The
Aviators (2008/Cinedigm
Blu-ray w/DVD)/Blaze Of
Glory: A Mini-Movie
(2014/Nickelodeon DVD)/Chuggington:
Turbo Charged Chugger!
(2015/Anchor Bay DVD)/Dora
& Friends: Into The City!
(new version/2014/Nickelodeon DVD)/Scooby
Doo!: Moon Monster Madness
(2015/Warner DVD)
Picture:
B (DVDs: C+) Sound: B (DVDs: C+) Extras: D/D/C+/D/C Main
Programs: C+/C/C+/B-/C+
Here
are the latest children's titles...
Miquel
Pujol's The
Aviators
(2008) has been issued in an English-only version with dubbers
including Brad Garrett and Jeff Foxworthy (as a mouse trying to
invent a flying machine) in a somewhat amusing comedy adventure set
during WWI, but obviously cleaned up for child audiences. Echoing
Orwell's Animal
Farm
a bit visually and thematically, the story centers on a group on a
farm that is happy, peaceful and tranquil until all is disrupted by
the incoming, unprecedented war. Originally entitled Cher
Ami... iy yo!
in Spain, et al, has this story loosely based on the legendary,
actual bird who figures more so later in this 77 minutes feature.
Maybe
this worked better in Spanish, plus it is hard to say if we are even
getting the same edit, but one source listed this as originally being
85 minutes and I believe it, reminding me of how Japanese animated
films and TV shows were badly edited to fit U.S. markets in ways that
ruined them and this plays like a case of history repeating itself
just so the issuers can try to get a small piece of the
Disney/PIXAR/DreamWorks (et al) pie. It may be passable at best, but
this version disappoints.
There
are no extras.
Blaze
Of Glory: A Mini-Movie
(2014) is meant to launch a new franchise for the Nickelodeon cable
network, but despite some amusing bits, it hardly reaches its
potential as a young man Named AJ has a best friend in a monster
truck named Blaze that talks among many other vehicles that talk.
Sure, it does not look bad or even sound bad, but there's no much to
this one, with the writing relying on viewers to be big truck fans.
We get two adventures in all, but there are no extras.
Chuggington:
Turbo Charged Chugger!
(2015) is more like it, with the talking trains actually having a
script to follow and we get more energy and fun (as has been the case
with this series) in 6 episodes that run just over an hour. This is
on par with those previous DVD singles, so you have to consider
extras if you are trying to choose a disc among those issued so far
(esp. that we've covered).
Coloring
Sheets, a Badger Quest episode, Character Montages and sticker
booklet inside the DVD case are the extras.
Dora
& Friends: Into The City!
is a new version of the franchise in that she is older, a little
taller and Nickelodeon is clearly going for Barbie/Bratz territory.
The results are not bad in there four episodes (running a healthy 92
minutes), though some of the charm of the original series is a little
lost in the shuffle despite this variation not differing too much
from the series we are all too familiar with.
However,
you can understand, especially after so many years of success, why it
seemed time to try this direction for Dora. However, it should not
be considered a way to stop the original style to end, which would be
a big mistake that fans would likely reject in large numbers.
There
are no extras.
Finally
we have Scooby
Doo!: Moon Monster Madness
(2015) which runs 80 minutes and is dubbed a movie, albeit a telefilm
going directly to video. I have not been too happy with the
slap-dash nature of most of the recent releases in the franchise, but
this has a little more humor, character and energy than what has been
issued late, which has felt like a series of benign package deals and
formula releases for the most part. This outer space romp does not
feel totally like it is on auto pilot (yes, that pun), so it is
better by default than recent entries, child friendly and worth a
look for fans if no one else.
The
Space Travel Is Groovy
featurette hosted by Mindy Cohn (who has aced Velma's voice) and
trailers are the extras, though our copy came with a light switch
cover sticker.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on the Aviators
Blu-ray is easily the best performer here as expected, but the
surprise is how the look of older hand-drawn animated features is
stressed here and is decent throughout, with the anamorphically
enhanced DVD version not bad for what it is. The rest of the DVDs,
all surprisingly anamorphically
enhanced 1.78 X 1 in this case, all are consistently decent
throughout
As
for sound, the English-dubbed DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless
mix on Aviators
may not be perfect (the original is in Spanish, et al), but has a
consistent soundfield that even the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on the
DVD somewhat retains. Still, I think both soundtracks should have
been included. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on the rest of the DVDs,
save the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Chuggington,
is equal to the Aviators
DVD and to each other as the 5.1 DVDs are decent if not spectacular
sonically.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
