You can read what i thought about the sound and image quality and indeed the full review of Anastasia by clicking here.  

A brief summary of that review. The early parts of this film have some really good animation and songs that helped pull me into the film, the latter parts of the film have some exciting action scenes and also the song, Once Upon A December, that's a fabulous musical number, if only the middle part of the film didn't drag so much.

Animated films tend to simplify stories and keep away from controversy, considering that this is based on a true story, i would have enjoyed a harder hitting animated film but at the same time i do recognize that they are aiming these films at a younger audience and the film cannot get too dark as it would alienate the core viewers they are marketing the movie at.

View some blu ray screencaps of Anastasia below.

The Invasion is more or less a remake of Invasion Of The Bodysnatchers but not quite as enthralling as i had hoped, i still enjoyed it but it's obvious that it had production difficulties and the ending was completely reshot by another director and feels tacked on.

I think that the transfer is typical Warner, they have tried to keep the bitrate too low and i suspect some minor filtering of the grain structure to achieve this, of course this will have an impact on the finest detail, you can view the movie screencaps and make your own mind up on image quality.

View blu ray screencaps of The Invasion below.

I am disappointed with this release of Jurassic Park, you can usually rely on Steven Spielberg movies to look film like and natural on the blu ray format but Jurassic Park has had some mild edge enhancement sharpening applied to some of the daytime scenes, i also believe some digital noise reduction has been applied during those scenes and i am just surprised to find a Steven Spielberg release that has edge enhancement added to it, while this can be considered a minor issue, its still there and really it should not be there.

You can read my blu ray film review of Jurassic Park here.  View blu ray screencaps from Jurassic Park below.

William Hurt was offered the role of Dr Grant but turned the role down without even reading the script, another actor to turn the role down was Harrison Ford.

The agents for the author of the book (Michael Crichton) circulated it to six major studio's, Warner Bros wanted Tim Burton to direct while Columbia had plans for Richard Donner to direct, Twentieth Century Fox intended it as a project for Joe Dante while Universal wanted Steven Spielberg to direct.  Crichton did not want a bidding war and instructed his agents to set a price on the film rights and allow him to decide on the director, after he interviewed everyone he agreed to sell the rights to Universal for $2 million dollars (before it was even published) and Spielberg was his first choice as director.  This was Richard Attenborough's first acting role in fifteen years.

The glass of water sitting on the dashboard of the car just before the T-Rex appears was made to ripple using a guitar string that was attached to the underside of the dash beneath the glass.  Sean Connery was wanted for the part of John Hammond but he too turned it down.

Any shot of a full dinosaur in the film is usually CGI, any scene where you see a part of a dinosaur is usually an animatronic model.  There was originally a baby triceratops scene where the kids ride it, they worked on this scene for an entire year but Spielberg cut it from the film as he thought it ruined the pacing of the movie.

Hurricane Iniki hit the island of Kauai during production and Fred Sorenson was one of the pilots who flew some of the crew away, he played the part of Jock in Raiders Of The Lost Ark, he flies Indiana Jones away from the natives at the start of the film.

Jurassic Park was the first film released to cinemas to use DTS digital sound.  A scene cut before filming began was to have featured Dr Grant and the children riding down a river and through a waterfall and having the T-Rex attack them. 

Juliette Binoche and Robin Wright were both offered the role of Dr Ellie Sattler but both turned it down.  Other actresses offered the role of Ellie Sattler are Jodie Foster, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Pfeiffer, Ally Sheedy, Geena Davis, Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Grey, Kelly McGillis, Jamie Lee Curtis, Julia Roberts, Linda Hamilton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Joan Cusack, and Debra Winger. 

Filming finished tweleve days ahead of schedule and on budget.  Velociraptors were much smaller than seen in the film, indeed they are considered to be more the size of a turkey but paleontologists have uncovered a 10 foot tall offshoot of the species called Utahraptors.

Film Plot

Scientists use the latest development in DNA technology to clone dinosaurs for a spectacular new theme park, but owner, John Hammond, needs Dr Alant Grant, Dr Ellie Sattler and Dr Ian Malcolm to sign off on the idea or his insurers will shut the park down, unbeknown to Hammond, one of his employees, seeking finanical gain from a rival company, has tampered with the park's security system and the dinosaurs escape forcing the visitors to fight for their lives.

Who will survive against the might of the T-Rex or the cunning intelligence of the Velociraptor, will anyone escape Jurassic Park alive!

Positives

Jurassic Park takes its story from a very good book, it alters things but always to good effect, the storyline builds up slowly and we get to know the characters and when the dinosaurs break loose we are able to identify with the protagonists as they attempt to keep from being the dinosaurs next meal, if we disliked the characters then the film would fail, now that doesn't mean that everyone will like the children in the film, they do scream a lot, but i'm sure you will at least like one or two of the characters, if you don't like them then maybe you will like the actors who play the characters, my point is that the film succeeds on a basic level because the script gives us normal people who we can root for, i have seen far too many films featuring obnoxious characters that are dispatched by some unknown "killer" and you end up not caring, think about how many horror films feature poorly written characters who listen to heavy metal and have a screw the world attitude, stereotypical they may be but too many films feature such people, thats why i enjoy films like this which feature likeable people who have strong personalities.

I think Jeff Goldblum is much better in this film than in the sequel, he plays the oddball better than the hero and is more likeable here with much better dialogue, his explanation of the chaos theory where he flirts with Miss Dern is fun, the speech where he talks about always being on the lookout for a future ex Mrs Malcolm is amusing when you consider he has been married twice and also dated ( after this film ) Laura Dern for two years, you can see the sly glint in his eye and he is relishing those lines of dialogue.

Sam Neill brings a lot to this film, from subtle mannerisms seen in his eyes and face to the way he voices his dialogue, i find he brings much to the role of Dr Grant, his chemistry with Laura Dern is good and Spielberg gets a great performance from him, he had made some big movies prior to this but starring in a huge summer blockbuster like Jurassic Park can only be good for your career, and bank balance.

John Williams composed an iconic piece of music for Jurassic Park, as soon as you hear it you recognize it, it is sorely missed from the sequel but returns for the third movie, it can be quite subtle at times, the closing moments when the helicopter leaves the island and we see the birds flying is an example of that, a beautiful scene to end a film and the music really enhances the mood and atmosphere of that scene.

John Hammond, as played by Richard Attenborough, says in the film that he is a perfectionist, his character is often likened to Spielberg, who is also a perfectionist, i think his direction on this film is flawless, you can see he wanted to bring something unique to the screen, stop motion dinosaurs were not good enough, he wanted realism that only CGI could provide, without that level of realism, Spielberg would have passed on the film, i can think of very few directors who can entertain and make great movies the way that Steven Spielberg can, he will go down in history as one of the greatest film directors of all time and i think he made Jurassic Park into a very good film, it would have been a poorer film in less capable hands.

There isn't much CGI in this film but it blends well with the animatronic models, i think the CGI is more effective in this film than some of the movies made today, which, in my opinion, overuse it.

 Negatives

Some people may find the children a little annoying as they tend to shriek and scream during some of the more frenetic dinosaur attack scenes, personally i thought they were ok and did a good job with the material given to them but its worth mentioning as not everyone will share my opinion.  The main theme may be a little overused, though i still enjoyed it.

I did not like the packaging for the Jurassic Park trilogy, i think it will damage easily, its already showing signs of wear and tear, and i would prefer individual cases for each movie.

Image Quality

Transfer quality is good in some scenes but drops to just average in other scenes, i saw mild halos in some scenes which are visible around high contrast areas of the image, sometimes it's subtle and at other times it stands out more, the most detailed moments of the film are scenes where film grain is prominent.  Universal have applied digital noise reduction to some scenes and fine detail drops during those moments, some of these scenes contain halo's and i think this is due to edge sharpening being applied in order to compensate for grain reduction.

Long distance and medium camera setups exhibit some degree of edge sharpening to varying levels and show grain reduction also to varying levels, closeups seem much better although i still noticed the odd halo, there is also a little gate weave during the opening credits, thats not really an issue, the halos visible on some scenes are an issue.

I do wonder if the first dinosaur scene and some of the edge halos is due to how it was put together, actors were shot against a green screen, and the Brachiosaurus, trees and scenery were composited in separately, maybe this early CGI was soft and they felt they needed the scene to be sharpened up for its cinema release, well if that is the case then why does the next scene with Jeff Goldblum in the car contain an edge halo around his shoulder, that is not a scene containing CGI or green screen work, this all points to Universal applying edge sharpening to some parts of the transfer.  I have written to Universal asking for more information and enquired whether edge sharpening is standard practice for Universal releases.

As i say above, i felt the scenes which had the most film grain, were the scenes which also looked the most detailed, these scenes are also the moments which other sites have criticized as being "too grainy" and i should say that just because you see a little film grain does not mean its actually all there and intact, i felt that some scenes in the film had mild grain reduction applied and these moments also contain edge enhancement, it should be noted that its normal for scenes shot at night to contain more film grain than scenes which were shot during the day.

Steven Spielberg is seen discussing the film in extra content which is new to this particular release, the latest information points to this being a new transfer from a brand new film scan, why then is there no mention of this on the box artwork and why would Mr Spielberg approve a transfer with edge halos, a few questions to ponder but so far no answers.

Below i include two images featuring edge halos where i thought grain reduction had taken place and where i considered the detail levels to be poor, i also include two screencaps with film grain where i thought detail levels were good, view the screencaps below and judge for yourself, bear in mind that film grain in motion looks far more natural than as seen in these pictures.

View some additional blu ray screencaps from Jurassic Park by clicking here.

Sound Quality

Jurassic Park was a reference soundtrack back in 1993, i have always considered it to be excellent, i don't know if the mix was altered when they made it 7.1 but it just does not seem as powerful and as rich as i remember it, at times it is very good, but i was expecting a better sound mix, more bass, a richer musical score, more dynamic range, an airy quality to it all, it seems to me that the problem lies with the dynamic range being a little neuteured and the 7.1 re-mix has lessened the dynamics of the original soundtrack, now when i talk about dynamic range i mean the difference between the quietest sounds and the loudest, too often you will find they re-mix and lessen the range and thus the difference between a whisper and a t-rex roar could for example be 25db less than originally mixed, it can seriously affect the sound quality.  I expected to feel the bass but only heard it, it didn't seem as deep as i remember it being.

I do like many elements of the sound mix, take a listen to the scene at the beginning of the film when the velociraptor is transported to the island, it grabs a guard and you hear some nice sound effects from your rear, front and center speakers and the subwoofer kicks in for some additional bass weight, during the Gallimimus stampede you hear individual sounds on your rear and front speakers and the bass is deep and powerful

The Velociraptors feeding on the cow, is a frenzy of sound design, with all your speakers getting a good workout, the first appearance of the T-Rex disappointed me, maybe its the rose tinted glasses, but i always thought the bass was very deep during that scene, it didn't seem so deep here, though i did feel, that the attack on the car that follows this scene, did sound good, and the speakers all got a good workout.

I expected this to sound better, it does sound very good at times, i question the dynamic range and the richness of the sound quality, i wonder if its a little compressed, my memory of how this should sound may be affecting my judgment, there were a few occasions when speech was slightly hard to make out, but that was due to the cast members mumbling their lines, and its probably an intentional part of the mix, the thing is, i have recently watched The Lion King, it was released just one year after this, it sounds phenomenal on blu ray, the music score, richness of the soundtrack, and dynamic range of that film sounds absolutely fantastic, i was not as impressed by Jurassic Park, and i should be, i feel the sound mix has far more potential than what is offered on this blu ray.

Final Thoughts

It has been a long wait for Jurassic Park on blu ray, and i'm a little disappointed in both the image and sound quality, the image because there is some digital noise reduction applied, and edge sharpening to compensate, and the sound because i think the mix has been neutered and compressed, just because you see lossless on the label don't for one moment think you are always getting a bit for bit identical to the master sound mix, you are not, too often you get alterations, dynamic compression happens when they re-mix for near field environments and to my ears it affects the overall sound quality on this release.  John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) says he spared no expense while talking about his theme park, unfortunately, i think Universal all too often go cheap with their releases and think a small application of DNR or EE can make something look better, my opinion on this release is that i think its just average, although its better than most Universal back catalog releases, so that is something to cherish.  This is actually the first Steven Spielberg film on blu ray that has disappointed me, i hope its the last to disappoint me.

This blu ray is by no means a disaster, but in my opinion it's less than it could be, if all you want is picture quality that is better than the DVD, then this release will satisfy you, if you crave a release that looks like film from beginning to end, then you will be disappointed.  Universal should not be adding edge enhancement or DNR on their blu ray films, their new releases look very good, this only happens with their back catalog titles, i wish it would stop, most people don't notice edge enhancement, if they did spot it, it would drive them crazy.

Jurassic Park 4 is in the pipeline, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill may be reprising their roles, as Dr Ian Malcolm and Dr Alan Grant, its rumoured that Laura Dern may also come back as Dr Ellie Sattler, i'm not sure if i like that idea, maybe they should start afresh with a new script, have Lex or Tim Murphy, now all grown up, appearing in the new film, still, its early days and not much is known, other than the fact that Spielberg seems to think the script is very good, mind you, didn't he tell the press that the script for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was great too, but his true feelings were shared by Shia Lebouf and Harrison Ford, and that is, they thought the script was crap, hopefully it really is a good script, and i look forward to seeing it sometime in 2013, maybe Universal will revisit these films in 2013, it will be the 20th anniversary and i expect the movies to get individual releases outside of a boxset.

My thoughts on the picture and audio quality of this film can be found by clicking here.  A brief snippet from that review.  I thought the elephant graveyard scene had some fabulous animation with smoky dust visible in the air as the young lions are pounced upon by the hyenas, obviously some of what you see in these scenes is computer animation mixed with traditional animation but it works so well.  The musical number, I just can't wait to be King, featured bright and psychedelic animation which reminded me a lot of a sequence seen in Dumbo, it wouldn't surprise me if that was the intention of the Disney animators who are well aware of their prestigious history.

View some blu ray screencaps from The Lion King below.

David Newman composed the music score for this film, his father composed the music score for the 1956 live action version of which this edition is partly based upon. The Parisian bridge on which the final confrontation between Rasputin, Dimitri and Anastasia occurs is the Alexander the third bridge and is named after the real Anastasia Romanovs grandfather after his state visit to France in the 1870's.

The drawing that we see the Empress holding when she and Anya are reminiscing is a reproduction of the real picture that Anastasia had drawn for her father in 1914. The portrait in the ballroom of the whole family includes a dog, this dog really existed and was a spaniel named Joy, this dog belonged to Anastasia's brother, Alexei, it was found alive at the house where the family were killed.

Anastasia also had a dog and it was called Jimmy, unfortunately it did not survive the Russian revolution.

This was the first feature film from 20th Century Fox's animation division. The music box featured in the film actually existed and was given to Anastasia by Marie Feoderovna for her thirteenth birthday although it was silver with a ballerina on top.

Rasputin's real name was Gregori Efimovich and he was the Romanov's advisor and Tsarina Alexandra's trusted confidant, a rumour suggests he told the Tsarina that he was about to be assassinated and that if one of her relatives killed him then all the Romanov family would die within a year, in the film there is a reference to this featured in the song "A Rumour in St Petersburg" an old woman tells Dimitri to buy Count Yussupov's Pyjamas, Yussupov was the prince who along with other noblemen killed the real Rasputin.

Just as suggested in the film, the real Anastasia loved playing practical jokes. Advance screening prints for the film were codenamed The Train.

Film Plot

When the shadow of revolution falls across Russia, the royal family's youngest daughter barely escapes with her life. 

Years later, Anastasia and a band of heroic companions must battle the evil Rasputin, his sidekick Bartok the bat and a host of ghostly minions in a headlong race to reach Paris and reclaim her rightful destiny……and solve one of the greatest mysteries of the twentieth century!

Positives

The early parts of this film have some really good animation and songs that helped pull me into the film, the latter parts of the film have some exciting action scenes and also the song, Once Upon A December, that's a fabulous musical number, if only the middle part of the film didn't drag so much, but, i'll leave my comments about that for the negative section of this review, i liked the musical score composed by David Newman for this film and i also felt that Anastasia had good atmosphere and was well written.

The voice acting was of a high standard, i liked Meg Ryan as Anastasia, John Cusack as Dimitri and Christopher Lloyd who played the evil Rasputin, i thought Angela Lansbury stole the show with her voice performance as, The Dowager Empress Marie, she of course is no stranger to voicing animated characters having done the voice for Mrs Potts in Beauty and the Beast.

As i say above i felt some of the animation was excellent, the scene where Anastasia leaves the orphanage has snow falling and its beautifully animated and looks superb.

 Negatives

I felt the middle section of the film was not as good as the beginning or end, even the animation seemed worse, approx 40 minutes into the film, they are in a forest region and some of the background drawings looked poor to me, shorty after this i felt the start of the dream sequence was also poor, this is really minor criticism, it's just that some of the animation is excellent but then some scenes look to me to have a fall in standards, i would have liked the whole movie to have the same high standards but i felt consistency was lacking.

Animated films tend to simplify stories and keep away from controversy, considering that this is based on a true story, i would have enjoyed a harder hitting animated film but at the same time i do recognize that they are aiming these films at a younger audience and the film cannot get too dark as it would alienate the core viewers they are marketing the movie at.

The blu ray cover art could have been better, take a look at the image at the top of this review, i would have preferred they had used that artwork.

Image Quality

I saw very light film grain throughout the running time of the movie, its easier to spot during the opening credits, moments where the colour red is onscreen and some of the darker animated scenes, i also thought i saw in a handful of scenes some minor halo's around characters, i do not believe this to be edge enhancement sharpening, i think its a result of compositing the animated characters with the backgrounds, i personally didn't consider this a problem and think this is exactly what you would have seen at the cinema, just like Disney with their CAPS system, this film used digital inks and paints, so what we see on this blu ray release should be an accurate reproduction of the intended look for the movie.

Don Bluth films tend to have a darker colour palette, a more earthy tone to them, of course that is not a bad thing, i tend to like the animation on display here, it's different to Disney, you can see the same look in another Bluth production, The Secret Of NIMH, so while Disney colours tend to be bright and shiny, the colours in this film are more subtle and not so saturated, the actual look of the animated characters remind me a little of how Disney used to draw characters in their classic films, as an example, Sleeping Beauty, which was made in the 1950's.

During the boat scene i noticed a tiny bit of colour banding in the sky background, it's a small niggle and i have to say that it's not something which bothered me too much, if only blu ray had 12 bit colour or higher then banding would be a thing of the past, banding happens when you get abrupt changes of the same colour, and, although it affects live action movies, it can especially affect animated films if care is not taken when the title is produced for blu ray, you'll tend to notice it when natural gradients like sunsets, dawns or clear blue skies are shown.

This film uses some early CGI, the flying horse at the end of the film is CGI, it's not that impressive compared to some of the CGI out there but for me it worked fine, some people may find it to be a little dated, there are also some other moments in the film that are CGI such as the music box, it doesn't really blend in that well with the animation but at the same time it didn't take me out of the film, as stated above i think what Fox have delivered with this blu ray release is representative of the cinema look.

Sound Quality

During the revolution scenes at the start of the film, and the scenes which follow with Rasputin on the ice chasing Anastasia, there is an active sound field and you can hear music, dialogue and sound effects playing through all the speakers, shortly after this moment we see a grown up Anastasia leaving the orphanage, she finds a playful dog in the snow and sings the song, One Step Out Of Time, for me, that is the musical standout of the entire film, the animated visuals match up superbly with the song and it sounds superb, if you take a listen to the song A Rumor in St Petersburg you hear the entire town burst into song and the rear speakers come alive, all the speakers come to life when the musical numbers play and it sounds wonderful.

