The Movie
We live in a world of abundant R-rated comedies, and so it's easy to forget the impact that National Lampoon's Animal House had on Hollywood back in 1978. Risqué, clever, and very, very funny, it taught audiences--particularly young males--to embrace deviant behavior while parting with millions of moviegoing dollars.
The plot is almost a necessary evil, more of a framework of personal/scholastic drama upon which the filmmakers could hang scene after scene of comedy gold. We meet the brothers of Delta House, the most notoriously "bad" fraternity at Faber College in the halcyon days of 1962. Naïve young pledges arrive and the more experienced hellraisers butt heads with rival houses, the dean, the ROTC and the mayor. The Deltas' legendary parties and general rulebreaking have inspired a ruthless scheme to revoke their charter and have them all expelled, triggering one of the great revenge climaxes in movie history.
The cool-versus-uncool dynamic has become something of a cliché, but in this classic original, it still works as well as the first time. We must also acknowledge the contribution of the late John Belushi in his star-making supporting role of endearing wild man Bluto, capable of eliciting more laughs with an eyebrow than anyone using his whole body today.
The Picture
The textures are definitely there in this sharp new 1.85:1 high-bitrate VC-1 presentation, albeit usually tainted by modest noise and grain. Shadow detail is better than expected, as late-'70s films tend to be a little murky in the darks. We can even make out the subtle crags in some of the actors' faces, while the pasty fleshtones are near-perfectly maintained. Sure, the image can be soft in many scenes, but this remastered Blu-ray offers a welcome 1080p/24 refresh.
The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack is tamer than I'd like though, the presentation of the vintage tunes clean but not revelatory. I had to check that I was indeed receiving the promised 5.1 channels as the rears are almost incidentally used to help fill out the main soundstage. It's ultimately a satisfactory spread with clear dialogue but no real bass worth mentioning.
The Extras
The two video extras are ported from DVD, in standard definition. "The Yearbook: An Animal House Reunion" (45 minutes) assembles copious interviews with the cast and crew, quite different from "Where Are They Now? A Delta Alumni Update" (23 minutes), which treats Animal House as if it were a documentary, with all of the participants recreating their original characters. This is very fun and unusual indeed.
scene it? Animal House offers two games from the popular interactive set-top diversion, testing our knowledge of Delta House et. al. Exclusive to Blu-ray is Universal's U-Control brand of Bonus View. When we select "Scene Companion," repurposed interview clips pop up at relevant moments, and alternately "The Music of Animal House" identifies, compiles a playlist and/or optionally purchases our favorite movie songs via iTunes. The disc also offers BD-Live connectivity and pocket BLU support.
Final Thoughts
The game-changing National Lampoon's Animal House has arrived on Blu-ray in a respectable if not radically superior edition, looking and sounding quite good and bringing back some of the best extras from the past.
Product Details
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