Daddy Day Care (2003) |
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Daddy Day Care (2003) |
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| BUY IT |
| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Comedy |
Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio Dolby Digital Trailer Short Film-Animation - Early Bloomer Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Good Morning Eddie Murphy Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Meet The Kids Of Daddy Day Care Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Quiet On The Set! Featurette-Behind The Scenes-What Did That Kid Say? Game-Name That Noise Maker! Game-Kid Card Match Up Game-Odd One Out Outtakes Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Annie, Oliver, Stuart Little 2 |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2003 | ||
| Running Time | 88:33 | ||
| RSDL / Flipper | RSDL (56:12) | Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 2,4,5 | Directed By | Steve Carr |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Eddie Murphy Jeff Garlin Steve Zahn Regina King |
| Case | ? | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | David Newman |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) |
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| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English Arabic Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Romanian Russian Serbian Slovenian Swedish Turkish English for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
| Action In or After Credits | Yes, bloopers in closing credits | ||
Daddy Day Care is a rather uninspiring, by-the-numbers Eddie Murphy vehicle. Whilst it brings little new to the family comedy genre, neither does it cause any particular offence.
Murphy plays Charlie Hinton who, along with his buddy Phil (Jeff Garlin), is retrenched from his highly-paid job in a marketing firm. As the family funds dwindle, Charlie is forced to remove his son from the hugely expensive "hot-house" day care run by Mrs Harridan (Anjelica Huston). Ultimately unable to find suitable new jobs, the two fathers are left at home taking care of their respective sons...when Charlie is seized by the idea of starting his own child care centre - Daddy Day Care.
As might be expected, the two men bite off a little more than they can chew. Strangely, the kids fail to respond to the "Mission Statement" reading session for instance. Feeding children on chocolate and soda does not make for a quiet life, and singing Glenn Campbell tunes will only keep the little angels occupied for so long! When Mrs Harridan realises that her charges are leaving to attend the much cheaper - and much more fun - centre run by Charlie and Phil, she resorts to dobbing them in to the local child care agency. Charlie is not a quitter however, and he and Phil pull out all the stops to meet the requirements of the inspector. They are soon joined by former mailroom worker Marvin (Steve Zahn), who turns out to be a natural with the kids. Mrs Harridan will not be satisfied until they are out of business however, and she resorts to ever more devious dirty tricks to ensure hers is the last centre standing.
Murphy tries quite hard with the limited material and Steve Zahn is pretty funny as the zany helper, fluent in Klingon and not afraid to let his hair down. There is some mild fun to be had from the antics of the kids, each of whom has a cute character quirk all of their own. Unfortunately, the plot is fairly predictable and the outcome of the film is in little doubt from the outset. Daddy Day Care will provide a little entertainment for most families, but I do not imagine it will withstand much repeat viewing. It is a shame that Eddie Murphy seems to be making some strange movie choices, as he can be hilarious when at his best (Shrek, Coming To America, Beverley Hills Cop). This is certainly not his best work, but is generally inoffensive fun for the family. I would suggest Murphy fans try a rental before deciding to purchase.
The video quality of this transfer is reasonably good in most areas, but is spoiled by some persistent low level grain and pixelization.
The video is presented 16x9 enhanced at 1.85:1 which is the original theatrical aspect ratio. As mentioned above, the overall transfer is softened slightly by some noticeable grain throughout, which is most obvious against brighter backgrounds. Specific examples can be spotted fairly easily with grain evident at 2:16 on the walls, pixelization at 16:43 on the grass or grain at 58:14 on the nightie.
Most of the film is set during daylight hours, so black levels and shadow detail are not strenuously tested, but there are no major issues with either when needed. Colours are generally vivid and well rendered, with no evidence of colour bleeding. The subject matter allows plenty of opportunity for bright primary colours to be used and they all come across very well. Skin tones look pretty well natural.
The major issue regarding compression is with the level of pixelization evident in the backgrounds as mentioned above. Edge enhancement was only noticeable on close inspection and was never troublesome on my system. Examples can be seen as a minor halo around Murphy at 19:03 or the cupboard at 53:36 and the building at 76:01. Aliasing was never noticeable. Telecine wobble is absent.