I thought the runaway train sequence as it heads towards the broken bridge was impressive, some good use of all the speakers and although the bass was never truly deep it sounded good, i also thought that the scene at roughly the 72 minute mark in the clock tower with Rasputin and Bartok sounded great with very nice individual sound directionality through all the speakers and good bass from the lightning and thunder, the final confrontation with Rasputin and the flying horse at the end of the film is another example where all the speakers are used, i should add that the rear speakers are mostly used for ambience, sometimes i could hear individual sounds on one of the speakers such as a door slamming or a dog barking.

Dialogue was always easy to hear and sounded good, no matter how loud the rest of the soundtrack was you could always make out the speech in the film.

Final Thoughts

The story of the Russian revolution is a fascinating one, i find it interesting that the British royal family, in particular King George V, could have saved the Tsar and his family but he refused them sanctuary, Nicholas the second was shot multiple times and his family bayoneted and shot in the head, it's to the shame of the British royal family that they looked after their own interests, In 1979, the bodies of Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, three of their daughters, and those of four non family members killed with them, were discovered near Sverdlovsk by amateur archaeologist Alexander Avdonin. In January 1998, the remains were identified as Nicholas II and his family (excluding one of the sisters, and Alexei). The identifications by separate Russian, British and American scientists using DNA analysis concur and were found to be conclusive.

In July 2007, Sergei Pogorelov, a 46 year old builder who spent free weekends looking for the lost Romanov's, discovered bones that belonged to a boy and a young woman roughly the ages of Nicholas' 13-year-old son, Alexei, and a daughter whose remains also never have been found.  On 23 August 2007, prosecutors reopened the investigation surrounding the deaths of the Imperial Family.  On 30 April 2008, DNA tests proved that bone fragments exhumed in the Ural Mountains belonged to two children of Nicholas II, son Alexei and daughter Maria.  On 1 October 2008, Russia's Supreme Court ruled that Nicholas II and his family were victims of political repression and should be rehabilitated.

No film version has ever accurately told the real story of what happened in 1918 to the Tsar and his family, i have seen the 1956 film version of Anastasia, that versions screenplay is partly re-used here, both film versions have their faults and are not quite as rivetting as i believe they could be, but, nevertheless i was entertained, and the original film did get me interested in researching the history of the Romanov family and the real story of the Russian revolution.

I think the animation in this film is not up to the same standards as some of Disney's output of the 1990's, but, i still enjoyed it, in particular i felt that the musical numbers and voice acting was of a very high standard, there is a lot more to animation than just Disney, i recommend people check out Stduio Ghibli as just one example of a different type of animation, you will be pleasantly surprised and may even find your mind opening up to a whole new world of animation that you never even knew existed.

The original opening to The Lion King was going to be a quiet dialogue driven sequence but Hans Zimmer,who composed the music for the film, made two versions of the opening scene, Disney were so impressed with his interpretation of the circle of life they changed the intended beginning to what you now see in the film.  The film was dubbed into Zulu for it's African release.

Many people thought they saw the letters sex in a scene where Simba collapses on the cliff after talking to Timon and Pumbaa about stars, the dust that flies off the cliff actually formed the letters SFX, an abbreviation of the special effects team that worked on that part of the film.

The movie was originally titled King Of The Jungle and was going to be about African lions living in the jungle, it then dawned on the production team that lions do not actually live in the jungle, the phrase King Of The Jungle is still used on certain t-shirts sold in Disney stores.  The wildebeest stampede took Disney's computer graphics department almost three years to make. 

The film plot is loosely based on William Shakespeare's Hamlet, that story is of a young Prince from Denmark whose uncle takes over the Kingdom and marries the Queen ( Hamlet's mother ) after killing the Prince's father who was King.

When Mufasa tells Simba about the great Kings of the past if you look at the stars in the wide shot you can see Mickey Mouse, also in that scene Mufasa explains to Simba that the stars are old Kings and you can see the constellation of Leo ( The Lion ) in the sky.  The team who worked on this film were supposedly Disney's Team "B" with Team "A" working on Pocahontas. 

Several characters names are based on Swahili words;
*Shenzi: Barbarous/Uncouth/Uncivilized/Savage
*Sarabi: Mirage
*Rafiki: Comrade/Friend
*Simba: Lion/Courageous Warrior
*Nala: Gift

This is the second film in which James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair perform together as an African King and Queen, they were King and Queen of a fictional African nation in the Eddie Murphy comedy film, Coming To America.  There is controversy about certain elements of the film bearing a resemblance to a 1960s Japanese anime tv show called Kimba the White Lion.

This was Gregory Peck's favourite animated film, he also considered it one of his top five all time favourite movies. More than one million drawings were created for the film, this includes 1,197 hand painted backgrounds and 119,058 individual coloured frames of film. The main locations in the film are modelled after Hell's Gate National Park in Kenya.

When you take into account worldwide box office figures then The Lion King was the highest grossing film of 1994, it was the second highest grossing movie in the USA in 1994 after Forrest Gump. Nala's mother is called Sarafina but the name is not used in the film, it appears on merchandising, including trading cards originally issued at Burger King.

