Despicable Me 3D Blu-ray Review

[Tech News]

Reviewed by Simon Crust, 25th February 2011.
Despicable Me is Illumination Entertainment’s first foray into the CG animated market as well as Pierre Coffin and Chris Renaud’s first time as feature directors, and working together, with a passion to tell a great story, has brought us a film that is as charming, entertaining and emotional as anything the kings of animation, Pixar, have made – high praise indeed. The film tells of Gru, a gleefully evil, and despicable villain hell bent on becoming the most infamous of all time by stealing the moon, only he didn’t reckon the intervention of three orphaned girls, whose own charm and determination to be in a family might just be Gru’s greatest nemesis. With wonderful characterisation and a script that is witty, emotional and thoroughly absorbing, Despicable Me is a terrific piece of film-making to rival anything that the mega-budget studios have to offer.

As a Region free 3D Blu-ray package Universal has provided a full up set, a typically fabulous CG animated picture is unfortunately marred by a fair amount of crosstalk, but the absorbing and immersive surround track is a blast, and whilst the extra features are plagued with child friendly ‘minion’ extras at least there is something there to keep you entertained. The set is, of course, future proof as it provides both a 3D and standard 2D Blu-ray disc.

Despicable Me, comes highly recommended from me.


Read the full review...

 

[db2332]

I have to admit as a family we love this movie. It looks great, sounds fantastic as most CG fare does but most importantly its fun to watch. Toy Story 3 will have you teary eyed especially if your kids have grown up and left for further fields but this will leave you laughing. Humour has a dark edge with Gru being at first a bit of a grump and Dr Nefarious is probably the best thing Brand has done. Icing on the cake is the short movie Banana which has become a family in joke ,the characterisation of the minions is superb. Its bright ,loud and daft ,cant recommend it enough.

 

[Gizmo 76]

Very bizarre indeed...

Other than the opening titles, the library scenes' backgrounds, one or twice on his scarf if you were really looking and a scene in space... I'd say this is the cleanest 3D film I've seen crosstalk wise.

I'm wondering if LCD/LED type sets are plagued with XTalk in different areas to Plasmas?

Basically if it's a dark low light scene I can guaranteed they'll be XTalk somewhere on my plasma....

If you remember I posted about how dreadful 'Legend of the Guardians' was XTalk wise for me. That film and Christmas Carol I literally wouldn't watch in 3D again on my LG PX990 Plasma due to it being so frustrating that the TV (glasses) can't reproduce a watchable image.

Strange findings indeed...

 

[Simon Crust]

Indeed that is strange ...

I can only report how I see it, but you are correct, it does begs the question if the different technologies are more susceptible to crosstalk in different areas of the screen ...

We need to get Phil on the case

 

[Atarioldskool]

i disagree with the reviewers comment about severe cross talk, i bought my 3d movie from HMV and watched it on my panasonic vt20 and bt300 3d bluray and i didnt see any cross talk at all apart from the main menu were the movie sign "despicable me" in big red blocky writting with black back ground thats the only time i seen the cross talk.

the movie was fantastic in 3d and it has changed my opinions on 3d in the home, and to buy more 3d blurays movies.

as when i watched a christmas carol first i didnt think the 3d in the home was to get any excited about! and thought stick yo 2d but from now on if i there is an option to buy 3d , then its 3d all the way

 

[Simon Crust]

Score two for plasma

I am going to re-view this feature using a PS3, to see if that makes a difference to the crosstalk on my panel - will report back tomorrow

 

[lmaolmao]

i think it's unfair to mark a film down because of cross-talk.

surely you should be marking down your display?

 

[Howard Pitfield]

Once I am new house will try with my LG 990 and xPand 103 glasses which are working fine with 3D for me......

 

[dathomir]

I was under the impression crosstalk has nothing to do with the disc but the display technology used - therefore marking a film down due to crosstalk is a tad redundant.

 

[jaken84]

I am baffled by this, but I also get terrible crosstalk all through this film, to the point that it is unwatchable. My setup isn't the best; Asus VG236h monitor and 3d vision, but Avatar still looks amazing with pretty much no crosstalk, and How to Train Your Dragon has a little bit every now and then but that's it.

How can one film be so bad all the way through? It's not like the other films never have high contrasting scenes and a large range of colours, but DM somehow shows crosstalk even between two shades of gray. It's hard to imagine how this is possible on the same hardware. I have two ideas though:

Brightness: Maybe this film is always so much brighter, and this shows up the limits in my display/glasses.

Focal point/motion blur: I was thinking if crosstalk is most noticeable at certain depths due to the amount of distance between the two images, then this might be made slightly better by blurrier images (either out of focus backgrounds, or from motion recorded into the frame).

Maybe another possibility could be the chosen depth of the entire movie? As in, it goes from 6inches infront of the screen to the screen, instead of for example the screen to 6 inches behind. This might again increase the gap between images, and once again highlight the limits in the hardware.

Really I have no idea, does anybody have a better answer for this?

 

[dfergie]

Not a hint of crosstalk playing with a PS3 Slim & watching on a Mitsubishi 65738 Dlp ... great movie!

 

[Daytrader]

Yeh it all depends on your 3D screen, alot of people have no crosstalk whatsoever watching this.

 

[Simon Crust]

Edit: I have now (25th June 2011) viewed this disc using an LG 47LW550T making use of passive 3D technology

And it has been a revelation; any crosstalk has been completely removed to leave a truly absorbing picture and one that now achieves a clear reference mark. This goes to show that technology has its part to play with crosstalk (as most already know) and is backed up by the numerous comments stating that there is/is not cross talk on this title – basically it depends on how you watch it. For my part, originally, the disc exhibited detrimental crosstalk that had to be noted – I did after all see it – but I am quite happy to re-look and re-score the picture based on re-viewing the material. Despicable Me is a terrific picture all round.

I have just added the above paragraph to my original reivew of this film

 

[Daytrader]

Nice job, cheers, i really like the LG passive 3D, how would you compare the 3D thou compared to screens that use the exspensive shutter glasses, thx

 

[Simon Crust]

My personal choice is passive every time

I've only had the new panel since Friday, but I have gone through all my existing material and, without fail, everyone has been a better 3D experience.

there are a number of factors as to why it works for me:

1) I wear glasses normally and the passive specs are much lighter, more comfortable and fit better than the active sets.

2) as yet I have experienced no crosstalk with any of my existing titles

3) the picture is brighter with no flicker

4) the new technology now allows for tweaking of the image whist in 3D mode (brightness and contrast, as well as colour timing correction, if you know how)

5) the 3D visual cues are now easier to 'spot', by that I mean since you are no longer being brought out of the picture by anomalies, the 3D is far more natural and therefore immersive leading to a far better experience.

6) The resolution loss is very difficult to spot, I mean you have to really be looking and also move closer to the screen, which damages the 3D perception. At normal 3D viewing distances the resolution loss is imperceptible.

From all this, I am a total passive convert for flat panel technology and am championing LG's commitment to it.

Simon

 

[Daytrader]

Thankyou for the reply, when i went to our local electrical store currys here in the UK, i tested the LG passive glasses and the samsung,sony,panasonic shutter glasses, i was amazed that the passive glasses looked so good, i also did not notice any difference in 3D quality either(i did not even know about the resolution loss ?), also the glasses feel so light and good, i noly saw monsters v aliens on the lg but was great, cheers