5.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
Abby Jensen has been planning for her 16th birthday ever since she was a little girl. When the big day actually arrives, she receives a box of Sweet Sixteen Birthday Candles, each of which corresponds to a wish on the Wish List secretly taped to her closet door. As her wishes come true, her day gets better and better until she makes a wish that changes everything and helps her finally understand that being a kid isn't so bad.
Starring: Debby Ryan, Jean-Luc Bilodeau, Anna Mae Wills, Karissa Tynes, Kendall CrossFamily | 100% |
Comedy | 81% |
Teen | 33% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
None
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
With the impending release on Blu-ray of the John Hughes classic Sixteen Candles, it's an opportune moment to pick up this overlooked Image release of the Disney Channel's take on the perils of turning sixteen. 16 Wishes turns out to be decently made family entertainment, in which the age of sixteen looks a lot more like eleven or twelve, because the really thorny issues (like sex and hormones) have been magically erased from the picture. Of course, as in Hughes's world, everyone is materially secure, even though 16 Wishes was made well after the financial meltdown of 2008. Not one parent worries about losing a job or defaulting on a mortgage. And that's as it should be. 16 Wishes is a fairy tale, complete with a modern-day, age-appropriate fairy godmother, who keeps popping up in different guises that allow her to blend in seamlessly with the contemporary U.S. service economy. The moral of the story is that being a kid is pretty great, because being an adult isn't as appealing as it looks. So appreciate your family, because they love you. About the only thing missing is a sign at the end saying, "Now let's all go to Disneyland!" Then again, I didn't scan every frame for a subliminal cut.
16 Wishes was shot on hi-def video by Michael Lohmann, a long-time cinematographer and camera operator for Boston Legal (and other shows), and it has the professional polish and smooth sheen of a first-rate TV production. The picture on Image's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is sharp, clean and detailed, and the colors are bright and cheerful without over-saturation. There are none of the sharp edges or harsh textures that sometimes mark digital cinema in the theater. This is a stylized and artificial world, but the photography doesn't go out of its way to call attention to the artificiality. The goal of the film's visual design is to convey the unspoken message that our lives could be just as easygoing as the Jensen family's, if only we learn what Abby learns during the course of the story. (It helps to be perky, cute, have no material wants and be surrounded by an adorable family that's fully functional.) No scene is ever dark enough for deep blacks to be an issue, but the black levels are properly set for the details of clothing, decor and perfect skin to be well delineated. The digital origination and post-processing eliminate such concerns as high-frequency filtering and artificial sharpening. The 90-minute program and its limited extras are easily accommodated on a BD-25 without compression artifacts.
One doesn't expect much in the way of rear channel effects from a tween comedy, but the DTS-HD 5.1 track on 16 Wishes has a few surprises. When the horde of wasps first declares its presence, the fierce insects expand into the entire surround field to great effect. A magic-enhanced car ride that recalls the much longer one in Men in Black provides a rush in all five speakers. Similar moments occur throughout the film and are all the more effective for being unexpected. Dialogue remains clear and well-centered, as one would expect from a film made for TV, and the serviceable score by Canadian composer James Jandrisch (the film was made in Canada) is capably reproduced. The soundtrack includes selections from several songs, but the key one is the original composition that closes the film and is sung by Ryan, "A Wish Comes True Every Day". It sounds great and is frustratingly catchy.
In Heathers, a film that could be considered the repressed underside of most high school movies, Veronica Sawyer's Mom tells her, in a moment of uncharacteristic insight: "When teenagers complain that they want to be treated like human beings, it's usually because they are being treated like human beings." Human beings treat each other badly, and Heathers satirically exaggerates the abuse that high school students heap on one another into murder. In 16 Wishes that abusive element is embodied in the person of Krista Cook, who's spent eight years literally trying to destroy her neighbor Abby in every available form of competition (her reasons aren't revealed until late in the film). Though the film solves the problem between Abby and Krista too easily, that's only consistent with its theme that Abby isn't yet ready for the adult world, where everything gets much, much harder. Still, the subject is a serious one, well worth exploring with the film's target audience. Doing so without preachiness is a clever trick. Recommended for family viewing. The trip to Disneyland is at your discretion.
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