitute recommendations, but I’ve had no trouble with Movietyme myself and have never used DVDAsian. I’ve just been exploring the French Collector’s Edition… it’s a treat with a lot of extra content and a local copy of another official site for the film, in French. I’m impressed by the French edition!
30 November 2002: The French DVD release does NOT have the DTS soundtrack on it. It does however have most of the extras from both Memorial and Anime Cartoon two-disc editions. The menus are very nicely done, and if the eventual UK release matches this standard we’ll be in for a treat. By contrast the German edition looks like it’s going to be very spartan.
13 November 2002: Avalon has seen a number of reviews this week, and is currently at a cinema in London’s West End. Cambridge Arts Picture House will be showing it again for a week from Jan 10th 2003 – hopefully this is part of a more general UK release. A piece on Neil Gaiman’s web site now suggests that his work on Avalon probably won’t see light of day. A new ‘official’ Avalon site has come into being, serving the releases across Europe. The interview with Oshii is particularly recommended reading. the site assumes Flash though. The French and German Amazon sites both list Avalon now. There are two French versions, with the more complete adding the soundtrack CD. Some sites are reporting that the French DVD will have the Polish DTS soundtrack, so providing another way to obtain it for those who missed out on the Japanese Memorial Edition. No sign of a UK DVD release yet, but let’s hope for something with plenty of extras!