Happy Family AKA Monster Family / Happy Family 4D 3D Blu-ray (2018) [Region Free]

[grazina31]

Moderator note: Happy Family was also released in some countries (e.g. Italy, UK) as Monster Family, but in 2D only. The only 3D Blu-ray release was in Germany with the Happy Family title. The disc has been confirmed as REGION FREE. It does contain English audio and subtitles as well as German options but lip movements are in sync with the German audio so that's the original language.

Happy Family 4D is a 12 minute short produced for the Europa-Park theme park in Germany. It's REGION FREE and includes English audio.



Happy Family 3D Blu-ray

Happy Family 4D 3D Blu-ray Short 3D Ride Film available from Europa-Park

Original post:
I decided to start a new thread on this film.
It is coming out on blu-ray 3D in a few days in germany and is already up for pre-order. I’m hoping that someone from germany is getting this and will be able to confirm if this indeed comes with a english dts-hd track and can be played without subtitles.
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B077JQM35N

Now, the interesting thing about this movie, is that our friends from nwave did a couple of shorts with these characters, mainly for theme park rides:
http://www.nwave.com/films/happy-family/
http://www.nwave.com/films/happy-family-the-ride/
These shorts were produced my Mack Media, who according to the wikipedia page of this movie, is also a producer of the feature length movie.

I'm hoping that in the next few days we find a little more about it.
Anyone planning on getting this?

[robtadrian]

Yup! Thanks for the info!

[the13thman]

Originally Posted by grazina31

I decided to star a new thread on this film.
It is coming out on blu-ray 3D in a few days in germany and is already up for pre-order. I’m hoping that someone from germany is getting this and will be able to confirm if this indeed comes with a english dts-hd track and can be played without subtitles.
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B077JQM35N

I'm hoping that in the next few days we find a little more about it.
Anyone planning on getting this?

I have it on order but I suspect I'm going to get burned by it not being English-friendly.

[grazina31]

Originally Posted by the13thman

I have it on order but I suspect I'm going to get burned by it not being English-friendly.

It might be english friendly, but being warner germany I’m afraid of the blu-ray either being like the Little Prince and no english audio or Every Thing Will be Fine with forced subtitles on the english track.
I guess you’ll let us know in a few days.

[McCrutchy]

2D Back Cover:

[Show spoiler]

3D Back Cover:

[Show spoiler]

Note that the 3D appears to be a single-disc 3D-only affair.

[grazina31]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

2D Back Cover:

[Show spoiler]

3D Back Cover:

[Show spoiler]

Note that the 3D appears to be a single-disc 3D-only affair.

I’m okay with it being just a 3D disc. Funny how the german is atmos and the english is 5.1 dts-ma. Wonder If it will be released elsewhere with english atmos?

[the13thman]

That back cover makes me feel a lot better about pre-ordering this, now I'm actually looking forward to it!

[grazina31]

This movie just came out a couple of days in the UK so there is still hope for a 3D release down the road. Was checking other countries and its been mostly available on dvd. Even brazil only has dvd and it’s not the first time they pass on a blu-ray release. The studio releasing this movie over there used to release 3D blu-ray, but lately it’s just dvd edition of movies. Wanted to complete my Snow Queen trilogy from over there and the 3 one didn’t get a release.

[the13thman]

Originally Posted by grazina31

This movie just came out a couple of days in the UK so there is still hope for a 3D release down the road. Was checking other countries and its been mostly available on dvd. Even brazil only has dvd and it’s not the first time they pass on a blu-ray release. The studio releasing this movie over there used to release 3D blu-ray, but lately it’s just dvd edition of movies. Wanted to complete my Snow Queen trilogy from over there and the 3 one didn’t get a release.

The problem in the UK is that the film is owned by Sky, who are using the characters to heavily promote their excessively-priced products (Sky did the same with the last few Illumination movies). Sky initially supported 3D but now have switched to aggressively pushing 4K lowest-common-denominator style (Idris Elba should be ashamed of himself) and have little interest in disc releases, so who knows what kind of a home release this will get here.

[Paul H]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

2D Back Cover:

[Show spoiler]

3D Back Cover:

[Show spoiler]

Note that the 3D appears to be a single-disc 3D-only affair.

