NIM'S ISLAND - Blu-ray review

Novels focused more on younger audiences are becoming a bigger deal in Hollywood after the success of the "Harry Potter" films and the boost given to literary work after the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. The Wendy Orr novel "Nim's Island" is just the latest film to get some attention and a respectable budget behind its production. The film is a production of Walden Media, who has been bringing the "Narnia" films to life. With Jodie Foster and Gerard Butler working with up-and-coming starlet Abigail Breslin, "Nim's Island" has a solid human cast and a great supporting cast of many different animals that includes a pelican, a sea lion and a scene-stealing lizard. Many cameos are made by other animals, but "Nim's Island" moves away from being a completely fantastical film by using actors and actual animals.

The general plot of the film finds young Nim (Abigail Breslin) living on a secret South Pacific island with her scientist father Jack Rusoe (Gerard Butler). The only connection they have to civilization is satellite telephones and a satellite Internet connection. Jack spends his time looking for new single-celled organisms and carrying on his research on the gorgeous and exotic location. Nim assists her father on some adventures, but her pastime is the collection of wild animal friends she has surrounded herself with. Two sea lions, two pelicans and five bearded dragons served as the actors behind the animal characters that brought to the film the characters of Selkie the sea lion, Fred the bearded dragon and Galileio the pelican.

Jack and Nim share another pastime in the form of Alex Rover. Jack has spent a little time instant messenging the novelist behind the action hero, Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster) and Nim absolutely loves to read the adventures featuring the character which appears in the imaginations of both Nim and Alexandra's in the form of Gerard Butler. Nim pretends to see Alex as he travels through deserts and fights pirates to pass the time, while he appears to Alexandra as an outlet to her agoraphobia and general loneliness. He is not an alter ego, but a voice of reason to the writer who has a fear of ever leaving her house or interacting with the outside world.

One day Jack leaves on his boat to do some research and leaves Nim behind. Through twists of fate, Jack becomes lost at sea and Nim fears the worst, but finds herself helping Alexandra research work on the next Alex Rover novel by investigating a local volcano. Time passes and Alexandra realizes that young Nim is alone and that she has lost her father. Alexandra must battle her own fears of the world around her to travel to the South Pacific island to possibly save Nim. Meanwhile, Jack is fighting for his life in shark infested waters and a battered boat. His satellite phone is dead and he cannot communicate to Nim that he is still alive. On the island, Nim must fight pirates and tourists as her imagination begins to run wild. The adventure continues until the film ends with the obligatory happy ending.

"Nim's Island" is entertaining enough, but it's twisting of reality and imagination begins to feel a little heavy handed at first. With both Nim and Alexandra imagining Alex Rover as a person identical to Nim's father, there is a touch of confusion that accompanies the film. My twelve year old nephew became a little tangled in the plot and I was waiting for it to be revealed that Alexandra was actually Nim's mother, but the filmmakers at least saved us of that teased plot twist. It would have taken a little cheesiness to explain that, but having both female leads connected by the same vision and having that vision portrayed by the film's sole male lead was a source of confusion.

The characters are solid enough, especially those of Alexandra and Nim, who spend most of the time on the screen. I admire the performance of young Abigail Breslin as the twelve year old (eleven years old during filming) works well in this fantastical island and handles the water scenes and even dances with a far larger sea lion. She does stunts and runs through the jungle convincingly as a young girl that has been raised in the jungle. Most young girls would not be so comfortable around bearded dragons, but Abigail does everything splendidly. Jodie Foster's agoraphobia was a little over the top, but this is a children's movie and while she may have seemed like the long lost sister of Bob Wiley, the humor is at the right level for pre-teens and young teenagers. A few bonus points for anybody who understands the Bob Wiley reference.

Where "Nim's Island" separates itself from the numerous other films that have been produced from novels in recent years is the general lack of special effects. There was an animatronic sea turtle and a few rubber stunt lizards, but a lot of what is seen in the film are either practical effects, real animals or a young girl doing her own stunts. Nim has a lot of imagination and imagines some interesting things, but everything in the film is done in a way that could be quite realistic. This isn't a CGI heavy affair such as "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" or "The Spiderwick Chronicles." The filmmakers and director of photography Stuart Dryburgh did an amazing job of creating a fantasy world that is grounded in real life. The only CGI used was to put a smile on a lizard or correct some difficulties faced while filming animals.

The film by the husband and wife team of Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett created the screenplay and co-directed "Nim's Island" and they have created a cute film that should entertain far more children than it will confuse. Adults may find the story a little underwhelming or uninteresting as most of the film is about a little girl with a big imagination that loves animals and runs around an island, but I can see a female audience being a little more accepting of this movie. In many ways "Nim's Island" reminds me of the Walt Disney movies I grew up watching on Saturday evening such as "Escape to Witch Mountain." This isn't an overly deep film and many of the elements in this film are from the perspective of a girl's imagination, but this is a colorful, fun and enjoyable little film that makes for a nice escape on a rainy Saturday evening.

