PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Jurassic Park: Collector's Edition (1993)

Jurassic Park: Collector's Edition (1993)

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Released 10-Oct-2000
Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Action	Main Menu Audio & Animation Scene Selection Anim & Audio Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of-The Making of Jurassic Park Featurette-Early Pre-Production Meetings Storyboards-5 sequences Featurette-Location Scouting Featurette-Phil Tippett Animatics: Raptors In The Kitchen Featurette-Foley Artists Gallery-Photo Notes-Dinosaur Encyclopaedia Production Notes Trailer-3 Biographies-Cast & Crew DVD-ROM Extras
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	121:21
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (75:12)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Steven Spielberg
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Sam Neill Laura Dern Jeff Goldblum Richard Attenborough Bob Peck Martin Ferrero B.D. Wong Samuel L. Jackson Wayne Knight Joseph Mazzello Ariana Richards
Case	Brackley-Trans-No Lip	Starring
RPI	$39.95	Music	John Williams

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Hungarian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	English German Arabic Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Finnish Greek Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Norwegian Polish Swedish Turkish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, at very start of credits

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) are fascinated by dinosaurs and have spent much of their lives digging, excavating and studying dinosaurs.

John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has found a way to recreate the dinosaur and is in the process of creating a giant theme park called Jurassic Park, thus allowing people to see these creatures in the flesh, like at a zoo.

John Hammond asks Dr. Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler to come to Jurassic Park, which is almost ready to be opened to the public, to gauge their reaction and to reassure his investors. A K-Mathematician (chaos theory mathematician), Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) has also been asked along for the ride.

When a greedy worker shuts down the controlling system in an effort to give him a chance to escape with stolen DNA samples, things go terribly wrong. The electrified protective fencing that keeps the dinosaurs safely behind bars, so to speak, fails. So, all the dinosaurs are now free to roam around the island. The island's human population now becomes the endangered species as they are picked off one by one by the predator dinosaurs such as the Raptors and the more famous Tyrannosaurus Rex.

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Transfer Quality

Video

The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and is 16x9 enhanced.

The picture is extremely clear and sharp at all times, but it is just a tad softer than the very best I have ever seen. This is more an observation than a criticism. The picture appears to have slightly higher than normal picture brightness, but again this is more of an observation than a criticism and it does not degrade the picture quality at all. Shadow detail was excellent. No low-level noise, edge bleeding or excessive edge enhancement was noticed.

The colours were vibrant and deeply saturated, with just one sequence at 28:30 where the skin tones seemed a little red, but this is being very picky. The skin textures of the dinosaurs are amazing and are totally believable.

Pixelization and grain is non-existent, except for one really minor occurrence at 33:57.

There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Aliasing is extremely rare and very mild when it does occur, of which the most noticeable was at 10:40, but even that was not overly distracting. Film artefacts are extremely rare, with only three tiny white specks noticed.

This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change occurring in Chapter 12, at 75:12, on a scene change. This layer change is perfectly placed and does not disrupt the flow of the movie, but it is still easily spotted.

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

Audio

There are four audio tracks on this DVD; English 384kb/s Dolby Digital 5.1, English 192kb/s Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded, German 384kb/s Dolby Digital 5.1 and Hungarian 192kb/s Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded . I listened to the default English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

The dialogue was clear and easy to understand and very well integrated into the overall sound stage. No audio sync problems were noticed with this transfer.

John Williams' music score suits the movie well, as it adds to and enhances the on-screen action.

The surround channels were very aggressively used for ambience, music and lots of special effects. You are placed uncomfortably right in the midst of the action with the dinosaurs and the characters because of the many noticeable directional effects and good sound placement within the sound field. Some of the stand-out examples of surround channel use can be found at 0:23, 14:50, 17:17, 50:54, 56:58, 58:08 and 72:16.

The subwoofer gets a good work out, but I was a little disappointed with its presence, as it only just managed to rattle my floor on a couple of occasions.

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

Extras

There is an excellent selection of extras present, with only a Director's Commentary missing. All the extras are of very high quality, with the exception of the Early Pre-Production Meeting extra.

The Menu is presented in 1.33:1 and has a lead-in video clip and then another video clip of a Raptor prowling the main foyer of Jurassic Park. You also get some additional footage when you select a menu option. The extras menu has a short repeating musical score. The Main Menu selections are; Languages/Audio, Scene Selection (20), Subtitles, Extra Features, and Play Movie.

Featurette - The Making Of Jurassic Park (48:57 minutes)

This featurette is of very good quality. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0, 192kb/sec stereo soundtrack. The content can only be described as superb, and this extra is an absolute must-watch. It features James Earl Jones as narrator.

