The Adventures of Baron Munchausen – Blu-ray Disc
March 31, 2008 – 1:46 AM - Posted by: Justin SlussTags: Charles McKeown, Eric Idle, John Neville, Sarah Polley, Sony, Terry Gilliam
has an average rating of 6.9 on IMDb
1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a 50gb disc
Dolby TrueHD 5.1
include a Blu-ray exclusive & more
– 
– 1988
– 126 minutes
– Sony
Buy it for $19.95 @ Amazon.com
— Review written by Justin Sluss
The Movie Itself is the fifth full length feature film Directed by Terry Gilliam of “Monty Python” fame who in fact also Directed “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” as well as some other great films over the years. He co-wrote the screenplay to the film with Charles McKeown. This was the second time Gilliam and McKeown
had worked together on a screenplay, the first was Gilliam‘s 1985 classic “Brazil.” Most of you know him nowadays for probably his newer widely popular films like “12 Monkeys” and “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” but these old films like “Baron Munchausen” and “Brazil” have just as much of a following.
The story to this film is fairly hard to really find a way to start off explaining of than that just as the title says, you’re treated to “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” which were inspired by the myth-like tales told of him over the years. “Baron Munchausen” (played by John Neville) is as famous 17th century French aristocrat who has a his gang of misfits which are named “Adolphus” (played by Charles McKeown), “Albrecht” (played by Winston Dennis), “Berthold” (played by Eric Idle) and “Gustavus” (played by Jack Purvis). Joining them on these adventures is a little young lady by the name of “Sally Salt” (played by Sarah Polley). The supporting cast includes such greats as Jonathan Pryce, Robin Williams and Uma Thurman to just name a few. The Director Terry Gilliam is now very well-known for his style of fantasy films but this is one of his earlier works and definitely worth checking out for fans of his other work.
Video Quality on this release is 1080p in AVC MPEG-4 on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte Dual-Layered Blu-ray Disc). First off I have to say this looks rather impressive in High Definition to be celebrating it’s 20th Anniversay. The 35mm negatives seem to have held up rather well over the past couple decades. There’s a really good amount of detail to be found here that was never present in the past DVD release(s). This obviously has it’s share of film grain and noise but shows absolutely no signs of any type of compression problems what-so-ever. Speaking of the film grain, I found that some certain scenes seem to look really crisp and others pretty rough (grainy) but never really enough to complain about too much. The black level is fairly solid, darker scenes look rather decent, the fleshtones are good and color palette at times can really have some vibrant color. Overall I’d say I’m impressed by this Hi Definition transfer of a 20-year-old Terry Gilliam classic and happy to score it a “4 Star Rating” for video quality.
Audio Quality on this release is in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. First off, dialogue is delivered perfectly and especially boldly by “Baron Munchausen.” There seems to be a nice surround presence throughout the film. Sound effects such as sword fights, explosion and so forth sound decent (good enough to really grab your attention at times) for 20-year-old sound recordings. The Score done by Michael Kamen comes across in the TrueHD 5.1 marvelously to help deliver this tale. There’s not a whole lot to complain about here as I didn’t find any problems with the mix. You won’t find yourself adjusting the volume at all depending on if your Blu-ray Player and stereo receiver can properly decode the TrueHD signal. This 20-year-old soundtrack has never sounded better, I’ll give this a “4 Star Rating” for overall audio quality. Nice job on behalf of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment here just like the Hi Def video transfer.
Bonus Materials are presented in 480p Standard Definition 16:9 (Widescreen) video using MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound.
- Audio Commentary with Director Terry Gilliam and Co-Writer/Actor Charles McKeown
- “The Madness and Misadventures of Munchausen” (72 minutes total) is an all-new three part documentary on the making of the film. This includes interviews with Writer/Director Terry Gilliam, cast members such as John Neville, Sarah Polley, Eric Idle and Charles McKeown who co-wrote the film with Gilliam.
- “Storyboard Sequences” (30 minutes) include all-new vocal performances by Terry Gilliam and Chris McKeown along with storyboard sketches. This probably isn’t something the average fan will end up watching but I’m sure some will enjoy it.
- Deleted Scenes (3 minutes total) tally in at four total including an alternate opening to the film.
- “Marvelous World of Munchausen” is a Blu-ray exclusive feature that includes enhanced on screen graphics and a trivia track using BD-Java. This proves very informative to Terry Gilliam fans especially and pretty impressive we get this for a back catalog title such as this.
- “Flights of Fancy” (30 minutes)
- “Caught in the Act” (17 minutes)
- “The Final Curtain” (26 minutes)
Overall these bonus materials served up are pretty impressive for a back catalog title two decades old. I’m pretty impressed by this Blu-ray overall as it is but this totally puts the cherry on top so-to-speak. Fans are definitely going to be pleased with these bonus materials, especially the all-new 3 part documentary that has a 72 minute runtime.