Film Plot

Scar seeks to dethrone Mufasa and kill Simba, the heir to the throne, using a pack of hyenas he plots and deceives until tragedy occurs and young Simba is tricked into thinking he killed his father, fleeing for his life, Simba is exiled, years later he encounters his one true love, Nala, they head back home to confront Scar and fight to end his reign as the lion king.

Positives

The voice cast all did a wonderful job, i especially liked James Earl Jones who voiced Mufasa, although i will admit that having not that long ago watched the Star Wars films i kept expecting Mufasa to say something about Obi-Wan or tell Simba that the force is strong in him, just in case you don't get me i should add that Mr Jones also did the voice of Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy. 

I didn't realise that Matthew Broderick did the voice of the adult Simba, he did a good job here, of course everyone will recognize Whoopi Goldberg who voices Shenzi the hyena, you might be scratching your head about who is the voice of Scar and saying to yourself and those around you that you know who that is and the voice is strangely familiar but you can't quite get the name out, Scar is voiced by Jeremy Irons and he has some delicious dialogue, the bad guys ( lions ) always get the best lines, at least in good movies they do.

The action scenes in this film are so well done, i can imagine it's all in the storyboarding and that's how they got this all down to perfection, but until you watch the movie, you will never understand just how good it comes together, i think its the pacing that makes the difference, knowing when to edit the scene and cut it down is where this film succeeds, the blend of music, dramatic storyline, a really good script with talented voice actors and Disney at the top of their game all combine to make this such an enjoyable viewing experience.

The scenes between Simba and Nala when they get to know each other again as adults is tender and i found myself enjoying it a lot, i guess it's the sentimental person in me, i find myself gettiing wrapped up in the story, i know not everyone sees it that way but to me a good story that is told well is worth my time no matter the medium, it could be a book, a tv show, a play or a film, if it grabs me then i'll watch ( or read ) it and enjoy it a lot.

 Negatives

You need to go online to access some of the extra content which was found on the last DVD edition release, i bought the 3D edition which also contains a normal 2D blu ray version, a digital copy and a DVD edition of the movie, my feeling is that they could have ditched the DVD and digital copy versions and put all the extra content on a third blu ray disc, oh and just in case you are wondering, nope i did not watch the 3D version, i don't have a display capable of viewing 3D, its nice to know i have the disc though and can view that edition in the future.

I did wonder about a few scenes where the animation seemed a little harsh, for example about eight minutes and twenty seconds into the film we see a young Simba run to his sleeping parents, i thought the animation of Mufasa looked a little harsh, thats the exception rather than the rule and apart from a few other scenes i thought the image quality was superb.

Image Quality

From the opening moments of the film i knew i was in for a treat, the image quality on this disc is superb, colours are especially strong, take a look at the scene near the beginning of the film as the antelope jump through the mist of the African plains and a young giraffe is seen stepping out into the glare of the blazing sun, colours come across so well on this release, from blue skies to red skies, it all looks so good, i have seen some online criticism about the colour of the lions, they look good to my eyes and certainly seem to me to be the intended look, i think sometimes people are comparing the colours of a DVD edition to a blu ray edition and you really shouldn't do that because more often than not the DVD edition will be the wrong look.

I thought the elephant graveyard scene had some fabulous animation with smoky dust visible in the air as the young lions are pounced upon by the hyenas, obviously some of what you see in these scenes is computer animation mixed with traditional animation but it works so well.  The musical number, I just can't wait to be King, featured bright and psychedelic animation which reminded me a lot of a sequence seen in Dumbo, it wouldn't surprise me if that was the intention of the Disney animators who are well aware of their prestigious history.

The black levels looked good and accurate, shadow detail was very good, overall i thought that detail levels looked fantastic and some of the shading seen throughout the film was truly impressive, i should mention that there are moments in this film which resemble the old multiplane camera look of some of the Disney classics, i thought that look as used in this film was most impressive and there was a real sense of depth to the image, i didn't see any real issues that bothered me, thankfully no edge sharpening was present, this film used the computer animation production system, usually abbreviated as CAPS, that system captured at 2K and digitized the process of using paints and inks in animated films.

Is that film grain i see at around the 67 minute mark when Simba talks to his ghostly father in the sky and for a few scenes after this, a welcome addition to a Disney animated film.

Sound Quality

The start of the film features a classic scene set to music as the animals all come to see the new lion cub and the circle of life song plays, there is some good rear speaker to front speakers sound directionality of birds as they fly high in the sky, a little while after this listen to the thunderous bass of the footsteps of the elephants, the whole opening song is reference quality and is sure to be used for demo purposes by some people for showing off their home cinema equipment.

The wildebeest stampede makes good use of all the speakers and has deep quality bass, it's an exciting moment, the sound mix during this scene aids the visuals and draws you further into the movie, the music score during this scene is important and it sounds excellent.  Dialogue was always easy to make out against the other sound elements in the mix and i consider this a reference quality soundtrack.

