Look Who's Laughing: Ultimate Collector's Pack (1989)

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   Just in time for the festive season, the three Look Who's Talking films are being released in a two-disc box set. This set contains the original Look Who's Talking on one disc, and Look Who's Talking Too and Look Who's Talking Now on one single dual-sided disc. The first film is identical to the earlier release.

    The set has a retail price of $44.95, which equates to less than $15 for each film. You should be able to easily pick this up for less than $40 which makes it a great stocking stuffer present for fans of any of the films this Christmas.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Look Who's Talking (1989)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Biographies-Cast & Crew
Rating
Year Of Production	1989
Running Time	91:58
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Amy Heckerling
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	John Travolta Kirstie Alley Olympia Dukakis George Segal Abe Vigoda Bruce Willis
Case	Brackley-Trans-No Lip
RPI	$34.95	Music	David Kitay

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (256Kb/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 French German Italian Spanish Dutch Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish	Smoking	Yes, very briefly
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Bruce Willis is perfectly cast as the adult, only slightly cynical voice of Mikey, the baby. He really is restrained in this movie by comparison with his normal smart-alec, wise-cracking roles, and he carries the movie along nicely.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and it is 16x9 enhanced. This differs only slightly from the theatrical aspect ratio, and as expected I noticed no problems as a result of this.

    The movie is now ten years old, and the image is definitely on the soft side. Comparing it with contemporary transfers shows it to have a little less detail, though it does have a very film-like appearance as a result of anamorphic enhancement. Shadow detail was surprisingly good, and there was a lack of low-level noise. Film grain was very slight but was apparent, giving the movie a slightly dated look.

    Colours were quite nicely rendered, being well balanced if only ever-so-slightly undersaturated as evidenced by pale skin tones. There was a slight improvement from the beginning of the picture to about 20 minutes in, where the colour saturation improved somewhat.

    There were no significant MPEG artefacts. There were no film-to-video artefacts to speak of - very little in the way of aliasing. Film artefacts on the other hand were rife for the first ten or so minutes, which usually happens with poorly preserved film reels, but settled down afterwards. These artefacts consisted of scratches to the print, marks, dust etc.

Audio

    Dialogue was at all times very clear and easy to understand; the soundtrack was excellent in this regard.

    There were no problems with audio sync during the movie.

    The audio score was unremarkable, and was really only fill in between some classic pop songs of the (late) eighties and earlier, which were great! There is some good music on this disc, and it is always nice to revisit some forgotten songs and think "wow, is that song really that old!" The music is fairly well recorded, with the only main complaint being a distinct lack of stereo separation. Whilst foley and ambience effects are well placed, the music has a very centred feel, which of course is not helped by it not being 5.1; 2.0 surround does tend to reduce stereo separation.

    Surround presence is quite effective at times, especially when outdoors. Whilst it is not by any means aggressive, it does fill the room nicely when called upon and creates a real sense of presence to certain scenes.

    The subwoofer was used sparingly with the music, but that was about all.

Menu

Filmographies - Cast & Crew

• Filmographies - Cast & Crew

• Pan & Scan
• Theatrical Trailer

    The video quality is acceptable, though not great.

    The audio is ordinary.

    No extras really.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Look Who's Talking Too (1990)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Trailer-Look Who's Talking Now, Stuart Little, Hook
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	77:00
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Amy Heckerling
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	John Travolta Kirstie Alley Olympia Dukakis Elias Koteas Twink Caplan Bruce Willis Roseanne Damon Wayans Gilbert Gottfried Mel Brooks Lorne Sussman Megan Milner Georgia Keithley
Case	?
RPI	$44.95	Music	Billy Idol David Kitay

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/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 French German Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, Quick gag with the two kids

    When you are on a good thing, make a sequel. As a result of the success of 1989's Look Who's Talking, a harmless comedy from director Amy Heckerling about a talking baby, we got the second offering Look Who's Talking Too just a year later. The original starred a man whose career was technically floundering at the time, John Travolta teaming up with Kirstie Alley as the bumbling adults awaiting the arrival of young Mikey (voiced by Bruce Willis). That film offered some charm and a few decent laughs, with most of the humour derived from toddler toilet humour as we, the viewer, became privy to the 'thoughts' of the baby unleashed upon the big bad world for the first time. Unfortunately the sequel simply reprises much of the same humour which, at the end of the day, falls pretty flat.

    Since the last film ended, part-time pilot instructor and taxi driver James (Travolta) has moved in with Mollie (Kirstie Alley) and are raising their son Mikey (voiced again by Bruce Willis). The couple quickly conceive another child and it's the arrival of this bundle of joy, Julie (badly voiced by Roseanne Barr), that provides the main thrust of the story. James and Mollie have been having difficulty in their relationship, further exasperated by the arrival at their home of Mollie's good-for-nothing brother Stuart (Elias Koteas). This tension culminates in James moving out and not seeing the kids very often. Meanwhile, Mikey has taken it upon himself to induct Julie into the ways of kids and the household, in between learning new things for himself such as potty training.

    It's a fairly predictable story that has many of the predictable gags that we saw in the first film and laughed at then, but now seem just a little tired. Willis seems to have some fun with the role of Mikey, but Barr is really all at sea with the voice of the infant Julie. You almost cringe a couple of time, especially when the youngster is about to chuck a tantrum. She is really not switched on to this role at all and it really does just sound like she is merely reading from a script in a studio.

    Much like the earlier film, the funniest part of this one is the opening credits sequence. The same scene of rampant sperm on their way to fertilise the unsuspecting egg and the amusing conversation that occurs along the way is without a doubt the highlight of an otherwise tired film.

Video

    Overall this is a fairly ordinary video presentation, hovering really only just above acceptable standards much of the way through.

    Presented in an aspect of 1.78:1 it is also 16x9 enhanced. The original theatrical aspect was 1.85:1 so this is pretty close.

    Sharpness varies greatly. It drops to quite alarming levels on some of the interior scenes that are particularly poorly lit. Most of the scenes in the children's play areas and exterior shots are quite good. Thankfully there is no major edge enhancement present. Grain is present most of the time and is especially noticeable on the background walls in the interior shots, but this is really not that bothersome.

    The colours are not what I'd call vibrant or highly saturated. They are fairly bland and wishy-washy most of the time, so much so that you really feel like you are watching a late 1980s television show. There is little chance of colour bleeding or oversaturation with this transfer, though thankfully skins tones look natural enough to not cause any concern.

    There were no apparent MPEG artefacts, and the image really isn't sharp enough for problems such as aliasing to be a concern. There are quite a few smaller film artefacts pretty much constantly evident throughout, and a general look of print grime is also fairly obvious. Take a look at 20:05-20:08 for probably the worst case of dirt and general artefacts.

    There are numerous subtitles present. The English were the only ones I viewed and they appeared to have no major problems, apart from the odd word or two being left out.

    This is a single layered disc only so there is no layer change with which to contend.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    If the video is fairly dull the audio is really uninspiring. Overall it is a pretty lacklustre audio presentation.

    The audio has a flatness to it that seldom sees it spring to life to any great extent. All of the dialogue and most of the additional sounds come through the centre speaker, with little left/right separation and basically no surround use of any note.

    There are five Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround tracks present. These are German, French, Italian, Spanish, and of course English. I listened to the English track and verified the presence of the others.

    Dialogue is clear enough, but is still hampered by the general lack of fidelity. It dominates through the centre channel. There are no apparent audio sync problems.

    The musical score is by David Kitay. It's fairly typical of the genre. Some of the songs used in the film are excellent, including the classic Jealous Guy by John Lennon.

    There is essentially no surround channel use. Likewise for the subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Trailer

    Three bonus trailers for other Columbia Tristar titles. Featured here are Look Who's Talking Now, Hook, and Stuart Little.

    Apart from a minor difference in the trailer content, the only other difference between the Region 1 and 4 versions is the soundtracks available.

    The Region 4 disc misses out on;

• Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 Soundtrack 

    The Region 1 disc misses out on;

• German Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack
• Italian Dolby Digital 2.0

    Unless the soundtrack options are important to you, there is nothing to sway me in favour of either disc. I'll declare it a draw.

    Look Who's Talking Too continues with pretty much the same plot and the same jokes as its mildly more humorous predecessor. As a result it is a mere pale imitation of the original.

    The video quality is average, slightly grubby at times with a little loss of focus on occasions.

    The audio is fairly flat and lifeless.

    There are effectively no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Look Who's Talking Now (1993)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Stuart Little
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	91:10
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Tom Ropelewski
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	John Travolta Kirstie Alley David Gallagher Tabitha Lupien Lysette Anthony Olympia Dukakis Danny DeVito Diane Keaton George Segal Charles Barkley John Stocker Elizabeth Leslie Caroline Elliott
Case	?
RPI	$44.95	Music	William Ross

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/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 French German Italian Spanish Dutch Arabic Bulgarian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Portuguese Swedish Turkish	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Look Who's Talking Now is the third film in the Look Who's Talking trilogy. What do you do when the kids that provided much of the laughter from the first two films have grown old enough to speak for themselves and no longer require the sarcastic wit of Bruce Willis to communicate? Well, there's always the pets!

