Cheaper By the Dozen appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. While the transfer generally seemed good, a few nagging issues caused it to fall short of greatness.
Sharpness offered a slightly mixed bag. Most of the movie came across as accurate and distinctive, but some exceptions occurred. At times, the film seemed mildly ill-defined, particularly in wide shots. The softness didn’t appear heavy, but it created some minor distractions. I discerned no moiré effects or jagged edges, and edge enhancement seemed absent. Print flaws occasionally manifested themselves via some specks and grit, but these remained fairly infrequent.
For the most part, the film’s colors seemed solid. In general, the flick displayed a broad and varied palette, and the DVD replicated these tones reasonably nicely. Occasionally the hues seemed a little too saturated, but the usually seemed natural and accurate. Black levels were adequately deep and rich, and shadow detail was appropriately clear but not excessively opaque. No significant problems marred Dozen, but enough small concerns popped up to knock my grade down to a “B”.
Comedies don’t usually provide much in the audio department, and the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Cheaper By the Dozen fell into line with expectations. The soundfield seemed heavily oriented toward the front, but it seemed to be fairly engaging nonetheless. The forward channels presented a reasonably clean and involving atmosphere, as the audio created a believable sound space. The music showed good stereo presence, and elements moved smoothly across the forward spectrum as they blended together neatly. Surround usage appeared fairly minor. For the most part, the rear speakers provided little more than reinforcement of the forward image. A few shots used the surrounds more actively, like during a game of indoor hockey or at the airport, but those occasions occurred infrequently.
Audio quality appeared fine. Speech remained natural and concise, with no signs of edginess or problems connected to intelligibility. Music showed nice range and clarity, and the bass response demonstrated a reasonably solid punch. Effects were bright and accurate, and they also showed good depth when appropriate. Nothing about the soundtrack stood out as exceptional, but the mix seemed decent for this sort of flick.
How did the picture and sound of this 2005 Cheaper DVD compare with those of the original 2004 release? They seemed awfully similar. Audio appeared identical to me, while the image was slightly tighter here. That may have occurred because this package had more bitspace; it lost a fullscreen transfer found on the old disc. However, note that the improved definition was very minor and not enough to make a big impact.
As with the prior disc, a mix of supplements show up for Cheaper By the Dozen. We get everything from the old release plus a few new components. I’ll designate materials exclusive to this “Baker’s Dozen Edition” with an asterisk, so if you fail to see a star, the component also appears on the original set.
We can watch the flick with two separate audio commentaries. The first comes from director Shawn Levy, who offers a running, screen-specific chat. A mix of the interesting and the banal, the commentary seems too inconsistent to become a true success.
Levy covers a number of topics. He gets into how he came onto the film, casting, sets and locations, improvisation and changes from the script, edits and shaping the story, minor effects and stunts, and a bunch of other things. Some of the better notes involve the actors, such as the contrast of the styles preferred by Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt. Levy seems lively, personable, and extremely enthusiastic from start to finish.
So why do I give his chat mixed grades? Because the guy loves to pour on the happy talk. Far too much of the time he’ll simply tell us how great the participants are and how much he loves various elements of the film. His zeal helps make these frequent bouts of praise more tolerable, but they still get tiresome. Occasional moderate patches of dead air also occur, though not often. Fans of Dozen will learn enough to make this track useful, but it falls short of greatness.
The second commentary presents actors Alyson Stoner, Jacob Smith, Kevin Schmidt, Morgan York, Liliana Mumy, and Piper Perabo. All of them sit together for a running, screen-specific discussion except for Perabo; her comments come from a separate session and get edited into the rest. More and more DVDs feature kiddie commentaries these days, and they uniformly seem unsatisfying. This one falls firmly into that category.
Don’t expect to learn much about the movie. Instead, the kids chat about all the scenes they love. Occasionally we get some minor information at times, but not much. The girls seem manic and helium-voiced as they frequently chime things like “oh my gosh – that’s a fake glass!” and sing and interrupt. Not that the piece would be interesting without their antics, but their behavior makes it more chaotic and incoherent than otherwise might be the case. Perabo pops up infrequently and tosses out a nugget of information here or there, but she doesn’t add much to the proceedings. This seems like a frantic and generally useless discussion.
We get a collection of 11 *deleted and extended scenes. If viewed via the “Play All” option, these fill 19 minutes and 41 seconds of material. Five of these appeared on the prior DVD, but the other six are exclusive to this set. Most are brief and insubstantial, though one major addition occurs: a segment in which Eileen Brennan plays an elderly babysitter the kids seek to torment. We also get a more detailed look at the disruptions at Dylan’s birthday party as well as a little more with Ashton Kutcher’s character. Director Levy remarks upon the various pieces in his optional commentary. He gives us a few notes about the bits and explains why they failed to make the cut.
When we examine the *Storyboard-to-Screen Comparison, we can check out two scenes. These include “Frogs and Eggs” (two minutes, five seconds) and “Dylan’s Birthday Party” (1:12). These use the standard format with the art on the top of the screen and the movie on the bottom. For fans of storyboards, they’ll be interesting to see.
Under the “Featurettes” banner, four components appear. These open with *Frogs & Eggs, an eight-minute and nine-second piece. It presents movie snippets, shots from the set, and comments from Levy, Mumy, co-screenwriter Sam Harper, special effects director David Kelsey, and production designer Nina Ruscio. The show digs into the details of Beans the frog’s fall into the bowl of eggs. We learn about the high and low-tech methods used for the scene as well as its origins and challenges. This turns into a surprisingly tight and informative piece.
Next comes *Dylan’s Birthday. In this seven-minute and 57-second clip, we hear from Levy, Harper, Kelsey, Ruscio and stunt coordinator Ernie Orsatti, “Birthday” is similar to “Eggs” in the way it digs into various elements of the sequence. We learn about stunts and pressures to engage Steve Martin in physical comedy during this lively program.
After this we find Director’s Viewfinder: Creating a Fictional Family. In this four-minute and 50-second piece, Levy discusses how he came onto the project, casting, the atmosphere on the set, and his thoughts about family films. In addition to his interviews, we see some clips from the set. The piece seems somewhat fluffy but reasonably informative given its length. The footage from the shoot offers the best parts, as we see some interesting moments.
The featurettes end with *Critters, a 12-minute and 12-second program. It looks at the movie’s animals with comments from Levy and animal trainer Mike Alexander. We learn about casting the dog and training issues along with topics related to the frog and snake. It’s another informative and useful program.
The *Trailers domain fails to include an ad for Cheaper. It does promote two upcoming sequels, though: Like Mike 2 and Dr. Dolittle 3.
As we go to *Inside Look, an “exclusive insider’s look at upcoming projects from Fox”, we find a 111-second promo for Cheaper By the Dozen 2. Actor Alyson Stoner hosts this brief ad, and we also get an attempt at humor that involves co-star Carmen Electra. More from the sequel appears in an *Exclusive Sneak Peek. This presents a 111-second scene from the new movie in which Steve Martin gets injured knee-boarding.
The disc ends with a *Surprise Easter Egg. (How can it be a surprise if it’s announced on the package?) Highlight “Main Menu” on the “Special Features” page and then press right and enter. This 53-second clip shows Ashton Kutcher’s fake ad in all its glory. We can watch it with or without commentary from Levy. He tells us a little about its creation.
Since I think highly of actors Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, I wanted to like Cheaper By the Dozen. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, the movie seemed silly and cheesy, with many cheap gags and too much easy sentimentality. Picture and audio quality appeared good but unexceptional, while the supplements are decent. One audio commentary seems moderately informative while the other is pretty useless. A fair DVD for a weak film, I find no reason to recommend the unlikable Cheaper By the Dozen.
If you already know you like the movie and wonder if this package merits an “upgrade”, I’d say no. Some of the new supplements are just fine, but there’s not enough of them to warrant an additional purchase. If you don’t have the old disc and want to own Cheaper, I’d definitely recommend this “Baker’s Dozen Edition”, as it’s definitely the superior of the two.
Pursestrings note: This DVD comes with a “Movie Money” offer to get you into theatrical screenings of the sequel. It’s good from November 22, 2005 through January 21, 2006, so if you read this review after that period, you’re out of luck!
To rate this film visit the original review of CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN (2003)
