Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Read Along-Digital Comic Book-The Emperor's New Throne!
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	66:55
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Tad Stones
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Home Vid Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Tim Allen
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$36.95	Music	Adam Berry

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect of 1.78:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

    While not reaching the lofty heights of the Toy Story originals, this is a pretty fair animated effort. Colours are excellent with a wide palette presented and a nice saturated vibrancy to them. Pausing the image frequently showed an exemplary overall sharpness and this is also evident during normal speed playback. It would have appeared even better with an anamorphic transfer, but it still comes off quite well.

    There were no MPEG artefacts noticed. There were no aliasing problems either. The image contains several small flecks and spots but these are by no means obtrusive.

    There are three available subtitle streams; English, French, and English for the Hearing Impaired. No problems were noticed with these.

    This is a dual-layered disc but I was unable to detect any layer change.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There are two soundtracks on this disc, both English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 efforts. I listened to the English soundtrack and verified the presence of the French soundtrack. Unfortunately, the soundtracks must be selected from the main menu and cannot be changed during the feature.

    The soundtrack is quite a reasonable effort, though it certainly won't stretch your speakers to their fullest. While there is some good low end response there is almost no surround activity (I noted one brief instance of surround use). The rest of the soundtrack is workmanlike in performance and is typical of this type of feature.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Read Along Digital Comic Book

    Quite an original extra that has been well conceived and implemented. This digital comic book is a pretty close replica of the real thing. This one is entitled 'The Emperor's New Throne". There are two options available for use of the book; you can read it yourself, or have it read to you. The latter variation is provided with a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and has a total running time of 7:33 minutes. Both variants of the comic book are presented full frame.

    The Region 4 disc misses out on;

• Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command Trivia Game

• Rogues' Gallery Game

• Trailers for 101 Dalmations, The Tigger Movie, Fantasia 2000, and Toy Story 2

    The Region 1 disc misses out on;

• French Soundtrack

    None of the additional extras on the Region 1 title would make me favour that over the local product, PAL formatting, and a price tag nearly $30 less.

    Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command-The Adventure Begins is a reasonably entertaining story that the younger ones will probably enjoy. The adults that enjoyed the antics of Woody, Buzz, Mr Potato Head, et al from the Toy Story originals would be best off leaving this one to the under 12s as doesn't even come close to reaching the heights of those two movies in quality, humour, or general all-round entertainment value.

    The video quality is above average.

    The audio quality is average.

    The digital comic book is an original extra and has been well conceived and created.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall