It’s never good to recommend a comedy by saying it makes you weep, but somehow Bluey, a comedy for kids, feels more real and more truthful than anything else on TV. I see so much of myself in Bandit’s triumphs and failures as he tries to parent his two daughters. I nod along to all of his unsuccessful parenting tactics that, I’ll admit, I’ve also tried on my own two kids. And then, at the end of so many episodes, I’ll realize that the front of my t-shirt is wet with tears because I’ve been crying.
There can’t be many people unfamiliar with Bluey, the biggest kids’ TV series on the planet, if not the biggest series overall. Each seven-minute episode is a slice-of-life sitcom about the Heelers, a family of anthropomorphic dogs living in Brisbane, Australia. Bluey and her younger sister Bingo live with parents Bandit and Chilli. The show started out focused on the playtimes the kids would have with each other or their parents. But it quickly sprawled out to create a rich world in the vein of The Simpsons, with a whole city’s worth of storylines. It can now regularly relegate the Heelers to the background to focus on the show’s deep cast of characters.
It closed out its third season with last Sunday’s “The Sign,” a (comparatively) epic 28-minute episode and this week with “Surprise,” a sweet little postscript. The former’s long running time was described as a dry-run for any potential Bluey movie, wrapping up a number of the show’s storylines. It focuses on a wedding taking place at the Heeler’s home in the shadow of the family’s plan to relocate to another city. I won’t spoil too much beyond saying “The Sign” is a story about the bigness of change and how that affects parents and kids alike. Much of it focused on Bandit’s decision to move for a better-paid job and the way that impacted Chilli and the two girls. It’s a complicated issue, especially because it highlights that parents often just want to do what’s best for the kids.
Ludo Studio
“Surprise,” meanwhile, focuses more on the mundane struggle of Bandit trying to play two different games with his daughters at the same time. Much as Bluey wants to be just seven minutes of silly fun, it can’t quite help but be honest about the emotional and physical labor of parenting. All Bandit wants to do is sit down and watch sport on the TV but his daughters won’t allow him that luxury. He’s chased around the house, forced to pretend to teach a tennis ball to ride a bike and then pelted with ping pong balls fired from a toy launcher. (Bluey’s happy to highlight how often Bandit will get hit in the groin as a consequence of whatever game the girls are playing.)
The payoff to all of that effort comes in the final half minute of the episode, which is when I started sobbing. As much as it may be pitched as a palate cleanser after the scale and emotional heft of the previous episode, the final moments offer a real (if pleasant) punch to the gut. I can’t help but feel plenty of parallels in Bluey’s life and that of my own (similarly-aged) daughter, and feel a lot of kinship with Bandit as well. If I’m one one-hundredth as good a parent as this silly cartoon dog who often gets it wrong, then I’ll feel like I’ve done a good job.
There’s been speculation that this third season may be the end for Bluey. reported the uncertainty around creator Joe Brumm’s future with the show, although producer Sam Moor has said it will continue in some form. Any delay would also risk that the child actors – who remain anonymous for their own safety — will age out of being able to play their roles. But in many ways, Bluey can’t not continue given the show is now a multi-billion dollar cash cow for the BBC, which owns a big chunk of the show’s rights.
I don’t want to say goodbye to Bluey and the Heelers, and I’d prefer they kept the cast as-is and let them grow up alongside Bandit and Chilli. That, to me, would be an honest thing to do, rather than indulging in the fakery that dogs so many TV shows which face this problem. But if they have to go, I’ll choose to remember Bluey’s three perfect seasons through the highs and lows of parenting.
Some of my Whatsapp chats are about to get very busy once again, with heated discussions about lifting boulders and pulling ropes. Physical: 100, the Korean fitness show that turned into an international phenomenon once it was snapped up by Netflix, is back on our screens again, and I couldn’t be more excited.
The premise is simple, and good content for perhaps the best streaming service out there: 100 contestants are picked by the producers for skill or fame in the world of fitness, ranging from rugby players and martial artists, to bodybuilders, special forces reservists and emergency service workers. Everyone, regardless of body type, gender or weight, is put through the same set of physically demanding challenges, sometimes in teams and sometimes solo, until only one competitor is left standing.
