Peppa
Pig: Cold Winter Day
(2015/EOne DVD)/The Toy
Story That Time Forgot
(2015/Disney Blu-ray)/Zarafa
(2011/Cinedigm Blu-ray)
Picture:
C+/B/B Sound: C+/B/B+ Extras: D/C+/C+ Main Programs: C+
Here
are new children's releases to know about...
Peppa
Pig: Cold Winter Day
(2015) is 10 more episodes of the charming, child-safe show that has
a healthy sense of humor and healthy interaction with the characters
in their various adventures. A highlight of the Nick Jr. Network,
the show continues to keep its quality good and consistent, making it
one of the best shows of its kind on TV (and DVD today). This runs
only 50n minutes, but that seems to be enough for each disc.
There
are no extras.
Steve
Purcell's The
Toy Story That Time Forgot
(2015) only lasts 22 minutes, but that is somehow enough to make it a
good (if not great) entry into the uber-successful Disney franchise.
The original voices (esp. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen) are here, so
that's a plus in a story about action figures turning up for the
holidays and not being in the most sound of mind condition. Reviving
some old classic toys and adding some new ones, this is fine, but
just too short. I wanted this to be longer, but we'll guess the
makers did not think they could get this concept to feature length,
so better brief and not at all versus a disastrous feature that could
hurt the franchise.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds an audio commentary track,
Toy
Story Goes To The Comic-Con,
Deleted Scenes, a Karaoke Video, animated opening for Battlesaurs
and Reptillus!, origins of the Battlesaurs world.
Finally
we have Directors Remi Bezancon & Jean-Christophe Lie's Zarafa
(2011) has
to do with the title character kidnapped when we meet him, with plans
to sell him into slavery when he is able to escape to his captor's
surprise. From there, it flows his adventures and misadventures that
are interesting until they hit a bit of a wall and slow down when he
is out in the desert (with too much of a desire to reference Lawrence
Of Arabia,
then Around
The World In 80 Days,
holding the more original aspects back), so it becomes uneven and the
conclusion is not as satisfactory as I would have liked. Still, it
is worth a look, save a toilet joke or the like.
Extras
include the Original U.S. Theatrical Trailer, a Making Of featurette,
Giraffe
Mania
and vintage 1957 short color film Giraffe
in Paris
film.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on Peppa
is as good as previous DVD releases, making one wonder when its
Blu-ray debut will happen. Looks good for the format and consistent
with previous releases, but at this point, why not more. The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image on Toy
has Pixar's top-rate CGI and plays well with really nice depth,
detail and usually good color for the most part. The likes of Cars
is more colorful, but this is worthy of the theatrical trilogy of
films. The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on
Zarafa
is 2D only, though this has been issued in 3D elsewhere, yet this is
impressive and has some nice images. Color is held back a bit
because much of this takes place in the desert, but it is never
monochromatic.
As
for sound, the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Peppa
is soft, but clear as always to remain child-friendly and is just
fine. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mix on Toy
is just fine for a short program with some nice detail into the
surrounds, but there is the odd option of a DTS-HD HR (High
Resolution) 5.1 mix that reminds me how the rarely used HR version
(not lossless) is on the weak side to the point that you might as
well play the 7.1 even if you only have 5.1 speakers as the sound
loss is that noticeable. The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless
mix on Zarafa
is here in a lesser English dub that cuts into the sound effects,
soundfield and is not very convincing, but the original 5.1 French
version is the best soundtrack on the list with some demo moments,
occasional aggressive surrounds and a flow we don't hear in
multi-channel films enough.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
