7.3 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
An in-depth look at the lives of humpback whales and the challenges they face to avoid extinction.
Narrator: Ewan McGregorDocumentary | 100% |
Video codec: HEVC / H.265
Video resolution: 4K (2160p)
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.43:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Digital copy
4K Ultra HD
Blu-ray 3D
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
The supposed romance and the frankly unbridled insanity of the whaling industry were probably nowhere more perfectly captured than in Herman Melville’s immortal Moby Dick, with Melville more or less ripping the scab off that perceived “romance” angle to reveal the festering sore of madness underneath. More than a century after Melville’s novel appeared in 1851, a rather remarkable album appeared called Songs of the Humpback Whale, a completely unexpected major success that in turn spawned a huge environmental movement to stop the whole scale slaughter of these magnificent mammals. (Moby of course was not a humpback, just for you curmudgeons out there about to dash off a private message to me.) The almost pathological need by Mankind to impose dominance over the various other species inhabiting this planet provides part of the backdrop to the appealing IMAX film Humpback Whales, a relatively short but quite informative and often almost balletic view of these almost impossibly huge creatures. The film begins with a brief testimonial from Roger Payne, the guy who introduced the world to Songs of the Humpback Whale, albeit a testimonial tied to an investment company which uses a whale as its logo. Then the first of several almost mind boggling views of a whale is presented, one which skews point of view so that the viewer is not quite sure of where the whale is and where the top (bottom) of the water in which it’s swimming is. As with many of the McGillivray Freeman IMAX presentations, the photography in Humpback Whales is often awesome, even inspiring, but this is a commendable effort not just for its visual allure.
Humpback Whales is presented on 4K UHD and 2D/3D Blu-ray by Shout! Factory, in a really interesting marketing gambit that echoes
their similar releases of Flight of the Butterflies
4K +3D and Journey to Space 4K +
3D. The 4K UHD disc is encoded via HEVC / H.265 and the "standard" Blu-ray is encoded via MVC for the 3D presentation and AVC for
the 2D presentation (both 2D and 3D presentations are offered on one disc). All versions of the film are in 1.78:1. Again, as with previous Shout!
4K UHD releases, there's a submenu which allows viewing the 4K version in either HDR or SDR.
The 4K version of the film offers a considerable if sometimes rather subtle uptick in detail levels, with elements like the cool "ribbing" on the
whales' faces (I think those are their faces, anyway) being more distinct and textured than in the 1080p Blu-ray version. Depth of field in
the above water shots, many of rather spectacularly exotic locales in and around various island paradises, is also improved in the 4K UHD version.
HDR offers a better accounting of the sometime minute tonal differences in shades of blue that are understandably the bulk of this documentary's
palette. While Shout! has offered this particular reviewer far fewer HDMI handshake issues than other (bigger) labels with their 4K UHD releases,
I did experience a brief lack of picture at the very beginning of the documentary, during what amounts to a commercial for an investment
company.
The standard Blu-ray presentations of Humpback Whales offer superior detail levels, and in fact some of the underwater footage is really
impressive in this regard, with a level of clarity that almost defies the fact that these sequences are underwater. There's still a bit of
variable sharpness at various times, and some of the quick views of humpbacks jumping above the water line look just slightly coarser than the
bulk of the presentation (something that's probably even more apparent on the 4K UHD iteration). Colors are splendidly suffused and saturated,
but there's simply no getting away from the fact that this is by and large a
"blue" looking documentary.
The 3D presentation reminded me a bit of Shout!'s Journey to Space, in that at least some of the perceived dimensionality comes courtesy
of a "cheat" of sorts which depends on a window within the 1.78:1 frame where archival stills and footage are presented. The window pops out at
the viewer with regard to the surrounding frame, but within the window there's typically not that much depth. Depth in the underwater
sequences is typically achieved by air bubbles which float clearly in front of the background data. That said, the overall feel of the underwater
scenes is somewhat flat.
Humpback Whales features a great sounding Dolby Atmos track, one which provides a rather surprising amount of surround activity given
the fact that a lot of the film takes place underwater and much of it is a narrated presentation. The documentary's enjoyable score provides a glut of
spill through the side and rear channels, and an opening scene that ventures into outer space for a moment (don't ask me) features some wonderful
panning effects as various planets zing by the camera. The gurgle of underwater bubbles and/or those almost indescribable whale vocalizations are
often quite redolent as well, and offer at least some surround activity. McGregor's narration is anchored front and center, and is just very
occasionally slightly buried by the music.
For the record, the 4K UHD's alternate language tracks are presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, while the ones on the standard Blu-ray are offered
in lossy Dolby Digital 5.1. Once again, the perplexing inability of PS3s to play 3D data with lossless Dolby tracks means that if you watch the 3D
version on your PS3, the soundtrack defaults to a hidden English Dolby Digital 5.1 track.
Both the 4K UHD and standard 1080p Blu-ray discs contain the same supplemental material:
Humpback Whales is, like many IMAX offerings, a visual wonderland, but this is also a documentary that doesn't shirk on the informational side of things. Humpbacks continue to be one of the great mysteries of our planet, and Humpback Whales does a good job in detailing what contemporary scientists are attempting to learn about them, while also showing how humans have not always respected this magnificent species. Technical merits are first rate, and Humpback Whales comes Highly recommended.
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