Physical contests aren’t exactly new in the realm of reality TV, especially for anyone who watched American Gladiators or similar shows growing up. However, a few elements set Physical: 100 apart from the pack; the grimy and dystopian aesthetic for one, straight out of Squid Game. The general vibe is futuristic and industrial, but themed arenas pepper the game ranging from beaches to jungles. It’s a little like a fighting game that allows you to pick your battlefield, but you always return to the same serious menu screen.
The challenges are another highlight: the games are often cruel and creative, ranging from the deceptively simple (I audibly half-groaned, half-cackled when the first challenge of Season 2 was revealed: 100 manual treadmills, which each contestant had to maintain a certain speed on for as long as possible) to the complex. Having tried many of the best treadmills over the years, I knew exactly what they were in for: a whole world of pain, especially the heavier athletes.
(Image credit: Netflix)
Another memorable Season 1 challenge involved loading a wooden ship with heavy crates, then working together as a team to push it across the arena and up a wooden ramp. If you think it sounds hard, you should watch them try it, sweat pouring off the contestants as they haul a boat weighing 1.5 tons up an incline, without the aid of wheels, watching it move less and less with every heave.
But it’s the contestants that really make the show, and they’re almost all uniquely wholesome. As mentioned before, all the contestants are from a variety of different training backgrounds: strongmen rub shoulders with cyclists in sprinting tasks, while climbers match their strength against crossfitters. While one contestant might be great at moving heavy objects across an arena, another can run for much longer, while another can leap six feet in the air onto a stack of crashmats.
They openly and vocally admire each other’s abilities during the competition downtime, and all carry a great deal of respect for each other’s disciplines, asking lots of questions about the less common ones such as luging. There’s a lot of showboating, sure, and each athlete tries their best to win, but it’s not a display of domination. Doing your best to win is presented as a mark of respect to your opponent.
This is compounded when successful Korean athletes enter the games, such as last season’s veteran mixed martial-artist Choo Sung-Hoon. He was applauded, bowed to, and shown lots of admiration by athletes who far surpassed him in many ways. When paired with another, younger martial artist in a ball-stealing task, the younger athlete bowed to Hoon and requested a short sparring match before they focused on the ball, as it was his dream to go toe-to-toe with the legend.
It was sweet, and I think anyone who has ever been a remotely competitive athlete in any discipline understood how the younger athlete felt in that moment.
This is Physical: 100’s main hook: not the Hunger Games-style worldbuilding, not the gruelling athletic challenges, but the atmosphere of respect and camaraderie between rivals. It’s a beautiful, healthy, poignant display of competitive spirit. Besides, there’s nothing like ordering a lot of takeout and criticizing a world-class athlete’s technique between swigs of beer and mouthfuls of pepperoni pizza.
Full spoilers follow for X-Men: The Animated Series.
I love a good nostalgia trip – especially when it comes to movies and shows from my youth. Turn on the TV and put The Lion King, Power Rangers, Pokémon, or any other 90s-era entertainment on, and I’ll immediately be transported back to a time where adult problems – bills and a lack of sleep, am I right? – seemed eons away.
So when Marvel announced it was developing X-Men 97, a Disney Plus revival of X-Men: The Animated Series (X:TAS) – a beloved childhood show of mine – you can bet I was excited. That anticipation, though, was laced with apprehension. Sure, the comic book giant enjoyed plenty of success with its Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) franchise. But, after numerous less well-received movies and series, including the mixed reception to What If…?, Marvel Studios’ first in-house animated offering, I could be forgiven for expecting the worst.
I need not have worried. Based on its first three episodes, X-Men 97 is everything I wanted from a Disney Plus sequel to one of my favorite animated programs. An old-school series with a modern twist, it’s a worthy successor that packs a sentimental punch. At least from what I’ve seen, it’ll not only appeal to X:TAS veterans and established MCU fans alike, but also to those looking for an easy entry point to Marvel’s expansive cinematic franchise.
