Blu-ray Movie Reviews

On a magical starlit night, a blue fairy brings Geppetto's beloved marionette Pinocchio to life, beginning a fantastic adventure that will test the puppet's bravery, loyalty and honesty - virtues he must learn to become a real boy. Despite the warnings of his wise friend, Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio gets entangled in one humorous predicament after another, leading to his valiant quest to save Geppetto, who's trapped inside Monstro the whale!

When I got this in for review I realized that I hadn’t seen the film since I was quite young. This was surprising considering how many DVDs I’ve reviewed over the years but for some reason this one has never crossed my path. It was great revisiting this gem from my childhood and the values it presents are still just as good today as they were when I was little. I am looking forward to sharing this with my young ones as they grow up!

Disney did an amazing job with the restoration of the recent Sleeping Beauty Blu-ray so I was quite excited to see what they did for this one. While not quite as eye popping as Beauty, Pinocchio still is a wonder to the eyes, especially considering its age. This new high definition transfer is gorgeous with outstanding dimensionality and color rendition. The print looks to be in pristine shape with not a single sign of dirt or scratches. The full frame image doesn’t suffer from any obvious compression artifacts at all. The animators did vary the tone of the colors used in clothes and faces enough that at times it looks like there is some MPEG noise in motion but upon closer examination this blotching is just the shading used in color. With the quality that Disney is putting into their classic catalog, I can’t wait to see what they have in store next.

The soundtrack is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 but honestly, it is not a surround mix. I never once heard anything from the surround or rear soundstage but the front soundstage has a very open quality with outstanding imaging across the main channels. Dynamic range is pretty limited and like most films this age, fidelity can be a bit lacking. The mix is a bit treble heavy but there are some instances of decent bass response, especially during the whale sequence. The playful score sounds great but some of the singing has some slight sibilance to it. The restored original soundtrack offering is mono and a bit brighter and not nearly as spatial as the new DTS mix.

This 3-disc set has a nice balance of supplements for both the film collector and the younger viewer. Some games are included that can be played from the remote control that younger members of the audience will love. For the film collector there is a feature commentary, a look back at the film’s production and release along with some deleted scenes and an alternate ending. Like most of Disney’s recent Blu-ray releases, this is BD-Live enabled allowing you to chat with friends online during the movie, share photos and more. The third disc is the full DVD release of the film for playback in a standard DVD player in the house!

Disney continues to impress with their Blu-ray animation. This is a wonderful presentation of one of their true masterpieces. Highly recommended.