And, quite oddly, if one sought them out, one would find such things. But, at large, by the time I made it college, Animal House was a long-standing cultural phenomenon and Bluto was an icon for frat guys everywhere. And a film, which started out as an innocent look at debaucherous frat life slowly became the status quo at most frat houses, and not really in a good way.
But, admittedly, Animal House is hardly to blame. After all, the story is largely based on real life frat experiences. Art imitates life imitates art. And so on. Rather, Animal House is just a solid, genuinely funny little movie that never seems to get old no matter how far removed you are from college. And it might even be the best frat house comedy ever made, right up there ahead of PCU, Revenge of the Nerds and Old School.
Much of the film's success is thanks to the delightfully enigmatic cast, and a sharp script that allows for the perfect balance of story and irreverent silliness. There's not a weak link in this cast. And there are many standouts, too. Belushi really does steal pretty much any scene he's in. But Mark Metcalf's Needlemeyer is also a hoot. So is Donald Sutherland's free-spirited hipster professor.
It's hard to believe, after so many years, that Animal House still remains just as relevant and hilarious as ever. And I imagine its impact won't be diminishing anytime soon. While college might not have been entirely like Animal House – at least not all the time – it is nice to know the experience is there if you look for it. If nothing else, there's always your friends at the Delta House.
National Lampoon's Animal House comes to Blu-ray mostly as a port of the original HD DVD release, though Universal has added a few bells and whistles to this double-dip. For starters, there's now a U-Control feature with two options, "The Music of Animal House" and a PiP Interview track. Neither feature really adds much to the bonus materials. The interviews are scant and mostly redundant, covered in the disc's two retrospective documentaries (carried over from the 2003 DVD). Unfortunately, the trivia track from the special edition DVD has been dropped here. Other extras include a mini Scene It? trivia game as well as Universal's standard assortment of BD exclusives, from the ticker to pocketBlu.
The film's VC-1 encode delivers Animal House to your home in the best quality imaginable. Back when the 2003 DVD got released, director John Landis delayed the disc in order to dirty the transfer back up. It turns out he was not pleased with the pristine restoration and asked the disc producers to unscrub what had been cleaned. Ultimately, that presentation was still pretty great, despite his attempts. But, I worried, would John Landis interfere with a high-def version? Would this new HD print look dirty or grainy?
Well, if I had to bet, this is likely the very same master used for the DVD and HD DVD release. Both look virtually identical, save for the boosted resolution, which delivers a sharper, cleaner looking transfer. Now, Animal House certainly doesn't look great – the film's stock is of a very gritty, muted variety -- but this presentation is easily the best home video transfer yet.
Audio is mixed in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and like all previous releases of Animal House, including the DVD and HD DVD, this 5.1 mix really just sounds like a slightly expanded 2.0 stereo mix. It certainly doesn't sound bad, with well-balanced music cues, soft bass and clean, mostly crackle-free dialogue, but make no mistake this is not a film that takes full advantage of its sound field.
National Lampoon's Animal House has finally come to Blu-ray and it's a pretty great presentation with a delightful handful of extras. If you're looking to revisit the lovable Delta House, now's the time.