7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Mamma Mia Here We Go Again is going through Donna's young life, experiencing the fun she had with the three possible Dad's of Sophie. Sophie is now pregnant. Like Donna, she will be young when she has her baby. This is where she realizes she will need to take risks like her mother did.
Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Meryl Streep, Lily James, Christine Baranski, Pierce BrosnanComedy | 100% |
Musical | 77% |
Romance | 75% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: Dolby Atmos
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
French: Dolby Digital Plus 7.1
English SDH, French, Spanish
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
Digital copy
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
In one of those kind of weird concatenations that might be seen as either mere coincidence or something more “meaningful” like synchronicity, right before Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again showed up in my review queue, I Music Directed a local production of the now very infrequently performed original stage version of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, the musical about reincarnation and ESP which has some so-called “book problems” but which features a really ravishing score by composer Burton Lane and lyricist Alan Jay Lerner. In just one of many examples of what a treasure trove of useless trivia I maintain in my musical geek noggin, and as I discussed in some detail when I reviewed the original Mamma Mia! (for another site) many years ago, Lerner and Lane had first worked together on the early fifties film Royal Wedding, but more than a decade after On a Clear Day kind of meandered through the 1965-66 Broadway season, the two reteamed for a musical even less successful than On a Clear Day, 1979’s Carmelina, a show about an Italian mother who has told her daughter her late father was an American serviceman who died heroically during World War II. The real truth is that Carmelina was a bit of a flirt and had had a trio of affairs, leading to comedic calamity when three very much alive and kicking (and dancing) GIs show up in her little village to reunite with their former lover. As I asked in my original review of Mamma Mia years ago: sound familiar? Some online sites (incorrectly) draw a parallel between Carmelina and the 1968 film Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, incorrect at least with regard to Carmelina being “officially” based on the film, since there is copious data available that Lerner (especially) and Lane insisted their concept was an original musical (and indeed the credits for the show feature no “based on” credit of any kind). Interestingly, another show with a curiously similar plotline also contains no “official” link to Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, though the connections, much as with Carmelina, are patently obvious. Carmelina never really found an audience, closing within just a couple of weeks, but it featured a score that in my personal estimation may be even more ravishing than Lerner and Lane’s work on On a Clear Day. No, it took not just moving the story from Italy to Greece, but the addition of (pre-existing) songs by a quartet of Swedes, to finally make this tale of long ago love and the hazards of weaving tales to your children that the facts don’t necessarily support an overwhelming success. Mamma Mia became a smash in the West End and on Broadway, and the film version raked in immense amounts of cash. It’s taken a while, but hijinks are brewing once again, though this time at least partially in flashback, as Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again might have been more accurately subtitled There We Went Back Then, since it deals with the early romantic exploits of Donna (played almost exclusively by Lily James as a younger woman).
Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal Studios with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Digitally captured with various Arri Alexa products and finished at a 2K DI (according to the IMDb), this is a bright and colorful presentation that offers consistently excellent detail levels throughout, including some nighttime scenes that have been graded toward a kind of purplish blue tone. The brightly lit outdoor scenes almost pop off the screen with the same kind of saturation that made the first film so memorable. (Blues in this film are just as vivid and almost fluorescent at times as they were in the original Mamma Mia!.) It does look to me like certain scenes were green screened, and there's just a slight softness to a few backgrounds, perhaps as a result of this technique. That said, the location work (Croatia, again according to the IMDb, but also listed in the closing credits) is often extremely impressive, with gorgeous teal tones informing the water and depth field exceptional in several wide vistas. Despite potential bugaboos like fairly ornate patterns on things like the sheets and other fabrics in the hotel, or the zig zag smock that Sophie wears, and even the glints of light on the water, I noticed no compression problems at all in this presentation. The palette is warm and lifelike, and often incredibly bold, making Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again as much as a delight for the eyes as it is for the ears.
Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again features a great sounding Dolby Atmos track that I suspect some people may feel is not quite up to the 5.0 I'm granting it, since there aren't a glut of "showy" Atmos moments in the presentation. Instead, there's consistent immersion granted due to the many musical numbers, but even in non singing and dancing moments, there's some really appealing sound design going on, especially in the Greek sequences, where ambient environmental sounds dot the surround channels. The island scenes offer the whistling of wind and bird chirps with fair regularity, and occasionally some of those effects can sound just slightly artificial, especially in the higher frequencies. Some of the flashback material is arguably a bit more tamped down in terms of tons of environmental effects, but many of the flashback scenes contain songs, so that perceived deficit is at least partially ameliorated by the immersion the music offers. Fidelity is superb throughout, supporting both the orchestral forces and singing. Dialogue is also rendered cleanly and clearly on this problem free track.
- Deleted Song Performance - "I Wonder" (1080p; 3:04)
- Extended Song Performance - "The Name of the Game" (1080p; 3:13)
- Extended Song Performance - "Knowing Me, Knowing You" (1080p; 2:41)
- Deleted Scene - Tahini (1080p; 1:38)
- Tanya Meets Tanya (1080p; 3:10) features Christine Baranski and Jessica Keenan Wynn.
- Rosie Meets Rosie (1080p; 3:15) features Julie Walters and Alexa Davies.
- Dynamo Chit-Chat (1080p; 2:42) features the trio of "young" Dynamos.
- Dad Chat (1080p; 2:19) features the trio of "young" Dads.
If you're something of a musical geek (admitted or otherwise), it can often be a fascinating exercise to compare how different writers adapt the same story. There are manifest differences, for example, between Andrew Lloyd Webber's insanely successful The Phantom of the Opera and another, lesser known, adaptation by Nine's composer-lyricist Maury Yeston, entitled simply Phantom, to cite just one example. Those interested may well want to track down the CD version of Carmelina, recorded many years after the show closed (and without all of its original Broadway cast), though in looking online, it's fairly spendy. There are a few tunes from the score in various versions available on YouTube, including some with original Broadway star Georgia Brown. Those content to sit back and let the pop confections of ABBA spill through their speakers may be more than satisfied to stick with either Mamma Mia! or this follow up. Much like the music itself, Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again is largely irresistible, despite the fact some may feel they're gorging on fairly empty calories. Technical merits are first rate, the supplementary package extensive, and Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again comes Recommended.
Sing-Along Edition
2018
with 20+ additional minutes of bonus content
2018
Sing-Along Edition | with soundtrack sampler
2018
2018
10th Anniversary Edition
2008
2012-2013
Rockin' Rydell Edition
1978
2018
2015
2-Disc Shake and Shimmy Edition
2007
Extended Cut
2008
2016
2009
2016
2010
2008
2009
Fox Studio Classics
1969
Extended Edition
2007
Extended Dance Edition
2009
2009
2016
2005
2012