Test Disc #2: Despicable Me 4K Blu-ray
Despicable Me was an animated hit back in 2010, so it wouldn’t be the title you’d think of as the first 4K Blu-ray disc to feature both Dolby Vision and HDR10… As a film, Despicable Me is more than just the yellow Minions that dominate the franchise’s marketing. Felonious Gru (Steve Carell) is a super-villain fallen on hard times as The Bank of Evil focuses on a younger demographic, in this case, a super villain called Vector (Jason Segel).
To get the upper hand, Gru adopts three naive young girls – Margo, Edith and Agnes – with a plan to have them infiltrate Vector’s Mcmansion fortress and sabotage his plans.
Despicable Me is the definition of family friendly viewing. Kids will enjoy the rambunctious, sassy antics of Margo, Edith and Agnes and the child-like Minions, while parents might empathise with the frustrations Gru has to deal with and the lengths he goes to protect them.
Gru’s arc is your classic Grinch-like transition, his heart growing three sizes bigger the more he spends time with the children.
Add in the spectacle of heatseeking missiles, spaceships and squid-guns, and you have a film that balances humour with heart.
Achieves an insightful picture
Despicable Me is not the most visually complex animation, so it’s difficult to guarantee sufficient variation throughout.
It is a brightly coloured and punchy effort though, offering solid tests of dark detail and capable of differentiating between subtle hues, with colours proving to be well-defined and distinct. Despicable supports Dolby Vision, but the film’s punchy colours come across a little pale and flat compared to its HDR10 interpretation.
Much for a system to contend with
It’s a DTS:X affair on the UHD Blu-ray, which is similar to Dolby Atmos in application but doesn’t require extra overhead channels and is compatible with standard surround speaker set-ups. It offers a heightened vertical aspect to the track, the location of sounds changing perceptively depending on the camera angle. There’s a sense of detail in among the film’s louder moments, the deep thuds of a stomping elephant have a different texture to the earthy rumble of rocket engines. Even sounds out of shot, such as the rustle of fabric as Gru walks in his spacesuit or an ice cream melting in the sun, are given attention. Missiles pan across the stage, the sound of rubble cracking proving a good test for precision and organisation. There aren’t quite as many rapid transitions between quiet sounds and big bombastic set pieces as we’d like, so as a test of quick-change dynamism, Despicable Me isn’t the best, but there is a lot of sonic build-up to large explosions, making for an enjoyable soundtrack.