Nanny McPhee DVD Review

Presented in the theatrical ratio of 2:35:1 Nanny McPhee is probably one of the most colourful films of recent years. What could have been an encoding nightmare, thankfully isn't. Universal have presented a beautiful picture with all the bright colours displayed wonderfully on the screen. Skin colours are realistic and Thompson's make up, particularly on close up shots, is clear and literally jumps off the screen. The set designs are original and as I mentioned above, extremely colourful. Credit to the production designers for putting together a real visual feast from the original black and white drawings from the source novels.

Nanny McPhee is presented in a very lively Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mix. The dialogue is presented clearly in the centre channel and the rest of the speakers spring into life regularly with subtle little sound effects and occasionally the LFE comes into play when Nanny McPhee hits her stick on the ground. The LFE use on this one sound effect stands out and is most effective. Patrick Doyle's excellent score has been generously given all the channels to show off. It is a nice good old fashioned orchestral score and the instruments can heard quite clearly around the speakers.

Universal have certainly put a variety of extras on this disc. Starting with the four featurettes, “How Nanny McPhee Came to Life” is a brief history of the book's creators and some passages of the book read by Emma Thompson. Short at just over six minutes but informative. “Nanny Makeover” is just that, a short featurette on the excellent make up on Emma Thompson. “Village Life” discusses very briefly the production design of the film. “Casting the Children” is the longest featurette at 10 minutes and tells how the children were cast and features some behind the scenes interviews. The gag reel is just that, a short selection of bloopers. The disc features two separate audio commentaries, one from the director and the children and the other from Emma Thompson and her producer. Listening briefly to the first commentary it's a friendly track with the director chatting away to the kids. Thompson's commentary is obviously more adult and features more observations on the film making process.

Finally there are seven deleted scenes all introduced by director, Kirk Jones and include an alternative opening to the film and Colin Firth dressed as Nanny McPhee. Quite interesting but the film doesn't lose out in my opinion with them not being included. There are also trailers for Wallace and Gromit, The Barbie Diaries and Pride and Prejudice included first on the disc after the copyright warnings (and also in the extras menu). Along with the very annoying anti-piracy advert which can't be skipped.
A great kids film, in fact a great film for everyone. I loved it!!