'Happy Feet' to Dance on Blu-ray, HD DVD This March

The first major non-scheduled title announcement from CES to get a street date, Warner Home Video will bring those cute dancing penguins of 'Happy Feet' to Blu-ray and HD DVD on March 27.

The $175 million-grossing blockbuster will see identical specs on both formats. Each features a 1080p/VC-1-encoded 2.40:1 widescreen transfer, and in a somewhat unusual configuration for Warner, Dolby Digital Surround EX tracks in English, French and Spanish. (According to the latest specs on the Warner retail/press website, there is no Dolby Digital-Plus nor Dolby TrueHD track on the HD DVD version.)

Extras have not yet been announced, though current specs from the studio indicate a HD-30 dual-layer and BD-25 single-layer configurations for HD DVD and Blu-ray, respectively, so it's still anyone's guest how feature-packed the releases will be. The HD DVD version will also be a DVD combo disc, featuring a standard-def version of the film on the flipside.

Retail will be $34.95 for the Blu-ray, and $39.95 for the HD DVD/DVD combo.

We've added the latest specs for both versions to our HD DVD Release Schedule and Blu-ray Release Schedule, and stay tuned for complete details and box art to be announced in the coming days.

We also set up dedicated threads for these latest Paramount titles in our new Forums area -- click the following links to discuss the 'Happy Feet' Blu-ray release and the 'Happy Feet' HD DVD releases.