The Angry Birds Movie appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-Ray Disc. As expected, the movie delivered excellent visuals.
At all times, the film showed terrific delineation. No instances of softness arose, so the image remained tight and well-defined. I witnessed no jagged edges or shimmering, and edge haloes were absent. Of course, no print flaws popped up.
Colors excelled. Given all the birds and the island-related situations, the film boasted a broad, lively palette, and the hues came across with great vivacity. Blacks appeared dark and deep, and shadows seemed smooth and concise. Everything about the image satisfied.
I also felt pleased with the film’s DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack. Much of the audio stayed with general sense of the various situations, but more than a few action scenes resulted. The livelier sequences displayed nice range and involvement, and the rest of the material also managed to place us in the locations well. The track used the different channels to convey a lot of subtle but engaging information.
Audio quality satisfied. Speech remained natural and distinctive, while music appeared peppy and clear. Effects showed nice dynamics, with crisp highs and warm lows. I thought the soundtrack added zest to the proceedings.
This package includes both 2D and 3D versions of Angry Birds. The picture comments above address the 2D edition, but I also want to talk about the 3D image.
In terms of visual quality, the 3D representation fared pretty well. Though a little darker than the 2D rendition, the 3D picture showed strong clarity and color reproduction and appeared nearly as solid a visual representation of the film.
As for 3D imaging, the movie’s first hour or so seemed surprisingly restrained. Actually, “restrained” offers an overstatement, as the film still provided a good sense of depth and a few exciting effects, but it didn’t “pop” as much as I anticipated.
This changed for the film’s final act. When the birds attacked Piggy Island, the 3D materials jumped out much better and created a more dynamic impression. Those turned the 3D version into a fun experience that added to the movie.
The set delivers a slew of short extras, and we open with four Hatchlings Shorts. We get “Early Hatchling Gets the Worm” (2:06), “Easter” (1:17), “Mother’s Day” (1:00) and “Holiday” (1:02). These offer cutesy clips with the movie’s youngest birds. They’re a minor addition to the set at best.
Six Deleted Scenes fill a total of six minutes, 33 seconds. In an unusual twist, all of these offer finished animation, not story reels. That implies they came close to the final cut – which implies they’re good, but the latter fails to become true. Some mild amusement results in these snippets but they don’t present anything especially memorable.
Dance Along lasts three minutes, 35 seconds. This gives us a cute human “instructor” who demonstrates moves for us to follow. Even with the attractive blonde involved, this becomes a forgettable addition.
Next comes the four-minute, 45-second Crafty Birds. It teaches us how to make a little catapult and a “Pig City”. Maybe little ones will enjoy this.
With Creating the Real World of Angry Birds, we get an eight-minute, 29-second featurette. Hosted by actors Josh Gad and Jason Sudeikis, we get info from executive producer Mikael Hed, directors Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly, production designer Pete Oswald, producer Catherine Winder, CG supervisor Cam Langs, and visual effects supervisor Danny Dimian. “World” looks at visual design and animation. Despite its brevity, it includes some useful information.
A short called Bubbles and Hal lasts a mere one minute, 35 seconds. It features a chat among the title characters that brings us a smidgen of amusement.
Sibling featurettes appear via Meet the Birds (10:26) and Meet the Pigs (5:05). In these, we hear from Kaytis, Reilly, Hed, Sudeikis, Oswald, Gad, Winder, Dimian, character art director Francesca Natale, animation supervisor Pete Nash, producer John Cohen, executive producer David Maisel, and actors Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Tony Hale and Maya Rudolph. The clips cover the design and execution of various characters. Both segments give us pretty solid insights and satisfy.
After this we find a music video for Blake Shelton’s “Friends”. It’s mainly a “recording studio” video, but it does incorporate unique footage of movie characters. These deliver a little pep.
Making Music lasts 10 minutes, 31 seconds and features composer Heitor Pereira. He tells us a bit about various themes and also demonstrates them in different ways. The composer brings us a smattering of nice notes.
A Photo Gallery covers three areas: “Characters” (52 frames), “Piggy Island” (23) and “Bird Island” (25). These deliver a good mix of images.
Under In-Theater Policy Trailers, we see three short promos (2:58). I thought these would tell moviegoers the pre-show rules, but they really act more as encouragement to go to more films – only the third one addresses an actual policy. They’re moderately entertaining.
With something called Symphony Mode, we get an isolated music track presented via Dolby Stereo. If you activate this, you can watch the film without dialogue or effects. Isolated scores used to be a staple of DVDs but have largely vanished over the years, so it’s fun to see one here.
Previews gives us ads for Angry Birds Toons, Surf’s Up 2: Wave Mania, Open Season: Scared Silly, and Hotel Transylvania 2. The 3D disc throws in a 3D promo for Transylvania 2 as well. No trailer for Birds appears here.
A third disc presents a 4K UltraHD version of Birds. Will I go 4K someday? Yes. Has that happened yet? No. Do I want to mention the disc’s presence here – sure!
Does The Angry Birds Movie provide a great animated comedy? No, but with a fine voice cast, it overcomes its questionable origins to deliver a reasonably entertaining tale. The Blu-ray boasts excellent picture as well as very good audio and an erratic set of supplements. Unexceptional but enjoyable, Birds creates a decent effort.
To rate this film visit the 2D review of ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE
