Your thoughts on: LADY AND THE TRAMP Platinum Edition!

[TheSequelOfDisney]

well in that case, he should probably be doing his homework then, shouldn't he. or study for a math test.

[Escapay]

well in that case, he should probably be doing his homework then, shouldn't he. or study for a math test.

Who in their right mind would study on a day off from school?

Anyways, we've steered too far from the thread, so let's get back to LATT:PE...

Escapay

[TheSequelOfDisney]

first of all, I would. here's what I thought of the movie: that the presentation was great. and it could have used more supplemental features.

[Evil Genie Jafar]

Ok, now I've seen the whole "Backstage Disney" segment.

Found it, very brief but precise.

However, you'd think that this being the first movie Disney made in CinemaScope and that it is supposed to be such a beloved movie they could have added much more.

In my opinion, this may not be the weakest of the PEs but it certainly "feels" that way; by the whole presentation and everything.

If it wasn't for the 2 versions of the films and the audio, I'd say they could have fit the contents of the second DVD on the first one... but also, they had to make the movie a PE.


Probably it is just me but this DVD just feels rushed and that they didn't care for it.

[DefyGravity]

I just finished watching it, and I have to say, the restoration job on it is brilliant. You'd never guess this movie is from the 50's - the colors on it are so vibrant. When I saw the before and after photos on the back of the cover, I thought it looked dreadful, but when I actually watched it, I couldn't find a single flaw. I was surprised out how wide the picture was; it took me a minute to get used to it. The sound quality was great too, no complaints there.

I haven't delved into the special features much. But being the dork I am, I had to play the Virtual Dog game. It was pretty cute, and the final trick was ADORABLE My only gripe on the actual DVD is the FastPlay, but it's easy enough to go around.

As far as the packaging goes, I actually really liked the disc art. The semi-transparency gave it a nice sheen. I'm a bit miffed about the slipcover not opening though, but I suppose I'll get over it.

All in all, I think they did a lovely job with the movie. It's been at least a decade since I last watched and I forgot what a charming little movie it is

[MinnieMe]

I watched mine last night and some of the supplemental features today. I really did like the whole "making of" thing- but that ugly Genie guy annoyed me too. They should have gotten someone better.

The transfer was great and OMG was that widescreen! My poor little 20'' could barely take it!

This was one of the animated features that I haven't seen in a very long time (maybe even since it's rerelease in theaters when I was younger) and it was wonderful to watch it again. I have to say it's one of my favorites.

I won't gripe about the bonus features just because I'm not a big bonus features person but like "making of's" so this one was just fine to me.

[Andy]

I've had the dvd for 3 weeks now, and im just glad i finally have it. Lady And The Tramp was always a movie i watched when i was younger and i knew i loved it, but with not having seen it for about 8 years i couldnt remember much of it so being able to watch it once again was great
It definatly is one of my favourite classics. I havent had chance to watch any of the bonus stuff yet, i'll probably watch them in the next few days....

[Noodle]

I found it to be just great,the special features were awesome and i'm really impressed with it .

[brownie]

I think this release looks much better than the previous one. I liked the documentary on the film.

Here's how I rank the PE dvds now:

Aladdin
Beauty and the Beast
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Lady and the Tramp
Bambi
The Lion King
Cinderella

I'm hoping they do a really good restoration job on The Little Mermaid. They better have a load of backstage Disney stuff, too.

[TheSequelOfDisney]

I think this release looks much better than the previous one. I liked the documentary on the film.

Here's how I rank the PE dvds now:

Aladdin
Beauty and the Beast
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Lady and the Tramp
Bambi
The Lion King
Cinderella

I'm hoping they do a really good restoration job on The Little Mermaid. They better have a load of backstage Disney stuff, too.

I rank the PE dvds like this:

For 1st: Beauty and the Beast/Bambi/The Lion King/Snow White
For 2nd: Aladdin/Lady and the Tramp/Cinderella

[MikeyMouse]

Well, I bought my disc a week ago today on release day, and I've had a chance to go through all the goodies, so here's my $0.02 for what it's worth:

Video: In a word...STUNNING. It's amazing how much different a film can feel when presented in different aspect ratios. Having never owned the LI DVD, and having only seen the film via old VHS copies (I think I may have gone to the theaters as a kid for a rerelease, but I can't be certain), it's almost like watching a different movie when you view the CinemaScope presentation. It has that much more of an impact. The transfer is great as well. Much better than I've seen on other PEs, especially on a HD set. I haven't noticed any of the color shifts that others have referred to, but I will go back and check again. I didn't watch the P&S version, but I do agree that the least they could have done was give us the original Academy ratio release instead of a new P&S, which as others have mentioned would have cost more time and money in restoration work.

