7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.3 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.2 |
A nature documentary centered on two cat families and how they teach their cubs the ways of the wild.
Narrator: Samuel L. Jackson, Patrick StewartDocumentary | 100% |
Nature | 90% |
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 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Moms, dads: you won't find a more misleading trailer for a family film than the one that introduced awwwwwwing audiences to African Cats. A newborn cheetah, his eyes still matted shut, yawns mid-slumber. Vega4 frontman Johnny McDaid purrs, "Life." "Is." "Beau-tee-ful." A mother cheetah lovingly carries her son by the nape of his neck. Two playful lion cubs nip at a lioness. Guitars begin to soar. Rain falls on a shivering cub. A mother and son call to each other in a field of high grass. Two brothers share an affectionate muzzle rub. A cub leaps in slow motion. The guitars crescendo and disappear. A lion stands firm as a crocodile hisses. A lioness and her cub seem to chat as they stroll across the Savannah plain. And a tiny little roar-in-the-making all but seals the deal. "What a cute trailer! I think I'll take Jimmy and Susie to see African Cats!" If you were one of the unfortunate parents of young children who fell prey to Disneynature's marketing machine, you have my sympathies. If you were waiting for it to arrive on Blu-ray, though, consider this review as a bit of a warning. Sitting in the theater, the sniffling began around the twenty minute mark and increased in frequency. One four-year-old in the front row timidly asked his father, "did all her babies die, daddy?" "No," the shell-shocked man stammered. "Just two of them." Fifteen minutes later, another little girl on the verge of an emotional breakdown started begging her parents to leave. They obliged. Three more teary-eyed tots followed soon after. Meanwhile, my six-year-old drifted closer and closer to my chest and -- after an injured lioness found a female willing to care for her cub before wandering off into the wilderness to die alone -- didn't even take the time to ask permission. He just stood up and bolted for the door.
Don't misunderstand: I'm all for kids learning about the cold, hard realities of nature. I don't think children should be sheltered from the circle of life, I don't think G-rated documentaries should be as neutered as African Cats' trailer, and I expected portions of the film to be fairly sobering. But Cats plays as if a producer watched The Lion King, paused at the scene where Mufasa dies and yelled, "That! Let's hit that note every ten minutes! And let's rope in as many kids as possible! Make me the cutest nature documentary trailer of all time!" Yes, I would have still showed my son African Cats; I would have even showed it to him when he was three or four. Would I have taken him to see it on a giant screen in a pitch-black theater? No. Had I waited until it arrived on home video, would I have warned him about the peril and predicaments he was about to witness? Absolutely. Would it have made the film's tougher stretches less unnerving? Not exactly, but he would have at least been willing to finish it. I can't even get the poor kid to come downstairs, much less watch the portions he missed in the theater. All that said, warnings having been sufficiently issued, how does African Cats stack up? In two words: pretty well. In eight more words: just not as well as it could have.
Layla and Mara cope with a grave injury...
Disney's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is a beautifully rendered beast that captures every strand of hair, blade of high grass and distant wildebeest in a thousand-strong herd with spectacular clarity. Colors are warm and natural, black cheetah spots and sunbeat shadows are deep and satisfying, and the plains of the Savannah are brimming with suitably baked (at-times inherently bleached) earthtones, be it by way of a muddy river bank, rustling tree leaves or bristling mane. Detail is also quite extraordinary and hardly a shot goes by that doesn't revel in finely textured fur, crisp underbrush and sharp, wonderfully defined edges. Moreover, it all comes to glorious high definition life without any ringing, aliasing or smearing to speak of. Nighttime scenes are few and far between, yes, but those that find their way into the mix suffer from the usual oddities associated with under-cloak-of-darkness documentary camerawork (increased noise, reduced clarity and the like). And I did notice the slightest hint of banding. But nothing else about the presentation left in me in anything less than complete awe. I can't imagine African Cats and its jaw-dropping photography looking any better than it does here.
While African Cats is, for all intents and purposes, a more traditional documentary that hinges on seemingly omnipresent narration, Disney's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track and the subsequent soundfield it creates boasts a surprising fullness; an untamed realism that rarely falters. Samuel L. Jackson's voice is strong and well-centered throughout, no matter how much hushed intensity he brandishes. The rear speakers embrace the difficult lives of the lions and cheetahs as well; desperate mothers careen through wind-whipped grass, lionesses bear down on fleeing zebras in a fantastic display of deadly channel-to-channel speed and ferocity, herds of wildebeest thunder past and pour in from every direction, cubs roll and frolic across the soundstage, and the rising murmur of the Savannah surrounds the listener at almost every turn. Directional effects aren't astonishing but they are convincing (Sita's search for her missing cubs is worth the price of admission alone), pans are slick and stealthy, and dynamics are quite impressive on the whole. The LFE channel is given plenty of opportunity to pull its weight and does so with tremendous ease. Hooves shake the ground, roars dominate, a violent storm earns its keep, surging rivers sound rightfully dangerous, Nicholas Hooper's score has a hearty kick, and each lion hunt and showdown is a powerful sonic show-stealer. Suffice it to say, African Cats' lossless mix doesn't disappoint.
While African Cats may be a bit tough on the kiddies (parents of young children beware), Disneynature continues to produce documentary features with riveting storylines and magnificent photography. A different narrator would have gone a long way, sure, but considering the number of nature documentaries that make it into theaters, beggars can't be choosers. There's no need to beg or choose when it comes to Disney's Blu-ray release, though. With a marvelous transfer, an enveloping DTS-HD Master Audio mix and a terrific Filmmaker Annotations PiP track, African Cats should survive and thrive on store shelves.
DVD Packaging
2012
Disneynature
2008
Disneynature
2007
Disneynature
2009
Disneynature
2014
Disneynature
2015
Disneynature
2011
2007
Disneynature
2016
2014
2008
2017
IMAX
2008
2011
IMAX
2012
La marche de l'empereur
2005
2014
BBC / Narrated by David Attenborough
2009
IMAX 3D
2008
2017