All that comes with it Rotating Header Image

Review

Blu-ray review: The Princess and the Frog

Aug 14th, 2010
by Dan.
6 comments

I’ve said it before, but there is too much CGI in modern kids entertainment.

In itself I don’t object to CGI animation. In fact some of the finest films of all time were computer generated – specifically every single film produced by Pixar: Up, Wall-E, Incredibles, Monster’s Inc, Finding Nemo, the Toy Story franchise, etc etc.

But there is an art and beauty to other forms of animation that is at risk of being neglected. Would Wallace and Grommet be as charming if they were made of pixels rather than plasticine? No, they wouldn’t.

Similarly cell animation has gradually been lost from our cinema screens, which is a crying shame. And what’s worse is that it’s becoming increasingly rare on our TV screens too. It’s not on the endangered list quite yet (Look at the magnificent Phineas and Ferb for an example of exceptionally high quality cell animated contemporary kids cartoons).

In 2009 Disney released The Princess and the Frog, their first cell animated movie since 2004′s Home on the Range (a film I still haven’t seen). I imagine that Disney intended it to be a sort of experiment to see if audiences still had a taste for traditional looking animation.

It wasn’t an overwhelming success, but did make a profit once worldwide revenues were taken into account and lead to reports of Disney deciding on a policy of releasing one hand drawn movie every two years. However I’ve seen no talk of any upcoming traditionally animated releases, so we should perhaps take those reports with a pinch of salt.

So is The Princess and the Frog any good? Well yes it is.

Here’s a plot synopsis shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia:

The film’s plot concerns a prince named Naveen from the land of Maldonia, who is transformed into a frog by the evil scheming voodoo magician Dr. Facilier . The frog prince mistakes a girl named Tiana for a princess and has her kiss him to break the spell. The kiss does not break the spell, but instead turns Tiana into a frog as well. Together, the two of them must reach the good voodoo queen of the deepest, darkest part of the Bayou, Mama Odie, while befriending a trumpet-playing alligator Louis and a hopelessly romantic Cajun firefly named Ray along the way.

The Princess and the Frog is set in New Orleans, and sports a suitably jazzy soundtrack by Randy Newman. I’m a big fan of Newman and have a real fondness for both Cajun music and New Orleans style jazz and so, despite my usual distaste for musicals, it managed to get my toe tapping and head nodding throughout many of the numbers. Additionally Prince Naveen played a pretty mean ukulele throughout the film, and as we all know there is nothing that can’t be improved with a good bit of uke.

Still from The Princess and the Frog

The characters are strong and humorous. Of particular note is Tiana who, as well as being Disney’s first black lead heroine, was an incredibly positive female role model. I also was a big fan of Ray the firefly, played by Jim Cummings. I can’t remember where it was, but I recently heard someone talking about how animation studios should rely more on specialized voice actors rather than celebrities to provide voices for their movies, and this movie certainly bears this theory out. Aside from John Goodman and Anika Noni Rose there were no well know names in the cast (oh and a Oprah Winfrey cameo too).

The animation is stunning, and there are a number of scenes that are almost breathtaking. And they are all the more enjoyable for the nostalgia that the animation provokes. It all looks pretty damn special on Blu-Ray too, as crisp and vibrant as I’ve come to expect from the format. In fact I’d argue that animation is just about the perfect genre for blu-ray as get the picture quality without having to stare at the actors pores and pimples.

So any bad bits? Well, not specifically, but The Princess and the Frog doesn’t feel like it has as much, I dunno, heart as some of the older traditionally animated movies from Disney. Nor does it have that multi age range appeal that the Pixar films do. I’d think nothing of sticking Toy Story or Wall-E on the blu-ray player when the kids weren’t home, but I’d feel a bit wet doing that with The Princess and the Frog. That’s hardly a fair criticism though, as it’s not many films on this earth that can compare to a Pixar one anyhow.

