Finding Nemo

[Phil Hinton]

This title will be released on the 27th of February 2004 on R2 DVD, but there are no details on whether it will include a DTS soundtrack.
Full details will be posted on the news page of www.totaldvd.com from midnight tonight.

[cybersoga]

looking forward to that one, I hope they use all the space on disc 1 for the main feature and put the extras on the second disc... The region 1 version squeezes a lot of extras (visual commentry mainly) on the same DVD9 disc and uses the second disc for a 4:3 version + more extras, and I feel picture quality was compromised because of this.

*edit* can you tell us if it is going to be a 2 disc release? :)

[FoxyMulder]

I have the region 1 and its an excellent picture, possibly the best looking and sounding disc of 2003 and plain old DD5.1 too.

[cybersoga]

There is room for improvement over the region 1 version, have a look at this (note to moderator, i am hosting these pictures myself)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/cybersoga/misc/pixar_monsters.jpg
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/cybersoga/misc/pixar_nemo.jpg

Monsters inc screenshot is from the R2 version.

[FoxyMulder]

Edge enhancement on Nemo making it look sharper then ?

I never notice edge enhamcement on my 32inch widescreen but i guess if u have larger screens u would.

[cybersoga]

EE isn't a big problem in Nemo, but it is a little softer than it could be, and you can see mpeg artifacts at times. Neither of which are significant, but there is room for improvement for those looking at DVD's though microscopes ;)

[Messiah]

Originally posted by cybersoga
... but there is room for improvement for those looking at DVD's though microsocopes ;)

Which we all do regularly of course :grin:

[zantarous]

Just watched the R1 the other night and to be honest thought it was one the best looking dvds I had ever seen, and the 5.1 sound excelent

[Smurfin]

Originally posted by zantarous
Just watched the R1 the other night and to be honest thought it was one the best looking dvds I had ever seen, and the 5.1 sound excelent

Agree with you on the sound, but frankly I found the the picture quality to be disappointing. How some people can vote for this as having the "best picture" of 2003 is frankly beyond me...

[Jeff]

32" TV? ;)

[Phil Hinton]

Picture on the R1 is rather disappointing with lots of encoding problems to be seen. The full specs are due to go up in 20 minutes on Total dvd, they are embargoed till then.

[Phil Hinton]

Buena Vista Home Entertainment UK and Pixar Animation Studios are delighted to announce a 27th February 2004 DVD and video UK release date for Finding Nemo. Since smashing box office records around the world, the breathtaking aquatic animation adventure has become one of the most eagerly anticipated DVD releases for 2004.

‘Finding Nemo’ has received universal applause from film fans of all ages. Critics have celebrated the ground breaking animation, hilarious storyline and performances from a first class vocal cast comprising Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe, Barry Humphries, Geoffrey Rush and Albert Brooks. Having claimed the title of the highest grossing animated film in box-office history, Finding Nemo looks set to perform to record breaking proportions. The 2 disc Special Edition DVD will be presented in special water effect packaging.

Plunging viewers even further into the underwater world, Disc One will contain a wide screen digital presentation of the film along with film makers visual commentary, deleted scenes and a virtual aquarium. Disc Two overflows with bonus features including ‘Exploring The Reef’ a new original short film hosted by Jean Michel Cousteau, a behind the scenes tour of the Pixar Animation Studios hosted by Alexander Gould, fully animated character interviews plus a full screen presentation of the film.

Disc One
Widescreen Presentation of Finding Nemo
Disc Introductions: Introductions to the Finding Nemo DVDs from the film’s directors Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich as well as co-writer Bob Peterson.
Visual Commentary: Watch the movie with the filmmakers‘ commentary. At several points throughout, they will take you away from the film to view deleted scenes, original concepts, and other elements, then return you to where you left off.
Virtual Aquariums: “Turn the text off” of various menus throughout both discs and turn your television into a virtual aquarium.