Audio: Very acceptable, as well. I do tend to gravitate towards the surround sound mix, but I'm glad the 3-track mix was included on the disc for purists. I found some of the musical scenes to be a little tinny at times, but I'm certain it wasn't from the remastering, and had more to do with the recording capabilities in the 1950's.

Story: While the storyline from this movie isn't one that's going to leave you breathless or make you stand up and applaude at the closing credits, it's still quite cute and DOES get the viewer emotionally involved (a previous poster mentioned the B!T@H of an Aunt...here! here! And while not a cat-lover myself, I had even more impetus to reach through the screen and strangle Si and Am). Is it the best Disney story of all time? No, but it's pretty darn good, IMHO.

Extras: OK, so this isn't the greatest PE ever in terms of "the total package", but I think comparing it to Snow White is a little unfair. Packaging and slipcovers aside, I don't think ANY Disney DVD has come close to the quality of the content and presentation of the Snow White set, not even the big guns (BATB, Lion King, etc.) of recent years. That being said, it is obvious that the term "Platinum" is beginning to be thrown around a little too quickly nowadays. I think there should be some "standard" that all the PEs have to have in terms of packaging, content, menu design, video and audio presentation, etc. Just comparing the menus for Snow White and LATT you can see that more effort was placed into the former. The bonus features were nice, it was neat to see all the old footage of Peggy Lee, and the Siamese Cat "finding a voice" featurette was interesting, albeit a little creepy. Good content overall, but I found myself wanting "more". I don't know what more, but just "more". I don't think I should be able to go through an entire 2-disc PE in one sitting and feel like I've explored every nook and cranny.

Overall I really enjoyed the disc (including the disc art and the packaging, although we weren't supposed to discuss that), and my only criticisms stem from comparing this PE to others. If you think about it there's probably much more material for different films, so we can only hope that Disney gave us everything they had to offer for this release.

[marlan]

I don't see what's wrong with FastPlay.

I mean, it does have that menu screen with the "This DVD is equipped with Fast Play..." thing, where you can simply choose to go to the main menu. No one's forcing you guys to use it (unless you decide to stick the DVD into the player, sit for 30 seconds, and complain when it starts up..)

So the U.S. release does not have the forced antipiracy trailer (1 minute) in the beginning? The U.K. release has it and it cannot be skipped or fast-forwarded.

[Disney Villain]

I loved the LATT restoration. I am a little mad about the slipcover, but i'll get over it . There are alot of bonus features-nothing like Snow White, but what can we do . Atleast the menus are animated, and the games have improved greatly, unlike the games on the other Disney DVD's. I am satisfied with this release. The widescreen presentation is my favorite thing about the whole DVD. To see this movie restored, and in widescreen is the true treat, not the bonus features.

[Beast]

New poster here...

The film has been restored to a thing of beauty, and seeing the widescreen version after all these years was a sight to behold. While not my favorite Disney film, it certainly holds up after all these years. But I would have to agree with the sentiments of this being one of the weakest 'Platinum' releases. I'm sure that Disney could have tried harder to pull some more extras out for this. And again, the set is sadly missing an audio commentary. The other 'Making Of' features were excellent though, shame they couldn't have pulled out more.

I do have a complaint though...

It seems that there is a fairly common authorizing problem with the discs, which causes french subtitles to appear whenever printed material is shown on screen, such as John's newspaper or the Baby Shower invitations. It seems to effect older players for the most part, since that's what I'm seeing over on DVDcentric forums like Home Theater Forum.

[deathie mouse]

mm i've sen dvdjunkie complaining about that too.

that happens when the DVD player thinks you selected the French Audio track for listening, since the written signs in the movie are not spoken in French by an invisible narrator, they appear translated in subtitle when watching with French audio track.

Try going to the Set Up Menu and manually selecting English Audio (original 3.0 CinemaScope track, of course ) and then to the captions menu and selecting None. and see if that clears the thing out.

[Rainbow]

well i got the dvd about two weeks ago and i really like it, i dont have too many disney dvd, i have more of the VHS tapes, so i cant really compare it to the others, but i think it had enough stuff for a movie that came out in the 50's

[magicalwands]

It's either now or never for me to post my thoughts on LATT. I've been keeping this off because I just don't know how to explain in words how much I love this film!

I love the beginning where they receive Lady and how she isn't at all disregarded by the parents when they have a newborn baby. It was a good thing that the Aunt and the cats were a bit mean because then Lady would've never run away and meet Tramp. I feel the same way with you guys, I just wanted to punch the aunt in the face. I think the whole spahgetti scene wasn't as great as I thought it was because I expected so much out of it and I saw practically the whole thing in the trailers. I love how Lady, Jock, and Trusty play all day together day and night and lead such stress free lives because their owners care for them so much. Then there's the two restaurant chefs who just crack me up, they are hilarious.

This film is my favorite Walt Disney film of them all. I just ADORED this film. I could care less about the slipcover and lack of commentary...this film is just amazing to me. I don't know how much more I can emphasize that I just love this film. And I'm glad to have plushies to show off in my room

[Joe Carioca]

I know I'm not a regular poster on this forum as I used to be (even though I'm always around), but here is my small contribution to this thread: if you want to watch scenes from the Academy version of "Lady and the Tramp" on the new Platinum DVD, you can find them in the Disneyland television excerpts! I'm not sure if all of the scenes come from the Academy version, but I'm positive that the Lady-Tramp introduction and dog chase sequences are, so probably the other ones are too. Yeah, it would be much better if we had the whole thing available, but this is still better than nothing.

[BrandonH]

Lady and the Tramp: Platinum Edition is a fine DVD, but it felt like it was missing something. No commentary track is certainly part of this, but it goes deeper than that.

The first four Platinums were a year apart, and that lead time helped Disney to make them into memorable products. Bambi was only a few months after Aladdin, but the producers still did a marvelous job. Part of my issue with the last two probably comes from the fact that they were not recent films, and many of the creative people are unavailable for comment, so there is less they can do with the bonus features. This doesn't really hold up as an excuse, though, when I think about the awesome DVDs for Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Fantasia.

My disappointment is mostly from the recent failures to live up to the Platinum promise of state-of-the-art DVDs, menus, and bonus features. They may be fine for a regular release, but I still believe the Platinum name should mean something. The Pocahontas 10th Anniversary and Mulan sets outshone the last two Platinum editions, and they were simply "Special Editions."

To be fair, I did like the special features on the Lady and the Tramp set, but I wish there was more. They could have done another time capsule piece, had Deja & Co. do a commentary on the animation techniques used in the film, or any number of imaginative things. The end result left me uninspired and with a bad corporate Disney taste in my mouth.

I haven't been impressed with a Platinum since Bambi, and The Little Mermaid set has a lot to prove. There's no excuse for not hitting the next one out of the park, so I expect greatness.

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

Well I just watched the movie and the bonus material yesterday, (really late I know ) and overall it's a decent set.

Movie: When I first saw it a while ago, I was HUGELY disappointed. I guess I was expecting "Walt Disney's most endearing classic" so I was somewhat disappointed. But then I decided to watch it again, and I really liked it! I think it's a great movie to rewatch as the less you expect, the more you get. The animation is really good, the songs are great, and the characters(except for the aunt ) are all very likeable and portrayed perfectly by great voice actors. It's simple, but that's a huge part of it's charm. After seeing it yesterday, it's safe to say this is one of my favorites.

Video Quality: Well seeing it in Cinescope was truely amazing! It may not be exactly in it's OAR, but who cares? This edition still has more image than I could ever imagine. Oh yeah, and I don't think I need to explain the AMAZING restoration in picture! The sound also works like a charm. I feel like throwing away my VHS now!

Bonus Features: Okay, here is where the disappointments come! The main documentary was good, but it could've include more! It's a real shame Joe Grant died in 2005, or that Disney didn't release this sooner. I wanted to hear Joe Grant and what he thought of it. It was also a shame we didn't get to hear more from Ollie Johnston! I mean he is the last living nine old men, can we get a LITTLE more information from him than just the voices and a "your welcome"? Overall though, it did offer alot of information I never knew and will be glad to story in my Disney Knowledge memory! Like Wonderlicious, I agree the best parts were the one talking about Joe Grant. I guess Walt wasn't a 100% perfect person for everyone.

Its got trailers which also get a from me, especially the re-release trailers which is rare for a Disney DVD. The story boards were also interesting, and I also loved the Disneyland parts of it, but something was missing. The commetary is a huge loss in my mind, and I felt it could've had more info on dogs since the featureete with Fred Willard was really kidyish. Deleted Scenes are also fun. I haven't played any of the games or music videos so no comment about those.

Overall this was a huge down grade from the wonderful Bambi DVD release imo, as it had a commentary and more interesting info, especially coming from the cast and crew who are/were still alive.

Overall here's how I'd rank them in terms of bonus material(I haven't tried BatB or Cinderella so that's why I haven't included them):

1. Snow White.
2. Aladdin
3. Bambi
4. Lady and the Tramp
5. The Lion King

Overall decent set, but could've been MUCH better.