Coco (2017/Disney/Pixar 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray + Blu-ray w/DVD Sets)/Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017/Fox Blu-ray w/DVD)/Hedgehogs (2017/Lionsgate DVD)/Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie (2018)/Paw Patrol: Sea Patrol (2018)/Shimmer and Shine: Beyond The Rainbow Falls (2018/all three Nickelodeon DVD)

4K Ultra HD Picture: A Picture: B+ & C+/B & C+/B/C+/B/C+ Sound: A & B+ & C+/B & C+/B/C+/B/C+ Extras: B+/B/C/D/D/D Main Programs: C+/C+/C+/C+/B/C+

Here's a new group of children and child-related releases, starting with the new Oscar Winner for Best Animated Feature, Coco (2017) from Disney/Pixar, here in both 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray and Blu-ray/DVD sets.

While it doesn't feature any heavy hitting Hollywood voice talents behind it (i.e., the way it used to be back in the day), Disney's take on the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday, Coco (2017), lands in beautiful 4K (2160p) on the new 4K UHD format. While Guillermo Del Toro had a similar idea a few years ago with the animated Book of Life, Coco's animation blows that film out of the water and has the similar Disney animated narrative to help it along its way. While not as memorable as some of the other Pixar films, Coco stands out of Disney's library as being something different and offbeat in its catering to Mexican culture.

Coco features the voice talents of Anthony Gonzalez, Benjamin Bratt, Gael García Bernal, Ana Ofelia Murguia, and Renee Victor.

Despite his family's generations-old ban on music due to a domestic dispute, young Miguel dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol (and ancestor) Ernesto de la Cruz. His dreams are justified by Miguel's incredible talent on a guitar despite his lack of exposure, but when his family aims to put him in the shoe making business like generations before him, Miguel decides to steal de la Cruz's guitar and show his family what he's made of at a local talent show. However, Miguel learns that you can't steal from the dead and soon finds himself in the stunning and colorful alternate reality of the Land of the Dead. After making a new friend named Hector and encountering his ancestors with their own hidden agenda, the two new friends aim to get Miguel back to the land of the living and Hector the right to complete a spiritual passage.

As mentioned, Coco is presented in a 2160p HEVC/H.265, HDR (10; Ultra HD Premium)-enhanced Ultra High Definition image presentation on the new 4K UHD format with a 2.39:1 widescreen aspect ratio and a great sounding English Dolby Atmos 11.1 lossless track (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 on older systems). The 1080p Blu-rays offer DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mixes on Ariadne is well mixed and presented, though still a mixdown from the 12-track soundmaster. Theatrical sound presentations, for the record, included Auro and DTS-X 11.1 sound.

As for the 4K transfer, it certainly stands out over the other lesser compressed versions and with a film as colorful as this one, makes for a great demo disc. There's no limit to the color palette here (or the imagination of the film itself) and there's plenty to soak up in terms of presentation.

There's also a 1080p Blu-ray version of the film in both sets we are covering, with similar specs and a digital copy in both. The Blu-ray is fine for the format, showing off the color range as best it can, but the 4K version is still superior in all aspects, including stability and just the way it play more naturally in motion. I expected the anamorphically enhanced DVD image to suffer really badly in comparison to the two and it does, yet it is one of the better DVD of CGI of late from anyone, with someone at Disney/Pixar realizing they had to push the format to hold and keep all the color consistent and looking good.

Special Features are vast and fill up an additional 1080p Blu-ray (some are on the DVD) and includes...

Deleted Scenes with Introductions - Director Lee Unkrich and co-director Adrian Molina talk about the deleted scenes and the part they played in the development of "Coco."

Dia de los Muertos - In this musical extravaganza, the colors and excitement of Dia de los Muertos come to life as we meet superstar Ernesto de la Cruz.

The Way of the Riveras - A musical number in which Abuelita and Miguel prepare their Dia de los Muertos celebration while she teaches him Rivera family history and traditions.

Celebrity Tour - Hector, a Land of the Dead tour bus guide, agrees to help Miguel, revealed to be a living boy, on his quest to find de la Cruz.

The Bus Escape - The Rivera family catches up to Miguel and Hector and attempts to halt their mission to find de la Cruz.

Alebrije Attack - Miguel and Héctor are interrupted on their journey to find de la Cruz by a fierce alebrije.

The Family Fix - After de la Cruz reveals his true colors, the Rivera family puts their dismay aside and comes together to repair the smashed guitar needed to send Miguel home.

To the Bridge - As the Land of the Dead counts down to the end of Dia de los Muertos, Miguel and de la Cruz come head-to-head on the marigold bridge.

and a feature-length Filmmaker Commentary - Presented by Lee Unkrich (director), Adrian Molina (co-director) and Darla K. Anderson (producer).

Simon Curtis' new drama, Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017) features Margot Robbie and Domhnall Gleeson as the leads and lifts the veil behind the children's author of Winnie Pooh, A.A. Milne, who started out as a playwright in London after WW1 and was later inspired by his son (who becomes known as Christopher Robin) to write the stories. Definitely not a kids movie in itself, but instead a beautifully photographed period piece with exquisite detail in costumes and production design.

The film also features Will Tilston, Kelly Macdonald, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Alex Lawther.

After his wife Daphne (Robbie) takes a vacation to London and the Nanny (Macdonald) ends up gone for a few days due to a family emergency, Milne overcomes his WW1 flashbacks and connects with his son, whose toys inspire the characters of Winnie the Pooh. Caught within his son's vivid imagination, the author not only connects with his child but writes the story of his career as well and overcomes his writer's block. Soon the Winnie the Pooh series becomes very popular and the simple family life that the Milnes once had soon has a lot of stress on it. Christopher Robin becomes a huge celebrity and the child has some mixed feelings about it, still the story becomes something of legend and an icon. I will warn you that you will want a box of tissues handy for the ending.

The film reminds me a bit of Finding Neverland in that it utilizes imagination with family and classic literature. Gleeson plays his part fine, and has been in tons of films lately, and Robbie continues to show her range as an actress with this role being both dramatic and comedic. The film has some cool animated segments that tie in with the artwork and some of the original imagery from the original books is present.

Presented in 1080p high definition with a widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and a great sounding English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless track, the film looks and sounds stunning on

Blu-ray disc and far better than the included, anamorphically enhanced DVD, which shows the film in a compressed standard definition and a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital track. A digital UV copy is also included.

Special Features:

Audio Commentary by Simon Curtis and Frank Cottrell-Boyce

Promotional Featurettes include...

A Walk in the Woods

Healing a Nation

A. A. Milne

Hello Billy Moon

Daphne Milne

The Story

Christopher Robin & His Nanny Olive

The Cast

Photo Gallery

and a Theatrical Trailer.

Bobby the Hedgehog finds himself in the city with amnesia on his biggest adventure ever. As he learns to survive in the city he finds meets and find other animals in hiding and he learns that humans are blaming animals for a virus outbreak and are hunting them down. He is joined by a feather brain pigeon named Hubert and together they must find a way to unite the animals to fight back against the humans who are trying to exterminate them in Hedgehogs (2017).

Bobby is also a hot shot, arrogant, smart aleck hedgehog who find himself suddenly in the city with amnesia and he is found by Hubert the Pigeon, who tries to convince him that he is a bird too. As he slowly recovers his memories, he learns that the animals in the city have given up and have gone into hiding. Bobby and Hubert then reminds the animals in the animal kingdom that they are animals and have natural defenses and can and should fight back.

This was no Sonic the Hedgehog (but might as well be), but this was a very cute film with 3-D animation and animals. It is filled with adventure and comedy as cute characters fight against the 'evil' humans, so you know what you're getting here. Extras include Bring the Characters to Life and trailers.

Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie (2018) is an attempt to revive the characters from the hit TV series, though it only runs 80 minutes, so 'movie' is pushing it, but Arnold wins a vacation only for his parents to disappear. Then, it turns out to be even more problematic and the adventure begins to find them and bring things back to normal.

Not bad in itself, but the energy, smoothness and joy that characterized the original show is missing here a bit and things do not meld as hoped for. However, fans might like it, but their characters could be utilized better next time. There are no extras.

Join Paw Patrol as they share their seaside adventures as they follow their Captain/Master Ryder to patrol Adventure Bay. Because no job is too big and no pup is too small for the Paw Patrol in the new DVD compilation set, Paw Patrol: Sea Patrol (2018).

As you may know, The Paw Patrol is a group of cute puppies with high tech gadgets and vehicles in which they use to learn and rescues people from danger. They faithfully follow their leader/captain/master Ryan, a 10-year-old boy as he trains them as a first response team. They travel in a transforming base/boat.

This was a cute puppies series set in beautiful and fun sea side setting. Each episode has daily safety tips and advice with fun fact of about the sea. No extras.

Episodes are...

Pups Save a Baby Octopus - The pups must help a mother octopus find her baby.

Pups Save a Shark - The pups investigates when a shark starts scaring people from the beach.

Pups Save a Pier - The pups must save they pier when one of it's post collapses.

Pirate Pups to the Rescue - The pups go after buried pirate treasure.

Pups Save a Frozen Flounder - The pups save the boat Flounder when it gets stuck on ice.

Pups Save a Narwhal - A Narwhal gets stuck in the bay, the pups must reunite it with it's pod.

Finally, we have Shimmer and Shine: Beyond The Rainbow Falls (2018) is the latest compilation DVD, this time a 93-minutes, seven-episode release from Nickelodeon that offers nothing really new here, but at least the quality has not dropped off. I can still see the appeal, but I think they need to start adding more of something before this gets too formulaic.

No extras.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on all the remaining DVDs look as good as they can in the format, with the Nickelodeon releases performing as expected, and Hedgehogs doing a bit better as it was intended for theatrical release. Flaws like banding, cross color and aliasing are rare. The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 is also good for that old format in all cases, but lacking versus the lossless audio we've become more than accustomed to by now.

- Nicholas Sheffo, Ricky Chiang (Hedgehogs, Paw) and James Lockhart (Coco 4K, Robin)

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