In November 2005, Disney re-released to DVD Muppet Treasure Island and three other Muppet films in honor of Kermit's 50th Anniversary. The remastered reissues of The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island included 16x9-enhanced widescreen transfers for the first time on the format. You can read our reviews of those DVDs here:
Movie
- Of the six Muppet movies, Muppet Treasure Island
falls into the bottom half in terms of quality. But even
a mediocre Muppet movie is more entertaining than most
family films, and Treasure Island is definitely
a lot of fun. One of two Muppet movies released by Disney
in the 1990s, Treasure Island, like 1992's Muppet
Christmas Carol (which is coming to DVD in October),
is based on a famous work of literature and does not feature any celebrity cameos.
What Treasure Island does feature, though, is a engaging mixture
of comedy, music, and adventure, as the cast of Jim
Henson's creations take on various roles in Robert Louis
Stevenson's tale. While Treasure Island is certainly
not as memorable as Muppet Movie or Christmas Carol,
it does pack 99 minutes of goofy entertainment, plus a strong
performance by Tim Curry as Long John Silver. Video
- Last summer, Columbia/TriStar released the first three
Muppet films onto DVD for the first time. The Muppet
Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, and The
Muppets Take Manhattan were all given double-sided
releases with both Widescreen and Pan & Scan formats
on the same disc. The Columbia/TriStar discs were rather
short on extras (featuring brief "Muppetisms"
interstitials for the most part), but at least they
provided the movies in their original widescreen aspect
ratio. Disney's DVD presentation of Muppet Treasure
Island would have been superior to Columbia's, if
not for the fact that Disney has only included a pan
& scan version of the movie on this DVD. The pan
& scan of Muppet Treasure Island results in
a loss of 30% of the picture and there are a number of
problematic framing issues as a result. Disney's
laserdisc for this movie was in widescreen, but the DVD is
not, because some people (the decision-making ones) believed
that the only people who would buy Muppet Treasure Island
on DVD are the ones who don't like seeing movies the way they were
made. Needless to say, this was an extremely poor
decision, especially when one considers the large adult
appeal that the Muppets have, including the audience that
grew up on the TV show and movies from the 1970s.
Disney has clearly taken effort to putting together a
nice DVD presentation, but it's in vein, since they're
sure to lose a lot of sales by people who aren't going to
pay for a DVD that cuts up the movie. Disney has assumed that (1) children
do not want to watch movies in widescreen and (2) children are the only ones
who enjoy the Muppet movies and . Both are faulty assumptions (unless Muppets
Treasure Island expects children to get the "On the Waterfront"
reference). The fullscreen video transfer is
pretty lacking also, with a lot of grain, and lack of
detail throughout. The video is missing the sharpness
that would be present in an anamorphic widescreen
transfer, and it's truly a shame that this movie, with
its frame-packing muppet madness and delightful ocean
visuals, cannot be seen the way it was carefully framed
to be. Audio
- On the other hand, the audio is a rather solid
effort. The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, and
it is a full-sounding mix. The upbeat score is well-mixed
for surrounding effects. The musical numbers are, as one
might expect, a bit loud, but even loud to the point
where you'll have to turn down the volume and then turn
it back up to hear the non-song sequences. Overall,
though, this 5.1 track is as filled with life as the
Muppets productions are, and it is rather undermined by
both the lack of a widescreen main feature and the
disappointing video quality. Extras
- It is very clear that Disney put effort into this DVD
presentation from the very start of the menus. The menu
screens are in 16:9 widescreen, and Rizzo and Gonzo are
your hosts to the DVD. The menus are really well done; no
scenes from the movie, just hilarious newly created
introductions from the rat and the whatever about the
DVD, set to the music of the movie. Leave the menu screens on without selecting anything
and see what Rizzo and Gonzo have to say. These are a lot more
fun than most menus, though on repeated viewings,
selecting the Bonus Features screen, for example, could be a bit of a
drag, but you can skip through the menu transitions if
you wish. It would have been nice if the movie was
anamorphic widescreen like the menu, which is simply
cropped to fit 4x3 television screens, as most menus are.
As for the actual extras now, there is a 22-minute making
-of featurette, "The Tale of the Story Behind the
Tail". This featurette keeps the fun tone of the
Muppets and remains hilariously entertaining and
informative throughout. The one problem is that clips
from the movie have all the visual information of the
widescreen frame, but are stretched to fill the 4x3
screen and result in all the characters looking thin. You
might think you're suffering from Cabin Fever yourself.
That aside, this featurette is definitely a notch above
the brief fluff piece, as it lends insight into the long
script writing and revising process the movie underwent,
the challenges of working with puppets with clips of the
puppeteers in action (for the most part missing on the 4
Columbia/TriStar DVDs), and the development of songs in
the movie.
Clocking in at just under 6 minutes is the Treasure Island Sing-Along, which features another
new introduction from Gonzo and Rizzo and two songs, "Sailing for Adventure" and
"Cabin Fever", with captions allowing you to, as you might
have guessed, sing along.
Last, but certainly not least is the "Hidden
Treasure Audio Commentary" with director Brian
Henson and Gonzo (voiced by Dave Goelz) and Rizzo (Steve
Whitmire). This audio commentary maintains the spirit of
fun that we associate with the Muppets and director
Henson adds insightful information regarding the making
of the film. This audio commentary is a bit different
from most audio commentaries, in that throughout various
parts of the movie, you are taken to Hidden Treasure
clips. These are little interesting tidbits on the making
of the movie, that run on average, about a minute long.
There are 11 altogether, and you can skip through the
commentary, if you would just like to access the bonus
video clips. Between the presence of two Muppet
characters on the audio track and the treasure bonus
clips, this commentary is certainly a lot more
entertaining than most.
Missing from the DVD is the original theatrical trailer. Disney
unfortunately seems to be leaving original trailers off a good number of its recent DVD releases,
which is a shame. No sneak peek trailers either.
Closing
Thoughts - It's great that Disney was able to
put together a really nice DVD presentation for Muppet
Treasure Island, from the menus to the enjoyable
featurette and commentary. But, the most important part
of the DVD, the movie itself, was given shoddy treatment,
and by releasing this entertaining
family/adventure/comedy in pan & scan only, Disney is
sure ticking off a lot of Muppet fans and turning off
would-be customers. Despite containing a fun,
entertaining film, and some truly winning extras, I
cannot recommend this DVD wholeheartedly, because Disney
has not released the film in its original widescreen
aspect ratio. It's really terrible that Disney (to
paraphrase Roger Ebert) is showing their films in the
wrong aspect ratio to placate the uninformed instead of
in the right aspect ratio to reward the knowledgeable.
Let's just hope that when the superior Muppet
Christmas Carol finally makes its DVD debut this
October 8 that Disney takes the best elements of this
release (the fun extras and menu design) and incorporates
them with the movie presented in widescreen. In November 2005, Disney re-released to DVD Muppet Treasure Island and three other Muppet films in honor of Kermit's 50th Anniversary. The remastered reissues of The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island included 16x9-enhanced widescreen transfers for the first time on the format. You can read our reviews of those DVDs here:
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