Tank Girl Getting a Collectible Blu-Ray Release

Umbrella Home Entertainment, an Australian boutique home media company, has announced a feature-rich Blu-ray release for Tank Girl, the 1995 sci-fi comedy starring Lori Petty as the titular antihero. This marks the first new Blu-ray release since Shout! Factory released one in 2013. That set, which carried a director’s commentary track as well as new interviews with the people behind the movie, has been out of print for a while, with copies on eBay selling for as much as $150 not long ago. Those prices are likely to drop fast, as all the original content on the Shout! release is now being ported over to Umbrella.

In addition, Umbrella Home Entertainment has a pair of new bonus featurettes they have created — “The Shape of Ripper – An Interview with Actor Doug Jones,” and “(Tank) Girl Power,” a video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. There is a Blu-ray only release for around $30, or a deluxe collection for $55 that also includes a 48 page book with behind-the-scenes, experiences and art; custom artwork outer rigid slipcase by David ‘Loopy Dave’ Dunstan; classic poster art slipcase illustrated; 8 replica lobby cards; an A3 reversible poster; and will come numbered.

Umbrella is not offering free shipping for U.S. orders under $140, so it’s likely this one will end up running the average buyer somewhere around $70 total. The company also recently announced a similarly impressive box set for the live-action Masters of the Universe movie, so if you’re already buying Tank Girl, it may be worth looking around the site to see if there’s anything else to catch your eye and drive the price up to “free shipping” levels.

Tank Girl is a cult favorite, which drew mediocre box office and mostly poor reviews at the time. The film has lived on thanks to home video, and even recently got a deluxe Blu-ray treatment. Petty has gone on to appear in things like Orange is the New Black and Bates Motel. Other actors in the film included a young Naomi Watts, plus Ice-T and Reg E. Cathey.

“Shooting took place in a disused copper mine in Tucson, Arizona, in the summer,” the film’s villain, Malcom McDowell, said in 2018. “I think in the mine it was like 130 degrees — Oh, what fun we had! And those poor bastards in those bunny suits….It’s one of those things. It was a fun part and I did like Lori Petty, who I felt was so talented. It was sort of fun. I always have fun when I work, that’s a given, otherwise I wouldn’t have taken the job.”

Tank Girl centers on the titular character, an impoverished and ultra-violent young woman living in a scorchingly hot future where an asteroid has left the world a wasteland. The richest of the rich control the limited remaining supplies of water, and McDowell played the head of the public/private utility Water & Power. When Tank Girl tries to steal water to help the poor people in her community survive, she comes into conflict with McDowell’s Kesslee.

The movie is widely available as a bare-bones DVD, but the Shout printing of the Blu-ray is still pretty expensive (third party sellers on Amazon are asking over $100). The Umbrella Blu-ray will be shipping in April.