Ramona and Beezus Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Ramona and Beezus Blu-ray Movie Review

Sweet Beezus! A modern kid-flick that isn’t completely inane.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater November 15, 2010

Being a kid’s not all it’s cracked up to be. You’re dependent on your parents, who don’t understand you. Your teachers push math and grammar instead of music and art. School is defined by a popularity pecking order. Sibling rivalry is a given. Author Beverly Cleary—a veritable giant in the kid-lit canon— knows this. For over half a century, she’s been writing books for, about, and through the eyes of the under-12 set. While never as controversial as Judy Blume, who famously tackled the awkward ‘tween aspects of puberty and religion in her books, Cleary has dealt with the hardships of growing up in her own way, with honesty and imagination. Cleary’s most enduring character is the rambunctious Ramona Quimby, who, having appeared in eight eponymous books between 1950 and 1999, has been a part of the childhoods of multiple generations of readers. It’s surprising, then, that Ramona and Beezus, a new film from 20th Century Fox, is the first adaptation of the Ramona books, aside from a short-lived Canadian TV series— starring a young Sarah Polley!—that aired way back in 1988. While the film doesn’t quite live up to its pedigree, Ramona and Beezus is a vibrant family comedy and one of the better kid flicks of the year.

If you’re not familiar with the books—or if, like me, you were more into The Mouse and the Motorcycle—Ramona (Joey King) is a bubbly, daydreaming third-grader who lives in a frame house on Klickitat Street with her sister Beezus (Selena Gomez), their cat Picky-Picky, and their parents, Robert and Dorothy (John Corbett and Bridget Moynahan). The film borrows hodgepodge from all eight books in the series—it’s almost a “Greatest Hits” version of Ramona antics—but the main plotlines here are taken from 1977’s Ramona and Her Father, which deals with the familial fallout after Robert loses his accounting job, and 1984’s Ramona Forever, in which Ramona’s beloved Aunt Bea (Ginnifer Goodwin) falls in love with Hobart (Josh Duhamel), the scruffy uncle of Ramona’s best friend, Howie (Jason Spevack). Post-recession, the whole dad-loses-job angle is as timely as any, and drama ensues when the bank threatens the Quimby home with foreclosure. Spunky, if shortsighted, Ramona dreams up all kinds of schemes to save the house, from selling lemonade and washing cars to auditioning for a role in a peanut butter commercial that could net the family a million bucks. Needless to say, none of these plans pan out as expected, and more often than not, Ramona ends up causing trouble or making a mess.

With so much going on, the story suffers from suburban sprawl, as screenwriters Laurie Craid and Nick Pustay load the script with a few too many loosely tied strands, making for an episodic jumble of home life drama, sisterly squabbles, and grade-school embarrassments. Still, you could make the argument that kids’ lives are like this, and from the perspective of a child audience, the hopscotching from one chaotic scenario to the next will likely be a source of giggly excitement. The antics are endless. Ramona squeezes the contents of an entire tube of toothpaste into the sink. She gets peanut butter and egg yolk in her hair. She throws up in the band room and accidentally sets a broom on fire. And then there’s an all-out water fight, complete with garden hoses, sprinklers, and Super Soakers. It’s innocuous, family friendly stuff—puke gag aside, there are no gross-out gags, unlike the truly execrable Marmaduke—and adults will appreciate that the film is less grating and obnoxious than most movies aimed at the pre-‘tween crowd. Ramona and Beezus does have its share of saccharine moments centered around the learning of important life lessons, but it also shows a good deal of emotional honesty, especially in the relationship between the two titular sisters.

