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Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie - Extended Edition
R1 - America - Buena Vista Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (15th January 2010). |
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The Film
 If there’s one thing Disney knows how to do, it’s franchise. From TV shows to movies to merchandise, Disney is above and beyond the best at what it does. Disney knows how to feed off of cultural phenomena that seem even long defunct, like with it’s product “Wizards of Waverly Place” (2007–present). That’s right, Disney somehow managed to channel the power of “Harry Potter” into its made for TV formula of cheesy, corny, boring and inane tween sitcom. What sorcery. I thought the wizard craze had died down, everything was looking to be vampires, but no, Disney defies your puny mortal logic. “Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie” (2009) was the second biggest premiere for a direct-to-TV movie since “High School Musical 2” (2007). Now don’t confuse Disney Channel numbers with big network numbers, but it’s kind of staggering how such a horrible and disinteresting show manages to pull people in to watch. But back to that quirky Russo family and their wizard children. As they get ready to go on vacation to the Caribbean, Alex (Selena Gomez) feels really left out. I mean super bummed. All she wants to do is go to a party with her friends but her Mom, Theresa (Maria Canals-Barrera), says she can’t go. Don’t worry though; Alex is a wizard and using her dad’s book of forbidden spells that was on loan to her brother Justin (David Henrie). Of course, Alex’s magic doesn’t get her to the party and causes trouble with her parents causing everyone to go on vacation and leave their magic wands behind. Oh Alex, so mischievous, she smuggles the family full-wizard wand onto the trip and is accidentally holding it when she wishes her parents never met after getting in a spat with her mother. Now Alex, Justin and Max (Jake T. Austin) have to find the mystical stone of dreams to undo the spell and bring their parents back together otherwise they will disappear from all existence. Don’t go try and use that scientifical logical brain of yours with this movie. It’s magic alright? MAGIC. You’d just be hurting yourself. You would ask questions like, “why can’t any of these kids act?” or “Hey if their parent’s never met wouldn’t they disappear from existence instantly instead of some ‘Back to the Future’ (1985) rip-off scenario?” or above all “Hey, isn’t that Dom DeLuise’s son?, You know, from ‘3rd Rock from the Sun’ (1996-2001).” No, this is pure Disney magic that with the waive of a wand and a few special words has magically made 98 minutes disappear from your life. It’s so magical, it made those 98 minutes feel like hours, days even. Yet I’m not sure what else I should have expected out of Dan Berendsen, writer of “Hannah Montana: The Movie” (2009), who knows how to construct Disney plots fairly effortlessly since there’s nothing really to the script or story of the movie. Alex and Justin of course learn lessons and learn to love each other as a family by the end of the movie and the jokes are so incredibly terrible during the duration of the film it has nearly the same vibe as “Hannah Montana: The Movie.” If anything, Berendsen has taught me that if you throw together a screenplay based on a Disney show and add “: The Movie” at the end, that script will get sold, and Disney will get people to watch it. It’s a lucrative business. I feel a little bad criticizing a made-for-TV kids movie on it’s special effects, but they border on so laughably bad, it becomes even more painful to watch the movie. The only part of the movie that approached comedy was when Max was sucked into the sky through a giant CG tornado, like “The Forgotten” (2004), but with absolutely no budget. Disney has obviously made this show on the cheap, but I guess full effects work isn’t quite necessary as the corny look of the movie may help distract you from the bad script and acting. Looking for the good in “Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie” is almost an effort in futility. But of course, I’m not near the target demographic, I have never seen the show and seem to have an immunity to the Disney Channel magic. Yet Disney has turned another one of it’s lucrative shows into a lucrative made-for-TV movie that will certainly gross well in DVD sales and keep fueling the company to pump more of these out.
Video
Presented in an anamorphic 1.78:1 aspect ratio, “Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie” looks about as you would expect from a made-for-TV movie, with a slightly higher film quality than a TV show, but still has slightly more muted colors and contrast. The transfer lacks any glaring problems, you get a few occasional problems with pixilation or interlacing in some of the bigger CG scenes, but still it holds up to the Disney standards of putting out a mostly clean product. Most of the problems likely come from the original production as you can almost count on some bad grain or some weird pixilation in major CG scenes.
Audio
The English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track is cleaner than the audio and doesn’t suffer from the same predictable problems as the visuals, but is still toned down and muted for a 5.1 track. There’s no movement when there could be with all the spells flying around and the stock magical sound effects stand out even more in the almost abnormally (for DVD) crispness of the dialogue audio. What makes it worse though are the opening and closing songs that are Disney covers of songs that just have the word magic in the title or make some reference to magic, all of which are painful to listen to. There are also French and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 surround tracks, as well as English, French and Spanish subtitles.
Extras
I’m shocked, yet thankful, for the lack of special features on the disc, with only one featurette and a glut of advertisements in the form of two promo spots and bonus trailers. The only true special feature on the disc is called “Wiz Pix” featurette which runs for 10 minutes and 26 seconds, talking with major cast and crew members, but mostly with the three child actors Selena Gomez, David Henrie and Jake T. Austin. There’s a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes work, putting together different scenes on location in Puerto Rico, along with some personal photos from the three actors. It’s a really mundane look behind-the-scenes with the three actors, giving a glimpse at the behind-the-scenes work while not having to do much effort in putting together special features. “Dylan & Cole Sprouse: Blu-ray Is Suite!” promo spot runs for 4 minutes and 45 seconds, your friendly reminder from Disney to upgrade to Blu-ray cause really, it’s awesome. “Learn How To Take your Favorite Movies on the Go: Digital Copy” promo spot runs for 1 minute and 3 seconds, a little odd to see it here since there’s no digital copy for this set. Bonus trailers are for: - “Dumbo: 70h Anniversary Edition” runs for 1 minute and 16 seconds. - “Alice in Wonderland” runs for 1 minute and 41 seconds. - “Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam” runs for 39 seconds. - “G-Force” runs for 1 minute and 35 seconds. - “Disney Friends for Change” runs for 1 minute and 32 seconds. - “Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue” runs for 1 minute and 39 seconds. - “Sonny with a Chance” runs for 32 seconds. - “Disney Movie Rewards” spot runs for 20 seconds. - “Disney Blu-ray” spot runs for 1 minute and 2 seconds. - “Genuine or Garbage” runs for 1 minute and 4 seconds.
Overall
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