I SAW A DRAGON ON BLU-RAY... BUT NOT ALL THE FEATURES
Blog, Movies
Posted on Oct 22 2012 by Greg
1977's
Pete's Dragon was the last musical fantasy produced entirely within the Disney studio system. Two years later,
The Black Hole would not perform well enough a the box office to sustain movies made within the studio and outside production companies were brought in, much in the way all of Hollywood did.
The film is a time capsule of Walt Disney Productions in the '70's, with its distinctive house style. Even the sound quality is unique to the period.
Familiar actors round out the cast, led by pop singer
Helen Reddy, whose understated, matter-of-fact performance seems to play better today than it may have seemed to some in the past. Harry Potter and Broadway fans will enjoy the vitality and versatility of the great Jim Dale, who won a Tony as Barnum after this movie (a very similar role indeed) and narrated the American audio versions of the Potter books.
Ambitious as
Pete's Dragon was, it owed more to the wacky special effects comedies of its day than its two musical predecessors,
Bedknobs and Broomsticks and
Mary Poppins.
It's closest relation to the other two films is the musical direction led by Oscar winner
Irwin Kostal, who returned to Disney for
Pete's Dragon and again to re-score a digital version of Fantasia and the short cartoon,
The Small One. Like
Mary Poppins,
Pete's Dragon opens with on very a magical-sounding string section, rising before the title.
Elliot the dragon took on a life of his own in the Disney Theme Parks as one of the favorite floats in the Main Street Electrical Parade. Surely there are those who think he originated in the parade and don't know the movie!
But
Pete's Dragon is one of those enjoyable Disney staples that every family should enjoy together. If you haven't got a copy yet, now is the time. And if you want to see it as sharply and colorfully as possible, you'll want the
"35th Anniversary Edition" Blu-ray.
The clarity may betray some of the period's special effects and matte shots, but you can see every speck of the once-grand Disney backlot and the lovely Golden Oak Ranch. The filmmakers really did a marvelous job at sustaining the feeling that this took place in a coastal Maine town, when in reality even the ocean was a trench of water augmented by matte paintings and inventive angles.
Please note, though, that the previously released 2009 "High Flying Edition" of
Pete's Dragon had several bonus features that are missing on this new release.
2009 High Flying Edition Bonus Features:
- Brazzle Dazzle Effects: Behind Disney's Movie Magic
- Deleted Storyboard Sequence: Terminus & Hoagy Hunt Elliott
- Original Song Concept: Bo Bopbop Bop (I Love You, Too)
- Original Demo Recordings: "Brazzle Dazzle Day" (alternate
song); "Every Little Piece" (alternate melody); "The Greatest
Star of All" (deleted song for deleted character) - Promotional
Record (Pop versions of the songs from a 7" record: It's Not
Easy, Brazzle Dazzle Day, There's Room for Everyone,
Candle on the Water
- Where's Elliott? Disappearing Dragon Game
- Pete's Dragon Art Galleries (Concept Art, Behind the Sccnes,
Publicity)
- Trailers
- About Pete's Dragon (text)
- Disney Family Album excerpt: Ken Anderson
- The Plausible Impossible excerpt (dragons, dinosaurs,
mythology)
- Donald Duck cartoon: Lighthouse Keeping
2010 "35th Anniversary Edition" DVD Bonus Features (both Blu-ray & DVD):
- Brazzle Dazzle Effects: Behind Disney's Movie Magic
- Deleted Storyboard Sequence: Terminus & Hoagy Hunt Elliott
- Original Song Concept: Bo Bopbop Bop (I Love You, Too)
- Trailers
A few more notes from my 2009 review of the "High Flying Edition":
"Brazzle Dazzle Effects: Behind Disney's Movie Magic" makes it easier to understand that sodium screen process so often used in Disney films of the period -- a kind of yellow light behind the subject that somehow vanishes and allows two images to be combined. Maybe that yellow sheen is the reason that you could always spot a seam along the two separate images -- a problem solved by today's digital technology.
I'm keeping both versions, especially because of those musical extras. There are a selection of demo recordings and a handful of Kids of the Kingdom-style "pop versions" of the songs I had not heard before. "Brazzle Dazzle Day" had a different melody with mostly different lyrics. "Every Little Piece" had the same lyrics with an "If I Were a Rich Man"-like melody. "it's Not Easy" had alternate lyrics that transformed it into a romantic love song. And there's even a deleted song called "The Greatest Star of All," clearly intended for Jim Dale's character, Terminus. These alone make the new DVD worth getting.
One feature that only appeared on the 2001 "Gold" DVD edition is the 25-minute 1973 live-action/animated documentary Man, Monsters and Mysteries, narrated by Sebastian Cabot with Sterling Holloway voicing the Loch Ness Monster (aka "Nessie").
THE MOVIE FORMERLY KNOWN AS "BASIL OF BAKER STREET"
Blog, Movies
Posted on Oct 18 2012 by Greg
The Disney animated feature
The Great Mouse Detective was originally called
Basil of Baker Street, from the books by Eve Titus, but higher-ups at Disney (perhaps J
effrey Katzenberg) wanted something more obvious. It prompted a humorous memo from
Peter Scheider and the Animation Department, in which other Disney animated features were similarly renamed:
Seven Little Men Help a Girl
The Wooden Boy Who Became Real
Color and Music
The Wonderful Elephant Who Could Really FlyThe Little Deer Who Grew Up
The Girl With The See-Through Shoes
The Girl in the Imaginary Place
The Amazing Flying Children
Two Dogs Fall in Love
The Girl Who Seemed to Die
Puppies Taken Away
The Boy Who Would Be King
A Boy, A Bear and a Big Black Cat
Aristocats
Robin Hood with Animals
Two Mice Save a Girl
A Fox and a Hound Are Friends
The Evil BoneheadPerhaps the only upside to the title change is that it inspired the memo.
Anyway,
The Great Mouse Detective makes its third appearance on DVD, but first time in Blu-ray, with a two-disc set.
The film looks wonderful in Blu-ray (there is a literally clear difference) but the clarity also betrays some grain in the film. It also reveals the handmade nature of this cel-animated film, which is part of its charm. Even the historic Big Ben sequence, in which computers were used for the first time in a Disney feature, is hand inked and painted.
This is one of the Disney features that often gets overlooked in the vast catalog of classics, but it actually holds up well because it is so straightforward and unpretentious, like a lot of modern cel animation but more lush and fluid.
Much was made at the time of the film's release of the casting of legendary
Vincent Price as the villainous Rattigan. It was not his first time voicing for animation; he was the voice of Irontail in the Rankin/Bass special,
Here Comes Peter Cottontail. Later, he played a version of himself in the better-than-average 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo.
But Price's performance in
The Great Mouse Detective is his most inspired for animation. He sings one of the few songs, and really gives Rattigan a range. This is not the ham-fisted caricature acting often associated with Price. While Rattigan is larger than life to be sure, Price adds nuance and frighteningly low-key moments as well as the truly terrifying climactic battle at the end.
If you're adding to your Blu-ray collection, you would do well to pick this up. But if you have the previous "Mystery in the Mist" edition, you already have everything on the DVD. And, if you have the original 2002 DVD, you have two extra cartoon shorts and a scrapbook.
Here is the breakdown:
2002 DVD BONUS FEATURES Making of the Great Mouse Detective
World's Greatest Criminal Mind Sing along
Cartoon: Clock Cleaners
Cartoon: Donald's Crime
Great Mouse Detective Scrapbook
2010 MYSTERY IN THE MIST BONUS FEATURES So You Think You Can Sleuth
Making of the Great Mouse Detective
World's Greatest Criminal Mind Sing along
2012 BLU-RAY AND DVD BOTH INCLUDE So You Think You Can Sleuth
Making of the Great Mouse Detective
World's Greatest Criminal Mind Sing along
DON'T HIDE FROM HANNA-BARBERA'S "HEIDI'S SONG"
Blog, Movies, Music
Posted on Oct 16 2012 by Greg
Timing is everything, especially when a feature film is released. When
Hanna-Barbera released
Heidi's Song in 1982 through Paramount, family films had become more edgy and sophisticated, while this warmhearted musical was something that might have been more widely embracned in the mid-60s, when
The Sound of Music was a Hollywood smash.
It's very possible that Hanna-Barbera had
Heidi's Song in the production pipeline for many years, assigning artists to it between TV series projects. I do recall a 1982 cover story in
Millimeter Magazine in which director
Robert Taylor (
DuckTales, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Men in Black: The Series) was attached to the film and some of it being redone.
Clearly it was a difficult film for Hanna-Barbera to complete. They were clearly hoping for a Disney-type classic that would perhaps live on as an example of what they could do with the right amount of money and time.
Heidi's Song does show a lot more loving care -- and a much higher frame rate resulting in above average animation fluidity by HB standards -- than most of their animation of the 70s and 80s.
Story must have been a challenge, too, but
Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, Taylor and cowriter
Jameson Brewer really gave it their best shot. Like so many children's tales, Heidi may not have enough plot to sustaio an animated feature in the Disney tradition. Like
Walt Disney, they and their artists came up with many clever ways to keep things moving and add to the plot, including subplots with dogs and cats which are, of course, Hanna-Barbera specialties.
Among the films biggest strengths is its score. Any lover of movie or show music will want to play this DVD on a stereo system to fully appreciate the scope of the music of
Burton Lane (Finian's Rainbow) with lyrics by
Sammy Cahn (Disney's Peter Pan, among many others). This is also the only major HB feature film arranged and conducted by HB musical director
Hoyt Curtin. It's a joy to hear what he could do with a gigantic orchestra and chorus (including Hollywood's best singers including
Gene Merlino and
BJ Baker).
There are so many songs, though, that some of them advance the plot ("A Christmas-sy Day," for example, covers the time in which Heidi adjusts to mountain life and bonds with her Grandfather), while others suspend the story. These are delightful, but not always crucial to the story. As Disneylike at
Heidi's Song is, the film has roughly twice the amount of songs and musical set pieces than the average Disney fairy tale feature.
By the way, the box claims that there are 16 original songs and there are indeed 16 musical pieces but some are reprises and instrumentals, as I have noted here:
Overture (Orchestra & Chorus)
Good at Making Friends
Heidi's Nightmare (Orchestra)
A Christmas-sy Day
Heidi
An Armful of Sunshine
Heidi (reprise)
Frankfurt (Orchestra)
She's a Nothing
An Armful of Sunshine (reprise)
Monkey Theme (Orchestra)
Imagine
An Unkind Word
That's What Friends Are For
Ode to a Rat
End Title, including "Wunderhorn" (Orchestra & Chorus)
The voice cast is not star studded, but rather filled with the superstars of Hanna-Barbera and cartoons in general, like
Janet Waldo, Michael Bell, Joan Gerber, Pamelyn Ferdin, Fritz Feld, Frank Welker and others. Stage star
Margery Gray (spouse of Fliddler on the Roof lyricist
Sheldon Harnick) voices Heidi.
On the celebrity side,
Lorne Greene bellows nicely as Grandfather and
Sammy Davis Jr. brings the film to an even higher level with the excellent "Ode to a Rat," a spectacular example of design, animation and especially the dazzling brass section so associated with Hanna-Barbera theme songs.
The rat sequence near the film's end, as well as the nightmare sequence near the beginning, could be scary for the very young children. Therein lies the dilemma with films like
Heidi's Song, Annie and others with a primary appeal for girls but not for boys. Knowing this, HB's team added the darker moments as well as the dog, cat, and monkey mayhem. This only makes it harder to decide if Heidi's Song works for everyone.
It sure does for me, because I love it when Hanna-Barbera reached higher than the usual level of TV animation. Personally, I think
Charlotte's Web was their crowning achievement in theatrical films, but each one is a fascinating experience.
Heidi's Song makes a particularly great listening experience. The 1982 K-Tel soundtrack album, released on vinyl, was a story record that emphasized dialogue and edited the music. A full-fledged musical soundtrack album was not released.
Now that this DVD is available, it's like having a soundtrack album. Okay, the movie can be as sticky as microwaved Jujubees, but c'mon now, that "Wunderhorn" tune is pretty magnificent in full stereo! Maybe if this DVD-R does well enough, the picture can be fully restored for Blu-ray.
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