Muriel's Wedding: 20th Anniversary Sing-a-long Edition (1994)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Comedy	More…-Sing-a-long subtitles Audio Commentary-P. J. Hogan (writer / director) and Toni Collette Interviews-Cast & Crew-On Set Interviews - 1994 Featurette-The Wedding Video Interviews-Cast-With Rachel Griffiths, on Enough Rope With Andrew Denton Gallery-Photo-Muriel's Wedding Album
Rating
Year Of Production	1994
Running Time	100:41
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	P.J. Hogan
Studio Distributor	House & Moorhouse Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Toni Collette Bill Hunter Rachel Griffiths Sophie Lee Rosalind Hammond Belinda Jarrett Pippa Grandison Jeanie Drynan Daniel Wyllie Gabby Millgate Gennie Nevinson Matt Day Chris Haywood
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Peter Allen Peter Best

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired English Song Lyrics	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Is it really 20 years since Muriel’s Wedding hit our screens and our hearts? It seems this is so, dating those of us who were around to remember it at first hand! This iconic Australian film has already been released twice on DVD in Region 4, once in 1999 in a bare bones edition with only a trailer, the second in 2004 as a 10th Anniversary Special Edition with a nice range of extras. Both releases were reviewed on this site, the first here and the 10th Anniversary Special Edition here. In his review of the 10th Anniversary Special Edition DanielO provided a succinct outline of the plot which those few who are not familiar with the film can check out. I will not repeat that but instead concentrate upon what is different between the 10th Anniversary Special Edition and this new 20th Anniversary Sing-a-long Edition, technically and extras-wise.

Video

     The cover indicates that this 20th Anniversary Sing-a-long Edition has been digitally remastered. The original aspect ratio of Muriel’s Wedding listed in the IMDb is 1.66:1, although other sources give 1.78:1 or 1.85:1; the two previous DVD releases in Australia have been 1.78:1 and 1.73:1 (for the 10th Anniversary Special Edition). This new release is 1.85:1, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     Muriel’s Wedding was a low budget film and the review of the 10th Anniversary Special Edition pointed out instances of pixelization, edge enhancement, telecine wobble during the start and end titles, minor occasional colour bleeding, skin tones tending towards orange, several noticeable but quite fleeting film artefacts and a very noticeable layer change at 71:20.

    While Muriel’s Wedding is unlikely to ever be pristine this new print is substantially improved. It is still quite soft in places, shows some edge enhancement, skin tones vary and some interior scenes look very red. However, close-ups are nicely detailed, colours rich and glossy, the costumes look wonderful and marks are absent. Blacks and shadow detail are fine. The layer change has been moved to a scene change at 32:49 where it creates a slight pause.

     The sing-a-long English subtitles appear as white text on the screen which turns purple.

    The video is an improvement over the previous edition of the film.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

     Audio is a choice of English Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kbps, English Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 Kbps, an audio commentary at 224 Kbps and NEW an English descriptive audio by a female voice at Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 Kbps.

     The previous review noted that the “ front speakers provide good separation with dialogue well delivered by the centre channel. The surround speakers do provide some ambience, with chattering of crowds and traffic noises where appropriate. They get a more substantial job in supporting the lively musical numbers however, and some of the ABBA songs make significant use of the rear channels”.

     I am not sure what happened, but to me the audio on this release is very front orientated, with pretty much nothing in the rears, even during the musical numbers: in fact I had to check a few times to make sure that I was not listening to the 2.0 track by mistake. I wasn’t. That said, the separation across the front speakers was good, especially during the music, and the dialogue was easy to understand. I only noticed the sub-woofer during the bar scene in Sydney.

    I did not notice any lip synchronisation problems.

     The original music by Peter Best is fine, but of course it is the ABBA songs that create the magic!

    The audio is OK but a bit disappointing.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

     The extras are substantially the same as for the 10th Anniversary Special Edition. Details are given in the review of that release. The following extras are repeated:

     Audio Commentary with writer / director P.J. Hogan and Toni Collette

    Photo Album (1:29)

    Wedding Video (2:51)

    Enough Rope Interview with Rachel Griffiths (4:36)

    1994 On Set Interviews

• P.J. Hogan (writer director) (7:00)
• Lynda House & Jocelyn Moorhouse (co-producers) (4:14)
• Bill Hunter (2:35)
• Jill Bilcock (film editor) (0:36)
• Toni Collette & Rachel Griffiths (5:59)
• Terry Ryan (costume designer) (1:27)
• Chris Haywood (1:50)
• Matt Day & Daniel Lapaine (2:43)
• Martin McGrath (DP) (0:40)
• Matt Day (2:04)

     These were on the 10th Anniversary Special Edition but are now missing:

    Cast & Crew Filmographies

    Trailer

    The only extra added in this rerelease is the Sing-a-long on-screen text. As songs or parts of songs occur, white text on the screen turns purple.

     This 20th Anniversary Sing-a-long Edition of Muriel’s Wedding does not seem to be available in other regions.

     Muriel's Wedding remains a fabulous film 20 years after its release. It is beautifully acted by Toni Collette, Rachel Griffiths and Bill Hunter, funny, sad, touching and very entertaining. And of course it has the songs of ABBA.

     The video of this 20th Anniversary Sing-a-long Edition is an improvement, but I found the audio a bit disappointing. Extras are pretty much repeated from the 10th Anniversary Special Edition although a sing-a-long subtitle stream has been added. I doubt if this is enough to warrant an update – although the 20th Anniversary Sing-a-long Edition has also been released on Blu-ray, which may be worth an upgrade.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall