BLU-RAY REVIEW

Norbit

Featured In Issue 122, July/August 2007

Picture3.5
SoundNR
WSR Score2
Basic Information on new release titles is posted as soon as titles are announced. Once reviewed, additional data is added to the database.
(Studio/Distributor):
DreamWorks Home Entertainment
(Catalog Number):
12457
(MPAA Rating):
PG13
(Rating Reason):
For crude and sexual humor, some nudity, and language
(Retail Price):
$39.99
(Disc Type):
Single Side, Dual Layer (HD-30)
(Widescreen Edition):
Yes
(Full Screen Edition):
No
(Running Time In Minutes):
102
(Color Type):
Color
(Chaptered/Scene Access):
Yes
(Closed Captioned):
Yes
(Regional Coding):
Not Indicated
(Theatrical Year):
2006
(Theatrical Release):
Yes
(Direct-To-Video Release):
No
(Disc Release Date):
06/05/07
(THX® Digitally Mastered):
No
(Director):
Brian Robbins
(Screenplay/Written By):
(Story):
(Music):
(Director Of Photography):
(Production Designer):
(Visual Effects):
(Costume Designer):
(Editor):
(Supervising Sound Editors):
(Re-Recording Mixers):
(Executive Producers):
(Co-Producers):
(Producers):
(Academy Awards):
(Principal Photography):
(Theatrical Aspect Ratio):
(Measured Disc Aspect Ratio):
(Disc Soundtrack):
Dolby Digital+ 5.1
(Theatrical Sound):
(Theatrical Re-Issue Soundtrack):
(DTS Bit Rate):
(Dolby Digital Bit Rate):
(Additional Languages):
(French Language):
(Spanish Language):
(Chinese Language):
(Subtitles):
(Cantonese Language):
(Mandarin Language):
(Japanese Language):
(Italian Language):
(German Language):
(Portuguese Language):

After his best friend Kate (China Anderson) moved away, young "Norbit" (Khamani Griffin & Austin Reid) became the brunt of the other kids' jokes. Enter Rasputia (Lindsey Sims-Lewis), a bossy, boisterous baboon of a gal who took Norbit (Murphy) under her rather large wing and wouldn't let him go. But when his true love Kate (Newton) came back into his life, Norbit knew he had to find a way to get rid of Rasputia (also, Murphy), even though she didn't want to go away. (Tricia Spears)

Special features include the 21-minute high-definition "The Making Of Norbit" featurette, the four-minute "Man Of A 1,000 Faces" featurette, the five-minute high-definition "Power Tap" mock infomercial, the 12-minute high-definition "Stunts Of Norbit" featurette, 14 deleted scenes, a photo gallery, and the high-definition theatrical trailer.

The anamorphically enhanced 1.82:1 DVD picture exhibits bold, vibrant colors, but fleshtones have a slightly red hue. Details are well resolved, and shadow delineation is generally impressive. Some pixelization and edge enhancement can be noticed at times. Fleshtones actually look slightly better in the H.264 AVC-encoded HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases, although they are still slightly too red. Colors are vibrant, but details are not as well resolved as in the best high-definition releases, and the image can often look very fat...err, I mean flat. (Danny Richelieu)

The HD DVD's Dolby Digital Plus encoding provides an almost identical presentation as the Blu-ray Disc's Dolby Digital encoding. Neither are very exciting or very articulate. (Danny Richelieu)