Lemony Snickets A Series of Unfortunate Events Special Edition

The Baudelaire's were fairly wealthy and have left the children an enormous fortune and, as the manager of their trust fund, Mr. Poe must try to place the children with a relative who will care for them until Violet comes of age. Unfortunately his first attempt leads to Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), an eccentric individual and leader of a gothic acting troupe. No sooner has Mr. Poe left the children with Olaf than it becomes obvious that he's after their inheritance for himself and so begins his attempts to relieve them of it by mostly foul means.

When his first attempt to dispose of the children fails, thanks to Violet, they are taken to live with their Uncle Monty (Billy Connolly) but Olaf hasn't given up and, master of disguise and an actor, he's soon on their tracks. When Olaf is foiled yet again, they move on to live with their Aunt Josephine (Meryl Streep) by dismal Lake Lachrymose. Guess who soon turns up with more devious schemes to grab the fortune?

Adapted from the series of children’s books by Daniel Handler, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events brings together the stories from three of those books (The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room and The Wide Window) into this dark but very funny tale.

Review

I have to confess that I'd never heard of the books before this movie hit the trailer circuit but I've liked most of Jim Carrey's previous work and based on the trailer, this looked like it'd be one of the good ones. As a children's film it's almost on a par with Harry Potter and it's certainly as entertaining as the likes of Matilda, The Witches or James and the Giant Peach, all of which contain some of the same dark, gothic elements that can be found here. Think Tim Burton animation come to life and you wouldn't be far off either.

Daniel Handler has created a fantasy world for the Baudelaire tales. There's no real parallel to our time frame as the costumes are certainly turn of the century Edwardian and the buildings are stylised Gothic masterpieces but there's also more advanced technology such as cars with remote locking, motorboats and mobile phones. Still it all seems to work and the accompanying dark atmosphere and intentionally depressing score help convey the feeling of dread at every turn. That's not to say it isn't funny as the antics of Sunny and the fairly mad Olaf more than make up for this and it should keep kids and adults alike entertained. Mind you, I can just imagine some children developing a fear of water and...the leeches! Still, the efforts of Uncle Monty and his friendly reptiles might just make up for that.

Director Brad Silberling (Casper, City of Angels) has done a very good job here and, having watched the extras, you can see he's got really involved in all aspects of the movie production and is very much a hand's on director. As for the cast, this is Jim Carrey at his best as he's allowed to improvise almost continuously in the multiple roles of Count Olaf, Stephano and Captain Sham. The choice to use Jude Law as Lemony Snicket, the narrator of the piece, also helps emphasize the mood of the movie as a story and his little snippets link the scenes together quite well. As co-stars, Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep and Timothy Spall perform their roles very well - Spall is dead on as the bumbling Poe, Connolly plays the genial but eccentric herpetologist Monty to perfection and Streep is brilliant as Aunt Josephine.

The two acting children are also very well played by Liam Aiken and Emily Browning. Given their age, they play the roles very well and convey the fairly depressing situation they are in perfectly. If you watch carefully, you'll notice that, during production, Liam Aiken grew four and a half inches and by the end of the movie, he is visibly taller than Emily. There's also good support from Luis Guzmán, Jamie Harris and Craig Ferguson and a small cameo by Dustin Hoffman as The Critic.

Visually, the movie is a feast to the eyes. The picture is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen in an amazingly clear and solid transfer. The detail is incredibly sharp and colours, although using a fairly muted, almost muddy palette, are sharp and solid throughout. Needless to say, there's absolutely no sign of any artefacts, grain or damage present. This is certainly one of the best quality transfers I've seen so far.

On top of this are the very impressive set, make-up and costumes designs. The movie won an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Makeup and received nominations for Best Achievement in Art Direction and Best Achievement in Costume Design. The visual effects teams also deserved some mention for the impressive use of CGI and animatronics. Having watched the movie, I hadn't realised some the scenes were almost entirely CGI rendered until it was revealed in the extras. The realism they achieved is incredible.

The sound is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and sounds excellent throughout. The surround soundtrack is beautifully delivered all around the soundstage and it really delivers the intended dark and atmospheric feel of the movie. Sound effects and ambient effects such as all the creaks, crashes, snakes, birds, etc. are superb and the dialogue is crisp and clear. Added to this is Thomas Newman's melancholy but perfectly apt score, which just finishes it off perfectly and was deserving of its Academy Award nomination for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie again on the small screen, even the several times it's taken to do this review. There is one fly in the ointment though and this might seem a bit of a rant but the studios had horribly defaced the review discs supplied. Every 10 minutes during the movie and most the extras we had to endure a 15 second text overlay proclaiming ‘Property of the DreamWorks Home Ent. Publicity Department – Do not duplicate’. Frankly it spoiled the mood of certain scenes and if this becomes the norm for publicity review discs, then I won't be doing them any more.

Extras

This is the two-disc, special edition and as such, comes with an excellent collection of extra material, most of which have optional English subtitles. Mention has to be made of the animated menus, which are extensions of the animation used over the closing credits and these are beautifully done. I also have to mention the lack of interview or commentary material with the main cast members. There are a few small snippets with Streep, Connolly and Spall but nothing near what you'd expect in a Special Edition and I'm sure fans would have loved a few words from Carrey or the two children. still, that said, it's still a very good extras package…

Disc 1

Bad Beginnings

• Building a Bad Actor - A short featurette, lasting just under 13 minutes, where Director Brad Silberling talks about how Jim Carrey perfected the badly acted roles of Stephano and Captain Sham. We get some footage of Carrey in make-up, getting into character and doing some film/character tests of Count Olaf and his other roles, including one that was dropped.
• Making the Baudelaire Children Miserable - Brad Silberling talks about the actors playing the Baudelaire children. There's also a little teaser trailer, shot to get the kids into costume for the producers and to experiment with lighting, where Violet introduces herself and her brother Klaus and their predicament. Lasts just over three minutes.
• Interactive Olaf - This nine minute long supplement presents highlights from Jim Carrey's extensive make-up and wardrobe tests in a four-way split screen. Basically you get to choose which of the tests to listen to and you can chop and change between them at will. There's effectively over 36 minutes of footage here of Carrey improvising non-stop and it's well worth listening to.

Alarming Audio Commentaries

• Director Brad Silberling Commentary - In an excellent one-man effort, Brad Silberling talks almost non-stop for the length of the movie and he comes across as a very likable person as he talks us through the making of it. We're introduced to the series of books and how he came to direct the movie, having never heard of them before. There's also a lot of information of the differences between the books and movie, casting, set design, etc. and, if you like commentaries, it's well worth listening to.
• Brad Silberling and the Real Lemony Snicket Commentary - Brad Silberling is joined here by Lemony Snicket, played by author Daniel Handler, in an attempt to present us with an amusing alternative commentary. There's a little to be gleaned as they discuss the adaptation from book to film and it is quite amusing at first but they can't really keep it up and it eventually got a little tedious to me. I was definitely glazing over well before this one ended but fans of the books will probably get more from it as Handler does his best to enter into character and entertain.

Orphaned Scenes

• Dismal Deletions - A series of 11 deleted or extended scenes, lasting almost 14 minutes in all, that can be played individually or all at once. Obviously these were mostly cut for timing and pace but there are some very funny and darker moments in there. There's a very funny extension to the play scene where Olaf is playing a Foreign Legionnaire, which explains why Klaus was supposed to be camel and there's also an alternate ending where Olaf escapes.
• Obnoxious Outtakes - Four sets of outtakes, lasting almost 12 minutes in total, that can be played individually or all at once - Working With Sunny, Olaf's workshop, Odious Count Olaf and The Critic & The Cop. Some of these are quite funny and the last two seem more like deleted scenes than outtakes as I can't recall them in the final movie. Olaf's sidekicks get much more screen time here than in the movie and Dustin Hoffman gets a few funny lines in as well.
• Count Olaf’s Ghastly Ghost Story - Technically this is an Easter Egg as you have to highlight Special Features, press left to highlight a symbol near Olaf's knee and then press Enter to see it. It's a five-minute character test where Count Olaf tells us an entertaining ghost story. Sounds like Carrey improvising again but it's fun nevertheless.

Disc 2

A Terrible Tragedy: Alarming Evidence From The Making Of The Film

• A Woeful World - An excellent feature, lasting over 54 minutes long, where we get to see how the fantastical world of Lemony Snicket was created from storyboards and concept art through models to finished sets and props. There's a lot of behind the scenes footage and the amount of attention to detail is astounding, this is definitely the magic of film at work.
• Costumes and Other Suspicious Disguises - Costume designer Colleen Atwood talks about the wardrobe designs for the major cast members. There's a fair amount of costume, hair and make-up test footage, a lot with Jim Carrey and his incessantly funny improvisation. There are also short interview sessions with Billy Connolly, Meryl Streep and Timothy Spall. Lasts just under 17 minutes.
• Violet’s Functional Designs - An almost 11 minute, in-depth look at Violet's various inventions and contraptions littered throughout the movie or deleted scenes. Most of the time is taking up with shooting the mailbox scene but we also get to see some footage of the Stone Returner (deleted), the watering device, Klaus's headlamp and the bed-maker. There's also some interview footage with author Daniel Handler.
• CAUTION! Incredibly Deadly Vipers - Animal experts Jules Sylvester and Mark Jackson talk about the array of snakes and reptiles used in Uncle Monty's house. We also get to see the shooting the scene where we meet the Incredibly Deadly Viper. Last almost nine minutes.
• The Sad Score - Brad Silberling and composer Thomas Newman talk about creating the score and we get a look at Newman and his orchestra at work, side by side with film footage. Newman gives some interesting insights on the creative process involved and a little of his history in the job. Lasts about 13 and a half minutes.

Volume. Frequency. Decibels

• The Unsound Sound Designer - Sound designer, editor and supervisor Richard King talks about how some of the sound effects used in the movie were achieved. This included letting the sound team run loose with some wrecking bars and literally demolish a house for the hurricane scene. We also get hear some of sounds used elsewhere such as the leech attacks and Monty's snakes. Then we get to sit in on a mixing session with the director, prior to a couple of screenings. You might think this feature a bit long at just under 29 minutes but it is pretty technical so anyone interested in sound engineering will get something useful from it and the guys seem to be having a lot of fun doing it. One point to note is that another extra sound feature was mentioned here, called "Tree, Meet House", but it wasn't present on any of the discs I received so it's either missing from my review copy or is just not on the Region 2 release.

Sinister Special Effects - This section lets the visual effects teams show us how some of the amazingly realistic but obviously fantastical scenes were created…

• An Alarming Conspiracy Involving Sunny - Make-Up effects man Kevin Yagher talks about how they made an amazingly realistic animatronic Sunny, which was used where it was too dangerous for the real children. For example during the hurricane sequence and in the cage suspended from the tower. Lasts just over six minutes.
• An Even More Alarming Conspiracy Involving Sunny - A fairly interesting, 20 minute long featurette where the visual effects guys talk about creating a fully CGI version of Sunny. Achieving this is pretty much the Holy Grail for animators and here we find out just how difficult that is and how close they came to reaching that perfection. I was quite surprised to discover that some scenes were in fact fully CGI as it certainly wasn't noticeable while watching the movie.
• The Terrible Fire - A short look at how the visual effects teams created the scene where the children enter what appears to be their intact home before the fire but it slowly transitions to the now ruined mansion. Budget limitations meant they had to do it with half a set so a bit of wizardry was required. Lasts just under six minutes.
• Trains, Leeches & Hurricanes - At just over nine minutes long, this feature looks at creating the CGI effects in several scenes - the train approaching the car on the tracks, the leech attack and the hurricane destroying Aunt Josephine's house and its subsequent collapse.
• Very Finicky Director
• Another Easter Egg. Highlight the Return symbol at the bottom and press right to highlight a curly symbol just above. Press Enter to see a short, minute and a half interview with Brad Silberling talking about an idea he had for an early teaser trailer that didn't make it.

Gruesome Galleries - Finally, the filler material…

• Shadowy Stills - 86 productions stills covering all aspects of the movie - behind the scenes, artwork, sets, effects, etc.
• A Woeful World - 45 excellent concept art drawings and paintings, most very well detailed. This is easily the best of the galleries.
• Costumes and Other Suspicious Disguises - 25 costume designs. Not as interesting as the other galleries but worth a look if you're into costume design.
• Eyes Are Everywhere - Yet another Easter Egg. Highlight A Woeful World, then press right to highlight the eye in Olaf’s silhouette in the mirror. Press Enter to see a short piece, lasting just under two minutes, about the background of the recurring eye symbol that features just about everywhere in the movie.
• Portrait of the Artist as a BAD Man - The final Easter Egg - highlight the Return symbol at the bottom and press right to highlight a curly symbol just to the right. Press Enter to see a short interview with set decorator Cheryl Carasik talking about using stills of a Russian opera singer, digitally edited with Jim Carrey's face, to get some of the photographs you can see dotted around Count Olaf's house. Lasts just over two minutes and includes some shots of Carrey posing for these.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is a thoroughly enjoyable tale, beautifully realised in film. Jim Carrey gives us possibly his best performance to date and he's brilliant throughout and the rest of the cast do an admirable job as well.

Fans of the books will almost certainly want to see this film and will definitely appreciate this two-disc edition for the wealth of extra material. Fans of Jim Carrey will likewise rate this as a must-have collectable as some of his improvisations in the extras are classics.

The picture, sound and extras package are simply top class and this certainly must rank as one of the best technically produced DVDs to date. While it might not reach the heights of fame achieved by the Harry Potter books and films and it's somewhat darker tones may not appeal to younger children, I'm sure Daniel Handler's books will rise in popularity after this and maybe we'll get some more of them translated to film.

Click here to buy Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events on DVD from Amazon.