- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
- Video Codec: AVC/MPEG-4 (2D)/MVC (3D)
- Resolution: 1080p/24 (23.976Hz)
- Audio Codec: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit), English Dolby Digital 2.0
- Subtitles: English
- Subtitles Color: White
- Region: ABC (Region-Free)
- Rating: Not Rated
- Run Time: 89 Mins.
- Discs: 1 (1 x Blu-ray 3D/2D)
- Digital Copies: N/A
- Studio: Well Go USA Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: June 18, 2013
- List Price: $29.98
Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
HD: [Rating:4/5]
3D Effect: [Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]
Click thumbnails for high-resolution 1920X1080p screen captures
(The below TheaterByte screen captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray Discs and losslessly compressed in the PNG format. There should be no loss of picture quality with this format. All screen captures should be regarded only as an approximation of the full capabilities of the Blu-ray format.)
The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Dino King: An Amazing Adventure, is a Korean 3D animated documentary/adventure film about dinosaurs set some 80 million years in the past. It follows the life of one Tarbosaurus in particular, here named Speckles. We follow him from a hatchling as he grows up, loses his family when a one-eyed Tyrannosaurs Rex, appropriately named “One-Eye”, in search of new home territory, kills them off, and is forced to grow up alone and fend for himself. Speckles will eventually meet another young, lonely Tarbosaurus like himself, a female called Blue Eyes, and together they build a close bond of friendship, learn to become a hunting machine, build their own family, and experience great dangers, losses, and happiness. But One-Eye will always be there, their number one nemesis, to be the thorn in their sides.
The CG work in Dino King can be breathtaking when the imagery is still, but the movements are quite unnatural, nothing like the big Hollywood films from Pixar and DreamWorks. It detracts a bit from the story, but not as much as the awfully childish narration, obviously aimed at the youngest possible audiences. It’s like sitting through an entire day at kindergarten or watching 90-minutes of Barney. I can’t say if the original Korean-language track is the same, because it isn’t include here and I’ve never heard it, but this English track is certainly this way, and it seems to get more juvenile as the danger of the scenes the film is portraying heightens.
Nonetheless, I suppose as visually stimulating entertainment for its intended family audience with an educational bent, you can’t really go wrong with this, and it certainly looks better than some of the IMAX 3D dinosaur features that have come to Blu-ray as far as the CG work goes.
Video Quality
HD: [Rating:4/5]
3D Effect: [Rating:4/5]
The CGI animation in Dino King is a good vehicle for the 3D presentation on Blu-ray from Well Go USA, offered here in a solid MVC 1080p encodement. While it is far from the most aggressively done 3D I have seen for an animated feature, it has strong added dimensionality, and, on my gear, only the slightest hints of crosstalk. Detail remains quite strong and rich as well. The 2D presentation seems rather flat and boring in comparison and exposes what is, in comparison to some other films in this genre, less than staggering CG animation at times.
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
The audio soundtrack, provided in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz/16-bit) and Dolby Digital 2.0 is somewhat disappointing. While it is engaging and does surround you in various foley effects, plus has a good amount of low frequency extension, the screeches and growls of the dinosaurs have a lot of crackle or distortion, which is very distracting and takes away from an otherwise clean, atmospheric, and dynamic presentation.
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]
Only the theatrical trailer (1.78:1; 1080p/24; 2D) is included.
The Definitive Word
Overall:
[Rating:3.5/5]
Dino King: An Amazing Adventure is 90-minutes of pleasant entertainment for the whole family, even if somewhat juvenile in its narration. The imagery will keep even the youngest kids stimulated, and most of the scariest scenes are handled off screen, although the opening act does show our hero’s family losing their lives, so be forewarned.
Additional Screen Captures
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Overall
[Rating:3.5/5]
The Film
[Rating:3.5/5]
Video Quality
HD: [Rating:4/5]
3D Effect: [Rating:4/5]
Audio Quality
[Rating:3.5/5]
Supplemental Materials
[Rating:0/5]