To me, my X-Men
X-Men 97 picks up several months after its predecessor. (Image credit: Marvel Studios)
X-Men 97 begins several months after X:TAS‘ finale. The world believes Charles Xavier/Professor X, the X-Men‘s telepathic and empathetic leader, is dead (he’s not, but just go with it) after he was fatally wounded by Henry Gyrich, a US government liaison officer with a severe aversion to mutant kind, in the original show’s 76th and concluding chapter.
Xavier’s sacrifice has led most ordinary humans to view mutants in a sympathetic light and largely accept their place in the ‘present’ (1997 being the in-universe ‘present day’). However, in Professor X’s absence, the X-Men grapple with how – or, rather if – they’ll continue to move forward as a team. Scott Summers/Cyclops (voiced by Ray Chase) and Jean Grey (Jennifer Hale), for instance, wonder if it’s time to put their unborn son first; a decision that suggests an inevitable parting of the ways with their found family.
X-Men 97 is a delightful reference- and cameo-filled sequel befitting its 90s heyday predecessor
Unsurprisingly, that potential exit, among other best laid plans for Scott and Jean’s fellow superheroes, doesn’t materialize. Whether it’s the re-emergence of Bolivar Trask – the scientist who created the mutant-killing weapons known as Sentinels – or the revelation that Xavier bequeathed leadership of the X-Men to complicated villain Erik Lehnsherr/Magneto (Matthew Waterson), there’s plenty for everyone to deal with in the immediate term.
Given the aforementioned ties to X:TAS, you’ll be pleased (as I was) with the continuity that X-Men 97 exhibits through its episodic and overarching storylines. This isn’t a hard reset. Rather a soft reboot that pursues unresolved plot threads, as well as building on established character arcs, left over from X:TAS. In a world where remakes are commonplace, I was relieved and delighted to see that Marvel had the courage and conviction to pick up where things left off, rather than retell X:TAS‘ five-season story with updated visuals.
Indeed, X:TAS‘ thematic resonance and topical exploration have been preserved with the requisite respect and care – the examination of racial segregation, a staple of the X-Men‘s 60-plus year history, chief among them. Other important talking points – legacy, loss of self-identity, and authentic LGBTQ-plus representation (team member Morph identifies as non-binary) to name three – are also as pleasingly prominent; the latter particularly so in light of X-Men 97‘s progressive, present day take on Marvel’s source material.
X-Men 97 delivers its fair share of somber story beats that’ll leave a lump in the throat
Equally gratifying is Marvel’s decision not to tie X-Men 97 into the wider MCU. To paraphrase prog-rock band Pink Floyd, it’s not just another brick in the MCU wall – indeed, like Moon Knight, X-Men 97 exists as a standalone entity unshackled by the MCU’s unwieldy makeup.
Of course, with seven more episodes to come in X-Men 97‘s first season, it could still become part of Marvel’s cinematic tapestry. There are loose connections to other universes – the MCU or otherwise – in episodes one through three that suggest it might do so, too, if Marvel deems it necessary. However, given X:TAS predated the MCU, via 2008’s Iron Man, by 16 years, I’d like to see X-Men 97 kept separate from the elaborate multiversal tale that’s currently weighing Marvel’s cinematic juggernaut down.
I hope X-Men 97 gives some characters, including Storm, more screen time throughout season 1’s other episodes. (Image credit: Marvel Animation)
If I have one small grievance with X-Men 97, it’s that it primarily focuses on Scott and Jean in its early installments, with the pair placed front and center of the Marvel Phase 5 series’ embryonic storylines. That’s to be expected, what with X-Men 97 recreating classic narratives from the comics involving Nathaniel Essex/Mr. Sinister (Christopher Britton) and a certain famous clone saga (no, not that maligned Spider-Man one).
It’s a three-part series opening that puts Scott and Jean through the emotional wringer. Aside from some wider familial dysfunction that delivers some spicy melodrama to proceedings, though, the rest of the X-Men feel secondary or even disappointingly side lined by the unfolding events. Sure, Magneto gets some multifaceted time to shine in episode 2, Jubilation Lee/Jubilee (Holly Chou) plays a fairly substantial role in X-Men 97‘s premiere, and episode 3’s ending suggests there are entries led by Lucas Bishop (Isaac Robinson-Smith) and Ororo Munroe/Storm (Alison Sealy-Smith) to come. Fans hoping to see the likes of Wolverine, Rogue, and Gambit get their fair share of screen time early on, though, should temper their expectations.
A necessary evolution
X-Men 97‘s action has a very anime feel to it. (Image credit: Marvel Animation)
Fans of X:TAS shouldn’t be concerned that X-Men 97 disregards other elements (aside from what I’ve covered above), either. Indeed, those hoping for a nostalgia-fueled trip down memory lane will *ahem* marvel at how it evokes the feelings of watching X:TAS as a wide-eyed kid.
From the original show’s iconic opening title sequence – The theme song! The animated character intros! The opposing factions running into each other! The 3D title text! – to numerous X:TAS and wider Marvel animated series’ call backs and Easter eggs, X-Men 97 is a delightful reference- and cameo-filled sequel befitting its 90s heyday predecessor.
X:TAS’ thematic resonance and topical exploration has been preserved with the requisite respect and due care
For viewers wanting a bit of shock value from the group’s latest animated runout, there’s some to be had in its first three entries. There isn’t an overabundance of surprising moments, but those of a blind-siding nature – well, they’ll be emotionally stunning to anyone unfamiliar with X:TAS or the group’s illustrious comic book history – are hard-hitting. I’ve been moved by similar animated genre fare before, such as by Arcane and BoJack Horseman on Netflix, and X-Men 97 delivers its fair share of somber story beats that’ll leave a lump in the throat.
X-Men 97 might be a superhero-first series, but it’s not averse to being multi-genre in its scope. (Image credit: Marvel Animation)
The biggest difference between X:TAS and its successor, though, is the latter’s animated glow-up. Though conceptually similar to the 2D character designs from the original show, X-Men 97 adds more than a dashing of 3D-style cell-shading, alongside a fresh lick of paint, to renovate the group’s animated adventures. Like me, it might take you a beat or two for your eyes to acclimate to its newfound graphical style, but I found it to be a simple yet effective upgrade to the 90s cartoon’s aesthetic after a few minutes.
X-Men 97‘s animation is also a step above – obvious as that is to say, given the technological advancements since the original – its forebear. With South Korea’s Studio Mir, whose previous works include Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel The Legend of Korra and Harley Quinn season three, taking the leads on the show’s development, you can bet that there’s a serious anime vibe to its animated composition.
I’d like to see X-Men 97 kept separate from Marvel’s elaborate multiversal tale
X-Men 97‘s action sequences, for instance, are superb. Compared to X:TAS, they’re more ambitious, creative and free-flowing in their scope and scale, have a greater degree of intensity, and even occasionally slip into violent territory. Away from the customary battle scenes, Studio Mir’s penchant for abstract visuals, imaginative animation style, and weird hues lends itself to some trippy, horror-infused moments, too. Episode three is the best example of this, with nightmarish scenes aplenty that indicates X-Men 97 will be more multi-genre in tone than its animated progenitor.
My verdict
X-Men 97 is a crowd-pleasing, wistful throwback to a time where watching Saturday morning cartoons was as stressful as life ever got. A melting pot of classic X:TAS ingredients with more than a sprinkling of modern spice, it’s a mouth-watering recipe that cooks up a delicious, nostalgic feast for the senses that’s as flavorsome to newcomers as it is rewarding for long-time viewers.
I’ll never tire of recommending X-Men: The Animated Series to anyone who hasn’t seen it, but you don’t need to do so to appreciate and enjoy what X-Men 97 has to offer. To me, that’s the tell-tale sign of an excellent show, and you can be sure it’ll join our best Disney Plus shows list for that reason, as well as the others noted throughout this piece, in the near future.
