Last night, I attended a digital presentation of 'WALL-E' at a local theater. It was the first time this year that I decided to pay the outrageous cost of seeing a movie in a theater instead of waiting for the Blu-ray release. This was not only because I have the utmost respect for Pixar and their ability to create amazing movies, but also because their new film was attempting to do something that Hollywood has feared doing ever since the invention of a prerecorded audio tracks - to just be quiet.
While Pixar once again was able to bring humanity to a machine (a history that began with the short '
Luxo Jr.'), the biggest accomplishment was to tell an emotional and engaging story without saying many word. For the first half of the film, the dialog is limited mostly to the names of the robots, with beeps and other mechanical noises the primary means of relaying emotion to the viewer. It is because of this that the clarity of the soundtrack is an extremely important part to a successful viewing.
I left the theater somewhat disappointed - at the theater, not the movie - because the sound quality was not nearly as clear as what I have heard on many of the Blu-ray titles I own. It was flat and narrow, reminiscent of the Dolby Digital soundtracks typically used in movie theaters. It is the same disappointing feeling I get when watching DVDs or Blu-ray titles which don't have lossless audio tracks. The entire viewing, I was craving to hear the lossless soundtrack, imagining how much better the experience will be when Disney ships 'WALL-E' on Blu-ray this fall.
While Blu-ray is often marketed for its high definition picture, the sound is just as important to the full movie viewing experience. Blu-ray movies with PCM, Dolby TrueHD, or DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks offer viewers a lossless/uncompressed audio experience in the homes that is more dynamic than what can be heard at their local theaters. This is why I cannot and never will understand the upconversion argument pushed by Toshiba and other companies who refuse to support Blu-ray. While they try to convince customers that a processor can magically make a DVD look like a Blu-ray (which they can't), they never address the audio. Regardless of how you process the image, if the audio isn't touched, you still have an extremely poor viewing experience when compared to Blu-ray.
For me, Blu-ray has surpassed the theater experience so greatly, that I find it harder and harder to justify paying to see a movie in a cinema instead of waiting three months to watch it in the comfort of my own home with an overall better viewing experience. So this weekend, when you sit down with your family and friends to watch a Blu-ray, pay close attention to the sound and try to remember a time when a theater or DVD was able to provide a similar experience. I'm betting you won't be able to.
For our readers in the United States, have a safe and happy Independence Day.