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Sunday, November 8, 2009

BD impressions: Up

10:45 PM / BD Impressions / 3 Comments

For my overall impressions of Up, please see my review of the theatrical screening. It was very nice to watch the film again in the comfort of my home, not surrounded by rowdy children. The experience was vastly superior overall, partly because of the absence of said child and partly because, believe it or not, the audio was much better. At the cinema, there was a complete absence of rear channel activity, leading me to suspect that the system was set up for bog-standard stereo audio (I experienced something similar with Disney's Treasure Planet back in 2002), which is pretty outrageous if you ask me. Deliberate crippling of the 2D version in order to artificially make the 3D version seem better by comparison?

Image quality: I don't expect this to come as a surprise to anyone, but Up looks superlative on BD. As with Ratatouille and Wall-E, Pixar have opted for a slightly softer focus look as opposed to something razor-sharp and artificial-looking. I did momentarily wonder if some sort of filtering had been applied, but I couldn't spot any ringing around high contrast edges, which is usually a good indicator. (Compare this with DreamWorks releases such as Kung Fu Panda and Monsters vs. Aliens, which are definitely filtered and accordingly have noticeable ringing.) Likewise, the on-screen credits text is razor-sharp, indicating that, if any softening was done, it was applied before the final compositing was done, and therefore can be assumed to be in line with the filmmakers' intentions. In any event, it's a beautiful-looking image and one that I can't nitpick on any level. A top drawer release in every way. 10/10

Up
studio: Buena Vista; country: USA; region code: A; codec: AVC;
file size: 23.7 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 35.42 Mbit/sec

3 Comments

 
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