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#1162: Perfect Sense

9:05 PM / Blu-ray / No Comments

(BD, IFC Films, Region ABC, USA)

#1161: Treasure Planet

9:05 PM / Blu-ray / No Comments

(BD/DVD combo, Buena Vista, Region ABC/1, USA)

I am now officially on holiday

9:05 PM / General / 1 Comment

Hooray!

The Aristocats captures

7:44 PM / Blu-ray / 8 Comments

For Robin:

The Aristocats
label: Buena Vista; disc country: UK; region code: ABC;
codec: AVC; aspect ratio: 1.66:1

Note: Full size captures are hosted on ImageShack and may take a while to load.

#1160: The Aristocats

5:45 PM / Blu-ray / 2 Comments

(BD, Buena Vista, Region ABC, UK)

Yeah, speaking of dodgy botox jobs... this is another of those completely grain-scrubbed releases, which took me by surprise as I'd expected it to be a "minimal effort" job like THE FOX AND THE HOUND. The film is certainly a long way from being the cream of Disney's crop, so I hadn't anticipated it to qualify for special attention (particularly after HD clips showed up in the WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY documentary with grain intact). The lack of grain or any sort of life to the image really draws attention to the cost-cutting, pared-back nature of the films Disney was producing during this period. I must confess to being rather worried about the upcoming release of THE RESCUERS now...

Oh, and the Disney aspect ratio lottery continues. This time it's 1.66:1, offering slightly more headroom than the 1.75:1 DVD, but still way too tight compared to the old 1.33:1 release. I swear, someone's just throwing darts at a dartboard, with each concentric ring representing a different ratio.

BD impressions: The Secret of NIMH

5:28 PM / BD Impressions / 8 Comments

It's been a while, hasn't it? Six months, to be precise. This BD impressions piece, the first of 2012, was one I intended to do as a request from a reader back in March, but I've been finding myself spectacularly short of time recently, so I've only just had the opportunity to watch the disc in question and hit the PrintScreen button a few times. So Emil, sorry about the inordinately long wait, but we got there in the end!

The film: I know this film is beloved by many animation aficionados, but I'm afraid I can't really get behind it. As most people will know, it was the first feature-length film to be directed by Don Bluth, who along with several fellow artists walked out of Disney in 1979, severely depleting the studio's ranks and forcing the delay of its next film, THE FOX AND THE HOUND. Bluth felt that Disney had lost its magic and was annoyed at the cost-cutting being forced on the artists by management... and it's certainly true that THE SECRET OF NIMH is visually many times more ambitious than anything Disney had produced since the 1950s. The film was a labour of love for Bluth and his crew, and what they were able to pull off on a shoestring budget is quite remarkable.

But this doesn't change the fact that, as with most of Bluth's films, it's simply not a very well-told story. Despite the short running time of 83 minutes, it drags like nobody's business and only really comes alive during the climax. The really interesting stuff - the genetically modified rats and their escape from a research lab - is glossed over in favour of devoting oodles of screen time to some mildly funny but ultimately pointless comic relief involving a dopey crow voiced by Dom DeLuise. While the colour palette and effects animation are impressive, the character animation has all the hallmarks of a Bluth production: open-mouthed, buck-toothed, goofy-looking characters flailing about wildly accompanied by strangely anaemic vocal performances. The insertion of magical elements completely absent from the source novel also doesn't quite gel with the scientific origins of the rats' transformation, and leads to a thoroughly convenient deus ex machina solution to protagonist Mrs. Brisby's problems.

Jerry Goldsmith's score is among the great man's best work and gives the film a sense of grandeur I suspect it wouldn't otherwise has possessed, and I do have to admire any "children's" animated feature that includes multiple deaths by stabbing. Overall, though, it's a rather ineffective film and about on par with Disney's THE FOX AND THE HOUND, released a year earlier. 6/10

Image quality: Animated film in looking like film shocker! This release appears to be derived from the same scan used for the 2007 "Family Fun Edition" (sigh) DVD release. Back when that version came out, I remember reading an interview with producer/directing animator Gary Goldman where he lamented only having a very short period to do the transfer and being unable to do a more intensive restoration. To be honest, I'm kind of glad. The image is far from pristine, but I'd imagine it's a far more faithful reproduction of how the film originally looked than one of Disney's completely grain scrubbed efforts.

Sharpness and grain levels vary from shot to shot, with the grain tending to lean towards pronounced but natural-looking, except in a handful of optical shots, where some cack-handed grain reduction has been applied, rendering it blurry and blotchy (see Example 21). Damage, both positive and negative, is visible throughout, although a lot of the most prominent white flecks appear to actually be dust on the original animation cels. (Incidentally, Warner have a policy of leaving this in on their Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies restorations, arguing that it's an authentic part of the original film. I very much doubt Disney would see it that way.) Overall it's a pleasing presentation, and one of those cases where I'll happily put up with the imperfections when I consider what a rushed clean-up effort could have looked like. This is THE SECRET OF NIMH warts and all, and I don't know about you, but I'd rather see the warts than yet another of Disney's dodgy botox jobs. 7/10

PS. Unlike the DVD release, the BD only includes the 1.85:1 version of the film, leaving out the open matte 1.33:1 version. I must confess to having a slight preference for the latter: the film was shot to be presented in either ratio, but a number of the compositions always struck me as being more natural in the 1.33:1 version.

The Secret of NIMH
label: 20th Century Fox/MGM; disc country: USA; region code: A;
codec: AVC; aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Note: Full size captures are hosted on ImageShack and may take a while to load.

#1159: The Artist

10:57 PM / Blu-ray / 15 Comments

(BD, Sony Pictures, Region A (mislabelled ABC), USA)

This will be the last BD I ever receive from PlanetAxel, which went bankrupt on Monday. I'm truly sorry to see them go. They were my number one source for US BDs and DVDs for the last couple of years and offered truly excellent customer service. RIP PlanetAxel. You will be sorely missed. :(

#1158: Tarzan

10:52 PM / Blu-ray / No Comments

(BD, Buena Vista, Region ABC, UK)

This seems to be the year that Disney has chosen for shovelling out as many of its lesser animated features as possible. Among others, TREASURE PLANET, POCAHONTAS, THE RESCUERS and its sequel, THE ARISTOCATS and THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE have or will be appearing. Some of these titles I like very much (THE RESCUERS and THE GREAT MOUSE DETECTIVE are a lot of fun, and TREASURE PLANET is an interesting misfire), and today another B-title, TARZAN, arrived through the letterbox. It's not a particularly good release - lossy audio, minimal extras, iffy compression (there's a tonne of blotchy noise in the darker areas), slightly reframed to 1.78:1 (from the 1.66:1 of previous releases), and a bizarre and persistent flicker as the image continually darkens and lightens - nor is it a title I'm massively fond of, but I'm a sucker for a Disney movie, and all that Glen Keane animation certainly looks nice in 1080p.

Movie Matters Mini #2 - Prometheus

7:26 PM / Podcast / No Comments

In this Movie Matters Mini episode, co-hosts Lee Howard and Michael Mackenzie turn their attention to one of the most anticipated films of the year: Ridley Scott's return to the universe he helped to create in PROMETHEUS, the long-awaited prequel to ALIEN starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender and Charlize Theron. In this free-flowing discussion, Lee and Michael take a detailed look at the already contentious sci-fi blockbuster and where it fits into the Alien series.

• Direct link
• RapidShare
• iTunes

The music sampled in this episode is from PROMETHEUS by Harry Gregson-Williams.

Created by Lee Howard & Michael Mackenzie
Edited by Michael Mackenzie

http://moviematterspodcast.blogspot.com

#1157: The Woman in Black

4:10 PM / Blu-ray / 4 Comments

(BD, Sony Pictures, Region A, UK)

I went for the US release because I want to see the whole film, thank you very much. This is one of the year's two high profile "cut in the UK to get a 12 rating" films, a shameless bit of money-grubbing collusion between the distributors and the British Board of Film Censors. ("Hey, we'll tell you what to cut so you can get more bums on seats!") The other is THE HUNGER GAMES which, never forget, you can watch uncut in Communist China but not the UK.

#1156: Martha Marcy May Marlene

4:09 PM / Blu-ray / No Comments

(BD, 20th Century Fox, Region ABC, UK)

So, Prometheus...

2:13 PM / Cinema / 13 Comments

I can't remember the last time I actually went to see a film on its opening day, but it was probably my most anticipated film of 2012, so I couldn't exactly stay away. Myself and Lee will be recording a Movie Matters mini episode during the week to discuss our thoughts on it, so I won't say anything about it here (though if you've checked my Letterboxd account you'll already know how I feel about it overall). "Divisive" would certainly seem to sum up the reviews so far, and the thing hasn't even been released in the US yet, so no doubt there'll be an added barrage of debate and disagreement once it opens there. For those that have seen it, though, any thoughts?