Hobbyhorse Revolution Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Hobbyhorse Revolution Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 25, 2019

For those of you who think you've seen everything, think again. Let me just start by saying that one of the things I learned from watching Hobbyhorse Revolution is that "hobbyhorseist" is evidently a word. And what exactly is a "hobbyhorseist"? Well, according to this patently weird but nonetheless rather enjoyable documentary, a "hobbyhorseist" is an aficionado of "riding" one of those old school "toys" (if it can even be called a toy) that features a plush sewn horse head affixed atop a stick. The focus of this film is a group of young teenaged girls in Finland who have banded together over their love of hobbyhorses, and one of the truly astounding things about this piece is that it makes clear that there is a whole retinue of like minded girls in Scandinavia, enough so that there are actually "professional tournaments" where hobbyhorse riding is judged. You can't make this stuff up, folks.

Director Selma Vilhunen, an Oscar nominee for her 2012 short film Pitääkö mun kaikki hoitaa?, focuses on three of the so-called “horsehobbyists”, getting into some of the girls’ emotional problems along the way. What emerges are portraits of very sweet young women who have all faced trauma of some kind and who perhaps predictably have encountered outright bullying for their odd love. In that regard, the film stands as yet another testament to what might be called “born that way syndrome”, where differences are encouraged to be celebrated rather than disparaged.

Hobbyhorse Revolution Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hobbyhorse Revolution is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FilmRise with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. I haven't been able to track down any technical data on the shoot, but this looks like a perfectly competently digitally captured feature that really doesn't offer much in the way of visual allure. Fine detail is occasionally noticeable on things like the fabrics of the horseheads or some of the clothes the girls wear, but this can almost be a drab looking enterprise at times in terms of "palette pop", despite decent lighting. A lot of the "confessional" material is delivered via midrange shots, where general detail levels remain consistent.

Hobbyhorse Revolution Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

FilmRise is in the process of switching to pressed Blu-rays rather than MOD burned product, but they're still "catching up" vis a vis lossless audio on their releases, and this disc contains only lossy Dolby Digital offerings in either 5.1 or 2.0. Frankly, there's not a ton of surround opportunity here, other than some of the "dressage" tournament footage where there's crowd sounds and the like, as the bulk of the film is first person testimonials delivered either directly to the camera or via voiceover. I'm scoring this around "C" level, simply because as a devoted audiophile, I feel we're far enough along in the Blu-ray era now that no release should feature lossy audio, no matter how small scale the sound design of any given film might be.

Hobbyhorse Revolution Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:06)


• Teaser Trailer (1080p; 1:06)

Hobbyhorse Revolution Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If I may paraphrase a long forgotten song (about an animal, appropriately and naturally) from the old musical version of Doctor Dolittle: "you've never seen anything like Hobbyhorse Revolution in your life". The patent weirdness of these girls traipsing around with a horsehead on a stick stuck between their legs is just, well, weird. The emotional content here, though, is what's really interesting, and the three main girls profiled are all sweet, if at times somewhat troubled. Technical merits are generally solid, though FilmRise should move on to lossless audio even when their releases aren't especially ambitious in the sound design department.