BURBANK, Calif., June 15, 2009 – Animation and live-action combine to bring the magical
friendship between a young orphan and his unusual best friend to life in Pete’s Dragon High
Flying Edition, coming to DVD on August 18, 2009 from Walt Disney Studios Home
Entertainment. A classic feel-good Disney tale for the entire family, Pete’s Dragon High
Flying Edition is packed with adventure, comedy and soaring musical numbers that have
charmed children and adults since its 1977 debut. Now available in this special edition DVD,
Pete’s Dragon High Flying Edition comes with nearly an hour of brand-new bonus features,
including a look at Disney’s live action/animation legacy, alternate versions of some of the
film’s most beloved songs and much more.
Pete’s Dragon was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Music, Original Song and Best
Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Score). The film boasts an
extraordinary cast that includes Sean Marshall (“To Race the Wind”), Helen Reddy (Sgt.
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), Mickey Rooney (Night at the Museum), Jeff Conaway
(Grease), Shelley Winters (The Poseidon Adventure), Jim Dale (“Pushing Daisies”) and Red
Buttons (“ER”), with Charlie Callas as the voice of Elliot the Dragon.
Bonus Features
• Brazzle Dazzle Effects: Disney’s Movie Magic – An entertaining new look at
Disney’s pioneering work in the magical mix of live-action and animation, narrated by
the star of Pete’s Dragon, Sean Marshall.
• Deleted Storyboard Sequence: “Terminus & Hoagy Hunt Elliot” – A rare demo
dialog track and storyboard sketches.
• Original Song Concept: “Boo Bop Bopbop Bop (I Love You, Too)” – The first
demo recording for one of the film’s unforgettable musical sequences with story
sketches for an early concept of the song Pete sings to Elliot.
• Original Demo Recordings (Audio Only) – A special audio-only feature that includes
early demo versions of “Brazzle Dazzle Day” and “Every Little Piece” before they
evolved into the songs heard in the movie. Also includes “The Greatest Star of All,” a
song originally intended to be sung by Ferdinand, a character later deleted from the
film.
• Promotional Record (Audio Only) – Pop versions of “It’s Not Easy,” “Brazzle Dazzle
Day,” “There’s Room For Everyone” and Academy Award nominee for Best Song,
“Candle On The Water,” originally released together on a 7” record to promote the
film’s music.
• “Where's Elliot?” – The Disappearing Dragon Game
• Pete's Dragon Art Galleries
• Publicity
• Trailers
• About Pete’s Dragon
• Disney Family Album
• The Plausible Impossible
• Lighthouse Keeping
Pete’s Dragon is an uplifting musical adventure about a spunky young orphan that blends live
action and stellar Disney animation. With his only friend Elliot, a tubby, 12-foot tall dragon who
can make himself invisible, Pete (Sean Marshall) takes refuge from his abusive adoptive family
in the seaside town of Passamaquoddy, Maine. After Elliot’s invisible antics wreak havoc with
the residents and Pete gets the blame, Nora (Helen Reedy) is touched by the youngster’s
plight and takes him to live with her and her tippling father Lampie (Mickey Rooney) in the
Passamaquoddy Point lighthouse. Lampie’s tipsy tales of the boy and his dragon amuse the
disbelieving townsfolk, until the local quack, Dr. Terminus, discovers that Elliot is real and
hatches a scheme to capture the dragon. An exciting and inspiring story with unforgettable
music, including the Academy Award nominated “Candle on the Water,” “There's Room for
Everyone” and “Brazzle Dazzle Day,” Pete’s Dragon High Flying Edition will be a perennial
favorite with children and parents.
STREET DATE: August 19, 2009
Direct prebook: June 23, 2009
Distributor prebook: July 7, 2009
Pricing: $29.99 US, $35.99 Canada
Feature run time: 129 Minutes
Rated: ‘G’ (US); ‘G’ (Canada)
Bonus Materials Not Rated
Technical specifications may only apply to feature.
Aspect ratio: Widescreen (1.66:1)
Sound: English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround
Languages: English
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, a recognized leader in the home entertainment
industry, is the marketing, sales and distribution company for Walt Disney, Touchstone,
Hollywood Pictures, Miramax and Buena Vista product, which includes DVD, Blu-ray Disc™
and electronic distribution. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment is a division of The Walt
Disney Studios
This sounds like it's going to offer a lot more than we originally thought. A Publicity section and a trailers section? Hopefully those are actually different items and not just the press release being misleading. Can't wait to see the full contents of this!
This also gives me hope for the Bedknobs & Broomsticks DVD.
I went to my first Disneyana convention this week, NFFC, in Anaheim, CA and one of the guest speakers was a man named Les Perkins, who owns his own production studio that specializes in DVD bonus features. He is a big Disney fan and has been lucky enough to work on many of the great Disney DVD releases, including Mary Poppins. He talked to us about his upcoming projects, among them was Brazzle Dazzle Effects. He played about 3 minutes of it and it was incredible. The runtime was close to 25 minutes, but Disney often cuts things out, so it might be shorter when the DVD comes out. It was highly entertaining and showed a lot of neat archive footage, including side-by-side comparisons of the film before and after effects. I can't wait to see the whole thing on August 18th.
I'm slightly upset that the "Man, Monsters, & Mysteries" documentary won't be included anymore but given that we're getting a reportedly awesome 25-minute featurette and a really really nice selection of archival material, along with everything else from the old DVD...well, I'll gladly double-dip now! Plus, I still have my old DVD in case I ever want to watch that doc.
Like BrandonH said, the new "Publicity" section is probably just the poster gallery that was already on the old DVD (it was lumped with Concept Art and Behind the Scenes under the umbrella "Scrapbook" title). Hopefully they'll add more stills, though!
albert
WIST #60:
AwallaceUNC: Would you prefer Substi-Blu-tiary Locomotion?
WIST #61:
TheSequelOfDisney: Damn, did Lin-Manuel Miranda go and murder all your families?
This is a little bit off topic, but I am currently watching Pushing Daisies - Season 2 on Blu-Ray and in the episode "The Legend of Merle McQuoddy" there are many Pete's Dragon references. A lighthouse keeper named Nora is murdered and her son Elliott hires the Pie Hole gang to solve the mystery of his mother's murder and his father Merle's disappearance. Merle was once lost at sea and returned after 10 years. The last name McQuoddy is a short version of the name of the town, Passamaquoddy. Elliott and Merle hide in a sea cave at one point. And to cap it off, there is a barbershop quartet who sings an acapella version of "Candle on the Water with Kristin Chenoweth, the voice of Rapunzel.
Is "Man, Monsters, and Mysteries" available on any other dvd. I don't think I've ever seen it, but I may have it and don't know it. I like those old documentaries, so I'd be interested in seeing it somehow even if it's not on the reissue of Pete's Dragon.
goofystitch wrote:This is a little bit off topic, but I am currently watching Pushing Daisies - Season 2 on Blu-Ray and in the episode "The Legend of Merle McQuoddy" there are many Pete's Dragon references. A lighthouse keeper named Nora is murdered and her son Elliott hires the Pie Hole gang to solve the mystery of his mother's murder and his father Merle's disappearance. Merle was once lost at sea and returned after 10 years. The last name McQuoddy is a short version of the name of the town, Passamaquoddy. Elliott and Merle hide in a sea cave at one point. And to cap it off, there is a barbershop quartet who sings an acapella version of "Candle on the Water with Kristin Chenoweth, the voice of Rapunzel.
It's hard to tell. All the coupons so far have been for brand-new releases. Also, most lower-profile discs (TV, etc.) have excluded them completely. I'm going to assume the latter.