So in summery, The Princess and the Frog is a welcome return to traditional animation by Disney, and one that is very worthy of joining their very impressive stable. The music is great, the animation wonderful, and the characters and plot engaging and humorous. Plus it has ukuleles in it, you don’t get much better than that.

[rating:8/10]

If you would like to buy The Princess and the Frog then you can do so on blu-ray here
and on DVD here.

Disclaimer
I received a copy of The Princess and the Frog on blu-ray to review. I also got given a blu-ray player by Disney around a year ago in order to review their releases. However the opinions expressed in this review are honest and I have felt no pressure from Disney to provide a positive review.

Also if you buy it from one of the links I’ve given I get an extremely small kickback from Amazon

Neverending Story

Aug 6th, 2010
by Dan.
4 comments

Not much time for blogging this week as I’ve been a bit busy planning barbecues and duck houses. However we’re still plugging away over at the Midnight Movie Club.

This week we’ve been talking about The Never Ending Story. And for the second week in a row we actually manage to keep on topic. We don’t even mention Frankenhooker once!!

Have a listen below, or even better subscribe to us on iTunes. And while you are there leave us a rating and a review (go on, you know you want to)

[display_podcast]

Oh, and I apologize if I’ve now got that bloody song stuck in your head.

Movie Review: The Tooth Fairy

Aug 3rd, 2010
by Dan.
19 comments

Yesterday on Facebook I was harangued by a couple of so called “friends” for expressing the surprised opinion that despite my expectations going into the cinema, the movie “The Tooth Fairy” wasn’t half bad.

Theoretically these two people have a far more developed critical eye than I do. One, Neil, spent two years as director of photography on a long running UK TV drama (ok, ok, it was Emmerdale – but it still counts). The other, Chris, hosts my second favorite movie podcasts, Casta La Vista, and regularly reviews films with humour, intelligence, and an abundance of delightfully foul language.

Yet despite their apparent qualifications I still maintain that they are wrong. The Tooth Fairy fairly watchable, and even strays into “quite charming” territory at times.

I realise I’m swimming against the tide here. Neil and Chris aren’t alone in their dislike of the movie. The movies Rotten Tomatoes’ page say it has an overall approval rating of 17% amongst professional critics, and an average score of 4 out of 10. But I think that’s all rather harsh.

In case you’ve not come across the movie yet, the plot surrounds a minor league hockey player (The Rock) who ends up having to serve a week as a real life tooth fairy in punishment for telling his girlfriend’s daughter that the tooth fairy doesn’t exist. The overall theme of the film centers around the importance to hold onto your dreams and all that sort of thing.

The Rock (yeah, yeah, he calls himself Dwayne Johnson these days, but we all know he’s really called the Rock) is a very under rated actor in my opinion. He’s got a very healthy dollop of charisma and always manages to come across as more than just a musclebound lunkhead. And if you compare him to other wrestlers that tried their hand at acting then he suddenly starts looking like Oscar winning material. I mean I like The Princess Bride as much as the next man, but no one could describe Andre the Giant as anything other than wooden.

So the Rock accounts for himself pretty well in the movie. He plays the whole “Big tough guy in feminised role” shtick very well and with very little obvious discomfort (unlike Arnie who always sucked at it). As I say, I find the guy quite charming and a generally believable actor.

But the real highpoint for me in this film was Stephen Merchant. He’s a comedian that I really like, but unfortunately often find his partner Ricky Gervais a little grating. I very much liked his portrayal of the geeky and awkward tooth fairy probation worker, and found the scene where he squares up to him particularly amusing.

Other actors of note were Julie Andrews and Billy Crystal as tooth fairy equivalents to Bond’s M and Q respectively. I’ve seen a fair bit of criticism of these two veteran actors for doing this film, much of which coming from the guys over at Casta la Vista if I remember correctly, however as I say I feel it’s a bit unfair really. Crystal had a good part with some funny gags which I felt was more or less worthy of him. And Andrews is blandness personified in every film since The Sound of Music anyway, although my Midnight Movie Club co-host Lee may argue that 2001′s The Princess Diaries was actually her finest hour (the girly freak).