    James (John Travolta) and Mollie (Kirstie Alley) return for this, the final instalment (well, hopefully the final instalment). A few years have moved on since we last left the family which had just welcomed the latest addition to the household, the baby Julie. Both kids, Mikey (David Gallagher) and Julie (Tabitha Lupien) are old enough now to hold their own conversations, and with Christmas approaching, there is plenty of discussion in the Ubriacco household. Mikey has been asking for a dog for some time now, and when he begins to wonder that Santa may in fact not be real, James decides to take the drastic step of letting him have a dog as a means to take his mind off that most horrendous of kiddie questions. The boys head off to the pound to select a new pup, and with fate lending a hand, come home with a scruffy mongrel named Rocks (voiced by Danny DeVito). Of course, things don't quite go as planned, and when James' new boss Samantha (Lysette Anthony) decides the family could use some cheering up, especially after Mollie is sacked just before Christmas, the results are disastrous. Samantha off-loads her pampered pet poodle Daphne (voiced by Dianne Keaton) on the family. Suffice it to say the two dogs don't quite get along, having been bred on completely different sides of the tracks. And Samantha isn't just being nice for the sake of it - she has a plan and it rather intimately involves James.

    The President of her company, Samantha is continuing her seduction of her new company pilot...James. Coming up with some scheming idea that she needs him to fly to the country with her on Christmas Eve, the trap is set for James to fall into. Of course, Mollie the ever-vigilant wife, is completely aware of what is going on, and packs the kids into the car and heads off into the chill frost of Christmas Eve night to rescue her husband from the clutches of the sensual blonde boss.

    That just mentioned plot is really only a sideshow to the main thrust of the story, which is of course the laughs which occur as a result of the two talking dogs. There are some fun moments and a couple of really amusing lines, which I think you need to be a dog owner to understand, but overall the gags are pretty lame and the laughs few and far between. The kids will probably love it, but I certainly found this far less amusing than the first film and perhaps even less funny than the second offering - and that's saying something.

Video

    Since this is the newest film in the series I was hoping for a much improved look to the transfer and this one didn't let me down. Overall it is far sharper and cleaner than either of the earlier two films.

    Presented in the slightly modified aspect ratio of 1.78:1, the transfer also features 16x9 enhancement. The original aspect ratio was 1.85:1.

    The transfer is sharper than average. It still won't knock your socks off by any stretch, but it will suffice. Shadow detail is excellent and thankfully the level of grain never intrudes upon the image. There is no low level noise.

    Colours are moderately saturated without resorting to that vibrant bold look. More of a consistent and familiar television style is perhaps the best way to describe them. Skin tones are spot on and black levels are never compromised with tinges of grey or blue.

    There were no apparent MPEG artefacts, and the image doesn't suffer from any aliasing type problems. There are also few film artefacts, which is always pleasing.

    There are numerous subtitles present. The English were the only ones I viewed and they appeared to have no major problems, apart from the odd word or two being left out.

    This is a single layered disc only so there is no layer change with which to contend.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    Like the video, there is nothing startling about the audio quality here, but it is again a vast improvement on the earlier two films, especially Look Who's Talking Too which had quite a disappointing soundtrack.

    There are five Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo surround tracks present. These are German, French, Italian, Spanish, and of course English. I listened to the English track and verified the presence of the others.

    Dialogue is consistent and well represented in what is a dialogue heavy soundtrack (even the dogs talk remember!). Audio sync for the human characters is spot on, but it is a little difficult to measure with the talking dogs.

    The music featured in this film is not as much fun as the earlier two films. Less songs are used and the score is much like any kids action feature. Unfortunately it is set around Christmas time, so there are plenty of clichéd Christmas songs and carols.

    There is effectively no surround channel use. Likewise the subwoofer was pretty much silent throughout the whole film.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Theatrical Trailer

    A 2:20 trailer, presented full screen, it focuses on the talking dog aspect of the film. Quite funny at times and doesn't spoil too much of the wafer-thin plot.

Trailer

    A bonus trailer for Stuart Little.

    This title has been available for some time in Region 1, but is only presented with a full screen pan & scan video transfer. There is a new version set to be released in December 2003, but I have not been able to confirm any details of this at the time of writing.

    At present it is a clear win to Region 4.

    Look Who's Talking Now is basically taking a now well-worn idea and stretching it as far as it can go. Others may call that milking something for all it's worth, but I really think they extracted all the milk in the second film!

    The video is certainly better than either of the first two films, but is still nothing spectacular.

    The audio is functional, being pretty much what you can expect for a kids film.

    There are virtually no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall