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What happens when you throw Howard Bound, Bambi, Dumbo and The
Lion King into a blender? Technically, a nasty type of gumbo,
but if you're Disney you create a new family film out of it, Whispers:
An Elephant's Tale. This film was probably produced with grand
expectations, but comes up short on many accounts. Feeling more
like an IMAX film than a Disney feature, Whispers includes the
voice talent of Angela Basset, Anne Archer, Joanna Lumley (Absolutely
Fabulous), Tone Loc, Betty White, and even Joan Rivers!
The plot: Whispers is a newborn baby elephant who is separated
from his mother days after he is born. He loses track of his mother
when a group of "takers," arrives to hunt down his herd
for their tusk. Not fully understanding what has happened, Whispers
wanders across the African wilderness for a while. Eventually
he finds a new herd of pachyderm to live with; too bad they don't
want him. The only elephant that connects partially with Whispers
is Groove (Angela Bassett); a free minded spirit that generally
wants to be left alone.
Even though the orphaned elephant annoys Groove, she reluctantly
agrees to help him find his mother. During their adventure across
Africa, Groove and Whispers must deal with the ever-present predators
such as lions, hyenas and their greatest problem, the "takers."
To add a bit of The Land Before Time, Groove's herd is on a quest
to find The Great River, which will protect them from the "takers."
This film is poorly paced, and it's near to impossible to follow
which elephant is which, until the end of the film. To be honest,
the only reason to watch this film is for the beautiful photography
of Botswana, which is where the film was shot. A disappointment.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Talk about bad labeling... the packaging say "This film
has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted
to fit you TV." All right, so it's going to be full frame,
right? Wrong! The film is presented in its original 1.85 aspect
ratio, which is a good. The bad part? Someone at Disney forgot
to encode the film with anamorphic enhancement, which is ridiculous
at this stage of the game.
As for the transfer itself, the color palette is quite impressive,
especially during the early morning dawn sequences, where a beautiful
orange glow fills the frame. The nighttime scenes are artificially
lit, and the detail falls off during these moments. Due to the
lack of humans in this film, I'll say the elephants' flesh tones
looked fairly natural. Overall the image is relatively free of
compression artifacts, with a decent black level, but a limited
amount of contrast. For a non-anamorphic release, Whispers looks
decent, but is held back by its budget.
Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
OK, let me get this straight Whispers was made in 2000, yet there's
no 5.1 soundtrack? For some unexplainable reason Whispers is only
presented in surround sound, even though (according to my sources
at Dolby) there is a full 5.1 track available. Arrgh!
Anywhow, the 2.0 mix is decent, but won't knock your socks off.
Since this film is set in the African wilderness, I expected an
aggressive use of surround sounds. Unfortunately the majority
of the surround sound is limited to Trevor Rabin's score, a few
gunshots, and a couple ambient noises. There is some decent left
to right panning across the front of the soundstage, but it's
very low key. Whisper is similar to Homeward Bound, so the presentation
of the dialog is key, and the mix does a decent job of reproducing
the original ADR elements. There are very few low-end elements
to this soundtrack, but this film could have really benefited
from a full 5.1 soundtrack.
Besides the English Closed Captions, there are no additional
subtitles or language options.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
The supplements are the most redeeming value of this DVD. Besides
the abundance of Sneak Peeks, which aren't an extra feature
anymore anyway, two classic cartoons have been included. The
Big Wash features Goofy running around as a circus assistant
who is going mad attempting to wash an unruly elephant. Clown
Of the Jungle features Donald Duck on a South American bird
watching expedition. Why is a duck is on a bird watching expedition?
I don't know really, except to be the tormented foil for some
whacked-out South American bird called an Heraquand. Both of these
cartoons are more entertaining than the actual film.
DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop
the disc in your PC?
No ROM extras have been included.
Parting Thoughts
Just when you think a studio has gotten it all together,
they have to squat out a DVD like this. I know Whispers isn't
one of the Disney crown jewels, or even a solid B or C title,
but the lack of anamorphic enhancement (not to mention the inclusion
of a full 5.1 track) is inexcusable. If it wasn't for the two
classic cartoons included on this disc, there would be little
to recommend here at all. As you might have guessed by now, the
$29.99 price tag makes this title strictly a rental-only release.
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