7.9 | / 10 |
Users | 4.3 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Royal Tenenbaum and his wife, Etheline, had three children—Chas, Margot, and Richie—and then they separated. Chas started buying real estate in his early teens and seemed to have an almost preternatural understanding of international finance. Margot was a playwright and received a Braverman Grant of $50,000 in the ninth grade. Richie was a junior champion tennis player and won the U.S. Nationals three years in a row. Virtually all memory of the brilliance of the young Tenenbaums was subsequently erased by two decades of betrayal, failure, and disaster.
Starring: Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke WilsonDrama | 100% |
Dark humor | 33% |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums" (2001) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include original trailers; audio commentary with director Wes Anderson; gallery of interviews with various cast members; two deleted scenes; stills; storyboards; and episode of the Peter Bradley Show; and more. The disc also arrives with an insert with Eric Anderson's drawings of the Tenenbaum house, plus an essay by film critic Kent Jones. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
The old man and his man
Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears on the insert provided with this Blu-ray disc:
"Supervised by director Wes Anderson, this new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on a DFT SCANITY film scanner from the original camera negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Image Systems' DVNR was used for small dirt, grain, and noise reduction.
Telecine supervisor: Wes Anderson, Lee Kline, Maria Palazzola.
Colorist: Sheri Eisenberg/Colorworks, Los Angeles."
I believe one could easily argue that this might well be one of the very best presentations a Wes Anderson film has seen to date - supervised by the American director, the high-definition transfer used for the Blu-ray release of The Royal Tenenbaums is indeed quite remarkable. Detail is exceptional, with many of the close-ups conveying outstanding depth, while clarity is as best as I believe it could be (see screencaptures #1 and 4). Contrast levels are stable from start to finish. What impresses the most, however, is the color reproduction. The crisp and lush colors are so beautiful that occasionally they actually become distracting. Viewers who project their films on large screens, in particular, should be very impressed with the prominent yellows, as color depth is indeed fantastic. There are absolutely no traces of problematic lab tinkering - post-production sharpening or denoising corrections are nowhere to be seen. There are no serious transfer-specific anomalies (perhaps there is only a whiff of extremely light banding very early into the film). There are no stability issues to report in this review either. To sum it all up, The Royal Tenenbaums looks simply beautiful on Blu-ray, clearly the best it ever has. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There is only one audio track on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.
The following text appears on the insert provided with this Blu-ray disc:
"The original 5.1 surround soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the original magnetic audio tracks. Clicks, thumps, hiss, and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube's integrated workstation."
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 boasts excellent dynamic amplitude. The surround channels are also intelligently used, opening up the film during specific sequences very well. Though the film does not support the type of dynamic intensity many large action productions do, occasionally the sound does reach levels that could test some audio systems (see the short car crash scene in the final third of the film). The dialog is always crisp, clean, and exceptionally easy to follow. Mark Mothersbaugh's score is also well balanced with it. There are no pops, cracks, serious distortions or audio dropouts to report in this review.
I cannot help but admire Criterion's determination to present director Wes Anderson's films as best as currently possible. I truly believe that had these films ended up with another label, they would have looked a lot different on Blu-ray. What I am trying to convey to you is that if you happen to be a fan of director Anderson's films, it will be inexcusable not to own a copy of The Royal Tenenbaums in your collection. The film looks spectacular, without a shadow of a doubt the best it ever has. RECOMMENDED.
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