At just 30 minutes a pop, each episode makes for easy digestible viewing while you munch down a bowl of milk-soaked cereal first thing in the morning, too. So, before the monotony of school or work washes over you every Wednesday for the next 10 weeks, why not take a nostalgic trip back in time – breakfast in hand – by watching a terrific sequel to one of the best animated shows of all-time? I know I will be.
X-Men 97’s first two episodes are out now on Disney Plus. New episodes air weekly until the season finale on May 15. Lastly, find out how to watch the X-Men movies in order while you’re here.
The most recent chapter in our collective love affair with 3D movies came and went quickly, with set manufacturers scrambling to add the feature to the best TVs around 2010, and then retreating completely from 3D support soon after. In a few short years, it was over. During that era, I amassed a sizeable collection of Blu-ray 3D discs, and they now sit filed away in a remote corner of my media cabinet, a reminder of that time and a potent source of nostalgia.
It may have disappeared from TVs, but 3D never really went away. Movies on Blu-ray 3D continue to trickle out, though if you want to view them in that format you need to watch them on the best 4K projectors, some of which still support 3D. You can also catch movies in theaters in 3D, with the most recent blockbuster showcase for the format being the Avatar sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water.
Now, there’s another way to watch movies in 3D at home: the Apple Vision Pro mixed reality headset. Movies in 3D can be purchased on the Vision Pro’s Apple TV app, and an extensive collection of titles are available to stream on its Disney Plus app. Three titles – these are Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Titanic – are also available in those apps in a “motion-graded” High Frame Rate (HFR) format, which is how they were shown in Imax theaters – The Way of Water on its initial release, and Avatar and Titanic in re-release.
Pixelworks, the company behind the TrueCut motion grading technology used for the post-production of all three movies, recently lent me a headset so I could check out motion-graded 3D on the Apple Vision Pro, which is currently the only source for home 3D movie releases other than Blu-ray disc. It was a treat to spend time with Apple’s pricey, elaborate mixed reality headset, which you can read all about in our Apple Vision Pro review. Playing movies in 3D format is just one of the many things the Apple Vision Pro can do, and it does it exceptionally well.
Blu-ray 3D disc collection animation highlights (Image credit: Future)
Looking back on 3D TVs
Having spent many hours watching 3D movies with my kids during the 3D TV heyday – plenty of the releases were animated ones, and they were at the prime age to enjoy them – I’m well aware of what good – and mediocre – 3D looks like. Perhaps the best example of 3D animation I know of is Coraline, based on the book by Neil Gaiman and directed by Henry Selick (Coraline, incidentally, is getting a 3D theatrical re-release in summer 2024 to celebrate its 15th birthday). That disc got plenty of play in my house, and it’s one I would regularly use to test 3D TVs.
Another successful example of 3D cinema is the original Avatar, which looked fantastic in theaters and on Blu-ray. Aside from watching Martin Scorcese’s Hugo, another 3D triumph, it would be 13 years before I found myself absorbed by a 3D movie, and that was when I watched Avatar: The Way of Water at an IMAX theater. But in the case of Avatar: The Way of Water, 3D was only one thing that made the experience impressive. Another, equally important, one was its motion-graded Cinematic HFR presentation.
TrueCut Motion: how it works
Unlike typical movies shown with a 24 frames-per-second (fps) frame rate, movies motion-graded using Pixelworks’ technology display at a higher, 48 fps rate. HFR’s main benefit is it eliminates the judder and blur artifacts accompanying fast-motion scenes captured at 24 fps. But boosting the frame rate to 48fps can also give movies an overly fluid and unnatural look, especially in quiet scenes with no action.
With TrueCut motion grading, the filmmaker can selectively vary frame rates on a scene-by-scene basis in post-production, using a higher rate for fast-action scenes, and a standard 24 fps rate for more typical ones. This process will give viewers the best of both worlds: crisp, blur- and judder-free images in shots with action, and a natural sense of motion when the action slows down.
