If you are looking for tranquility, relaxation at work or home or if you are simply searching for a perfect music collection for a romantic evening come on a journey with us with the Relax DVD series to the most awe-inspiring, breath taking places on Earth!
This release is terrible. Don't buy it. The 3D is
miserable, the audio is bland, and while the movie isn't boring per se, it's nothing but static and slow-panning shots of nature with the
occasional less-steady handheld shot thrown in for good measure or when moving through a more densely-wooded area. The film's stated purpose is
as a "relaxation" piece; supposedly the natural beauty of the filmed locations in conjunction with the various music inserted into the end product will
equal a
soothing, relaxed viewing experience, but the technical quality of the video is so atrocious that any potential enjoyment is shattered by an
image so messy that even the average Youtube video looks worlds better. Magic Forest 3D looks like it was shot with some shoddy equipment
or maybe gear with the wrong settings selected. Who knows, but the end result is an obviously well-meaning and potentially good Blu-ray release
that's not up to the standards of even the cheapest of studios. Anywhere but at a micro-independent label and this disc would not have passed quality
control.
The mystery girl on the cover does not appear in the film. I thought she was going to be an elf based on the title and all.
Magic Forest 3D features a random assortment of nature footage captured around Hungary's Bükk National Park. Scenery is incredibly
random,
primarily consisting, it seems, of whatever happened to be available on the day of filming. There's nothing particularly stunning about the locations;
there are no world-famous
landmarks or unique natural phenomena. Slight waterfalls, pleasant streams, empty fields, wooded areas, walking trails, and the like represent the
bulk of the Magic Forest 3D footage. Sure, many of the environments are "pretty," but there's nothing truly remarkable about any of them,
and any
viewer with access to a country or wooded setting could find something as equally "pretty" in their own backyards. The film does briefly travel down
into a series of caves and spends a few moments with some gorgeous horses, but otherwise, this is a point-and-shoot nature video that focuses on
anything from pond scum to wide open green landscapes.
So, Magic Forest 3D is 51 minutes of natural Hungarian landscapes. It's more frugal to spend $14 on a Blu-ray than thousands on plane
tickets,
tour guides, hotels, and the like, but this hardly qualifies as an expertly-produced film, let alone an honest replacement for visiting "exotic" locales.
The good intentions are there, and travel videos have in the past proven their worth as decent substitutes for the real thing, but a cinematic stroll
through various locations with no rhyme or reason for which shot follows another or even any sort of identification as to what the viewers are
looking at and where, exactly, it is located, just doesn't pass the sniff test. Certainly the filmmakers believed subtitles or narration would hinder the
film's potential to serve as a "relaxation" device, but considering the built-in limitations of 3D viewing (glasses) and the quality of the video
presentation (abysmal), it would seem that at least a hint of what's on-screen beyond "leaf," "tree," "rock," or "horse" would be slightly beneficial.
It all comes back to the bottom-feeding video quality; it's amazing how a poor source can almost completely ruin even the most beautiful of God's
handiwork.
The other key ingredient in Magic Forest 3D is the music. It fares a little better in terms of sheer quality (though the technical specs are
disappointing, more on that in a moment) than the troublesome video source. In a perfect world, it would make for a fine accompaniment to the
natural visuals. As a frame of reference, it's sort of like that display of supposedly "relaxing" CDs of various genres that Target has on display,
usually by the
greeting cards section. The film begins with music that's very Celtic in feel; it is indeed relaxing, so relaxing, in fact, that it might even put audiences
to sleep should one choose to close his or her eyes rather than look at the messy video and merely take in the soothing audio. The track also
features some heavier tribal-like chants, an Enya-style wannabe piece, and an Arabian-inspired number. Credited artist Szabolcs Kövi's music does
its job -- too well, maybe, in conjunction with the epic fail that is the video quality -- and fans of this sort of music might be best served to play this
disc with the sound system turned on and the television turned off.
Magic Forest 3D's 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer appears to be in the MPEG-2 format rather than the Blu-ray 3D-typical MPEG-4 MVC. No
matter, the results are garbage. It does work, technically, but to actually see a Blu-ray 3D image users may have to dive into their 3DTV's settings and
switch the "3D input format" or similar option depending on make/model from "auto," "native," or "side by side" to "top and bottom." Once the system
is equipped to handle the material, viewers will
find a 3D presentation that does manage to create a fair sense of depth. Trees are nicely offset one from another, the spacing between objects both
near and far is evident, and the transfer occasionally manages to find a halfway decent texture on a rock or leaf, but that's about it as far as any "good"
is concerned. The fact that the title achieves said depth or even manages to once or
twice feature a tree limb that seems to protrude from the screen doesn't matter if the secondary video elements are in shambles. In a nutshell, colors
are sloppy, the
image fluctuates between appearing soft and sharp even within the same shot, hard banding is evident in every inch of sky, heavy blocking is a regular
eyesore, jagged edges line many natural objects, smeared details are commonplace, aliasing is evident on occasion, and the image barely even looks like
it's really in high definition. To make matters worse, a "ghosting" effect appears with regularity. It's an epic disaster, down there close to Total Terror as one of the worst-looking discs on the market, and it's far
and away the worst Blu-ray 3D disc to date. It would be hard, even, to imagine anything turning out this poorly in the future. Unfortunately,
Blu-ray.com's proprietary screenshot capture method will not allow for screen grabs of this title, so still photos of the disc and packaging are serving as a
replacement.
Magic Forest 3D's soundtrack is of the Dolby Digital two-channel variety, and the quality is probably less than what one might expect to get from
one of those "relax" Target CDs mentioned above. The audio track is decent and the unquestioned highlight of the disc, but it's limited in range and
certainly nowhere near as crisp, clean, spacious, and natural as what superior lossless soundtracks have to offer. Most of the track is of the airy
instrumental variety, which is handled well enough across the front. The track occasionally mixes in some chanting vocals that give it a little bit of heft
that
contrasts nicely with the fluffy New Age/Celtic sort of material. Background ambience is limited primarily to chirping birds and gently flowing water which
recreate the sounds one might expect to hear in the real location, but the track, of course, fails to sonically immerse the listener into its varied
environments. This track might be fine for low-level background noise but not much more. Faint praise indeed for this disc's best asset.
Magic Forest 3D features no actual extras, unless an admittedly nifty "3D Glasses Setup" screen and a "Green Magenta" 3D version (not
sampled for this review) count. The necessary "Green Magenta" glasses are not included. Sadly, the "Glasses Setup" screen is the best part of this disc
in terms of raw quality of Blu-ray 3D material.
Magic Forest 3D is a disappointing release, sad to say. No doubt the intentions behind it are true, and in a perfect world this would be a
standout title, but it just screams "cheap" from every area, whether the downright ugly video quality or the fact that this appears to be a BD-R burned
from a PC and
plopped into a Blu-ray case. The highlight is the music; it's fine for what it is and needs to be, but even then it's nothing special. The music's perceived
quality is
probably partially some
sort of odd placebo effect when it's taken in against the entirety of the release. This Blu-ray release, courtesy of Ultimate3DHeaven, features one of the
worst video transfers on the Blu-ray market, 3D or not; a passable soundtrack; and no supplements. Sail away, sail away, sail away and buy an Enya CD
instead.
Blu-ray bundles with Magic Forest 3D (1 bundle)
Magic Forest 3D Blu-ray, News and Updates
No related news posts for Magic Forest 3D Blu-ray yet.
