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Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: 6/7/2011
Director: Jean-Jacques Mantello
Cast: Some Sharks And A Sea Turtle
Year: 2011
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The Movie:
Here's what Universal says on the back of their packaging for this release, produced by Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the legendary Jacques Cousteau, and originally shot for projection in IMAX 3D:
“Presented by Jean-Michel Cousteau, SHARKS 3D offers audiences an astonishing up-close encounter with the Lions and Tigers of the Ocean.
Come face-to-face with a multitude of shark species, including the Great White, Hammerhead, and the Whale Shark. Witness sharks as they really are; not malicious man-eating creatures, but wild, fascinating and endangered animals that have been in existence millions of years before dinosaurs roamed the earth.â€
Sounds pretty intense, right? Almost as if it might be a serious study into what makes sharks the most intense predators on the planet, how they've been maligned in the media since Jaws scared the crap out of people in the seventies and maybe offer a look into why people are so fascinated by them? Well, it doesn't. What it does instead is give us a tour of the ocean lead by a sea turtle. Not only do we follow him around as he swims by various other species, but he narrates things for us too - that's right, this 'documentary' is hosted by a talking sea turtle (we don't see him talk, of course, but yeah, he narrates the thing). If the back copy suckered you into thinking this would be a mature and detailed study of sharks, well, there's one born every minute, right?
Sooooo….. this thing clocks in at just over forty minutes and during that forty minutes our turtle shows us Whale Sharks, Reef Sharks, Hammerhead Sharks, and yes, the much feared Great White Shark but also shows us different species of rays, turtles, and various fish. We even get a visit from some dolphins, because kids love dolphins, right? The fact of the matter is, that for a documentary called Sharks 3D which promises us “sharks as they really are†this is a surprisingly dumbed down and dull presentation, at least from a narrative perspective. We don't learn much, and though the narrating turtle does occasionally describe a feeding habit or trait of a specific species it never scratches below the surface. There's not much here, in terms of content.
Thankfully the whole thing isn't a complete waste of time because it does offer up some great visuals. IMAX cameras capture a whole lot of detail and that tends to translate well to Blu-ray, this disc being no exception. The camerawork is top notch and the crew do a great job of capturing the beauty and mystery of the undersea world that the sharks (and the talking sea turtle) call home. So on a visual level, this is pretty solid stuff - bit you've got to be a hardcore sharkophile to want to bother with it simply because: A) - it's only forty minutes and B) it's narrated by a stupid talking sea turtle.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Universal's AVC encoded 1.78.1 1080p high definition widescreen transfer is a spiffy one with nice color reproduction and strong detail. Obviously there's going to be an abundance of blue here as it's all been shot under water and thankfully those blues are reproduced very nicely. Texture is good, you can really see all the detail on the skin of the various creatures that pop up in the feature and the disc is well authored in that there are no problems with any compression artifacts (probably helped by the fact that the running time is so short) nor is there any obvious noise reduction or edge enhancement. Viewing options are provided in 2D and 3D but you have to have a 3D compatible player and HDTV to take advantage of the later format. Since Universal didn't include one of those with the disc, we're obviously talking about the 2D version here.
Wow, Universal has loaded up the disc with an English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track as well as Italian, Castilian Spanish, French, Japanese and German DTS 5.1 Surround Sound tracks and Dutch, Russian, Czech, L A Spanish and Polish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound tracks. The quality of the English track is pretty good, though the surrounds are really only used for the score, there isn't much in the way of sound effects here so don't expect the mix to be particularly exciting. It sounds fine though, the score is clear and distinct and there are no problems. If you like subtitles then you're in luck, because this disc has them in English SDH, French, German, Italian, Castialian Spanish, L A Spanish, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Japanese, Complex Mandarin, Thai and Korean.
Extras? Not a one, unless you count menu screens as extras.
The Final Word:
Meh. If you're a shark junkie you can geek out over some of the footage here, as it's all very nicely shot and quite atmospheric at times, but the juvenile nature of the narration from the turtle's perspective firmly grounds this one in kiddie territory and the fact that it's completely barebones makes it a bit spendy when you consider the short running time, even if it does look and sound very good.
Click on the images below for full size Blu-ray screen caps!