Featurette - Early Pre-Production Meetings (6:19 minutes)

This featurette is of poor quality. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0, 192kb/sec stereo soundtrack. It shows Steven Spielberg discussing ideas for the movie with key crew members. Unfortunately, this featurette suffers from low-level noise, grain, low picture resolution and a constant sound hiss.

Storyboards (5 scenes)

Artist sketches (storyboards) for the T-Rex Attacks, Jeep Chase, Velociraptor In The Kitchen, Omitted Baby Trike Scene and The Original Ending sequences. They are presented at 1.33:1 with no audio.

Featurette - Location Scouting (2:00 minutes)

This comprises discussions between Steven Spielberg and photographers in regards to filming locations. The footage appears to have been shot on video camera, but it is still of good quality. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with a Dolby Digital 2.0, 192kb/sec stereo soundtrack.

Featurette - Phil Tippett Animatics: Raptors in the Kitchen (3:02 minutes)

An animatronics version of the Raptors In The Kitchen sequence. It is of very good quality, presented in a non-16x9 enhanced aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with no sound.

Featurette - Foley Artists (1:24 minutes)

This shows how the sound effects for the baby raptor breaking out of its egg were made. It is of very good quality, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Dolby Digital 2.0, 192kb/sec stereo soundtrack.

Production Photographs (73)

This section is comprised of photos and sketches which are broken up into six sections; Steven Spielberg with cast and crew (26), T-Rex Main Road Attack (15), Other Dinosaur Design Sketches (7), Early Dinosaur Design Sketches (14), Concept Paintings (10) and Photo Identification (1).

Dinosaur Encyclopedia

Information on Dilophosaur, Velociraptor, Callimimus, Triceratops, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Brachiosaurus, the Triassic Period and the Jurassic Period.

Production Notes (20 pages)

General information about the movie.

Theatrical Trailer - Jurassic Park (1:13 minutes)

This is of excellent quality, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced and with a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack.

Theatrical Trailer - The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1:58 minutes)

This is of excellent quality, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, 16x9 enhanced and with a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack.

Teaser Trailer - Jurassic Park III (0:40 minutes)

Teaser footage taken from 1 and 2, presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with a Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded soundtrack.

Talent Profiles (8)

This section contains Biographies & Highlight Filmographies for Steven Spielberg, Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero and B. D. Wong.

Flier

A single page advertisement for the upcoming R4 Gladiator DVD.

DVD-ROM Features

These would not work on my PC (or Michael's PC for that matter), so I'm not sure that there are actually any DVD-ROM extras on this disc other than the autorun files.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

Higher bit rate 448kb/s Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. The R4 version has a 384kb/s Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.
(Possibly the) DVD-ROM enhancements, including a link to the set of Jurassic Park III.

The Region 1 Dolby Digital version of this disc misses out on;

Nothing

The Region 1 DTS version of this disc misses out on;

Making of Jurassic Park featurette
Early pre-production meetings
Storyboards
Production photographs
Design sketches & Conceptual paintings
Featurette on the making of the “Raptors In The Kitchen” scene
DVD-ROM enhancements

R4 vs R1 Dolby Digital

The quality and extras are basically the same, so the R4 disc is the better choice here because it will not suffer from 3:2 pull-down artefacts and will have approximately 20% more picture detail than the R1 NTSC version.

R4 vs R1 DTS

The sound quality is supposedly even better on this disc, but you do miss out on many extras and the advantages of PAL, so I leave it up to you to decide on this one.
(Ed. I have read reports that the DTS mix on the R1 Jurassic Park is inferior to the R1 Dolby Digital mix. Unfortunately, as we are reviewing this movie pre-worldwide release, the R1 DVDs were not available to us so we were unable to perform a direct comparison).

Summary

Jurassic Park has fantastic visual effects that are totally believable, presented on a superb DVD.

The video transfer is superb, and only just misses out on being of reference quality.

This is a magnificent audio transfer, and again it only misses out on being reference quality by the narrowest of margins.

There is an excellent selection of extras.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Sony DVP-725, using Component output
Display	Sony Projector VPH-G70 (No Line Doubler), Technics Da-Lite matt screen with gain of 1.0 (229cm). This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio Decoder	Built in to DVD player. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Amplification	Onkyo TX-SV919THX
Speakers	Fronts: Energy RVS-1 (3), Rears: Energy RVSS-1 (2), Subwoofer: Energy EPS-150 (1)

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