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PARAMOUNT

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Uncredited
Cast:
Brianna Denski, Jennifer Garner, Matthew Broderick
Writing Credits:
Josh Appelbaum, André Nemec

Synopsis:
Young June creates her own fantasy amusement park, one that magically comes to life.

Box Office:
Budget:
$20 million.
Opening Weekend
$15,853,646 on 3838 Screens.
Domestic Gross
$45,216,793.

MPAA:
Rated PG.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio:
English Dolby TrueHD 7.1
English Audio Description
Spanish Dolby 5.1
French Dolby 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
French
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
Spanish
French

Runtime: 85 min.
Price: $39.99
Release Date: 6/18/2019

Bonus:
• Deleted Scene
• “The Wonder Chimp Channel”
• “Pi Song” Sing-Along
• “Making Noises” Featurette
• “June’s Guide to Wonderland” Featurette
• “June’s Welcoming Crew” Featurette
• “Boardwalk Caricatures”
• DVD Copy


PURCHASE @ AMAZON.COM

EQUIPMENT
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-Panasonic DMP-BD60K Blu-Ray Player
-Chane A2.4 Speakers
-SVS SB12-NSD 12" 400-watt Sealed Box Subwoofer


RELATED REVIEWS


Wonder Park [Blu-Ray] (2019)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (June 6, 2019)

Proof that family audiences will flock to anything: the decent box office performance of 2019’s Wonder Park. With a worldwide gross of $119 million, no one will call it a smash, but that’s at least $118 million more than this debacle deserved.

Intelligent and creative, young June Bailey (voiced by Brianna Denski) teams with her mom (Jennifer Garner) to sketch out plans for a theme park called “Wonderland”. However, when mom gets sick and needs to go away for treatment, June abandons these fantasies and turns into a conservative pragmatist.

Concerned about her dad’s (Matthew Broderick) welfare, she abandons a bus to math camp and tries to head home. Along the way, she finds herself in Wonderland, the park she and her mom envisioned.

June becomes trapped there and can’t find an exit. She needs to partner with simian Peanut (Norbert Leo Butz) and his animal pals to repair the decrepit Wonderland and restore order.

Can someone explain to me why the main location in a movie called Wonder Park goes by the name “Wonderland”? I’d guess this relates to some form of copyright issue or simply a desire to avoid confusion with Alice in Wonderland, but why not call the movie’s destination “Wonder Park” to match? This seems like a bizarre choice.

If this perplexing discrepancy offered the film’s only flaw, I’d count myself happy. Unfortunately, Park suffers from a surfeit of problems that it can’t overcome.

Internal consistency becomes a major concern, as much of Park just doesn’t make sense. I won’t quibble with the fantasy elements other than to point out that Park comes with a massive, relentless debt to Wizard of Oz.

While I won’t call Park a clear rip-off of Oz…wait, actually I will. I can’t claim it brings a carbon copy of the Baum classic, but the two come with far too many similarities to dismiss.

Leave out this thievery and Park sticks us with many elements that simply make no sense. For instance, June builds a massive, neighborhood-spanning thrill ride that not a single adult notices until the attraction launches into disaster.

Even in a movie where I accept anthropomorphic, talking animals, this goes too far. June and her pals construct a ride that’d take weeks to assemble, but no one sees this?

In addition, when this operation goes horribly awry, her parents threaten to punish her. The movie then immediately shows how June’s mother once again invests in the creation of Wonderland, with no obvious signs of discipline on display.

Also, when June returns from her adventures in Wonderland, she looks disheveled and dirty. Her dad seems curious to know why she’s back, but he doesn’t question her state of physical disrepair or how she worked her way back from math camp, a location many miles from home.

Maybe June just has the most permissive parents in history, ones who fail to notice when you cut apart fences to create a massive, house-dominating thrill ride, and ones who don’t question what happened when you suddenly emerge from nowhere when you’re supposed to be at a remote location.

Because I don’t think we’re supposed to view June’s parents as self-obsessed idiots, though, I have to feel the movie just didn’t bother to worry about logic. Hey, it’s a kiddie flick – who cares if it makes sense?

I do. Just because a film’s meant for a young audience doesn’t mean it can dispense with intelligence and clarity, so the movie’s poor construction feels like an insult to the audience.

Perhaps if Park generated even a wee modicum of fun and/or excitement, I’d forgive its flaws a little more readily. Unfortunately, it brings us a scattered, random collection of scenes without much to deliver an enjoyable experience.

Wisecracking talking animals? Check. Actual humor? Nope.

The narrative remains a major obstacle, as it simply becomes tough to figure out what the heck June and the critters need to do. We get that they must restore Wonderland to its prior glory, but the machinery needed for this seems vague and unclear.

Sure, we know that Peanut needs to use a literal magic marker to rebuild Wonderland, but we don’t really understand much else about this. The threat from the “chimpanzombies” seems loose and unconvincing at best, and nothing about June’s shenanigans with the animals goes anywhere.

As I watched Park, I couldn’t believe how long it felt. It might claim to run a mere 85 minutes, but the Theory of Relativity quickly kicked in and made the experience progress at a much slower pace.

Somewhere buried in this mess resides a potentially fun movie – or at least a watchable one. Neither fun nor watchable, Wonder Park becomes a thoroughly terrible animated adventure.


The Disc Grades: Picture B+/ Audio B+/ Bonus C-

Wonder Park appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. While attractive, this wasn’t one of the best-looking animated Blu-rays I’ve seen.

Sharpness could be a minor distraction. Though most of the movie displayed solid clarity, a few shots seemed a smidgen soft. These were mild instances, but parts of the image lacked the tightness I expect from Blu-ray.

At least no issues with jaggies or shimmering occurred, and edge haloes were absent. Of course, the image lacked any print flaws; it remained clean at all times.

Colors became a strong element. The movie went with a somewhat pastel palette, and it displayed consistently vivid hues within its chosen range.

Blacks were dense and tight, and shadows were usually fine, though a few low-light shots seemed a bit dark. Overall, this was a good enough presentation for a “B+”, but that meant the presentation disappointed compared to the usual “A”-level computer animated effort.

As for the movie’s Dolby TrueHD 7.1 soundtrack, it opened up the film in a satisfying manner. Though the mix didn’t give us wall-to-wall theatrics, it managed to use the spectrum well.

As expected, the film’s occasional action sequences boasted nice breadth and activity, and the park-related elements created a fine sense of involvement. While the soundscape didn’t stun us on a frequent basis, it provided more than enough to succeed.

Audio quality seemed consistently solid. Speech appeared natural and distinctive; no edginess or other issues marred the dialogue.

Music sounded warm and full, while effects showed good clarity and accuracy. When necessary, bass response came across as deep and tight. All of this lifted the track to “B+” status.

A smattering of extras ensue, and we open with The Wonder Chimp Channel. In this five-minute, four-second reel, we see a fake cable network that focuses on Wonderland. It’s promotional but cute.

One Deleted Scene goes for 53 seconds. Called “Gus Yodeling”, it offers a little more info about the Wonderland animals. It’s passable.

”The Pi Song” Sing-Along delivers exactly what the title promises. We see movie clips and some other animation accompanied by lyrics in this one-minute, 13-second piece. Kids might like it.

With Making Noises, we locate a four-minute, 14-second featurette that brings comments from actors Brianna Denski, Norbert Leo Butz, John Oliver, Kenan Thompson, Ken Jeong and Matthew Broderick.

They tell us about their characters and performances. We see a decent mix of notes and shots from the studio.

Next comes June’s Guide to Wonderland, a two-minute reel that gives us narration from the title character. She tells us the inspirations for the various areas in her amusement park.

Though short, “Guide” actually offers some interesting notes. It sounds like Denski performs as June but since the now-15-year-old was clearly much younger when she recorded her work for the movie, the “Guide” Denski no longer resembles her own character.

June’s Welcoming Crew fills two minutes, 34 seconds and delivers more June narration. We get basics about June and her Wonderland mascot pals in this fairly mediocre promo piece.

Finally, Boardwalk Caricatures breaks into three areas, all of which teach how to draw specific characters. We get reels for Boomer (8:49), Wonder Chimp Pirate (10:28) and Wonder Chimp Princess (7:54).

In these, Rob Jensen from “Art for Kids Hub” and his various children offer the lessons. They do fine, though it seems odd that we don’t see actual movie animators provide the instruction.

A second disc offers a DVD copy of the film. It includes none of the Blu-ray’s extras.

Random, incoherent and generally idiotic, Wonder Park does little right. It suffers from stupid missteps and a complete lack of entertainment value. The Blu-ray boasts pretty good picture and audio along with mediocre supplements. Park gives animated movies a bad name.

Viewer Film Ratings: 3 Stars Number of Votes: 2
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