General Evans Above Archive for Jun 17, 2017

Beauty and the Beast Blu-ray review

Jun 17, 2017permalink

When the live action remake of Beauty and the Beast came out earlier this year, I said that it was “A worthy reimagining of its legendary predecessor…” and now it’s available to take home and enjoy as Disney releases the Blu-ray.

The AVC-encoded 1080p transfer is in the theatrical releases 2.39:1 aspect ratio. This film has a wide-ranging colour palette from moody winter landscapes to dazzling ball scenes and the sharpness and colour depth is impressive. Black levels in the darker scenes are excellent and details are still present in low light scenes. The detail of the images is great, whether we’re talking about the stitching on costumes or the hairs on the Beast. Buildings and landscapes have the right detail to put you in the scene. It’s simply a great video presentation.

On the audio side of the equation, we get an English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack as well as French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available in English SDH, French, and Spanish. Whether immersing us in the environment or entertaining us with the musical numbers, this soundscape is more than up to the task. The surround tracks envelope us with ambient details and the musical numbers are bright and clear with dialogue and lyrics clear and centered. Low-frequencies are put to good use during bad weather and action scenes.

The package does not skimp on extras, starting with a DVD copy and a code for a digital copy download. The disc can also be played in karaoke mode, presenting the lyrics for each song. There’s a table read featurette, a look at the motion capture technology used to create the Beast, cast and crew interviews, a look at staging the musical numbers, deleted scenes, and an Ariana Grande/John Legend music video.

If you love Beauty and the Beast you should definitely be adding it to your home entertainment collection. If you want to see a great Blu-ray disc presentation you should definitely be adding it to your home entertainment collection. So what are you waiting for?