Hook 4K Ultra HD

The classic tale "Hook" stars Robin Williams as a grown-up Peter Pan and Dustin Hoffman as the infamous Captain Hook. Granny Wendy Darling (Smith) must convince middle-aged Peter Banning that he was once the legendary Peter Pan. And so the adventure begins anew, with Peter off to Neverland to save his two children from Captain Hook. (Gary Reber)

Special features include 11 never-before-seen deleted scenes (08:20), upfront previews, and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code.

The 2.40:1 2160p HEVC/H.265 Ultra HD HDR10 picture, reviewed on a Sony Bravia Z9D 4K Ultra HD HDR display, was photographed on Eastman film stock in Panavision® using Panavision Panaflex Platinum and Panavision cameras and sourced from a fully restored 4K master Digital Intermediate format transferred from the original camera negative, with approval from Director Steven Spielberg.

The picture is gorgeous, with a spectacular filmic appearance, with a grain structure that provides a nice texture. A wide color gamut is exhibited throughout with beautifully rich and warm hues and shadings. Color fidelity is nicely saturated with strong primaries. Colors pop with vivid richness. Reds are especially bold, as are blacks, with a wide range of tones and shadings. Resolution is terrific, especially finely detailed during closeups, which are used quite often with respect to Captain Hook. The picture delivers really impressive levels of fine detail. Facial detail is impressive, as is hair, beards, Captain Hook's mustache, costumes and object texture. HDR contrast is excellent from the brightest highlights, such as the bright reflections of Captain Hook's hand-hook, through a range of shadow delineation, to wonderfully inky blacks. WOW! segments are from 34:38 to 36:15, 01:00:47 to 01:03:16, 01:18:55 to 01:20:12, 01:22:04 to 01:23:00, 01:27:37 to 01:30:54 and 01:59:45 to 02:00:42. Throughout the imagery will put a smile on your face. Fans of "Hook" should be delighted with this super cinematic 4K Ultra HD presentation of this classic film. (Gary Reber)

The Dolby Atmos/Dolby TrueHD 7.1-channel soundtrack has been re-mastered and re-purposed from the original elements from which the original theatrical soundtrack was released in Dolby Stereo SR (Spectral Recording. The holosonics® are dynamically energized, exciting, and really fun. The surrounds are used aggressively, both in the presentation of environmental ambience and sound effects. The creation of ambience and the precise sound effects nicely enhance the sonic dimensionality of the soundtrack. The soundfield is huge with directionalized noisy sequences throughout. John Williams' score is wonderful and is spread wide and deep across the soundstage, extending to the side and rear surrounds, though, at times a bit low in level. Dialogue quality is always intelligible, with good spatial integration, even during the loudest action scenes or musical cues.

The Immersive Sound element is mostly subtle, comprising John Williams' score toward the front. Other elements are the Pam Am Captain's voice, brief Tinker Bell voice, wind, bird screeches, glass window breaking, pans crashing, the ship's bell, birds nesting, clock rattlings, a tree branch tangling, a horn sound, a clock ticking, a bottle cork pull pop, Peter Pan talking to Tinker Bell, and other here-and-there brief height layer sound effects.

All in all, this is a terrific re-mastered Dolby Atmos soundtrack that makes for a satisfyingly fun sonic experience. (Gary Reber)