Treasure Buddies (Blu-ray Review)

Don't let your kids wander into this direct-to-video temple of doom...

Another adventure, another round of G-rated talking-animal hijinks, another direct-to-video franchise pup sure to please the kiddies and leave parents desperately concocting an excuse as to why they need to step out of the room for ninety minutes. Yes, it's another Buddies movie, now with more uncomfortably mediocre CG and vague cultural stereotyping! (For added flavor maybe? I'm not sure.) With the Buddies having already invaded a haunted mansion, gone sled-dogging in Alaska, brought a b...

Video

Treasure Buddies, like all of the Buddies Blu-ray releases before it, features a serviceable but sanitized 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer that performs its duty to the letter. While a high-gloss digital video sheen presides over the presentation, the results strike me as technically sound. Colors are warm and vivid (albeit a bit sterile, as expected), primaries are playful, skintones are nicely saturated, and black levels are imperfect but more than adequate. Contrast and clarity

Audio

Disney's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track doesn't earn a pass, though, despite the fact that it's presumably a fair representation of the movie's sound design. Dialogue is crammed into the center channel and given little room to roam (save those instances that voices bounce around an enclosed chamber when the Buddies take their adventure underground). Competent prioritization prevents any lines, barks or yips from being buried in the soundscape, but Egypt -- even green-screened Egypt -- ha

Supplements

Two extras. A Cribs parody, "DIGS: B-Dawg Edition" (HD, 5 minutes), and a "Roam" music video (HD, 3 minutes), featuring Caroline Sunshine, Kenton Duty, Adam Irigoyen and Davis Cleveland. No more, no less.

Final Words

To those of you who wish someone else would review the Buddies releases and give them more of a fair shake, I can only tell you I'm probably being kinder than most of my colleagues would. I'm not opposed to a good talking-animal flick, even a direct to video one, but I grow more and more irritated with the candy-coated children's drivel being tossed onto store shelves. There's a decent film in Treasure Buddies, I'll admit. It just dies a horrible, agonizing death long before the an...

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Treasure Buddies (Blu-ray Review)