DisneyNature: African Cats (2011)

Directors: Alastair Fothergill, Keith Scholey
Writers: Keith Scholey, John Truby
Stars: Samuel L. Jackson

Disney's 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer is a beautifully rendered beast that captures every strand of hair, blade of high grass and distant wildebeest in a thousand-strong herd with spectacular clarity. Colors are warm and natural, black cheetah spots and sunbeat shadows are deep and satisfying, and the plains of the Savannah are brimming with suitably baked (at-times inherently bleached) earthtones, be it by way of a muddy river bank, rustling tree leaves or bristling mane. Detail is also quite extraordinary and hardly a shot goes by that doesn't revel in finely textured fur, crisp underbrush and sharp, wonderfully defined edges. Moreover, it all comes to glorious high definition life without any ringing, aliasing or smearing to speak of. Nighttime scenes are few and far between, yes, but those that find their way into the mix suffer from the usual oddities associated with under-cloak-of-darkness documentary camerawork (increased noise, reduced clarity and the like). And I did notice the slightest hint of banding. But nothing else about the presentation left in me in anything less than complete awe. I can't imagine African Cats and its jaw-dropping photography looking any better than it does here.