Shrek: Dreamworks' Two Disc SE Latest Reference DVD...

I sort of dismissed this incredibly witty animated film when it first came out in the theaters, but was enough interested in it after reading about its contents and technical prowess that decided to order the DVD online. Am happy I did!


What makes this quirky movie so endearing is its smart witticism as delivered by the main characters throughout the film, and its amazing technical achievement in terms of its ultra-sophisticated computer-originated imagery (CGI).

The dialog is aimed squarely at the adult among us -and believe me you, there is a lot of adult-oriented material!- while the animation is certainly more than good enough to keep the kiddies highly entertained.

I loved the Robin Hood and His Merry Men musical scene in particular, but laughed at everything that aims at ridiculing or parodying the many films and other stuff done by Disney. Extremely witty stuff indeed!

Well enough of that...and on with the "technical review"...


Since what I received is the 2-disc DVD (in a very nicely and smartly designed keep case, by the way) -with disc 1 containing the full frame version while disc 2 containing the widescreen version- I chose to view the latter (I love the widescreen looks, what can I say?).


What I found from the 1:85:1 anomorphically enhanced video signal -to my most pleasant surprise- were incredible 3-D looking images, images that possess a densely rich coloration scheme, and well focused, very sharply defined resolution. Only film and HD can do better!

Shadow detailing is excellent due in great part to the transfer's great contrast dynamics, as is the balance between it and brightness. Unless your display set is awash with pumped up contrast or poorly calibrated brightness, this transfer is more than satisfying in its rendition of contrast and brightenss as well as gray scale; you should be able to see a lot of detail and a huge variation of color hues even in the darkest scenes of the movie.

The incredibly looking and aptly rendered animation is replete with human-like qualities that evokes poetry in motion...even if most of it is of the slapstick humorous variety. I believe the total lack of digitally-originated artifacts aids in achieving that goal as I saw none...absolutely no artifacts to mar the moving pictures whatsoever.

And most incredibly, I also failed to notice the dreaded and most unwanted "EE," which helps the movie looking extremely film-like and not at all as a NTSC video signal. Only in couple of scenes did I wound up asking myself "was that EE?" but dismissed the thought as I continued enjoying what was being displayed on the screen before me: a new benchmark in video transferring achievement...and truly of reference quality.


I also chose to view Shrek with DTS sound. But as with all previous Dreamworks DVDs that contain the DTS track option, my HT-PC stumbled, coughed, tripped, and sort of skipped. Argh! It wasn't until I remembered what somebody recommended I do to "fix" the problem that things went more smoothly. This is wat I did to remedy the situation: select the DTS soundtrack and then the opening credits without selecting "play." Bingo! Success at last; playback was flawless...

The DTS track offers well balanced sonics with plenty of bass oomph and reach. In certain scenes there is plenty of high amplitude dynamics, which are thrilling to hear and felt. Surround sound is very enveloping yet without being intrusive to the visual contents. A very smartly mixed soundtrack, indeed.


I can't think of no movies fan not liking and enjoying this highly intelligent, smart, witty and highly entertaining flick. Certainly its contents are apt to please both adults and children.

What's more, its image quality is so good that most of us will be using it as a new demonstration reference with which to impress (naw, none of us do that, do we?) our friends and occasional guests. My recommendation is: add Shrek to your movie collection pronto if you haven't already done it. Try it...you'll be glad you did!...


-THTS