6.8 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Admiral Nelson takes a brand new atomic submarine through its paces. When the Van Allen radiation belt catches fire, the admiral must find a way to beat the heat or watch the world go up in smoke.
Starring: Walter Pidgeon, Joan Fontaine, Barbara Eden, Peter Lorre, Robert SterlingSci-Fi | Insignificant |
Adventure | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.36:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.35:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
French: Dolby Digital Mono
Music: Dolby Digital 2.0
DD 2.0 224 kbps; DD Mono 192 kbps
English SDH, Japanese, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
While Irwin Allen’s name will probably forever be associated with the disaster genre which he helped to formulate with such epochal films as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, for hordes of Baby Boomers he’s at least as much remembered for a glut of sixties and early seventies television science fiction outings, including Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants. Allen’s first foray into series television was a reboot of one of his first “disaster” films, 1961’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. While the television version verged perilously close to camp, especially in its later years, the film was a rather serious minded, though admittedly hammy, adventure flick that depicted an unlikely effort on the part of the crew of the nuclear powered “super submarine” Seaview to prevent a global calamity which for all intents and purposes might be termed global warming. While 1961 was probably too early to have the culprit be Man himself (though 1962 would see the release of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which was one of the first mass market pieces to address the effects humans were having on the environment), the end result was much the same. The Earth in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is literally burning up, and humankind only has a few precious weeks of life left. The Seaview may be Mankind’s last, best hope in an attempt to thwart a catastrophe caused by meteors igniting the Van Allen Radiation Belt. As that very plot element might indicate, parts of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea are of dubious scientific merit, but they don’t keep the film from being a rollicking good time, with a couple of exciting set pieces thrown in for good measure.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.36:1. This is another generally very commendable looking transfer of a 'Scope film that benefits from elements in very good shape. The image, while not razor sharp, is well defined and precise, with excellent fine detail showing up in things like Fontaine's tufted dresses and some of the props aboard the Seaview. The higher resolution of the Blu-ray does reveal some of the literal seams in some of the process photography, but even the use of heavy filters in several sequences doesn't materially affect the detail in the image, though that said, many of the underwater sequences are understandably very murky looking, with little depth or detail. Contrast is solid and stable throughout this presentation. My one niggling qualm with this presentation is the color. The elements may have faded, if only slightly, and there's a somewhat pallid look to the film. This is a matter of degrees, and perhaps pretty minor degrees, but the film just does not look overly vivid. I'm not privy to what efforts Fox went to to prepare this for Blu-ray release, but I couldn't help but wonder if a little judicious tinkering by a skilled telecine colorist working with an appropriate reference might have ameliorated some of these issues. The good news is that there doesn't appear to have been any over aggressive digital tweaking here, and I personally spotted no signs of edge enhancement or DNR.
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 track which quite faithfully reproduces the film's original 4 track stereo mix. The film's soundtrack has been somewhat problematic on previous home video releases, and while most of those issues have been dealt with, there's still a slightly brittle sound to some of the dialogue, if only at times. The best part of this track is the wonderfully consistent surround activity with regard to the great sound effects. The "ping" of radar and gurgling sounds of water wash through the side channels, and even routine dialogue moments are given great spatial clarity and directionality. I know many people are actually fond of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea's theme song (crooned by Frankie Avalon), and its Paul Sawtell-Bert Shefter score, and for those folks, the good news is the music sounds fine and in fact also is splayed nicely through the channels. Personally, I find the theme song a really silly attempt to mine the title of the film (perhaps second only to another hapless Fox theme song evidently required to work the film's title into its lyric, Beloved Infidel).
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is good old fashioned entertainment, with some winning star performances, a fun (if scientifically absurd) plot, and lots and lots of bells and whistles. This is another older film which is probably going to get its fair share of rolled eyes from cynical younger folks used to flashier, noisier fare, but for those who saw it either theatrically or on television back in the day, the nostalgia factor will outweigh any other passing qualms. This is a generally nice looking and great sounding presentation, and it comes Recommended.
Fox Studio Classics
1966
Warner Archive Collection
1955
2016
1966-1967
1979
1954
1971
Flight to the Future / Warner Archive Collection
1956
2013
1972
1959
Remastered | Limited Edition to 5000 | SOLD OUT
1959
1951
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1966
1966
SDR
1931
1933
Warner Archive Collection
1935
1948
1965