So in short I had no problem at all with the casting and performances in this film.

The plot? Meh, the plot was pretty by the numbers. A standard tale of initial cynicism turning to redemptive belief, a device more commonly found on your box standard Christmas movie. But I don’t think this is particularly a bad thing. This is a kids film and children thrive on the familiarity and security that well worn tropes provide.

So all in all The Tooth Fairy is a pretty enjoyable children’s film that I feel has been unfairly maligned by the critics. Sure it’s no Pixar movie, but then very few films are. I’d heard some very negative opinions of the film before walking into the cinema, and so my enjoyment of the movie may have been boosted by my initial low expectations. But it’s a film I’d happily add to my kid’s DVD library.

[rating:6.5/10]

The Tooth Fairy has been out for quite a while now. We saw it at a cut price kids club showing at the local cinema. It’s released on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK on the 20th of September, but is already available on DVD and Blu-ray in the US.

Disclosure
We paid for our own entry (and horrifically overpriced popcorn) to watch this at the cinema. However if you buy a DVD or Blu-ray through one of the links on this post then I get a very small kickback from Amazon.

Qtag and the art of scribbling on T-Shirts

Nov 24th, 2009
by Dan.
20 comments

Our 84 mile sponsored walk of Hadrian’s wall is looming ever closer. Seven months and twelve days close to be precise.

I’ve started to cast my net around for some corporate sponsorship and the wonderful people at Qtag.com have been the first to step up to the plate with an extremely generous donation of £100. Thanks especially go to Simon Turner from their marketing department who set it all up. You are a gent sir.

Qtag sell wholesale clothing to the general public. By way of thanks for the donation I asked Simon if there was any way to promote his company on the blog. He very kindly sent me a set of Berol fabric crayons and a couple of T-shirts for me to take a look at and review, with the understanding that I’d be 100% honest in my appraisal.

Fortunately we all loved them. It would have been rather awkward if we hadn’t.

The crayons were bright, fun, and easy to use. But best of all they were clean. We’ve used fabric paint on T-shirts before and I’ve always needed to lay down protective sheeting worthy of a microchip factory. But with these crayons you just draw them on the fabric , iron it, and you’re done. Marvellous.

Amy loved making the T-shirts. In fact she was pestering me to do it from the moment the package from Qtag arrived. It must be something about being given permission to draw on previously forbidden canvases. If someone invented special Wallpaper Crayons I’m sure they’d make a fortune.

Here’s a photo of Amy modeling her new bespoke T-shirt:

IMG_3719

The crayons are also cheap. Very cheap. Including VAT the crayons come to a total of £4.11. When you add to that the fact Qtag sell blank white kids T-Shirt for just £1.09 (or if you’re feeling posher a Fruit of the Loom one for £2.75), then you’ve got yourself a pretty good stocking filler.

What’s more, if you buy in bulk (10 or more) you get it even cheaper. Kerry and I are seriously considering getting a small stockpile together for the relentless onslaught of birthday parties we go to throughout the year. That way we get to be the smug parents who give the cool creative presents rather than the ones who obviously rely solely on 3 for 2 offers at Boots.

You can buy the fabric crayons here, and the kids T-shirts here.

The rest of the Qtag website is also pretty impressive price wise – adult Fruit of the Loom T-shirts for £2.30, cotton polo shirts for £3.69. However it’s all pretty plain and simple stuff. You’re not going to find any Fred West or Matthew Perry labels here (or should that be Fred Perry and Matthew West? I get confused). But for the fashion phobic such as myself it’s a good place to stock up on the essentials. It’s also pretty good for getting those plain polo shirts for kids school uniforms (£3.20 to you squire).

And if you’re looking to buy any sort of uniform for a team event (like a group walk along Hadrian’s Wall for example) it’s a great place to go. As is their sister site, clothes2order.com where you can get stuff printed with logos too.

