‘Kpop Demon Hunters’ Joins the Criterion Collection

It’s official: Kpop Demon Hunters is in the Criterion Collection.

The massive Netflix streaming sensation of 2025 — and the presumptive favorite to win the upcoming Academy Award for Best Animated Feature of the year — is joining the most exclusive club in all of cinemadom.

The animated musical, produced by Sony Pictures Animation, follows a trio of pop stars who moonlight as super-powered warriors who protect the world from the demonic forces of evil. With beautiful imagery and earwormy pop songs, Kpop Demon Hunters became an almost immediate sensation when it first debuted on Netflix back in the summer, and it has remained one of the streamers most popular titles ever since — even after Netflix put it into the theaters on a limited basis two different times in sing-along versions.

Founded in 1984, the Criterion Collection is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious labels in the world of home video, as well as one of the gold standards for visual and audio quality on laserdisc, DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD. With new titles added every single month, there are now over 1300 movies in their collection.

There aren’t too many animated films, though. Previous animated offerings from Criterion include Fantastic Mr. Fox, Watership Down, Fantastic Planet, Journey to the Beginning of Time, The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, WALL-E, Pinocchio, Flow, and Isle of Dogs.

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At least according to Criterion’s website, that’s it; just 9 titles out of more than 1300. That’s ... kind of shockingly low!

Per Variety, Kpop Demon Hunters is not the only recent Netflix hit that’s joining the Criterion Collection: Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is getting a Criterion edition as well. Six other del Toro films are already in the Criterion Collection, including Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone, The Shape of Water, Pan’s Labyrinth, the aforementioned Pinocchio, and Nightmare Alley. There are almost as many Guillermo del Toro movies in the Criterion Collection as there are animated features.