Chicken Little (Blu-ray)
Picture:
A- Sound: A- Extras: B- Feature: B-
The
surprise CG animated hit Chicken Little
has now become one of the most awaited Blu-ray releases to date in all of its
50GB glory. Containing the same extras
as the DVD-Video, you can read about it in our first review at:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/3525/Chicken+Little
This
looked good for DVD-Video and was one of the clips Disney supplied for the
Blu-ray demo disc in stores nationwide.
The funny thing was that on some displays, it looked really good, but on
others, it looked like you were there and could walk right into the picture. It was like a Little Golden Book come to
life. The 1.78 X 1 1080p digital High
Definition image here is easily my favorite of all CG animated product to hit
HD to date and looks as good as that demo, sometimes better because they saved
plenty to show off here.
The
storybook color scheme is amazingly consistent and you get better attention to
detail than in any other CG on HD title to date. Textures are more naturalistic, though not
always as complex as some of the other non-Pixar productions and I certainly
liked it better than the HD-DVD on Happy
Feet, which a fellow critic will soon tackle.
The
standard Dolby Digital 5.1 on the feature and both Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 in the
extras are of the same quality here as they are on the DVD-Video, but I really
wanted DTS because I knew that the sound had more to offer. This Blu-ray comes with a surprisingly lively
PCM 5.1 16 bit/48kHz mix that manages to make the most of its limits similar to
another great such PCM sound mix, Kung
Fu Hustle. In both cases, I would
imagine Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio lossless would work even better,
but the PCM still adds great dimension to their animated world, even if Hustle is live-action with animated
feature aesthetics emphasizing its comedy.
The
extras are easier to access and this is a smoother presentation all around. The Chicken
Little Blu-ray is guaranteed to be one of the top favorite HD discs on the
market and its going to take some loaded Pixar titles to compete with it. Home theater and animation fans should
consider it of demo quality on every level.
- Nicholas Sheffo
