6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
A down-on-his luck dog and his human trainer find love, friendship, and adventure in a small seaside town under threat of losing its charm at the hands of a foreign developer.
Starring: Jonathan Silverman, Kristy Swanson, Bretton Manley, Jeffrey Combs, Alec MapaFamily | 100% |
Comedy | 76% |
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
Spanish: DTS 5.1
French: DTS 5.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
BD-Live
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Eight films and a television series is a pretty good run for Beethoven, a franchise that started out somewhat meagerly with a family-friendly early 1990s Comedy about a family that adopts a large, slobbering St. Bernard. Not a cash cow for Universal but certainly a staple on release calendars and video store shelves, the franchise's staying power is impressive and that the movies, now relegated to the densely populated direct-to-video marketplace, remain on the positive side of "good" is a testament to the viability of the furry, family-friendly niche that they so commendably fill. Beethoven's Treasure Tail is the latest adventure featuring the world's favorite St. Bernard. Though it favors a Hallmark channel movie more so than a moderately budgeted front line adventure, the picture nevertheless captures a charm, innocence, and family-friendly cadence in a series of predictable yet tender and humorous misadventures that are shaped through stock materials but nevertheless emerge victorious thanks to a none-to-serious yet fairly polished and proper front that will leave the audience smiling, which is all one can really ask of a movie of this variety.
By the glow of things, that's Marsellus Wallace's soul inside the box.
Beethoven's Treasure Tail's 1080p transfer leaves a bit to be desired. At its best, it's a satisfactory presentation. At its worst, it showers the viewer with bland, unexciting details and flat colors. Fortunately, there's more a middle ground that favors the latter but shows signs of the former. Details are usually tepid, failing to find much natural complexity on surfaces like skin, clothes, animal hair, carpeting, or wood. Occasionally, it displays some more gorgeously complex lines, but such are the exception rather than the rule of lightly smeary and pasty surfaces. Image clarity, however, generally satisfies but never really aids in bringing the image to vivid, complicated life. Colors share a similar fate, occasionally popping but mostly looking fairly drab and a little bit warm, both in slightly lower-light interiors and bright, sunshine-drenched exteriors alike. Skin tones are reflective of that. Blacks don't appear to cause too many problems. The image never suffers from any serious bouts of noise, blockiness, or other eyesores. On the whole, however, this is but a fair image that will leave viewers wanting something a little more hearty.
Beethoven's Treasure Tail barks out a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It's not particularly invigorating, but it gets the basic sonic job done. Musical balance could stand a little tweaking in an early aggressive number where the surrounds push as hard as the fronts, but as the film progresses and music becomes a little more airy and light, balance returns with a proper front-specific presence. There's a good low end push during a comical explosion in one shot and a few little odds and ends ambient effects and light action elements to enjoy, such as during a sequence when Beethoven causes quite the stir at a large gathering. Mostly, however, this is a dialogue intensive presentation that plays the spoken word clearly and accurately from the center.
Beethoven's Treasure Tail contains only a handful of trailers for additional kid-friendly Universal titles, including The Little Rascals Save the Day, Barbie and the Secret Door, Thomas & Friends: Tale of the Brave, Monster High: Freaky Fusion, and The Nut Job. Inside the case buyers will find an iTunes/UV digital copy voucher alongside a DVD copy of the film.
Beethoven's Treasure Tail feels a little bit like Lassie meets The Goonies. The friendly, helpful, almost all-knowing and smarter-than-thou canine helps find buried treasure, save the town, bring a couple of lonely hearts closer together, befriend a child in need, defeat the villain, and so on and so forth. It's all very basic fluff-stuff but it knows its place and plays to its audience. It's funny and tender, a little overlong at times but well acted and charmingly assembled. For a DTV outing of a franchise now on its eighth entry, the movie is pretty good. Beethoven's Treasure Tail features passably bland video, good audio, and no supplements. Recommended.
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1966
DVD Packaging
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We Love Lucy / S1 / I Love Lucy: Season 7
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Movie-Only
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Family Icons
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Three-disc Edition
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