Hans Zimmer has composed some amazing music scores during his film career but i consider his score for The Lion King to be some of his best work, his music is powerful and it really brings the animation alive and gives emotional depth to the film, on this blu ray release the music sounds richly detailed, take a listen to the scene where Simba looks to the night sky and talks to his father, an emotional moment and Zimmer's music is just perfect and adds much, the film feels more epic in nature due to the score, a bad music score can bring down a good film, a good music score can enhance an average film, now if you combine a good music score with a good film then the end product can so often become great.

Final Thoughts

I used to consider Beauty And The Beast my favourite Disney animated film, but i like animals and i can't resist the storyline of The Lion King, it's now my favourite Disney film of all time, i think it has perfect pacing, likeable main characters, a good baddie and an astoundingly good music score and the songs are so memorable, i never tire of watching this movie and for those people who turn their noses up at animated films and call them cartoon's and refuse to watch them, well, thats their problem, they don't know what they are missing.

I enjoyed re-visiting The Lion King and watching it in high definition, i am slowly building up a new library of Disney animated films on blu ray and look forward to picking up Lady and the Tramp and Cinderella which are out next year, hopefully Aladdin will also be released, sooner, rather than later, i think Disney put in a decent amount of effort with these releases but sometimes they edge a little into revisionism, especially with their older classic titles which have some scenes which suffer from degraining and a smooth undetailed look to the optical multiplane scenes, indeed sometimes subtle effects are destroyed, films that use the CAPS system do not suffer from these issues.

You can read a blu ray film review of Vera Cruz here.   A quick summary of my thoughts on the transfer to blu ray is that i felt the film represented the cinema look well, it will not be a film people use for demo purposes, its not especially detailed, it's grainier than the average film from this time period and the sound quality is not that great but there are reasons it looks this way and my film review goes into more detail, suffice to say it just cannot look any better than this, the average bitrate for each chapter is consistently around 36 to 37mbp/s and it needs to be to handle the heavy grain structure, as i said in my review i am happy with this release, it may not be a beautifully filmed movie but it's look on blu ray is preserved.

View blu ray screencaps from Vera Cruz below.

Charles Bronson and Ernest Borgnine went for cigarettes during filming, they saddled up in full costume, side arms and all, and upon riding to the nearest town the pair were waylaid by a truck full of armed Federales who mistook them for bandits and held them at gunpoint.

For a film made in 1954, this film has a fast cutting rate, in about 94 mintes of action the movie contains about 1130 edits and transitions, this equates to an average shot length of just under 5 seconds. One of the first Hollywood productions to be made on location in Mexico, film making legislation in Mexico meant that a local director had to be involved on the film set in some capacity, though in this case he wasn't used.

Vera Cruz is sometimes referred to as the first spaghetti western due to it's influence on Italian directors such as Sergio Leone who went on to make the genre popular with his Fistful Of Dollars trilogy. Burt Lancaster was on record as saying that Gary Cooper objected to anything in the script that implied his character was anything other than good, indeed some scenes ended up being re-written due to Cooper's objections.

Gary Cooper was hurt when struck by fragments from a bridge that was blown up, the special effects team used too many explosives.

Vera Cruz was the first film shot in Superscope.  SuperScope productions were shot 1.37:1, and exploited for early wide-screen by doing a field enlargement at the matrix stage during the creation of dye transfer prints.  The image was cropped, losing quite a bit of the top and bottom, and then optically squeezed, with black side panels added at the sides, yielding an uncompressed image at 2:1.  Superscope was the fore-runner to the Super 35 film format that is in use for movies shot today.

Film Plot

Two daredevil mercenaries, Benjamin Trane and Joe Erin, travel to Mexico in search of adventure – and cold hard cash – during the 1866 revolution.  They get more than they bargained for when the wealthy and beautiful Countess Duvarre hires them to escort her (and a fortune in gold!) to Emperor Maximilians fighting forces in Vera Cruz.  The trail is fraught with danger, betrayal and murder…..and when Ben is caught up in the revolutionaries fervour, he and Joe find themselves at odds with the Mexican army – and each other!

Positives

Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster play off each other superbly, both of them have some nice lines of dialogue, for example;

Benjamin Trane: [looking to buy a horse] How much?
Joe Erin: $100… gold!
Benjamin Trane: That's mighty hard.
Joe Erin: So's walkin'!

The part shortly after the above line of dialogue has government troops arrive on the scene, at this point Burt is already on his horse and riding off, one of the troops shoots at Mr Cooper, he makes his getaway real quick, the reason he shot at him is then revealed by Burt, it's a funny line and is just one of many witty dialogue exchanges between the pair that makes this film so entertaining.

About halfway through the film there is a very good action scene where the Mexican rebels ambush the convoy as they want the gold for their cause, for a film shot in 1954 this is a very tightly paced action sequence, the end of the scene has an epic quality about it as we see Maximilian's troops and our mercenaries for hire escape across the large open plains of Mexico.

There is another exciting action scene to end the film as the rebels attack Maximilian's forces, this also leads to the conclusion of the film and a duel between Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster.  I won't reveal who wins but it's a classic way to end a film western.

The music score is by Hugo Friedhofer, he did uncredited stock music on many films (Gone With The Wind is one example) but also did the orchestral arrangements on movies like The Adventures Of Robin Hood and Casablanca, his score for Vera Cruz is good, it's not something you will hum or even remember after the film has ended but its still a good score.

