UltimateDisney.com/DVDizzy.com Reviews: Discussion Thread

[Escapay]

Excellent review for Broadcast News, Luke. It's a movie I've been meaning to revisit for awhile, but was never inclined to pick it up on DVD since Fox's was barebones. I was waiting for a review of the Criterion to see what the extras are like, and I'm really interested in the JLB piece, so I'll likely pick this movie up when Barnes & Noble has their 50% Criterion sale again.



albert

[pinkrenata]

Secretariat is just another great review from Luke!

Of course, you forgot that there were 4 competitive sports tackled by Disney rather than 3. Glory Road.

But that's just something I noticed. The rest is spot-on!

Actually, he's just talking about films by the producers of <i>Secretariat.</i>

The film adds horse racing to three competitive sports already tackled -- baseball (The Rookie), hockey (Miracle), and football (Invincible) -- by producers Gordon Gray and Mark Ciardi.

[ajmrowland]

Oops!

Anyway, I was just looking at Luke's review of Star Wars; the Clone Wars and it was unnecessarily harsh one reason.

the show is much better than the movie, which itself seems to be just a compilation of episodes from the tv show. watch it and see what you think then.

[TheSequelOfDisney]

What a wonderfully in-depth (and lengthy!) review of Alice in Wonderland, Kelvin! I cannot wait to upgrade and add Alice to my Blu-ray collection.

[Lazario]

So this "Through the Keyhole: A Companion's Guide to Wonderland" doesn't try to re-create the story meetings through the voice of Walt, right? I never watched the Bambi feature and fast-forwarded through the Walt stuff on The Sweatbox thing on Pinocchio because I don't want to hear a fake Walt voice. This feature for Alice is really like an audio commentary?

Your review Kelvin was actually too-good. In that it breaks my heart to think I'll never be able to see this Alice because of the horrible Blu-Ray and DVD industry Disney belongs to. It's too late for me to get Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio on the format since they're now out of print. When are Disney going to actually for once prove they care about fans who are not rich? I'm not kidding, I'm not even talking about the ultra-expensive equipment anymore. I couldn't even afford the discs back in 2007 and 2008. I can't afford them now either, I haven't bought a DVD in over 5 weeks- I'll be reeling from Christmas for months (just to show you there are people still suffering huge from 2000-2009 economic woes).

On a more positive note (SEE, I can be positive - just be realistic people, there's not all that much these days to be positive about), Kelvin - you are probably the best reviewer on the site. You not only know what you're talking about, you write about technical details in a way that is elating to read.

I refer, of course, to this section:

It's only when something new comes along that I look back and notice what the previous version was lacking. I didn't think the 2004 restoration could be much improved upon other than a few minor tweaks here and there. I was wrong. This new 2011 presentation is staggering in every regard. As with other Disney Blu-rays like Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty, Alice is a revelation. I've seen this movie more times than I'd probably care to admit, and I was able to notice details that never leapt out at me before. Things like the knick knacks down the rabbit hole, the sparkles that adorn Alice's unbirthday cake, and the bases of the Queen's hedges peeking out from under the shrubbery have always been there, but the increased detail and clarity makes them apparent to me for the first time. We also gain slightly more picture on all four sides, most noticeably on the left and the bottom. The image is so refined that certain multi-plane shots almost look 3D, and you can see everything from cel shadows to background brushstrokes. Even the separation between background and animated elements is clearly delineated (such as the Dormouse's teapot lid or the foreground daisies Alice wades through).

Alice is easily one of the most colorful films in the Disney canon, so its color timing is very important. To call the variety on display here eye candy is an understatement. This is a very saturated palette, more than in any other transfer. The 2000 DVD's colors were too dark while the 2004 and 2010 ones were too light. The 2011 Blu-ray's hues achieve brightness without sacrificing boldness. Reds and yellows particularly stand out. Alice's hair is a striking yellow while the red portions of the Queen's dress are a deep cherry. Skin tones are also more pleasing. Alice's skin is no longer ashy, and the Hatter's is no longer pink. There undoubtedly will be those who find the bolder, more vivid colors a problem, deeming them too cartoony. While I honestly can't speak about how this film looked in 1951, I will say that I find the new palette's a better representation of Wonderland than any previous version. That, mixed with a perfectly clean and razor-sharp image, makes for what is one of the best restorations to come from Disney, acting as a hallmark for how traditional animation of any era can look in high-definition.

Unfortunately, this new master has not been utilized for the included bonus DVD. That disc is an almost exact replica of the Un-Anniversary Edition's first disc. That means we get the 2004 restoration included. That transfer is very strong on its own terms, but revisiting it after seeing the new HD master does reveal some problems. While colorful, the scheme doesn't pop as much as it could. Most hues are too pale while a few rare ones are slightly drab. The image is also less stable, with the slightest bit of flickering and grain evident on the backgrounds. Compression is kept low, and sharpness is reasonable. The transfer holds up pretty well, but it's a shame the new one wasn't used here.

