Prince & Me 4, The: The Elephant Adventure (2010)

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General		Extras
Category	Romantic Comedy	None
Rating
Year Of Production	2010
Running Time	89:12
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Catherine Cyran
Studio Distributor	Nu Image Icon Entertainment	Starring	Blayne Weaver Kam Heskin Jonathan Firth Chris Geere Selina Lo Ase Huimin Wang Way Prinya
Case	?
RPI	$39.95	Music	Andrew Gross

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     The Prince and Me 4: The Elephant Adventure is the fourth film in the series that began with The Prince and Me in 2004. The first film, directed by Martha Coolidge has Julia Stiles as Wisconsin farmer’s daughter Paige Morgan who falls in love with Prince Edvard of Denmark studying incognito in the USA. The subsequent two films, both directed by Catherine Cyran and staring Kam Heskin as Paige, chart their relationship succinctly in their very titles: The Prince and Me 2: The Royal Wedding (2006) and The Prince and Me: A Royal Honeymoon (2008).

     The Prince and Me 4: The Elephant Adventure is a departure from the earlier films in location and plot. Although Catherine Cyran and Kam Heskin continue, this film does not chart the development of the relationship between Edvard and Paige and is filmed in a totally new location: Thailand. This time King Edvard (Chris Geere who took over the role from Luke Malby for number 3 and continues here) and Queen Paige of Denmark are invited to the Asian Kingdom of Sangyoon to attend the wedding of the king’s daughter Princess Myra (Ase Huimin Wang) to the wealthy industrialist Kah Raydo (Way Prinya). Edvard has another agenda in accepting the invitation: he hopes to persuade King Saryu (Vithaya Pansringarm) to allow Denmark to send more aid to the Red Ming, a northern hill tribe within the kingdom.

     On arrival, Edvard and Paige discover not only that Kah is a thoroughly unpleasant person but also that Princess Myra is in love with stable hand Alu (Amarin Cholvibul), whom she has known from childhood. When Kayla, the sacred elephant that is a pivotal part of the wedding ceremony, is seemingly stolen by the Red Ming and Alu is blamed and imprisoned, Edvard and Paige set out into the jungle to get it back accompanied by Raven (Selina Lo), a friend of Princess Myra who is a deft hand at martial arts, and Soren (Jonathan Firth), Edvard’s chief of staff. With limited time, they must face the jungle, avoid soldiers sent to stop them and the Red Ming tribespeople in order to return Kayla to the king and to assist the course of true love. All in a day’s work, really.

     The Prince and Me 4: The Elephant Adventure is a feel good film that is whole lot of fun. Filmed in Thailand the locations are stunning, the cast all look great (and keep their hair carefully groomed and outfits spotless in the middle of a jungle), there is humour, a bit of martial arts (courtesy of the beautiful Selina Lo), misunderstandings, sentiment, cute elephant antics, monkeys, romance by the ton, a nice score and (and this should not be a spoiler, given the nature of the film) a happy ending. It is lightweight to be sure, but for what the film intends it succeeds perfectly and is thoroughly entertaining.

Video

     The Prince and Me 4: The Elephant Adventure is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the original theatrical ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     This is a good looking print, although not as good as expected for a very recent film. There is some grain, and the picture is not as sharp as it could be and does have motion blur, especially in the earlier scenes. However, the colours of the jungle, and the buildings of the court are beautiful and natural, avoiding garishness. Blacks are good and shadow detail great, brightness, contrast and skin tones are fine. I did not notice any film artefacts.

     English subtitles for the hearing impaired are in an easy to read white font and follow the dialogue well in the period I sampled. They use English / Australian spelling, not American, which is pleasing.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
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Audio

     Audio is a choice between Dolby Digital 5.1 at 448 Kbps and Dolby Digital 2.0 at 224 Kbps. While this is not an action film, the 5.1 gives a good enveloping feel. Dialogue is easy to understand, the effects are appropriate, the surrounds are not used extensively but do feature music and minor effects and the sub woofer did support the music.

     Lip synchronisation is fine.

     The original music by Andrew Gross adds effectively to the mood of the film, being light hearted and Asian themed.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

     No extras, not even a trailer.

     The Region 2 UK release seems to be identical to our Region 4. At this stage I cannot find a review of the Region 1 US release although reports suggest that it does include a behind the scenes plus a making of. It is also suggested that the US version is in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. If this report is true, I would favour the Region 4.

     The Prince and Me 4: The Elephant Adventure is a feel good film that is thoroughly entertaining. The video and audio are fine, there are no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall