Hello Everyone,

Welcome once again to another blog of mine. This time I shall discuss some things about Disney, Blu-Ray, the movie Bolt, the greatest fan community I know, and more.

First before I get into my review of Bolt let me talk a little about Disney and their Blu-Ray efforts. To start, I must give Disney the biggest nod of all the studios out there right now because no studio supports Blu-Ray better than Disney does! Case and point!

A big reason that Disney is a big supporter of Blu-Ray is because with recent releases (Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, and Bolt) they included full and vivid 1080p high definition video and full 5.1 / 7.1 DTS-HD MA audio. This is big because while most studios will include full 1080p video and some form of 5.1 / 7.1 lossless audio, Disney goes the extra mile to insure that their transfers are the best they absolutely can be. I mean you have to nitpick (and I mean really nitpick) in order to faults with Disney's releases.

Next with those titles just mentioned Disney not only included the movie on Blu-Ray but they also included a DVD version of the movie as well. Now yes you will have a very small percentage of "those guys" that will complain and say they just want the movie itself, nothing else. However, here's the beauty behind Disney's doing this. By including a DVD version of the movie that enables the work-a-day lower class citizens how haven't made the switch quite yet the opportunity to buy the Blu-Ray now and watch the DVD version that comes with it and then when they do make the switch they'll be good to go. Sure they may pay $5 or $10 more but think of this way, you'll be saving in the end. Instead of buying the DVD now and the Blu-Ray later, just buy the Blu-Ray now and you're all set.

Now we could talk about this very point more so but now's not the time, contact me if you'd like to do so. Next most if not all current and or up and coming Disney releases include BD-Live. Sure, I myself may not use BD-Live that much but it is a very nice feature that has the potential offer great extras.

if I may, I want to go back to the whole notion of Disney's transfers being of the highest quality they can and say that this is a good thing. See Disney realizes that Blu-Ray at this time isn't cheap and the average American is not rich especially in this ailing economy. Well what Disney does is insure it's customer that it's releases are of the highest quality so that early adopters can buy Blu-Rays with confidence knowing that Disney won't turn around three years later and do as most other studios do: Double Dip (or in some cases triple or multi dip).

If you don't know, double dipping is when a studio rereleases a given title not too long after releasing it the previous time. Sometimes these double dips will be better or other times they'll just be some cheap anniversary addition that just adds some cheesy extras but fails to improve upon the not so perfect video / audio transfer. This how triple dipping can come into to play. A studio will rush a release to cash in on Blu-Ray. Then they rerelease the same movie a few years later, calling it an anniversary edition which will only include a new case or some new cheesy extras. Then a few years after that they will rerelease the title AGAIN, this time hopefully offering up a new and better transfer.

Now see Disney doesn't do this. They get their releases right the first time. I mean some may argue Disney's releases aren't 100% perfect, but for the average consumer they are.

Since that little rant is out of the way. Let me just say I applaud Disney's support and I will do my part by buying their wonderful releases. Now I want to say one more thing about Disney and Blu-Ray and then I'll move on.

Disney attempted something with their release of Bolt that has only been attempted once or twice before and that was to release the Blu-Ray version before the DVD version. The Blu-Ray was to come out on Sunday with the DVD coming out on Tuesday.

The problem here is that most stores didn't stick to this rule. if you went into Wal-Mart or Best Buy, you would either find both the Blu-Ray and DVD available on Sunday or both available on Tuesday. Very few stores actually released the Blu-Ray ahead of the DVD.

Now, yes I will agree that some may argue that this whole releasing the Blu-Ray early could confuse some people but I disagree. I feel that the average consumer is too smart to be confused by such a thing. Plus even if the consumer is confused they are not screwed because if they would accidentally buy the Blu-Ray version it includes a DVD copy of the movie which will work out for them in the end.

One more point I want to add to this is that Disney needs to support the best customers a little better. I bought both Pinocchio and Bolt from Disney directly when I could have easily went to Amazon.com and saved some money. I bought movies like Bolt from Disney directly to get the lithos or the collector's pin that's included with every PRE-ORDER. My only problem with this is though (speaking specifically about the Bolt release) is that they should have in turn thanked me for buying Bolt directly from them by insure that the movie would be delivered to my house on the day it came out if not sooner. So I should have gotten my copy of Bolt on the Sunday it came out, not that following Wednesday, which by the way was a day after the DVD version came out.

Anyways, now that that's out of the way, let me move onto my review of Bolt.

I sat down yesterday with my family and watched Bolt. Let me take a second though to remind you of my setup:

Samsung LN46A650 1080p 120hz LCD HDTV
Onkyo TX-SR606 AVR
Sony PS3 80gb (old version)
Creative Gigaworks S750 700watt 7.1 sound system

First, before the movie started, fireworks shot up in the air around the famous castle which immediately showed how great my system was. Then there was the spiel of logos, then the movie started. My first reaction was, "holy ****," this looks good. Especially when they showed Bolt (the main character). I couldn't believe the level of great detail on Bolt.

