Welcome to the January edition of the Blu-ray Bounty, the first of 2025! We’ll be looking at two of the top 4K Blu-rays released in January 2025, and even one from 2024 that we’d been waiting to get our hands on!
If you’re new to the Blu-ray Bounty, 4K Blu-ray is popular here at TechRadar. We use discs when testing the picture quality of the best TVs and the sound quality of the best soundbars. 4K Blu-ray may be dying in some people’s eyes, but to us, it’s still the best way to experience a movie or TV show.
In the December 2024 edition of the Blu-ray Bounty, we looked at four great titles, including the first movie in the Godzilla franchise, one of Marvel’s latest blockbusters, a modern classic from M. Night Shyamalan and the latest entry in the Alien series.
As usual, we’re not reviewing the movies themselves, but just the picture and sound quality of the 4K discs. This month’s three movies are The Wild Robot, Seven, and Seven Samurai (1954).
For testing, we’ve kept our usual setup, consisting of the Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Blu-ray player, one of the best 4K Blu-ray players on the market; the Panasonic MZ1500 OLED TV, an excellent mid-range OLED from 2023; and finally, the Samsung HW-Q990C, at its time one of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars available (now succeeded by the Samsung HW-Q990D from 2024).
The Wild Robot
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The Wild Robot is the latest movie from Dreamworks Animation (Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon) and features a star-studded cast including Lupita N’yong’o, Pedro Pascal, Bill Nighy, and Mark Hamill. This charming animation tells the story of how a robot named Roz (Nyong’o) must adapt to the wild after it becomes shipwrecked on a remote island, where Roz develops relationships with the local wildlife.
As you’d expect from a Dreamworks Animation movie, The Wild Robot is visually stunning. In Dolby Vision, colors are presented with real vibrancy, detail and lustre. The greens and browns of the natural landscapes balance perfectly with Roz’s bright white paint and neon accents. The animation style is gorgeous, blending computer animation with painted backdrops. The brushstroke grays in the rain-filled skies are accurate but beautiful. This movie deserves a TV with a gorgeous color display (it looked excellent on the Panasonic OLED).
The Wild Robot has a Dolby Atmos soundtrack and makes good use of it. Every bird call, snapping twig and wind gust is immersive and accurately placed. Atmos effects, such as soaring birds and driving rain, are present and clear, with the rumble of thunder perfectly suited to a meaty subwoofer. This is a perfect demonstration disc for anyone who wants to test their home theater system’s Dolby Atmos abilities.
Seven (stylized as Se7en)
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David Fincher’s dark, brooding and tense crime-thriller is one of the ’90s most iconic movies, thanks in part to its shocking twist ending. Starring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, Se7en tells the story of two detectives who pursue a serial killer who is committing murders inspired by the seven deadly sins.
A contrast-rich movie, with plenty of dark scenes punctuated with lamps and flashlights, this 4K restoration of Se7en is superb. Every texture and detail comes through in facial features and objects. Black levels and shadow detail are perfectly presented and the rare instances of color are packed with plenty of punch. While this restoration will look good on most TVs, it would benefit from one of the best OLED TVs, which will handle the movie’s low lighting well.
This 4K Blu-ray of Se7en has a great-sounding 5.1-channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. The foreboding, tense strings in the score never over-exert themselves and speech is crystal clear, even in echoing hallways. Even with no height channels in the mix, the ever-present rain still felt like it came from overhead. Se7en is a great demo disc for your home theater system.
Seven Samurai (1954)
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Okay, so this disc wasn’t released in January 2025, but we couldn’t miss the opportunity to review this 4K Blu-ray of Seven Samurai (released in the UK by the BFI), the legendary epic from famed director Akira Kurosawa. Seven Samurai tells the story of a group of farmers who hire a band of samurai to protect their village from bandits. The movie is said to be an inspiration for many directors, including Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, for its plot, dialogue and action, much of which would be adapted and become future action movie tropes.
The 4K restoration was handled by Toho, the original production company, and they’ve done a seriously impressive job. In Dolby Vision, textures and details are accurate, making characters and environments look incredibly lifelike. The black and white picture has great contrast between dark and bright tones, with a wide range of gray tones in between. Even shadow detail during night scenes looks impressive. And fret not film purists, because the original film grain is retained here.
This 4K version has a DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 soundtrack, so there are no upscaled sound effects for battles here. Dialogue, crucially, sounds direct and clear, and is much cleaner than anticipated. Other effects such as clashing swords and the dramatic score are also presented with good detail.
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james.davidson@futurenet.com (James Davidson)
