David Galindo
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Mar 30, 2003
- Messages
- 1,264
[c]Elf (UMD)
Region 1 • PG • Dolby Digital • Available October 4th
[/c]
New Line has always been one of the top studios when it comes to DVD… do they carry that rep with their first wave of UMD titles? You better believe they do.
Thoughts on the Movie
Elf is a great movie, with a fish out of water premise first and a bit of holiday cheer to round it all out. Will Ferrell stars as “Buddy the Elf,” an adopted human raised by Santa and his elves, and so after finding that out sets off to New York to meet his real father.
The movie is at its best when Buddy tries to adapt to the normal world. One hilarious situation has Buddy mistaking a little person for an elf, and every genuine question he asks sounds like an insult (“Shouldn’t you be back at the north pole helping Santa build toys?”). The end turns into a normal happy Christmas ending, but thankfully doesn’t get sappy.
Will Ferrell is just so good in this movie…there was not one moment where I didn’t believe he was an elf adapting to the real world, since his whole attitude was just so joyful and peppery. Seeing Andy Richter and Amy Sedaris was also great, since they’re both so hilarious (though in this movie they play it mostly straight, which is slightly disappointing.)
This movie has enough charm to exist outside the holiday only viewing and be just a plain good movie. I really enjoyed it.
Video Quality
Elf is kept in its original aspect ratio of 1.85. The video transfer is a bit soft, but looks great... I would say the overall transfer is solid. The blacks are good, the colors are good, but I can’t help but feel that the vividness and overall brightness could have been taken up a notch. It looks great, but not as good as, say, Sony’s UMD transfers. Solid nonetheless.
4/5
Audio Quality
No problems here- the audio sounds loud, and the music sounds great. There’s very little action going on, as the movie is mostly dialogue, but what’s there sounds good. The commentaries (more on those in a second) sound loud and clear.
4/5
Extras
Hooah! New Line really packed in the special features for this UMD. Let’s start with the presentation.
The menus are custom made for the PSP, and they look nice. There’s a scene selection also, and it’s very easy to access everything. The UMD takes a couple seconds to access everything when selecting, but this is the fault of the UMD drive really. Something else that is worth mentioning is that there are no forced trailers, and all the FBI warning stuff is at the end of the film. Nice!
As for the bonus features, we have some Deleted Scenes (12:08) that look great and are in a widescreen format. Many of them are really hilarious, and it’s a real shame some of them were cut. Next up is ”Tag Along with Will Ferrell” (7:02) that’s a short behind the scenes journey with Will that’s also widescreen and is pretty interesting, though you get the feeling Will is holding back a bit for the camera since it’s a family film. Next up is a quick promo called ”More from New Line” that just features some trailers, including the original Elf trailer.
The best of all these are the two commentaries included with the UMD! You get a full length Commentary by Director Jon Favreau as well as a Feature Commentary by Will Ferrell. Jon points out the tech side of things, and Will does the same with more stories from the set. While both are good, I wish they were both together instead since Will could have really used someone to play off of. On a random side note, some New Line UMDs have easter eggs, but I couldn’t find any here.
I’m glad New Line dropped all the kids stuff from the previous DVD and instead gave us some real great bonus features, especially the commentaries. I will always favor full length commentaries over anything else, and to get two on a UMD is just awesome!
5/5
Overall…
While I am oh-so slightly disappointed with the video transfer (it’s solid, but I expected a bit more since New Line does a phenomenal job with their DVD transfers) everything else is pure gravy. Audio sound good, the extras and presentation are fantastic, the price is right ($20 MSRP, though you can find it for as low as $14 in some places)… New Line just raised the UMD bar up a notch. Huzzah!
4.5/5
Region 1 • PG • Dolby Digital • Available October 4th
[/c]New Line has always been one of the top studios when it comes to DVD… do they carry that rep with their first wave of UMD titles? You better believe they do.
Thoughts on the Movie
Elf is a great movie, with a fish out of water premise first and a bit of holiday cheer to round it all out. Will Ferrell stars as “Buddy the Elf,” an adopted human raised by Santa and his elves, and so after finding that out sets off to New York to meet his real father.
The movie is at its best when Buddy tries to adapt to the normal world. One hilarious situation has Buddy mistaking a little person for an elf, and every genuine question he asks sounds like an insult (“Shouldn’t you be back at the north pole helping Santa build toys?”). The end turns into a normal happy Christmas ending, but thankfully doesn’t get sappy.
Will Ferrell is just so good in this movie…there was not one moment where I didn’t believe he was an elf adapting to the real world, since his whole attitude was just so joyful and peppery. Seeing Andy Richter and Amy Sedaris was also great, since they’re both so hilarious (though in this movie they play it mostly straight, which is slightly disappointing.)
This movie has enough charm to exist outside the holiday only viewing and be just a plain good movie. I really enjoyed it.
Video Quality
Elf is kept in its original aspect ratio of 1.85. The video transfer is a bit soft, but looks great... I would say the overall transfer is solid. The blacks are good, the colors are good, but I can’t help but feel that the vividness and overall brightness could have been taken up a notch. It looks great, but not as good as, say, Sony’s UMD transfers. Solid nonetheless.
4/5
Audio Quality
No problems here- the audio sounds loud, and the music sounds great. There’s very little action going on, as the movie is mostly dialogue, but what’s there sounds good. The commentaries (more on those in a second) sound loud and clear.
4/5
Extras
Hooah! New Line really packed in the special features for this UMD. Let’s start with the presentation.
The menus are custom made for the PSP, and they look nice. There’s a scene selection also, and it’s very easy to access everything. The UMD takes a couple seconds to access everything when selecting, but this is the fault of the UMD drive really. Something else that is worth mentioning is that there are no forced trailers, and all the FBI warning stuff is at the end of the film. Nice!
As for the bonus features, we have some Deleted Scenes (12:08) that look great and are in a widescreen format. Many of them are really hilarious, and it’s a real shame some of them were cut. Next up is ”Tag Along with Will Ferrell” (7:02) that’s a short behind the scenes journey with Will that’s also widescreen and is pretty interesting, though you get the feeling Will is holding back a bit for the camera since it’s a family film. Next up is a quick promo called ”More from New Line” that just features some trailers, including the original Elf trailer.
The best of all these are the two commentaries included with the UMD! You get a full length Commentary by Director Jon Favreau as well as a Feature Commentary by Will Ferrell. Jon points out the tech side of things, and Will does the same with more stories from the set. While both are good, I wish they were both together instead since Will could have really used someone to play off of. On a random side note, some New Line UMDs have easter eggs, but I couldn’t find any here.
I’m glad New Line dropped all the kids stuff from the previous DVD and instead gave us some real great bonus features, especially the commentaries. I will always favor full length commentaries over anything else, and to get two on a UMD is just awesome!
5/5
Overall…
While I am oh-so slightly disappointed with the video transfer (it’s solid, but I expected a bit more since New Line does a phenomenal job with their DVD transfers) everything else is pure gravy. Audio sound good, the extras and presentation are fantastic, the price is right ($20 MSRP, though you can find it for as low as $14 in some places)… New Line just raised the UMD bar up a notch. Huzzah!
4.5/5
