Nim’s Island (Blu-ray/20TH
Century Fox)
Picture:
A- Sound: A-
Extras: B+ Film: B-
While Nim’s Island is not the most original
children’s movie ever made, I have to give it some credit for it’s creative
storytelling and for being sufficient film without being too ‘safe’ at times
and covering topics that are often avoided.
Not only that, but highly imaginative and full of adventure that most
children will enjoy, at least those between the ages of 5 and 10, but the film
is also done with enough intelligence that even adults can tolerate it.
The film
stars Abigail Breslin in the title role of a young girl who inhabits an
isolated island with her marine biologist father (Gerard Butler) as they learn
to be a family together with the passing of her mother, who was also an
adventurer. She is also reading a series
of adventure books, which become her fascination and she wants to live her life
like the stories main character, who is played out by Jodie Foster. Before too long though her father goes
missing and Nim must conquer the island through her readings and by becoming
like the hero character of her books in order to find him again.
While
this film might not appeal to the majority of adults, this Blu-ray should! First, the performance of this Blu-ray is
absolutely stunning and is perhaps the first of its kind to be near-reference
quality in many respects. The High
Definition 1080p widescreen transfer is framed in scope 2.40 X 1 and looks
magnificent all around. The film
presents itself with a wide variety of different scenes and looks that brings
Stuart Dryburgh’s cinematography to life like no other. The depth, detail, color fidelity, and video
black are excellent and demonstrate the best that Blu-ray and high definition
have to offer. It’s fair to say that
this disc will give your TV a workout for sure!
Then
there’s the audio, which is equally impressive and wonderful bringing all the
magic of the film to a highly detailed sound design, which is presented here in
DTS-HD lossless 5.1 and is a great compliment to an impressive picture. Dialogue is crystal clear and mainly present
in the center location of the mix, while a dynamic music score (Sir Patrick
Doyle) comes from a wide variety of places and gives a very three-dimensional
quality to the films mix.
Since
this is a 50GB disc there are a ton of extras to accompany a solid Blu-ray
performance. There are two commentary
tracks, the first is by Jodie Foster and Abigail Breslin, which is mainly an
extension to the film, while more of the technical details are laid out by the
directors commentary track that follows.
There is also three featurettes, deleted scenes, plus several games that
kids will love and help enhance the viewing experience of the film, plus a
trivia track for adults and kids to interact with alike.
It’s
releases like this that are done right that will help the transition for
families from DVD to Blu-ray and with a spectacular performance on this disc it
will appeal even beyond those who are just interested in the story!
- Nate Goss
