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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.
Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild (2005)

Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild (2005)

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Released 6-Dec-2005

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Family Main Menu Introduction
Main Menu Audio & Animation
Game-Help Stuart Escape, Monty's Monstrous Appetite
Read Along-Stuart's Summer Journal
Featurette-Learn to Draw
Game-PS2 Game Promo
Rating Rated G
Year Of Production 2005
Running Time 72:13
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4,5 Directed By Audu Paden
Studio
Distributor

Sony Pictures Home Entertain
Starring E.B. White
Geena Davis
Michael J. Fox
Hugh Laurie
Case ?
RPI $24.95 Music Atli Orvarsson
Robert Gordon
Bruce King


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Czech Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Romanian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
Czech
Hebrew
Hindi
Romanian
English for the Hearing Impaired
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

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

Plot Synopsis

    Two of the best family films of the last few years were  Stuart Little and Stuart Little 2. I was very disappointed to see that this third instalment was a direct to DVD effort and that it was computer animated in full rather than being the excellent mix of live action and animation used in the first two films. Accordingly, I (and my fellow reviewers) have allowed this disc to languish unreviewed for some time. I was prompted to review this one when I saw the recently released animated series of Stuart Little which is available on DVD. On the basis of my sons enjoying that one, I decided it might be worth taking a look at this. If you go into this expecting something more akin to a feature length television production rather than a feature film you are less likely to be disappointed. It is certainly nowhere near the quality of the first two movies.

    The plot is fairly clichéd, involving the Little family spending summer in a cabin by a lake, something we have certainly seen many times in 'family' films. Stuart wants to join the lake scouts but George is more focused on his video game. A girl they meet tells them a story about 'The Beast' which lives in the woods. George and Stuart join the scouts and Mr Little comes along to help run the troop. Stuart finds it difficult to do the physical tasks involved and then gets lost in the woods. Here he meets Reeko the Skunk and they strike up a friendship, helping each other when 'The Beast' shows itself.

    Most of the characters are voiced by the cast from the other movies (excluding Nathan Lane) but the quality of the animation is significantly below that used in the original movies and certainly nowhere near the quality of fully animated features such as Ice Age . There is annoyingly little detail in faces and fur which we have gotten so used to in recent productions.

    In summary, this film is decent enough entertainment for the kids but certainly doesn't have the quality writing and animation you expect from a feature film.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    The video quality is very good.

    The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was quite sharp and clear but was somewhat variable with backgrounds in some scenes being a little soft and fast motion being quite blurry. There was no evidence of low level noise.

    The colour was excellent throughout.

    There were no noticeable artefacts.

    There are subtitles in English, English for the hearing impaired and 4 other languages. The English subtitles were clear and easy to read.

    There is no layer change.
    

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

Audio

    The audio quality is very good.

    This DVD contains three audio options, an English Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack encoded at 384 Kb/s and the same in Czech and Romanian.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand. The animated lip movements synched quite badly with the dialogue. The animated characters seemed to say a lot less syllables than the dialogue.

    The score of this film by Alti Orvarsson does its job without standing out.

    The surround speakers provide some mild atmosphere but certainly nothing overt.

    The subwoofer was used occasionally by the music and to provide bass to animal growls.

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

Extras

Menu

    The menu included an intro, music and motion plus the ability to select scenes, languages and subtitles.

Help Stuart Escape

    A trivia quiz game with three levels of question, 10 questions per level. Not bad.

Monty's Monstrous Appetite

    Another game which is a little complex for the smaller children. It involves memorizing Monty's signals for food and feeding him the right thing. .

Stuart's Summer Journal

    A read-along book version of the same story as the film.

Learn to Draw

    Three instructional sections which teach your children how to draw the characters from Stuart Little. Probably the best of the extras.

Stuart Little 3 : Big Photo Adventure

    Promo for the PS2 game.

R4 vs R1

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

     This movie has been released in a very similar format in Region 1 except that the PS2 promo on our release is swapped for a music video and some trailers . There are also some minor language and subtitle differences. Region 2 is exactly the same as ours. Draw.

Summary

    A direct-to-DVD sequel to the previous movies. Not in the same class either from a writing or technical perspective.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is very good.

    A decent selection of child focused extras are included.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Daniel Bruce (Do you need a bio break?)
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Review Equipment
DVDPioneer DV667A DVD-V DVD-A SACD, using Component output
DisplaySony FD Trinitron Wega KV-AR34M36 80cm. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC).
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer VSX-511
SpeakersMonitor Audio Bronze 2 (Front), Bronze Centre & Bronze FX (Rears) + Yamaha YST SW90 subwoofer

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