Mamma Mia! The Movie (Blu-ray)

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Video:
The 2.40:1 widescreen "Mamma Mia!" looks simply marvelous in high definition and the horribly gaudy outfits that are worn during the closing credits couldn´t look any brighter than they do on Blu-ray. The film is mastered with VC-1 compression and the amount of detail and coloring through the film is about as strong as the format can provide. There are a handful of moments when either a soft filter was used or detail drops to perhaps hide some wrinkles, but this is in the minority. The various textures provided by stonework, sand and foliage look amazing. The various outfits, makeup and tropical sets are perfectly saturated. Every color in the rainbow is represented in "Mamma Mia!" and reds, blues and yellows are all perfectly rendered. The film was shot entirely in daylight, so the post-processing to create the film´s night sequences show excellent shadow detail and black levels are spot on. The source print is also perfect and you´d be challenged to find a single flaw in this transfer. If only the sing-along font was just a little bit smaller…

Audio:

The biggest selling point of "Mamma Mia!" for many will be the soundtrack and ABBA and those singing the songs in the film are delivered very nicely via an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. While I thought I could do a better job singing than Pierce Brosnan, the vocals and sound effects of the film sound very good and the accompanying music is handled with aplomb. I was surprised at the nice ambient sounds that could be heard throughout the film and the rear speakers are given more to do than just playback the ABBA soundtrack. There is not a lot of bass to be heard in the subwoofer channel aside from one minor incident where Meryl Streep falls into the room containing her ex-lovers and some of the musical numbers, but the soundtrack is lively enough to keep the viewer and any ABBA fans quite happy. Spanish and French DTS 5.1 mixes are also included as are subtitles in English SDH, Spanish and French.

Extras:

Universal delivers "Mamma Mia!" in the form of a 2-disc special edition. The first disc contained in the set is the film on a Blu-ray BD-50 platter with special features galore. The second disc is the Digital Copy of the film on a DVD disc. This allows either an iTunes or Windows Media formatted version of the film to be loaded onto a personal computer, Macintosh or any portable media player that is capable of playing either of the two installable versions. While it lacks the special features and other items of the Blu-ray, fans of the film or ABBA will most certainly enjoy having the film for the go. As long as studios don´t begin to charge a big premium for this popular second DVD that is included in the packaging, I feel it is a nice feature to include and it seems like most larger films now have this Digital Copy provided for both the DVD and Blu-ray releases.

"Mamma Mia!" on Blu-ray contains many next-gen features such as U-Control and BD Live The U-Control functionality includes Behind the Hits and Picture-in-Picture. The "Behind the Hits" feature brings graphical overlays with history and trivia about the recordings featured in the film and nice backstory on each song. The Picture-in-Picture is your typical collage of interviews and making of footage. All chapters but seventeen includes "Behind the Hits" information and twelve of the twenty chapters include picture-in-picture information. The BD-Live features includes My Movie Commentary which will allow you to create your own text or video commentary and then forward the information to friends for them to get your thoughts on the film. This could be a lot of fun for those unsuspecting a full alternate soundtrack that you could provide in conjunction with the sing along feature. My Chat is also provided and you can talk to your friends while watching the film. Or, if you prefer, you can sing to them.

The disc contains a few items that may be played while the feature film is viewed. The Play with Sing-Along feature provides lyrics while the film is playing so that you may belt out your best ABBA impersonation in true Karaoke glory as the film plays. This is one of those features that I would highly recommend you enjoy when you are watching the film alone. There is no friendly bouncing ball, but the lyrics change colors as you are supposed to sing the words. A Feature Commentary with Director Phyllida Lloyd provides an informative commentary where Lloyd praises her cast and crew and while she is very keen on back-patting, the commentary track does contain some very nice details about the making of the picture and some history on the source materials in which the film is based and information on ABBA.

A good number of stand-alone features are included on the disc. The familiar and nearly worthless My Scenes is the first item listed and the Sing-Along bonus feature allows any of the twenty one musical numbers to be selected and you can view the scene in question with lyrics turned on or off. This is simply a direct selection of the full-length "Play with Sing Along" feature. The Deleted Scenes (8:06) are lumped together and MPEG-2 encoded standard definition. The first 4:12 of this collection are three scenes that show each of the three men in the final moments before they leave for the island of Skopelos. Only two additional musical numbers are contained here and it is part of one scene between Sophie and Sky on the beach. The Outtakes (1:33) are quite brief and contains more "Dancing Queen." The Deleted Musical Number: "The Name of the Game" (3:02) concludes the collection of excised material.

The Making of Mamma Mia! (24:05) is broken into three chapters and shown in VC-1 encoded high definition. This includes the producer, director and other filmmakers behind the production as well as many members of the cast and crew and the making-of doc includes information about the play and the adaptation to film as well as some moments with ABBA. Anatomy of a Musical Number: "Lay All Your Love On Me" (5:42) looks at the creation of one scene and musical number with Dominic Cooper learning to sing the song and discuss his recording the song and filming the scene. Becoming a Singer (10:56) looks at ABBA and the reunion of the supporting band as the soundtrack is recorded and the cast and crew talk about working on singing the songs for the film and working with ABBA during the filming. A Look Inside Mamma Mia! (2:40) is a quick EPK feature and the "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!" Music Video (3:49) and the Bjorn Ulvaeus Cameo (1:35) conclude the special features.

Closing:

I may be tempted to go out and purchase a good CD containing the hits of ABBA after watching this film. There were just so many songs that I remembered from my younger days and I greatly enjoyed the music of the film. Unless you count the singing moments of Pierce Brosnan; he is a very good actor, but not a very good singer. The film is more about the music than the story, but in general, I found "Mamma Mia!" to be an entertaining musical with a fairly strong story. This isn´t a movie that will be remembered as a classic, but it is definitely worth sitting down to enjoy once. It combines good humor with good music and pretty good performances. The Blu-ray release is detailed and colorful and sounds very good. The bonus features are good and showcase many of the next-gen features that Blu-ray is capable of. Oh, and yes I did laugh a couple of times. So there is apparently nothing wrong with me.

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