Dino King 3D (2012/Well Go USA Blu-ray 3D w/2D)/The Garfield Show: Pizza Dreams (2013/Gaiam Vivendi DVD)

 

3D Picture: B-     2D Picture: B-/C+     Sound: B-/C+     Extras: C-/C     Main Programs: C/C+

 

 

Now for a couple of children’s titles that seem familiar…

 

 

Subtitled “An Amazing Adventure”, Han Sang-Ho’s Dino King 3D (2012) is the all-CG tale of a young new dinosaur (dubbed Speckles here) that is born and has to grow up in the rough world of those old giant killer dino days.  That already sounds like Disney’s overrated Dinosaur (reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site, one of the first-ever releases in that format) plus every other child-in-a-tough-world-alone formula tale we have ever seen, which has had a huge increase since the 1980s.

 

The twist is that this is from South Korea, so you’d think we might get something get different or interesting that could only come out of that country’s underrated cinema, but this production (whose CG is not that great, complicated by too many attempts to make the 3D more impressive than it needs to be, i.e., it tries too hard) is so determined to be like a Hollywood CG feature that it is doomed to fail on many levels.

 

Too bad because if they had worked newer angles or tried to add something more to the script, tried to find a different path, this could have overcome its limited CG and been a nice import surprise, but it was not meant to be.  Still, CG and 3D fans might want to see it as a curio, but also know some young children might find this harder to watch form its violence and loud sound design than the usual CG release.  That does not make it more cutting edge either.

 

A trailer is the only extra.

 

 

On the other hand, The Garfield Show: Pizza Dreams (their best title for any DVD to date) offers six related CG animated shorts (with not enough pizza, but The Spy Who Fed Me, Master Chef and Great Pizza Race help) and it is as lightly entertaining as past releases, but I found a little more to enjoy here than usual, though I still like the hand-drawn show better.  It is as good as any past CG release, but plays it simple and safe.

 

The only extras include 5 bonus shorts.

 

 

The 1.78 X 1, 1080p full HD MVC-encoded 3-D – Full Resolution digital High Definition image on Dino has some good moments, but it is not great 3D throughout and I was only so impressed, with the 3D not being able to hide the limits of the CG, while the 1080p 2D digital High Definition image transfer looks a tad more aged, but does not have the 3D that does not work, so it is a draw of the most disappointing kind.  The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the Garfield shorts has slightly smoother CG, but does not look as good as either offering from the Blu-ray.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on both versions of Dino is the same and between soundfield limits and overly loud mixing, disappoints throughout.  The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the Garfield shows have even less of a soundfield and are softer with the intent of being child-friendly like the previous DVDs in this series.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo