Get back pushed back?

DVD edition of The Beatles: Get Back. © Apple Corps Ltd/ Disney

The Blu-ray Disc and DVD release of The Beatles: Get Back, Peter Jackson’s acclaimed documentary that was a streaming hit on Disney+ as a three-part miniseries, had been slated for Feb. 8 in the USA but has been delayed due to a technical issue, a Disney spokesperson announced yesterday, January 31, 2022.

A new street date is pending, according to a news item in Mediaplay News yesterday.
This morning, a Target customer reported on Facebook that he had received an email from the company, apologising that the release has been delayed until September 8. Meanwhile, the official Beatles Store still says expected ship date is March 01, 2022. Amazon in the UK has labeled the Blu-ray release “temporarily out of stock”, although that status has been there for a long while. Outside the USA, the release date has been February 28 ever since it was announced, and the official Beatles store for the UK and Europe still announces it with that date, as does HMV. In Germany, the date is March 3.

Fans hoping for an uninterrupted rooftop concert at the IMAX screening were disappointed with the fact that the only new thing about that version was the huge screen and a new IMAX mix of the sound. Giles Martin had actually gone to the Twickenham Film Studios to mix it anew, since that’s the location of the only facility for mixing for IMAX in the U.K. But the film itself was identical to the rooftop segment in the last episode of the Disney+ documentary series. The bystanders interviews and the waiting cops were still there, with the sound of the concert becoming just a distant echo in the background.

In a Q&A before the IMAX screening of the film, filmmaker Peter Jackson once again urged people to demand an “extended cut” of the documentary series to be released, adding that he has four or five extra hours he would have liked to include.

Jackson and his team has also interviewed a bunch of the people who were up on the rooftop with the Beatles about their experience, hoping that some of that material could be included in an upcoming release of Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s original 1970 “Let It Be” film. That film has been slated for a future outing of some sorts, although how and when has not been decided upon yet by Apple.

Update:
The Fab 4 Free For All podcast posted this: Just got word direct from a Disney spokesperson who said the following:

“We did learn recently that the Blu-ray and DVD release will be delayed but we do not yet know the release date. So any new date is definitely a rumor. We will share the new release date once we have it, so please let your listeners know.”

Update II:
The Digitalbits has posted this information: “Disney has informed us today that their 2/8 Blu-ray and DVD release of the Peter Jackson documentary The Beatles: Get Back is being delayed. Apparently, the studio caught an audio glitch in the release at the last minute and needs to correct it. So just be aware of the delay, and we’ll post updates here direct from the studio when they reschedule the title with a new street date.”

So the delay was not because Disney wanted to give us an extended edition or add on a ton of bonus features, include the January 31, 1969 session, let us enjoy a full, uninterrupted rooftop concert with just The Beatles, or other goodies. There’s currently an online petition you may want to add your signature to, should you wish for those kinds of things.

It may have been the supermarket chain Target who discovered the sound problem, since they were quick to inform their customers. This is not the first time a Beatles-related Home Cinema release have been plagued by problems with the audio. Back in 2012, Eagle Rock shipped blu-rays of Wings RockShow with audio problems and customers had to complaint to get replacement discs. The recently released UHD “A Hard Day’s Night” in 4K by Criterion also had some problems and has been recalled “due to technical problems”. At the Home Theater Forum, it was pointed out that the problem was that the new restoration has some incorrect shots inserted at two points in the movie: At 1:23:14 into the movie The Beatles are singing “She Loves You”, and there is a shot of John singing something else. Then near the end at 1:24:43 just after the line “You’re a Swine,” the title song starts and as The Beatles start to walk out, it switches back to the video control room and you can see The Beatles singing “If I Fell “with the blonde woman adjusting the screens again.