I thought Sara Montiel who plays Nina in the film played her part well, she had some good scenes with Gary Cooper and an exciting scene when she takes charge of one of the wagons when escaping the rebel forces.  I thought George Macready had a very good cameo as Emperor Maximilian, the scene where he shows his marksmanship is excellent.

The film never outstays it's welcome, its just 94 minutes long, they could have padded things out but took the right decision to make a trim, shorter film that moves at a good pace.

The direction by Robert Aldrich is assured and competent, Aldrich would go on to make such well known classics like Kiss Me Deadly, The Flight Of The Phoenix and The Dirty Dozen, i think he is an underrated director who never really got the credit he deserved, of course now we can revisit all these older films and he is now getting some much deserved praise.

Negatives

I didn't particularly buy into Denise Darcel's performance as Countess Marie Duvarre, at times she was okay but i felt she was one of the weaker members of the cast. 

I would have liked to have seen an audio commentary from film historians or some extra content, all you get on this disc is the original theatrical trailer, it would have been nice to get some deleted scenes or behind the scenes footage, i imagine such footage would probably have been destroyed long ago and that's why it is not available.

Image Quality

The filmstock used in the making of this film did not have any anti-halation backing, this prevents any light from being reflected back through the emulsion from the rear surface of the base, or from anything behind the film, and causing a halo-like effect around bright points or edges in the image, thus there are many instances in the film where you get what some refer to as the "force field" effect, this results in halos seen around objects and people, this is NOT edge enhancement, its an issue which affects some older films. 

I saw some onscreen flicker around the 51 minute mark, it lasts a short while only.

It should be noted that this is a grainy film, detail is not always strong, what you get on this disc does represent the way the movie was shot, it cannot look any better than this, bear that in mind should you decide to watch the movie, indeed i will now give you a direct quote from film restoration expert Mr Robert A. Harris, these words can also be seen at Home Theater Forum.

"The field enlargement of the early Eastman (and occasional three-strip) stocks was generally not a happy occasion.  Eastman single strand printer functions, ie. fades and dissolves, along with title sections and dupes, are as problematic as normal, and this is what the film looks like, and looked like at release.  Dupes will have problems with grain, contrast and resolution, as the early duplicating stocks were less than stellar."

I am happy enough with this release knowing i am getting the film on blu ray without any studio techhead adding artificial "enhancements" and my score below reflects the transfer quality and not the actual image quality, this is not a film you will use for demo purposes to show off your home cinema but it is a classic western that has been faithfully transferred to blu ray.

Sound Quality

I was not that impressed with the sound quality of this release, it's a 2 channel mix and sound originates from your left and right front speakers, i thought speech was a little harsh at times, you could almost tell they had re-recorded some of the dialogue in the studio after the film was shot, i felt gunfire sounded quite poor and all the guns sounded the same, even some of the explosions sounded weak, the music score does fare slightly better, there is obviously no surround sound in this film and absolutely no front channel effects panning either, not that i expected there to be any, the mix is what it is and i accept it although i do wonder if they could go back to some of the original elements and improve upon it.

I know it is unfair to compare movies to one another but i watched Rio Bravo not that long ago and it hails from 1956, just five years after this film was made, that film was mono but sounded better, the gunfire had some bass to it, dialogue sounded better, i suppose my whole point of mentioning it is that i was disappointed with the sound quality of this release.

Final Thoughts

Vera Cruz has a strong cast led by Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster and even if you cannot put a name to some of the other cast members i am sure you will recognize Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, Cesar Romero and Charles Bronson, all of them are welcome additions to a fine movie.  Mr Lancaster's character is mean and tough and he has no reservations about striking a woman or shooting someone in the back, clearly he is the anti-hero of the film with Mr Cooper playing the hero, both actors bounce off each other so well that the film is elevated above what it might have been if the casting had been wrong, today's filmmakers could learn a lesson by watching these classic films especially when it comes to dialogue that is so often overlooked in favour of action setpieces or CGI eye candy.  Having said all that i do believe you can enjoy this film and also enjoy something like Transformers or Bad Boys 2, being a film fan means enjoying all types of cinema and not just being a so called film snob and turning your nose up at the "switch your brain off and sit back and relax" type of movies.

MGM are spending time on making new transfers for blu ray, they are not just re-using old masters and using digital tools trickery, they are making an effort, i appreciate that and wish other studio's like Universal would do the same, i love classic films and although Vera Cruz is often overlooked, i do believe it is a well made movie that should be seen at least once by all fans of the cinema. This release is actually very cheap to buy so if you love movie westerns or want to see how films used to be made then go rent or buy this.

You can read my blu ray film review by clicking here.  A brief summary of that review is that i felt this film was slightly more consistent with its image quality but still had minor issues, Vader's lightsaber had pinkish tones in some scenes.  I also felt the audio mix was very good with a richness to the music score and good surround effects, clear speech and deep controlled bass.

View blu ray screencaps of Star Wars: Episode 6 – Return Of The Jedi below.