Starring: Mike Myers, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Antonio Banderas
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Dreamworks Animated
Release Date: October 30, 2012
Run Time: 85 minutes
Blu-ray: 4 out of 5 stars
Extras: 1 out of 5 stars
Christmas is right around the corner and “DreamWorks Holiday Classics” is the second compilation release after last months “DreamWorks Spooky Stories”. This release includes five Christmas-themed shorts, including “Shrek the Halls”, “The Madagascar Penguins in a Christmas Caper”, “Merry Madagascar”, “Donkey’s Christmas Shrektacular” and “Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury”. Though missing from this release is the previously released “Madagascar” short “Party With The Penguins”. Also Dreamworks also released “Kung Fu Panda Holiday”, which could have been included in this release easily. Nonetheless, these Dreamworks shorts really bring the Christmas spirit and are just downright right. If you own these shorts previously though, I wouldn’t say that they are worth the purchase but if you don’t the HD upgrade is worth it.
Official Premise: “Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury”: The Dragons are back in the exciting next chapter to the Academy Award-nominated film, “How to Train Your Dragon”. The epic story of Hiccup and Toothless continues as they take flight in a thrilling adventure to discover an island of ever-before-seen dragons. “Merry Madagascar”: When Santa and his reindeer crash onto the island of Madagascar, it’s up to Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman and those wacky Penguins to save Christmas. Get ready for a sleigh full of laughs in this hilarious holiday classic. Also includes “The Penguins of Madagascar in a Christmas Caper”. “Shrek the Halls”: After promising Fiona and the kids a Christmas they’ll remember, Shrek is forced to take a crash course in the holiday. But just when he thinks he has everything for a quiet family Christmas just right, Donkey, Puss in Boots, Gingy and the rest of the gang decide to crash the party. “Shrek the Halls” is the greatest holiday tale that’s never been told until now. Also includes “Donkey’s Caroling Christmas-tacular”.
This release is delivered as a Blu-ray + DVD combo pack. The 1080p transfers looks amazing on each short. The colors are perfect and super crisp. The star of the release though is the Dolby True HD 7.1 track for “Dragons: Gift of the Night Fury” and “Donkey’s Caroling Christmas-tacular”. I was very impressed with these. The rest of the films include Dolby TrueHD 5.1 tracks, which are also stunning. The downfall though is that there is only one special feature included on this release, which is a sing-along version for “Donkey’s Caroling Christmas-tacular”. Lastly there is also some previews for additional DreamWorks titles.