————————————

Disclaimer. As Qtag gave us a donation towards the Joseph Salmon Trust I suppose you could argue that this is a paid post. My review was honest and I’ve also personally donated the equivalent cost of the crayons and T-shirts to the Trust as well. Donation or not, I wouldn’t be recommending Qtag unless I believed in what they are peddling. My only reservation is that I imagine the majority of their goods are made overseas by exploited workers; but lets face it, you’d find it very difficult to find any item of clothing in the shops on the high street that isn’t.

Oh, and I made up the designer “Matthew West” for the purposes of that crappy joke. Sorry

A Blog Recomendation

Nov 13th, 2009
by Dan.
20 comments

I read two types of blogs. The first type are blogs written by people that I like. These are bloggers with whom I feel I have developed (or am developing) a relationship. I am interested in what they say and the way that they say it. They comment on my blog, I comment on theirs. I tease them and call them names, and they tease me and call me names back. I read their stories about every day life with genuine interest and pleasure. And when I say “Congratulations!” or “You’re in my thoughts” I really mean it. They are my friends and are what keep me coming back to the blogosphere

Then they are the other types of blogs. These are the ones that are so well written and so funny they wouldn’t be out of place in a weekly newspaper column. Due to the quality of what these bloggers churn out they often (but not always) have hundreds of readers and commenters, and so the personal relationship between reader and writer is heavily watered down. There’s a very good chance that this person doesn’t even know who you are, that you’re just another face in the crowd. But that’s OK, the writing is so good that you’re happy to consider yourself a fan rather than a friend.

I suppose the difference between the two categories is similar to the one between a bunch of really clever and funny friends in the pub and watching Stephen Fry on the TV. If you had to chose between the two you’d go for your mates without hesitation because they give you so much more than simply entertainment. But it’s nice to have the facility to just sit back and watch a master at work now and again.

But there are a few bloggers that span both categories. People with whom I’ve developed a friendship, but that have the potential to become superstar bloggers if they put their mind to it. There isn’t a single blog in my google reader that isn’t written by a talented blogger (I tend to have high standards), but these people are beyond the pale. If they don’t produce at least one book in their lifetime then it will be a waste. Greg, Whit, Xbox – these are just three of fantastic and honest writers about whom my boundaries between friendship and fandom is deliciously blurred. And I have gushed sycophantically about them on previous posts.

And I would like to add Erin from Fierce Beagle to that list.

Blimey Erin’s good. I mean really good. For example today she did one of those “This is what my child is doing developmentally” posts. You know the kind – Dooce does them every month (or did back when I used to read her anyhow). But somehow Erin managed to make her development posts both interesting and funny. This is very hard to do, I know because I’ve tried and failed myself.

Just read this:

“And he’s very good at impersonations. For instance he can wag his finger and Shhh! at Cody in such a way that people can barely tell the difference between him and me, a differentiation that is further complicated by the fact that he frequently wears my slippers.”

That, ladies and gentlemen, is subtle comedy genius at it’s best. Not for Erin is the big, obvious, signposted gags. This woman is a crafstman.

In her day job Erin’s an editor, which goes some way to explaining her writing chops (although as far as I can make out all that editing involves is tipexing out spelling mistakes). She’s also the wife of Noah, a police officer, and writes extremely eloquently about the anxieties that having a husband on the thin blue line can provoke.

In short – go add her to your feedreader now. You won’t regret it.

Blu-ray review: Bolt

Jul 13th, 2009
by Dan.
17 comments

When boiled down to it’s elements Bolt is made of the same ingredients as Beverly Hills Chihuahua. The protagonist is a dog which has been ripped out of it’s comfort zone, the sidekick a reluctant and world weary ally, the plot surrounds the heros efforts to get back to it’s owners (in LA no less), and there is a strong motif of “finding your bark” running through both films.

