Horrid Henry: The Movie (2011)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Main Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	2011
Running Time	89:03 (Case: 93)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Nick Moore
Studio Distributor	Transmission Films	Starring	Francesca Simon Lucinda Whiteley Anjelica Huston Parminder Nagra Richard E. Grant Noel Fielding Rebecca Front
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	?	Music	Lester Barnes Michael Price

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

     The Horrid Henry books by Francesca Simon are a kids favourite especially with pre-teen boys. It was logical then, like many other children's books that a movie be made from the books in the series. This English production is the result, which despite being fairly true to the characters and situations of the books comes across on the screen as nasty rather than funny. The film also suffers from being completely over the top in style, resulting in hammy acting even from usually reliable people like Anjelica Huston. Add to this breaking into songs inexplicably in what doesn't really seem to be a musical and you have a fairly dire mixture of elements. But that is an adult’s perspective on this film, and its core audience will get more out of it. My young sons enjoyed this film, although not as much as most kid’s films they see. Their love of the books certainly aided their enjoyment of this film.

     Horrid Henry (Theo Stevenson) is a 10 year old boy attending Ashton Primary School in England. He is constantly in trouble both at home and school. He enjoys tormenting his younger brother, Peter, and the neighbourhood girls. He is the leader of a group of boys who call themselves the Purple Hand Gang. He wants to be a rock singer and does not really get why school is important. His teacher, Miss Battleaxe (Anjelica Huston with a dodgy accent) tries to keep control but when the school inspectors arrive, Henry and the others cause such a problem that she is sacked. It is soon revealed that this is all part of a larger conspiracy by neighbouring school headmaster Vic Van Wrinkle (Richard E. Grant) to close down Ashton and get all the students to attend his school, Brickhouse. Henry must band together with his mates, the girls and even his younger brother to defeat Van Wrinkle's plan.

     This film was shot for 3D and is being released locally on 2D DVD only by new distributor, Transmission Films.

     There are definitely better kids films around, however, fans of the books will certainly get something from this movie.

Video

     The video quality is excellent for SD.

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

     The picture was very clear and sharp throughout. Shadow Detail was very good.

     The colour is extremely vibrant, in keeping with the over the top nature of the production.

     Artefacts were restricted to some minor aliasing.

     There are no subtitles.

    The layer change is not obvious.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     The audio quality is very good.

     This disc contains an English soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kbps. The soundtrack seemed a bit quiet overall.

     Dialogue was mostly clear and easy to understand with just a few lines being harder to pick up.

    The music by Michael Price is over the top and can be intrusive at times.

     The surround speakers were used for music, atmosphere and some mild surround effects.

    The subwoofer was used for thumps and thuds and supporting the music.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The menu included music and just allowed for playing the film.

    This film is available in the UK (Region 2) in the same format but has not been released in Region 1.

     A pretty dire film but will be enjoyable for fans of the books and less discerning kids.

     The video quality is excellent.

     The audio quality is very good.

     No extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall