BLU-RAY REVIEW

Cars

Featured In Issue 127, January 2008

Picture5
SoundNR
WSR Score4
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Walt Disney Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
54285
(MPAA Rating):
G
(Rating Reason):
For all ages
(Retail Price):
$34.99
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
116
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
No
(Regional Coding):
A, B & C
(Theatrical Year):
2006
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
11/06/07
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
John Lasseter
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Digital 5.1, PCM 24/48 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

Lightning McQueen (Wilson) is one of the finest-looking young Cars on the racetrack, but the young hot rod has a thing or two to learn about team playing. When McQueen ends a race in a three-way tie, he is given one week to get to California to compete in the Piston Cup Championship. But while on Route 66 in the town of Radiator Springs, Lightning falls for a pretty little Porsche named Sally Carrera (Hunt) and discovers that there's more to life than winning a race. (Tricia Spears)

There are two different choices when putting in the Blu-ray Disc. Under Radiator Springs there is the same seven-minute Mater & The Ghostlight and the 4-1/2-minute One Man Band shorts, as well as the four-minute epilogue—all done in HD—that were on the DVD reviewed in Issue 115, and there is also a one-minute Boundin' Cars in standard-definition. There is also an interactive Car Finder game that gives you cool facts about the automobiles and allows you to search for the cars while watching the movie. Under Emeryville you will find a Movie Showcase; Cine-Explore, which appears in-movie to give the user a behind-the-scenes experience with optional director and/or production commentary and includes seven documentary shorts and five deleted scenes. There is also the same 16-minute Inspiration For Cars behind-the-scenes featurette that is on the DVD and up-front ads.

The H.264 AVC-encoded Blu-ray Disc shows deep blacks and very nicely rendered shadow delineation and contrast. Colors are bright and nicely saturated, and really pop from the screen. The fine details in the animation are presented beautifully. This is a superb high-definition image. (Danny Richelieu)

The uncompressed linear PCM 5.1-channel soundtrack features good fidelity, with natural-sounding dialogue and good phantom imaging around the room. The mix is the same as that found on the DVD, with directionalized dialogue in an attempt to match the subjects' on- and off-screen locations with varying effectiveness. Dynamic range is broad, and the noise floor is very low. (Danny Richelieu)