How can one rock band be successful, underrated, hugely influential, and criminally overlooked all at the same time? Take a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers Ron and Russell Mael, celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks: your favorite band’s favorite band.
For in-depth thoughts on The Sparks Brothers, please see my colleague Dom Fisher’s review from its original theatrical release here.
Video Quality
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment brings The Sparks Brothers to Blu-Ray with a gorgeous 1080p video presentation. As is standard with this type of documentary structure, the feature spotlights different types of new and archival material in varying degrees of quality depending on the source. The newer black-and-white interview segments look crisp and clear with a firm contrast and some rich, detailed facial features. There are so many different subjects with different types of facial hair and unique outfits which appear quite detailed in HD.
The archival footage used seems to be in the best shape possible given the inconsistent base quality of the source material. Some of the footage is so fascinating that you do not even care that the quality is slightly ragged, as you also get some archival moments that have been especially well preserved for this time period. The colors featured in some of the footage have a nice saturation which is presented well. The transfer does not fall victim to any compression artifacts or digital nuisances of the sort. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has delivered a rock solid presentation that should please any fan.
Audio Quality
This Blu-Ray disc comes with a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio track that works exceedingly well with the source material to provide the grandiose and immersive quality you crave from these tunes. While interviews are plentiful throughout the runtime with a steady stream of talking heads, the songs are never made to feel like an afterthought. The sound quality of the songs featured never falters and envelops the room in a wonderful way that almost makes you feel as if you have been transported to an actual concert.
Dialogue is crisp and clear up front in the center channel as you get colorful anecdotes filmed in stable environments. Archival clips are likewise mostly stable without much in the way of age-related wear outside the odd moment here or there. The surround sound presentation makes the soundtrack come alive in a way that makes you understand why the band is as loved as they are. You really could not ask for better from this presentation. There are optional English SDH subtitles provided.
Special Features
- What The Hell Is It This Time? Sparks: Live In London: A 96-minute concert from the O2 Centre in London on May 24, 2018 is presented in HD with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.
- Featurettes
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- Todd & Sparks Reunited: A nearly 16-minute piece in which Todd Rundgren reunites with the band as they catch up and reminisce in an informal setting.
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- Snack Karaoke (Tokyo): A three-minute karaoke performance from the guys in Tokyo is provided here.
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- Ron’s Apartment: A three-minute exploration of the studio mock-up of Ron’s apartment as he takes you through his sneaker and snowglobes collections.
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- Neil Gaiman Reads Sparks Lyrics: A nearly six-minute piece which delivers what is suggested from the title.
- Deleted/Extended Scenes: There are 15 unused scenes from the film totaling 40 minutes of material which provide even more insights into and fun moments with the band.
- Talking Sparks: There are 57 minutes of additional interviews provided which allows these subjects to dig a little deeper on a few topics in a way which is very rewarding.
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- Beck (3:15)
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- Duran Duran (2:29)
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- Flea (10:40)
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- Fred Armisen (2:10)
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- Jack Antonoff (4:28)
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- Jonathan Ross (3:48)
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- Katie Puckrik (2:54)
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- Mark Crowther (8:28)
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- Mark Gatiss (2:12)
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- Mike Myers (1:51)
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- Patton Oswalt (2:28)
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- Scott Aukerman (3:33)
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- Steve Jones (2:12)
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- Vera Hegarty (3:47)
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- ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic (3:29)
Final Thoughts
The Sparks Brothers is both a classic music documentary and a groundbreaking subversion of the form. Leave it to Edgar Wright to craft something so mammoth and all-encompassing about such a unique group while leaving it equally accessible to outsiders and rewarding for die-hard fans. The interviews from the band members and the famous fans who love them are engrossing, and the archival material is utilized to great effect. If you are going to make a music documentary, you have to be like this and give it some personality. Universal Picture Home Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray that sports tremendous A/V presentation and a surprisingly robust selection of special features. Don’t be scared away from this one if you have little to no familiarity with the subject matter. Highly Recommended
The Sparks Brothers can be purchased directly through MovieZyng or through various other online retailers.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Universal Pictures Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.