Film artefacts are rarely present and this is generally a clean transfer.
The English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are rather ugly, being presented in a white font against a black background. They do follow the dialogue pretty closely however, are well timed and include appropriate audio cues. The standard English subtitles lose the audio cues, but are much easier on the eye.
This disc is single sided and dual layered (RSDL formatted) with the brief layer change reasonably well located at 56:12. It is noticeable from the slight pause in the audio stream, but not disruptive to the flow of the film.
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The overall audio transfer is of good quality, being rather lively on occasion and suffering from no noticeable hiss or pops.
The English audio track is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 encoded at 448 kbps. The dialogue is mostly clear, but there are a few occasions where the children are hard to understand. This is due to the delivery rather than a limitation of the transfer however. I noticed no issues with audio sync.
The original music was composed by David Newman (Ice Age, The Nutty Professor) and provides a suitably jaunty and light-hearted feel to much of the movie. The most impactful component of the score however, is the use of several pop tunes which crop up frequently (and often a touch too loudly). Artists featured include The Jackson 5, The Ramones and Sweet.
The soundstage is often quite immersive - mainly thanks to the musical backing. The front speakers are nicely used to provide good dialogue location and the occasional nice panning effects (for example at the scene change at 27:00 and in the Flash sequence at 29:07).
The surround speakers get some reasonable exercise to support the musical numbers and create quite an immersive feel. There are also some reasonable surround effects on occasion, for instance during the Psycho homage at 37:01, the swarm of bees at 51:44 or when the sprinklers are activated at 70:56. For a family comedy, the soundstage is overall surprisingly lively.
The subwoofer carries some bass from the musical numbers and the odd low frequency effect such as during the Star Wars light sabre battle and Flash scenes. It is used sparingly although quite appropriately for a family comedy.
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There are a few extras on this disc, all tailored to a rather young target audience.
The animated main menu has a colourful cartoon feel to it, and is accompanied by a short loop of the main soundtrack. It allows the selection of playing the movie, choosing one of twenty-eight chapter stops, language and subtitle options and access to the following special features:
This cute animated feature is a little bit of fun for the younger members of the audience. It tells the tale of a tadpole who develops his legs in advance of his buddies. Running for 3:34, and presented at 1.33:1 (not 16x9 enhanced) with a very lively Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 384 kbps.
A series of four short featurettes, showing the children interviewing each other and interspersed with comments from the cast and crew. Whilst they will not warrant repeat viewing, kids may find some enjoyment here. They are all presented at 1.33:1 (not 16x9 enhanced) with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 192 kbps:
There are three lightweight interactive games available. They generally involve matching images or sounds and may provide some fun for younger kids (with parental support to read the instructions). They are as follows:
A bit of a cheeky one this - it is the same series of outtakes as shown in the closing credits (2:23).
Trailers for four kid-friendly films as follows:
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 1 version of this film is presented with full frame (Pan and Scan) and 1.85:1 anamorphic versions of the movie on the same side of a dual layered DVD, with the same extras as our own. The Region 2 release appears to be identical to the Region 4 release. Buy whichever is cheapest.
Daddy Day Care is by no means awful - but on the other hand it is not great. It provides ninety minutes of formulaic, but inoffensive family fun. The kids are generally cute, Murphy is adequate and Zahn is fairly funny too. This will not change your life, but will probably keep the kids entertained for a single viewing and the parents will get something out of it too. Worth a rental for those looking for clean family fun.
The video quality is reasonable.
The audio transfer is pretty good.
The extras are fairly trivial, but at least they are there.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Harmony DVD Video/Audio PAL Progressive, using Component output |
| Display | Panasonic TX-47P500H 47" Widescreen RPTV. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Ultimate DVD Platinum. |
| Amplification | Onkyo TX-SR600 with DD-EX and DTS-ES |
| Speakers | JensenSPX-9 fronts, Jensen SPX-13 Centre, Jensen SPX-5 surrounds, Jensen SPX-17 subwoofer |