Matt Hough of Charlotte, NC has reviewed the Blu-ray Disc version of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He gives it very high marks. I haven’t included the full review, which you can read at Home Theater Forum. I’ve only included things that seem to have been upgraded for the release. It doesn’t include his review of all of the features, of which there are more than those listed below.
Matt writes:
The world of Narnia is a singularly fascinating one, and it’s been captured by a group of artists working at the top of their field.
Video Quality: 4.5/5
The film’s 2.40:1 theatrical aspect ratio is presented here in a marvelous 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Apart from one or two shots where CGI creations sharing the frame with live actors appear a bit soft, the sharpness and dimensionality of this transfer are startling. The early London scenes are purposely desaturated somewhat, but as the children move to the countryside, color becomes more vibrant. Narnia at first is a sea of white, but after the thaw occurs, the color is rich and beautifully saturated with very accurate flesh tones and fine black levels. The film is divided into 24 chapters.
Audio Quality: 5/5
The PCM 5.1 (4.6 Mbps) track is alive with a wide front soundstage (Harry Gregson-Williams’ wonderful score resides across the front channel and only later on spreads to the rears) and intelligent use of the rear channels for a dazzling array of discreet ambient sounds. There is some use of directionialzed dialog, but most of the speaking is rooted to the center channel. LFE can be surprisingly deep not only during the blitz scenes that open the picture but throughout the action-filled sequences that are present.
Special Features: 5/5
This two disc Blu-ray release contains bonus features on both discs in the set.
Disc one offers two audio commentaries. The first has director Andrew Adamson, producer Mark Johnson, and (by phone) production designer Roger Ford. The second features Adamson with the four young leading actors. Both tracks feature good information with Adamson taking the lead in both discussions. I preferred the all adult commentary with more information offered about production problems and solutions.
Discover Narnia Fun Facts are pop up facts which can be switched on to play during the movie. The facts, however, are about author C.E. Lewis’ life and career and information contained in the Narnia series of seven books.
An edited series of bloopers is also included though they’re in 480i and run 4 ½ minutes.
The disc offers previews for Sleeping Beauty, Wall-E, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The Nightmare Before Christmas, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and Tinker Bell. All are presented in 1080p.
The majority of special features are contained on the second disc.
“From One Man’s Mind” is a surprisingly brief 3 ½ minute overview of the life and career of author C.E. Lewis. This is presented in 1080p.
“Creating Creatures” is a 54-minute documentary featuring the actors, costumers, make-up men, and special effects experts that combined forces to creature the following creatures for the film: White Witch, Aslan, Tumnus, wolves, centaurs, minotaurs, ankle slicers, genarrbriks, beavers, satyrs, and goblins. It’s in 480i.
“Creatures of the World” rehashes the information from “Creating Creatures” above but in 1080p and uses illustrations from the original book as well as descriptions from the text and clips from the film. It runs 13 ½ minutes.
“Battle for Narnia” is a BD-Java interactive role playing game where the player tries to pick forces for good and battle the minions of the White Witch in four different battle locations. As one wins simpler confrontations, more residents of Narnia join you to help defeat the enemy which also grows more powerful the deeper you go into the game.
In Conclusion 4.5/5 (not an average)
The Blu-ray edition of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is just about as complete a package for the film as one could wish. Sterling picture quality is combined with an amazing uncompressed audio track to produce the best representation of this film yet seen on home video.