The Apple Vision Pro is bulky, but less uncomfortable than I expected (Image credit: Future)
Enter the virtual theater
To compare motion-graded and non-motion-graded movies on the Apple Vision Pro, I first watched a downloaded version of No Time to Die, the most recent entry in the James Bond film franchise. No Time to Die is a movie with action scenes galore, and it’s one I’ve used many times to evaluate a TV’s motion handling. So, why not also on Apple’s mixed-reality headset?
Watching a scene where the camera pans slowly across a cemetery on a rough, hilly landscape, the image showed plenty of motion blur and a significant loss of detail. In a subsequent scene where Bond and Madeline race in a car through city streets with assassins in hot pursuit, buildings in the background also had a blurred quality that made the image look overly soft.
It would have been an ideal comparison if a motion-graded version of No Time to Die were available (it’s not), but I instead had to make do with watching a download of the motion-graded version of the original Avatar.
Same as when I watched it in a theater, and on 3D TVs back in the day, Avatar on the Apple Vision Pro had excellent 3D depth, and I was easily immersed in its 3D world. TrueCut motion grading made the film’s almost non-stop action scenes look consistently crisp, with the Na’vi and the creatures they rode upon and the intricately rendered jungle backgrounds looking equally solid and detailed. I also didn’t feel the action was happening unnaturally fast, which would have quickly whisked me out of the 3D world.
Checking out other 3D movies in the Disney Plus app, Avatar: The Way of Water was a highlight, with eye-popping 3D effects and fantastic picture contrast made possible by the Apple Vision Pro’s powerfully bright display. It looked better than I remembered from my theater experience, though the motion wasn’t as consistently natural across scenes as in the re-mastered Avatar.
An example of the ‘active shutter’ 3D glasses used with 3D TVs and projectors (Image credit: Future)
The new 3D – same as the old, but with a twist
I may harbor nostalgia for 3D movies, but I can’t say I’ve missed them terribly since the last 3D boom fizzled out. Avatar: The Way of Water was a welcome throwback, but one 3D blockbuster doesn’t equal a 3D revival.
Fortunately for movie fans, motion-graded Cinematic HFR is catching on. Following Avatar, its sequel, and Titanic being shown in theaters in the format, Argylle and Kung Fu Panda 4 from DreamWorks Animation have been released in Cinematic HFR. That indicates steady progress for the format, especially since both Argylle and Kung Fu Panda 4 are from studios other than Disney.
I’ve had fun watching 3D movies on the Apple Vision Pro, though there admittedly is something a bit alienating about sitting in a chair wearing a headset for extended periods. But then again, 3D movies have always involved wearing some form of awkward eyewear that removed you from everyday existence, and maybe that’s their ultimate appeal.
I recently attended a screening of the movie Top Gun: Maverick at New York City’s House of Sound, a showcase for state-of-the-art home theater and the best stereo speakers that was constructed from the ground up by the McIntosh Group, owner of luxury audio brands such as McIntosh Labs, Sonus Faber, and Sumiko Phono Cartridges.
Film fans will know that Top Gun: Maverick won an Oscar in 2023 for “Best Sound.” At the event, Mark Weingarten, the production mixer, was on hand to share stories about his experience on the movie. Weingarten touched on topics such as working with Tom Cruise and the rest of the cast to get clean, intelligible dialogue, often as they flew in actual high-speed fighter jets with the cooperation of the U.S. military, which I’ll discuss in more detail below.
But, let’s first back up a second. The McIntosh Group’s previous product showroom and experience center, the World of McIntosh townhouse, was closed several years ago amidst the pandemic. In September of 2023, the group renamed the showroom House of Sound and relaunched it in a gorgeous new location in New York City’s Chelsea district.
The iconic McIntosh blue amplifier VU meter displayed on a TV at the House of Sound (Image credit: Future / Howard Kneller)
In the House
The 11,000 square-foot House of Sound, a “thoughtfully curated multi-sensory townhouse that highlights the group’s brands and premium audio innovations,” is a treat for the eyes and ears. It contains contemporary artwork, Baxter furniture from Italy, USM custom cabinetry from Switzerland, a high-end kitchen with Meile appliances, an elongated modern fireplace, two terraces, a swimming pool, and a finished rooftop area. Audio gear from the McIntosh Group’s brands is spotlighted, and along with the home theater there are two open reference listening areas, two intimate dedicated listening rooms, an extensive vinyl library, and a $50,000 Alpange digital piano.
When I walked into the new digs, I first saw a glass wall with a Jeep Grand Wagoneer containing a McIntosh MX1375 entertainment system behind it. After that, several other journalists and I were brought upstairs for a building tour, though I didn’t realize at the time that I had walked right by a secret passage to the theater, which is located on the ground level.
After enjoying some wine and hors d’oeuvres, I perused the various listening rooms and spaces, which contained everything from Rotel’s RAS-5000 integrated streaming amplifier ($2,999) to McIntosh’s MC2.1KW 2000-watt monoblock amp ($50,000) and Sonus faber’s Suprema speaker pair with external subwoofers and external crossover ($750,000). I soon realized this House was a place where I could spend a lot of time.
One of several McIntosh systems on display in NYC’s House of Sound (Image credit: Future / Howard Kneller)
The theater
We were soon called into the large theater, which was designed to look like one that might be located in a high-end home. The theater’s video system consists of a Sony video projector, a 204-inch Screen Research projector screen, and a Kaleidescape movie player. Audio, unmistakably the star of the show here, is provided by a 29-channel system powered by 14,500 watts that features no less than nineteen McIntosh amplifiers – nine MC611 monoblocks and ten MI502 stereo amps. The amps drive a range of Sonus faber custom installation speakers, including four installed in the ceiling. Also aiding the sonics are sixteen subwoofers, with ten located beneath the screen.
The author (left) with Mark Weingarten (right), Oscar-winning production sound mixer on Top Gun: Maverick(Image credit: Future / Howard Kneller)
Tapping into the aircraft communications systems…
David Mascioni, the McIntosh Group’s Director of Brand Marketing, and Ricky Miranda, the House of Sound’s Audio Experience Manager, welcomed the event’s attendees and introduced Mark Weingarten. As noted, since Weingarten was responsible for capturing Top Gun: Maverick’s dialogue, much of it in flight, his role in the movie was pivotal. Weingarten had done something that had not been done before by tapping into the aircraft communications systems to obtain the sound he needed. Interestingly, and to his surprise, the plane’s cockpits were almost completely quiet save for the actors’ voices, and often exasperated breathing due to intense G-forces. In several instances, Weingarten noted, the actors passed out mid-flight, although he said that Tom Cruise “loved it.”
One scene among several non-dialogue-related ones Weingarten mentioned was where a jet fighter buzzes actor Ed Harris at an extremely low altitude, causing the roof of a small guard tower to separate from the structure and momentarily lift several feet into the air. According to Weingarten, the effect was unintended and the flyover knocked numerous cast members and set workers off their feet!
House of Sound attendees ready for Top Gun: Maverick action (Image credit: Future / Howard Kneller)
Movie time
When it came time to watch Top Gun: Maverick, the experience was otherworldly. The sound field was enormous and contained rock-solid images, clean highs, crystal-clear dialogue (needless to say), and prodigious, linear, non-bloated bass that resonated throughout my body. I left thinking that, by comparison, watching a movie in a commercial theater would now be underwhelming. The McIntosh Group’s House of Sound theater allowed me to hear Oscar-caliber sound as it was intended to be heard.
I left the House of Sound under the impression that I could easily show up every Saturday evening to listen to music and watch action movies in the venue’s ultra-luxurious setting. But as it turned out, that was more than the team had in mind when they extended my invitation. Nevertheless, the McIntosh Group has created a special space where McIntosh Labs, Sonus faber, and its other brands deliver truly great home theater and music experiences. Those who love high-end sound, or even those merely curious about the House of Sound, are encouraged to make an appointment and see and hear it for themselves.
