Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (Blu-ray)

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Video:
"Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete" is brought to Hi-Def via an AVC/MPEG-4 transfer to a BD-50 dual-layered disc. Even non-fans will marvel at the animation and artwork-battle scenes especially-with everything rendered in superealistic detail and looking as sharp as can be. Black levels are perfect, colors are well-saturated though the palette runs slightly toward the industrial and the blue-tinted, and the 1.78:1 widescreen really adds breadth to the depth of the 3-D animation. This is the kind of disc that people pop in their Blu-ray players to show neophytes what they're missing. It's a solid picture.

Audio:
The featured audio is the Japanese Dolby TrueHD 5.1, which I recommend if you can handle subtitles. They boys I watched with found that they couldn't appreciate the animation or action if they also had to read each frame, because unfortunately there's a lot of information in the dialogue, so we switched halfway to the dubbed English version. A dubbed French soundtrack is also an option, with subtitles in English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese (Traditional), Chinese (Simplified), Korean, Thai, Arabic, and Dutch. Like the video, the audio on this title is solid, with the rear speakers delivering more powerful effects sounds than usual, and a great, full-bodied timbre. The bass doesn't rumble as much as it could on some of the action sequences, but that's offset by a purity of sound that matches the clean style of artwork and animation.

Extras:
The bonus feature that Sony figures everybody wants to watch is an exclusive sneak peek at the Final Fantasy XIII video game, which is a trailer for the game that's being released this year in Japan. Trailers are also included for "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete."

As for Blu-ray exclusives, in addition to being BD-Live enabled, "Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete" features "On the Way to a Smile--Episode: Denzel," which is a mini-prequel that tells Denzel's story before the events of "Advent Children." Also exclusive to Blu-ray is a brief featurette, "Reminiscence of 'Final Fantasy VII' Complilation," which is a storyline digest incorporating footage from the video games, and finally "Legacy of 'Final Fantasy VII,'" a brief featurette that's both a history of VII and a promo for XIII. Really, these are for fans only, and I'm not so sure that fans will get all that much out of them. They're pretty slight, except for the 25-minute "On the Way to a Smile" prequel.

Bottom Line:
Great animation, but a narrative disappointment.

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