2021 World Series Collector's Edition: Atlanta Braves Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

2021 World Series Collector's Edition: Atlanta Braves Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 18, 2022

The eight disc '2021 World Series Champions: Atlanta Braves' presents all six 2021 World Series games, plus the 2021 NLCS game six and, as a nice touch and new for this year's release, the companion documentary-style, narrative-focused release, meaning fans don't have to make two purchases to own the full suite of Blu-ray Braves 2021 content. Beyond that addition, the set is very familiar to issues from years past, including last year's Los Angeles Dodgers release. These are the games, presented as they were originally broadcast on television with a few edits for time here and there. The Blu-ray presentation is crude and straightforward but effective.

The following games are included in the set:

Disc One
Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros (From Minute Maid Park)
World Series Game 1

Braves ace Charlie Morton would toe the rubber in game one but leave early after suffering a break in his leg after taking a hard line drive off of it, an injury that would sideline him for the remainder of the series. No worries, though, because Atlanta's bullpen would hold the potent Astros lineup at bay while the Atlanta bats would score six runs, beginning with a Jorge Soler home run to lead off the game and the series. The Braves would plate another run in the first and still another in the second. Adam Duvall would add two more with a home run in the third. The Braves would send the Houston faithful home disappointed with a 6-2 win and a 1-0 series lead.

Disc Two
Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros (From Minute Maid Park)
World Series Game 2

With the Astros down 1-0 Houston turned to pitcher José Urquidy to shut down the Atlanta offense. Atlanta countered with Max Fried. With the game tied 1-1 going into the bottom of the second, Houston would explode for four runs to take a 5-1 lead that would never be relinquished. Urquidy twirled five innings of six hit, two run ball. The Houston bullpen would shut the Braves down for the rest of the game, surrendering only one hit through four innings of work. Houston would win the game 7-2 and tie the series 1-1 as the action shifted to Atlanta.

Disc Three
Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves (From Truist Park)
World Series Game 3

A pivotal game three saw Atlanta turn to Ian Anderson who would face Houston's Luis García. Unlike the first two games, game three would be a low scoring affair. Anderson would pitch five hitless innings and the Braves bullpen would surrender only a pair of hits in four innings of work. The Braves would tally two runs, one in the third and another insurance run in the eight, the latter off a home run from Travis d'Arnaud. The Braves would squeak out the 2-0 victory and take a critical 2-1 series lead.

Disc Four
Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves (From Truist Park)
World Series Game 4

While game four was not an elimination game for Houston, it was the next closest thing: going down three games to one in a best of seven series is nowhere for a team to be, and that is exactly the position the Astros faced should Zack Greinke be unable to keep the Atlanta offense in check. The Houston starter twirled four innings of shutout ball and allowed his batters to plate two runs to take a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the sixth. But a Braves run in the bottom of the sixth and home runs from Dansby Swanson and Jorge Soler in the seventh gave the braves a lead that they would not relinquish. With the 3-2 victory, the Braves claimed a commanding 3-1 series lead with a chance to clinch at home in game five.

Disc Five
Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves (From Truist Park)
World Series Game 5

Game five would be nothing like the low scoring, methodical affairs seen in games three and four. Atlanta would jump out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, but Houston would storm back with two runs in both the second and third frames to tie the game at four. Atlanta would regain the lead in the bottom of the third off a Freddie Freeman home run, but Houston would plate three more runs in the fifth and add single insurance runs in the seventh and eighth innings to secure the 9-5 win an ensure the series' return to Houston.

Disc Six
Atlanta Braves at Houston Astros (From Minute Maid Park)
World Series Game 6

The Braves were a win away from a World Series title. The Astros were a home game win away from forcing a World Series-deciding seventh game to be played in Houston. Atlanta handed the ball to Max Fried. Houston: to Luis Garcia. The game would be scoreless through two. Atlanta would plate three runs in the top of the third courtesy of a three-run blast off the bat of Jorge Soler. The Braves would add three more in the fifth and another in the seventh. Fried would pitch six scoreless innings, surrendering only four hits while striking out six and walking none, twirling a whale of a ballgame to earn the win in the game and the World Series for the Braves.

