Esteban et Zia (AK Video - France)

[Jester217300]

Got my copy today, looks like it definately exists Specs from the back cover:

Video: 1080p AVC / 23976 FPS / 83 Minutes
Audio: French Dolby TrueHD Stereo
UPC: 3519660107433

As suspected no mention of English audio or subs. I'll post some scans later tonight and I'll try to watch it tonight or tomorrow.

[bruceames]

That's good to know. I'll look forward to your impressions.

[tormond]

MIne shipped today as well so hopefully I should see it shortly (I paid for expedited shipping)

[Jester217300]

The transfer is a bit problematic but I imagine most of the issues are due to source problems. The animation looks a lot like pieces of paper moving about, sometimes being jerky and sometimes being smooth. Black lines don't retain shape at all which is rather annoying considering everything in the movie is outlined in black. Lines are constantly moving about with dropouts and constant jaggies. The background in every shot is so fuzzy it's almost hard to make out but it seems like that is intended and not an issue with the transfer. A few shots had some minor artifacting.

The movie itself is geared toward very small kids, probably 6 and under. This is not adult animation like TMNT and doesn't have an abundance of relatable humor like Asterix or Kirikou. The movie is very dialoge heavy with every character speaking in almost every scene. The basic plot is very easy to pick up on but since this is a sequal to a TV show there are some things that go unanswered, such as why the two main characters are in jail in the begining of the movie.

The disc has no subtitles at all and no extras, along with only one audio track. The main menu offers "play" and "chapter selection" but there is no pop up menu. The saving grace for this disc is color display with primary colors looking very good but little to no color variation. Overall I'd say it's one for collectors.

Movie: 1/5
PQ: 2/5
(AQ not rated since I was listening through my TV only)

[bruceames]

Wow, that sounds pretty bad, but I guess as long as it's an HD DVD, then I need to have it in my collection.

[bruceames]

I got my copy today and can confirm the sub par PQ. To make matters worse, this is actually a single layer DVD, with an(1440 x 536) AVC encode and a 2 layer trueHD track (which doesn't sound bad at all, actually). So this becomes the first true fake HD DVD (other than the HDNet titles that Amazon sold).

[tormond]

I got my copy today and my 2 and 4 year old were happy with it. I was not impressed and of course I had NO idea what they were talking about in the movie but hey, it does at least appear to be an HD DVD

[bruceames]

Originally Posted by tormond

I got my copy today and my 2 and 4 year old were happy with it. I was not impressed and of course I had NO idea what they were talking about in the movie but hey, it does at least appear to be an HD DVD

Nice that they were able to enjoy it in French. It goes to show how much enjoyment one can get just from the video aspect.

[tormond]

Originally Posted by bruceames

Nice that they were able to enjoy it in French. It goes to show how much enjoyment one can get just from the video aspect.

Well thanks to Jester my 4 year old has been running arond the house singing "Transformers....More than meets the Eye" (over and over) for a month now.. That and she can watch that Jim Carrey Abomination of The Grinch over and over