Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Humpback Whales 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 30, 2016

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.

Ewan McGregor’s sonorous narration kicks in during this first look, detailing a laundry list of facts and figures about the humpbacks, including offering a few referents (like school buses and Lear jets) in an attempt to adequately describe various aspects of the creatures. But what’s so amazing about this opening scene, and many later ones, is how incredibly graceful these behemoths are when they’re simply “dancing” about in various watery environments. That awe inspiring beauty then gives way to some shocking interstitial views of whaling practices from long ago (though, frankly, not that long ago), with a series of archival films and stills filling the screen with some pretty horrifying examples of how the hunting of whales was seen as an almost epic “sport.” When McGregor mentions the invention of “exploding harpoons”, some modern day curmudgeons might be prompted to think of the oft-repeated mantra by even some hunters that AR-15s are really not that necessary to bring down a ten point buck.

After that disturbing detour, Humpback Whales documents the rather incredible discovery of the whales’ vocalizations, and the subsequent Songs of the Humpback Whales album which helped to usher in the whole “Save the Whales” movement, a movement which in fact has had some significant success over the past few decades. Almost all major nations have now outlawed the hunting of whales, though there are still a few notable exceptions. As Humpback Whales later gets into, however, the fact that humans are no longer chasing after the creatures with harpoons (exploding or otherwise) doesn’t mean that they’re completely out of danger. Whales still tend to get entangled in nets that have been dropped to catch other denizens of the deep waters, and, interestingly, there’s a somewhat newer concern about noise pollution and how that affects the whales and their incredibly evocative vocalizations.

The fact that the McGillivray Freeman cameras manage to get so close to the whales may imply that our knowledge of the creatures is absolute, but McGregor’s narration makes it abundantly clear that in many ways humpbacks still continue to offer some rather enigmatic mysteries for scientists attempting to investigate and document their behavior. This is probably nowhere more apparent than in the still unknown elements about how exactly whales mate. What is shown in Humpback Whales is the rather appealing nurturing quality of mother whales with their newborns, “babies” who literally hang around Mom for around a year after they’re born until they take off on their own. Again, some of the footage of parents with offspring in this piece is truly amazing.

In a way Humpback Whales can almost be seen as the documentary “flip side” of outings like The Cove, for while it does indeed show some of the inhumane treatment of whales at the hands of men, it also shows that humankind is able to learn and progress, letting these magnificent creatures simply “be” without us getting in the way. While humpbacks are probably back from the precipice of actual extinction, their population is nowhere near what it probably was back when whaling was considered an epic adventure for the stout of heart (and/or stomach). Unlike The Cove, however, there’s at least a glimmer of hope in Humpback Whales which suggests that if we continue to be concerned about this (and other?) species, we may be able to rectify some of the mistakes of the past.

Humpback Whales 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

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 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

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.

Humpback Whales 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Both the 4K UHD and standard 1080p Blu-ray discs contain the same supplemental material:

• Making Of (1080p; 17:07) has some fantastic shots showing how various sequences were filmed, along with some good interviews.

Additionally, Trailers (which I never count as part of the supplement score) for other IMAX films are included.

Humpback Whales 4K + 3D Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

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.