[Disneykid]

So this "Through the Keyhole: A Companion's Guide to Wonderland" doesn't try to re-create the story meetings through the voice of Walt, right? I never watched the Bambi feature and fast-forwarded through the Walt stuff on The Sweatbox thing on Pinocchio because I don't want to hear a fake Walt voice. This feature for Alice is really like an audio commentary?

Yeah, think of it like a video commentary. We see and hear from all sorts of people and their comments are more or less screen specific (they're not actually watching the movie, just recollecting which is why I think this is also comparable to a regular documentary). There's no Walt impersonator here. I made the Bambi comparison because, like that film's feature, we also get a ton of artwork and photos thrown at us while the film's in a PiP window.

IMDb has some clips of Through the Keyhole along with film clips that show off the new restoration (though the latter are inexplicably cropped to widescreen):

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043274/videogallery

It's the first eight. All the others (even the ones labeled 60th Anniversary) are actually from the old DVD. Even in crappy flash, the new colors are apparent, which makes Disney's recycling of the old transfer for the bonus DVD all the more annoying.

And thanks a bunch for the kind comments, Lazario and TheSequelofDisney!

[Escapay]

Wanted to also chime in with my overdue praise for the Alice in Wonderland Blu-Ray/DVD Review. I made a comment on facebook shortly after the review got posted, but never got around to making a post here as I intended. So, here's some pink elephants!



What a great way to mark the end of an era, Kelvin. It's amazing how you've come full circle, as your first full-time UD review was for Alice in Wonderland and your last full-time UD review is for Alice and Wonderland. I can even forgive your copy/paste of several paragraphs from the UAE review simply because of all the extra discussion you provided. Job well done, job well done!



albert

[Disneykid]

Thanks, Albert!

I had thought about doing the whole movie review portion from scratch, but I felt like most of what I wanted to say had already been said last year, so I just added a few extra subjects I thought deserved coverage. I tried implementing my BD viewing experience into the movie review like you suggested but couldn't make it work. That's all the well since it made my video and audio sections more thorough.

My home video history portion was going to be a lot longer, but I kept finding conflicting information in regards to the various VHS releases, so I decided to just stick with the editions that each marked the start of a new collection or got new cover art.

My laserdisc rip didn't arrive to me in time to really write about those missing features, but looking back on it, there's not much you can really write about song demos. The radio broadcast descriptions I got from the laserdisc cover pretty much sum up what those are, too, though I could've at least given the runtimes to everything had my rip come sooner.

This is one of only a handful of reviews I'm fully satisfied with (though looking back, I forgot to mention that the menu cursor is a bread-and-butterfly that turns into a loaf of bread when "enter" is pressed, but I digress). I was determined not to let anyone else give this fuller coverage than me. That just would've been embarrassing.

[Lazario]

Do my eyes deceive me? One of your top stories reads "I Spit." Does that mean someone's about to waste their time with a worthless remake - the product of another worthless remake (Last House on the Left '09) - of a worthless rip-off?

This ought to be interesting.

[Escapay]

Luke will be covering both the 1978 and 2010 movies according to the review list.

In addition, enjoyed the You Again review. Was surprised to learn about all the "Step by Step" connections too, however minor they feature in the actual film. I'll probably blindbuy the film anyway, I just can't say no to Kristen Bell.



albert

[Escapay]

Just read the review for Life As We Know It. Sounds like an absolutely dreadful film, I can't wait to see it.



BTW, I noticed that Luke's been taking solo credit for a couple Blu-Ray reviews lately (Buried, Life As We Know It). Did he make the upgrade?

albert

[Luke]

BTW, I noticed that Luke's been taking solo credit for a couple Blu-Ray reviews lately (Buried, Life As We Know It). Did he make the upgrade?

Yes, he did, although only <i>Life As We Know It</i> reflects that so far. Thanks for the feedback!

[Escapay]

Awesome. I look forward to reading more in the future.

albert

[David S.]

Thanks for reviewing Wishbone, Luke! I've always really enjoyed the show and have a built in soft spot for anything with dogs, or animals in general. And I've always enjoyed the concept of Wishbone becoming the characters in classic literature. I'm sorry to hear that it's not likely to get an entire series release anytime soon, but it doesn't surprise me since I read somewhere that the rule of thumb is that so-called "kids shows" (whether truly a "kids show" or just thought of that way) usually don't get season sets, just episode compilations.

And in my experience that seems to usually be the case, which explains why I'm still waiting for season/series sets for 60's/70's series Lassie, Skippy, Gentle Ben, Grizzly Adams, most of Flipper, and of course the Disney anthology series.

But anyway, thanks for the review and the heads-up that this new 4 episode Wishbone DVD even exists!

Also, even though I'm happy with DVD (and my 2-disc DVDs for Alice In Wonderland and Bambi), I enjoyed Kelvin and Aaron's reviews of the 2 new releases and love reading their thoughts on the films themselves. Even though I'm happy with my 2-disc Platinum of Bambi, as always I am curious to know what will be on the upcoming 2 disc DVD of Bambi.

I also enjoyed Renata's interview with Donnie Dunagan and Luke's review of The Last Unicorn. Keep up the great work!

[pinkrenata]

Yay, I'm glad you liked the interview with Donnie Dunagan! It was fun to do!

[Disney Duster]

Luke, I just read the Tangled review. It's interesting it says things like "Tangled is what fans have been waiting for so long", and "Tangled was first picthed in the 1940's". That's not true. A traditional version of Rapunzel, called Rapunzel, was what was pitched in Walt's day and what fans were waiting for. Tangled is not those things.

Also, I'm surprised the review not only focused on, but started with the "Disney Princess" line being mentioned.

It seemed like you were considering the film as only part of that genre instead of Disney Princess, instead of as part of Disney. Is that what you thought The Little Mermaid was when you first saw it, a princess genre film? The Lion King has the lion princess Nala in it, so I guess that must be a princess film, too.

And I can't even tell if you liked the film. You never talked about if the film had any magic or joy that you enjoyed. You talk about it like it's just a product that's "crafted well" instead of Disney's 50th that they put so much effort and hope into.

And if you really feel Disney really did just make product, and you found no magic or moving moments in it, where is your dissapointment over such a thing?

Where's the magic? Where's the love? Of Disney?

[pinkrenata]

I think you need to work on your reading comprehension, friend. He says "Rapunzel's story" is what has been in the works since 1940s. I know you're stuck on your "Disney Essence" high horse but even <i>you</i> can't deny that <i>Tangled</i> is an incarnation of the Rapunzel story.

[Escapay]

Given that there's been so much drama in the Tangled threads on this forum ever since Rapunzel: Unbraided (a story that was an even further cry from what the actual fairy tale is) was first announced, I'm sure Luke was plenty aware that the Rapunzel story, not the Tangled story, was what was in development in the 1940s.

I personally didn't see Luke directly connect "Disney Princess Line = Tangled", as to me, it seems that Luke uses the Disney Princess line as one of the main reasons as to why Tangled was produced at all. He's not shoehorning it into the genre. He simply is stating that due to the success of the Princess line, that Disney saw it fit to create three movies with Princesses in them: Enchanted, The Princess and the Frog, and Tangled. As far as I know, they're all a part of Disney. After all, they all feature the backwards 6 somewhere on their movie.

If there is any retro-active assignment of the "princess genre" to certain films, it's done by some (not all) of the fans, not by Disney. And even if Disney started officially labeling certain movies as princess movies, it doesn't mean the fans have to comply. e.g. I still don't consider Dinosaur part of the WDFA canon (not that "canon" matters anyway), even if Disney does.

I also think that Luke did a great job at sharing his thoughts on the film without having to directly say, "I liked the film, and here's why." It's nice that he took aspects of the film and let them speak for themselves, as evident below:

• Tangled turned out quite all right.
  
  There are a lot of jokes here and none that land with a thud, but Flynn's disaffected suaveness is never quite as entertaining as the film believes.
  
  The story of explorative thirst defeating parental shelter in the form of disobedience also resonates similarly, although with less neatly classifiable personalities.
  
  Maybe the best thing about Tangled is that it seems to re-establish a sense of identity to Disney Feature Animation.
  
  Tangled offers a winning blend of timeless Disney tradition and the spirit to try new things.
  
  With that said, it's unfortunate that the industry came up one film short to entail a 5-nominee Animated Feature category this year. Tangled was every bit as deserving of recognition as DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon.

I really liked how he draws attention to one moment, as well as how all the individual moments work best as a whole:

• The remaining puzzle pieces -- romance, revelation, and adventure -- are skillfully executed. Helping matters significantly are a few crucial humanizing touches, such as when the film allows Rapunzel a moment to cherish the feeling of her feet touching the earth. No individual element stands out as truly excellent, but the combination of all the parts adds up to one of the most satisfying experiences from Disney's feature animation department in this young century.

All in all, I read a lot of magic, love, and Disney in the review.

Anyway, to keep this post from being entirely Tangled-Exclusive, I also read the reviews for The Fernando Di Leo Crime Collection, Yogi Bear, Morning Glory (actually a revisit of the review, I was watching The Notebook earlier today and realized I still hadn't seen Morning Glory), and Hereafter. Excellent as usual, so pink elephants are necessary for all eight films (since the Di Leo collection is four films):



Looking forward to the Made in Dagenham review. I always caught commercials for it during "Jeopardy!" some months ago, and knew it'd be a movie I'd want to at least rent or blindbuy. Also can't wait for The Ten Commandments. Not just for Luke's review, but for the opportunity to actually hold in my hands the giant behemoth of a box set on Tuesday when I pick it up at MovieStop. I'm so glad "Glee" is a rerun this week. I'm gonna be monopolizing the television that night with the Blu-Ray.

albert

[Luke]

Many thanks for reading, commenting, citing, defending, etc. It's appreciated now more than ever.

[Escapay]

Great review for Made in Dagenham, Luke. I planned on blindbuying this, but now I'm thinking of renting it first.

Also, I really enjoyed the review for The Ten Commandments. It's always great to read first-time-viewer's thoughts on the film, and I'm glad to see you enjoyed it.



albert