Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Toys in the Attic Blu-ray Movie Review

Bric-a-Brac with Attitude

Reviewed by Michael Reuben March 25, 2013

Reviews of Toys in the Attic often invoke Pixar's Toy Story films, but the original title of Czech animator Jií Barta's stop motion fantasy didn't even mention toys. It was called, simply, In the Attic: Who Has a Birthday Today? Like John Lasseter and his cohorts, Barta conceived of a world just outside the sight of humans in which inanimate objects come alive and create their own society (several, in fact). But Barta's creatures weren't toys devoted to serving their owners. They had their own raison d'être, and many of them bore little resemblance to toys. They could be bugs or a malevolent head. Much of their world was composed of discarded junk, repurposed in ways even Rube Goldberg couldn't have imagined. In a Pixar frame, you're always scanning for clever allusions and visual jokes. In a Barta frame, you find yourself staring at some object that's been wrenched out of context and used for some wholly new purpose—what is that doing there?

American writer and actress Vivian Schilling (Soultaker) has worked with Barta to create an English language version of his film under the title Toys in the Attic. Dialogue was re-recorded in English with a mostly American cast. An additional title sequence was added with Barta's assistance using the conceit of an English toy catalog, and various occurrences of text throughout the film have had Czech replaced with English. Otherwise the film's narrative and visuals have remained intact.

After some delay beyond the listed street date, Hannover House has released Toys in the Attic on Blu-ray and DVD.

Barta's fantasy unfolds in the attic of a house stuffed full of objects so old that, as the grandmother who lives there says, some of them go back to the days of the emperors. Inside a battered suitcase, a sweet antique doll named Buttercup (Schilling) runs a kind of boarding house for several other discarded playthings: Teddy the bear (Forest Whitaker), who is station master for the local train; Sir Handsome (Cary Elwes), a Spanish knight and former marionette whose strings are perpetually tangled; and Laurent (Marcelo Tubert), a voluble French blob made of modeling clay, pencil stub, bottle cap and sundry other items.

Every morning, Buttercup summons this motley crew to breakfast, where a roll of the dice determines which one will have a birthday that day. The lucky winner gets the cake that Buttercup bakes fresh every morning, which is consumed while everyone listens to the radio broadcast by Madame Curie (Joan Cusack), a stuffed mouse with a thick accent somewhere between French and gypsy, who seems to know all the news (and everything else). Then it's off to work, on roads and tracks uniting a vast social network stretching everywhere throughout the attic. It all goes quiet on the rare occasion when a human appears at the top of the stairs.

This tranquil existence is disturbed by an invasion from the Land of Evil, which is ruled by The Head, an imposing presence that appears to be a discarded plaster bust, perhaps of a long-departed communist leader. (The Head is played as a live- action figure by Czech actor Jirí Lábus, with English voice by Douglas Urbanski.) Aided by its serpentine spying eye, which is no doubt another reference to the now-deposed communist regime, The Head catches sight of Buttercup and instantly wants to add her to his collection of minions. He sends squadrons of bugs to kidnap her and, when that doesn't work, a treacherous black cat, who also engineers a train accident as a diversion.

The film's second half follows the efforts of Buttercup's friends to free her from The Head's evil clutches, while the villain attempts to crush them with one wicked scheme after another, including laundry, black plastic trash bags and "fake" Buttercups. (Trust me, it makes sense when you see it.) Meanwhile, Madame Curie unveils her greatest invention yet: a flying machine built from an old vacuum cleaner with a very long cord.

Director Barta combines live footage, stop-motion, traditional hand-drawn animation and CG compositing to create an imaginary world that is equal parts the Brothers Grimm and Salvador Dali. The result may be too intense for very young children—or, for that matter, adults with an intense bug phobia—but it's challenging, inventive and constantly surprising.

Toys in the Attic Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hannover House's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of Toys in the Attic is a gorgeous showcase for director Barta's fanciful constructions. The image's blacks are rock solid, which is essential not only for depicting the shadow detail often found in the dimly lit attic interiors, but also for revealing the fine detail in the outlandish creatures and inventions that populate this imaginary world. So little of what appears in the frame is used for its original purpose that one may have to freeze-frame and study the larger machines in order to determine what makes them run (assuming, of course, that they actually do).

Because this is generally a dark environment, the color palette runs toward the cooler end of the spectrum, favoring blues, but various exceptions apply. Buttercup is usually associated with yellows, beiges and whites, while Teddy, Sir Handsome and Laurent invoke shades of brown and red. The Head and its spying eye routinely look metallic.

In addition to being sharply detailed, the image is free of noise or signs of digital manipulation. Artifacts of any kind (e.g., compression, banding or ringing) were nowhere to be seen.

Toys in the Attic Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hannover House continues to resist including lossless audio on its Blu-ray releases. If it ever expects to be taken seriously by afficionados of the format, it needs to reconsider this approach. Toys in the Attic offers a choice of lossy soundtracks: Dolby Digitial 5.1 at the DVD-standard rate of 448 kbps and DD 2.0 at 192 kbps. For an even more antiquated touch, the disc defaults to the 2.0 soundtrack. You have to remember to select the 5.1 option manually, if you want the best sound available on the disc.

The DD 5.1 track is adequate for its purposes. The dialogue is as intelligible as it can be, considering that three of the main characters (Madame Curie, Sir Handsome and Laurent) speak with deliberately impenetrable accents, and a fourth (Teddy) mutters his lines under his breath. None of them says anything of great importance, with the exception of Madame Curie, who occasionally provides necessary exposition.

The 5.1 mix does not amplify and expand sound effects in the usual fashion of such mixes. Barta's approach seems to have been to keep things small, because these are small objects. For example, the train crash caused by the mischievous black cat barely registers. The surrounds become active in scenes like the attack on Buttercup's kitchen by a band of ladybugs (skitter! chomp!), and the low end of the system is most noticeable in the playful score by Michal Pavlícek.

Toys in the Attic Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:29): The Blu-ray jacket also lists a "YouTube Trailer". Unless it's a hidden "easter egg" that I couldn't find, it's not there.



• Napude Production Gallery (1080p; 1.33; 3:04): A brief overview of Barta's career and the making of the original Czech version of In the Attic.



• Behind the Scenes of the U.S. Production (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 24:48): Schilling describes how she became involved with the English adaptation and her approach, in consultation with Barta, who provided essential background on the characters. Interviews are included with several of the English cast members and the sound engineers. In addition, Schilling discusses the new credit sequence.



• U.S. Press Notes and Gallery (1080i; various; 3:33): A slide show that includes pictures of Barta and his team at work; of Schilling and her team; and of poster art, models and design concepts.

Toys in the Attic Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The visual element is so critical to Toys in the Attic that screenshots convey more about the film than any verbal description ever could. Take a few minutes to study Barta's style as reflected in the images accompanying this review. They should tell you all you need to know to decide whether Toys in the Attic will interest you. For my part, despite the lossy soundtrack, highly recommended.