Jonas Brothers – The 3-D Concert Experience (2009/Disney Blu-ray w/2-D only DVD and Digital Copy)

 

Picture: B/B-/C+     Sound: B/C+     Extras: C     Feature: C

 

 

I don’t believe it!  No matter what I try to do, I cannot find anything to bash the bubblegum rock trio The Jonas Brothers over, but don’t think I have not tried.  Yes, I admit I was hoping to find some problem, some trouble, some flaw on the new 3-D Concert Experience Blu-ray to say, “see, I told you they were no good” or “see, what a bunch of phonies” or “see, those little ingrates deserve nothing” or “I told you they were a bunch of @#%&*!” but as hard as I tried, I could not find a reason anywhere on this new release to prove they were horrible people.

 

Never mean to their fans, actually working hard to do their concerts and keep up with their schedules, the trio has their act together off stage and does their best on stage to appeal to their mostly female fan base who they do not intend to disappoint.  No, I cannot remember any song a few seconds after I hear one of them, but so what.  They are still playing their own instruments and they can sing, even if it not with material that is challenging.  They are either the good guys they appear to be or expert acting frauds who know how to fool people into believing they are nice.

 

With that said, this feature did not do too well in theaters and is undermined by too much faked footage of them starting their day and phony chases that pale as compared to actual fan gatherings, the actual audience at their concert(s) and the actual reactions by fans that are no act.  This works best when the makers just let things happen.  The guys do have chemistry together and that actually works better when they are simply together hanging with each other.  If this had not been narrowly targeted to fans, this could have been a surprise.

 

To Disney’s credit, they put out some money to make sure the concert footage looked good.  As most recent HD-produced concerts on Blu-ray are 1080i and not 1080p, this looks better than most such releases from far more serious music acts, yet the is also the 3-D factor.  The good news is that the 3-D (only on the Blu-ray, which can be viewed with one of four pairs of 3-D glasses included) is a big improvement over the inaccurate, problematic and gimmickry-loaded Hanna Montana 3-D Blu-ray we looked at a while ago.  As a result, the 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image has little motion blur and the 3-D works better than almost anything we’ve seen on Blu-ray to date, if not so spectacularly impressive.

 

The 2-D version on Blu-ray is less exciting and bonus DVD with anamorphically enhanced 2-D only presentation weaker still.  However, the 3-D technically (sorry, guys) is the highlight of the whole set.  That is enough for non-fans to see, so that leaves the sound.

 

The DTS-HD Master Audio (MA) 7.1 lossless mix exclusive to the Blu-ray is really stretching things out, with even the concert audio limited to what was obviously conceived as 5.1 channels at best, then the rest is dialogue-based banter.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the DVD (plus Spanish Dolby 5.1 on the Blu-ray) are much weaker as the limits in the sound mix show.  However, the DTS is preferred and fans of their music will be happy with it, but it is hardly audiophile quality throughout.

 

Extras include Digital Copy for PC and PC portable devices, the bonus DVD, BD Live interactivity on the Blu-ray, the 3-D glasses (we’ll count those), bonus songs and a behind the scenes featurette that is a tad contrived, but nicely done just the same.  Yup, couldn’t find a reason to dislike them from that one either!

 

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo