Toys in the Attic Blu-ray delivers stunningly beautiful video and great audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
When the gentle Buttercup is kidnapped and held prisoner by The Head, ruler of the Land of Evil, it is up to her friends - a teddy bear, a blob of clay and a marionette soldier - to attempt a daring rescue.
Reviews of Toys in the Attic often invoke Pixar's Toy Story films, but the original title of Czech
animator Jií Barta's stop motion fantasy didn't even mention toys. It was called, simply, In the
Attic: Who Has a Birthday Today? Like John Lasseter and his cohorts, Barta conceived of a
world just outside the sight of humans in which inanimate objects come alive and create their
own society (several, in fact). But Barta's creatures weren't toys devoted to serving their owners.
They had their own raison d'être, and many of them bore little resemblance to toys. They could
be bugs or a malevolent head. Much of their world was composed of discarded junk, repurposed
in ways even Rube Goldberg couldn't have imagined. In a Pixar frame, you're always scanning
for clever allusions and visual jokes. In a Barta frame, you find yourself staring at some object
that's been wrenched out of context and used for some wholly new purpose—what is that doing
there?
American writer and actress Vivian Schilling (Soultaker) has worked with Barta to create an
English language version of his film under the title Toys in the Attic. Dialogue was re-recorded in
English with a mostly American cast. An additional title sequence was added with Barta's
assistance using the conceit of an English toy catalog, and various occurrences of text throughout
the film have had Czech replaced with English. Otherwise the film's narrative and visuals have
remained intact.
After some delay beyond the listed street date, Hannover House has released Toys in the Attic on
Blu-ray and DVD.
Barta's fantasy unfolds in the attic of a house stuffed full of objects so old that, as the
grandmother who lives there says, some of them go back to the days of the emperors. Inside a
battered suitcase, a sweet antique doll named Buttercup (Schilling) runs a kind of boarding house for
several other discarded playthings: Teddy the bear (Forest Whitaker), who is station master for
the local train; Sir Handsome (Cary Elwes), a Spanish knight and former marionette whose
strings are perpetually tangled; and Laurent (Marcelo Tubert), a voluble French blob made of
modeling clay, pencil stub, bottle cap and sundry other items.
Every morning, Buttercup summons this motley crew to breakfast, where a roll of the dice
determines which one will have a birthday that day. The lucky winner gets the cake that
Buttercup bakes fresh every morning, which is consumed while everyone listens to the radio
broadcast by Madame Curie (Joan Cusack), a stuffed mouse with a thick accent somewhere
between French and gypsy, who seems to know all the news (and everything else). Then it's off
to work, on roads and tracks uniting a vast social network stretching everywhere throughout the
attic. It all goes quiet on the rare occasion when a human appears at the top of the stairs.
This tranquil existence is disturbed by an invasion from the Land of Evil, which is ruled by The
Head, an imposing presence that appears to be a discarded plaster bust, perhaps of a long-departed communist leader. (The Head is played as a live-
action figure by Czech actor Jirí Lábus,
with English voice by Douglas Urbanski.) Aided by its serpentine spying eye, which is no doubt
another reference to the now-deposed communist regime, The Head catches sight of Buttercup
and instantly wants to add her to his collection of minions. He sends squadrons of bugs to kidnap
her and, when that doesn't work, a treacherous black cat, who also engineers a train accident as a
diversion.
The film's second half follows the efforts of Buttercup's friends to free her from The Head's evil
clutches, while the villain attempts to crush them with one wicked scheme after another,
including laundry, black plastic trash bags and "fake" Buttercups. (Trust me, it makes sense
when you see it.) Meanwhile, Madame Curie unveils her greatest invention yet: a flying machine
built from an old vacuum cleaner with a very long cord.
Director Barta combines live footage, stop-motion, traditional hand-drawn animation and CG
compositing to create an imaginary world that is equal parts the Brothers Grimm and Salvador
Dali. The result may be too intense for very young children—or, for that matter, adults with an
intense bug phobia—but it's challenging, inventive and constantly surprising.
Hannover House's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray of Toys in the Attic is a gorgeous showcase for
director Barta's fanciful constructions. The image's blacks are rock solid, which is essential not
only for depicting the shadow detail often found in the dimly lit attic interiors, but also for
revealing the fine detail in the outlandish creatures and inventions that populate this imaginary
world. So little of what appears in the frame is used for its original purpose that one may have to
freeze-frame and study the larger machines in order to determine what makes them run
(assuming, of course, that they actually do).
Because this is generally a dark environment, the color palette runs toward the cooler end of the
spectrum, favoring blues, but various exceptions apply. Buttercup is usually associated with
yellows, beiges and whites, while Teddy, Sir Handsome and Laurent invoke shades of brown and
red. The Head and its spying eye routinely look metallic.
In addition to being sharply detailed, the image is free of noise or signs of digital manipulation.
Artifacts of any kind (e.g., compression, banding or ringing) were nowhere to be seen.
Hannover House continues to resist including lossless audio on its Blu-ray releases. If it ever
expects to be taken seriously by afficionados of the format, it needs to reconsider this approach.
Toys in the Attic offers a choice of lossy soundtracks: Dolby Digitial 5.1 at the DVD-standard
rate of 448 kbps and DD 2.0 at 192 kbps. For an even more antiquated touch, the disc defaults to
the 2.0 soundtrack. You have to remember to select the 5.1 option manually, if you want the best
sound available on the disc.
The DD 5.1 track is adequate for its purposes. The dialogue is as intelligible as it can be,
considering that three of the main characters (Madame Curie, Sir Handsome and Laurent) speak
with deliberately impenetrable accents, and a fourth (Teddy) mutters his lines under his breath.
None of them says anything of great importance, with the exception of Madame Curie, who
occasionally provides necessary exposition.
The 5.1 mix does not amplify and expand sound effects in the usual fashion of such mixes.
Barta's approach seems to have been to keep things small, because these are small objects. For
example, the train crash caused by the mischievous black cat barely registers. The surrounds
become active in scenes like the attack on Buttercup's kitchen by a band of ladybugs (skitter!
chomp!), and the low end of the system is most noticeable in the playful score by Michal
Pavlícek.
Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:29): The Blu-ray jacket also lists a "YouTube
Trailer". Unless it's a hidden "easter egg" that I couldn't find, it's not there.
Napude Production Gallery (1080p; 1.33; 3:04): A brief overview of Barta's career and
the making of the original Czech version of In the Attic.
Behind the Scenes of the U.S. Production (480i; 1.78:1, enhanced; 24:48): Schilling
describes how she became involved with the English adaptation and her approach, in
consultation with Barta, who provided essential background on the characters. Interviews
are included with several of the English cast members and the sound engineers. In
addition, Schilling discusses the new credit sequence.
U.S. Press Notes and Gallery (1080i; various; 3:33): A slide show that includes pictures
of Barta and his team at work; of Schilling and her team; and of poster art, models and
design concepts.
The visual element is so critical to Toys in the Attic that screenshots convey more about the film
than any verbal description ever could. Take a few minutes to study Barta's style as reflected in
the images accompanying this review. They should tell you all you need to know to decide
whether Toys in the Attic will interest you. For my part, despite the lossy soundtrack, highly
recommended.
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