But the difference is, Bolt works.

The story is well paced, the protagonists sympathetic, the comedy funny, and the tragedy poignant. Sure, it doesn’t break any molds as far as plot goes; but it’s a kids film, it doesn’t need to. It’s story of love lost and then regained, an archetypical tale that never goes stale.

To steal a synopsis from the mighty Wikipedia:

The film’s plot centers on a small white dog named Bolt who, having spent his entire life on the set of a television series, thinks that he has super powers. When he believes that his human, Penny, has been kidnapped, he sets out on a cross-country journey to “rescue” her.

The vocal acting was very good. I was particularly taken by Mark Walton as Rhino the hamster, but even have to give a grudging nod of respect to the normally excruciating Miley Cyrus who portrayed Penny, Bolt’s owner, excellently.

And the animation? Well I must admit that I approached the movie expecting something a little under par. Despite being a Disney film, Bolt did not have any input from Pixar studios and so I wasn’t anticipating anything overly spectacular. Other non Pixar CGI films include Chicken Little and Meet the Robinsons which, while they were perfectly acceptable, didn’t really raise the bar as far as moving the genre of CGI forward.

But the animation in Bolt was spectacular. It could have something to do with the Blu-ray but blimey, the first ten minutes of the movie really took my breath away. it wasn’t so much the rendering of the character’s themselves (although they were great), but the backgrounds. Wonderfully realistic textures that meshed exquisitely with the main action. The cinematography was pretty damn good too. Visually the movie was very satisfying.

I’ve read a few negative reviews from my fellow Disney reviewers criticizing the movie for being overly melancholic and even a bit hypocritical (the villains of the piece being a large money driven movie studio, a bit like Disney in fact). To them I say a respectful pish and piffle. Bolt’s a great film, a bit sad in places true and there is a certain irony to it if you’re in a cynical enough mood. But it’s overwhelming message is that of doing the best you can with what you’ve got, and that seems a good enough thing to be teaching my kids to me.

Blu-ray review: Beverly Hills Chihuahua

Jun 25th, 2009
by Dan.
6 comments

Just why the commissioning producers thought that that a film entitled Beverly Hills Chihuahua would draw in an audience is a mystery to me. The very prospect of watching it instilled me with dread as I put the disk into the Blu-ray machine and I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in that.

Other films in the talking animals genre feature cute animals like pigs (Babe) or parrots (Paulie), and of course Dalmatians (Full Metal Jacket). Chihuahuas however are not cute, they are pretty much repellent as is the vacuous celebrity culture that appears to have adopted them.

So, perhaps unfairly, this film had quite a bit of ground to make up with me even before it started.

So did it pluckily beat the odds and win over the sullen heart of this cold blooded cynic?

Well no, not really.

It was OK I suppose. The acting was reasonable and some of the characters were entertaining, if not a little by-the-numbers( I’m always a sucker for the gruff veteran with a heart of gold and took a particular shine to Delgado, an ex German Shepard police-dog voiced by Andy Garcia).

The plot is your basic fish out of water story, with spoiled Chihuahua Cloe (voiced by Drew Barrymore) getting lost in Mexico and finding her way home whilst being pursued by an evil dog-fighter and his demonic doberman El Diablo (voiced by Admiral Adama from Battlestar Galactica interestingly enough). There are no surprises and no upsets in the story line, which to be honest is fine. Well worn plots are like well worn footpaths; they are worn because they are pleasant to follow. The thing I object to is the lack of humor in the piece.

On the odd occasion Kerry cracked a smile, but I was pretty stoney faced through the whole affair. The obligatory comedy duo was present (in the guise of a rat and an iguana voiced by Cheech Marin and Paul Rodriguez ), but were underused and ineffectual.

But my main issue with the film was that I just couldn’t get over my distaste for the core conceit of having a Chihuahua as the central character. So to be fair the film never really stood a chance with me. If you’re into yappy little dogs that look like rats but without the charm, then you never know, this film may hit all your buttons.

