The Blob has turned blue! Well, more exactly, The Blob is now available on blu-ray disc!

The folks from the Criterion Collection, who have previously brought us a great DVD transfer of the film, have stepped up and released a new high definition transfer of the movie that hits store shelves today.

According to Criterion, the blu-ray sports an all new transfer of the film -

This new digital transfer was created on in 4K resolution on a Scanity film scanner from the original 35mm camera negative; reel five, however, had to be scanned from a 35mm interpositive, due to the poor condition of that portion of the negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Image Systems’ Phoenix was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.

Now I know that’s some fairly technical talk and while I haven’t had a chance to see the disc myself yet, if this means it is an improvement over the already pretty spectacular DVD release from Criterion, then I can’t wait.

You can order the Criterion blu-ray of The Blobby just clicking on the link.

Larry Hagman, the actor who lent a charming smile that often hid the villainous intent of J R Ewing on the television series Dallas and who directed Beware! The Blob, died yesterday afternoon at a Medical City Dallas Hospital after a year-long struggle with cancer. He was 81.

Hagman had only directed a few episodes of I Dream Of Jeannie when he made his feature directorial debut with 1972′s Beware! The Blob. Hagman’s involvement came about through his friendship with Jack H. Harris, producer of the original 1956 The Blob. A 1982 re-release of the film was advertised with a play on Hagman’s Dallas connection – “The film that J R shot!”

As J R Ewing, Hagman took Dallas from being a just a night time soap opera to a national obsession that culminated in a cliffhanging attempt on his life that left the entire nation spending the summer of 1980 wondering “Who shot JR?” Dallas was Hagman’s second successful television series, following on from his six-year stint as Major Tony Nelson, the astronaut in love with a 2000-year magical genie in the form of Barbara Eden on I Dream Of Jeannie.

And while Hagman’s biggest career highs were on television, he spent much of his career doing film work. One of his earliest film roles was a small part in the 1964 sequel to Mister Roberts, Ensign Pulver. That same year he also had a supporting role in the Cold War thriller Fail-Safe starring Henry Fonda. Hagman also played military types in The Eagle Has Landed and Superman: The Movie. Larger film roles include the comedy Mother, Juggs And Speed, Harry And Tonto, Nixon and Primary Colors, where a played a charming southern politico.

In just a few hours, the 2012 BlobFest will be kicking off in Phoenixville at the Colonial Theatre. If you are heading there, you may want to first get a copy of the weekend’s schedule, downloadable from the Colonial Theatre’s website here.

The weather forecast, as supplied by weather.com, looks like this weekend should be a wonderful one for the street carnival on Saturday. Sure, there’s a slight chance of rain, but it seems like some light showers has become a BlobFest tradition all its own!

If you have been planning on attending the Friday night BlobFest festivities and participating in the traditional runout reenactment, I hope you already have your tickets because if you have waited, then you are out of luck as the Colonial Theater is reporting that the event is now sold out.

Of course, you can still see the runout outside the theater on Bridge St, as that is free and open to the public.

Back at the beginning of the month, we shared with you some reminisces about The Blob from Mystery Science Theater 3000 creator Joel Hodgson when he made an appearance at the Colonial Theatre. It was also during that show that Joel riffed on The Blob‘s classic trailer. In case you missed out on seeing it live, Joel and the Colonial have released the bit for your enjoyment.

If you’ve been thinking about entering the costume contest at this year’s BlobFest, you should probably know that they have announced that the theme for this year is “BlobFest 2012 It’s Tiki Time!”

The entry for the contest is just five bucks and registration will begin at noon on Saturday, July 14.

As always, the contest is judged on such factors as creativity, execution, originality, authenticity, and showmanship. If you’ve seen the costume contest before than you know that there is always lots of each of those five categories on display so good luck!

This past weekend, the inimitable Joel Hodgson, creator of the classic series Mystery Science Theater 3000, was at the Colonial Theatre to host an evening of comedy featuring his students from a course he taught on the art of movie riffing. In the course of his introduction, Joel took a few moments to share some of his memories of The Blob. The first was from a sleepover birthday party when he was a preteen and wound up getting a bit distracted before he and his friends could watch the film.

We had made some homemade mini-pizzas and I had noticed that in the TV listings for that night there was a double feature of The Incredible Shrinking Man and The Blob. And then the girls called us at my house so it was awesome. Nothing else happened, they just called to let us know that they knew we were there.

My other experience with The Blob was very peculiar. Before starting Mystery Science Theater, I made robots out of found objects as sculptural pieces and I sold them at a store in Minneapolis called Props. My other “product line” was a thing that I made with a vent like I got from the hardware store and I used some hot melted silicone that I poured through it so when you hang it on your wall it looks like the Blob was coming into your room. But they never sold.

What I wouldn’t give for one of those Blob-like art pieces!

Later in the show, Joel riffed on The Blob’s classic trailer, turning it into an advertisment for BlobFest. When it gets released online, we’ll have it for you!