Disc Seven
Los Angeles Dodgers at Atlanta Braves (From Truist Park)
NLCS Game 6

With the favored Dodgers on the brink of elimination and the scrappy underdog Atlanta Braves playing at home with a chance to earn a trip to the World Series in front of the Atlanta faithful, Los Angeles would send Walker Beuhler to the mound. Atlanta would counter with Ian Anderson. The Braves would jump out to an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, a lead which would hold until the top of the fourth when Los Angeles would knot the score at 1-1. The Braves would respond with three in the bottom of the frame courtesy of a three-run bomb off of Eddie Roasrio's bat. The Dodgers would plate a run in the top of the seventh but it was not enough. Anderson pitched four solid innings and turned the game over to a determined Atlanta bullpen that surrendered the lone run on two hits and two walks, striking out 10 in the process to send the Braves to the Fall Classic.

Disc Eight
2021 World Series Champions: Atlanta Braves (please click here for a full review).

2021 World Series Collector's Edition: Atlanta Braves Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shout! Factory brings each of the World Series games, and game six of the NLCS, to Blu-ray with series-standard 720p/1.78:1-framed presentations that largely reflect the basic visual style of the over-the-air broadcast as the games first aired on television (please click here for a video review of the disc eight content). Despite the resolution downgrade, the picture looks quite nice. While it suffers from the inherent parameters of the broadcast feed and style -- it lacks any sort of cinematic elegance; it's truly a point-and-shoot type affair -- what's here is more than satisfyingly presented for color reproduction and detail. Viewers will appreciate the essential color depth evident on Braves red and blue and Astros orange. Green grass lacks finesse across large outfield swaths but particularly close-up where uniform lettering and patches and various near camera signs and clothes seen in the stands all offer perfectly satisfying color richness and stability within source parameters. Likewise, textures are stout and pleasing. Close-ups again fare best, yielding crisp facial definition and relatively rich unfirm details, evident on fabric and various patches and letters and numbers. Of course, the picture struggles to hold clarity at even modest distance where faces in the stands become chunky blurs, but all of the close-up elements fare well. Various examples of compression macroblocking are in evidence, spiking in severity here and there, but for the most part the picture is stable and watchable. Don't expect the elegance of the documentary-style release also included in this set, but as a reproduction of the broadcast picture, even at 720p, it holds its own well enough for baseball fans to enjoy.

2021 World Series Collector's Edition: Atlanta Braves Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The primary audio track is the FOX TV broadcast play-by-play and color commentary presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless audio (please click here for an audio review of the disc eight content). The track is comprised of two main elements: the game call and the stadium ambience. The presentation is perfectly satisfactory, bland to be sure but essentially reflective of the original broadcast parameters and audio engineering. The track is a bit loud at reference volume with the play by play and color commentary from Joe Buck and John Smoltz. It plays clearly enough and images well to the center, though to be sure it doesn't image perfectly to the center; there's a mild sense of the spoken word lingering just off to each side, but most listeners will be fine with the positioning. The crowd ambience sounds less realistic and more of a tinny muffle that rises and falls with the action. It does extend a bit further out towards the edges. The FOX MLB music plays with fair clarity and width as the innings end and various additional background in stadium music elements fare well enough.

The discs also feature three alternate audio tracks: the Braves and Astros radio call and a Spanish language call, all in the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 lossless encode. Clarity is very good with each track. Balance is superior to the FOX presentation; they are all less boom-y, the dialogue is better prioritized, and the background elements fall more into the background where they belong (this holds for the Dodgers broadcast as well)

2021 World Series Collector's Edition: Atlanta Braves Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Each game ends with a few minutes' worth of postgame coverage from the team at MLB Network. The set does come with a booklet that details each game included with box scores and factoids. The main menu screen for each disc offers only selections to skip ahead by inning (top and bottom alike) and choose from any of the audio broadcasts.

For full bonus content coverage from the 2021 World Series Champions: Atlanta Braves disc, please click here.

2021 World Series Collector's Edition: Atlanta Braves Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This was not a World Series for the record books, but it's one Braves fans will want to cherish over and over again. This Blu-ray is perfectly good as it is and adding in the documentary release for this year was a nice plus that will save fans some money. The technical presentation is fine, on par with previous issues. Recommended.