Speed Racer - Blu Ray - Sept 2008 (1 Viewer)

[Chuck Mayer]

From a UK site, dated 16 September 2008.

Click me for art

Considering this is STILL my favorite film of an exceptional strong summer, I hope it finds an audience at home Looks a bit light on special features, but as long as the PQ is as good as possible with some uncompressed audio to back it up, this should be a reference disc for some time.

 

[PaulDA]

This will be a definite Blu-ray purchase for me (it will sit nicely with the 5 DVDs of the original series on my shelf). I don't even own a BD player yet and I've already lined this one up to buy. While I wouldn't call it the best film of the year or anything, I do think too many critics lambasted it without being familiar with the originals. I've been watching the originals again with my kids and the more I watch, the clearer their influence on the film becomes.

 

[Bryan^H]

I feel bad I didn't get to see this in theaters. Oh well I'll make up for my lack of
support by buying this on the day of release

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Wonder if the BD will represent the original source or the theatrical look?

 

[Felix Martinez]

I would be greatly disappointed if it represented the theatrical look in this case, as there were compromises made in the color for the film prints.

I can't wait for this release. I loved it in the theater, and I think I'll adore it on Blu.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

I'm expecting a port of the original digital files and nothing less.

 

[SilverWook]

I was in Sears yesterday looking at HD sets, and the trailer came up in the summer movie loop that was running. I don't know what sort of signal they're feeding all the tv's there, but it looked spectacular! It made me wish I could go see it again!

Really looking forward to the Blu Ray!

 

[Ray H]

Luckily, the Blu-ray seems to be regularly priced. It's a three disc set, but it's unlikely that anyone will ever use the last two discs. Disc two is a DVD game and disc three is a digital copy of the film.

To anyone who hasn't seen the film, I fully recommend it. It's probably the most entertaining film I've seen all year. Just remember to have fun.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

That was very interesting information - thank you.

I'm a bit ashamed to admit that I liked the film. It wasn't the best film, hell, I wouldn'teven say it's a good film, but it was an astonishing experience, and I loved the fact that they seemed almost to be experimenting with how much stuff they can throw at the viewer and have the experience still remain comprehensible. And on Blu-Ray, it will be even better. Cool.

 

[Jim_K]

I'm not sure yet if I'll try a blind-buy on this or go the rental route. If there wasn't so much coming out on BD this fall I'd be more inclined to take a chance.

 

[Paul Arnette]

I haven't really watched any of the original series, but I find it hard to believe that the cartoon had as many flash backs, flash forwards, and just generally too dense of a backstory as the first third of this film had. I think this was where the greatest mistakes were made if this was ever truly aimed at kids as the movie's promotion would have you believe. If it wasn't, I guess it was just simply a case of grossly over-estimating the interest in this property.

That said, I couldn't recommned this film as a blind-buy to anyone, but definitely a rental. I may pick it up for demo material/family movie night viewing (when my kids are a little older this time) if the title is deeply discounted at some point.

 

[Jefferson Morris]

An under-rated film (coming from someone who was never a fan of the cartoon), and one that I eagerly await on blu.

The fan antipathy the Wachowskis incurred as a result of the Matrix sequels unfairly tainted this effort.

--Jefferson Morris

 

[Felix Martinez]

I saw the film as a manga inspired by the TV show. The first 1/3 is indeed all over, temporally, but in a way that to me recalls the times I've read comics and marvelled by the ability to be everywhere at once on one page, depending on the panel.

But yes, I would recommend a rental for most, but this is an enthusiastic buy for me.

Also, great, GREAT score by Michael Giacchino (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and the ROAR! music from Cloverfield's end credits). Check out a few tunes from the soundtrack album off iTunes or something. It's amazing what he did with the score.

 

[PaulDA]

Flashbacks were not uncommon, though flashforwards were not really there. I was referring to the business rivalry plot elements that people derided as not in tune with the material--that kind of stuff is in a lot of episodes. The road race in the middle of the film is definitely inspired by the originals--probably the moment when the film most resembles the originals, actually. The ideal time for this movie would have been 20 years ago, in terms of target audience and attachment to the originals, but it was only possible in this decade (this past 24-36 months?). In any case, I thoroughly enjoyed it and it will likely be the first BD to be screened here (I've been promised a player for Christmas, but that doesn't mean I can't get a few key titles beforehand ).

 

[John Hermes]

Yeah, let's keep Lawrence of Arabia on the back burner and have more Speed Racer releases. Geeze.....

 

[PaulDA]

:rolleyes

One can enjoy many types of movies--at least most people can. Lawrence of Arabia will take more time and effort to bring to BD properly (Speed Racer just needs to be ported over from a digital source--much simpler procedure). It's not a zero sum game. Both of those titles will sit on my shelf in BD.

 

[Nick Graham]

With Bill's news this afternoon, this went from a purchase to a rental at best. I have no idea how WB has gone from being the kings of optical home video to being inferior to even a mini like Lionsgate, but it has happened. I e-mailed Bill and told him it was time for the community to get organized on this issue - too many movies that would benefit greatly from a lossless track (I'm still bitter about The Aviator) are going to suffer if we don't all speak up.

Does HTF still have annual chats with WB?

 

[Paul Arnette]

It certainly has. This decision is just mind-boggling. I don't flow the insider threads that closely at blu-ray.com anymore, but I seem to recall mention being made by Max Power that Warner Bros. employed some focus group consisting of their target audience, which was 'Joe Six Pack' apparently according to him, and because they either don't have the means or the 'ear' to tell the difference DD 5.1 is what we're going to get more often than not. That is, of course, all rumor; but at least that was the gist I got, and their release specs lately seem to back up the end result if not the means used to reach the decision.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...-racer-bd.html

Depressing as hell.

This could have been THE DEMO DISC of the year.

Now it's a no-sale.

Warner... honestly... what's your problem? You seem to be the only studio who still doesn't "get it" with lossless sound.

 

[Kris Z.]

To tell the truth because I'm not an audiophile I am more concerned about their many crappy, artifact-riddled video encodes than the lack of lossless audio. However I thought a big point of Blu-ray was that for new and newly restored releases these would be more or less the ultimate editions and put an end to all the double-dipping, but apparently not so with Warner.

And it's just so annoying because it can't be that hard when almost every other studio does it better, and it can't be that much cheaper or less time-consuming to author and produce a disc with DD5.1 and low bitrates on BD-25; you still have to do it. This has to be part of some devious double-dipping, "deluxe edition" scheme.

Needless to say I will not buy any of their releases that do not feature a lossless track or that have obvious, consistent and completely avoidable video artifacts. If not for anything else then simply out of principle, because there is no excuse and this is not what Blu-ray is about.