DreamWorks Spooky Stories appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this Blu-Ray Disc. (“The Ghost of Lord Farquaad” is 2.35:1, however.) From start to finish, this was a stellar presentation.
Sharpness appeared terrific. No matter how wide the shots became, they always seemed crisp and detailed. I witnessed no examples of jaggies or shimmering, and I also detected no signs of edge enhancement. As expected, source flaws also remained absent in this clean transfer.
To fit the Halloween motif, Spooky offered a palette that favored oranges and greens. The colors were consistently well-represented and looked solid. Black levels also appeared dense and deep, and shadow detail was solid. I felt totally pleased with this terrific presentation.
While not quite as strong as the picture, the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack of Spooky Stories also seemed positive. . The mix presented an involving soundstage in which the front three channels were especially active, with solid spatial orientation and smooth panning between speakers. The rear speakers got a nice workout, especially in the many scare sequences; those used the various channels in a lively fashion.
Audio quality appeared strong. Dialogue remained distinct and natural and suffered from no signs of edginess or problems related to intelligibility. The score was warm and rich, as the music showed fine dimensionality and dynamics. The effects also came across as concise and accurate. They presented clean highs and some terrific lows; bass response was consistently tight and powerful without any distortion. All in all, the audio of Spooky seemed impressive.
Only a few extras fill out the set. Alongside the “Night of the Living Carrots” short (12:30), you can view it with Pop-Ups. That means trivia blurbs that we view alongside the cartoon. These notes combine little jokes and little factoids about zombie movies and related topics. The jokes dominate and make this a cute but semi-pointless feature.
Under World of DreamWorks Animation, we get elements related to other movies. We get a mix of music videos and advertisements in this forgettable collection.
The Blu-ray opens with ads for Rise of the Guardians and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. These also appear under Previews.
On a second disc, we get a DVD Copy of Spooky Stories. This delivers a retail version with some of the Blu-ray’s extras.
While it probably won’t become a Halloween classic, DreamWorks Spooky Stories offers some good entertainment. The shorts vary in quality but are always at least moderately enjoyable. The Blu-ray provides excellent visuals and solid audio but skimps on supplements. That means the disc’s nearly $27 list price seems a little steep for what you get, but if you think you’ll want to watch it every October, it’s worth the money.