Hugo (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Adventure	Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Making Of
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	121:11
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (55:20)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Martin Scorsese
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Ben Kingsley Sacha Baron Cohen Asa Butterfield Chloë Grace Moretz Ray Winstone Emily Mortimer
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	?	Music	Howard Shore

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Martin Scorsese has been considered one of the very best directors in the world for many years, famous for films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, The Departed, The Aviator and many more. He has been nominated for Best Director at the Oscars at least 7 times, winning once for The Departed. Most of his films have contained themes involving violence and darkness of the soul, however, in this film, Hugo, he is in a much more family friendly genre. This film is based on a wonderful book, which can be enjoyed by adults and children alike, The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. It is a very cinematic book with the story being told partially in pictures with no words and partially in words. I had the great pleasure to read it before seeing this film and enjoyed it thoroughly. The book itself is cinematic in the way it tells its story but also the story is related to the history of early cinema especially Georges Melies, an early cinema pioneer. The Georges Melies character in this story is strongly based on his actual life and films.

     Despite all of the cinematic qualities of the book and plot, the story is really focused on the adventures of one young boy, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) who lives in a major Paris railway station, Gare Montparnasse, in the 1930s. He lives inside the workings of the station’s old manually wound clocks with his alcoholic uncle (Ray Winstone). He ended up there after his father (Jude Law), a watchmaker, died in an accident. His uncle is employed to look after the clocks, however, leaves most of the work to Hugo, eventually disappearing completely. The only things he has left from his father are a broken automaton which looks like a boy and his father's notes and drawings from when they were trying to fix the automaton together. In order to try and repair the automaton, Hugo has been stealing clockwork parts and toys from a small toy store within the station. One day, he is caught by the shopkeeper, known as Papa Georges (Ben Kingsley), who is angry and takes his notebook of drawings and notes from his father. Hugo tries to work out how to get the notebook back, however, Papa Georges refuses to relinquish it, threatening to burn it. Hugo enlists the assistance of Papa Georges' young godchild, Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz) and they begin to form a friendship. Hugo is also trying to avoid the attention of the Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) who enjoys nothing more than sending an orphan to the orphanage. Hugo must keep the clocks going, whilst also trying to get back his notebook and finish the automaton which he believes hides a message from his father. Other notable characters include Lisette, the flower stall owner (Emily Mortimer), the book shop owner Monsieur Labisse (Christopher Lee) and Mama Jeanne, Georges wife (Helen McCrory).

     This is a beautiful film with marvellous set design, excellent special effects, wonderful sound design and music by Howard Shore, excellent acting and a wonderful adventure story for the whole family. I loved the book and this adaptation is very true to the book, whilst obviously taking out some elements for runtime reasons. I really have no complaints to make about the film, it is extremely well done from start to finish. It was shot in 3D and must look marvellous in that format, unfortunately, this DVD is not in 3D but the film is magical nonetheless. The film is available on Blu-ray and 3D Blu-ray but unfortunately we have not received review copies of these. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards at the 2012 awards, winning 5 for art direction, cinematography, sound editing, sound mixing and special effects.

     Highly Recommended.

Video

     The video quality is excellent for DVD.

     The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio which is close to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. It is 16x9 enhanced.

     The picture was very clear and sharp throughout affected a little by blur during motion but no worse than normal for DVD.

     The colour was generally excellent for DVD, showing of the colours of sets and costumes.

     The only obvious artefacts were some minor aliasing on clothes and a little pixelization especially during smoke from the trains. These are nit-picking and these are as minor as you could expect on DVD.

     There are subtitles available in English which are clear and easy to read.

    There are no obvious layer changes during playback.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio quality is excellent for DVD but I am sure it would be significantly better on a Blu-ray.

     This disc contains a English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1 plus an Audio Descriptive track.

     Dialogue was clear and easy to hear and understand throughout.

     The music is by Howard Shore and is wonderful, sounds great and really complements the film. There are also some jazz guitar pieces as Django Reinhardt is a character in the film.

     The surround speakers were used to show off the academy award winning sound design with lots of atmosphere and sounds of clockwork throughout.

     The subwoofer was mostly used for music and trains.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

     The menu is nice with music and scenes from the film.

Shoot the Moon - The Making of (18:59)

     An informative and interesting making of featurette which includes author, director, cast and crew interview segments and discussion about the dog and children involved plus the use of 3D.

    This DVD seems to be very similar globally.

     A beautifully made adventure story for the whole family.

     The video quality is excellent.

     The audio quality is excellent.

     There is one extra.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall