The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Featurette-Spotlight On Location Theatrical Trailer Production Notes Biographies-Cast & Crew DVD-ROM Extras
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	88:00
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (49:39)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Des McAnuff
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Rene Russo Jason Alexander Randy Quaid Kel Mitchell Kenan Thompson Piper Perabo Robert De Niro
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$36.95	Music	Mark Mothersbaugh

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/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 German Czech Dutch Polish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle is the big screen return after nearly forty years of the famous cartoon moose and squirrel.

    Rocky and Bullwinkle have been stuck in re-runs since their show was cancelled and their arch enemies Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro), Boris (Jason Alexander) and Natasha (Rene Russo) have been out of work since the fall of the iron curtain. All their lives have become quite monotonous until Fearless Leader devises a plan to break through to the real world. Once there with Boris and Natasha he plans to take over the United States by broadcasting moronic programming on cable TV, turning the population into moronic zombie slaves. To defeat Fearless Leader and stop his evil plan, the FBI puts Agent Karen Sympathy (Piper Perabo) onto the case. Karen manages to bring Rocky and Bullwinkle into the real world and they set off to defeat Fearless Leader.

    Before watching this film I could easily state that I had never seen Robert De Niro in a bad film. Unfortunately, after watching this movie I will never be able to say that again. I absolutely hated this film and found it extremely difficult to watch. This was very disappointing, as I was a fan of the original show but the constant terrible puns from all the actors (and not just Rocky and Bullwinkle) combined with corny acting was too much to take.

    After talking with other people who have seen the film it appears that this film will definitely polarize audiences. If you were never a fan of the cartoon show I cannot imagine that you would enjoy this movie. If you were a fan of the TV series you still may find this film very annoying, but I do know some people who really did like this film. I would suggest that if you were a big fan of the show that you rent a copy of this movie before purchasing it to determine what your opinion of the movie is.

Video

    Other than the material presented the viewer could have no complaints with this transfer.

    The movie is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is consistently sharp and shows excellent levels of detail at all times. During the dark scenes high levels of shadow detail are constantly visible. At no stage was any low level noise detected.

    Colours are consistently accurate and vibrant in both the real and animated worlds.

    At no stage were any MPEG artefacts detected during the transfer.

    On a small number of occasions during the transfer, aliasing is visible. Some examples of this can be seen at 9:34, 22:14, 25:16, 43:24 and 45:22. Due to their short duration and infrequent occurrence, these artefacts are not disruptive to the viewer.

    A tiny number of film artefacts are visible during the transfer and are unlikely to be detected by most viewers.

    English, German, Czech, Dutch and Polish subtitles are included on this transfer. I extensively sampled the English subtitles and found them to be accurate at all times.

    The layer change occurs at 49:39 part way through Chapter 11 during a scene cut, and is only slightly disruptive to the viewer.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The dialogue is always clear and easy to understand at all times.

    No dropouts or issues with audio sync were detected at any stage during the transfer.

    The score provided suits the on-screen action well and draws obvious influence from the original cartoon series.

    The surround channels are used extensively throughout the transfer and provide an enveloping soundstage. Strong rear channel separation is evident at numerous points in the mix. The subwoofer channel is used throughout to support effects and the music.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

Featurette: Spotlight On Location (24:33)

Theatrical Trailer (2:29)

Production Notes

   10 pages of production notes are included that provide some information about the development of this movie.

Cast and Crew Biographies

   Two pages of information and a select filmography are provided for Rene Russo, Jason Alexander, Randy Quail, Kel Mitchell, Kenan Thompson, Piper Perabo, Robert De Niro and director Des McAnuff.

DVD-ROM Features

   A Rocky and Bullwinkle-themed version of screenfriends software is provided on the disc. This software provides an animated character with speech recognition technology that allows you to launch programs and perform other actions with voice commands. Also included on the disc is William Hjortsberg's script for Legend Of Darkness that later went on to be reworked for the film Legend. As this does not relate to the main feature at all I assume that this was included on the disc by mistake.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• DTS track

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    My preference would be for the R1 version due to the inclusion of a DTS track but if this is not important to you then the R4 version would be quite acceptable.

    The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle is a film that may be enjoyed by some fans of the original show.

    Both the video and audio transfer presented on this DVD are excellent and are near reference quality.

    The minimal extras included on the disc provide little information on the film but are better than nothing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall