Goo Goo Dolls-Live in Alaska (Music in High Places) (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Music	Featurette-Kotzebue, Alaska...Stranger Than Fiction Featurette-Train Story-The Alaskan Railroad Music Highlights-Just The Music (9) Biographies-Cast
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	57:56
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Ryan Polito
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	John Rzeznik Robby Takac Mike Malinin Greg Suran
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Goo Goo Dolls

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	French German Spanish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Music in High Places is the continuing series of specials that takes some of the world's top recording artists to some of the more exotic and ancient locations on the earth. This is the third such disc I have taken a look at and is certainly the best of the three to date. The two previous titles I have reviewed featured Collective Soul travelling to Morocco and the Deftones wandering around Hawaii. Various other review team members have checked out other discs, so have a search through the database if you want to track them all down.

    This disc features the Californian rockers Goo Goo Dolls travelling to Alaska. Visually it is stunning, as you would expect, but the best value comes from the genuine enjoyment the guys show as they meet and greet the various locals in small towns and really immerse themselves in the culture.

    The band consists of lead singer and guitarist John Rzeznik, bassist Robby Takac, drummer Mike Malinin, and guitarist Greg Suran. The guys get involved in everything from dog-sledding, sliding around a mud pool with a bunch of kids, to sampling the local ales at a small town pub run by an Australian!  This is all while really seeming to enjoy themselves to the maximum. There's no prima donna style elitism amongst any of these guys and they come across as genuine and down-to-earth chaps. When it comes time to play a tune, they handle all with ease and skill in the acoustic mode. Some of their material, especially the hit Slide and Here is Gone sound excellent in the stripped down mode. Strangely, their mega-hit Iris, from the City Of Angels soundtrack is absent from the set list. It is a small price to pay for what is really a fun journey and set of performances.

    The scenes listed in the inside cover also show what songs are played during that chapter, but quite a neat feature is the ability to play the disc with just the songs and leave out all the background stuff like the guys wallowing in mud or dog sledding. As always, some real thought has gone into this special and it shows in the quality of the finished product.

    The following songs are performed by the band during the program. Note only the first six are actually listed on the back cover of the disc.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is also 16x9 enhanced. It was obviously made for commercial television, as scattered throughout the programme are a series of Music in High Places logos that pop up obviously designed to bookend either side of an ad break. These don't detract from the enjoyment much - they are just a little annoying after the fourth or fifth time.

    The level of sharpness is excellent. Grain is barely evident on only a handful of scenes, but doesn't distract and there is no low level noise.

    The colour palette is extensive and richly rendered. The icy blue of the sky to the deep aqua of the glacial lakes are all displayed to perfection. The greens of the Alaskan countryside are vivid, detailed and varied in their hue and the bright splashes of blue on the train stand out like beacons among the frosty ice and snow. There is no bleeding or oversaturation evident.

    There are no MPEG artefacts. There are no other video artefacts at all.

    There are three subtitle streams present. I was unable to test the accuracy of these as they are presented only in French, German, and Spanish, all languages with which I am unfamiliar.

    Although this is a dual layered disc, I was unable to detect a layer change. I am assuming the main feature is on one layer and the extras are on another.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are three audio tracks available, these being Dolby Digital 5.1, 2.0 and dts 5.1 soundtracks.

    I listened to both 5.1 soundtracks and briefly sampled the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Both surround tracks offer pretty much the same separation and spread across the front soundstage. There is little surround use, though this reliance on only the front speakers does not detract from the aural experience. Both tracks are clear and concise, with nice reach to the lower end of the scale. Naturally enough, the soundstage is dominated by the centre channel for much of the dialogue, but when the band performs a song, the audio opens up nicely to both left and right channels.

     Dialogue is clear at all times during the interview scenes, and the vocals during the songs are also highlights. There has obviously been some serious post production work done on the acoustic recordings as the vocal efforts are superb with every word and sound crystal clear. There are also no audio sync problems.

    The music of course dominates this special. The eight songs are all performed acoustically and to see the guys floating on a small iceberg in the middle of a lake belting out a tune is quite inspiring.

    There is virtually no surround use, except on the Music in High Places logo which pops up several times during the documentary.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Featurette - Kotzebue, Alaska...Stranger Than Fiction

    This is 11:56 minutes of extra material that obviously did not make the final cut of the doco. It is simply a few extra highlights and interviews with a few of the locals of the small north Alaskan town of Kotzebue.

Featurette  - Train Story-The Alaskan Railroad

    Similar to the above featurette, this one runs for 4:33 minutes, and features an interview with the guide on board the Alaskan Railroad train the guys take a quick trip on.

Music Highlights

    Selecting the music highlights allows you to watch just the eight songs (either individually or as a play-all option) that the guys recorded.

Biographies-Cast

    Several pages of static text that act more as a promotional piece for their latest album rather than true biographies.

    Looks like this disc is exactly the same in Region 1. The local disc would be favoured here.

    The Music In High Places series of discs are a great way of finding out a little about a culture you may never have heard of and a little about a band you also may only have a passing interest in. The series put these musicians in exotic locations without all the publicity and hype, and this is often quite revealing of the true nature of people.

    Goo Goo Dolls in Alaska is a visually stunning documentary that reveals a genuineness among the band as they immerse themselves in the Alaskan culture.

    The video is excellent. The audio with both Dolby Digital and dts 5.1 options is also of superb quality.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall