Baby's Day Out (1994)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1994
Running Time	94:48
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (37:09)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Patrick Read Johnson
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Joe Mantegna Joe Pantoliano Lara Flynn Boyle Brian Haley Adam Robert Worton Jacob Joseph Worton
Case	?
RPI	$26.95	Music	Bruce Broughton

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish 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
Subtitles	Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired French German Italian Spanish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	Yes
		Action In or After Credits	No

    This light-hearted comedy comes from the producer of Home Alone (1990), John Hughes. It is an entirely formulaic film that follows the direction of earlier films such as the aforementioned Home Alone and its sequels. A very simple plot structure is used: put a child (or in this case, a 9 month old infant) head-to-head with witless ne'er do wells, make sure the kid is wise beyond his years and is blessed with the luck of the Irish and watch the baddies come to perpetual grief.

    This is a total slapstick film with all the usual falling down, being hit on the head, doused in concrete and lit on fire type of action. This is not Academy Award cinema, but then it isn't meant to be. Instead, it's a rollicking good time that the whole family can enjoy. Director Patrick Read Johnson does a great job with the material as do the supporting actors including Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix: 1999, Memento: 2001). This is not a challenging film with layers of subtext and complex character development. Instead, this is just good old-fashioned G rated fun, a real turn-your-brain-off-and-enjoy film. Recommended for the whole family.

Video

    This film is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer to DVD is quite sharp and clear throughout, with a clean image presented at all times. This film primarily takes place during the day, but all the darker scenes and the few night shots reveal a good deal of shadow detail.

    Colour during this feature is quite good and fairly natural despite its almost comic book style. There is much use of bright colour during this feature but it never descends to the point of overkill and instead a bright and colourful film is presented with a degree of restraint.

    MPEG artefacts and pixelization are nowhere to be seen during this presentation. Aliasing is not a real problem with this title with only minor instances of the artefact occurring, such as at 65:17. Also, the all-too-common edge enhancement is largely absent with only minor occurrences of this annoying artefact present, such as at 74:30. Film artefacts are few and far between, with only very minor flecks present. Grain is only mildly present.

    There are several subtitle options available on this DVD with the English option being of reasonable accuracy, though not word for word.

    This disc is RSDL formatted with the layer change located at 37:09 in the middle of Chapter 11 where a phone is ringing. This is a very strange place for a layer change, but will not be overly disruptive on most modern DVD players.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    This title offers the viewer the choice of 5 audio tracks with the English track being presented in Dolby Digital 5.1.

    Dialogue quality is quite good during this feature with no issues of note. Dialogue is not the primary concern of this movie but the amount that is present is of very good quality and is understandable at all times.

    Audio sync is reasonable throughout with only some slight out of sync singing present at 82:45. Other than this, the sync is quite good.

    The film's score is by Bruce Broughton and is light-hearted and jovial, in keeping with the tone of the film. There are also some Strauss influences during the feature, particularly The Blue Danube.

    This film makes much use of the rear channels with a fairly aggressive surround mix presented. While some films offer what appears to be a matrixed and derived 5.1 mix of a former 2.0 surround-encoded track, this film seems to have been originally recorded in 5.1. Therefore, we have quite a bit of rear sound present which can be heard at 13:18 (the van), 68:32 (the welder), and at 87:48 (the helicopter). A very effective use of the rear channels without being gimmicky.

    The subwoofer's contribution is in total harmony with the film's mix. While it is heard at several times (including at 41:45 with the truck) it is not a distraction and works in concert with the film as would be expected.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

• Play Movie
• Language Selection
• Scene Selection
• Trailer

• English
• Francais (French)
• Italiano (Italian)
• Deutsch (German)
• Castellano (Spanish)

    The Scene Selection menu offers us the choice of 5 chapter blocks along with 4 static images of the chapter block selected. These chapter blocks are only numbered and not titled as is commonly the case.

Theatrical Trailer:  1:12

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on:

• Audio Commentary:  Director Patrick Read Johnson
• 1.33:1 Full Frame (Pan & Scan) version

• PAL transfer
• Italian, German and Spanish language options

    The video is quite good with no major flaws seen.
 
    The audio is very good with a nice Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on offer that uses all the channels to maximum effect.

    The extras are almost non-existent with only a theatrical (teaser) trailer on offer.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall