Wow, what a year for Major League Baseball. The new 2016 World Series Champions: Chicago Cubs Blu-ray and Digital combo reminds us of where this year’s Fall Classic stacks up with a brief promo reel featuring the likes of Bill Mazeroski’s home run and Luis Gonzalez’s bloop single off Mariano Rivera. This was a historical season for the Cubs and all of baseball that won’t be long forgotten.
The 2016 World Series Champions: Chicago Cubs Blu-ray tilts more toward the seven-game instant classic finale than the regular season and earlier playoffs series. For Cubs fans this is a must-own disc unless the more expansive and expensive Collector’s Edition including all seven games in their entirety is in the budget.
As with previous World Series home video releases, Shout! Factory and MLB takes a dramatic documentary approach by recapping the highlights of each game on top of emotionally-driven music and narration, this year by Cubs uber-fan Vince Vaughn. Footage is plucked from what you may have seen on TV as well as all-new looks at the Cubs, Indians and their respective fans.
Cleveland probably doesn’t want to relive this World Series anytime soon so these 90 minutes focus mostly on the Cubs. There is a great moment inside the Indians locker room where a shrine to Jobu from the movie Major League is shown to the public.
Those candid moments behind-the-scenes are unfortunately far too sparse. It would have been nice to peek inside the locker room more and especially catch a fleeting glimpse of Jason Heyward’s Game 7 speech during an extra-innings rain delay and fewer post-Series formal interview snippets with players and coaches.
Four bonus features are listed on the package that all compliment the main feature by taking a retrospective look at the 2016 Cubs season as well as the post-victory parade through Chicago. A fifth bonus feature paying tribute to catcher David Ross by his teammates is short by pure class and a gem waiting to be discovered. All the bonus features are relatively short and can be breezed through in far less time than the feature.
Here’s a complete rundown of the extras:
- Regular Season Highlights without any music or commentary
- Clinching Moments
- World Series Highlights
- World Series Parade
- David Ross Tribute
It goes without saying that the 2016 World Series Champions: Chicago Cubs Blu-ray with sharp 1080p visuals should be at the top of Christmas lists for any Cubs fan. Even non-sports fans will smile watching the Cubs break the Curse of the Goat and bring the ‘W’ home to Chicago.
