This single disc release of The Red Turtle by Sony, which is looking to capitalize on the Academy Award nomination the movie scored, is a stellar Blu-ray overall. It features great video and audio quality mixed with an excellent, diverse array of extras as well.
Sony offers a great presentation for this film. Now animation can be tricky on the home video medium as noise is much more overt than on live action. In this case, though, the movie is mostly devoid of this or artifact inconsistencies. This results in a very clean looking image, while clarity is also top notch. Colors are fantastic on this release as well. There aren't signs of them being oversaturated, with a great range seen during the course of the movie. This means the more muted scenes are kept that way, as intended, while the lush bamboo forest or the sunsets look very vibrant.
The Red Turtle is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
Two audio tracks are found on this Blu-ray. The first is the original soundtrack for the movie, showcased in a surround DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 presentation. This track packs tremendous range in the audio, offering incredible directionality. This is made clear right as the movie starts, and the storm feels like it's coming alive around the viewer. From waves crashing to relentless rainfall, the audio track does a great of making the viewer feel surrounded. Although there is no dialogue to contrast, the music found in the movie is crystal clear with great clarity.
The second audio track is a "descriptive" track. This has a woman, in English, narrating what is happening for those who might be visually impaired. While this is a good service, the delivery is beyond dull and The Red Turtle is sadly not a good fit for this, as the narration totally overshadows the wonderful music in the movie.
For a single disc Blu-ray release, there is a wealth of bonus material found here. In fact, it's an excellent collection of supplemental content, with only a few things missing, such as trailers for the movie. What makes it so great, though, is that the viewer can get a ton of background information about the production very quickly.
First up on the extras is the feature length commentary track done by director Michael Dudok de Wit. Spoken in English, he discusses a wide range of topics during the commentary. This covers everything from creative choices in the story to how he ended up working on a film for Studio Ghibli.
Starting with the supplemental videos found on the disc, the first is with Michael Dudok de Wit as he discusses the process that went into creating the film. This 56 minute extra, called The Birth of The Red Turtle, includes covering early, scrapped aspects of the production as well as showcasing concept art as well. The depth is pretty stellar, covering even small details like the aborted idea to have the main character create a hut at one point. In fact, it's a fantastic extra for those looking for additional background details into the journey the production would go under. To get an idea of some of the aspects covered in this feature, the director pours over a lot of concept art to discuss it while also talking about the animation process used on the film as well, down to the software utilized. The extra offers removable English subtitles.
Next up is a 17 minute short called The Secret of The Red Turtle. This one also focuses on Michael Dudok de Wit and has him explaining animating numerous elements from the film, from crabs to characters. Like the prior extra, removable English subtitles are available for this.
The last real extra, besides a collection of US based trailers for unrelated films, is a 20 minute Q&A with the director that was done at AFI. Through this 20 minute feature, the director is asked a variety of questions by the host and then by the audience. Through out there is a lot of great insight that is revealed. This extra is spoken in English, but has optional subtitles that can be turned on as well.
There isn't much to fault with this release. The movie itself is presented very well here, with stellar video and audio quality. Furthermore, those who prefer a little more supplemental heft to their Blu-ray releases should also appreciate the over 90 minutes of bonus content found here.