DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

By Andy McKeague May 26, 2005, 10:00 GMT

Brad Silberling creates the marvellous ‘Lemony Snicket’s A Serious of Unfortunate Events’ out of the ashes of the first three books in the series: ‘The Bad Beginning’, ‘The Reptile Room’, and ‘The Wide Window’.

The movie gets underway quickly and before we can catch up with the latest antics of ‘The Littlest Elf’, our breath is taken away on Briny Beach where we are dealt the cruel fact that the Baudelaire children are now orphans. Their parents have been killed in suspicious circumstances in their own home, now only a charred remnant of its former glory. If you are interested in stories with happy endings, to take the author’s advice, try somewhere else, as we are setting off on a serious of unfortunate events.

Violet (Emily Browning), Klaus (Liam Aiken) and Sunny Baudelaire (played by both Kara and Shelby Hoffman and other animatronic and CGI babies) are three very special and gifted children. The eldest, 14 year old Violet is an amazing inventor (check out the 10 minute ‘Violet’s Functional Designs’ on disc 2), able to whip up contraptions that defy logic and the laws of physics. Whenever she ties her hair up in her ribbon she means business. Then there is Klaus, who is 12 going on 13, a voracious reader, with the uncanny ability to remember every detail in every book he’s perused. And the always-smiling infant Sunny, who is the most successful biter on the planet (the movie plays for laughs too in the shape of subtitles for what Sunny says but there are no menu options to switch these on !).

For this talented trio, life is an endless series of discoveries and adventures. Sadly, their world is about to change. With the death of their parents, Mr. Poe (Timothy Spall), a banker who is also executor of the Baudelaire estate, places the children in the care of a distant relative, the maniacal thespian Count Olaf (Jim Carrey).

Count Olaf has his own reason for seeming keen on being the children’s guardian: he wants to inherit the family fortune that has been left with the children. It’s time now for him to hatch the next part of his fiendish plan. The children must perish !!!!!

The plot of 'The Bad Beginning' is used as bookends for this story. As soon as we have had a near death experience for the kids we are whisked away to the realms of 'The Reptile Room' (with Billy Connolly as Uncle Monty) and then to the scary depths of 'The Wide Window' and the Lachrymose leaches with Aunt Josephine (a gleeful Meryl Streep) before we are back to the nastiness of Count Olaf and his malicious acting troupe.

The movie has been made with the books at heart. The set designs are impeccable and the young cast do their best in the roles, but it has a little of its heart missing. You are in admiration for this fantasy world from the very opening of the sickly sweet 'The Little Elf' and a wry smile comes across your face when Lemony Snicket's (Jude Law) dulcet tones as our narrator tells us not all is well and will never be again, but by the very end it leaves you with a niggling feeling of being strangely unsatisfied.

Disc 1 has its own share of special features including some of the best animated menus around, Bad Beginnings is a brief three part introduction to the movie in which Mr Carrey lets the improv fly. Two audio commentaries come in the shape of director Silberling on both but joined with the ‘Real’ Lemony Snicket on the second, which is a complete hoot. To finish things off we have a host of ghoulish ‘Orphan Scenes’ split into ‘Dismal Deletions’ and ‘Obnoxious Outtakes’. Mr Carrey, sorry, Count Olaf also gets to do an improv 'Ghastly Ghost Story' too; see if you can find this hidden gem, or if not check out the database.

Disc 2 is a treasure trove of extra features, but sadly for a movie that is aimed squarely at the Pre-Potter variety, the extras are most definitely not.

This disc is split into four heavily populated sections:

The first and snappily titled ‘A Terrible Tragedy: Alarming Evidence From the Making of the Film’ starts off well. At just under an hour, ‘A Woeful World’, is an in-depth behind the looks at the set design which is absolutely wonderful but would bore any youngster silly to the point of despair and distraction. ‘Costumes and Other Suspicious Disguises’ (17 mins) goes further into the many guises of Carrey, briefly dealt with in ‘Interactive Olaf’ on disc 1 and the other members of the cast in this unspecified fantasy time period. The previously mentioned ‘Violet’s Functional Designs’. ‘Caution ! Incredibly Deadly Vipers’ is perhaps the first extra that the kids might enjoy, with all the creepy crawlies and slithery snakes that are used on the film are on show. And finally there is ‘The Sad Score’ with composer Thomas Newman giving his insight into his wonderfully playful score for the movie.

The second section, equally snappily titled 'Volume, Frequency Decibels’ looks at ‘The Unsound Sound Designer’. This is a neat but slightly over long look into the world of John Easal and Co., virtually destroying a house to provide all the creeks and groans for the movies sound effects.

Beware in section three, ‘Sinister Special Effects’. We start off with an animated Sunny and this alone would scare the wits out of any little one who ventures into this segment ! Just think of the 'Midwitch Cuckoos' and you are not even half way there. Three more special effects segments later and you have just spent another 30 plus minutes in this fantastical world. An Easter egg is hidden here too !

The last section is for the ‘Gruesome Galleries’ with plenty of pre- and post-production stills with lots of behind-the-scenes stuff too. Again an Easter egg is hidden here !

The extras are technically heavy, so in short, if you are buying this for the child inside the adult, do not hesitate and get the 2 disc edition, but if this for the younger pups then stick well and truly to the sweeter and lighter single disc edition.