Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

'Prisoner' is freed on UHD.

Warner Brothers' UHD release of 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' follows up on a few high quality Blu-ray releases from over the years with a wonderful (upscaled) 4K image that's more notable for its somewhat drastic and distinguishing HDR color enhancement than it is for raw clarity boosts. Audio has received an upgrade to a top-notch DTS:X presentation. Several extras are included.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc. Watch for 4K screenshots at a later date.

IMDB reports that Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was finished at 2K, and other reliable industry sources confirm that this UHD is indeed an upscale to 4K. The movie was shot on film, and the UHD yields a splendid image, very filmic and true to its source. Warner Brothers has employed HDR10 color enhancement for this release, and the results, compared to the Blu-ray, are strikingly different. The 4K image is considerably darker, its colors much more desaturated, its essential façade more reserved, approaching almost a grayscale at times and its bursts of more intensive color held firmly in check, yet still very much present and handsomely organic. Shots on the Blu-ray that nearly look like daytime appear nearly at the end of dusk on the UHD. Truly dark scenes are much more absorbing on the UHD, yielding very firm and stable blacks, inky and accurate with professional, enjoyable shadow detail at work in the film's most challenging nighttime and shadowy scenes. While less vibrant -- as vibrant as a film such as this can be -- the firmer, more deeply saturated, more finely nuanced colors help bring a tangible sense of object separation and pinpoint definition to textural elements as well, drawing more attention to central action, character qualities, and environments as everything blends together within the color scheme's firmer, more agreeable saturation levels and reserved intensity.

That said, core detailing isn't leaps-and-bounds superior. The movie, which is inherently a tad soft by nature, remains so, though to be sure there's a sense of enhanced textural nuance and subtle detail uptick evident on faces, various intricate surfaces around Hogwarts, and a number of outdoor locations, which includes snow, perhaps the best example of the way the deeper and more grayscale-leaning color palette actually enhances at least one's perception of fine detailing, where it's easier to identify the snow's inherent textural qualities. The image is very filmic. Grain retention is constant and beautifully rendered. While not exceedingly heavy, those who wish for cleaner images will be disappointed, but those who appreciate a naturally organic, cinematic, shot-on-film feel will fall in love.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban's UHD release features a new DTS:X Master Audio soundtrack which itself proves a healthy upgrade over the previous 5.1 standard-issue track. Things open up with the added rear and overhead channels, sometimes subtly, sometimes aggressively. Take a scene in Fudge's office early in the film. Minute background ticks are smartly and effectively positioned, while extremely fine but environment- and mood-critical reverberation softly opens the stage and transformers it into the office. Modestly more intense elements and locales -- the Hogwarts dining hall, for example -- enjoy a more robust and tangible sense of space, while the most aggressive elements, whether a blowing train whistle and excited and boisterous din at the train station, Hogwarts' heavy doors slamming around while going on lockdown, or shrieking creatures circling above the listener later in the movie, create an intensely impactful sonic environment. Bass is prominent and prolific and action scenes explode with not only low end intensity but engaged channels all around, and above, the listener. Music plays with impeccably clear and refined definition while seamlessly positioning around the stage, whether with airy mobility or intensive firmness. Dialogue is unsurprisingly stout and clear, well prioritized and properly positioned for the duration.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban contains no extras on either the Blu-ray or UHD movie discs, but a third Blu-ray does include several extras. A digital copy code is included with purchase.

• Behind the Story: Creating the World of 'Harry Potter 3:' Creatures, Inside the Creature Workshop, The Magic Touch of Harry Potter, 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:' Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Making of 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban', and An Interview in Spanish with Alfonso Cuarón.
• Trelawney's Crystal Ball Deleted Scenes: The Knight Bus Spins, Hagrid Swats at a Bird (Extended), Harry Receives Sneakscope in the Great Hall, Sir Cadogan Asks for the Password, and McGonagall Lectures Students About the Password.
• Trailers

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ranks amongst the best in the series and is arguably the finest film of the eight. A visual turn for the series and also engaging in the darker themes and wonders that would come to define the pictures, Alfonso Cuarón and Cinematographer Michael Seresin's work on the film is above reproach. Their work is further enhanced by a splendid UHD release, one that may be an upscale from a 2K digital intermediate but that is nevertheless incredibly refined and filmic, with an HDR color palette that's reserved compared to the Blu-ray but much more complimentary to the movie's thematic and textural presentation. A bonus Blu-ray disc house a variety of extras. Very highly recommended.