Tomorrowland appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.20:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a satisfying image.
From start to finish, sharpness looked good. Virtually no softness materialized, so the film looked concise and well-defined. No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and edge enhancement was absent. I also failed to detect any source flaws.
In terms of colors, the movie featured a palette that favored yellow, teal and orange. None of these tones became overwhelming, so the elements don’t overwhelm like often becomes the case in modern movies. Across the board, the hues looked fine within their design parameters. Blacks were dark and deep, while shadows appeared clear and smooth. I thought the movie consistently looked positive.
As for the film’s DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack, it offered a dynamic experience. With a variety of action and ambient elements, the audio brought the events to life in fine fashion.
Battle sequences added the greatest punch, and the pieces used all the speakers to great advantage. Quieter scenes contributed good breadth and smoothness as well. All of this meant the audio filled out the spectrum in a nice manner.
Sound quality satisfied. Speech was natural and concise, without edginess or other issues. Music demonstrated good range and clarity as well. Effects worked the best of the bunch, as they were consistently dynamic and vivid. All in all, this was an active and engaging soundtrack.
As we shift to the disc’s extras, we find some featurettes. Remembering the Future goes for seven minutes, nine seconds and presents notes from wroter/director Brad Bird, writer/producer Damon Lindelof, and actors George Clooney and Raffey Cassidy. “Future” looks at inspirations/influences for the movie as well as themes. It occasionally feels like a promo piece for NASA, but it offers a decent look at the filmmakers’ perspectives.
During the seven-minute, 27-second Casting Tomorrowland, we hear from Bird, Lindelof, Clooney, Cassidy, producer Jeffrey Chernov, supervising stunt coordinator Robert Alonzo, and actors Hugh Laurie, Thomas Robinson and Britt Robertson. As expected, the show looks at cast, characters and performances. Don’t expect much, but we find a fair overview of some acting-related areas.
Music comes to the fore in A Great Big Beautiful Scoring Session. This featurette runs six minutes, three seconds and delivers info from composer Michael Giacchino. We get some basics about the movie’s score, but like the other programs, “Session” remains fairly average at best.
The World of Tomorrow Science Hour goes for five minutes, eight seconds. It purports to offer outtakes from a proposed TV show with scientist David Nix. Of course, anyone who already watched Tomorrowland know that “Nix” is the character played by Hugh Laurie, so this segment brings us segments from a nonexistent program. It’s pretty entertaining.
Next we get an animated short entitled The Origins of Plus Ultra. It lasts three minutes, 26 seconds and provides background for one of Tomorrowland’s concepts. The cartoon adds a little information for the viewer.
Under Brad Bird Production Diaries, we find four minutes, 34 seconds of footage. These follow Bird on the set and give us a little behind the scenes material. The “Diaries” are way too short, but they’re enjoyable, even if some of the material repeats from “Remembering the Future”.
A cute addition, we locate a “Blast from the Past” Commercial. The 41-second clip shows a fake promo for the shop featured in the film. It’s amusing.
Six Deleted Scenes take up a total of 23 minutes, 28 seconds. (That total includes introductions from Bird.) These tend to add character exposition, largely related to Casey’s family, and we get a bit more background about plot elements as well. Some interesting pieces emerge, and Bird gives us good info about them.
The disc opens with ads for Inside Out and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Sneak Peeks adds promos for Disney Parks and KC Undercover. No trailer for Cinderella appears here.
A second disc provides a DVD Copy of Tomorrowland. It includes one “Production Diary” and the “Blast from the Past commercial” but lacks the other extras.
With a ton of talent behind and in front of the camera, Tomorrowland should’ve been a great sci-fi/action film. Instead, it winds up as a bland, slow tale without much originality or excitement on display. The Blu-ray offers excellent picture and audio but it lacks substantial supplements. Chalk up Tomorrowland as a major misfire and disappointment.