Dream Big: Engineering Our World 4K/3D - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Dream Big: Engineering Our World 4K/3D

Movie:
Video:
3D:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
To pair up with the travelogue doc National Parks Adventure, we have the polar opposite to enjoy. This time, instead of sitting and enjoying the beauty of nature, we get to marvel at the wonders of man made creations on display with Dream Big: Engineering Your World. A take on the classic, the modern, and the inventive, Jeff Bridges narrates us through a list of some of the greatest engineering marvels that mankind has ever created, as well as showing us the next generation of great minds on their innovations that very well may shape our future.

Dream Big: Engineering Your World takes a different approach than it’s partner film. Instead of allowing the viewer to sit back and enjoy beautiful imagery, it is more of a tech sheet film, with Jeff Bridges spouting off all sorts of fantastical creations that we have created over the year. Dream Big is the first film that has answered the call of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and is more of an inspirational film to educate younger people to get interested in the hard sciences (in this case engineering). As such, it’s much less focused on showing us cool things, and more interested in showing us how THEY can change the future with their minds. The film has already been scheduled to be distributed to educators around the nation (and world), and is the first step in a much larger push to get people excited and interested in technology.

The first ½ of the film is dedicated to the history of a Nepalese engineer who is trying to change the world through her own point of view, and is dedicated to not only making some incredible structures, but going around the nation teaching young students all about the joys of engineering. We also get to be at the forefront of some little tidbits about the Great Wall of China, how Shanghai is tackling their population overgrowth, as well as be introduced to the Phoenix high school robotics team that actually beat MIT at their own game (The movie Spare Parts was actually about this real life high school team with a McDonald’s budget and MIT level dreams).

The movie is not as simple as the travelogue style National Parks Adventure, but is more of a laundry list of great technical marvels with an inspirational twist to it. The end result is a film that is highly informative and intriguing. The flip side of the coin is due to the fact that the movie ends up being more of a laundry list of information that is VERY obviously meant as an educational goal vs. the simple enjoyment of a light documentary.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

Once again Shout Factory has given us dual options with the 4K UHD disc. You can choose to watch the film in SDR (for those with older 1080p TVs and 4K players, or with poor HDR functionality), or the more popular (and better look) HDR. The difference between the two is pretty staggering, as the IMAX cameras give a razor sharp image that really benefits from the higher saturation levels and black levels that the HDR tecnnology can produce. The primary colors of Shanghai are jaw dropping, with sickeningly deep blacks that just absorb all light while still showing off plenty of shadow details. The outdoor shots in Africa are crystal clear, with the water and bridge repair showing every amount of detail humanely possible. The use of picture-in-picture for some of the shots does keep it from 100% stunning all the time, but I’m guessing those were due to having lower resolution video shots being transposed into an IMAX production, which is understandable.




3D:
The 3D for this one is a little bit weaker than National Parks Adventure, as there is a lot less open areas to “pop” off the screen with. There’s also quite a bit of “picture in picture” moments which shrink the screen a lot and reduce the amount of 3D effects. Still, the main imagery still shows a lot of visual details in the 3D, with the skyscraper effects and bridges looking incredibly 3 dimensional. There’s no signs of ghosting and crosstalk, and the overall image is only SLIGHTLY darker than the 2D film (both in 4K and 2D Blu-ray).





Audio:

While the disc has a stunning Atmos track, beware, it also has a 5.1 DTS-HD MA track in English as well that is the default track (kind of like how Warner Brothers treats their 4K and Blu-ray discs), so you’ll need to go in and change that before hitting play. That being said, I’m always amazed at how good these little 43 minute documentaries are in the audio department. Shout Factory has mixed this one nice and hot, with a hefty about of bass response in the track ranging from the score to the rumble of trains going by. The dialog is always crystal clear and evenly balanced across all the channels, and we even get some pretty decent overhead usage as well (specifically with the wind and some minor traffic noises). It’s not going to be an action track, but still, Shout Factory eeks out every last bit of energy from the limited resources of the film and make it well worth listening to.

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Extras:

• Hot Topics in the World of Engineering
- Who’s in the Driver’s Seat: Autonomous Vehicles
- Virtual Modeling: Engineering the Future
- Lean and Green: Alternative Energy
- High-Tech Engineering
- Engineering for Those in Need
• Behind-The-Scenes
- Dream Big Featurette
- Meet the Women Engineers of Dream Big
- Filming the Great Wall of China
- Behind the Scenes of the Hyperloop
• Short Fun Packed Videos
- How Kids Engineer a Bridge
- Behind the Great Wall of China
- A Hand Built Bridge in Haiti
- Engineering Roller Coasters
- Filming with the IMAX 3D Camera
• Dream Big Trailer
• 4K Trailers

Final Score: ​

Dream Big is a fun look at some of the more rudimentary technological marvels mankind has made and is a striking blow at pushing the hard sciences for a younger generation. It paints the career as rewarding, exciting, and much more than just a dry and dusty book career like so many others have painted the field. The obvious enthusiasm for the subject, as well as the inclusion of several real life engineers makes the documentary a one of kind expereince. It’s not AS enjoyable (in my opinion) as the lighter and fluffier National Parks Adventure, but it is a great little documentary with a lot more meat than the afore mentioned film. Audio and video are once again spot on near perfect, with a moderate array of extras to fill out the package. Recommended.




Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jeff Bridges (narration)
Directed by: Greg MacGillivray
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 HEVC / MVC
Audio: English: English Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1), English, Spanish DTS-HD MA 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: NR
Runtime: 42 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 24th, 2018

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• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Recommended

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

I took my 12yo to see this in the IMAX this past winter. Really nicely done. It accomplished its goal with him, completely inspiring.

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will check it out.

 

[Todd Anderson]

Jeff Bridges' voice makes the film sound almost like an advert