As I've been mentioning here, I'm very, very, very, very happy to have participated in the forthcoming Criterion release of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Criterion has long been the class act of the home video business and it's easy to see why. I've dealt with some other companies and witnessed a "how little can we do it for?" attitude when it comes to restoring a movie, producing supplementary material, recording a commentary track, etc. At many firms now, there's a decided move away from spending cash on that kind of thing. They either figure it isn't cost-effective or they decide they'll do a cheap, no-extras release now so they can get you to buy that movie again when in a few years, they bring out an edition with a better transfer and more special features.
Criterion doesn't do that. Someone may someday bring out a better version of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World but it's highly unlikely. As a longtime Criterion customer, I kinda knew the care and expense they put into their releases but it's been a joy to watch it in action…especially applied to one of my favorite movies. This is a great 5-disc DVD/Blu-ray set…and all of the content is available on it in both formats for about the same price as you'd pay for a set that was only DVD or only Blu-ray. It'll be out in January but you can pre-order it now via this Amazon link. I suggest you do.