Thanks for the back specs!

Blu-ray-disc.de lists it as a BD-50 (50GB BD-ROM) and region-free.

Screen Shot 2018-03-06 at 7.00.14 AM.jpg

[grazina31]

As anyone received this one yet and can confirm if it can be played without subtitles with the English track?
And how is the English track itself?
And how good is the 3D?

[presidentevil3d]

Originally Posted by the13thman

The problem in the UK is that the film is owned by Sky, who are using the characters to heavily promote their excessively-priced products (Sky did the same with the last few Illumination movies). Sky initially supported 3D but now have switched to aggressively pushing 4K lowest-common-denominator style (Idris Elba should be ashamed of himself) and have little interest in disc releases, so who knows what kind of a home release this will get here.

Yeah skys download only 3d service is a far cry from the glory days of 3d footy in pubs and public 3d demo

[2112rushfan]

Originally Posted by grazina31

As anyone received this one yet and can confirm if it can be played without subtitles with the English track?
And how is the English track itself?
And how good is the 3D?

Waiting to hear this info too.

[the13thman]

Originally Posted by grazina31

As anyone received this one yet and can confirm if it can be played without subtitles with the English track?
And how is the English track itself?
And how good is the 3D?

I got this today, put it in to check it out and ended up watching the whole thing. Switched to English audio when it autoplayed, never saw a subtitle the whole time. So yes, it's English-friendly, to the extent that there are English subtitles there if you want them (I checked).

A short "put on your 3D glasses" scene precedes the film and instantly puts you on notice that the 3D is going to be good. That sequence has German text, but from that point on everything is in English with English credits. The end titles credit the German voice cast and the music credits are in German for some reason, with the English cast listed separately after the movie. True German audio track naturally is more punchy than the HDMA English.

How good is the 3D? Very good. I would like 100% strong 3D in every shot but volume and separation do go a long way with this kind of crisp colourful animation - I felt like I was watching it on my OLED even though I was watching on my plasma. Depth was fine, with frequent mild pop-out and some stronger shots that ticked all my boxes, particularly towards the end. Nice particle and magic/teleportation effects. A real pleasure to watch - sure it's not Pixar but it's one of the better-looking European animated features you'll see (much better than The Little Vampire). And the 3D is better than Pixar's, that goes without saying of course. The disc is 3D only because why would you want to watch a 3D animated movie in 2D?

I'll let someone in region A confirm that it's region free (I don't use my region A player for anything other than region A discs) as this is one I'd say is worth importing if you don't want to wait for a more local release. Reversible cover too, thankfully.

[vinnie97]

English subs for the win, what a temptation.

[flat_earth7]

Thanks for the detail! Definitely putting this on the list

[ckyllr]

Just bought this myself. Price dropped as well.. it was about $18 Euro but now is $12. Got this one and Smurf Lost Village in 3D from Amazon.de.

I know this one will be worth it! Since 13thMan recommends it! Thank you so much for the feedback.

[dartfrog298]

Thanks 13thman. Order placed.

[Paul H]

Originally Posted by the13thman

I'll let someone in region A confirm that it's region free (I don't use my region A player for anything other than region A discs) as this is one I'd say is worth importing if you don't want to wait for a more local release. Reversible cover too, thankfully.

Verified region-free.

[ckyllr]

I watched about half of it tonight and 3D was pretty well done with some good pop outs and depth. I think it's on level with nwave titles... maybe just below but really good animation and picture quality as well

Now for the confusing part... I was watching this from the beginning thinking it was in English and to my surprise, it was in Dolby Atmos but in German. I switched to English but was very disappointed by the DTS MA. This title definitely showed the difference in audio quality between the two mixes. I ended up watching the movie with subtitles instead of in English and voices matched the characters lips better in German as well. In English, it felt as though it was dubbed and the sound quality sucked really bad. Even the voice acting and the characters seemed better in German even though I don't understand any of it.

This was pretty interesting title and it got so many horrible reviews especially with the American audience in IMDB and it was just released in the theaters as well so I don't know what to take of this movie. I thought it was entertaining but I do have to finish it.

On the plus side, this is indeed region free and no force subtitles and English friendly even though I recommend watching this in German especially if you have Atmos setup like I do.