The Hero of Color City Blu-ray Review

The Hero of Color City benefits from a meticulously crafted 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray transfer by Magnolia Home Entertainment. The digital animation, though simpler than Pixar’s complex productions, shines vividly in this format. The color palette, although deliberately limited by the plot to emphasize fading colors, exhibits remarkable vibrancy and saturation when necessary. This transfer impressively showcases the pencil markings on unfinished drawings, delivering an exceptional level of clarity and fine detail that enhances the viewing experience. Notably, there are no signs of artifacts, noise, or interference, ensuring the image remains pristine throughout.

Encoding is handled with an MPEG-4 AVC codec, maintaining a resolution of 1080p and an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. The average bitrate of 21.89 Mbps is quite standard but proves ample for this digital-origin project. This provides a sharp, crisp image with natural-looking black levels covering various shades effectively. The rich colors and accurate dimming transitions across scenes demonstrate excellent color reproduction.

Depth perception further elevates the visual quality, offering a three-dimensional aspect to many scenes. This is particularly evident in the sequences featuring uncolored drawings brought to life, which exhibit lifelike movements and appearances. The lack of noticeable noise or artifacts underlines the high-quality encoding—culminating in a brilliantly immersive visual presentation.

The Blu Ray release of "The Hero of Color City" features an impressive lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack, showcasing a meticulously balanced auditory experience. Exciting sequences, such as the journey through the wormhole to Color City and the climactic dam breaking scene, are rendered with remarkable clarity and dynamism. The film's soundtrack, composed by Zoë Poledouris and Angel Roché Jr., integrates songs with noteworthy fidelity and clarity, adhering to the high standards required for animated feature films.

The audio format features English 5.1 DTS-HD MA with subtitles available in English SDH, Spanish, and French. Overall audio dynamics are solid, accentuating the immersive qualities of the film. The music's dynamic presence enlivens the viewing environment, while the balance between effects, musical scores, and dialogue maintains an engaging and clean sound profile. Low-frequency extension effectively supports both musical elements and specific sound effects, enhancing the overall depth.

Furthermore, while the surround sound presentation provides limited action, it does contribute additional musical layers and ambient effects. Dialogue reproduction remains crisp and center-focused for clear comprehension. However, singing voices are mixed slightly louder, which may enhance their impact but occasionally creates a disparity in volume levels. This carefully crafted audio track ensures that "The Hero of Color City" delivers a compelling auditory experience throughout different cinematic moments.

The extras on the Blu-ray for "The Hero of Color City" are crafted to engage young audiences through interactive and educational content. Featuring interviews with the cast, behind-the-scenes footage, a sing-along, music medley, and more, each extra strives to enhance the film's themes and animation. Additionally, you'll find unique galleries contrasting line art with finished drawings, kid-friendly recipes, and a crayon donation PSA. Noteworthy of mention is the practical guidance on how to print coloring pages and obtain the soundtrack. Though extensive in quantity, these extras predominantly cater to children, offering minimal value to adult viewers seeking deeper content.

Extras included in this disc:

• Playing the Characters: Interviews with Christina Ricci, Craig Ferguson, and Sean Astin.
• Behind the Voices: Recording session clips featuring Ferguson, Astin, and Elizabeth Daily.
• Colorful Crayon Lines: Select a character to hear a typical line.
• Creating The Hero of Color City: Producer and director discuss the film's themes and animation techniques.
• The Hero of Color City Sing-Along: Follow the bouncing crayon through three songs.
  • Ring a Little Bell
  • Heave Ho (Boat Song)
  • Color the World
• Crayon Juke Box Music Medley: Instrumental highlights from the film's soundtrack.
• Artwork & Drawing Galleries: Contrast of character and place line art with finished drawings.
• Kid-Friendly Recipes from Bumble Bee: Tuna-based recipe tutorials.
• Crayon Collection – How to Donate Your Crayons: PSA encouraging crayon donations.
• How to Print Out the Coloring Pages: Directions to an online resource.
• How to Get the Soundtrack: Information on purchasing the soundtrack online or in stores.

"The Hero of Color City" is a vibrant children's film that charmingly promotes the idea of recycling crayons for underprivileged children. The movie's plot follows the adventures of Ben's crayons as they travel to Color City, a magical realm where their colors are refreshed. The story kicks into gear when unfinished drawings from Ben's room disrupt the harmony of Color City by blocking the essential Rainbow Waterfall. Yellow, the film's timid protagonist voiced by Christina Ricci, along with her colorful companions Blue, Red, Green, Black, and White, must save the day. The voice cast is remarkably strong, featuring talents such as Wayne Brady and Rosie Perez.

The film boasts competent animation, though it may not appeal to adults due to its simplistic storyline and lack of deeper substance. While the characters have distinctive personalities, modeled after recognizable archetypes and pop culture icons, the narrative feels too straightforward for grown-ups. Unlike other animated films that blend child-friendly storytelling with adult jokes or references, "The Hero of Color City" remains firmly in the realm of children's entertainment. Despite this, the movie’s commendable focus on encouraging crayon donations to crayoncollection.org makes it clear that its primary mission is charitable.

From a technical perspective, the film succeeds in engaging young viewers. For example, younger audiences will likely be captivated by the bright colors and whimsical designs of Color City. However, adults might find it less gripping. A parental warning: while your children may enjoy multiple viewings, you might want to have alternative activities on hand. Nonetheless, "The Hero of Color City" achieves what it sets out to do—entertain children and promote a good cause, although it's unlikely to leave a lasting impression on most adults.

"The Hero of Color City" Blu-ray presents a vibrantly animated feature that is aimed squarely at young children. The animation itself is vividly colorful, capturing the whimsical essence of a land inhabited by living crayons. The Blu-ray release showcases this with high-definition clarity, ensuring that every hue of this crayon-filled adventure pops off the screen. Additionally, the sound quality is suitably engaging, providing an immersive experience for its target audience.

The primary drawback comes in the form of its storytelling. While the visual spectacles can certainly captivate young viewers, the narrative lacks the creativity and depth found in superior animated features. The plot is simplistic and straightforward, which, while suitable for children, may not hold the interest of older audiences or offer much re-watchability. However, the Blu-ray does come packed with a variety of extra features and bonuses that can extend the entertainment value for kids beyond the main film.

There's nothing wrong with "The Hero of Color City," and it may well fire the imagination of kids who like drawing or inspire those who haven't yet opened a box of crayons to try playing with them. But the bar in the world of animated features has been set very high, and anyone who wants to enter the field should expect to be judged accordingly. By the prevailing standards, "Color City" suffers from a dearth of storytelling imagination. Strictly for kids. Donate your crayons for a good cause. Heck, pick this one up for your kids if they’re wanting something new. While I wasn’t a big fan of this movie at all, I’m also an adult and not the audience for it. The film has a great presentation and does feature a list of extras that’ll keep the young ones busy for a little bit after the film has finished. Once again, I reiterate, for the kiddies, I’ll recommend this.