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Pros: Entertaining documentary, music by Corsby, Stills, and Nash
Cons: BD-Live features
HTF Blu-ray Review: Coral Reef Adventure
Toddwrtr
reviewed July 2, 2009 at 1:41 pm
reviewed July 2, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Movie: 
out of
Underwater cinematographers Howard and Michele Hall explore the coral reefs of the South Pacific and investigate the cause of their decline in Greg MacGillivray’s Coral Reef Adventure, originally produced for IMAX theatres in 2003. Narrated by Liam Neeson and featuring music by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, the film documents the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, as well as reefs in Fiji and Tahiti, and the wildlife that inhabits them. The reef in Fiji has been particularly devastated die to three conditions all occurring at the same time: global warming, over-fishing, and pollution (from silt caused by deforestation). What makes the film enjoyable is the photography and the wildlife, such as the symbiotic relationship between gobi fish and bulldozer shrimp (the gobi acts as bodyguard while the shrimp cleans the home), seeing how an octopus feeds on shrimp and crab that hide in the reef, and the many different types and colors of coral.
Video: out of
This was one of the first DVDs I watched after purchasing my HDTV. While the standard definition DVD looked very good, this Blu-ray version is a major improvement, especially over the ill-fated High Definition Windows Media DVD-Rom that was included in that DVD set. Coral Reef Adventure has been cropped top and bottom from its original 70mm IMAX aspect ratio of 1.44:1 to accommodate the high definition 1.78:1 frame in this 1080p AVC encode. Colors are vibrant and crisp, the gorgeous blues, greens, and reds of coral are simply breathtaking. The print used was virtually free of specks of dirt and mosquito noise.
Audio: out of
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is vibrant, but not as active as most IMAX films. Dialogue is clean and intelligible, and is for the most part contained to the center channel. Music and effects are spread across the remaining channels, giving a pleasant, enveloping auditory experience, and discrete effects are used sparingly.
Special Features: out of
With the exception of a documentary and trivia quiz, Coral Reef Adventure shares many of the same special features as Dolphins and The Living Sea.
Behind the Scenes of Coral Reef Adventure is a 34 minute featurette, with the film makers reminiscing on making this short film, presented in standard definition. Encoded on this Blu-ray disc at a relatively high bit rate, the original master must have been encoded at a very low bit rate, as the video is full of compression artifacts.
Film Trivia Quiz is a collection of ten multiple choice questions from the film. This quiz is not very difficult, aimed at schoolchildren. I did notice that the author misspelled the word “oops” as “opps” when you select a wrong answer.
The History of MacGillivray Freeman Films is an eight minute documentary on this small, independent studio located in Laguna Beach, California. The company started out making surfing films, but found its calling in large-format nature documentaries.
About Greg MacGillivray is a text-based biography and filmography of the director and co-founder of MacGillivray Freeman Films.
Trailers is a collection of, well, trailers, of 11 films by MacGillivray Freeman Films. Included are Coral Reef Adventure, Journey Into Amazing Caves, The Magic of Flight, The Living Sea, Mystery of the Nile, Greece: Secrets of the Past, Hurricane on the Bayou, The Alps, Dolphins, Super Speedway, and Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag. All are in high definition video and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, and can be viewed individually or via a “Play All” option.
Dynamic Connection is Image Entertainment’s BD-Live portal, which also includes access to the tuneHD.net portal. Much of the material available here is duplicated on the disc, and seven months after this disc’s initial release, much of the content is still Coming Soon. This is one of the more frustrating aspects of BD-Live.
out of Underwater cinematographers Howard and Michele Hall explore the coral reefs of the South Pacific and investigate the cause of their decline in Greg MacGillivray’s Coral Reef Adventure, originally produced for IMAX theatres in 2003. Narrated by Liam Neeson and featuring music by Crosby, Stills, and Nash, the film documents the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, as well as reefs in Fiji and Tahiti, and the wildlife that inhabits them. The reef in Fiji has been particularly devastated die to three conditions all occurring at the same time: global warming, over-fishing, and pollution (from silt caused by deforestation). What makes the film enjoyable is the photography and the wildlife, such as the symbiotic relationship between gobi fish and bulldozer shrimp (the gobi acts as bodyguard while the shrimp cleans the home), seeing how an octopus feeds on shrimp and crab that hide in the reef, and the many different types and colors of coral.
Video:
out of This was one of the first DVDs I watched after purchasing my HDTV. While the standard definition DVD looked very good, this Blu-ray version is a major improvement, especially over the ill-fated High Definition Windows Media DVD-Rom that was included in that DVD set. Coral Reef Adventure has been cropped top and bottom from its original 70mm IMAX aspect ratio of 1.44:1 to accommodate the high definition 1.78:1 frame in this 1080p AVC encode. Colors are vibrant and crisp, the gorgeous blues, greens, and reds of coral are simply breathtaking. The print used was virtually free of specks of dirt and mosquito noise.
Audio:
out of The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is vibrant, but not as active as most IMAX films. Dialogue is clean and intelligible, and is for the most part contained to the center channel. Music and effects are spread across the remaining channels, giving a pleasant, enveloping auditory experience, and discrete effects are used sparingly.
Special Features:
out of With the exception of a documentary and trivia quiz, Coral Reef Adventure shares many of the same special features as Dolphins and The Living Sea.
Behind the Scenes of Coral Reef Adventure is a 34 minute featurette, with the film makers reminiscing on making this short film, presented in standard definition. Encoded on this Blu-ray disc at a relatively high bit rate, the original master must have been encoded at a very low bit rate, as the video is full of compression artifacts.
Film Trivia Quiz is a collection of ten multiple choice questions from the film. This quiz is not very difficult, aimed at schoolchildren. I did notice that the author misspelled the word “oops” as “opps” when you select a wrong answer.
The History of MacGillivray Freeman Films is an eight minute documentary on this small, independent studio located in Laguna Beach, California. The company started out making surfing films, but found its calling in large-format nature documentaries.
About Greg MacGillivray is a text-based biography and filmography of the director and co-founder of MacGillivray Freeman Films.
Trailers is a collection of, well, trailers, of 11 films by MacGillivray Freeman Films. Included are Coral Reef Adventure, Journey Into Amazing Caves, The Magic of Flight, The Living Sea, Mystery of the Nile, Greece: Secrets of the Past, Hurricane on the Bayou, The Alps, Dolphins, Super Speedway, and Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag. All are in high definition video and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, and can be viewed individually or via a “Play All” option.
Dynamic Connection is Image Entertainment’s BD-Live portal, which also includes access to the tuneHD.net portal. Much of the material available here is duplicated on the disc, and seven months after this disc’s initial release, much of the content is still Coming Soon. This is one of the more frustrating aspects of BD-Live.
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