- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: VC-1
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Rating: PG
- Discs: 2 (1 x Blu-ray + 1 x DVD + Digital Copy)
- Studio: Vivendi Entertainment/StudioCanal
- Blu-ray Release Date: April 3, 2012
- List Price: $19.97
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Purchase A Turtle’s Tale on Blu-ray Combo Pack at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(All TheaterByte screen captures are lightly compressed with lossy JPEG at 100% quality setting and are meant as a general representation of the content. They do not fully reveal the capabilities of the Blu-ray format)
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The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
This Belgian animated film, A Turtle’s Tale: Sammy’s Adventures, is a mildly enjoyable family friendly film with an environmental theme following the adventures of a young sea turtle who travels the globe in 50 years and sees numerous scrapes, friendships, and finds his true love.
The young hatchling green sea turtle Sammy is born in 1959 and struggles from his nest, encouraged by his fellow hatchlings, he is eventually swooped up by a seagull. A struggle ensues and Sammy collides with another seagull who drops its prey, the pretty young female hatchling Shelly. The two youngsters escape their violent beginning and swim off into the vastness of the ocean.
Alone, Sammy drifts on a found raft until he finds another hatchling, Ray, and the two become fast friends. Sammy and Ray grow up together and experience numerous adventures as they traverse the Pacific Ocean, including a massive oil spill and the witnessing of a whaler ship attacking a humpback. Eventually the two friends are separated when they are both caught up in fishing nets and Sammy finds himself in the possession of a kindly hippy woman and her unfriendly pet cat who wants him gone. Unforeseen events leave him abandoned, but he has the fortune of bumping into his dream girl, Shelly once again and together Sammy and Shelly set off for the biggest adventure Sammy has experienced yet – a journey around the world to experience other oceans and ice seas. It is a dangerous one that will find them separated and searching for each other for years while braving cold, sharks, and the ever more encroaching presence of humans.
The voice cast includes Yuri Lowenthal as Sammy, Isabelle Fuhrman as Shelly, and Kathy Griffin as a somewhat humorous female mentor to a lost and wandering Sammy. While A Turtle’s Tale’s story never reaches the complex emotional levels of a Pixar film and the environmentalist messages are handled in a bit of a heavy handed way, it’s still a cute and satisfying little film.
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
The digital animation of A Turtle’s Tale looks almost perfect, as one would expect in a CG-animated film like this brought to Blu-ray. The 1.78:1 VC-1 encodement in 1080p has some small aliasing inherent to the computer animation, but nothing that is from the transfer itself. There are strong, richly saturated colors and a good amount of detail in the imagery although, again, the animation itself isn’t quite up to the level of Pixar or DreamWorks.
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
With bold low frequencies and a good balance of front and back sounds, this DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio mix is a good compliment to the material. The dialogue is clear and clean, the musical accompaniments have a good stereo spread and ambience is lush.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
A Turtle’s Tale comes only with a CinemaNow Digital Copy, which is not compatible with Apple devices. Additionally, this combo pack is supplied with a standard DVD edition of the feature film.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
A solid high definition transfer and strong audio on Blu-ray make this little animated family film a fun and safe home theatre experience for families. While some of the more perilous situations might be a little scary for the very youngest viewers that might be in this film’s target demographic, it’s still a good choice.
Additional Screen Captures
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[amazon-product]B006US3UPS[/amazon-product]
Purchase A Turtle’s Tale on Blu-ray Combo Pack at CD Universe
Shop for more Blu-ray titles at Amazon.com
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
[Rating:4.5/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:4/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0.5/5]
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