Video:

"Nim's Island" arrives on Blu-ray with a very clean and highly detailed AVC MPEG-4 encoded mastering of a 2.40:1 framed film. This is an absolutely gorgeous film and the scenes that take place on and around the South Pacific island look stunning. The blue water sends me yearning to take a vacation and the colors and detail just come to life from the 1080p resolution. Scenes that take place in Alexandra Rover's apartment seem gloomy and not nearly as vivid as those in Nim's world, but it's a rainy day there and the intent is to show that Alexandra's world is droll, whereas Nim's is full of life. I have seen a couple Blu-rays that have a little more detail and a little more coloring than "Nim's Island," but I was very pleased with just how great this film looked. The dark scenes where the island and Jack's boat are being battered by a storm hold up very nicely and show strong black levels and shadow detail. Source materials are also clean and you'd be hard pressed to find any flaws in this film.

Audio:

The film is provided with the English DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio mix that is typical of most Fox Blu-ray releases. This soundtrack is quite clean and nicely matches the luscious visuals of the film. There is plenty of life on the island and you can hear the wind moving through the trees and the various animals that inhabit the island. The big storm that batters Jack's boat and invades the windows of the island home brings with it some deep and strong bass from the .1 LFE channel and an enveloping sound experience that helps drive home the beauty of Nim's sanctuary. Imaging is strong across all channels and while "Nim's Island" is not an aggressive film, it presents a lively experience that matches the tone and adventurous spirit of the film. Dialogue is clean and clear. Spanish and French 5.1 Dolby Surround mixes are provided, as well as English and Spanish subtitles.

Extras:

The Blu-ray disc boots up with a pair of previews. The trailer for the CGI "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" looks absolutely incredible in high definition. "Horton Hears a Who" is stunning as well. I must say the decision to showcase two highly detailed trailers is incentive enough for me to consider picking them up when they hit the home format. One the actual program material starts, the menu consists of a small compass that simply states to ‘Play Movie.' You just keep pressing left and right to move through ‘Set Up,' ‘Scenes' and eventually ‘Special Features.' Although it was cute, I'm not a huge fan of the overly gimmicky menus. Pushing up and down allows you to access a button to turn off the nicely handled menu sound.

This is definitely a release geared towards the younger audiences, but I enjoyed the bonus materials. The Adventure commentary with Abigail Breslin and Jodie Foster was the first of two commentary tracks. The second is a Commentary with Director/Writers Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett. If you are going to listen to any of the two commentaries I'd have to recommend the one with Breslin and Foster. They talk about the film, characters, animals and all types of things and this is a far more conversational than normal commentary. Abigail Breslin does very well at such a young age with sharing commentary time with A-List star Jodie Foster. The second commentary is good, but is far more focused on the details of making the film.

The non commentary bonus materials are very nicely done. The three Deleted Scenes (15:29) are sadly presented in standard definition and feature commentary describing the deleted scenes and why they were omitted. Huck Finn, Alice in Wonderland and some other imaginary characters make their way into the first deleted scene. The second introduces an assistant to Alexandria, which does add some more background into the life of Alex. The third scene is about a blue whale. This scene was a great deal shorter than the other two and animated. No real blue whale made an appearance. The Nim's Spyglass Bonus View Mode (32:37) is the Picture-in-Picture feature for the film. You can watch the videos separately if you are not Profile 1.1 enabled. There are twenty five videos that appear in the PiP window and they add some very nice information to the film and the making of it.

Three features are also included. The first, Nim's Friends (6:17) looks at the animals featured in the film and Ms. Breslin talks about the various creatures. I'm personally fond of Fred the bearded lizard. I have to give the little girl props for not having any fear of Selkie the sea lion or other critters. This little vignette gave the animals some well deserved screen time. Abigail's Journey (6:42) is another short bit and is more focused on the young actress and the character of Nim. The final featurette, Working on Water (6:07) looks at the difficulties of filming on water and shows how a few of the scenes were handled. More time is spent here with young Abigail and she talks about her training for the water scenes. It was short, but good stuff.

A few more remote-required elements are also provided. The interactive games Write Your Own Island Adventure, Coconut Soccer and Seaside Shuffle are included for the younger audience and a text based Island Explorer Mode can be activated that provides pop-up information pertaining to Cast and Crew, Page to Screen, Science and Education or Behind the Scenes. The graphical overly is based upon one of the four categories the information pertains to and I'd recommend turning this on while listening to the commentary track with Breslin and Foster. The feature set for "Nim's Island" makes wonderful use of the Blu-ray technology and while it'll require a little parental assistance, children should enjoy the materials as well.

Closing:

"Nim's Island" is a cute little film with a cute little girl putting in a big performance on a beautiful island and surrounded with scene stealing bearded dragons. I just loved Fred the lizard and felt he had a commanding presence. The film is not the big budget spectacle film such as the "Narnia" or "Harry Potter" films, but it is a family friendly affair reminiscent of old Disney films from the late Seventies and early Eighties; the period when I was growing up. This film won't entertain hardcore film buffs or those that have difficulty accepting the simpler things in life, but "Nim's Island" should please many families with young children. I can't stress enough how well Abigail Breslin did in bringing Nim to life. The young actress carries the film on her little shoulders. The Blu-ray release itself is a high quality title and Fox did not skimp at all on the home video production of the film. If you have children and you love animals and tropical islands, then you cannot go wrong with this film.