This US-Japan joint production is the English version of the movie, uncut. Released by Warner Bros, this disc is a low effort, barebones attempt that is saved by good video quality but suffers from a minimal audio approach and no extras at all.
This disc is part of the "Archive Collection" as well, this means the films are produced "on demand" when they are ordered online. While this sounds like an economical approach, as it avoids the need to create inventory and estimate demand, the execution is a little lacking. In effect, what you are buying is an official DVD-R, complete with a purple back to the disc, that has the movie burned on it and a label slapped on the front of the disc. The DVD case looks fine, with complete art printed on high quality paper, but the disc is not what one would expect from a major label, and a bit disheartening given the price is still $20 like a normal retail release.
| Video: |
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The DVD's highlight, the late 1970's film is presented very, very well on this with great video quality. The biggest benefit of this is that the colors look very vibrant and rich, with great tones that really pop. The only downside is that the image is a little saturated, causing bright skies or all white clothes to lose some detail. There are faint signs of print damage as well during the scenes with superimposition, which are fairly numerous as the cast has a few scenes that are mixed in with the Tyrannosaurus Rex. For a DVD release, though, the print generally looks pretty sharp as well with nice detail and is generally pretty pristine.
The print used for the film is the English version, although is uncut and not the 95 minute version that originally aired in the US on TV.
The back of the DVD bills this as the "theatrical version", which is technically correct as there was a planned theater run of the movie in the US before they scrapped this and created an edit of the film that went straight to TV on ABC.
The Last Dinosaur is presented in its original
aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and is Anamorphic
for widescreen TVs.
| Audio: |
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The Last Dinosaur features one audio track, a monaural presentation of the English, US version of the film.
The audio quality is good, with no inconsistences which is nice to hear on a film this age and means that the T-Rex's many roars, a hybrid of Godzilla and King Kong's roars from King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962), come through nice and clear.
The only downside is the lack of options, like a Japanese audio track would have been great or even a subtitle/closed caption option... something to add a bit more to this release.
| Extras: |
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Nada. This DVD has a super generic Warner Archive Collection menu that just gives the bare minimum instructions on how to play the disc. It contains 11 chapters, but no menu to actually pick and choose them.
| Overview: |
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Bottom
line, I'm probably being a little generous with the final score, but for me the most important aspect of a home video release is the video quality and at least the disc excels there. The DVD as a whole has a lot of faults all the same, from the lack of effort in the other areas to the budget style, DVD-R release at full price. In the end, only for people who are already fans of the production.
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