Disc Two
Disc Introductions: Introductions to the Finding Nemo DVDs from the film’s directors Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich as well as co-writer Bob Peterson.
Exploring The Reef: Join Jean Michel Cousteau on an underwater adventure. Don’t be surprised when the spectacular live action coral reef, gets a surprise visit from some of your favorite animated fish; Marlin, Nemo, and Dory.
Making Nemo Documentary: A 25:00 look at what went into making the movie. Learn the secrets about creating realistic water, talking fish, and much, much more.
Virtual Aquariums: “Turn the text off” of various menus throughout both discs and turn your televsion into a virtual aquarium.
Art Review: This 8:00 piece takes you on an exploration of the artwork of Nemo. You can watch it with the Artists themselves as your hosts, or you can enjoy it with music only.
Character Galleries: See the maquettes of each of your favorite characters.
Art Galleries: See original artwork from the various environments throughout the film; including the coral reef, the drop off and more.
Colour Script
Mr. Ray’s Encyclopedia: Nemo’s teacher, Mr. Ray teaches you all about the real live fish that inspired the characters of the movie.
Knick Knack: In the tradition of For The Birds and Luxo Jr. this is another Pixar Animated Short. Knick Knack has been fully restored and remastered for this release.
Fish Charades: Just like the classic game only with fish! Crush hosts as the silver fish from the movie “act out” your clues. The faster you guess the better you score. Play alone or with a friend.
Story time: Spend a day with Nemo as he heads off to school. You can have the story read to you or read it at your own pace. Includes interactive clickables along the way.
Pixar Studio Tour: A fast pace tour (5:00) of Pixar Studios from the eyes of a kid. See what goes into making an animated feature.
Behind The Scenes: Go behind the scenes of the making of Finding Nemo
Character Interviews: Fully animated character interviews with all of your favorites.
Robbie Williams Animated Music Trailer “Beyond The Sea”
Publicity: Includes 7 trailers from the original domestic theatrical release as well as a gallery of posters, ads, and other goodies.


Finding Nemo will feature a widescreen (1.78:1) digitally mastered viewing presentation mastered directly from Pixar’s Digital Source. The disc will feature English, French and Spanish tracks and Dolby ® Digital 5.1 Surround EX and THX-Certified (including THX Optimizer) audio.

[FoxyMulder]

Sounds like exactly the same specs as the region 1.

[Phil Hinton]

It is a cut and paste job, I have emailed them for full audio spec's.

[cybersoga]

R1 has the 4:3 version on disc 2 (even more compressed than the widescreen version on disc 1) as well as the "family friendly" extras.

The fact that there is visual commentry on disc 1 along with the film means that the picture quality could be the same (or worse) as R1. The visual commentry is a documentary that is intercut with the film using seamless branching along with normal audio commentry and takes up a lot of room on the disc. Just think - if they squeeze a DTS track on there as well... even less room for the picture :(

Don't get me wrong, the visual commentry is very cleverly done and quite interesting, but I do feel it was at the expense of picture quality of the main widescreen feature. Still, they might encode it a bit better. Here's hoping.

Message to Disney - WE WANT A DUAL LAYER VERSION THAT USES THE WHOLE DISC FOR THE MAIN FEATURE AND WITH DTS SOUND! this is in addition to the standard release.

[CLH]

Originally posted by Jeff
32" TV? ;)

Audio visual snob ;)

[StooMonster]

I too think the picture on the R1 is not all it's cracked up to be, and was quite disappointed. Nowhere near as good as R2 Monsters, Inc. for example.

cybersoga's screenshots are interesting, does the edge enhancement mean that this is encoded from a film print? I was under the impression that with previous Pixar releases they re-rendered the movie to target resolution -- no it's not that much more expensive, and why R2 Pixar movies look great with more resolution. Does this indicate they have decided not to do so this time?

Also of interest is the R1's brightness is higher too.

Brighter and sharper picture = better?!?!?

StooMonster

[Jeff]

R2 monsters Inc's picture quality is considerably better than the R1 version. I own the R1 :(

[cybersoga]

Originally posted by StooMonster

Also of interest is the R1's brightness is higher too.

Brighter and sharper picture = better?!?!?

StooMonster

Judgeing by those screen shots alone, it's not "brighter" in the black level sense of the word, it appears to have had the contrast turned up making the whites whiter (if you like), and the brigtness turned down making the blacks blacker. The result is a "punchy" or "dynamic" looking picture. Trouble with that is that you loose shades of white and shades of black, hiding detail. Bare in mind that these screen shots were taken using Power DVD, and to take screen shots it uses software decoding rather than the (superior) video card's decoding as it can't take a screenshot of the video overlay - so even though it's a fair comparison there is better picture quality to be had than from these screen shots. Bicubic filtering has been used to resize them. My comments are not of the screen shots but of watching the DVDs on my main system, but the screen shots do give you an *idea* of how it looks.