Monday, January 18, 2010

BD impressions: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

11:37 AM / BD Impressions / Comments3 Comments

BD Impressions
Blu-ray

It's a shame I didn't see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs before I posted my Top 10 UK Releases of 2009 or Movie Checklist 2009 lists, because it would have ranked pretty high on both. This may well be the first feature length CG animated feature that isn't ashamed to be a cartoon. Although the mandatory pathos is crowbarred in with all the subtlety of an icepick to the brain, I can't remember the last time I laughed this loud or this often at a modern animated movie. I love Pixar but what they do, but this highly entertaining and unconventional film from Sony Pictures Animation made for a very welcome change of pace.

Expect an in-depth review at DVD Times within the next week.

Image quality: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has a somewhat soft look which I suspect is a deliberate stylistic choice to make the CG look less harsh and artificial. (Pixar and Disney tend to go for the same approach.) By and large, this is a nice presentation, although the softness - deliberate or otherwise - means that it doesn't scream "demo material" in the way that some titles do. More problematic are the compression artefacts that pop up in some of the busier crowd scenes (see Example 10 and Example 14). Broadly speaking, this falls a little below Sony's usual standard of excellence, but it's still a nice-looking disc on the whole. 8/10

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
studio: Sony Pictures; country: UK; region code: ABC; codec: AVC;
file size: 21 GB; average bit rate (including audio): 33.58 Mbit/sec

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3 Comments

1. Todd S. Gallows said:

I might have to check this out. I avoided it solely on the premise that the people look like wet noodles. I guess I shouldn't be so quick to judge.

Incidentally, I saw The Fantastic Mr. Fox and was pleasantly surprised. It is definitely not what anyone would normally imagine after reading Roald Dahl's original work. Though it has most of what happens in the source material woven into the middle of he plot. The aesthetics are a mixed bag. The character designs are sort of... creepy, and the animation isn't the smoothest. I really did enjoy the story and overall feel of it. And I can appreciate Wes Anderson's brand of hipster quirkiness. But the humour is definitely too esoteric to be considered family oriented. Not too many kids will get jokes about platinum cards, existentialism, and what "cluster-cuss" is a substitute for. But it does have interesting characters, some inventive shots and sequences, and a mature story.

(Posted on Tuesday, January 19, 2010 at 10:09 PM)

2. Author Profile Page Michael said:

Interesting to hear about Fantastic Mr. Fox. It's been getting pretty good reviews just about everywhere (with the exception of my usual go-to guy, Mark Kermode, who blasted it for turning a popular children's book into something no child would understand - not necessarily a problem in my opinion, given that most people familiar with the book are probably adults themselves now). I'll be sure to check it out when it comes out on BD.

As for Meatballs, your mileage may vary, and again I'm led to believe it's an adaptation that has very little in common with the book on which it's based, but I'd say it's probably the best non-Pixar CGI animated movie I've seen.

(Posted on Thursday, January 21, 2010 at 12:39 PM)

3. Todd S. Gallows said:

Yeah, I've seen the book of Meatballs around. The movie seems to only take the premise. I think it's a better idea than a story, anyway.

Interesting what Kermode says about Fantastic Mr. Fox. I can definitely see what he means. I definitely agree that it's something that would be over the heads of almost every child. And yes, Dahl isn't read as much by children as he once was. Most of the books purchased by children are novelizations of cartoons and TV Shows seen on Nickelodeon and Disney.

I'm sure it will be on BD soon enough considering the movie sort of came and went in theatres. Unless they're holding out for printing on the case that it was an Oscar winner/nominee which some critics say it should be.

(Posted on Monday, January 25, 2010 at 5:09 AM)

 
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