Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 22, 2022

The most commonly shared word amongst various movie reviews today may very well be "book" as in "the movie is based on the book..." That is true of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile...sort of. The movie based on the books (plural) The House on East 88th Street, first published in 1962, and Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, first published in 1965, both by acclaimed author Bernard Waber. That's a long time for a film adaptation to materialize, but it took that long for the technology to be available to make the film look and feel right. The picture blends live action and digital animation and is much in the same family-friendly style as last year's Clifford The Big Red Dog. This is not a particularly robust film, but it's a satisfying little escapist jaunt through essential human emotions and stories, here with a crocodile rather than a person taking center stage.

Failing magician Hector P. Valenti (Javier Bardem) knows that he needs to up his game if he’s going to up his name. Looking to boost his act, he heads to a shop in search of something truly unique and memorable for his act. He happens across a baby crocodile. He brings the creature home and teaches him to sing. Soon, Lyle (voiced by Shawn Mendes) is singing up a storm. However, Lyle suffers from stage fright! Valenti loses most everything he has, including his home, because Lyle will not perform. Sometime later, the Primm family – mom (Constance Wu), dad (Scoot McNairy), and son Josh (Winslow Fegley) -- move in. Josh is new to New York, and he is terrified of everything –- seen or unseen, heard or unheard, experienced or suspected –- until he discovers Lyle. Soon, Josh and the crocodile become best friends, but it is quickly brought to light that Valenti is not done with Lyle and still sees the croc as his ticket to stardom.

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile isn't going to wow anyone with significant narrative depth or acting aplomb, but it is nevertheless a fun and safe family film about stage fright, togetherness, and friendship. Lyle's talented singing prowess is matched only by his reluctance to perform on the stage, but it soon becomes clear that singing before an audience isn't as important as finding one's voice in other areas of life. These are narratively vacuous plot threads that don't break new ground, but they serve as an adequate backdrop for the various song and dance numbers (this is as much a musical as it is anything else) and the character camaraderie and interaction that develops throughout the film. Adults will likely be fiddling with their phones during this one, but kids will be enthralled by the sheer presence of the title character and the various uptempo musical numbers that populate the film.

The special effects are, of course, the film's bread, while its music is the butter. The two are inexorably interconnected in most every sequence as Lyle, from infancy, is groomed to sing and falls in love with music. The film gets most of its mileage not out of the drama that ensues but rather of the family fun that follows, as Lyle becomes part of the family and various musical numbers allow him to bond with the Primms. Audiences will fall in love as Lyle sings and dances and interacts on the screen with impressive fluidity and visual seamlessness. Even though it's clear he's CGI, it's CGI done very well, and the aesthetic strikes a fine balance between interactive realism and maintaining a slight detachment from reality that gives the movie a sense of place and purpose as entertainment first and foremost.

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The included screenshots are sourced from a 1080p Blu-ray disc.

Sony's 2160p/Dolby Vision UHD release of Lyle, Lyle Crocodile is certainly not a format showstopper, but it does offer a fundamentally sound and visually solid image that delivers the material well enough. As with the companion and concurrently released Blu-ray, there's an obvious push to warmer shades of gold, yellow, and red here; the palette often, though not always, looks mildly to moderately desaturated with color temperature tuned to the warmer side of the ledger. Color depth and density have been fine-tuned, not to a radical degree, but the Dolby Vision grading does offer more stability and punch to the various vivid tones seen throughout the movie, whether natural green (or Lyle green, for that matter), and more flashy examples of vivid color, like Florida Gator blue and orange, both of which present with improved depth and pop over the Blu-ray. Shadow detail and black levels are better here, especially in key low-light areas like the home's attic space. Look around the 88-minute mark for a good example of where the UHD's Dolby Vision grading outclasses the Blu-ray for black richness and accuracy. Likewise, white balance is superior here, with improved pop and clarity, while skin tones look healthier and more lifelike.

The UHD offers mild gains to sharpness and clarity as well. The 2160p resolution presents a modest boost to textural accuracy. The UHD reveals finer definition to faces and clothes, but never to any extreme upgrade over the Blu-ray, boasting instead a series of minor fundamental gains that altogether do add up to a sharper, crisper picture. Darker shots and scenes present with more stability and grace, while brighter daytime exteriors offer the most obvious gains to sharpness and fine definition, though certainly the gains are to be discussed in degrees, not leaps, even in the best examples. Overall image clarity is bolstered, and the UHD manages to tame what little bit of noise was visible on the Blu-ray. There are no encode issues to report. This is a fine looking UHD. The movie is not visually dynamic to begin with, and the Blu-ray looks great, so while this is clearly the definitive home version of the film, it's not necessarily at the top of the UHD class, either, just for the film's inherently meager visual stylings and sensibilities.

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dolby Atmos track, which is exclusive to the UHD (the Blu-ray includes a 5.1 lossless track), plays well, even if there is not a major sense of overhead engagement at work. The top end offers more of a support structure rather than a playground for discrete effects, which is fine considering that the film is more concerned with musical numbers and less dynamic audio cues. To be sure, music filters through the top and surround back channels, allowing for a more enveloping sense of sonic style, but these adds are more of a nice to have rather than a critical component to the listening experience. Even city din or crowded school hallways and cafeterias only take marginal advantage to create a fuller sense of place. Dialogue is clear and centered for the duration.

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This UHD release of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile contains a fair number of extras, though most of them are fluff. All extras are on the bundled Blu-ray disc. No extras appear on the UHD disc. A Movies Anywhere digital copy code is included with purchase. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

• Sing-Alongs (1080p, 8:07 total runtime): Song from the film with karaoke-style lyrics on the screen. Included are Top of the World, Rip Up the Recipe, Take a Look at Us Now, and Carried Away.
• Bloopers (1080p, 2:08): Humorous moments from the shoot.
• Croc and Roll -- Lyle on Set (1080p, 2:32): In this fun piece, cast and crew talk about working with "Lyle" on the set.
• Take a Look at Us Now -- The Cast (1080p, 7:28): A quick run through of key cast and the qualities that the actors who portray them bring to the film.
• Story Time Featuring Shawn Mendes and Javier Bardem (1080p, 9:21): Collected cast and crew read The House on 88th Street.
• Music Video (1080p, 2:52): "Top of the World" by Shawn Mendes.
• Music Video (1080p, 3:54): "Carried Away" by Shawn Mendes.
• Josh Learns About Lyle's Stage Fright -- Deleted Scene (1080p, 2:06): A scene in an early stage of development; Lyle appears in human form.
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

This is not a groundbreaking film, not narrative and not technically. It's just another in a recent string of live action-digital hybrids like the aforementioned Clifford as well as The Smurfs and Paddington that are showcases for what modern movie technology can do. The film itself is not necessarily a classic, but it is a winner. It will please its target audience and, in this day and age, that's about par for the course. Sony's UHD delivers solid video and audio along with an average assortment of extras. Recommended.