VIDEO
The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is quite beautiful but does
have some slight letdowns. Overall the transfer is sharp and clear at all times. As
animation goes this really does give some nice images that are very well executed and on
par with any good Disney animated classic. There are no MPEG artefacts and only a couple
of very small film artefacts.
The transfer does seem to be a little dark and lacks some detail in shadowed areas,
which could have been picked up, with a little more brightness to the transfer. The colour
spectrum was at times limited but this is to be expected for a mainly desert based film.
There are plenty of opportunities though for a little broader use of colour to give the
film a lift where it becomes drab and boring to look at.
Overall the transfer is quite nice but could have had some small improvements.
AUDIO
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track is somewhat more
impressive and only just falls short of reference quality. This is a heavy dialogue film,
which has been handled well. I expected a much more verbose dialogue given the subject of
the story, but this has been kept quite simple and easy to understand even for children.
The surround channels are used frequently for directional
input, effects and support of the score. They really did give an uplifting and enveloping
film to the film. The LFE channel is used quite often but could have had an extra boost
every now and then.
A score from Hans Zimmer comes with great expectations and certainly does not let you
down. This has every making of a great animation score with some very powerful songs to
back up a powerful story
EXTRAS
- Featurette: Making of The Prince of Egypt: A generic behind
the scenes doco with interviews of the cast and crew. 26 minutes
- Featurette: When you Believe Multi Language: This is quite
interesting a presentation of the famous song in all it’s different languages,
showing how difficult it was to match the voices in each language. 6 minutes.
- Featurette: Basics of Animation: 10 minutes of background
into the animation process and it’s combination of cell and computer generated
animation.
- Featurette: Focus on Technical Effects: A very short look at
some of the technical aspects behind the film.
- Theatrical Trailer x2
- Gallery Art: quite a few still images from the film.
- Audio Commentary (Directors): quite a good insight into the
technical side of making this film while also giving lots of general information on the
story as well. Nice commentary.
OVERALL
This is a wonderful story that no child should go without, unless of course this path of
religion is not your choice. Even so the story holds up well on it’s own without any
other implications
| PICTURE
QUALITY |
8.5/10
only very minor quibbles |
SOUND
- Quality
- 5.1 WOW Factor |
9.5/10 excellent stuff
8.5/10 again very nice indeed |
| EXTRAS |
7.5/10 a good array of
technical background |
| OVERALL |
8.5/10 fabulous work
overall |
Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Pioneer 737
Receiver: Yamaha RX-V595a
Speakers:-
Fronts: Wharfedale Diamond R6 (on a pair of custom made stands you'd KILL for)
Centre: Venturi
Rears: Sony bookshelf
Sub: M&K v75
- Reviewed 3rd June 2001
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