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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.
Australia: Land of Parrots (Blu-ray) (2008)

Australia: Land of Parrots (Blu-ray) (2008)

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Released 7-Nov-2008

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Documentary Main Menu Audio & Animation
Featurette-Making Of
Featurette-Twitcher's Gallery
Audio Commentary
Rating Rated E
Year Of Production 2008
Running Time 52:35 (Case: 108)
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By David Parer
Elizabeth Parer-Cook
Studio
Distributor
ABC Natural History
Roadshow Home Entertainment
Starring Colin Friels
Case ?
RPI ? Music Cezary Skubiszewski


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 EX
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Not 16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 1080p
Original Aspect Ratio 1.78:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

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

Plot Synopsis

    Australia: Land of Parrots. The title says it all really. This is a 52 minute ABC documentary about the various parrots in Australia. The film presents a glimpse of the life of a wide variety of native Australian parrots, but only goes into much detail on a handful (budgies, red and green parrots, cockatoos). At that, it is mainly broad information about lifecycle and habitat rather than finer points on behaviour.

    The film acts best as a primer for would be bird watchers, as opposed to an engaging doco for couch surfers. There is not a great deal of depth to information on the birds it features, nor intimate, candid, photography in the style of David Attenbrough's better docos. The film does feature some great digitally-shot footage of the birds in the wild. There are some particularly nice shots of giant flocks of budgerigars that really make the most of the high-definition resolution.

    In all honesty, most bird watchers will get as much from the mountain of extra features on the disc as they will from the movie itself. They run about as long as the feature itself, feature plenty of intresting content. They go into some detail on how the crew filmed the birds and provide more info on the birds they tracked.

    Australia: Land of Parrots is a good, short documentary. Anyone looking for the spectacle of Planet Earth will be disappointed. Australian bird watchers will be delighted.

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Transfer Quality

Video

Disclaimer: Please note that this disc has a video resolution of 1080p. It has been reviewed on a display device with a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL). More information can be found here.

    The film is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio in 1080P.

    The video looks good and takes advantage of the high resolution and colour depth available in the Blu-ray format. That said, it is noticeably a step down from the spectacle of Planet Earth.

    The film was shot digitally and features quite sharp images without any particularly noticeable grain or low-level noise.

    The colour palette is extremely well balanced and features an excellent depth of colour. There is excellent detail in shadows and darker areas, though there aren't any particularly dark shots that push the format.

    There is no sign of undesirable video artefacts at any point.

    English subtitles are present for the feature, contrary to the packaging.

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

Audio

    An English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kbps) audio track and DTS Master Audio track is present for the film (though the packaging only lists the latter). Curiously, the soundtrack defaults to the poorer quality dolby digital track.

    The audio, including Colin Friels' narration, is crystal clear throughout and looks to be well synchronised to the video.

    The documentary features a dreamy score by Cezary Skubiszewski, which works well with the pace and mood of the documentary.

    The surrounds are used well to capture the ambience of the many locations in the film and more than a fair share of background tweeting. There is little noticeable subwoofer usage, other than during images of storms, nor much need for it.

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

Extras

Main Menu Audio & Animation

    The disc opens with a pleasant animated menu featuring the theme from the film.

Audio Commentary

    A rather dry commentary that focuses on the production and filming of the documentary. Odds are that if the documentary really appeals to you then the commentary will too.

Making Of Featurettes

    A series of "making of" featurettes are presented, each focusing on the contributions of a different crew member. The producer and director discuss their involvement with the project (7:37 mins), the composer discusses his manner of work (13:59), the sound director discusses the recording of the soundtrack (6:06), the editor discusses the editing process (5:10) and two fly on the wall featurettes show how the cameramen erected filming towers (3:18) and performed aerial photography (3:25).

Twitcher's Gallery Featurettes

    Avid "twitcher" (bird watcher) Sean Dooley discusses his bird watching experiences and talks about where and how to see a wide range of the birds of the film.

R4 vs R1

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

    Presently, this title is only available in Blu-ray zone B.

Summary

    A decent, though a little underwhelming, documentary about Australian Parrots. The special features are well worthwhile to fans of the film and for educational purposes.

    The video and audio are both very good, though not the most spectacular that you will find on the format.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Adam Gould (Totally Biolicious!)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Review Equipment
DVDSony Playstation 3, using HDMI output
Display Samsung 116cm LA46M81BD. Calibrated with THX Optimizer. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL).
Audio DecoderPioneer VSX2016AVS. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials.
AmplificationPioneer VSX2016AVS
Speakers150W DTX front speakers, 100W centre and 4 surround/rear speakers, 12 inch PSB Image 6i powered sub

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