Underdog Blu-ray

Underdog

 (2007)

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Sci-Fi

Underdog's mysterious origins begin in the wake of an accident in the high-tech lab of the maniacal scientist Dr. Simon Barsinister. Suddenly, an ordinary, down-and-out young Beagle named Shoeshine finds himself with extraordinary powers, not to mention the unexpected ability to turn his bark into real speech. Now, armed with a "fetching" superhero costume, this unlikely caped crusader and humbly self-described Underdog vows to protect the beleaguered citizens of Capitol City–especially one beautiful Spaniel named Polly Purebred. When a sinister plot by Barsinister and his overgrown henchman Cad, threatens to destroy Capitol City, only Underdog can save the day.

For more details about Underdog on Blu-ray, see the Underdog Blu-ray Review

Starring: James Belushi, Peter Dinklage, Patrick Warburton, Alex Neuberger, Taylor Momsen
Director: Frederick Du Chau

Underdog Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

The 1080p video is encoded in MPEG4 AVC. The picture quality is merely adequate for Blu-ray: it’s decent, but nothing about it stands out to make one sit up and take notice. It’s better than DVD, but nothing that you couldn’t see on a decent HD cable broadcast. The film is colorful and natural looking with the exception of some outdoor shots that look a bit on the blown out side. There is no artifacts or edge enhancement, and grain is minimal to nonexistent.
One side effect of the transfer is that some of the visual effects come off a bit more cheesy than intended. The opening flyover of Capital City is very digital and unnatural looking, and some of the dog lip-sync effects are a little too rubbery and fake. In fact, it’s easy to spot when a cat is supposed to say “freak” that they didn’t even bother with a visual effect: the cat is merely licking his lips.

Underdog Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

The soundtrack is presented in Uncompressed 16-bit PCM @48kHz (mislabeled 24-bit on the package). Like the video, the audio is merely adequate and nothing in particular stands out to make your ears take notice. Other than a few flybys, the mix is very front heavy. Even in the scene where Underdog gets his powers, the mix is still confined to the front with very little in the surrounds or the .1 LFE channel. The dog is running all over the lab, with consoles shattering and exploding all around the room, yet sound-wise it’s all up in front. Other sequences (such as when Underdog first flies) are also missed opportunities. My subwoofer barely registered as he punched through walls of the office building or landed hard in the alley. A disappointing mix.
The sound is also presented in English, French, and Spanish Dolby Digital (DD) 5.1 @640kbps.

Underdog Blu-ray, Forum Discussions

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