Review of Rudolph & The Island Of Misfit Toys

Introduction

The concept is simple enough, Toy Taker has been nicking toys so it`s time to put a stop to it and get them back. This is a 3D CGI movie which runs just over 70 minutes long and has the voice cast of Richard Dreyfuss, Jamie Lee Curtis and Rick Moranis amongst others. The film opens with a shot of what`s happening, and before you know it, we hear Tony Bennett giving his rendition of `Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer`. Make no mistake about the target audience for this movie, we`re talking very young!

Video

The first thing which strikes you is the palette in use and the quality of the clean image, it`s all very smooth and easy on the eyes. The story is very simple, and so too are the graphics when compared to other CGI affairs. The textures don`t appear to be complicated which lends itself well to the story and I quite liked the look of the movie compared with the more realistic CGI movies. This DVD has very good video quality throughout, unfortunately it`s made and presented in full frame 4:3 which is a shame for those of us with widescreen televisions. There weren`t any visible signs of compression of pixellation while watching.

Audio

The sound is clear and engaging. We get DD5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks with the DD5.1 sounding very dynamic and punchy. The soundfield seemed to cover the front quite well and there was use of the rears from time to time when it was needed. No complaints at all with the sound.

Features

Bearing in mind that the audience for this will mainly be children, the are a few simple extras which might be interesting.

There`s Director Commentary, English subtitles, a trailer, filmography, a DVD-ROM part plus Animating Rudolph. Don`t expect anything too much with Director Commentary from Bill Kowalchuk as this isn`t a full length feature style track. It`s just a few minutes long and Bill touches on the subject of the story while clips play back.

There are English subtitles and only an English language soundtrack in DD5.1 or 2.0. We also get the obligatory trailer and a filmography showing bios of the projects for the main voice cast and director. For those of you with a DVD-ROM player, there`s Rudolph Christmas Cards. You`re presented with a selection of ten Christmas cards with the characters from the movie wishing Christmas greetings which you can print and use.

Finally, Animating Rudolph is the making of the film. I was just getting geared up for this when it ends! It runs for a little over a minute and briefly shows wireframe models being animated. It`s a shame there isn`t more to see here. While I`m sure those who are familiar with CGI know a lot of the ins and outs, it would have been a nice feature to have here with regards to this movie. I`m sure it would spark the interest of young aspiring artists.

The menus here are animated with a very annoying piece of looping soundtrack, so parents beware, you may go slightly mad! All in all not a bad set of features bearing in mind that this is a kids title and their attention span may be limited by things outside of the movie.

Conclusion

I have to admit that I enjoyed watching Rudolph and co. The story, while simple, was a nice distraction and makes for a cool kids DVD. There`s definitely some Christmas magic in the movie and I smiled quite a lot. It has the ingredients of something which is quite appealing with its colourful characters, music and story and I think there are going to be lots of children that would enjoy this film. Heartily recommended.