Turbo Blu-ray Review
By: MattInRC
Turbo's fast moves and beautiful animation look and sound great in its home release, but it leaves us wanting more.
DreamWorks' newest animated film Turbo is proof positive of a growing trend for the genre: the production of slick-looking yet mindless pap. Gone are the days when Disney ruled with its films filled with hope AND a well-crafted message. And while Turbo isn't terrible, there's too many characters who just aren't as funny or profound as they could have been. Its arrival onto Blu-ray comes with reference quality audio and video, but it doesn't change our malaise.
The Movie - 3/5
Garden slug Theo (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) lives with a community of snails who set out daily to collect fallen and spoiled tomatoes from the family garden, all while listening to safety announcements from his anxious brother Chet (Paul Giamatti). He's got reason to panic: the local crows regularly pick off the snails, and a human boy offers a dangerous hazard to the entire community. But Theo dreams of racing, inspired by the story of Indy race car driver Guy Gagné (Bill Hader), whose French accent and dogged determination have made him a popular leader in the racing world. After putting the snail colony in deep trouble, Theo wanders far from home until he gets caught in a Fast and Furious car race, somehow magically imbuing him with the power of speed. His eyes become headlights, his tail a back-up alert, his shell a high-powered machine.
Soon, he and Chet meet the Mexican food truck driver and big dreamer Tito (voiced by Michael Peña), who realizes Turbo's talent and wants to enter him in the Indianapolis 500. But his brother and fellow strip mall business owners, including Bobby the hobby store owner (Richard Jenkins), the hair stylist Kim-Ly (Ken Jeong), and the mechanic Paz (Michelle Rodriguez) are hesitant to invest. Turbo also meets an eclectic gang of city slugs including Burn (Maya Rudolph), Smoove Move (Snoop Dogg), and the ringleader Whiplash (Samuel L. Jackson), who encourage him to chase his dreams. Together with the humans, Turbo and Chet finally enter the race with the scrappy snail and Gagné predictably clashing at film's end.
Newcomer Director David Soren mixes fast-paced action scenes with slow Matrix-like flips and barrel rolls, borrowing everything he could about motion and realism from Pixar's Cars. But there is a point when a film must stand on its own merits, and this is where Turbo utterly fails. The script by Darren Lemke (Jack the Giant Slayer) slogs through many dramatic scenes about as effectively as the pace of Turbo's slug friends, with the "you can do anything..." message repeated far too often and less effectively each time it's employed. It's such a procedural film, with each Act more like a To-Do List than an enjoyable and meaningful thrill ride. Lemke made the same mistakes with Slayer, failing to weave well-constructed dialogue into the mix, resulting in a movie in which we didn't care about the characters. Here, he repeats the error by introducing too many faces and pasting thin development onto them. There's simply no reason why Whiplash needs such a large team, and why Tito needs so many semi-desperate shop owners to throw in their cash for the entrance fees. Moreover, Turbo feels like two different films slapped together, with the speedy snail and Tito not even meeting until Act 2. This leaves a first act filled with conversation about poor Turbo and why he needs to just get with the program, thus generating so little connection to the high-stakes racing environment of the third.
Soren does cast several excellent voice actors to portray these roles, including Giamatti, Jackson, Randolph, and the surprising Jeong. Reynolds is serviceable as Turbo, but his somewhat uninspiring performance unnecessarily slows things down to a crawl (no pun). Composer Henry Jackman (X-Men: First Class) creates a first-class orchestral environment, which sits nicely alongside music by Snoop Dog and several R&B classics. It's largely a harmless and wholesome affair - which should work with children of most ages - but why did it also have to be so dull and emotionally unsatisfying?
The idea of pitting a snail against human-sized crushing vehicles was such a long-shot pitch to begin with that perhaps DreamWorks should have taken better care in its early stages.
The Video - 5/5
Turbo races with an impressive MPEG-4/AVC transfer that's easily one of the most beautiful of the year. From tailpipe to headlights, Dreamworks' effort looks amazing, from the life-like details on the feathers of the snail-hunting crows to the dirt and grit of Van Nuys' seedy streets. It's really a visual delight, with the backgrounds and environments worth as much mention as the characters themselves. These are richly detailed, with imperfections seemingly built in; potholes in roadways, pebbled backyard terrains, veins in leaves, and even individual blades of grass are revealed to near perfection. Some might say these environments look too real, but it's the current technology which is allowing such detailed work to be created, and the Blu-ray really brings this home. Colors are also impressive, sporting a wonderful collection of bright yellows, reds, and blues which seem to wash over the screen without outdoing each other or looking too cartoony. Blacks and ink levels are excellent, sporting a nice transition into shadows and night. As with most animated films these days, there's zero evidence of banding or aliasing, resulting in a compression-free experience. We tested on both a plasma and LED platform, and each looked stunning. If you're looking for a reference-quality product, you can't go wrong with this one.
The Audio - 5/5
Turbo roars onto Blu-ray with a powerful DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 lossless soundtrack. We tested it on both a standard 5.1 package as well with a soundbar, and each experience was thoroughly enjoyable. Every sound from the film arrives to relish its moment in the sun, whether it's a lawnmower slicing through the scene, thunderous jet engines flying overhead, or cars rumbling and racing down the track, Turbo delivers an emphatic message. Starting with the front speakers, we receive a mix of music, dialogue, and sound effects, each enjoying a precision that makes the others stand out. The center channel presents an unrestricted dialogue track, which when combined with the forwards provides plenty of space for its existence without ever needing to mess with the remote. Great tracks usually feature a highly-impactful rear track, and Turbo has nothing short of the one of the best we've heard. There's the peaceful neighborhood noises in Act 1, the loud and traffic-filled city sounds in Act 2, and the cheering of the racing in Act 3, all of which is done with a precision and seamless nature that must be heard to be appreciated. And then there's the LFE, which booms and pounds its way through the film, as if it had a life of its own. Everything sounds good here, including Composer Henry Jackman's soundtrack. This is a highly active and robust lossless soundtrack that should satisfy your ears as much as your eyes.
The Supplements - 2.5/5
If there's one area in which Dreamworks stumbles, it's the flat HD supplements, which contain no director's commentary and features other items that are somewhat informative but just weren't what we were looking for:
Champion's Corner (5:00)
Smoove Move's Music Maker (13:06)
Team Turbo: Tricked Out (2:43)
Meet Tito -- Deleted Scene (2:03)
The Race -- Storyboard Sequence (2:25)
Be An Artist! (41:35)
Shell Creator
Turbo Theatrical Trailer (2:26)
Our evaluation copy arrived as a Blu-ray Combo Pack, with a DVD and UV/iTunes included. The slipcase is colorful but not embossed, and there's a lack of interior artwork as well. There were three US versions offered, including a gift pack with a toy racer of Turbo. Although it seemed like an excellent opportunity, no steelbook or Metalpak was offered.
The Bottom Line - 3/5
Turbo is superficial, predictable, and uninspiring pap. Its arrival onto Blu-ray sports one of the best video and audio tracks of the year, but its supplements disappoint. Its current price point keeps us from recommending it, so wait until it gets into the lower double digits before you pick it up. Turbo is rated PG and has a runtime of 96 minutes.
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