Pollyanna Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

Pollyanna Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman May 28, 2017

Even sad endings wind up happy in Pollyanna, Director David Swift's (The Parent Trap) classic story of a little girl of good cheer and endless optimism dropped into a community where darkened spirits and pessimism rule the day. Indeed, no name is more synonymous with good cheer, hope, and a belief in the sunny side of life. The film, based on the novel by Eleanor H. Porter and now celebrating more than five-and-a-half decades of bringing cheer to even the most dour of audiences, was also the debut of Actress Hayley Mills, who would go on to star in Swift's The Parent Trap and become the face of the company at her peak. Through this Disney Movie Club Exclusive, audiences can now become reacquainted with the story and its star in a flattering, but nuts-and-bolts, Blu-ray package.

Pollyanna (Hayley Mills), an orphan girl, moves in with her rather dour but wealthy aunt Polly (Jane Wyman) and begins to change the town’s mentality with her irrespresible optisim. What begins as childlike cheer quickly becomes more as Pollyanna explains and engages in the "glad game" she played with her minister father to people all over town. The game essentially challenges those who participate to find the cheer and positivity in any circumstance. Even as Pollyanna begins to change those around her with her postitive outlook, she encounters plenty of resistance, including jaded help in the house, the local fire-and-brimstone preacher, and a hypochondriac.

Pollyanna might appear to leave a problem unresolved as it ends, but the movie settles the issue in the only way it can, the only way it must, with good hope and goodwill, the town now a reflection of Pollyanna's optimism rather than its once deeply rooted, now uprooted, pessimism. The movie captures that balance between the two expertly, with a finely defined intersection and the gradual demise of the negative and the gradual acceptance of the positive. Few movies offer such an important message, wrapped so elegantly and so agreeably, one that withstands the test of time and holds true for any audience. Life will do its best to make people think and feel the worst. But a ray of sunshine is a powerful thing, and a room full of reflective prisms that need only that single ray to make a rainbow represents what the movie is all about. Director David Swifts stays out of the way, capturing the story mechanically simply and allowing the story's truth and his cast's charm to carry it through. Few family films have the staying power of Pollyanna; it's one to treasure for generations to come.

Pollyanna Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Pollyanna's Blu-ray release, exclusive at this time to the Disney Movie Club, looks fairly good throughout with a peak of excellent. The image maintains a light, natural grain structure, appealing and filmic, that only spikes into a slightly more clumpy morass during the first church service up against the white background behind the pulpit. Here, a few minor scratches and other examples of light debris may be seen, but such are very light and largely limited to this moment. Overall, detailing is very nice. It's easy to see where a higher resolution would increase raw detailing on skin, for example, which is by no means pasty but lacks the sort of high end definition UHD has made a norm. Still, the image is very crisp and well defined. Whether skin basics, intricate clothing details, or the rich and lavish finishes and furnishings around the home and about town, the image never wants for significantly greater texturing. A few softer focus shots are interspersed throughout but never dampen an otherwise rock-solid image. Colors are good, though arguably a weak spot in the image. They're a bit soft, mildly washed out, and the blend of creamy colored clothes, wallpaper, and furnishings around Aunt Polly's home tend not to necessarily blend, but disallow anything from truly standing out. Bolder primaries lack that deep push into color depth, but the palette certainly holds its own well enough, generally. Black levels are a little wishy-washy, appearing purplish and pale in some places, particularly early on, but adequately deep and dark later at the nighttime outdoor bazaar. Flesh tones give little trouble though there are a few moments when actors appear slathered in beige makeup. On the whole, this is a very strong image and another example of a solid release from the Disney Movie Club.

Pollyanna Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Pollyanna features a fairly simple, unassuming, but baseline effective Dolby Digital 2.0 lossy soundtrack. There's little range. Music pushes towards the center, imaged nicely but lacking any kind of fuller, more flamboyant stretch. Clarity satisfies, however, with good basic instrumental detail and definition in a score that's patently classic Disney. The track opens up maybe a hair wider and with a twinge more aggression later in the film at the bazaar. A few scratchy elements intrude but never negatively impact the overall experience. Dialogue can be a little shallow even at reference volume, particularly in a few early scenes, but it's generally sound, well prioritized, and clear with a firm, natural front-center push. As the film's primary element, it more than satisfies the movie's simple needs.

Pollyanna Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Disney Movie Club exclusive release of Pollyanna contains no bonus content. It does feature a slipcover and a Disney digital copy voucher.

Pollyanna Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Pollyanna is a wonderful film about the power of positivity, good cheer, and purposeful living. It's endlessly uplifting but more than its message it's very well made. Nicely acted, agreeably paced even at well above two hours, and beautifully but simply photographed, the movie withstands the test of time and remains relevant today in a world of significantly more distractions and pessimism than ever before. Disney's Blu-ray, exclusive to it online movie club, is disappointingly absent any extra content, but video is quite nice and audio gets the job done. Recommended.