Mailbox round-up: Maleficent and Planes: Fire & Rescue

Nov 10, 2014- Permalink

Last month, I took a look at Disney’s new release of Sleeping Beauty so it fits perfectly that this month I got a chance to check out the Blu-ray of Maleficent, the retelling of the story from the perspective of the fairy tale’s villain. I reviewed the theatrical release earlier this year.

The theatrical release was visually stunning and those bringing Maleficent home will be treated to the same quality with Disney’s 1080p, 2.4:1 aspect ratio transfer. The image is clear, and textures, whether they be wood, fabric or skin, are full of great detail. Bright scenes are colourful and vibrant, and dark scenes lose none of the clarity.

On the audio side, Maleficent comes with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack and French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Dialogue is easy to understand in the centre channel and the surround channels are used to immerse the viewer in the story, especially in the battle scenes.

The disc has several bonus features such as the usual deleted scenes, a look at Elle Tanning’s love of the animated film, the creation of battle scenes, and a look at the costumes and special effects.

Angelina Jolie’s performance is fantastic and the disc is beautiful, so add this one to your library.

Planes: Fire & Rescue follows up on the 2013 film, Planes. This time around, racing plane Dusty (the voice of Dane Cook), finds that his racing days may be over and joins the world of aerial firefighting. The film also features the voice talents of Ed Harris, Julie Bowen, Wes Studi, Brad Garrett and Stacy Keach to name a few.

The flick’s 1080p 2.39:1 aspect ratio transfer is bright and colourful with just a bit of banding. The images are crisp with good texture details.

The film soars (sorry, aviation reference) in respect to its soundtrack. It comes with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track as well as French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Voices are clean and the action is immersive, especially making good use of the low frequency channel for the roar of the fires and plane engines.

The extras package comes with deleted scenes, an animated short featuring Chug and Dusty as well as two other shorts, a look at the real planes used in firefighting, a couple of fake promos and a music video for “Still I Fly” by Spencer Lee.

If you’ve got little fliers in the house, you’ll do okay to bring this one home.