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Fantastic Mr. Fox [Blu-ray]
(Wes Anderson, 2009)
Review by Gary Tooze
Production: Theatrical: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation Video: 20th Century Fox
Disc: Region: 'A'-locked (as verified by the Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player) Runtime: 1:26:44.616 Disc Size: 27,543,985,052 bytes Feature Size: 18,576,218,112 bytes Video Bitrate: 22.02 Mbps Chapters: 24 Case: Standard Blu-ray case Release date: March 23rd, 2010
Video: Aspect ratio: 1.85:1 Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Bitrate:
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio English 3370 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3370 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit) Dolby Digital Audio French 448 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps / DN -4dB Dolby Digital Audio Portuguese 448 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps / DN -4dB Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 448 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 448 kbps / DN -4dB
Subtitles: English (SDH), Chinese (traditional and simplified), French, Portuguese, Spanish, none
Extras:
Disc One -
Blu-ray
Description: Academy Award-winning* Hollywood heavyweights
George Clooney (Up
In The Air) and Meryl Streep (It’s Complicated)
lend their voices to the hilarious, heartwarming and
dazzling stop-motion animated adventure from visionary
director Wes Anderson (The
Royal Tenebaums) Fantastic Mr. Fox, arriving
as a Blu-ray Disc/DVD Combo Pack and on DVD March 23 from
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. In the re-imagined
classic family tale, Mr. and Mrs. Fox (Clooney and Streep)
live a happy home life with their eccentric son Ash (Jason
Schwartzman:
The Darjeeling Limited) and visiting nephew
Kristopherson. That is until Mr. Fox slips into his sneaky,
old ways and plots the greatest heist the animal world has
ever seen. When mean old farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean join
forces to surround Mr. Fox and his family, they don’t
realize they are not dealing with any old fox – it’s
Fantastic Mr. Fox and he has a fantastic master plan to
save the day!
The Film:
Some artists have a way of riveting your vision with the certitude of
what they do. This has nothing to do with subject or style. It's
inexplicable. Andy Warhol and Grandma Moses. The spareness of Bergman or
the Fellini circus. Wes Anderson is like that. There's nothing
consistent about his recent work but its ability to make me go zooinng!
What else do "The
Darjeeling Limited"
and "The
Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" have in common?
The puppetry animation of Fantastic Mr. Fox - done with the precision of modern filmmaking - is totally 'fresh'. The Blu-ray resolution only exemplifies its unique appearance. I spent about half the presentation simply mesmerized by it. It is totally seamless (well, the jerkiness of the effect) and in 1080P shows some significant depth. It looks just marvelous - everything is so tight and crisp with great texture (via the process). Fantastic Mr. Fox was shot using a Nikon D3, a Nikon and Cooke Lenses, the film negative format is 'Digital' and the printed format 35 mm. The resulting image on this Blu-ray is very impressive. The earthy colors are generally soft palette and contrast exhibits healthy, rich black levels. I don't know what else to say - the image is fairly smooth - without heavy grain - and it is not glossy at all. Visually - it looks astounding on my system.
CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio :The DTS-HD Master 5.1 at 3370 kbps is robust enough to handle all effect noises and dialogue of Fantastic Mr. Fox. It is appropriately separated and crisp. Being an Anderson film the music covers many genres and eras from "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" to Cole Porter's "Night and Day", "I Get Around" by The Beach Boys and The Bobby Fuller Four's "Let Her Dance". It all fits perfectly, usually adding wonderful joyfulness in the films lighter moods. There are optional subtitles and my Momitsu has identified it as being a region 'A'-locked disc. Extras :In place of a commentary we get a 45-minute Making Mr. Fox Fantastic featurette divided into 6 segments generally focusing on production - explanatory by the titles - The Look Of Fantastic Mr. Fox (8:12), From Script To Screen (7:01), The Puppet Makers (8:21), Still Life (Puppet Animation) (7:23), The Cast (6:34) and Bill And His Badger (7:37). There is a faux piece on A Beginner’s Guide To Whack-Bat and a more concentrated look, if very short on Fantastic Mr. Fox: The World Of Roald Dahl (3:00). The package encloses a DVD with some of the supplements and a, 3rd disc, Digital Copy.
BOTTOM LINE: Gary Tooze March 11th, 2010
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About the Reviewer: Hello, fellow Beavers! I have been interested in film since I viewed a Chaplin festival on PBS when I was around 9 years old. I credit DVD with expanding my horizons to fill an almost ravenous desire to seek out new film experiences. I currently own approximately 9500 DVDs and have reviewed over 3500 myself. I appreciate my discussion Listserv for furthering my film education and inspiring me to continue running DVDBeaver. Plus a healthy thanks to those who donate and use our Amazon links.
Although I never wanted to become one of those guys who
focused 'too much' on image and sound quality - I
find HD is swiftly pushing me in that direction. So be
it, but film will always be my first love and I list my
favorites on the old YMdb site now accessible
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