Even though it had one of the best musical scores in the business by the songwriting team behind
(which they wrote at about the same time), with a superb cast and impeccable orchestrations and choral arrangements, done to such a level of perfection that to only listen once was to hear it for a lifetime, there was never a soundtrack album for the first animated TV special in history:
.
Until this year.
Now you can own ten rare restored recordings intended for the soundtrack record that was never produced both
or iTunes.
Not only that, but several songs are extended so you'll hear them as never before. The haunting "Winter Was Warm" contains a musical bridge that faded out in the special, followed by
singing a portion again.
' touching reprise of "Alone in the World" includes the entire song, rather than the last few bars. And there is an additional refrain in "The Lord's Bright Blessing," or as it is also known, the "razzleberry dressing" song.
The finale is missing the choral section, perhaps because the final album was never mixed for release. But you can still hear that on the DVD, which has also been
set which includes EVERY bonus feature on BOTH discs.
and is to be thanked profusely for his years of dedicated work spearheading the release of all this material for the first time. On the commentary are
's recording session.
The DVD/Blu-ray also has a never-before-released overture created for the soundtrack album by musical director
). With the overture and the ten downloaded songs, it truly is the gift of the year for fans of this classic production.
A FEW NOTES ABOUT THE "MOTE"
Blog, TV
Posted on Nov 27 2010 by Greg
Kids love to have "pretend" version of equipment, appliances and other "grownup" stuff, so why wouldn't they want to have their own TV remote? The new "Mickey Mote" doesn't change channels or control volume, but it does allow young children to answer multiple choice questions on specially-equipped Playhouse Disney DVDs.
This feature was formerly known on earlier releases as "Discovery Mode." You could choose a setting on the DVD so your home remote could allow your child to answer the questions, which randomly stop the story action throughout select episodes and feature length specials (more about just how "select" in a moment).
So you can already do pretty much the same thing with a regular remote that you can do with a Mickey Mote, but where's the colorful fun in that? And do you really want to have a small child fiddle with a complicated remote and maybe get strawberry jam all over it? That's the idea, and it's not a bad one if you want to add just a little more interaction to shows that already stop their action frequently to ask the viewers what to do, or to count things, etc. in the manner of
Blues's Clues and
Dora the Explorer. (I personally prefer the more plot-driven features because they are richer in content than the shorter episodes.
Parents shouldn't just load the batteries, start the DVDs, hand the child a Mickey Mote and let it go at that. First it has to be set in a specific way with a specific sequence of steps. It's not complicated, but if you skip a step it won't work. It comes with printed instructions and on-screen directions. Once you've set the Mickey Mote, it's ready to use.
Then you must choose from two play levels on the settings of the DVD and the episode starts. Here's where we had some issues. On
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Numbers Roundup, which is packaged with the Mickey Mote, there are short episodes that seem chosen at random after you select the activity mode. In other words, you might see "Mickey's Big Surprise" one time, set it again and then see "Mickey's Round Up the Next." We tried it over and over again and it seems to allow no control over which episodes it shows after you choose the activity mode -- and for the life of me, I can't figure out how to use it for the bonus episode at all.
So your child can of course watch all five episodes but I couldn't tell you how to see all four plus the bonus one on
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Numbers Roundup with the Mote.
It's much better with feature-length episodes like that of another new Playhouse Disney DVD release,
Handy Manny Big Construction Job. You set the DVD for the mote, and the whole 67 minute story follows with lots of Mickey Mote interactivity. We also tried it with an earlier release,
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Mickey's Adventures in Wonderland, and the same holds true.
We had a three year old over for the holiday and she loved using the remote, and since her attention span is less than those of me and my older kids, she was perfectly delighted with
Numbers Roundup. We did not get the opportunity to see if she would become frustrated if she couldn't "Mote" on all the episodes, but perhaps it's a bigger deal to us than to the little ones.
Me -- I still love putting the Magic Screen on the TV, getting out the Magic Crayons and helping Winky Dink in one of his adventures. Now THAT'S interactivity!
TURN THE PAGE WHEN YOU HEAR..."That Girl"
Blog, TV
Posted on Nov 13 2010 by Greg
Another startling little discovery for Disney record fans.
In an episode called "To Each Her Own" in the
second season of That Girl, Ann (
Marlo Thomas, who by the way recently published her
autobiography) discovers Donald (
Ted Bessell) having lunch with his computer-matched date, a lovely model who is very much like Ann.
The model's name is "Lisa Stevens," played onscreen by actress/dancer/choreographer
Suzanne Charney, who made numerous film and TV appearances but whose speaking voice is not heard in this scene. (This sort of thing happens when an actors's dialogue is marred by noise of some other issue. On
Gilligan's Island, early episodes were filmed by a noisy freeway and much dialogue was "looped" in this way.)
Perhap Ms. Charney was not available to replace her own dialogue or the there wasn't time. Because as anyone who knows the original Disneyland Book and Record sets (or Rankin/Bass'
Santa Claus is Comin' to Town) will immediately recognize, "Lisa's" offscreen voice is completed dubbed by none other than your beloved
Disneyland Story Reader / Jessica Claus herself,
Robie Lester. I've submitted it to the imdb.
For you, Robie.
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