Little Miss Sunshine (Fox Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B+     Sound: B+     Extras: B-     Film: B

 

 

After covering Little Miss Sunshine in a theatrical review here, as well as the DVD review here, there is little really left to say about the film in general.  Although I feel that I am between both of these reviews in my opinion of this comedy.  My first viewing of the film was a mixed one, I didn’t really think the film delivered the charm that audiences were raving about at the time, but upon revisiting the film several times since then, and especially on Blu-ray, I think the film grows on you. 

 

It’s a carefully woven story of a dysfunctional family out on a road trip together, more importantly we can probably see a little bit of ourselves in these simple, yet complicated characters that are put before us.  We can identify in some sort of weird and bizarre way, the more we see the film, the more we understand that it’s not about a perfect ending or a perfect family, it shows that life doesn’t always come together in a neat little package, in fact, our main character doesn’t win the Little Miss Sunshine contest, but then again, only one person can win and that leaves many other stories to be told, this is just one.

 

There is also a great story to be told about this Blu-ray release, which finally gives the home viewer an experience that is more true to the theatrical one.  The DVD was very poor in many respects, it had a weak Dolby 5.1 sound mix with a problematic transfer that was dull, soft, and did not deliver a picture worthy to be seen. 

 

Let’s begin with the 2.40 X 1 framed transfer presented in superb 1080p High Definition, which brings back color balance, full detail, depth, and represents the film incredibly well with a solid level of resolution throughout.  The DVD was far too soft and while the film does utilize a rather natural palette of colors, there is more detail given here and colors are rendered in a closer approximation of Tim Suhrstedt’s camerawork. 

 

Likewise the audio has been given superior treatment as well, starting with a rather interesting choice of Portuguese and Spanish DTS 5.1 mixes, which are a rather nice touch, but with a 50GB disc, it’s possible to include mixes like DTS that would have overwhelmed the standard definition disc.  Here we get a fantastic DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio English track as our default that runs laps around any lossy mix at this point.  As good as the DTS mixes are (which do not help unless you speak those languages) they are good for comparison to see just how far beyond that the HD mix is.  Resolution is far more natural and life-like in its playback bringing to life a music score, on-set sounds and dialogue in a more cohesive manner that allows the film to work in many ways that the other mixes could never muster.  There are several scenes were this is very important, for example there is a scene in the van when the horn breaks and continues to keep beeping away, meanwhile the whole family is chattering back and forth during this time.  The DVD and the other lossy mixes have trouble managing this bit of chaos, while the Blu-ray allows for each sound to be present and yet still manages to give confusion to the sound as well, it’s harder to explain, but just know that the Blu-ray is the definitive sound mix that will open your ears in a new way to this film. 

 

Fans will recognize that the extras are recycled over from the DVD release, but these are good extras for this quirky little film and this Blu-ray now makes that edition obsolete for sure.

 

 

-   Nate Goss