Humpback Whales 4K (2015) Ultra HD 2160p REMUX

An in-depth look at the lives of humpback whales and the challenges they face to avoid extinction.

Humpback Whales 4K (2015) Ultra HD 2160p REMUX Review
Humpback Whales is presented on 4K UHD and 2D/3D Blu-ray by Shout! Factory, in a really interesting marketing gambit that echoes their similar releases of Flight of the Butterflies 4K +3D and Journey to Space 4K + 3D. The 4K UHD disc is encoded via HEVC / H.265 and the "standard" Blu-ray is encoded via MVC for the 3D presentation and AVC for the 2D presentation (both 2D and 3D presentations are offered on one disc). All versions of the film are in 1.78:1. Again, as with previous Shout! 4K UHD releases, there's a submenu which allows viewing the 4K version in either HDR or SDR.

The 4K version of the film offers a considerable if sometimes rather subtle uptick in detail levels, with elements like the cool "ribbing" on the whales' faces (I think those are their faces, anyway) being more distinct and textured than in the 1080p Blu-ray version. Depth of field in the above water shots, many of rather spectacularly exotic locales in and around various island paradises, is also improved in the 4K UHD version. HDR offers a better accounting of the sometime minute tonal differences in shades of blue that are understandably the bulk of this documentary's palette. While Shout! has offered this particular reviewer far fewer HDMI handshake issues than other (bigger) labels with their 4K UHD releases, I did experience a brief lack of picture at the very beginning of the documentary, during what amounts to a commercial for an investment company.

The standard Blu-ray presentations of Humpback Whales offer superior detail levels, and in fact some of the underwater footage is really impressive in this regard, with a level of clarity that almost defies the fact that these sequences are underwater. There's still a bit of variable sharpness at various times, and some of the quick views of humpbacks jumping above the water line look just slightly coarser than the bulk of the presentation (something that's probably even more apparent on the 4K UHD iteration). Colors are splendidly suffused and saturated, but there's simply no getting away from the fact that this is by and large a "blue" looking documentary.

The 3D presentation reminded me a bit of Shout!'s Journey to Space, in that at least some of the perceived dimensionality comes courtesy of a "cheat" of sorts which depends on a window within the 1.78:1 frame where archival stills and footage are presented. The window pops out at the viewer with regard to the surrounding frame, but within the window there's typically not that much depth. Depth in the underwater sequences is typically achieved by air bubbles which float clearly in front of the background data. That said, the overall feel of the underwater scenes is somewhat flat.