Joey King, making her film debut, seems poised to be the next Dakota Fanning or Chloe Moretz. She’s one of those endlessly precocious, preternaturally cute kids who, 15 years ago, would have been starring in Kix or Welch’s Grape Juice commercials. Of course, today’s acting prodigies are much more savvy, so I’m sure she’ll have her own fashion line and/or ‘tween electro-pop outfit soon, like her co-star, Selena Gomez, a Hannah Montana alum who boasts a sizeable middle school following. The two have a believable camaraderie here, one minute exasperating and embarrassing one another, the next showering each other with sisterly affections. The adults glide through the kid-centric material as if on auto-pilot, but John Corbett is a likeable enough dad, Big Love’s Ginnifer Goodwin is perfect as the sympathetic aunt, and Josh Duhamel, as the archaically named Hobart, is his usual scruffy self. The film is directed by Elizabeth Allen, who finds a fun visual vocabulary to describe Ramona’s daydreams, employing tilt-shift photography—the effect that makes everything look like a miniature—and, in one parachute sequence, even indulging in some handmade, Michel Gondry-esque fluffy cotton clouds, borrowed from The Science of Sleep. The look is atypical and helps Ramona and Beezus stand out from the crowded kid-film pack.

Ramona and Beezus Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Like most recent kids' movies from 20th Century Fox, Ramona and Beezus sports a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's colorful and clean, with ample clarity and plenty of high definition pop. The film isn't razor sharp by any means, but fine detail is easily visible in facial features, surface textures, and clothing, and there are no signs of either DNR smearing or edge enhancement gone awry. (Things soften up considerably during the tilt shifted, selective focused scenes, but this is all part of the effect.) The color scheme is nicely saturated but largely realistic, although vividness is kicked up a notch whenever Ramona enters one of her flights of imagination. Here, grass becomes extra green, and skies a dreamy, creamy blue. Black levels could possibly be a hair darker for added contrast, and the image is a bit on the dim side, but shadow delineation is excellent and there's no excess grain or noise cluttering up the darker scenes. Neither did I notice any banding, blocking, aliasing, or other compression issues. Discerning eight-year-old videophiles should be pleased.

Ramona and Beezus Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Unless we're talking Pixar/Disney, the audio for most kid flicks is fairy tame, and Ramona and Beezus is no exception. That's not to say, however, that this DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track doesn't completely suit the needs of the film. Dialogue, the most prevalent element, is clear and prioritized. The surround speakers don't get a whole lot of play, but you will hear some quiet ambience—lunchroom chatter, etc.—along with a few cross-channel movements, like the spray of water during the water gun fight. The music has appreciable depth and dynamic presence, and bleeds nicely into the rear channels to fill out the dead space. There's even some occasional LFE rumble, as when Ramona imagines herself floating in outer space. This one won't rattle the walls or bring the roof down, but the track is clear and precise, which is all that really matters.

Ramona and Beezus Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Deleted Scenes (1080p, 6:03)
Includes seven short deleted scenes.

Gag Reel (1080p, 2:54)

Show & Tell Film School (1080i, 7:01)
Director Elizabeth Allen gives kids some ideas about how to become a filmmaker.

My Ramona with Author Beverly Cleary (1080p, 4:14)
An interview with Cleary, who discusses the inspiration for her Ramona books.

A Day in the Life of Joey King (1080p, 4:59)
Precocious pint-sized star Joey King gives us a guided tour of a typical day on set.

Fox Movie Channel Presents: Life After Film School (SD, 22:02)
Three current film school students interview Elizabeth Allen about directing.

Selena & Joey Audition Footage (1080i, 1:51)

Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 1:41)

Sneak Peek (1080p, 7:41)
Includes trailers for Tooth Fairy, Space Chimps 2, Percy Jackson, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Ramona and Beezus Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sweet, but not too sweet, rambunctious but not obnoxious, Ramona and Beezus is the rare kid film that can satisfy its young demographic without making adults feel like they have to leave the room for fear of losing their sanity. It may be Beverly Cleary-lite, but it does it well, thanks to a strong cast and some imaginative visual touches. The Blu-ray from Fox is a gem as well, with a pleasing 1080p transfer, capable sound, and some fun extras.