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The Water
Horse
Legend of the Deep
(Two-Disc Special Edition) |
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| Starring: Alex Etel, Emily Watson, Ben Chaplin, David Morrissey,
Priyanka Xi, Craig Hall, Brian Cox Directed
by: Jay Russell |
Theatrical release: 2007
DVD release: 2008
Released by: Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentDolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen, Fullscreen |
When a young boy named Angus finds a strange
rock at the edge of Loch Ness, he's not expecting it to hatch, and he's certainly not
expecting it to have a mythical monster inside. The discovery can't stay hidden for long,
though, and eventually Angus will need to decide what he's going to do with the creature
he's come to call Crusoe.
The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep is based on a
book by Dick King-Smith, the man who also wrote The Sheep-Pig -- which you'll
probably know better as the movie Babe. That should give you an idea of what sort
of film this will be: a whimsical family-friendly affair, but one that doesn't necessarily
shy away from darker, tense moments.
| On Blu-ray Disc  If I judged the picture quality of The
Water Horse on a couple opening scenes, I wouldn't have been impressed. The level of
detail was average and the colors seemed off. A few moments in, however, I was presented
with other scenes that were awe-inspiring for their level of detail and color depth. Those
scenes were some of the best that I've ever seen on Blu-ray. A scene in a library, for
example, and another against a stone building still stand out in my mind. But that level
of quality didn't stick. A number of times I was again presented with more scenes that
seemed merely average.
So, overall, the picture quality varies -- sometimes just
OK, other times amazing. Luckily, most of the time it was closer to amazing than OK, so
I'd rate the picture quality high, and people interested in seeing how good Blu-ray can
look should see this movie.
What was more interesting to me, however, was how the high
resolution that Blu-ray provides treated the special effects. The "monster,"
when small, looked startingly realistic and lifelike. I don't know how the computer
artists created the little one -- a mixture of puppetry and computer animation perhaps? --
but I was impressed for how real it seemed.
As the monster grew, however, it was obvious that it was a
computer-generated creation that oftentimes looked quite fake. In fact, I found that these
scenes, which were supposed to be some of the most moving and impactful, were diminished
by the artificiality. On a smaller screen than mine, perhaps this issue wouldn't be so
obvious. But when using a projector and a fairly large screen, the production limitations
show.
Sound-wise, I found The Water Horse merely
competent. One underwater scene stood out for how realistic it sounded, but almost all of
the others were par for the course and certainly not worthy of much more than slight
praise, not unlike what Josh Barber found with the standard DVD.
...Doug Schneider
das@hometheatersound.com |
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Despite running nearly two hours long, The Water Horse
never drags, moving us through its (somewhat predictable) story at a good pace. Crusoe was
created by the folks at award-winning New Zealand design house Weta Digital Ltd., and for
the most part the effects look as seamless as you'd expect from a company with their
pedigree. The digital water is still a bit unrealistic, but that's one of the limitations
of the style.
The video presentation on the disc is top-notch. In fact,
it is nearly perfect. Details are crisp and plentiful, and there are no obvious flaws to
be found anywhere. Both widescreen and fullscreen versions are on the same disc, and the
image quality doesn't suffer for it. Colors are muted yet strong, and dark areas are solid
without being grainy. The CGI elements look smoothly integrated.
The sound is good, with all those thick Scottish accents
coming through clearly. There's some nice range in the louder scenes, but everything
seemed just a hint too quiet immediately after the disc switched layers. The normal levels
soon came back, though, so it's not a pervasive problem.
The bonus features are decent as well. We begin with eight
deleted scenes totaling seven minutes, none of which would have added much to the film.
Though you'll be subjected to a lot of trailers when you put in the second disc, there's
no trailer included for The Water Horse itself. There's also no commentary, but the
making-of featurette mostly picks up the slack.
There are six behind-the-scenes featurettes hosted by
director Jay Russell and divided into six categories: "Myths & Legends"
starts with a brief story of the Loch Ness Monster before turning slightly more
scientific; "The Story" is about the screenplay; "The Characters"
follows the casting process, including the film's bulldog; "Setting the Scene"
shows how the physical shots were prepped, while "Water Works: Creating The Water
Horse" is more about the digital side of things; finally, "Creating
Crusoe" focuses on the design of the film's star creature.
There's nothing notably wrong with The Water Horse:
Legend of the Deep, but at the same time there's nothing especially good about it
either. We've seen all these story elements before, in a variety of "a boy and his .
. ." movies. That said, The Water Horse is capably acted and
presented exceedingly well on DVD, and definitely worth buying. |
