BLU-RAY REVIEW

Young Frankenstein

Featured In Issue 194, February 2015

Picture3.5
Sound3.5
WSR Score3.5
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):
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
42288006
(MPAA Rating):
PG
(Rating Reason):
(Retail Price):
$
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (BD-50)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
105
(Color Type):
Black & White
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
A
(Theatrical Year):
1974
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Mel Brooks
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Digital 1.0, DTS HD Lossless 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):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

A wild parody of old Frankenstein pictures based on Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel, Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein stars the comedic talents of Gene Wilder as the mad doctor, Peter Boyle as the monster, Marty Feldman as the hunchback assistant, and Cloris Leachman as the mad housekeeper. A classic story with a hilarious twist, Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks' screenplay received an Oscar® nomination. A must-have for Mel Brooks fans. (Gary Reber)

Special features include commentary by Mel Brooks; BonusView Inside The Lab: Secret Formulas (HD 31:50); seven deleted scenes (SD 16:27); the featurettes It's Alive! Creating A Monster Classic (HD 31:16), Making FrankenSense (HD 41:52), and Transylvanian Lullaby: The Music Of John Morris (HD 10:29); and The Franken-Track: A Monstrous Conglomeration Of Trivia.

This Mel Brooks classic was filmed in black-and-white Panavision® Academy Standard Flat. The 1.86:1 1080p AVC picture has been remastered and exhibits a generally clean image with subtle grain and noise artifacts. The gray scale is excellent, with deep blacks and excellent shadow delineation. Some scenes provide excellent contrast due to good lighting techniques, but overall resolution is soft. The intention was to create imagery that reflects the original Frankenstein black-and-white classics. As such, the picture succeeds, even with film grain evident throughout.

The original theatrical soundtrack was monaural, and that track is available on the disc. As a monaural soundtrack, it is undistinguished with fidelity that is mediocre and dynamics that are compressed. The repurposed 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio™ soundtrack simply spreads the monaural information to the left and right front channels and monaural effects and music to the surround channels. This provides a greater sense of sonic space, while maintaining the original monaural character. Dialogue sounds intelligible throughout. Fidelity is dated, and dynamics are compressed. Still, the soundtrack is a fun and engaging experience.G