The Fabelmans (4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review)

Estimated reading time: 13 minutes

Steven Spielberg co-wrote and directed The Fabelmans, a film inspired by his own childhood. This semiautobiographical coming of age story follows young Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) who lives a quiet life with his family, parents, Burt (Paul Dano), a computer engineer, and Mitzi (Michelle Williams), a classically trained pianist who gave up her potential as a concert pianist to raise a family. At 7-years-old, Sammy’s parents take him to see Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth, a big film about the circus. Sammy becomes fascinated with the train crash in the film and his mother Mitzi, in order to help him get over his obsession and fear about the crash, encourages him to use his father’s 8mm camera to recreate and film the scene using his model train set.

From that moment on, Sammy becomes obsessed with filmmaking technology, cinema, and creating his own movies. He enlists his friends and his younger sisters in his own film creations, from stories about stagecoach robberies to World War II battle scenarios. Throughout his years growing up, the most encouragement for his art comes from his mother, whereas his father insists he give up his ‘hobby’ and find a ‘real’ profession to focus on.

But it is Sammy’s filmmaking obsession on one family camping trip that leads him to uncover a family secret that upends his entire family and the until now blissful suburban existence they had been experiencing.

The Fabelmans will be familiar to anyone who has followed the biography of Steven Spielberg over the years. He has spoken about his family and his mother on more than one occasion. There have also been documentaries dedicated to the filmmaker, such as 2017’s Spielberg from director Susan Lacy. This film brings his story and the story of all cinephiles alive in vivid colors, such as in a film like Giuseppe Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso (1988). Michelle Williams is the standout performer brilliantly capturing the artistically minded, sometimes mentally unstable Mitzi, while the entire cast perform admirably and Spielberg’s direction shows his love of this particular story.

The Video

The majority of The Fabelmans was shot on the Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2 with Super 35 Kodak Vision3 50D 5203, Vision3 250D 5207, and Vision3 500T 5219 film stock, with some scenes shot on Super 8 and Super 16 film stock on Arri cameras. These latter two are mainly used for the home movies and film productions as produced by Sammy within the film. The disc comes in an HEVC 2160p (4K UHD) Dolby Vision encodement and utilizes a 4K digital intermediate. HDR10 metadata shows a MaxLL of 300 nits and MaxFALL of 30 nits. The film is framed at 1.85:1.

Overall, this is a beautiful 4K disc with exceptional clarity, depth of field, and shadow detail. The color palette is less naturalistic than sort of cool and hyper-realistic, with a warmer tone as it shifts to Arizona and California. With that said, the Dolby Vision grading does not bring much at all to the presentation for this release. There is not much at all done with specular highlights and the colors do not seem to extend much. Apart from the finer detail and granularity, this could be a Blu-ray disc. It looks like 4K SDR in a HDR container.

The Audio

The primary audio mix is a lossless Dolby TrueHD 7.1 mix, which on my system plays back at 5.1. The mix is not an aggressive one either, but it is clear and balanced, with superb dynamics and natural sound for the score. There is absolute clarity in the dialogue and wide stereo imaging. The surrounds carry a subtle but audible amount of mostly atmospheric sounds.

The Supplements

The on-disc special features are included on the 4K and Blu-ray discs. They are brief and show some behind-the-scenes, on set footage with cast and crew interviews, basically reinforcing the story of Spielberg’s life, which plays out in the film.

• Movies Anywhere Digital Code
• Blu-ray with feature film in HD and special features
• The Fabelmans: A Personal Journey (4K; DV; 00:11:00)
• Family Dynamics (4K; DV; 00:15:28)
• Crafting the World of The Fabelmans (4K; DV; 00:22:04)

The Final Assessment

The Fabelmans is a fascinating, enjoyable film that zips through its 2 ½ hour runtime and provides an enjoyable presentation on 4K disc.

The Fabelmans is out on 4K Ultra HD Combo February 14, 2023, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.

• Rating Certificate: PG-13 (for some strong language, thematic elements, brief violence and drug use.)
• Studios & Distributors: Amblin Entertainment | Amblin Partners | Reliance Entertainment | Universal Pictures | Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (UPHE)
• Director: Steven Spielberg
• Written By: Steven Spielberg | Tony Kushner
• Run Time: 151 Mins.
• Street Date: 14 February 2023
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Video Format: HEVC 2160p (4K UHD)
• HDR Format: Dolby Vision (HDR10 Compatible)
• HDR10 Metadata:
  • MaxLL: 300 nits
  • MaxFALL: 80 nits
• Primary Audio: English DolbyTrueHD 7.1
• Secondary Audio: Spanish DD+ 7.1 | French DD 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH | Spanish | French