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  Directed by
  Starring
  Specs
  • Widescreen 2.35:1
  • 16:9 Enhanced
  • Dual Layer (RSDL 70:01)
  Languages
  • English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
  • English: DTS 5.1 Surround
  • English: Dolby Digital Stereo
  Subtitles
    English - Hearing Impaired
  Extras
  • 8 Deleted scenes
  • 2 Theatrical trailer
  • Audio commentary - with Niki Caro
  • Photo gallery - 20 Images
  • Animated menus
  • 2 Behind the scenes footage - Making-of, Audition of Keisha Castle-Hughes
  • DVD-ROM features - Knitting Pattern

Whale Rider

Buena Vista/Buena Vista . R4 . COLOR . 97 mins . PG . PAL

  Feature
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Academy-Award nominated and very talented 13-year-old actress Keisha Castle-Hughes simply steals the show with a powerful debut performance. Based on the novel by Witi Ihimaera, Whale Rider has been skilfully captured on celluloid by Niki Caro, and has a talented cast and crew which carefully sews up the entire piece to build a 97-minute journey into a unique culture that is profoundly moving.

Three months prior to the theatrical release, this reviewer was able to attend a staff preview of Whale Rider through work, when very little was known about this quiet New Zealand film. The lights dimmed. The Xenon struck. The show had begun. 97 minutes later, there was not a dry eye amongst the 40-something people at the preview. The sheer power of this film captured the entire audience, and quite simply you need to have a heart of steel not to be moved by this piece.

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I'm just the strong, silent type.

Released May 2003 in Australia, Whale Rider received favourable reviews, adding more and more accolades to its already large list. Popular opinion had backed up the film too, drawing in audiences even after weeks of sessions. This little independent film from New Zealand had taken off in Australia. In July 2003, the film was released widely to US audiences whom took to it the same way, the film quickly entering the charts. The ultimate in film recognition came in January 2004 when Keisha Castle-Hughes, the 13-year-old from New Zealand, was nominated for 'Best Performance in a Leading Role' for the 76th Annual Academy Awards - the youngest lady ever nominated for a best actress award. Unfortunately, Charlize Theron took home Oscar that night for an equally powerful performance in Monster, but that’s another story.

Set in a remote New Zealand coastal community, the Maori people are decedents of Paikea, the Whale Rider, who arrived there thousands of years ago on the back of a whale. With each new generation, it is said that the first-born male is to become the new chief of their people. That is, until now. Pai (Castle-Hughes) was the first of two twins born, the second a little boy, who unfortunately died at birth, taking the mother with him. Pai’s grandfather, Koro, is now devastated, unable to accept that Pai is destined to become a future leader. Koro’s quest begins to find a new leader by gathering all the sons of the community and teaching them about the old ways. Pai soon realises that her Koro has no patience for a young lady in these customary acts, finding her participation disgraceful to the ancient ones. The only way Pai would be able to be a leader is to take on the strong antiquated beliefs of Koro as well as thousands of years of tradition. Whale Rider is a powerful spiritual journey of love, rejection and honour and the strength to stand up for what you believe in, ultimately making the mot important sacrifice to save one's people.

  Video
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Anamorphically enhanced in the film’s original widescreen aspect of 2.35:1, Whale Rider is presented on DVD with a fine transfer. During the 2003 theatrical run of the film, this reviewer remembers that, as a projectionist, this was a bugger of a print to focus. The entire film was very soft and cloudily defined, quite hard to focus on many shots, which thankfully has been cured for the DVD release. Underwater footage of the whales is sometimes lacking definition, appearing, for the lack of a better word, a little liquid, appearing as if it has been encoded with a few too many bits, quite possibly due to a lower resolution source. If I remember correctly, some of the whale footage did look murky on the big screen back at the theatres. Grain softly coats the image, giving the film a soft, smooth effect. The source print is free from artefacts and blemishes, once again adding to the sublime quality of the image. The credits show off some slight signs of telecine wobble, however this is not disturbingly noticeable during the film. A smidge of digital noise reduction creeps in at one or two places but nothing terribly disturbing or irritating, just enough for those anal enough to pay attention to them.

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A whale of a time...

Subtitles have been included in English for the Hearing Impaired, and are quite accurate, nearly word-for-word perfect. During the film there are a few occurrences of burnt-in subtitles which gracefully fade in and out, smoothly placed over the image. With a layer change snugly placed at 70:01, this slips past slinkily when watching the film, but does become abundantly noticeable when listening to the audio commentary as Caro’s speech is disturbed by this change. Overall, this transfer is an extremely snappy presentation of an artistically beautiful film, wholly capturing the beauty of the scenery and the masterful acting of the cast.

  Audio
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Generously presented with three English audio tracks, Whale Rider comes to life in 5.1 Dolby Digital and DTS fullness, as well as a stereo Dolby Digital track. When comparing the two 5.1 tracks, they sound practically identical, dispersing the same 5.1 mix. Surround levels are reasonable, with a healthy dose of activity to keep them occupied throughout. Whilst this is mainly ambience rather than directed effects, the soundstage is built with a robust dynamic and enveloping quality. Even the woof-woof gets a bump every now and then, yet mainly through the underwater whale sequences. Hey, it’s to be expected with a film of this genre.

Dialogue is crystal clear throughout, with synchronisation that puts those so-called swimmers to shame. While it is audible throughout, a few phrases are unintelligible due to the English language barrier. Generally the New Zealand accent is quite undistinguishable, with the odd word giving the origins away, rather than the stereotypical Kiwi accent. The score, composed by Lisa Gerrard, is just so emotive and carefully structured, adding a strong extra character to the film with just as much depth as those portrayed on screen. Gerrard has been busy of late, coming largely to the public eye with her awe-inspiring vocal tracks in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. Most recently, her vocals can be found on the soundtrack to One Perfect Day in One Perfect Sunrise by Orbital.

  Extras
Contract

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Whale Rider
Simple 16:9 enhanced animated menus get the ball rolling, which feature background audio too. The icons may not be themed directly on the film, but this set of menus definitely wins with operability. If you pay attention when you’re setting the disc up, you will notice that on the 'Audio' page lies an audio commentary by writer/director Niki Caro. This is the sort of commentary that is more applicable to the general public rather than techie film nuts as Caro discusses more trivial aspects relating to on-set issues while making the film, rather than the technical side of things. Sure, for this type of visual film, a technical commentary would be nice, but generally this has more appeal for a wider audience.

The remainder of the extra features have their place safe and sound on the 'Special Features' page, starting with eight deleted scenes. These scenes, Welcome Home (1:05), Paikea Wakes her Dad (1:46), Cleaning the Septic Tank (1:57), Flowers Won't Budge (0:56), Pai Singing (0:58), You Can Sleep on the Couch (0:36), Cards Again (0:25) and Pai Finds Hemi (0:47), can be watched with or without a commentary by Niki Caro and editor David Coulson. Each of these scenes is presented in a letterboxed widescreen aspect of 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

Up next is your usual behind the scenes featurette which, as most promos tend to do, glosses over the plot and looks at different aspects of the filmmaking process. Running for just over 27 minutes, this is a good brief look at the film, and definitely a whole heap better than the usual five-minute electronic press kit briefies. Tying in with the behind the scene theme is a six-minute audition of Keisha Castle-Hughes, showing strong talent from such a young girl. Both of these are presented in un-enhanced 4:3 transfers, the first letterboxed at 1.78:1, the second full frame. Both feature Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.

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No waka's

Te Waka – Building the Canoe is an 11-minute featurette at the making of the waka used in the film. And just for your information, the waka is the large canoe-like boat which is traditional in Maori culture. This is a great addition on top of the decently timed behind the scenes featurette, with the combination of the two providing good, if brief, insight into the film.

Two theatrical trailers have been thrown in for good measure, one the US trailer (2:22) and the other the New Zealand/Australian trailer (1:55). The first is presented in a letterboxed widescreen aspect of 1.85:1, and is not anamorphically enhanced. The second is presented in the full 2.35:1 widescreen aspect, and also isn’t anamorphically enhanced. For those interested there is a photo gallery featuring 21 behind the scenes stills. And for those knitters out there, stick this in your DVD-ROM drive to download a 3.6MB Adobe PDF file containing the knitting pattern which was used for Pai’s jumper in Act 3 of the film.

  Overall  
Contract

Beautiful.

Heartfelt.

Emotive.

Stunning.

These words describe both the film and the DVD transfer. This is definitely a must see film, and one for any true DVD collector. As said before, you really do need to have a heart of steel not to be moved by this film. It's as simple as that.


  • LINK: http://www.dvd.net.au/review.cgi?review_id=3752
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      And I quote...
    "You really do need to have a heart of steel not to be moved by this film. It's as simple as that."
    - Martin Friedel
      Review Equipment
    • DVD Player:
          Sony DVP-NS530
    • TV:
          Sharp SX76NF8 76cm Widescreen
    • Receiver:
          Sony HT-SL5
    • Speakers:
          Sony SS-MSP2
    • Centre Speaker:
          Sony SS-CNP2
    • Surrounds:
          Sony SS-MSP2
    • Subwoofer:
          Sony SA-WMSP3
    • Audio Cables:
          Standard Optical
    • Video Cables:
          Standard Component RCA
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