New to Blu: September 30 – October 20

In a depressing sign of the times for Blu-ray disc buyers, only four releases are scheduled over the next three weeks.

Trolls World Tour and The Last Wave are out this week, Yu Yu Hakusho – Complete Season 4 on October 8 and The High Note on October 14.

“The trolls take their overly enthusiastic musical show on the Blu-ray road with a passionately exuberant 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 encode, boasting a highly spirited and garishly loud array of colours,” High-Def Digest said.

“While the richly saturated primaries ooze with sprightly, bubbly energy, secondary hues bathe each song and performance in a flamboyantly animated spectacle of hot pinks, elegant violets, deep teals and glorious magentas.”

US reviewers say the 4K-UHD transfer is “simply phenomenal” and “head-bangingly awesome” but Universal Pictures has opted not to offer it in this market (even though it is distributing it in Australia).

The Last Wave has been newly restored and remastered from a 4K scan, Cinematic Randomness reports. “The image quality is a vast improvement over the previous HD release from Germany in 2012.

“Roar Digital in Melbourne, the post-production team who have been behind a number of Umbrella’s ‘Ozploitation’ releases, have preserved the film’s arid Australian aesthetic with a light saturation of warm colours, which have great contrast against the scenes of torrential rain that often take place during night.”

Said Home Theater Forum of The High Note: “As with the majority of Universal’s new Blu-ray releases, this one is another winner in the image department.

“Colours really pop where they need to (especially during the concert footage and music montages), yet never appear over-saturated. Detail is also excellent, from the intricate textures of the costumes to the sometimes obvious process shots.

“Contrast excels, too, with deep inky blacks with strong shadow detail and bright whites that never appear to clip.”

“The High Note features a boisterous DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track that understandably explodes into its most energetic life during some of the musical moments,” Blu-ray.com said.

“There’s a glut of outdoor material which also provides good use of the side and rear channels for ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free track.”