Scanning through other reviews on the internet I noticed that many people were critical of the movies stereotypical treatment of Mexico. This surprised me as I really didn’t pick up on that at all, in fact I thought the movie was relatively enlightened. A fair proportion of the dialogue was in Spanish, and the main human character’s prejudices against Mexicans were held up and challenged quite early on in the film. The mexican police in particular were treated as being competent and modern rather than unsophisticated idiots from a third world country as I’ve seen in other movies. Of course I’m no expert in these things, Mexican stereotyping is probably a lot more basic here in the UK than I imagine it is in the States. I find the further you get away from a country the more unsubtle and broad your archetypes surrounding that place become. Our racial stereotypes of the Scottish are a lot more intricate and refined than those we hold about Eskimos for example.

As always with movies I’ve seen on blu-ray, the picture quality was excellent. The only criticism I have is the length of time it takes to actually start playing, but that’s the same with all of the discs I’ve used and I imagine is something to do with the sheer amount of information that’s stored on it. I’m sure that will improve as time and the technology moves forward

You can buy the Beverly Hills Chihuahua Blu-ray for about £15 on amazon.co.uk. Amazon also do a pretty good range of Blu-ray players as well should you fancy one.

Blu-ray review: High School Musical 3

Jun 9th, 2009
by Dan.
15 comments

downloadTo say Amy is a fan of the High School Musical franchise would be like saying Scooby-Doo has a faint penchant for Scoobysnacks. In Amy’s wardrobe alone she has High School Musical socks, shoes, t-shirts, pajamas, and jewelry. That’s not even to mention the High School Musical dolls, stickers, albums, posters, school bags, mugs and activity books that burst from every toy draw and bookshelf.

Oh yes, we know all about High School Musical in our house.

There’s a lot of snobbism abut this sort of film. Cynical mutterings about them being manufactured product rather than artistic expression. But to be fair you could say that about 90% of all forms of popular culture. Excellent as it was, the Iron Man movie would have been no less focused grouped. Just because a film is not targeted at you doesn’t mean to say that it’s automatically rubbish.

There is quality in the High School Musical trilogy. The dancing and choreography is good, the catchy pop songs well crafted, and the acting is above par for a product from the Disney Channel (you want to see bad acting then just take a look at the Hannah Montana TV show). It may be artificial and manufactured, but so is Diet Coke and it still tastes damn good.

Which is not to say that I don’t have problems with the franchise. The all pervasive merchandising leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. I saw some High School Musical kitchen roll in Sainsbury’s the other day. If there is a more blatant attempt by manufacturers to harness the force of pester power then I don’t want to see it. Although to be fair it’s probably no worse than that attached to my own childhood’s holy trinity of movies, Star Wars. In fact even the thought of a roll of R2D2 kitchen roll has me reaching for my wallet.

But I digress.

High School Musical 3 had a significantly bigger budget than the previous two movies, and it shows. The musical numbers are more spectacular, the sets more expansive, and the whole thing feels more polished. Despite this however I think it’s probably the weakest in the trilogy.

The problem isn’t the increasingly obvious age disparity between the actors and the characters they are portraying (Amy: “Why are those grown-ups still at school Daddy?”), but the storyline.

I accept that in a musical the plot is really only something to link the songs together, and certainly have no problem with a basic story; especially in a film aimed at children. But I do like my movies to at least go somewhere. High School Musical 3 just wanders around aimlessly without a purpose. There is an underlying theme surrounding others trying to choose the main protagonists future for them. But that vein was pretty effectively tapped for High School Musical 2, and to use it again just feels like a bit of a rehash. And also, while that motif is very relevant to people actually of the age of the characters, it pretty much goes above the head of the core audience of the film.

There are also far too many characters. The bigwigs at Disney no doubt wanted to leave the franchise open for more sequels and so needed to shoehorn some younger characters in there so there’d be someone to take up the baton for High School Musical 4. This left the film feeling cluttered and a little confusing. In my view they should have just focused more on Troy, Gabriella, and Sharpay with all the other characters and their subplots much further in the background.

We’ve already got High School Musical 3 on DVD, so watching it on Blu-ray was a good opportunity to compare and contrast. And I must say I’m still very impressed with the format. There were quite a few interesting questions asked in my previous review which I intend to tackle in a dedicated post of it’s own; but in short the best way to describe it is it’s like watching a moving photograph rather than a TV screen. Everything is just crisper and sharper.

One thing I did notice however was the length of time it takes to actually start playing the movie and the special features. I’m assuming it’s because the discs have a lot more data on them than DVD, but it certainly does take a noticeably long time to fire up. Still, that’s only a minor annoyance.

So would I recommend High School Musical 3? Absolutely, despite its flaws it’s still a highly enjoyable movie. It’s not one I’d recommend for those without kids though. Unlike Wall-E or some of the other Disney movies it doesn’t really hold up to adult sensibilities all that well. Certainly not my own sensibilities anyhow. But that’s OK, because it’s not supposed to.

You can buy the High School Musical Blu-ray at Amazon.co.uk for about £15. You also get a normal DVD version of the film included with it so you can watch it on the normal players in the house too. Amazon also do a pretty good range of Blu-ray playersas well should you fancy one.

Blu-ray review: Wall-E

May 25th, 2009
by Dan.
11 comments

Wall-E Bl- RayI must admit that I’ve seen Wall-E before. In fact the movie was the first film both my kids saw at the cinema. It made quite an impression on Evan in particular. When we were watching Hannah Montana at the pictures the other week Evan kept asking indignantly when Wall-E was going to show up. To be honest I had a fair bit of sympathy for his protestations myself.

So, just in case you aren’t familiar with the plot, it concerns a lonely little garbage compactor robot left all alone on a polluted and desolate earth that has been abandoned by a consumerist and wasteful humanity. A probe droid, EVE, turns up looking for signs of life. Wall-E falls in love with her and follows her back into space.

It’s a good film. In fact it’s a great film, certainly amongst the best animated features that I’ve ever seen. It’s funny, engaging, innocent, and satirical all at the same time. But most of all it’s incredibly brave. Brave to spend the first 40 minutes or so with no dialogue at all, relying on body language, emotive beeping, and the pure skill of the animators in order to communicate what’s going on. And also brave to completely discard the convention of getting big name actors to do the voices. And as a result the movie comes across not just as a 98 minute advert for merchandising like so many animated films these days, but as a piece of lovingly executed art.

In short, I like it. I like it a lot.

And what’s more I like the Blu-ray format too. When we first got the player Kerry and I rented the Incredible Hulk just so we could put it through its paces. While we were impressed with the picture quality it didn’t really move any mountains for us.

But Wall-E on Blu-ray? Wow.

To say the picture was crisp would be an understatement. It’s so sharp that you could cut yourself on it. The scene where Wall-E and EVE are dancing in space made me come out in goosebumps just like it did in the cinema. It was beautiful; there’s just no other word to describe it. It’s obvious to me that Pixar and Blu-ray are pretty much made for each other, and I’m really looking forward to seeing how the relationship between the two develops. The trailer alone for the forthcoming film Up was awe inspiring (those balloons look fantastic).

The features were pretty impressive too. Much more extensive than your average DVD. Of particular merit was a bonus exclusive blu-ray short cartoon called Burn-E, which is a story of a maintenance druid that takes place in and around the various scenes of the mean feature. Both Kerry and I found ourselves laughing out loud at it, and we’re generally a family that keeps our chuckles to ourselves. There were also games, commentaries, a documentary on the history of Pixar, 3-D set fly throughs, deleted scenes and all manner of other goodies. Not bad for about fifteen quid.

You can buy Wall-E at Amazon.co.uk here. Amazon also do a pretty good range of Blu-ray players too.