Now to not give too much away. Bolt is about a dog who lives in a world where he thinks he is a super hero with super powers. However, he runs away one day in an attempt to save penny (the girl who raised him) because he thinks she is in real danger, when in fact the danger is only TV drama. I leave it up to you to watch the movie to find out what happens from there.

Now this movie has it all. Action, adventure, comedy, emotion. All that makes an animated classic a classic. Speaking technically, the movie has some of the best video I've ever seen. The details on Bolt and his surrounding environment is amazing. From what I could see the colors were extremely vivid but not overly vibrant. There was no hints of noise (obviously). I couldn't find any crushed blacks and the contrast was good. The dark scenes were dark but not so dark you couldn't make anything out.

As for the audio, this release came with a heck of a 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio track. This track really gave my sound system a good work out. The dialog was always crystal clear and easily understood. The action scenes were great and definitely filled my surrounds will beauty. For a more in-depth analysis I refer you to this review on the AVSforum.com website,

[link]

I will simply say at this point, I agree with that review in terms of the 100 perfect score that it got. I also agree this is one of Disney's finest efforts to date.

Now then, I'd like to talk about one of the greatest fan communities I know as well as one of the greatest creations in all of fandom that I know.

First, one of the greatest fan communities I know is the one that supports the mother/earthbound series. For proof of this go to the following address:

[link]

Now as for the greatest creation in all of fandom. Let me preface you by saying that the mother series contained 3 games: mother 1, mother 2, and mother 3. Mother 1 was originally for the NES but was only available in Japan at the time. Mother 2 was available for the SNES both in Japan and the US however in the US it was known as Earthbound. Eventually on the GBA (IIRC, assuming my facts are straight) a combo pack of Mother 1 and 2 was released in the US. Now as for Mother 3 it was originally available for the GBA but was only available in Japan. Now, for years the fans of the series begged and pleaded with Nintendo to release the 3rd game in the US. They've sent letters, e-mails, artwork. Hell the fan community went so far as to make an anthology book, which was basically a book compiled of all fan art and writing created ever. The book was hardbound and sent to various people including certain people at Nintendo.

Even this though wasn't enough to make Nintendo bring the game to the US. Therefore, the fan community decided to translate the game themselves (which as far as I know is legal of them to do). After a few years of hard work the translation was released back in October in the form of a "patch" which you would apply to your legally obtained import copy of Mother 3.

This in of itself was epic but then the fan community went the extra mile and announced that in celebration of the release of the mother 3 translation the community was going to create their own player's guide much like the one that came with Earthbound. It took a lot of work and effort but the community recently, finally finished the handbook as it is called and shipped them out.

Happily, I recently received my copy and it was a thing of pure beauty. The handbook far exceeded my expectations. In addition to the handbook however, I received a nickel coated courage badge keychain, a sticker from the website that I purchased the handbook, a packing slip with a custom hand-drawn one-of-a-kind picture (mine was a cute Mr. Saturn) and a protective poster/slip cover for the handbook.

I only paid a mere $20 for all of this and let me tell you this; It was well worth it! I've seen fans remix game music. I've seen fans draw pictures of their favorite video game character. I've seen fans make merchandise based on a game, but never have I seen such a fan community make something as grand and beautiful as this. I can say that while the guide is a good value now, with proper care the guides will only increase in value.

I say this because if Nintendo ever decides to officially translate the game for the US well there will be group of people that will need a guide in order to be the game and well when that time comes hopefully you can say you have one to share. I want to point out that given this fact you should almost buy 2, 3 or even 4. With two guides you have one for yourself and one to give to a friend. With three guides, you have one to collect, one to use, and one to give to a friend. With four guides, you have one to collect, one to use, one for your friend to collect, and one for your friend to use. Plus the more you buy the more you support an absolute great community.

I could go on and on about how great this community is but I would like to wrap this blog up. Before I go, let me just say that I have listened to the new U2 album and I absolutely love it. I love the title track, get on your boots, and fez being born.

It was officially announced today that U2 will be coming to fedex field in D.C. which is the closest show to me unfortunately tickets go on sale this coming Monday and I do not know yet if my parents and I will have enough money to go. I hope we do, but I do not know at this point. When I get home I will have to let my family know that the D.C. tour stop was officially announced today.

*Phew* that was a lot of writing for one blog. I don't mind it though. I love sharing my opinion about things. Speaking of such let me just say I think this new thingy being made, "OnLive," sucks (Google it). I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I just don't like it.

Well that's all for now, so until next time...