BLU-RAY REVIEW

Pushing Daisies

Featured In Issue 136, November 2008

Picture4
SoundNR
WSR Score4.5
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
Warner Home Video
(Catalog Number):
1000041742
(MPAA Rating):
Not Rated
(Rating Reason):
NA
(Retail Price):
$39.99
(Disc Type):
Three-Disc Set: BD-25
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
379
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
Not Indicated
(Theatrical Year):
2007
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
09/16/08
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Barry Sonnenfeld, Paul Edwards, Adam Kane, Peter O'Fallon, Allan Kroeker, Lawrence Trilling, Allan Kroeker & Brian Dannelly
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
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(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
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(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Digital 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
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(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

Ned (Pace) has a gift—or a curse, depending on how you look at it: It seems that Ned is able to bring the dead back to life by a mere touch of his hand, the second touch of the same hand brings death everafter. But there are consequences to be paid if the dead is brought back for more than one-minute, something else closeby must die to replace the life resurrected. When Ned discovers his childhood sweetheart Chuck (Freil) has died and cannot bear the thought of her "Pushing Daisies," so Ned intervenes and brings Chuck back to life. Now, the two star-crossed lovers can never touch agian, lest Chuck be sent back to the pearly gates for good. (Stacey Pendry)

Special features include an interactive featurette Pie Time: Time For Pie broken down by separate episodes, which feature interviews with creators of the show, set designers, and special effects team members.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 DVD exhibits good shadow delineation, with details in the darkest scenes easily visible. Black levels are somewhat elevated, but they are consistently so, and the raised levels are not much of a distraction. Compression artifacts can be distracting at times, but generally the image is clean. Colors are very bright with deep saturation, but contrast is balanced well. Fleshtones are too red with unnaturally hot highlights, and excessive noise can be recognized in the darker scenes. Edge enhancement is minor, though. While the VC-1-encoded Blu-ray Disc shows good resolution, it is not quite as good as the better high-definition releases are. Black levels are fairly solid, but excessive noise is noticeable in the darker scenes. Fleshtones are still too red, but the picture is generally good, especially for a television show. (Danny Richelieu)

The Dolby® Digital 5.1-channel soundtrack incorporates the LFE channel well, with solid bass definition and occasional dips in the frequency response below 50 Hz. Phantom imaging is not incorporated into the mix often, which is generally basic with little surround envelopment. Dialogue is always intelligible, with decent fidelity, and the noise floor is low. The front stage is amply wide and deep, but not as convincingly dimensional as the best recordings are. Dynamic range is fairly good, though. The Blu-ray Disc's lossy Dolby Digital encoding doesn't provide much of an improvement over the DVD, with compression distortions audible. The mix is the same. (Danny Richelieu)