Blu-ray Movie Reviews

I'd been holding off on watching this one until my daughter was visiting. She is five so I thought this would be a great one to sit down and watch with her. Unfortunately she got pretty bored with it, and so did I. The humor goes above their head most of the time, and falls pretty short of mine. The concept is cute and talking animals are always pretty funny, but the movie moves along at a slower pace than I would expect given its target audience. As far as family films go it is nice to see something with no real adult humor or innuendo, I just wish there was more to have fun with for 90 minutes.

Disney hasn’t been disappointing in the video department at all lately and this is another solid release. Like most of their films this one has lots of color and pop and the set design adds to the visual appeal. Contrast is excellent and depth of image rivals even some reference titles. Fine object detail is also impressive and I was glad to see a total lack of ringing and edge enhancement in the image.

The full resolution PCM 5.1 mix is good, but like the film it comes up short in some areas. Spatial cues are a bit disappointing at times and I thought the mix came off a bit front heavy. The score is playful though and broadens the soundstage a bit. Dialogue is balanced nicely, even in the more exciting moments of the film, and even the voice over work is good. I'm not usually a fan of voiceovers with animals but this one wasn’t too bad. They did a good job of picking the voices to suit the animals most of the time.

Extras are geared more toward the younger audience and include some bloopers and deleted scenes along with some fun retrospective looks at the earlier cartoons. You also get a diary for the lead canine star and a music video.

I didn't have high hopes going into the film but Disney usually pulls it off. This one came up a bit short, even for my young daughter. I loved the casting and effects work, but the story was on the dull side and the humor just didn't grab me. Disney did pull off an excellent A/V presentation though, so fans will probably be pleased.