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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
Cast:
Matthew Broderick, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane, Rowan Atkinson, Whoopi Goldberg, Cheech Marin
Writing Credits:
Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, Linda Woolverton

Tagline:
Life's greatest adventure is finding your place in the Circle of Life.

Synopsis:
Celebrate Disney's crowning achievement - The Lion King - now in a dazzling special edition with an all-new song, "Morning Report", and a restoration befitting the king of all animated movies! Enjoy the Academy Award-winning music (Best Music, Original Score, 1994; Best Music, Song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight"), lush animation, and the epic story of Simba, the feisty lion cub who revels in the carefree lifestyle of "Hakuna Matata" until he realizes his destiny in the "Circle of Life". And now, in the Special Edition DVD, there is more to be seen than has ever been seen with 2 versions of the film, all-new animation created exclusively for DVD, a Virtual Safari in 5.1 surround sound, and journeys that take you behind the scenes. You'll see, hear, and feel why The Lion King continues to rule hearts and entertain the entire family.

Box Office:
Budget $79.3 million.
Opening Weekend
$1.825 million on 66 screens.
Domestic Gross
$15.683 million.

MPAA:
Rated G

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.66:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
English Enhanced Home Theater Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 89 min.
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 10/7/2003

Bonus:
Disc One
• Special Edition Version of the Film with New Song
• Audio Commentary with Producer Don Hahn and Directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff
• “The Making of ‘The Morning Report’”
• “The Lion King Personality Game”
• Sneak Peeks
• THX Optimizer
Disc Two
• Abandoned Scene: Warthog Rhapsody
• “Animal Kingdom Lodge” Promo
• “Animal Kingdom Park” Promo
• “Animals” Featurettes
• Art Design Galleries
• Character Design Galleries
• “DVD Sound Design” Featurette
• Early Concepts
• Early Presentation Reel
• Effects Animation Galleries
• “Film” Featurettes
• “International Release” Featurette
• Multi-Language Reel
• Music Videos
• “Music” Featurettes
• “Stage” Featurettes
• “Story” Featurettes
• Storyboard to Film Comparison
• The Lion King 1 ½ Trailer
• Timon and Pumbaa’s Virtual Safari

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EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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The Lion King: Platinum Edition (1994)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (September 29, 2003)
Without question, 1994’s The Lion King represented the apex of Disney’s resurgence in that era. 1989’s The Little Mermaid brought them back to financial success after a long down period, and 1991’s Beauty and the Beast marked a level of hitherto unseen critical praise as the movie earned the first-ever Best Picture nomination for an animated flick.

1992’s Aladdin didn’t duplicate that feat, but for the first time in many years, it produced a Disney animated film that won the race for the year’s top box office total. Lion King didn’t break new ground in any of these categories. It didn’t get an Oscar nomination, and it came in second place at the box office behind Forrest Gump. However, with a gross of $328 million, it made more money than any traditionally animated Disney movie before or after, and it demonstrated just how far the studio had come since the dark days of the Eighties when Disney animation barely survived.

Unfortunately, cel animation is once again an endangered species, and it’s hard to believe it’s only been nine years since King lit up box offices. I’ve dwelled on those issues elsewhere and won’t do so here; traditional animation’s in enough trouble that I don’t want to kick it again. Instead, let’s focus on the positives, and King surely presents one of Disney’s greatest achievements.

King opens with a ceremony in which we meet Simba, the heir to the throne of feline sovereign Mufasa (voiced by James Earl Jones). His shifty and self-pitying brother Scar (Jeremy Irons) skips the big event, which earns him Mufasa’s animosity. We quickly learn of Scar’s animosity toward little Simba (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) since the youngster supplanted him as next in line for the throne.

This leads to the story’s main plot point. Scar conspires with some hyenas named Shenzi (Whoopi Goldberg), Banzai (Cheech Marin), and Ed (Jim Cummings) to off both Mufasa and Simba so Scar can become king. This succeeds partially, as he stages a wildebeest stampede that kills Mufasa. Scar convinces Simba that the lad caused his dad’s demise, and the youngster runs away from home. Scar sends the hyenas to finish him off, but when they see him scoot into desolate land, they decide he’s as good as dead anyway and don’t bother to act.

However, an unlikely duo of Timon the meerkat (Nathan Lane) and Pumbaa the warthog (Ernie Sabella) saves Simba. A pair of outcasts, they live for today and don’t worry about the past. Given his guilt, Simba embraces their “problem-free philosophy” and grows up with the guys in relative pleasure.

Ultimately, though, Simba learns he can’t escape his past. With Scar in charge of the pride, his homeland lies in ruins. Childhood friend Nala (Moira Kelly) goes out to look for help and she encounters Simba (Matthew Broderick) when she attempts to chow down on Pumbaa. He learns what happened to the pridelands but resists her efforts to get him to return, even though romance blossoms between the pair. Eventually, though, primate shaman Rafiki (Robert Guillaume) tracks down Simba and teaches him a little about his regal heritage and the way things work. This sets up the film’s climax in which he confronts Scar and attempts to fix matters.

Though the folks at Disney touted The Lion King as an original story – unlike most of their flicks, which come based on previously created tales – I’d take that declaration with a grain of salt. There’s an awful lot of Hamlet to be found in this movie, and partisans of Japanese animation are also more than happy to point out the flick’s similarities with the Kimba series.

No matter. Whether or not one considers Lion King to offer an original tale, it works spectacularly well. From literally its opening moments, the movie sets itself apart as something special. The musical number “Circle of Life” and the ceremony in which the jungle animals pay homage to Simba launches the film in a daring and dramatic manner. It runs four and a half minutes without a word of dialogue. We don’t know who these characters are or why we should care about them.

And none of that matters in the least. I’m not a big fan of the songs Elton John and Tim Rice wrote for the flick, but the arrangement of “Circle of Life” seems imposing and majestic, and the visuals match the tune. “Life” opens the film in a moving and striking manner that firmly sets the stage for what will come.

After that remarkable introduction, one might fear that the movie would falter, but it never does. Oh, some parts seem less compelling than others. Despite its commercial – and Oscar – success, I still find “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” to offer one of Elton John’s more insipid numbers, and frankly, a lot of the elements that involve the romance between Nala and Simba seem extraneous. It often feels like they occur just because it’s a Disney movie and you need some lovin’, even if it is between animals.

Other than that minor misstep, though, I’d be hard-pressed to find much fault with Lion King. I can’t think of a single scene that falls flat. Nor can I conjure a voice actor who fails to provide stellar work. Irons stands out from the crowd with his sneering and insolent performance as Scar, and Jones brings the right level of depth and regal presence to Mufasa. As the adult Simba, Broderick appears appropriately unsure of himself, but he pulls things together well when he needs to become more powerful. Thomas seems nicely spry and frisky as little Simba, and he also turns the character’s emotional moments into ones that pack a definite punch.

Speaking of those moments, at times it feels hard to believe that the animators can generate so much emotion from the experiences of cartoon animals. Sure, they’d elicited tears in the past; heck, Disney’s first-ever full-length animated feature demonstrated that ability via the apparent demise of Snow White.

However, most of the emotional Disney flicks involved humans. Lion King has to make us care about jungle animals, which seems like no small feat. It does so spectacularly well, particularly in the aftermath of the wildebeest stampede.

In a movie full of memorable sequences, the charge of the wildebeest stands out as probably its greatest achievement. At the time, it received a lot of attention for its pioneering use of computer animation to stage the shots of thousands of animals on the charge. The power of the images remains, but that’s not what makes the scene so strong.

Instead, it’s the dramatic staging of the sequence. The animators play up the scene for all its emotional worth, and it turns incredibly powerful. It’s almost impossible not to feel shocked and distraught when Scar turns on Mufasa, and the poignancy of little Simba’s reactions to his father’s demise remain heartrending. Put simply, this sequence is a stunner of action and emotion.

Despite the power of the wildebeest scene, however, the movie doesn’t run out of gas. No single element may live up to that one, but the remainder of the film continues to impress. It helps that we find possibly Disney’s best-ever comic sidekicks in Timon and Pumbaa. Sabella and Lane exhibit terrific chemistry together and they make the token buddies into some of the studio’s most memorable characters. (In fact, the pair remain so popular that Disney will release a direct-to-video flick called The Lion King 1 1/2 that focuses on their adventures.)

I probably wouldn’t claim that The Lion King is my all-time favorite Disney animated film, but it resides very high on that list. As much as I enjoy other contemporary Disney flicks like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin, The Lion King stands above them all as something extra special. It represents the studio’s high-water mark commercially and remains a terrific movie.

Note: viewers can check out two versions of The Lion King on this DVD. We get the original theatrical cut as well as a new “special edition”. The latter adds a song called “The Morning Report”. Originally part of the Broadway adaptation of The Lion King, here it gets adapted itself for the movie. However, don’t expect a substantial production number. Instead, this tune simply substitutes for Zazu’s previously spoken chat with Mufasa early in the movie. It’s a short song and only adds 44 seconds to the film’s running time.

Frankly, I prefer the original scene. It fits the movie better and seems more enjoyable. The new song doesn’t appear very memorable, and it doesn’t add anything to the movie. Still, it’s fun to check out this alternate version.

The DVD Grades: Picture A/ Audio A-/ Bonus A-
The Lion King appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. I’d feel shocked if Disney botched a super “A” list title like this, and I assumed correctly, as the DVD presented a simply excellent picture.

Sharpness seemed stellar. At all times, the movie remained crisp and well defined. I noticed no examples of softness or fuzziness during this detailed and concise picture. Jagged edges and moiré effects appeared absent, and I noticed no signs of edge enhancement. In regard to print flaws, I noticed none, as the movie looked clean and fresh from start to finish.

The jungle setting of King meant that it boasted a wonderfully vivid and varied palette, and the DVD presented those hues well. The colors consistently looked terrific. From the lush landscapes to the animals to all other elements, the hues always came across as lively and tight. Black levels mostly looked solid, though I thought nighttime skies seemed slightly inky. Low-light images were concisely displayed and tight, with no excessive opacity. The quality of The Lion King fell short of “A+” levels, but it remained a stellar image nonetheless.

The Lion King also provided a pretty strong Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. In an interesting move, we can watch the movie with either the original theatrical track or an all-new “enhanced home theater mix”. I opted for the latter and found it to present a fine auditory experience.

King featured a very active soundfield. All five channels presented a lot of different elements that made them work constantly throughout the movie. Music emphasized the front speakers, but the score and songs also used the rears for solid reinforcement and occasional unique elements. Stereo imaging was very fine. Effects played an active role in the proceedings and helped bring the action to life. Quieter sequences demonstrated a nice feeling of atmosphere, while louder ones kicked the track into higher gear. The audio really helped bring even greater power to sequences like the wildebeest stampede, as unique material came from all the speakers to create an engrossing sense of environment.

For the most part, audio quality seemed excellent. A few lines spoken by the hyenas demonstrated a smidgen of edginess, but otherwise speech came across as natural and crisp. Music varied somewhat but usually was solid. A few of the production numbers lacked the dimensionality I expected, but those examples remained fairly minor, and the music was usually rich and full. Effects always sounded accurate and dynamic. Those elements presented good bass response and seemed tight and well defined with no signs of distortion.

The “enhanced” soundtrack presented one of the coolest examples of speaker manipulation I’ve yet encountered. At the 18:50 mark when Nala and Simba entered the elephant graveyard, a small geyser erupted. A blast of air from the speaker accompanied this! The track replicated this effect again at 21:35 and much later at 1:14:00. This freaked me out when it first occurred, as I thought it was some sort of coincidence. However, I repeated it, so obviously it came with the soundtrack. It creeped me out at first, and I’m not sure if it’s intentional or just an inevitable side effect of the mix, but it’s still a very cool effect.

Given the prominence of The Lion King, we anticipate a deluxe DVD edition, and this two-disc set lives up to expectations. As we start with the first platter, we find an audio commentary from directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff with producer Don Hahn. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific track. Taken straight from the 1995 laserdisc release, the commentary appears alongside the theatrical version of the film; one cannot watch the special edition cut and listen to the commentary. This means we get no mention of the IMAX version of the movie since the material was recorded back in 1995.

Don’t regard that as a problem, however, as the track seems very solid. The trio cover pretty much all the appropriate topics. They hit on various animation challenges, casting and aspects related to the voice actors, script changes and character development, research, and many other elements. The three men display nice chemistry and interact with vivacity and good humor. A little too much happy talk shows up at times, and the track drags a little during the film’s third act, but overall, this seems like a useful and entertaining discussion of the movie.

DVD One’s other extras get split into a few different domains. In the “Grasslands” area we find two extras. The Making of “Morning Report” provides a three-minute and eight-second look at the tune added to the movie. We get some movie snippets, a few behind the scenes elements, and comments from Hahn, Allers, lyricist Tim Rice, composer Elton John, composer/song producer Mark Mancina, Walt Disney Music president Chris Montan, and Buena Vista Home Entertainment president Bob Chapek. Unfortunately, they don’t tell us much. We get a smidgen of information about the addition of the song itself, but mostly the participants tell us how special everything is and how happy there are with the result.

The other element of “Grasslands” is The Lion King Personality Profile Game. In this little piece, Zazu asks a few questions about you so he can decide which character you most resemble. This game is a lot like one found on Sleeping Beauty that tells you which Disney heroine you most resemble. I prefer this one since it doesn’t make me feel, well, so... girlie. (For the record, I ended up matched with Timon.)

In the “Tree of Life” domain we get three different elements. First up is a music video for “Circle of Life” performed by the Disney Channel “Circle of Stars”. This group includes Hilary Duff, Raven, Christy Romano, Orlando Smith, Anneliese van der Pol, Tahj Mowry, Kyla Pratt and AJ Trauth. I don’t recognize too many of those names, though I suppose kids will feel more familiar with them. Too bad most of them over-sing the song badly, and the light teen pop arrangement of the tune robs it of any power. The video itself is a bland combination of movie clips and lip-synching. Both song and video are duds.

Unfortunately, we now endure more material connected to the track, as we get a Making of the Music Video. The four-minute and three-second clip shows shots from the studio and some soundbites. It doesn’t attribute the speakers, but we hear from most of the singers as well as the producer, who looks and sounds an awful lot like Steve Buscemi. It’s a fairly pointless and gushy piece that reveals little and mostly annoys. By the way, whoever the tubby black guy is, he’s really obnoxious and not one-tenth as funny and charming as he clearly believes he is.

The final component of the “Tree of Life” provides a Sing Along Track. A feature found on many Disney DVDs, this uses the subtitle stream to present song lyrics during the movie. It remains somewhat useless since the normal subtitle track already does the same thing, but I guess it makes it easier to play karaoke.

Now we head to the “Jungle” with its two components. Timon’s Grab-A-Grub gives us one in the apparently unending series of Disney DVD games. This requires you to use the arrow keys on your remote to snag bugs. It’s very easy, very tedious, and since it lacks any reward, very pointless.

Yet another game, Pumbaa’s Sound Sensations plays audio clips and requires you to match the vocalization to the appropriate animal. It’s more fun than the boring “Grab-A-Grub”, but it also seems awfully simple and it comes without any prize for successful completion.

After this we head to the “Elephant Graveyard”, where we actually find some useful material. It includes three Deleted Scenes and Abandoned Concepts. We get “Bug Football” (52 seconds), “Hakuna Matata” (two minutes, 27 seconds), and “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (105 seconds). The first two launch with 29-second introductions from Don Hahn before we watch the sequences. “Football” uses a storyreel with scratch dialogue performed by the directors for this brief bit of fun among Simba, Timon and Pumbaa. “Matata” presents a deleted verse of the song that focuses on Timon’s earlier life. It combines some rough animation with storyreel elements and is easily the most interesting of these bits.

Lastly, “Love” comes with comments from Tim Rice and Elton John who discuss their intentions for the song. Elton adds his reaction to the animators’ original plan to have Timon and Pumbaa sing the whole number, and we hear a demo version of that rendition from Sabella and Lane. It’s an intriguing alternate take.

As the DVD starts, we encounter a mix of ads. We find trailers for The Lion King 1.5, Brother Bear, George of the Jungle 2, Santa Clause 2, Walt Disney World, and Finding Nemo. These also appear in the disc’s Sneak Peeks domain along with ads for the special edition DVDs of Sleeping Beauty and Mary Poppins.

Lastly, DVD One features the THX Optimizer. Also found on many other DVDs, this purports to help you set up your system for the best reproduction of both picture and sound, ala stand-alone programs such as Video Essentials. I’ve never tried the Optimizer since I’m happy with my settings, but if you don’t own something such as Essentials, the Optimizer may help you improve picture and audio quality.

This completes the first disc and sends us to DVD Two, which comes chock full of extras. Unfortunately, it uses a somewhat confusing interface. When you hit the main menu, you’ll find a list of continents in one area and titles such as “Story”, “Film” and “Stage” at the bottom of the screen. According to the DVD’s booklet, “you can embark on five special journeys based on filmmaking, music, theater, story or animals – with never-before-seen behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with The Lion King writers and directors – OR you can take a self-guided tour within each continent.”

What does this all mean? I’m not sure. It makes access to the materials somewhat confusing and may force the viewer to watch redundant pieces. Some bits appear only in one of the “journeys” or one of the continents, while many show up in both places.

At least the booklet includes an index for all the features. Rather than try to work through each of the possible paths, I’ll just go through the materials in the order presented in this index. I’ll note where each feature appears on the DVD as well.

We start with one Abandoned Scene (North America, Glendale) that doesn’t show up on DVD One. Entitled “Warthog Rhapsody”, the four-minute and 20-second clip begins with a 52-second introduction from Don Hahn. He gives us some notes about the track, and we then get a demo version of this precursor to “Hakuna Matata” presented in storyreel fashion. It’s fun to hear the song as a work in progress, and this is an intriguing alternate rendition.

Two features related to a Disney theme park appear next. Animal Kingdom Lodge and Animal Kingdom Park (North America, Orlando) run 99 seconds and four minutes, three seconds, respectively. These offer nothing more than promotional pieces to tout the attractions, though in “Park”, Walt Disney Imagineering Executive Designer and Vice President - Creative Joe Rohde gives us a few brief notes about the place’s design.

For an examination of the studio’s history with various critters, Disney & Animals (North America – Orlando, North America – Burbank, and “Animal”) goes five minutes, 46 seconds. We start with an introduction from studio vice chairman Roy E. Disney before an anonymous narrator discusses Disney’s use of animals in cartoons, live-action nature films, and other flicks like Old Yeller. Though the featurette offers some fun glimpses at the creation of Disneyland’s Jungle Cruise, overall this provides a fluffy and insubstantial examination of its topic that mostly just touts Disney product.

An Introduction (“Animal”) lasts 90 seconds. Roy E. Disney discusses the Animal Kingdom’s Tree of Life as this piece leads into the subject of animals featured in The Lion King. It’s pretty useless.

From there we go to examinations of four different kinds of critters: Hyenas (two minutes, 24 seconds), Lions (two minutes, 56 seconds), Meerkats (two minutes, 44 seconds) and Warthogs (two minutes, 56 seconds). (All four pieces appear in both the Africa and “Animal” domains.) We hear from the anonymous narrator of “Disney & Animals” again as he gives us basic details about each form of animal. We get clips from Lion King and shots of real-life creatures in these somewhat superficial but moderately informative shorts.

An extensive set of galleries appears next. Art Design (North America – Glendale and Africa) gives us 44 stills of general African vistas and animals and opens with a spoken introduction to the topic. Far too many other galleries show up for me to comment individually about their contents. “North America – Glendale” presents all but one of the galleries, so rather than list all of the locations they appear, just know you can find almost all of them there. The rogue gallery is called “Film Character Design”, and it appears in “Africa” as well as “Film”. It provides sketches for 10 main roles plus “miscellaneous characters”, each of which starts with a quick spoken introduction similar to that of “Art Design”. A collection of interesting drawings that demonstrate character development, each section offers between 15 and 36 pieces of art for a total of 213 stills.

Now we head back to “North America – Glendale” for all the other still galleries. These include “Elephant Graveyard” (14 images), “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” (8), “Circle of Life” (8), “Rafiki Discovers Simba Is Alive” (7), “Hakuna Matata” (6), “Nala Appears” (21), “Pride Rock” (14), “Pridelands” (27), “Jungle Flora” (18), “Rafiki’s Tree” (9), “Effects Animation: The Fight” (9), “Effects Animation: The Stampede” (7), “Effects Animation: Circle of Life” (6), “Stage Musical Publicity” (11), “International Soundtrack Covers” (16), and “International Large Format Release” (11. Once again, spoken introductions lead us into most of the galleries, though many are fairly redundant. There’s a lot of art to be found here, and the elements seem interesting and illuminating.

With all that art out of the way, we can now move to DVD Sound Design (North America – Burbank). This examines modifications made for the film’s IMAX release as well as the “enhanced home theater” mix. We hear from producer Hahn, director Allers, Buena Vista Home Entertainment president Chapek, and re-recording mixer Terry Porter. The latter dominates this five-minute featurette. As with many of this DVD’s short clips, “Design” concentrates less on actual information and more on telling us how cool everything is.

Two Early Concepts pop up next along with an Early Presentation Reel (North America – Glendale). For the first two, we get storyreels of “Timon and Pumbaa Find Simba” (three minutes, including a 38-second Hahn intro) and “Simba’s Presentation” (four minutes, three seconds with 39-second Hahn introduction). These aren’t deleted sequences; instead, they offer early takes on bits that ended up in the final flick. It’s cool to see how they compare with the finished material.

As for the “Early Presentation Reel”, this 91-second clip starts with a 25-second intro from Hahn. He explains the purpose of this promo piece that mixes rough music with concept art for King of the Jungle, as the flick was originally titled. It’s a nice piece of historical material.

For a discussion of visual elements, we go to Art – African Influence (Africa, “Film”). It lasts four minutes, two seconds and shows concept art, movie snippets, and comments from Hahn, directors Rob Minkoff and Allers, character design/visual development artists Hans Bacher and Lisa Keene, production designer Chris Sanders, and art director Andy Gaskill. The featurette gives us a fairly nice examination of how the animators’ visit to Africa contributed to the movie’s look.

Though mostly a cel product, Lion King does include some Computer Animation (North America – Glendale, “Film”). This four-minute and 24-second featurette displays the CG elements of the movie. We get demonstrations of the techniques from computer graphics imagery Scott F. Johnston. It offers an efficient documentation of the complexities behind the wildebeest stampede.

To see where The Lion King came from, we go to Film Origins (“Film”). The five-minute and 53-second program includes remarks from Hahn, Allers, Minkoff, artistic coordinator Randy Fullmer, artistic supervisor Brenda Chapman, artist Lisa Keene, past president of Walt Disney Feature Animation Peter Schneider, film historian Leonard Maltin, artist Hans Bacher, production designer Sander, executive producer Thomas Schumacher, co-writers Irene Mecchi and Jonathan Roberts. They go into Disney’s rebirth in the era and tell us how Lion King was viewed as a less than promising project. They also get into the development of the story and the script. As with many of these programs, it seems kind of puffy and self-congratulatory, but it explores a few interesting notions, especially when we hear about the apparent feeling that Pocahontas was the studio’s big dog at the time.

In the Production Design featurette (North America – Glendale, “Film”), we get a little information about that topic. The piece lasts a mere 114 seconds as art director Andy Gaskill talks about the potential cinematographic possibilities for the movie. We learn of its Lawrence of Arabia roots and other graphic influences. Despite the piece’s brevity, it packs some good information.

Hinted at elsewhere, the next program documents the crew’s Production Research Trip (Africa, “Film”). The two-minute and 21-second featurette shows photos and film of this trek along with modern comments from Allers, Brenda Chapman, Chris Sanders, and Lisa Keene. As usual, their remarks seem fluffy and inconsequential, but the smattering of images from the trip makes this a reasonably useful piece.

For a discussion of the film’s impact we move to Reflections (North America – Burbank, “Film”). The featurette runs five minutes, 11 seconds as we hear from Leonard Maltin, Chris Sanders, Peter Schneider, Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook, Randy Fullmer, Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Roy Disney, Tim Rice, Lisa Keene, Brenda Chapman, Hahn, Elton John, and Jonathan Roberts Yup, it’s another self-congratulatory fluff fest in which all involved tell us how incredible the flick’s success was and how timeless it is. Sure, the movie did do wonderfully, but do we need those involved to tell us this?

The Storyboard Process (North America – Glendale, “Film”) gives us a quick look at that topic. In this 115-second clip, Minkoff and Allers talk about how the filmmakers use storyboards and help develop the movie through them. Tight and focused, this piece concentrates well on its subject.

To learn how they adapt movies for International Release (Africa, Asia, North America – Burbank, Europe, and South America), we go to this three minute and 34 second program. In addition to translated clips in various languages, we find comments from Executive Vice President for Disney Character Voices International Jeff Miller, Vice President for Disney Character Voices International Blake Todd, and Sr. Vice President and Creative Disney Character Voices Rick Dempsey. They discuss the challenges of making the dialogue fit with various cultures as well as some casting and general topics. Though a little puffy, some good information appears here. Most intriguing is a quick glimpse at a note sheet that goes out to the different territories with recommendations and requirements for the voices.

More non-English fun appears via the Multi-Language Reel (Africa, Asia, South America, Europe). After an introduction from Rick Dempsey, the piece presents “Hakuna Matata” with various parts in different languages. It uses 15 dialects for the four minute and 10 second tune. In addition, you can check out other short scenes in each language via a branching feature.

Up next come three music videos. We find clips for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”, “Circle of Life” (both in Europe and “Music”) and “Hakuna Matata” (Africa and “Music”). Sir Elton himself plays the first two, but the videos offer nothing more than the usual dull combination of lip-synching and movie snippets. For “Hakuna Matata”, we get a version by Jimmy Cliff Featuring Lebo M. The video uses the same format as the other ones, and the rendition doesn’t seem terribly compelling either, though it does present some alternate lyrics. (Not surprising, since it’d be pretty weird to hear Cliff sing “when I was a young warthog”.)

Information about the African Influence (Africa, “Music”) on the music appears next. The three-minute and 49-second featurette includes remarks from Don Hahn, Rob Minkoff, composer/producer Hans Zimmer, composer/song producer Mark Mancina, and executive producer Thomas Schumacher. Mostly we get notes about musician Lebo M and his contribution to the film. He’s the voice we hear at the very start of the movie, and it’s good to learn more about him and how he affected the work of the others.

Lion King spawned a musical Audio Sequel (Africa, “Music”), and we hear more about it in this four-minute and 20-second program. It includes comments from Hahn, Allers, Marl Mancina, artist/writer/producer Lebo M, Hans Zimmer, producer Jay Rifkin and Walt Disney Music President Chris Montan. We learn about their work, with some specifics about the album Rhythm of the Pride Lands. Some decent notes emerge, but once again, this featurette seems a little fluffy.

A look at the reception accorded the music shows up in Full Circle (“Music”). In the 102-second featurette, Elton John talks about winning the Oscar, while Rice, Allers, Minkoff, and Zimmer all tell us how hard everyone worked. It’s a superfluous program.

For more about the Elton John/Tim Rice partnership, we move to Landmark Songwriting (Europe, “Music”). The three-minute and 13-second piece presents statements from Schumacher, John, and Rice. We learn that King wasn’t originally intended to be a musical as well as how the pair came on board the project and their working methods. Some puffy spots appear, but we get a reasonable amount of information here.

Music Inspiration (“Music”) fills three minutes and 50 seconds and gets a little more into the African influence. We hear from Allers, John, Minkoff, Montan, Zimmer, Hahn, Roy Disney, Eisner, and Rice. It presents a particular emphasis on “Circle of Life”, and we see Elton do a solo demo version for Rice. Otherwise, not much of use shows up here, as it mostly gets into general comments about Disney movies and songs.

More notes about music appear in Orchestral Color (“Music”). This four-minute and 22-second program features information from Zimmer about the development of the story, his orchestration ideas, his instrumental choices, and his approaches to the material. It’s a tight little show that includes a good level of useful material.

We get into further musical topics in Scoring Emotion (“Music”). For this two-minute and 58 second piece, Zimmer goes over his processes in regard to the movie’s musical themes and scoring choices. As with “Color”, it’s another nice exploration of the subject.

The Lion King jumped to the stage in a successful Julie Taymor created musical, and the next few features examine it. Leaps of Fantasy (Asia, North America – New York, and “Stage”) runs three minutes and 32 seconds and mixes shots from the show with comments from Thomas Schumacher, choreographer Garth Fagan, associate choreographer Aubrey Lynch, Elton John, Hahn, and Roy Disney. Fagan’s remarks about what he wanted to do with his choreography offer some interesting moments, but the rest of the piece just touts how good the show is.

We hear about the roots of the show in Musical Origins (North America – New York, “Stage”). Through the three minute and 46 second piece, we get notes from Schumacher, Irene Mecchi, show co-producer Peter Schneider, Hahn, Allers, Rice, John, Roy Disney, Eisner, and show director Julie Taymor. They discuss the enormous skepticism that greeted Eisner’s proposal to move Lion King to the stage and learn about conceptual choices to make it work. Some of the usual puffiness appears, but the program presents a reasonably amount of useful notes.

The adaptation of the songs and score get covered in Musical Texture (North America – New York, “Stage”). It takes three minutes, 11 seconds and presents statements from Schneider, John, Schumacher, Lebo M, Allers, Mark Mancina, and Taymor. As with many of these featurettes, it tosses out a few good nuggets, but mostly it seems light and superficial.

More comments about taking Lion King from Screen to Stage (North America – New York, “Stage”) come next. In its three minutes and 27 seconds, we hear from Roy Disney, Schumacher, Taymor, Eisner, Hahn, Mecchi, and Allers. A moderately meaty featurette, this one gets into the concepts behind the adaptation of the story and attempts to make it work.

The visuals of the show dominate Setting the Stage (North America – New York, “Stage”). The two-minutes and 14-second piece presents statements from Schneider, Schumacher, and associate director Jeff Lee. More fluff shows up, but we get a few decent remarks about costuming and stage design.

Next we examine topics connected to the story. In Story Origins (“Story”), we find a four-minute and 38-second look at inspirations for the tale. We hear from Hahn, Schumacher, Allers, co-writer Roberts, Minkoff, Hahn, Mecchi, They get into some classic themes reflected in the movie and refreshingly fully acknowledge the Hamlet connections. We even learn of how they debated how heavily to get into the Shakespearean moments. It’s one of the DVD’s more honest programs.

The film’s “lesson” gets attention in Timeless Themes (“Story”). For this three-minute and 59-second piece, we find statements from Roberts, Allers, Schumacher, Minkoff, Mecchi, and Hahn. They talk about what they wanted to emphasize as main themes in the film and address the prominence of death in the movie. “Themes” gives us a reasonably introspective look at the deeper elements of the story.

Notes about the tale’s creation come up in The Story Comes to Life (“Story”). This three-minute and 15-second piece includes notes from Hahn, Allers, and Schumacher. We learn a little about the ad hoc assemblage of some parts as well as the thematic elements related to fathers. It resembles “Themes” as it gets into some deeper topics and issues behind the story, which makes it a pretty useful program.

After this we locate Storyboard to Film Comparison (North America – Glendale). This gives us four minutes of splitscreen material. The clip presents the film’s opening, with the boards on the top of the screen and the finished flick at the bottom. It’s a good way to look at the differences between conception and execution.

In addition to the same trailer (Australia) for The Lion King 1 ½ that already appears on DVD One, we end with Timon and Pumbaa’s Virtual Safari. This lets you take a boat cruise or a jeep trek hosted by our favorite warthog and meerkat combo. I didn’t expect much from this mostly computer animated piece, but it’s actually quite a lot of fun. Since it presents occasional choices to be made by the viewer, it enjoys decent replay value as well, since each trip will be a little different. This is one of the more entertaining DVD-exclusive extras, as it feels like a theme park ride on your TV.

Though the collection ends on a positive note, I must admit the supplements of The Lion King comes as something of a disappointment. They cover a good level of information overall, but the interface seems like a pain to navigate at times, and too many of them are fluffy and filled with praise. The supplements seem good enough to earn an “A-“, but this isn’t one of the most substantial Disney DVD releases.

No matter - The Lion King would earn my recommendation even if the DVD included no supplements. The movie stands as one of Disney’s finest and contains to impress after almost a decade. The DVD presents excellent picture and sound along with that moderately disappointing but still extensive set of supplements. Disney have produced another “must-have” DVD with this fine release of The Lion King.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.3076 Stars Number of Votes: 143

View Averages for all rated titles.

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson

Title: The Emperor's New Groove: The Ultimate Groove 2-Disc Collector's Edition (2000)
Studio Line: Disney - It's All About... ME
If you liked Aladdin, you'll love Disney's The Emperor's New Groove, where outrageous comedy rules! Audiences and critics alike raved about his hilarious animated adventure: Ebert & Roeper And The Movies gave it "Two Thumbs Up."

Faster than you can say "boom, baby," arrogant Emperor Kuzco (voiced by David Spade) is turned into a llama by his devious advisor, Yzma (Eartha Kitt), and her hunky henchman, Kronk (Patrick Warburton), who want to rid the kingdom of this beast of burden. Now the ruler who once had it all must form an unlikely alliance with a pleasant peasant named Pacha (John Goodman). Together, Kuzco and Pacha must overcome their differences as they embark on a hilarious, "groovy" adventure that will have you howling with laughter.

There's something for everyone in this "hip, funny movie" (Gannett News Service) with its dynamo cast, distinctive style and great music, featuring Grammy Award winner Sting and the Academy Award®-nominated song, "My Funny Friend And Me" - all fully captured in state-of-the-art quality created directly from the digital source that ensures the best possible sound and picture!

Director: Mark Dindal
Cast: David Spade-Kuzco/Kuzco Llama; John Goodman-Pacha; Eartha Kitt-Yzma; Patrick Warburton-Kronk; Wendie Malick-ChiCha
Academy
Awards: Nominated for Best Song-"My Funny Friend and Me." 2001.
Box Office: Budget: $100 million. Opening Weekend: $9.812 million (2801 screens). Gross: $89.07 million.
DVD: 2-Disc set; widescreen 1.66:1/16x9; audio English DD & DTS 5.1, French Digital Stereo; THX; subtitles none; closed-captioned; single sided - dual layered; 28 chapters; rated G; 77 min.; $39.99; street date 5/1/01.
Supplements: Disc One: The Film: Audio Commentary With The Filmmakers; Rascal Flatts Music Video Featuring The Song "Walk The Llama Llama"; Action-Adventure Set-Top Game - Test Your Skill At Two Levels! An All-New Experience Featuring The Actual Voice Talents Of Yuma And Crank!
DVD-ROM Features: Games; Exclusive Weblinks.
Disc Two: The Animation Groove - A Fast-Paced Behind-The-Scenes Tour Of How A Modern Disney Animated Film Is Made! The Development Process; Story And Editorial; Layouts And Backgrounds; The Animation Process; Putting It All Together; Music And Sound - Mixing Demonstration - Make Your Own Tracks!; Sting's Making The Music Video Featuring The Academy Award®-Nominated Song "My Funny Friend And Me"; Publicity.
Purchase: Collector's Edition | Standard Edition | Score soundtrack - Sting, Various Artists
Picture/Sound/Extras: A/A-/A-
If we examine the box office performance of Disney’s two animated films from 2000, we see a study in contrasts. First up was May’s Dinosaur, and it took in a lot of cash; after an opening weekend gross of $38 million, it went on to nab $137 million in the US. That’s not an unbelievable take, but it’s a solid payday.

On the other hand, when The Emperor’s New Groove hit screens in December, it was greeted by a sad $9 million opening weekend, and it ultimately grabbed $88 million when it’s run was done. That’s almost 50 percent less than the gross of Dinosaur, so why does TENG feel like the much bigger hit of the two?

Expectations, baby! Disney prepped Dinosaur as one of the big flicks of the summer, and though it obviously took in quite a lot of money, it dropped rapidly after that initial opening weekend. The film enjoyed little positive buzz as the general consensus felt it was visually stunning but fairly lackluster and formulaic.

A different mindset greeted TENG. Apparently Disney didn’t see it as their holiday hit, as they spent most of their time and money hyping November’s live-action 102 Dalmatians. Bad move: 102 D pretty much stiffed at the box office; its gross of only $67 million was fairly pathetic considering the studio’s expectations. TENG crept into theaters with little fanfare, and when one views that lousy opening weekend take of $9, it looked like the movie would slink out of town quickly. However, TENG enjoyed excellent word of mouth, and its revenues steadily increased as time passed. While the final gross of $88 million meant that TENG took in less money than any Disney animated film since 1990’s The Rescuers Down Under, the numbers don’t tell the whole story.

TENG overcame a lack of publicity and weak opening figures to do reasonably well. As such, I consider the film to qualify as a hit. It probably doesn’t hurt that I really liked the movie. I’m fond of most of Disney’s recent animated flicks, and I have difficulty rating them. Nonetheless, TENG definitely stands among the cream of the crop from the last decade.

TENG tells the story of Emperor Kuzco (voiced by David Spade), a spoiled brat who rules his land via his impulsive whims. This means that he tramples over the desires of folks like Pacha (John Goodman), a kind peasant whose village Kuzco will trample to build “Kuzco-topia”, his new vacation resort. Yzma (Eartha Kitt) assists Kuzco; she's a sorceress who he fires due to her repeated attempts to usurp power from the emperor. With the help of her hunky but dense good Kronk (Patrick Warburton), Yzma tries to poison Kuzco but instead turns him into a llama. When Kronk fails to be ruthless enough to follow Yzma’s commands and kill Kuzco, the llamafied emperor ends up in the back of Pacha’s cart and accompanies him to the peasant’s village.

From there we go through a somewhat standard buddy tale in which the two guys are initially at odds - mainly due to Kuzco’s selfishness - but they eventually learn to work together so they can both succeed. Actually, that description puts too much blame on Pacha; he’s always willing to do the right thing. Kuzco has to take the steps to learn trust and friendship before he can return to defeat Yzma and regain his old human form.

Based on that plot synopsis, TENG doesn’t sound to be much different than many other Disney flicks. Selfish character learns to be more giving and ultimately becomes happier; it’s the usual happy fare we’ve seen time and again. However, though the message may be familiar, the execution sure isn’t, as TENG provides a much wilder and wackier affair than we normally find from Disney.

Truthfully, TENG usually has more in common with the old Looney Tunes shorts than it does the standard Disney fare. The flick offers none of the usual songs, and we get no romantic elements either; though Pacha is married to ChiCha (Wendie Malick) with two kids and another on the way, they’re simply depicted as a happy family, and Kuzco never encounters any possible love affairs along the way. Wackiness is the main emphasis, though of course some nice Disney heart comes along with the package; as nutty as the characters may be, they retain enough charm so that we care about them and hope for their success.

Well, most of the characters, that is; I can’t say that we want Yzma to have a happy life. Still, TENG isn’t the kind of dark flick in which we find a villain whose demise we crave. Unlike something such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Sleeping Beauty, TENG goes with a comic approach. As such, Yzma more strongly resembles someone like Hook in Peter Pan or Cruella in 101 Dalmatians; we root against her but we still enjoy her presence and find her fun to watch.

This factor is aided by a solid vocal performance by Kitt who makes Yzma cartoonishly nasty but exciting and catty. Actually, all of the voice talent was excellent in TENG. Spade offers the usual level of insolence and smarminess as Kuzco, but he still lets him become sympathetic and human when necessary, while Goodman grounds the piece as salt-of-the-earth Pacha. Warburton nearly steals the show with goony and delightful work as simple but earnest Kronk.

TENG offers edgier fare than the usual Disney piece. The DVD’s box touts its similarities with 1992’s Aladdin, the huge hit generally regarded as the studio’s wackiest flick to date. However, that’s not really true. Aladdin’s humor came almost totally from the presence of Robin Williams; beyond his antics, it was still a pretty straightforward affair, though one that was very well made and delightful.

While TENG benefits from its actors, it doesn’t rely so strongly on any one of them; it’s more of an ensemble, whereas Aladdin succeeded mostly due to the talents of one performer. In truth, TENG is probably more closely connected to Toy Story and Toy Story 2. Those are buddy flicks that work on the connection between a variety of characters, and they showed similar forms of edgier humor. Disney films aren’t known for their wild gags, which means that when we do find efforts with wackier comedic sides, they stand out, and TENG fits in well with some of the nuttier aspects of the Toy Story films.

I don’t think The Emperor’s New Groove quite approaches the heights of those two terrific flicks, but it’s definitely a solid effort. The movie goes for a fairly raucous comedic approach and provides a terrific amount of wild and entertaining humor throughout its 77 minutes. It’s a well-executed and delightful film that I thoroughly enjoyed.

The DVD:

The Emperor’s New Groove appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this single-sided, dual-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. At this point, a review of a Disney animated DVD feels like déjà vu; they maintain such a consistent standard of excellence for these films that my opinions seem redundant. TENG easily lived up to their high standards as it provided yet another exquisite visual experience.

Sharpness appeared absolutely immaculate at all times. I never witnessed any hints of softness or haziness as the movie always seemed wonderfully crisp and detailed. No jagged edges or moiré effects appeared, and print flaws were absent as well; the film seemed gloriously clean and fresh.

TENG featured a wild and vibrant spectrum of colors, and the DVD reproduced them wonderfully well. Not many films offer this much variation in hues, but you’ll see a wide array of purples, reds, blues, greens, yellows, and pretty much everything else here. The colors always were solid and lacked any signs of noise, bleeding or other concerns. Black levels were deep and rich while shadow detail seemed appropriately dark but never excessively heavy. Ultimately, the DVD presented an exceedingly-satisfying picture that fit in well with Disney’s other works.

The soundtracks of The Emperor’s New Groove were also solid, though they didn’t quite match up to the highs of the picture. As with many recent Disney DVDs, TENG offered both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks. To my ears, I could detect no differences between the two mixes; they seemed identical.

Although the track occasionally showed some surround usage, for the most part the audio stuck strongly to the forward spectrum. Across the front channels, the sound presented a nicely broad array due to a combination of stereo music and some strong ambient sounds. Effects weren’t quite as wild as I might have expected from this kind of frenetic film, but they seemed compelling and acceptably active throughout the movie; sounds popped up in the correct places and they panned well across speakers. Surrounds were also somewhat less active than I might have thought they’d be, but the rears added a nice kick to the mix and made it a fun and appropriately frantic affair.

Audio quality appeared excellent. Dialogue always seemed crisp and natural with no signs of edginess or problems related to intelligibility. Effects were quite clean and realistic, and when appropriate, they showed some solid dynamics. Music could have provided a little more depth to its low end, but the score largely sounded clear and bright with acceptably appropriate bass. Although the soundtrack lacked a great deal of ambition, it still provided a good auditory complement to the wild visuals.

In this two-DVD set of The Emperor’s New Groove, we find a slew of extras, most of which appear on the second disc. However, DVD One also tosses in some goodies, starting with an audio commentary. We hear from producer Randy Fullmer, director Mark Dindal, art director Colin Stimpson, character designer Joseph C. Moshier, head of story Stephen Anderson, Kuzco supervising animator Nik Ranieri, and Pacha supervising animator Bruce W. Smith. For the most part, we hear from Fullmer and Dindal, both of whom were recorded together. At times, some snippets from what appears to have been a session with all of the men pop up in this edited piece. It’s an odd system, but it melds together well for this compelling track.

Many animation commentaries tend to be dry and slow, but that’s not a problem here. Quite a few topics that related to the making of TENG cropped up here, and we get a nice look at the process. Some remarks about the technical aspects appear, but we also learn a lot about the creative side of the equation. It’s those elements that often fail to appear in animation commentaries, so I really appreciated them here, and I enjoyed the discussions of pacing and tone that were vital to the film. Ultimately, I thought this was a very good commentary that added to my enjoyment of the movie.

A few other extras crop up on DVD One. The Emperor’s Got Game is a quick puzzler notable mainly because it uses the voice talents of Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton. They reprise their film roles as Yzma and Kronk for this contest. Two mini-games appear. In the first, you need to correctly answer five trivia questions about the game, whereas during the second, you have to “pour” three vials of potion in the right sequence. It’s a short contest that has little replay value - the questions and answers are identical with each attempt - but it’s worth a look just because it’s fun to hear more from Kitt and Warburton.

Sneak Peeks gives us the usual complement of ads for other Disney flicks. There are previews for the upcoming theatrical runs of Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Monsters Inc. plus trailers for The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and 102 Dalmatians.

There’s also a music video from Rascal Flatts for “Walk the Llama Llama”. During this 90-second piece, we watch the band lip-synch the song and also see some kids dance and film clips. At the bottom of the screen some dork demonstrates the dance for us. (I’m not trying to be cruel: this dude defines the word “dork”.) It’s a pretty fluffy little piece.

The final components of DVD One feature DVD-ROM materials, most of which send you online. “Register” sends you to the Disney Video and DVD website where you can check out other titles and enter any available sweepstakes. The “Exclusive Online Content” link moves you to this page where you can check out two QuickTime video clips. The “Making of ‘The Emperor’s Got Game’” gives us 65 seconds worth of Warburton and Kitt as the record their lines, while “What Is Funny?” provides a two minute and 20 second discussion of humorous elements of the film. The former is too short but worth a look, but the latter was essentially a waste of time.

At the official TENG site you can learn some basics about the movie and its stars and also work through a number of activities; you can send electronic postcards, download some screensavers, and print out a llama mask, coloring pages or mazes. Clearly the site’s mainly oriented toward the little ones, but it’s a fun endeavor nonetheless.

The remaining DVD-ROM extras require you to install them separately. The “Emperor’s Groove Center” demo didn’t work well on my machine; the sound skipped and was scratchy. What I saw wasn’t worth the effort anyway, at least for me; it looked like stuff that might be fun for little ones, though the performance of the “Center” was problematic enough that I didn’t spend much time with it. You know, with a PIII 933 machine that has 320 MB of RAM, a GeForce 2 MX 32MB video card and a SoundBlaster Live! sound card, I really shouldn’t run into these kinds of problems with a piddly “Activity Center”.

Another demo arrives for the ”Emperor’s Action Game”. This looked like your standard “Mario”-esque “gather the coins, jump on things” effort. It wasn’t much fun, and it doesn’t look like a very promising project.

Interestingly, this packaged tossed in a separate CD-ROM activity that advertises the upcoming theatrical release of Atlantis. “Search for the Journal” provides a first-person experience in which one, well, searches for a journal. I gave the game a quick spin but I’ll admit I didn’t go far; that kind of first-person format can make me a bit queasy, and “Search” definitely started to inspire such feelings. In any case, it’s a neat little addition to the package.

As we move on to DVD Two, we find a variety of options. The disc starts with a two-minute and 10-second introduction from director Dindal and producer Fuller; we’ll see much more from them throughout this platter. Never let it be said that the folks at Disney don’t listen to criticism, as TENG demonstrates some changes to the usual presentation of supplements. Many of these deluxe animation packages offered short featurettes that discussed the various subjects; while the information found during these pieces was good, the format could become irritating and many longed for longer, traditional documentaries.

While TENG still provides the usual featurettes, it allows for a few different forms of viewing. Primary among these is the “Studio Groove”, a program that for 24 minutes and 45 seconds. It takes us through the animation process, from a project’s genesis through the story department to layout, animation, color and sound. As with most of the DVD, these pieces are hosted by Dindal and Fuller, who seem to have taken the antics of the Pixar crew on the Toy Story Ultimate Toy Box as their inspiration. Unfortunately, their attempted wackiness isn’t nearly as funny as what John Lasseter and the others showed in their package, but Dindal looks a lot like David Hyde Pierce, which has to count for something.

In any case, the “Studio Groove” provides a nicely compact and convenient way to watch the different segments. Another sequence offers the same treatment for some split-screen material. If you select the “Animation Groove”, you’ll find a sequence of comparison shots. After a 10-second introduction from Dindal and Fuller, we get a segment in which story reels (filmed storyboards with audio placed on top of it to show an extremely rough version of the movie) appear in the top half of the screen and background paintings on the bottom.

Next up we get the backgrounds from the prior segment at the top of the screen, while rough pencil animation fills the bottom. After that, the comparison puts the rough drawings at the top with cleaned-up animation in the bottom half. Following this piece, the clean-up shots head to the top while final colored animation goes to the lower part of the screen. All in all, this area lasts for five and a half minutes and gives us a decent look at the different stages of animation.

Once we’ve gotten through both “grooves”, it’s onto the meat of the package and a more traditional presentation. The DVD progresses through a variety of topics, and we start with Development. In that area, “The Process” simply takes the first chapter of the “Studio Groove” and presents it on its own; it lasts for three minutes and 15 seconds. After that, “The Research Trip” shows a trek taken by the animators to Machu Pichu. In this 85-second program, we watch some aspects of this mission; it was a short but enjoyable look at the study done for the movie.

“Story Treatment” shows the text synopsis of the tale provided to get the project off the ground, while “Visual Development Gallery” includes 33 screens of thumbnails. Via 268 enlargeable images, we find lots of art created to inspire the movie’s locations, sets, props and other characteristics; it’s a thorough and enjoyable look at these elements.

Development finishes with “Kingdom of the Sun”. After a 12-second intro from Fuller and Dindal, we get 22 images of concept art done for the early version of TENG. This was easily the most disappointing aspect of the DVD, for reasons that I’ll explain during my summary toward the end of the review.

The next section is called Story and Editorial. There we get the second segment of the “Studio Groove”; again titled “The Process”, this one runs for five minutes and 20 seconds. “The Pitch” begins with another short intro from Dindal and Fuller before we find three different “story pitch” segments. The first two show animators as they present storyboards and their ideas to others; each of those lasts about 105 seconds. The third runs for two minutes and 35 seconds and it shows the final story reel for the film’s opening segment. I liked the look at the ways in which the movie’s start changed, and these were a nice addition to the package.

“Putting It Up On Reels” gives us a two minute and 55 second overview of the story reel process and other elements of that part of the production. Frankly, this piece should have popped up in the menu prior to “The Pitch”, but it’s still a decent segment, especially since we get a few shots of the actors as they record their work.

Lastly, “Deleted and Unused Scenes” provides three different parts that failed to make the final film. All of them start with the usual introductions. Two of these appear in story reel form; “Pacha’s Family” was a substantial piece that lasted seven minutes and five seconds, while “Original Kuzcotopia Ending” is a shorter and less significant clip that runs for three minutes and 25 seconds. “Destruction of Pacha’s Village” actually made it to full animation and almost was fully finished before the segment was taken from the film; the part we see goes for two minutes and 15 seconds. “Pacha’s Family” is easily the most interesting of the bunch, but all three are fun to see.

Now we move on to the Layouts and Backgrounds area. This begins with “The Layout and Background Departments”, a three minute and 50 second video that takes the third part of the “Studio Groove”. After that, “Inside Scene Planning” looks at a few different subtopics. “Scene Planning” gives us a three minute and 35 second snippet that showcases the CAPS process and describes what the scene planning department does; it’s an illuminating view of their work.

“Storyboard to Background Comparison” takes the first segment of the “Animation Groove” for that 82-second piece, while “Workbook Gallery” adds a 20-second introduction from Dindal and 32 images of boards from the poisoning scene.

Back to the main area of this section, “Layouts” gives us a 17-second introduction from Fuller and Dindal and then offers a gallery with 61 thumbnailed images. “Backgrounds” follows the same format. After a 15-second intro from the guys, we get the “Color Key Gallery” (143 pictures) and the “Background Gallery” (117 stills). All of these are nice elements to inspect.

Once we complete Layouts and Backgrounds we can move to Animation. “The Animation Process” shows part four of the “Studio Groove” in a four minute and 35 second clip. “CGI Props” offers a two minute and 20 second video in which 3D effects technical director Ian J. Coony demonstrates the process used to create computer-animated secondary elements; it’s a short but solid overview of those techniques.

“Character Animation” includes a variety of subsections. “Character Voices” shows a five minute and 10 second video in which the primary actors and their main animators talk about their work on the film. We also get to see some of the performers in action, so this was a fun piece.

“Background to Rough Animation Comparison” grabs the second section of the “Animation Groove”; including an introduction, it runs for 85 seconds. Lastly, “Character Design” gives us a slew of materials that relate to the movie’s personalities. “Kuzco” starts with five and a half minutes of rough pencil “Animation Tests” and then includes 39 still frames of “Character Design” drawings.

“Pacha” begins with 83 seconds worth of “Rough Animation” before we go to the 22-image “CD” gallery, while “Yzma” includes 2 minutes and 15 seconds of “Rough Animation” and 27 “CD” images. Kronk’s “Rough Animation” only goes for 40 seconds, and the gallery tosses in 24 pictures.

The final two areas of “Character Design” include only thumbnailed galleries. “Pacha’s Family” contributes 12 drawings, while “Miscellaneous Characters” offers 108 stills. As usual, these pieces provided a nice way to check out the evolution of the characters and were entertaining to examine.

Back to the main menu of the Animation area, “Production Progression” allows you to get some use out of the “angle” button on your remote. Through this piece, you can check out the poisoning scene through the storyboard, rough animation, clean-up animation, and final stages. After a 30-second introduction from Fuller and Dindal, this 70-second piece is essentially an alternate way to watch the material found in the “Animation Groove”. While I like the interactive format, this would have been more useful if it’d featured material not found in another part of the DVD.

Speaking of the “Animation Groove”, the third part of that program appears as “Rough Animation to Clean-up Animation Comparison”; including Dindal’s intro, this snippet lasts about 80 seconds. Lastly, the “Character Model Sheets” provide closer looks at all of the design tablets used to maintain continuity for the various characters; all in all, we get 71 images in this thumbnailed gallery.

With Animation behind us, we move on Putting It All Together. “Ink and Paint Compositing” takes the fifth section of the “Studio Groove” for a two minute and 27 second segment. “Clean-Up Animation to Ink and Paint Comparison” then grabs the fourth part of the “Animation Groove”; it runs for 84 seconds including an introduction. Finally, after a 12-second intro from Dindal, the “Color Models” area provides an extremely modest gallery; there are only five images, each of which shows a main character (Kuzco, Kuzco Llama, Pacha, Yzma, and Kronk).

Music and Sound begins with “Music and Sound Effects”, the sixth segment from the “Studio Groove”; it lasts for five minutes and 18 seconds. The music video for Sting’s “My Funny Friend and Me” offers an unusual piece. It combines film clips, shots of Der Stingle as he records the tune, and interview bits into a two-minute and 50-second video. It ain’t much, but it’s worth a look.

Finally, the “Mixing Demo” duplicates a program found on some other Disney Collector’s Editions. This piece allows you to watch the bridge-crossing scene with different combinations of sound. You can add or drop dialogue, music and effects to check out the segment with any mix of those elements. It’s a moderately fun experience, though it’d work best if you haven’t run through the similar segments on the other discs.

Almost home - the Publicity domain completes the DVD. Fuller and Dindal give us their final introduction; this one runs for 55 seconds. We then find two theatrical trailers for TENG and three TV spots. “Posters and Ad Campaigns” tosses in another stillframe gallery with 24 different examples of these promotional efforts.

More may exist, but I was only able to locate one “Easter Egg”. If you click to the right on Disc Two’s main menu, you can check out the DVD credits. That finishes a nice little package of extras that highlighted a terrific flick.

While TENG earned a still-solid “A-“ rating for its supplements, this was the lowest grade I’ve yet given to one of Disney’s multi-disc animation packages. A few - A Bug’s Life, the “Ultimate Toy Box”, and the Fantasia Anthology - grabbed elusive “A+” marks, while others - such as Dinosaur and Tarzan were able to each grab an “A”. On the surface, the extras for TENG seem to be comparable to at least those last two, so why the lower grade?

One word: perspective. Though the supplements for TENG give us a good look at many of the nuts and bolts components of the film’s creation, we discover little about the project’s genesis. Normally these packages give us a good idea of how they evolved from the germ of an idea; check out Toy Story to find a detailed look at the tale from the very beginning.

That never happens during TENG, and this is for one strong reason: it’s potentially embarrassing for Disney. Remember back when I stated that the “Kingdom of the Sun” section of the DVD was its most disappointing? That’s because we learn virtually nothing about the subject. Here’s what I understand: KOTS was the original version of TENG, and it was to be a more dramatic flick. It was to feature a “Prince and the Pauper” type tale that bore some similarities to TENG but not a ton. A few elements of KOTS survived to make it into TENG - such as the South American setting, cast members Spade and Kitt and the llama transformation - but the two projects otherwise were quite different.

Why did KOTS fail to make it to the screen? Apparently because the film simply never gelled. As costs mounted, Disney brass didn’t like the way it was going, so they threatened to pull the plug if the filmmakers couldn’t reverse the negative trend. Overall, the production sounds like it was a total mess, and it’s amazing that anything decent was salvaged; for the resulting movie to be this terrific is a total miracle.

On one hand, I’d think that Disney might like to show this more problematic side of the filmmaking process. TENG went through a messy genesis but the final flick was still great - isn’t that a positive message to send? I guess they worried that any negative aspects of the production would reflect poorly on them.

As such, we learn virtually nothing about the long, troubled production of KOTS. We get the general information about TENG but the DVD lacks the back story. On its own, the package provides a great deal of good material about TENG, so it warranted that “A-“ grade. However, without the full story, I thought the set lacked the depth necessary to be a truly great release.

Nonetheless, I still am very pleased with the 2-DVD “Ultimate Groove” set of The Emperor’s New Groove. The movie itself is a total joy to watch. It provides compelling characters, lively animation, and more laughs per minute than almost any other Disney animated flick. As for the DVD, it offers the usual exemplary picture with very good sound and a generally positive package of supplements. The lack of historical perspective means that the extras weren’t as compelling as they could have been, but I still heartily recommend this excellent package.

Equipment: Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Aaron Blaise, Robert Walker
Cast:
Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Suarez, Jason Raize, Rick Moranis, Dave Thomas, D.B. Sweeney, Joan Copeland, Michael Clarke Duncan
Writing Credits:
Steve Bencich, Lorne Cameron, Ron Friedman, David Hoselton, Broose Johnson, Tab Murphy

Tagline:
Welcome to a world where animals rule and the only human around ... isn't human anymore.

Synopsis:
A young Inuit hunter seeks vengence against a bear, only to be magically changed into a bear himself, and his only chance to change back is with a talkative bear cub.

Box Office:
Opening Weekend
$19.404 million on 3030 screens.
Domestic Gross
$85.005 million.

MPAA:
Rated G

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 2.35:1/16x9
Widescreen 1.66:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
English DTS 5.1 (2.35:1 only)
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (1.66:1 only)
Subtitles:
English
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 85 min.
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 3/30/2004

Bonus:
Disc One
• Audio Commentary with Moose Rutt and Tuke
• “Koda’s Outtakes”
• “Look Through My Eyes” Music Video
• “Find Your Totem” Set-Top Game
• “Bone Puzzle” Set-Top Game
• “On My Way” Sing-Along Song
• “Bear Legends: Native American Tales” Featurette
• “Making Noise: The Art of Foley” Featurette
• “Art Review”
• Sneak Peeks
• THX Optimizer
Disc Two
• “Paths of Discovery: The Making of Brother Bear” Documentary
• Never-Before-Heard Phil Collins Song “Fishing Song”
• Deleted Scenes
• “Transformation” Song with Original Phil Collins Lyrics
• THX Optimizer

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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Brother Bear: Special Edition (2003)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (March 11, 2004)
Here’s the part of the review where I usually discuss how traditional cel animation is on life support while computer animation continues to prosper. However, the subject depresses me, so I’ll skip it. I do enjoy well-made CG flicks, but the continued decline of cel animation remains a sad state of affairs.

At least 2003’s Brother Bear did nothing to accelerate the demise of cel animation. With a gross of $85 million, it didn’t exactly rake in the bucks and give Finding Nemo a run for its money, but at least it outdid cel flops like Treasure Planet and Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas.

At the start of Bear, we meet Kenai (voiced by Joaquin Phoenix) and his brothers Denahi (Jason Raize) and Sitka (DB Sweeney). Selfish, impetuous and impulsive, Kenai nears an important ceremony to mark his ascension toward manhood. Tribe leader Tanana (Joan Copeland) will then given him a totem that symbolizes a virtue by which he needs to lead his life. When Kenai receives the bear of love, he clearly doesn’t seem too happy about this development.

Bears make his life worse when his brothers discover that Kenai failed to properly secure a basket of fish, and a furry forest-dweller made off with the food. Kenai angrily chases the creature, but he ultimately puts himself and his brothers at risk. When it looks bad for Kenai and Denahi, Sitka sacrifices himself to spare their lives.

This enrages Kenai, and he blames the bear. He chases after the animal and ultimately kills it. When this happens, Kenai gets swallowed by mystical light that decides to teach him a lesson and transforms him into... a bear.

Naturally freaked by this occurrence, Kenai soon gets a message from Tanana who tells him what he needs to do. From there Kenai embarks on a mission to get to the top of a mountain where he can meet with the spirit of Sitka and return to his natural form. Along the way, he meets a little cub named Koda (Jeremy Suarez) who got separated from his mother. Koda wants to go to a big salmon catch where he can reunite with other bears and his mother, and Kenai agrees to go when he learns this takes place near where he needs to meet Sitka.

At first, Kenai wants nothing to do with the chatty younger bear, but the two slowly start to bond and our protagonist starts to see the world from the ursine point of view. To complicate matters, a vengeful Denahi follows the pair and plans to kill Kenai. Since he doesn’t realize anything about the transformation that occurred, Denahi believes that this bear killed Kenai, so he wants to get back at the creature. The movie follows Kenai as he heads to the mountain to return to human form and attempts to keep Denahi off his trail long enough to achieve that.

While not a bad flick, Brother Bear seems like one of the more ordinary Disney animated efforts of recent years. It offers the least interesting tale since 2000’s bland Dinosaur. Hmm... both of those movies include DB Sweeney in prominent roles. Perhaps he curses Disney animated pictures to mediocrity.

At least I definitely liked Brother Bear more than the forgettable Dinosaur. Bear enjoys a certain sweetness that occurs largely due to the charming and ingenuous performance from Suarez as Koda. The role doesn’t offer much depth or challenge, but the young actor makes the character very likable and cute. His absolute love for and faith in Kenai helps us to care for the latter. As a human he seemed like a total jerk, so we need this way to soften his personality. Suarez accomplishes that well.

Also on the positive side, Bear presents some gorgeous visuals. The northern North American setting doesn’t emphasize realism at strictly. Instead, many of the backgrounds come across as somewhat impressionistic, and these elements seem quite winning. The look of the film doesn’t stray far from reality, but it varies enough to make the result fairly distinctive.

Where Bear falters mainly stems from the absence of any real challenge to it. A few surprises appear, particularly related to how Kenai reacts at the end of the film, but not much else will catch the viewer off-guard.

Instead, most of Bear progresses down a fairly predictable path. I don’t regard that as bad in and of itself, but the movie also fails to challenge the viewer with much real spark or distinctiveness. The movie looks a little like Lilo & Stitch at times, but it lacks that effort’s bouncy energy. It also focuses too much on cheap gags that seem more heavily oriented at younger viewers than usual. Even with the inclusion of a couple of moose transparently based on Bob and Doug McKenzie, there’s not a lot of humor aimed at the adult viewers. (However, the inclusion of a cub named Koda offers a clever and obscure reference; Cub Koda was a rocker, best known for writing and recording “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” with Brownsville Station back in the Seventies.)

Still, Brother Bear displays decent heart, and it remains consistently entertaining, if only moderately so. The movie enjoys a mix of positives but not much to make it stand out from the crowd. Disney fans will enjoy the flick, but I doubt many will regard it as one of the studio’s better efforts.

(By the way, be sure to stick around through the conclusion of the end credits. There we find a fun coda from Koda.)

The DVD Grades: Picture A-/ Audio B+/ Bonus B+
Get ready for something different. For what I believe is the first time ever, Brother Bear presents two separate anamorphic transfers, each with a different aspect ratio. On DVD One, Bear appears in a “family friendly” aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1, while DVD Two presents the theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Both discs are single-sided, double-layered; the images have been enhanced for 16X9 televisions.

With the “theatrical aspect ratio” version, the dimensions become even more complicated for other reasons: Bear actually used two different aspect ratios on the big screen. The first 24 minutes or so featured 1.85:1 dimensions, while the rest of the movie blossomed out to 2.35:1. This becomes a challenge to achieve on the small screen. In the theaters, the extra width of 2.35:1 added grandness to the film, but at home, those flicks can look smaller than 1.85:1 ones. Disney handled the transition properly. The image doesn’t “shrink” from 1.85:1 to 2.35:1; instead, the former scenes come windowboxed, so when the 2.35:1 material starts, the image indeed expands the sides of the presentation. None of these issues affect the “family friendly” version, which remains firmly 1.66:1 from start to finish.

For this review, I only watched the 2.35:1 edition of Bear. Sharpness looked very good, as the movie almost always remained crisp and detailed. During the 1.85:1 sections, a few shots looked slightly ill-defined, but those were rare and totally vanished once we went to 2.35:1. From there the movie always seemed tight and concise. Jagged edges and moiré effects created no concerns, and I also witnessed no signs of edge enhancement. The movie presented absolutely no source defects, and I thought that artifacts also caused no problems.

Given its northern North American setting Bear featured a vibrant and rich palette, and the DVD demonstrated excellent color reproduction. It mixed a nice variety of hues, all within the natural outdoors setting. From foliage to animals to other elements, the colors were consistently terrific. Black levels seemed similarly distinct and rich, while low-light shots came across as appropriately dense but lacked any issues related to excessive opacity. Disney don’t often botch transfers of modern flicks, and Bear presented another visual winner.

Many will deride Disney’s choice to include a non-original aspect ratio version of Brother Bear, but I support it. For one, the package also includes the theatrical aspect ratio; as long as it’s there, I couldn’t care less what else they do to the alternate one. In addition, a more gently letterboxed version might work best for younger audiences due to the oddness of the theatrical one’s dual ratios. I happily greeted the correct presentation of the 1.85:1/2.35:1 hybrid, but even so, I must admit the 1.85:1 scenes seem a bit distracting; perhaps because I never see anything so noticeably windowboxed, it feels weird to watch. I imagine that kids will be even more put-off by it, so I think it’s good to have a choice.

Not only does Brother Bear provide visual options, but also it comes with two audio choices. We get both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks. For the most part, the pair sounded very similar. The Dolby mix offered slightly weaker bass response, but overall, the two seemed a lot alike.

Although the soundfield moderately emphasized the front domain, it presented a nicely balanced and engaging effort. Some smooth directional dialogue popped up at times, and the score demonstrated clear stereo imaging. Effects appeared in their appropriate places and moved cleanly across the spectrum. The surrounds added solid reinforcement of these elements throughout the film, and they kicked into gear well during louder sequences. The movie’s smattering of action sequences provided some nice discrete audio, with elements that seemed accurately located and dynamic.

Audio quality was generally positive. Speech seemed natural and distinct, and the lines showed no problems related to edginess or intelligibility. The score was lush and vivid, as those portions appeared bright and dynamic throughout the film. However, the mix of pop songs came across as somewhat anemic. The tunes lacked much depth and seemed too heavy in the upper range; they definitely needed greater low-end information, though they weren’t totally free from those elements. Effects came across as accurate and clean. They demonstrated no signs of distortion, and they presented fine bass response as necessary. Except for those songs, low-end was warm and tight overall, and those elements lacked any signs of looseness. The audio of Bear didn’t dazzle, but it mostly seemed satisfying.

The supplements to Brother Bear spread across both of this set’s discs. As we start on DVD One, we find an unusual audio commentary from moose characters Rutt (Rick Moranis) and Tuke (Dave Thomas). Both sit together for their running, screen-specific chat. It may accompany the “family friendly” version of the film, but don’t expect this character commentary to be dumbed down for the kiddies. Indeed, I seriously doubt any youngsters in the audience will get much from it, as the patter from Thomas and Moranis seems firmly aimed at adults.

That makes it a darned fun piece. I always feel leery of character commentaries, for they’re very hit or miss. They rely on the improvisational skills of the actors, which means they can be pretty entertaining or only moderately positive.

Bear’s chat falls into the former camp. Comedic partners for many years, Thomas and Moranis exhibit an easy rapport that makes this track fly. Since they work in character, we get no actual information about the making of the movie. However, they interact in a lively manner and constantly riff on various elements of the movie. They toss out tons of clever and funny jokes, virtually all of which will be above the heads of kids. They discuss chipmunks as the harbingers of doom, interpret the Latin origins of “animation”, and refer to Lee Strasberg, for heaven’s sake! They even do a bit on how the sound system was invented by “Dolby” Gillis. It’s a very fun commentary that offers a consistently inventive and amusing piece.

Note that you can watch the commentary with or without “visuals”. These take the form of MST3K-style silhouettes that pop up onscreen sporadically. Make that very sporadically, as they appear only a few times during the movie and add very little to the package. Turn them on if you want, but don’t go out of your way to watch the film with them.

Next we find Koda’s Outtakes. This takes the Pixar route and gives us two minutes and 44 seconds of fake bloopers. These seem neither clever nor entertaining, as they feature a lot of farting and falling.

After this we get a couple of musical features. We find a music video for Phil Collins’ “Look Through My Eyes”. The clip takes the standard format, as it mixes movie clips and a lip-synch performance from Collins and band. It’s a mediocre song and video. We also discover a sing-along song for “On My Way”. As with other entries in this genre, it shows the clip from the movie with Karaoke-style lyrics displayed on the screen. Yawn!

We find two set-top games. “Bone Puzzle” has you pick the right bones to put together to make part of an animal. When completed, you’ll see a little informational piece about that critter. It’s easy and not very entertaining. “Find Your Totem” requires you to answer questions about your personal choices; when done, it reveals your personal totem. It’s a fun feature, though I don’t think it’s too accurate, as mine came up as “adventure”, and I’m not exactly Joe Adventurous.

With the three-minute featurette Bear Legends two minutes and 57 seconds we get some simple stories. This area presents some Native American tales, and seems like a minor diversion. Making Noise: The Art of Foley offers a three-minute and 15-second featurette narrated by actor Jeremy Suarez. We get a light-hearted, kid-oriented look at the creation of movie sound effects; it’s basic but decent for younger fans.

Lastly, Art Review runs nine minutes, 58 seconds. Art director Robh Ruppel and supervising animator Byron Howard comment as we watch concept art. They offer good details about the material, and we see a lot of interesting pieces.

As DVD One starts, we encounter a mix of ads. We find trailers for Aladdin, The Incredibles, Chicken Little, The Three Musketeers Mary Poppins, and Mulan II. These also appear in the disc’s Sneak Peeks domain along with promos for the Game Boy Advance Brother Bear videogame and “Walt Disney World Magical Gatherings”. In a nice touch that will make many foes of “forced trailers” happy, none of these ads show up on DVD Two; they’re totally isolated to the “family friendly” version.

Over on DVD Two, the main attraction comes from Paths of Discovery: The Making of Brother Bear. In this 44-minute and 51-second documentary, we get the standard mix of movie clips, behind the scenes materials, and interviews. We find remarks from directors Bob Walker and Aaron Blaise, producer Chuck Williams, supervising animators Ruben Aquino, Broose Johnson, Tony Stanley, Byron Howard, Anthony Michaels, Jim Jackson, Alex Kupershmidt, art director Robh Ruppel, (now famously former) Walt Disney Company Vice Chairman and Walt Disney Feature Animation Chairman Roy E. Disney, Executive Vice President of Creative Affairs Pam Coats, composer/songwriter Phil Collins, singers Tina Turner and the Blind Boys of Alabama, President of Walt Disney Music Chris Montan, composer Mark Mancina, and actors Joaquin Phoenix, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis, and Jeremy Suarez.

The program covers a gamut of topics. We hear about the origins and development of the project, research, abandoned characters and concepts, themes and the depiction of brothers, casting, character design and development, the challenges of voice acting, visual design and backgrounds, the use of dual aspect ratios, and the songs and score. “Paths” doesn’t present a smooth and coherent documentary, as it actually consists of 12 small featurettes connected via the “Play All” option. They join together acceptably well, but they remain somewhat disjointed.

That factor doesn’t create big problems, but the somewhat general nature of the information makes the piece less than stellar. “Paths” obvious covers a wide range of subjects, and it goes over all the highlights. It relates the basics of the production fairly well, and the liberal use of behind the scenes material works nicely. Collins’ comments about his work seem particularly interesting. Actually, the program discusses the music with much greater depth than any other subject, and we even find some mention of mild discord.

However, most of the comments seem somewhat superficial, as we go through subjects awfully quickly, and we hear far too much praise. This gives the program more of a fluffy tone than I’d like. Ultimately, “Paths” will teach us a reasonable amount of decent information, but it doesn’t offer a terribly rich examination of the film.

Next we find a collection of three deleted scenes. Including introductions from the directors and producer Chuck Williams, these last 11 minutes and seven seconds. The first snippet shows Kenai as he attempts to atone for his lie to Koda, while the second depicts an alternate version of Kenai’s confession to Koda. Piece three includes an unused character, Muri the Squirrel. Clips one and three present storyreels, while the second features mostly rough animation. All three are entertaining and interesting to see.

The following two features connect to the movie’s music. We discover a “never-Before-Heard” Phil Collins number called Fishing Song. Collins introduces this three-minute and 47-second clip and gives us some quick notes about what would become “Welcome”. We then hear the track in storyreel form. It’s essentially another deleted scene and a good addition to the set.

We also find the Transformation song with the original Phil Collins lyrics. The two-minute and 40-second piece, we see shots from the sessions with the Bulgarian Women’s Chorus and see English translations of the lyrics at the bottom of the screen. As it mixes recording images with clips from the film, it’s sort of a half-assed music video and not terribly fascinating, though it’s moderately interesting to see the translation of the words.

Lastly, both discs features the THX Optimizer. Also found on many other DVDs, this purports to help you set up your system for the best reproduction of both picture and sound, ala stand-alone programs such as Video Essentials. I’ve never tried the Optimizer since I’m happy with my settings, but if you don’t own something such as Essentials, the Optimizer may help you improve picture and audio quality.

When compared with Disney’s other animated fare, Brother Bear comes across as firmly ordinary. The movie remains consistently likable and entertaining, but it lacks that spark that would allow it to prosper and turn into something special. The DVD presents the usual high quality picture with fairly solid audio and a reasonably nice collection of extras. Brother Bear offers neither a great movie nor an exceptional DVD, but it does everything well enough to merit my recommendation.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.4563 Stars Number of Votes: 103

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DVD Movie Guide @ dvdmg.com
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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg
Cast:
Irene Bedard, Judy Kuhn, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, John Kassir, Russell Means, Christian Bale, Linda Hunt, Danny Mann, Billy Connolly
Writing Credits:
Carl Binder, Randy Cartwright, Andrew Chapman, Vincent DeFrances, Don Dougherty, Will Finn, Joe Grant, Susannah Grant, T. Daniel Hofstedt, Broose Johnson, Jorgen Klubien, Philip LaZebnik, Tom Mazzocco, David Pruiksma, Nik Ranieri

Tagline:
Two different worlds. One true love.

Synopsis:
All the music, adventure, and colorful fun of Disney's Pocahontas come to life like never before in the 10th Anniversary Edition 2-Disc Set. Bursting with all the "Colors Of The Wind," Pocahontas tells the story of a free-spirited girl who wonders what adventures await "Just Around The Riverbend." Pocahontas - along with her playful pals Meeko and Flit - relies on the guidance of her loving and wise Grandmother Willow when English settlers arrive on the shores of their village. Her chance meeting with the courageous Captain John Smith leads to a beautiful friendship that bridges the gap between two cultures, and changes history.

Now fully restored, Pocahontas includes the song "If I Never Knew You," and never-before-seen animation seamlessly integrated into the original film. This 2-Disc 10th Anniversary Edition is loaded with spectacular bonus features, all-new games, and soaring Academy Award(R)-winning music (1995 Best Original Musical Score, Best Original Song, "Colors Of The Wind"). Disney's Pocahontas is a fun-filled adventure your whole family will enjoy.

Box Office:
Budget
$55 million.
Opening Weekend
$29.500 million on -unknown- screens.
Domestic Gross
$141.600 million.

MPAA:
Rated G

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.66:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 84 min.
Price: $29.989
Release Date: 5/3/2005

Bonus:
Disc One
• Audio Commentary with Directors Eric Goldberg and Mike Gabriel and Producer James Pentecost
• “Disney’s Art Project” Set-Top Game
• “Follow Your Heart” Set-Top Game
• “Colors of the Wind” Sing-Along Song
• “Just Around the Riverbend” Sing-Along Song
• “Colors of the Wind” Music Video
• Sneak Peeks
• THX Optimizer
Disc Two
• “The Making of Pocahontas” Documentary
• Early Presentation Reel
• Storyboard-to-Film Comparison
• Production Progression Reel
• “The Music of Pocahontas” Featurette
• “If I Never Knew You” Deleted Song
• Deleted Scenes
• Trailers
• “The Premiere In Central Park” Featurette
• Publicity Gallery

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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Pocahontas: 10th Anniversary Edition (1995)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (April 27, 2005)
Although it raked in a healthy $141 million at the box office during the summer of 1995, Pocahontas always was regarded as a minor failure for Disney animation. This stemmed entirely from the astonishing success of in 1994. That hit grossed an amazing $312 million and raised the bar for what would henceforth be considered "successful" for Disney. $141 million may sound pretty good, but it represented less than half of the take of King and started the gradual slide in revenue the studio wouldn't start to reverse until Mulan and A Bug's Life in 1998.

Back when Pocahontas arrived on screens, I was a very mild Disney animation fan. I owned and on laserdisc and would soon add King, but that was about it. I didn't have any interest in pre-1990s Disney animation, and any upcoming movies were taken on a case-by-case basis. As such, although I now rush to see new Disney animated films, that wasn't the case in 1995.

I only saw Pocahontas theatrically because of one day during which I literally had nothing better to do. I'd taken my car to have massive amounts of car stereo equipment installed, and because the store was far from home, I had nothing to do other than walk across the street to a movie theater. Much of what they offered I'd already seen, so I went for the two titles I'd not yet viewed: and Pocahontas.

Apollo was one I actually wanted to see, whereas Pocahontas came more as a default; that happens sometimes, when you have time and want to see a movie but there's nothing special so you take in something that doesn't really interest you. In the case of Pocahontas, my hesitation stemmed less from a lack of desire and more from an actual aversion, as my first preview of the film did not make it look pretty.

Back in the fall of 1994 Disney released a Pocahontas trailer that consisted solely of the "Colors of the Wind" scene in its entirety. This wasn't the first or last time Disney used this form of advertisement - King offered a similar trailer - but at least for me, it backfired in regard to Pocahontas. Removed from the context of the film, "Wind" came across as insanely "politically correct", preachy and condescending, and it immediately gave me a negative impression of the movie.

Admittedly, "Wind" still seems overly patronizing even as part of the film, but its isolation in a trailer even more strongly emphasized the "white people are bad" overtones. The song makes a lot more sense and is much more tolerable - and enjoyable, even - within the body of the movie.

None of that really mattered when I saw Pocahontas theatrically. I recall finding it to be a decent little film but not terribly stimulating, and I had no desire to add it to my LD collection. Actually, my batch of Disney LDs remained fairly small; over the three years that followed Pocahontas's theatrical premiere, I picked up boxed sets of Toy Story and 1996's The Hunchback of Notre Dame but passed on all the other releases.

I maintained that status until November 1998. At that time the LD was in steep decline and some great prices could be found on previously-pricey material. I saw that one store was selling the boxed set of Pocahontas - which originally went for $100 - for only $30. At that price, I figured I should give the movie another shot, especially since my opinion of Disney animation had recently started to pick up again after that prior summer's Mulan. (I'd also really liked Hunchback but initially found 1997's Hercules to be a big disappointment.)

Ironically, that decision to buy the bargain box of Pocahontas indirectly sparked my own soon-to-be-heavy interest in the history of Disney animation. I delighted in the terrific supplements in that set and decided it was time to branch out to some older Disney films. After all, with the acquisition of Pocahontas I already owned all of the modern-day Disney animation in deluxe boxed sets, but there were a bunch of older movies I had yet to peruse. During late 1998 and early 1999, I developed an intense interest in Disney animation and quickly snapped up slew of LDs.

As such, I owe a debt to Pocahontas since I'm really happy that I've become such a Disney fan; I'm actually mad at myself for not pursuing the classic films much sooner, but I had bizarrely convinced myself that I only liked the new stuff. That opinion changed once I started to watch the classics.

I've developed a greater affection for Pocahontas, and not just because it indirectly kick-started my fascination with Disney animation. Now that I can better distance myself from my disdain for the film's heavy-handed message, I find it to offer an above-average Disney experience. It doesn't stand up to the studio's best efforts, but it remains a solid effort that stands up well to repeated viewings.

Pocahontas may well be Disney's most intensely dramatic feature. Hunchback came close, but it relied too heavily on comic relief, most unfortunately near the film's climax when - in an insanely incongruous and disruptive move - the story leaves the action to provide a goofy musical number starring the gargoyles, the darkness quickly dissipates. Which was too bad, as much of the rest of Hunchback truly took Disney to a satisfyingly dark place that the studio had largely been unwilling to visit prior to 1996.

Pocahontas lacks the depth of the experience provided by Hunchback, but it remains more consistently serious and "heavy." Yes, it includes the traditional sidekicks who exist for comic relief, but they're less of an intrusion than the gargoyles. In fact, I thought they blended well with the action. Most of the humor comes from Pocahontas's animal friends Meeko the badger and Flit the hummingbird. We also get a few laughs from two of malevolent Governor Ratcliffe's companions: his manservant Wiggins and his pampered pooch Percy. I didn't find the comedy that revolved around these characters to appear forced or intrusive, and it should be noted that when the action becomes serious, there are no comedic pauses to lighten the tone; the filmmakers essentially follow through on what they promise.

Virtually every Disney animated title receives criticism from some groups - though the Pixar pictures have escaped pretty much unscathed - and Pocahontas took a greater beating than most. This occurred due to the film's rather loose retelling of history. Pocahontas differed from every other Disney cartoon in that it didn't adapt characters from a fictional source; it remains the only Disney animated feature that utilized actual historical figures. (Although I believe Sleeping Beauty was based upon some really lazy chick Walt once knew.)

Disney take their lumps for altering the storylines of the fictional works they adapt, but those beatings didn't compare to the assault that accompanied the release of Pocahontas. It probably didn't help that they took a person who was in reality a fairly young girl at the time of the events related in the film and made her into a rather idealized – and built - woman. Make no mistake - this movie's Pocahontas is quite a babe! Even when she reached adulthood, the actual Pocahontas was nothing to look at, but many protested over Disney's "sexist" treatment of the character.

This ruckus ignores a few issues. For one, John Smith looked nothing like the figure we see depicted here. Also, if the movie created characters who resembled their historical forebears in age and appearance, we'd have a pretty sick story, since a grown man would be smitten by a very underaged girl; they'd have to call it Lolitahontas.

I'm perfectly fine with all of the alterations Disney made to the facts. Do I encourage films to depict factually inaccurate material? Nope. However, one has to consider the form that the product takes. Some movies purport to be historically accurate and realistic; Pocahontas is not one of those pictures. At no point did Disney claim this would be a biography or anything other than a fantasy loosely based on some historical material. Truly, the film takes from the legend of Pocahontas; as such, criticisms of its lack of factual accuracy are misplaced.

Personally, I think the folks who criticize the alterations in Disney films miss another point. I believe that these movies create interest in the subjects that otherwise wouldn't exist. How many kids decided to read Tarzan because of the book, or learn more about Greek mythology due to Hercules? A lot? Maybe not, but enough to make the endeavors worthwhile.

No, I don't claim that Disney create these films in the hopes that they'll spur additional study by youngsters. Nonetheless, I think it's a positive byproduct and it shouldn't be discounted. I'm certain that most kids see the movies, dig them and then move on, but I'm also sure that a goodly amount of children discover material that otherwise might have remained unknown to them. It's all about broadening horizons, and while it's true that "the Disney version" of a story tends to become the absolute last word in that tale to the general public, Disney releases also create awareness that the material would not otherwise obtain. Whine about Pocahontas's rack all you want; the final result still gets the job done.

Personally, I rather like Pocahontas's rack, but I think the movie works for reasons other than hormonal. One positive aspect of the film that gets lost in the criticism stems from the nature of her character. For many years, Disney heroines remained fairly passive figures; Snow White, Cinderella, Briar Rose. Ariel and Belle displayed more spunk, but neither really took charge of events.

The same cannot be said for Pocahontas. She's tough, brave, smart and caring. The first time she meets John Smith, he holds a rifle on her; she reacts by simply standing up and staring at him. Whether through defiance or ignorance - logically, she wouldn't know what that weapon was, though I'd expect she would glean a negative intent from Smith's posture - she's nobody's victim and won't be bullied or intimidated.

Pocahontas is a romance, but it avoids the "Someday My Prince Will Come" trappings of many other Disney films in which the women are clearly viewed as incomplete if they lack mates. In fact - possible spoiler ahead! - Pocahontas stands as one of the rare Disney films in which the boy and the girl end up apart. In fact, I think it's the only Disney romance that ends in such a manner. Yeah, Quasimodo remains single at the conclusion of Hunchback, but Esmerelda and Phoebus have matched, and at least he's made some new friends and gotten out of that filthy tower.

Pocahontas, on the other hand, features a relatively down-cast ending. I won't call it "sad", but it does seem bittersweet. Part of me dislikes the fact that Pocahontas and Smith end up separated at the conclusion of the story, because for all of the film's preaching about racial harmony, it seems bothersome that the only romantic couple in Disney history who don't walk off into the sunset together would also be Disney's only interracial couple. Was that a consideration? I doubt it, but I must admit it makes an otherwise satisfying conclusion more disappointing.

However, the current ending seems in keeping with the tone and the spirit of the movie, so I won't complain too much. By the way, if my preceding comments make it appear that I'm an enthusiastic supporter of Pocahontas, that's not the case. I still dislike the generally preachy tone of the movie, plus many of the characterizations seem stiff and bland. Irene Bedard's Pocahontas stands out so far above the rest that everyone else suffers in comparison. Mel Gibson's Smith never rises above generic action-hero fluff, though I won't fully - or even mostly – blame Gibson for that; while I understand the filmmakers' reluctance to draw a Smith who looked like the real-life troll, his UCLA frat boy appearance here makes him look like a dude more at home on a surfboard than in a new land.

Ratcliffe seems to be a decent villain, though he's underdrawn and flat, and I strongly disagree with the decision to cast David Ogden Stiers as both Ratcliffe and his lackey Wiggins. Stiers gives satisfactory performances in both roles - though he stands out in neither, unlike his strong turn as Cogsworth in Beast - but it seems tremendously obvious that the same guy does both voices. This lends the proceedings a quality of stinginess that I found hard to shake, as though the producers were too cheap to pay for two actors. Also, since literally all of Wiggins' scenes come along with Ratcliffe (though not vice versa), I got the uncomfortable impression of a man talking to himself. This sort of double-casting can work for uncommonly-talented voice artist - such as Mel Blanc - or if both roles are minor or at least don't interact. None of those qualifications exist, so I found the dual performance by Stiers to detract from an otherwise strong film.

Ultimately, that's how I would classify Pocahontas. It's not the best Disney has to offer, but it presents some definite strengths and it creates an appealing sense of drama and seriousness lacking from many of their other movies. I may not have cared for the film initially, but my tune has changed since 1995, and I now find it to be a solid and compelling effort.

The DVD Grades: Picture B+/ Audio B-/ Bonus B
Pocahontas appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the widescreen image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Though Pocahontas wasn’t one of Disney’s top transfers, it mostly satisfied.

Sharpness seemed solid most of the time. Usually the movie remained crisp and well defined. Some shots looked a little soft, though, especially in wider angles. Jagged edges and moiré effects appeared absent, but I noticed mild signs of edge enhancement. These created most of the distractions, as they occasionally gave the movie its minor lack of definition. In regard to print flaws, I noticed none, as the movie looked clean and fresh from start to finish.

The setting of Pocahontas meant that it boasted a wonderfully vivid and varied palette, and the DVD presented those hues well. The tones consistently looked terrific. The hues always came across as lively, and the movie handled lots of colored lighting with aplomb. Black levels looked solid, and low-light images were concisely displayed and tight, with no excessive opacity. Pocahontas presented a consistently good transfer that fell below “A” level solely due to the issues related to sharpness. Since those were fairly minor, it still earned a positive “B+”.

As for the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix of Pocahontas, it was good but not terrific. The soundfield displayed inconsistent breadth. At times it could provide a pretty nicely encompassing experience, such as during the first scene in which Smith's boat set sail; the surrounds kicked in strongly when the storm hits, and the track became quite involving.

After that, however, the mixers must have napped, for the soundtrack largely remained dormant. The forward soundstage often provided some decent stereo imaging, but it still appeared pretty tame. The surrounds received even less consideration and did little more than offer general ambience from the "tweeting birds" school of sound design. The track picked up a bit from time to time, but not substantially, and it never approached the pretty active level displayed at the start.

The audio quality also declined after that early segment. Dialogue seemed fine, with clear and natural speech that was easily intelligible. Effects were usually pretty accurate and clean, with no signs of distortion, and music seemed crisp and smooth. Bass response occasionally lagged, with some songs and effects that lacked the expected dimensionality. Low-end sporadically created a more dynamic impression, but often those elements seemed a bit lackluster. This mix suited the material to a sufficient degree but not much better than that.

So how did the picture and audio of this DVD compare with those on the original 2000 release? I thought both DVDs presented similar soundtracks, but the new one improved considerably over the old disc’s unimpressive visuals. That one’s biggest issue connected to graininess, as it looked really messy most of the time. It also demonstrated a bit more softness than this one. The 10th anniversary release cleans up matters dramatically and looks much smoother and clearer. It’s a vast improvement.

While the old DVD included only a smattering of minor extras, this “10th Anniversary Edition” of Pocahontas broadens matters considerably. This package includes two versions of the film: the original theatrical cut and the 10th Anniversary Edition. The latter adds three minutes to the 1995 release’s 81-minute running time, all due to the inclusion of a cut song called “If I Never Knew You”. This track shows up about two-thirds of the way through the flick when Pocahontas goes to visit the imprisoned John Smith. It’s a sappy tune and the scene slows down the dramatic progress; the movie works better without it. (The longer cut also includes a brief reprise of the number when Pocahontas and Smith part ways at the end.)

DVD One’s supplements open with an audio commentary from directors Eric Goldberg and Mike Gabriel and producer James Pentecost. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific chat. They cover the expected subjects, as they get into story topics and history, characters and actors, specifics connected to the animation, the music, cut sequences, and various challenges. The track occasionally drags, but it usually moves along well. It goes over all the requisite information in an appealing and enjoyable manner to give us a good examination of the film.

Note that the commentary solely accompanies the extended “10th Anniversary” cut of the film. That makes sense, since the participants recorded it for that edition. However, there’s an old commentary created for the laserdisc of Pocahontas, and it’s too bad the DVD’s producers didn’t include it to go along with the theatrical cut. Granted, it probably would have been somewhat redundant, but additional options are never a bad thing. It goes missed here.

Next we find two “set-top games”. Disney’s Art Project teaches kids how to make “fun and magical toys” from household items. These include a dream catcher and a drum. Artsy-crafty kids might enjoy this feature. Hosted by Grandmother Willow, Follow Your Heart asks a series of very easy questions about the flick. Perfect performance brings no reward, so skip this dull contest.

After this we locate two Sing-Along Songs. We find karaoke takes on “Colors of the Wind” and “Just Around the Riverbend”. These simply offer the appropriate scenes from the movie with added text at the bottom of the screen.

A repeat from the old DVD, we get a music video for “Colors of the Wind” by Vanessa Williams. It adheres to the usual movie clips and lip-synch format typical for Disney music videos. Don’t expect anything more than a dull piece for this dreadfully overproduced rendition of the tune.

As DVD One starts, we encounter a mix of ads. We find trailers for Cinderella, Chicken Little, Tarzan II and Kim Possible: So the Drama. These also appear in the disc’s Sneak Peeks domain along with promos for Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, The Cat Returns, Porco Rosso, Nausicaa, and the Disney Princess line.

DVD One features the THX Optimizer. Also found on many other DVDs, this purports to help you set up your system for the best reproduction of both picture and sound, ala stand-alone programs such as Video Essentials. I’ve never tried the Optimizer since I’m happy with my settings, but if you don’t own something such as Essentials, the Optimizer may help you improve picture and audio quality.

With that we move over to DVD Two and its features. First comes a documentary called The Making of Pocahontas. Hosted by actor Irene Bedard, this 28-minute show from 1995 includes a mix of movie snippets, behind the scenes shots, and comments from Gabriel, Goldberg, Pentecost, Walt Disney Company vice chairman of the board Roy E. Disney, supervising animators Glen Keane, Duncan Marjoribanks, Nik Ranieri, Ruben Aquino, Dave Pruiksma and John Pomeroy, art director Mike Giaimo, Disney Feature Aniamtion president Peter Schneider, head of story Tom Sito, composer Alan Menken, lyricist Stephen Schwartz, singer Jon Secada, and actors Russell Means, Mel Gibson, Judy Kuhn, and David Ogden Stiers. The piece covers the story and its historical background, research, accuracy, the movie’s look, the cast, character development and depiction, and music.

With a reasonably long running time, you’d expect a little depth from “Making”. And that’s what you’ll get – just a little depth. Clearly created to promote the movie, “Making” offers a very glossy look at the production. Bedard’s tour around Jamestown is good, and the animators provide some decent insight, but this piece remains long on fluff and short on useful information.

For a glimpse at initial work on Pocahontas, we find the Early Presentation Reel. This three-minute and 45-second clip starts with an introduction from Pentecost as he explains what we’ll see. Then we watch production art accompanied by a demo of “Colors of the Wind”. We can view this with or without commentary from lyricist Schwartz. He tells us about the origins of the lyrics and the impact the song had on some Indian leaders. It’s an interesting presentation either way, but the commentary offers the best way to watch it.

An introduction from Goldberg opens the 94-second Storyboard-to-Film Comparison. We look at the usual splitscreen comparison for the scene in which Smith first meets Pocahontas. It provides a good look at Glen Keane’s distinctive charcoal boards, and it also can be viewed with or without commentary. Here the directors discuss Keane’s creative processes.

Goldberg appears again in his 50-second introduction to the Production Progression Reel. We then can watch any of four options via the “angle” button. These include “story reel”, “rough animation”, “clean-up animation” and “final color”, and they let us see the scene in which Pocahontas rushes to greet her father. Each lasts 40 seconds, and they offer a fun way to see the various steps of artwork.

Under the “Design” banner, we get a wide mix of pieces. These mostly break down into areas connected to characters, and some of them include featurettes called “Creating (Character Name)”. These appear for Pocahontas (four minutes, 22 seconds), John Smith (2:16), Governor Ratcliffe (0:51), Grandmother Willow (2:09), Meeko (1:43), Flit (0:57), and Percy (0:55). We also get “Creating Art Design, Layouts and Backgrounds” (2:12). These contain comments from folks such as Keane, Pomeroy, Marjoribanks, Ranieri, Pruiksma, Giaimo, supervising animator Chris Buck, and CGI supervisor Steve Goldberg.

For Pocahontas, Keane compares her look to that of Ariel, another character he drew. Pomeroy tells us about influences for Smith and his development, and the rest go over what they attempted to do with the various characters. We also learn about the CG elements of Grandmother Willow, an abandoned turkey character, and some talking animals who lost their voices. These are informative and enjoyable discussions, even though some repeat notes we hear elsewhere.

Some characters include Test Animation snippets. We get these for Ratcliffe (20 seconds), Grandmother Willow (0:22), Meeko (0:29), Flit (0:16), Thomas (0:24), Kekata (0:17) and a deleted turkey character called Redfeather (0:30). These offer a nice glimpse of early animation, and the “Redfeather” segment proves especially valuable since he doesn’t appear in the final film. It also gives us a look at talking Percy.

Lastly, each character comes with Still Images. We find them for Pocahontas (150 frames), John Smith (78), Ratcliffe (81), Powhatan (42), Grandmother Willow (35), Meeko (24), Flit (16), Percy (21), Thomas (27), Kocoum (30), Kekata (18), and Redfeather (17). We also see a collection for “Art Design, Layouts and Backgrounds” (241). All of these add up to a rich and detailed view of the different artistic elements.

With that we head to the “Music” domain and a featurette called The Music of Pocahontas. It runs seven minutes, five seconds, and presents comments from Pentecost, Menken, Schwartz, We learn about the Menken/Schwartz partnership, the composition of some songs, and the work of the vocalists. The program gets a little fluffy at times, but it includes nice insight into the collaborative process, and the shots in the studio are solid as well.

Another retread from the original DVD, we find a music video for “If I Never Knew You”. This features Jon Secada and Shanice. My comments for the “Colors of the Wind” video hold true here: overproduced tune, weak video.

A featurette called The Making of “If I Never Knew You” goes for four minutes, 34 seconds. We hear from Menken, Roy E. Disney, Pomeroy, Goldberg and Gabriel. They talk about the song’s composition, its deletion, and its reinsertion in the movie. Really, we don’t learn anything here that’s not already covered in the commentary.

Nine Deleted Scenes run between 37 seconds and four minutes for a total of 15 minutes, 11 seconds of material. Most of these appear as storyreels, though “Miscellaneous Scenes” mixes rough and finished animation. Nothing fascinating appears here, though it’s fun to have a look at some abandoned concepts.

Two scenes come with optional audio commentary: “Dancing to the Wedding Drum” and “In the Middle of the River”. The former would have been our introduction to Pocahontas as the tribe gathers for her wedding, while the latter offers an unused song. The commentary talks about the clips and tells us why they got the boot.

Over in “The Release”, we get two trailers plus a three-minute and 45-second look at The Premiere in Central Park. It talks about how big, big big! this massive screening was. The usual Multi-Language Reel gives us snippets of the film in Norwegian, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Korean, French Canadian, Turkish, Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Castilian, Slovak, Icelandic, Polish, and French. In a nice touch, we also learn the names of the various international vocalists.

Finally, a Publicity Gallery includes a mix of stills. It presents 18 frames. In addition to the usual ads, we get oddities like Pocahontas in modern fashion designs featured in Harper’s Bazarr!

Does this two-disc Pocahontas lose anything from the original? Yes, but not much. It drops a "Read-Along Storybook" a trivia game with 16 questions.

I enjoy Pocahontas and think it's a rather underrated Disney feature, though still not one of their best pictures. This DVD vastly improves over its predecessor, as it offers mostly solid picture with positive audio and a quality roster of extras. This is a fine DVD that should make fans happy.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.2916 Stars Number of Votes: 48

View Averages for all rated titles.

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson

Title: Dinosaur: 2-Disc Collector's Edition (2000)
Studio Line: Disney - You have never seen anything like this.
Presenting the all-encompassing 2-disc DVD edition of Disney's Dinosaur. Go behind the scenes for a unique, inside view of the film that was twelve years in the making, and includes over 1,300 individual special effects!

Disney's Dinosaur, the most technologically advanced film ever, takes you on an action-packed journey back in time 65 million years! This pulse-quickening story of a herd of dinosaurs overcoming the challenge of their lives, is a unique blend of spectacular live-action photography and outstanding computer-generated Disney animation. Startlingly realistic characters and stunning backgrounds are all captured with absolute brilliance and superior sound, created directly from the digital source.

Director: Eric Leighton, Ralph Zondag
Cast: D.B. Sweeney-Aladar; Alfred Woodard-Plio; Ossie Davis-Yar; Max Casella-Zini; Hayden Panettiere-Suri; Samuel E. Wright-Kron; Julianna Margulies-Neera; Peter Siragusa-Bruton; JOan Plowright-Baylene; Della Reese-Eema
Box Office: Budget: $127.5 million. Opening Weekend: $38.854 million (3257 screens). Gross: $137.748 million.
DVD: 2-Disc set; widescreen 1.85:1/16x9; audio English DD & DTS 5.1, French Digital Stereo; THX; subtitles none; closed-captioned; single sided - dual layered; 27 chapters; rated PG; 82 min.; $39.99; street date 1/30/01.
Supplements: Disc One:
Audio Commentary #1 - Directors and Effects Supervisors; Audio Commentary #2 - Producer and Production Team; Film Facts Fossil Dig - Go "Behind The Scenes" As You Watch The Film; "Dinopedia" - Animated Dinosaur Fun Facts; "DinoSearch" - Search And Assemble Game; "Aladar's Adventure" - Virtual Reality Game; TheatreVision - Descriptive Audio Track For The Visually Impaired; Isolated Sound Effects Track; DVD-ROM And Weblinks.
Disc Two:
The Development Of Dinosaur; Computer Animation Tests; Dinosaur Design Featurettes; Concept Art Character Design; Creating A Prehistoric World; Special Effects Featurette; Story Reel; 3-D Workbook; Progression Reels; Music And Sound Design; Audio Mix Demonstration; Abandoned Sequences; Publicity Materials (Trailers/TV Spots); Hidden "Easter Eggs".
Purchase: Collector's Edition DVD | Standard Edition DVD | Dinosaur: The Evolution of an Animated Feature - Jeff Kurtti | Score soundtrack - James Newton Howard
Picture/Sound/Extras: A+/A-/A
In the past, Disney has experienced a great deal of success with their computer-animated releases. 1995’s Toy Story, 1998’s A Bug’s Life, and 1999’s Toy Story 2 all proved to be huge hits. However, although all of these movies appeared under the Disney banner, none were “home-grown” creations ala the studio’s classic traditionally-animated films; the three films in question were all developed under the banner of Pixar Studios.

Disney decided it was time to make their own computer-driven feature and had to build a studio to do so. The first result from movement was 2000’s Dinosaur, a film that displayed a lot of promise but ultimately proved to be lackluster.

The movie’s trailer initially appeared in the fall of 2000 and made the feature look potentially stunning. The clip showed gorgeous photo-realistic computer graphics seamlessly integrated with live-action backdrops in such a way that led many viewers to think that Dinosaur would be a killer offering.

Technically, this was precisely the case. From start to finish, Dinosaur provides a sumptuous visual presentation. As already noted in the trailer, the animation and the real background shots blend together terrifically well, which adds a tremendous layer of realism to the project; the notion that these creatures lived and breathed seems all the more acceptable because of the perfect rendition of their surroundings.

The dinosaurs themselves look quite good as well, though I found them to be a bit too anthropomorphized. In many ways, the creatures come across as real and alive, but there’s an element of artificiality to their facial features that often gives them a fairly computer-drawn appearance. Some of that may have been inevitable since the dinosaurs have to perform unnatural actions like speaking, but even without that, I thought the critters often betrayed a too-stylized appearance that detracted from the project’s overall level of realism.

Nonetheless, Dinosaur still seems like a successful enterprise in the technical realm; they’ve come a long way since Jurassic Park. Unfortunately, it appears that so much time and effort was spent on the animation and computer effects that no one bothered to think about the script or the story. As a result, Dinosaur provides a moderately entertaining but generally bland and lackluster experience.

The tale follows orphaned dinosaur Aladar (voiced by D.B. Sweeney). As the film starts, he’s still egg-based, and due to the intervention of a bunch of critters, he doesn’t hatch until he’s been swept far from home. He ends up in the possession of a family of lemurs who - despite some reservations - take him in as their own. Aladar grows up happy but somewhat lonely since he’s the only one of his kind in the neighborhood.

That changes once the meteors fall. Disaster strikes the land, so Aladar and his family head out to find friendlier climes. Before long they encounter a band of other dinos headed toward their garden of Eden where they can eat, drink, and be merry. Led by tough-guy Kron (Samuel E. Wright, best known as Sebastian from The Little Mermaid), these beasts live in a seriously Darwinian society. Inevitably, Aladar introduces more kind and gentle tendencies to the group and shows himself to be a natural leader. Also inevitably, Kron doesn’t dig this, and the two head toward the inevitable showdown complicated by the inevitable love interest: Kron’s sister Neera (Julianna Margulies). Inevitably, all concludes on a happy note.

While the basic story is sturdy, the lack of inventiveness renders it fairly dull and drab. Due to a combination of an anonymous vocal performance from Sweeney and some weak writing, Aladar is one of the least compelling Disney heroes to trot along in quite some time; we care about him in a generic manner because we’ve been trained to do so, but Aladar never earns our affection. Neera and Kron also come across as ordinary, though their problems result more from an absence of character development; the two get little time on screen to shore up their stereotypical presences.

Even the traditional Disney sidekicks seem lackluster. Zini (Max Casella) fulfills the requisite wacky quotient but he provides absolutely no spark; if anything, he appears more annoying than charming, and he does nothing to help the movie. We get a couple of moderately more interesting characters through two of the older dinos Aladar helps: homey Eema (Della Reese) and prim Baylene (Joan Plowright). Those experienced actresses at least add some dimension to their parts and make them a little more compelling, though Ossie Davis fails to make an impression through lemur elder Yar; Davis generally sounds embarrassed to be there.

For better or for worse, I’m very fond of Disney animation, but my tolerance was tested somewhat by the blandness of Dinosaur. The movie looked absolutely great as it provided a visual tour de force. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie was all kinds of drab. The story and characters displayed exactly the kinds of flaws Disney’s critics believe populate all of their films: bland and without personality, the tale never stood out in any way. I found Dinosaur to be watchable but still think it’s the worst Disney animated picture to come along in many years.

The DVD:

Dinosaur appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. As with other Disney offerings like A Bug’s Life and the Toy Story flicks, the movie was transferred digitally; no film was used to make the DVD’s image. As such, we find a virtually flawless presentation that looked consistently stunning.

Sharpness appeared absolutely immaculate at all times. Never did I witness even the slightest hint of soft or fuzzy images; the entire movie seemed exceedingly crisp and well-defined. Moiré effects and jagged edges presented no concerns, and I also found no signs of print flaws since no print was involved; it’s a fresh and clean appearance.

Dinosaur used a fairly muted palette; after all, there weren’t too many neon pink critters in those days. Nonetheless, colors looked nicely accurate and vivid. From the icy blues of night shots to the eerie reds of the meteor shower to the yellow in the lemurs’ eyes, the hues were consistently solid. Black levels also looked deep and rich, and shadow detail seemed perfectly appropriate without any excessive heaviness or thickness. All in all, Dinosaur offered a terrific visual experience.

While not as exciting as the picture, the soundtracks of Dinosaur also worked very well. The DVD provided both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 mixes. While the DTS track had the edge, it was such a slight difference that I didn’t feel it merited much consideration. The DTS version seemed a little deeper and more full, but not to any significant extent. For the most part, the two tracks sounded virtually identical.

The soundfield favored the forward spectrum but nonetheless offered a broad and engaging surround presence as well. In the front, music and effects blended nicely to create a vivid impression. Sounds moved nicely between channels and a realistic impression was created. The rears added good reinforcement of the music and also provided appropriate split surround effects when necessary. To be frank, the track probably could have been more active during a number of scenes, as the chaos of the meteor shower or various stampedes didn’t have the impact they could have shown. Nonetheless, the sound presence seemed strong.

Audio quality also appeared very good. Dialogue sounded clear and warm, though I thought speech seemed somewhat more artificial than usual, even for animation; lines didn’t integrate terrifically well with the action. Nonetheless dialogue showed no overt problems like edginess or concerns related to intelligibility. Effects seemed clean and acceptably realistic, though they occasionally lacked substantial heft. For example, I felt that dinosaurs’ footsteps sometimes failed to deliver the appropriate power; at times when Aladar walked across the screen, his presence barely seemed noticeable. Music appeared bright and smooth, with nice clarity in the highs and good depth to the low end. Bass response probably could have been a little stronger, but for the most part it seemed positive. Ultimately, the soundtrack to Dinosaur offered a nicely involving experience.

Since the bad old days in which Disney released their animated films in overpriced, underfeatured editions, they’ve come a long way, as shown by The Ultimate Toy Box, my choice for the best DVD release of 2000. In regard to supplements, the Collector’s Edition of Dinosaur is another winner that offers hours of extras.

A slew of material appears on disc one, starting with two separate audio commentaries. The first includes directors Eric Leighton and Ralph Zondag plus special effects supervisor Neil Krepela and digital effects supervisor Neil Eskuri. All four men were recorded together in one session for this running track. On the second commentary, we find an edited piece hosted by producer Pam Marsden. She acts as narrator and introduces the separately-recorded remarks from a long list of contributors. We hear from co-producer Baker Bloodworth, composer James Newton Howard, art director Cristy Maltese, supervising character animators Eamonn Butler and Mark Austin, effects lighting supervisor Chris Peterson, effects compositing supervisor Jim Hillin, model development supervisor Sean Phillips, look development supervisor Cliff Brett, live action visual development supervisor Terry Moews, and character designer David Krentz.

Despite the different manners in which the two commentaries were constructed, both were very similar. Throughout both tracks, the emphasis was firmly on technical aspects of the production. If you’re interested in learning about the methods used to bring all of these computer-dinos to life, then you’ll be pleased with these tracks. If you couldn’t care less about technical facets of animation, then you’ll want to skip these commentaries. Both tracks offer some information about other aspects of the film, and those with an aversion to technical details should shoot for the second commentary; it provides the best discussion of story elements and character development, while the first track rarely delves into either of those topics.

However, both pieces really work best if you’re interested in technical information. If this is the case, you’ll undoubtedly find a lot of solid details. The two tracks examine the methods in depth and offer a good primer for the topics. Personally, I found the commentaries to be a bit dry; I like to know how the film was created from a technical perspective, but I would have preferred addition data about the creative side. I’d love to get a commentary for an animated movie that involves some of the actors; their perspective usually gets little attention in these kinds of packages, and I think their thoughts would be valuable.

In addition to the commentaries, Dinosaur adds two other audio features. We get an isolated effects track that eliminates both dialogue and music. This is a fun extra, though one aspect of it disappoints me: the audio is only in Dolby Surround, not Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 5.1. Similar features appeared on the A Bug’s Life and Toy Story DVDs, but those were 5.1.

There’s also the extremely cool “TheatreVision for the Visually Impaired”. This option provides narration that describes the onscreen action in terrific detail. More studios should provide this feature, as it not only would be very valuable for anyone with visual difficulties but also is fun to listen to for others.

The first DVD offers a load of other extras as well. Some of these also appear on the single-disc version of Dinosaur; materials that can be located on both editions will be noted with asterisks. It appears that the only feature available on the single-DVD release but not on the Collector’s Edition is the fullframe version of the film. However, the solo edition appears to classify some of its extras in a different manner, so I can’t state with certainty that it doesn’t include some exclusive material. The listing for the one-disc DVD mentions four featurettes that don’t have the exact titles on the Collector’s Edition. Is all of the same material from those featurettes present on the two-disc release? Probably, but I don’t know this for a fact.

In any case, the CE definitely includes a wealth of information. Up first is a kind of program that was first popularized on the DVD of The Matrix and further explored on discs like The World Is Not Enough and Me, Myself and Irene. Here it’s called the “Film Fact Fossil Dig” and it tosses in a lot of little video features that relate to Dinosaur. You can access this extra through a variety of methods; you can check them out during the film if you hit “enter” on your remote when a dino skull icon appears on screen, or you can watch them from their own menu. The latter lets you pick each snippet on its own or “play all”.

Each of the brief clips focuses on a variety of aspects of the making of the movie and other elements. Hosted by commentary participants Marsden and Krentz plus digital effects supervisor Neil Eskuri, we find a nice mix of different components. There are clips such as an alternate opening scene - shown in rough animation - and other unused material plus shots of lemur research, scene development, and general “behind the scenes” material. I especially liked the brief shots of a recording session with Sweeney and Margulies; we don’t usually get many looks at this kind of work, and I love to see it. The segments last between 45 seconds and six minutes, 20 seconds for a total of almost 32 minutes of footage. All in all, these clips add a fun look at the creation of the film and they were very enjoyable.

* “Aladar’s Adventure”\* offers a limp game experience. You have to guide our hero through a variety of “find some stuff” and “move some stuff” activities that rely on nothing more than trial and error. There’s no way to detect where to go other than just by working through the options. Especially annoying was the “move the rocks” game that closes the “Adventure”. You have to go through two “stone walls”, and if you get past the first but mess up on the second, you return to square one and have to repeat the first pile. Boy, did that get old quickly! Visually, the game provides some nice animation, but that’s about all it has to offer. Had it come through with a nice reward at the end, it might have been more fun, but as it stands, it’s a dud.

* “Dinosearch”\* offers another game. You search around for pieces of one of three dinos to bring them to life. This is just a “pixel hunt” contest that has you scan the screen for different body parts. Once you’ve got them all, you’re “treated” to a tiny “turnaround” of the dinosaur in question. It’s no more fun than “Aladar’s Adventure”, but at least it was infinitely less frustrating.

The \*“Dinopedia”\* features basic information about the era in which Dinosaur takes place and other aspects of dino life. We hear some basics about parenting skills and extinction plus minor details about each of the dino species found in the movie. The seven-minute and 25-second program is a nice little introduction for kids and others.

“Sneak Peeks” includes a slew of advertisements for other Disney efforts. We find promos for the following upcoming DVDs: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, 102 Dalmatians, and Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp’s Adventure. In addition, there’s an ad for the new theme park - “Disney’s California Adventure” - and two mentions of the next animated feature, Atlantis. The DVD offers a standard trailer plus an ad for the “interactive” game. Note that all of these promos appear only in the DVD’s “Sneak Peeks” menu; unlike many Disney releases, they don’t pop up automatically when you pop the disc in the drive. That may not be true for the single-DVD release, however; typically Disney include the “forced trailers” on standard versions but not Collector’s Editions.

Lastly, some \*DVD-ROM\* materials round out the first disc. Actually, there’s little new to be found here. We get repeated presentations of “Aladar’s Adventure”, the “Dinopedia” and the “DinoSearch” game, plus a web link to a special Dinosaur DVD site. The latter provides two downloadable featurettes plus an “Evolutionary Timeline” and “Desktop Pictures” you can save.

On disc two, we find a bunch of additional supplements. These begin in the Development area, a section that details the film’s pre-production period. First up is a “Proof of Concept Test” from March 1996. This 118-second piece essentially seems intended to show the bigwigs at Disney that there’s a feature possible in this material; we see some CGI footage to demonstrate the possibilities.

From October 1996 comes another snippet that displays the format’s potential. We get a 24-second “Live Action Backplate Test” which lets us view how the dinosaurs would interact with the real backgrounds. In December 1996, the crew created an “Early Presentation Reel”. This two-minute piece demonstrates the work done to date on the film in a user-friendly manner; we mainly find hand-drawn concept art plus a few seconds of CGI shots as well (which look suspiciously similar to those seen in the “Proof of Concept Test”).

The final demo piece found here is the October 1998 “Presentation Reel”, which is really just an unpolished trailer. The 105-second compendium of computer animation - all in various stages of completion - gives us a simple idea of the plot and the scope of the project. Up next is a nice picture gallery called “Visual Development”. This department contains 73 stillframe examples of production art. As has been the case for the last few Disney DVDs, these are neatly gathered into thumbnail presentations of nine images per screen; you can see a larger image easily, and this format makes access to particular shots very easy.

Lastly, Development ends with a semi-“Easter Egg”. Click to the right from “Visual Development” - or any of the other topics in this area, actually - and a dino skull will illuminate. Click again and you’ll get to see a fun clip from one of Walt Disney’s TV shows; this six-minute and 20-second snippet comes from 1955’s “The Story of the Animated Drawing” and it highlights Windsor McCay’s early dinosaur animation with “Gertie”. It’s a great little addition and a nice look at some seminal work in the field.

The next department is called Creating the Characters and - unsurprisingly - it concentrates on the film’s onscreen participants. For reasons obvious to anyone who’s seen the movie, it splits into two categories: “Dinosaurs” and “Lemurs”. In the former, we begin with two different video programs. “Designing the Dinosaurs” lasts seven minutes and 20 seconds and it offers a technical look at the development of the participants; we learn the CGI basics through a mix of film clips, rough animation, and interviews with principals.

On the other hand, the seven-minute and 40-second “Building the Dinosaurs” delves into the more specific details on the designs for the main characters. The same assembly of filmmakers and various snippets shows us the development of the dinos and gives us a nice look at the concerns faced by the participants. Both video pieces were superficial but still informative and entertaining.

In “Character Design”, we find a slew of stillframe materials. We get art galleries for each of the following dinosaurs: Aladar, Kron, Neera, Bruton, Baylene, Eema, Url, the Carnotaurs, and the Velociraptors. Each character includes between three and 40 images for a total of 125 total frames. In addition, each participant can be seen in a 25-second “Turnaround”; that shows the character’s 3-D model as the virtual camera spins around it. There are also sections devoted to “the Herd” - which breaks down in “Pachyrhinosaur”, “Stygimoloch”, “Parasaurolophus”, “Oviraptor”, “Microceratops”, “Juvenile Iguanadon”, “Gliding Lizard”, “Labyrinthodon” and “Mosasaur” and offers “turnarounds” for each - and “Unused Character Concepts”. The latter provides more still images of various concept drawings; we find 96 frames in all.

As for “The Lemurs”, that side of the section starts with “Building the Lemurs”. This program follows the same format as the “Building the Dinosaurs” piece and lasts for seven minutes and 10 seconds. Actually, this one’s probably a little more interesting, if just because it appears the lemurs went through more changes in their design, and we also get to watch a little footage of real lemurs; for reasons unknown, they include no material of living dinosaurs. (In addition, the featurette confirms what I strongly suspected: dinos and lemurs never co-existed.)

“Preliminary Lemur Designs” offers 44 still images of early drawings of the critters, and we also find photo galleries and turnarounds for each of these characters: Plio, Yar, Zini and Suri. These include between five and 15 drawings per lemur for a total of 41 images. Each “Turnaround” still runs 25 seconds.

We also get another mini-Egg. Click on the “Creating the Characters” main screen’s dino head and you’ll get some “outtakes” that occurred due to computer rendering errors. This 90 second piece is more creepy than cute and not as entertaining as a similar feature found on the Toy Story DVD.

The Production Process takes a closer look at how the different photographic and computer elements were combined. Through a combination of film clips, rough animation, interviews and behind the scenes material, “Creating a Prehistoric World” runs for seven minutes and 55 seconds and it offers a very nice view of this side of the equation.

A more specific picture of this kind of work emerges in “The Monster Cloud”. This four-minute and 10-second program follows a similar format as “Creating a Prehistoric World” but it details the way in which the meteor explosion scene was made. In a similar vein was “The Dino Cam”. It displayed the manner in which a variety of elements were combined, with a particular emphasis on the “Dino Cam”, a camera used to simulate the dinosaur’s speed and point of view. This piece lasts one minute and 45 seconds.

“Story Reel and 3D Workbook” looks at one scene: “Aladar Joins the Herd”. Within that emphasis, “Production Progression” lets you use your “angle” button to switch between the “Story Reel” - filmed storyboards with some audio added - the “3D Workbook” - which shows crude animation of the material - and the “Final Film”. This four-minute piece provides a nice look at the way in which the work went ahead on the film.

A similar feature appears in “Comparisons to Final Film”. This uses a split-screen method to show either the Story Reel or the 3D Workbook on the top with the Final Film on the bottom. It covers the same “Aladar Joins the Herd” scene and also lasts four minutes.

“Progression Reels” look at three different segments of Dinosaur: “Opening Sequence”, “Aladar Meets the Misfits”, and “Aladar Finds Water”. Each of these works in a manner similar to those of prior features; we watch parts of the scenes move from stage to stage and show how the work moved. Each clip includes commentary from digital effects supervisor Neil Eskuri and they last between 75 seconds and four minutes, 25 seconds for a total of seven and a half minutes of footage.

This area’s “Easter Egg” comes from another Disney TV special that aired in May 1964. This four-minute and 55-second snippet depicts the creation of some animatronic dinos fabricated for the 1964 World’s Fair. Walt interacts with the critters and we see behind-the-scenes shots of their assembly. It’s another fun piece that adds value to the package,

Music and Sound is our next area. In “Music”, we find a three-minute featurette that focuses on the movie’s score. This is too superficial a look to offer much of interest, but it’s painless in any case. Another featurette pops up in “. This three-minute program is a little more interesting since it provides mild detail about the origins of some vocal noises - especially when we see the extremely-unlikely source of the ferocious velociraptor growls - but it’s still too brief to be terribly informative. Still, it’s fun and entertaining.

Lastly, “Audio Mix Demonstration” allows you to watch one of the movie’s scenes with different combinations of sound. You can add or drop dialogue, music and effects to check out the segment with any mix of those elements. It’s a moderately fun experience.

No “Easter Egg” could be found in the last section, so it’s on to Abandoned Scenes. There are six in all, and they appear in different forms; the first two are story reels, while two others are largely animated - though not polished - and the final two made it to the “3D Workbook” stage. Each clip runs between 25 seconds and five minutes, 25 seconds for a total of 13 minutes and 50 seconds of material.

Abandoned Scenes has no “Easter Eggs” either, so let’s move to the DVD’s final area, Publicity. Here we find three “Trailers”. Two are the standard theatrical ads - including the one that raised expectations for me and so many others - while the third is a “Convention Trailer”. What convention? I have no idea, but it’s an unusual clip for this film; it features a rock soundtrack that would seem more at home attached to Titan AE.

Publicity also contains four “TV Spots”; one of these - “Countdown” - is another aggressive rock-oriented clip, and another uses “Walk the Dinosaur” from Was (Not Was). “Print Advertising” gives us 14 still images of posters and other ads.

This area includes our final “Easter Egg”, and it’s an unusual one. Created by Disney’s educational department, it’s called “Recycle Rex” and it’s 12-minute program created to teach kids about recycling. The connection to Dinosaur comes from the characters, all of whom are prehistoric beasties. It’s a cute little piece.

Did I say that was the last “Easter Egg”? Actually, there’s one more. From the second DVD’s main menu, if you click on the “Staff Meeting” note, you’ll get four screens of “DVD Credits”. No, it’s not exciting, but it’s there nonetheless.

The final DVD extra can be found in this package’s case. We get a small booklet that includes both a map to all of the second disc’s materials plus a nice essay from Thomas Schumacher, president of Disney Feature Animation. The latter provides a good overview of the production and the DVD, and it’s a solid way to begin your exploration of this set.

Although Dinosaur is a weak effort from Disney animation, I liked it well enough that I’m happy to own this DVD set. Granted, I’m a big fan of these kinds of films, so I’d get the package even if I disliked the movie, so I may not be the most objective party in that matter. Nonetheless, Dinosaur stands out as a compelling flick if just for its stunning technical quality; the story and characterizations were less than winning, but the movie’s just watchable enough to merit your time.

As for this two-DVD “Collector’s Edition”, it continues the grand tradition of similar packages like those created for A Bug’s Life and Tarzan. The movie looks and sounds absolutely terrific, and the set contains a slew of interesting and entertaining supplements. Dinosaur will never be one of my favorite films, but this DVD is a winner.

Final note: a number of technical problems have been encountered by some folks who have tried to use the Dinosaur CE. For additional details on these, visit places like the Home Theater Forum and search for the film. I encountered no difficulties except for one odd annoyance: at times, the “Pause” and “Fast-forward” buttons on my Panasonic players were de-activated. This was inconsistent; sometimes the DVD would let me use them, but sometimes it wouldn’t. Bizarrely, if I went back from a working scene to one that was previously unavailable, I often could use the buttons. The folks at Disney seem to be aware of the problems that have cropped up with Dinosaur; if any news appears as to solutions, they’ll be listed here.

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WALT DISNEY STUDIOS

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Cast: Michael J. Fox, James Garner, Cree Summer, Jim Varney, Corey Burton, Claudia Christian, Phil Morris, Don Novello, Jacqueline Obradors, Florence Stanley, Leonard Nimoy, John Mahoney, David Ogden Stiers
Screenplay: Tab Murphy
Tagline:
Atlantis is awaiting...
Box Office: Budget $90 million. Opening weekend $329,011 on 2 screens. Domestic gross $84.052 million
MPAA: Rated PG for action violence.

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 2.35:1/16x9
THX-Certified
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
English DTS 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English; Closed-captioned
Runtime: 96 min.
Price: $39.99
Release Date: 1/29/2002

• Visual Commentary - Go behind-the-scenes with the Producer and Directors and see additional footage on the "making of" process
• DisneyPedia Atlantis: Fact or Fiction - Fun and interesting theories about the lost continent of Atlantis

Disc 2:
• Multiple Platform Navigational Systems (3-D Menus with 3 Viewing Modes):
- Explore Mode: Tour the 3-D environment of the Ulysses Submarine and select menu options
- Tour Mode: Enjoy all bonus features as one continuous program
- Files Mode: Rapid Navigation - Every Bonus feature listed in sequential order
• Deleted Scene: Viking Prologue
• Virtual Tours Of CG Models - 3D Model turnarounds including the Ulysses Submarine, Leviathan and Shepherd's Journal
• Whitmore Industries Industrial Film - Meet the benefactor who made the expedition possible
• "How to Speak Atlantean" - With the famous linguist who developed the Atlantean language
• History
• Story & Editorial
• Abandoned Sequences
• Art Direction
• Animation Production
• Character Designs
• Music & Sound Design
• Publicity
• And Much, Much More!

PURCHASE
• Collector's Edition DVD
• Standard DVD
• Score soundtrack
Search Products:

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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Atlantis: The Lost Empire - Collector's Edition (2001)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson
For animation studios, teenage boys remain the cinematic holy grail. That crowd can make or break a movie, but they’ve remained largely impervious to the charms of animation. Apparently males in that age range tend to feel cartoons are for little kids, so they tend to avoid most animated offerings.

I guess animation studios aren’t content to amass their fortunes from the simple family crowd. That formula has worked well in the past over the last decade; with or without teen boys, a few animated flicks - like 2001’s Shrek and Monsters Inc, 1999’s Toy Story 2, 1994’s The Lion King and 1992’s Aladdin - grossed over $200 million in the US. Nonetheless, filmmakers still wanted to broaden their horizons, and a few attempts have followed in that vein.

As a whole, they’ve failed. 2000’s Titan AE was a total bust; with a $75 million budget, it took in a measly $22 million. 2001’s Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within fared no better. It featured an enormous budget of $137 million, but despite some groundbreaking photo-realistic computer animation, it still made an anemic $32 million.

Despite the inroads made by DreamWorks with projects like Shrek, Disney remain the premier house of animation, and it was time for the House of Mouse to attempt their own teen spectacular. Actually, they tried something of this sort back in 1985 with The Black Cauldron. The studio’s first “PG”-rated animated flick, Cauldron failed spectacularly and nearly killed the studio’s animation division.

Disney waited 15 years before they attempted another “PG” cartoon, and did reasonably well with 2000’s Dinosaur. The movie made a respectable $137 million, though that ultimate tally was actually fairly disappointing for such a big-budgeted and much-hyped affair.

I’m not really sure what audience Disney went after with Dinosaur - I’m not positive they knew, either - but with 2001’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire it appeared clear they wanted to make their run for the teen crowd. Unlike almost all of their cel-animated flicks, Atlantis would feature no songs, and it also went with a much stronger than usual emphasis on action. For the latter, it earned Disney animation their third “PG”.

However, it failed to crack the ice and strongly penetrate the teenage boy audience. With a budget of $90 million, Atlantis went on to gross a disappointing $84 domestically. Granted, that figure looked great compared to what Final Fantasy and Titan AE made, but for Disney, it was a low figure.

It also doesn’t bode well for the future of their traditional animation division. With a gross of $171 million, 1999’s Tarzanwas their last piece of cel work to top $100 million. Prior to Tarzan, the studio almost never dipped below that milestone figure; since 1989’s The Little Mermaid, only two traditionally-animated Disney movies - 1990’s The Rescuers Down Under and 1997’s Hercules didn’t crack the century mark, and at least Herc came close with $99 million.

However, since Tarzan almost three years ago, computer animation has dominated the scene. Each of Disney’s flicks in that realm - Toy Story 2, Dinosaur, Monsters Inc. and 1998’s A Bug’s Life made well over $100 million, while none of their three cel-animated offerings went past that figure. Granted, Fantasia 2000 was such an esoteric piece that no one really expected it to earn the big bucks, and though disappointing as an absolute, the $89 million gross of 2000’s The Emperor’s New Groove actually offered a minor moral victory; the studio essentially tossed it into the marketplace with little fanfare, as they mistakenly placed all their bets on the flop 102 Dalmatians.

Combined with the enormous success of Shrek, the writing may be on the wall for cel animation. I hope not, as it remains a wonderful art form, but the lackluster performance of these vehicles and the enormous production costs attached to traditional animation don’t auger well for the future.

So I’ve established that Atlantis didn’t exactly burn up the box offices. Did it deserve a better fate? Yes and no. On one hand, Atlantis offered a reasonably interesting and entertaining piece of work, but it doesn’t stand among the best Disney have to offer.

At the very start of the film, we watch as Atlantis goes down for the count thousands of years ago; an action-packed sequence begins the flick with a bang. After that, we leap forward to modern day, or at least close; we jump to Washington DC, circa 1914, and meet Milo Thatch (voiced by Michael J. Fox), a nerdy young man who badly wants to get an explorative mission financed. Though clearly bright and dedicated, he’s stuck in a museum boiler room, and his higher-ups won’t give his wacky ideas the time of day. He wants to venture to Iceland to find the Shepherd’s Journal, a tome that will enable them to locate Atlantis.

Though Milo’s bosses won’t listen, he quickly meets someone willing and able to finance the junket. Preston Whitmore (John Mahoney) knew Milo’s beloved grandfather Thaddeus and promised that he’d someday help pursue Atlantis. Whitmore’s team found the journal, but they can’t decipher it. That’s where Milo enters the picture, and he joins this crew of colorful characters headed by rugged Commander Rourke (James Garner) to find the lost continent.

Unlike most movies of this sort, they don’t take the whole film to locate the place. Instead, they get there less than halfway through the story, at which point we meet the inhabitants and learn of their plight. We encounter ailing King Nedakh (Leonard Nimoy) and his feisty daughter Kida (Cree Summer). The rest of the movie covers the truth behind Atlantis and also what Rourke and the others want out of the expedition.

Frankly, Atlantis is a film that I find it hard to regard in a passionate manner. At its best, it offers a reasonably interesting and exciting flick. To be sure, it is something moderately different for Disney. We have no songs or cuddly sidekicks, and the action received a greater emphasis than before, though I don’t think it did enough to separate itself with earlier efforts to merit the “PG” rating; many of those were really quite violent, so I can’t figure out why this one got the harsher rating.

Despite the absence of talking animals, Atlantis doesn’t go quite as far to distance itself from normal Disney elements as one might think. Stylistically, the film seems like something of a mess. On one hand, you have semi-anime characters such as Kida, with her giant Japanimation eyes. Then there’s Helga (Claudia Christian), who looks like an outcast from some dark and bloody pseudo-noir graphic novel. Mechanic Audrey (Jacqueline Obradors) is all curvy and soft looking, while Moliere (Corey Burton) is a round ball of cartooniness. Milo himself sits somewhere in the middle and feels like a mish-mash of all these elements.

As such, at times it seems like Atlantis isn’t really sure where it wants to go. The filmmakers professed to be influenced from more hardcore comics - Hellboy creator Mike Mignola worked on the movie - but they clearly didn’t want to totally abandon their standard methods. Because of this, Atlantis often comes across as a tentative flick, one that can’t quite commit to what it wants to do.

This isn’t the first time a movie from the team of producer Don Hahn and directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise felt that way. While a satisfying film as a whole, 1996’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame suffered even more from the studio’s unwillingness to lose the qualifying elements. Amidst some of the most striking imagery founding any Disney film, Hunchback took a respite for a cutesy musical number featuring gargoyles come to life. Most of Hunchback was excellent and it broke new ground for the studio, but they just couldn’t take it to the logical extreme.

Atlantis doesn’t include such significant weaknesses, but it also never takes as many chances as Hunchback. (Now that flick merited a “PG”, though it didn’t get one.) Perhaps chastened by their experiences on Hunchback, the filmmakers push the envelope very gently during Atlantis, and this is why the movie seems somewhat bland. It straddles the standard Disney world as well as a different realm and can’t quite decide which it prefers.

Not that this means the movie’s a failure, for it’s not. As I mentioned earlier, Atlantis offers a reasonably entertaining experience across the board. Some of the action sequences are quite good, and much of the voice talent brings nice depth to their parts. Fox seems a little too much like Fox as Milo; as the character grows into a hero, it’s not always easy to accept. However, the supporting actors deliver life in their roles. I especially liked the comic work from Jim Varney and Don Novello, who made their characters more entertaining than expected.

When viewed against Disney’s recent non-Pixar material, Atlantis falls somewhere in the middle. It’s not nearly as much fun - or as daring - as The Emperor’s New Groove, while it’s substantially more entertaining than Dinosaur. It’s probably most comparable to Tarzan, though the latter grew on me more; I liked it better after additional viewings, while my opinion of Atlantis hasn’t really changed. Generally an interesting film, Atlantis works well as a whole but does little to make itself stand out from the crowd.

The DVD Grades: Picture A / Audio A (DTS), A- (Dolby Digital) / Bonus A+
Atlantis: The Lost Empire appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this single-sided, dual-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Ever since A Bug’s Life in 1999, Disney has maintained a very high standard for their transfers of recent animated flicks, and Atlantis continued that tradition with another excellent picture.

Sharpness looked terrific at virtually all times. The image consistently appeared crisp and distinct even in wide shows, and I detected no concerns related to softness or fuzziness. The clarity wasn’t quite as strong as with DVDs like Toy Story 2, but it remained solid nonetheless. I saw no concerns related to jagged edges or moiré effects, and the movie betrayed absolutely no signs of print flaws. I believe this was another digital-to-digital transfer, which meant it never existed on celluloid. Artifacts seemed absent as well.

Colors looked absolutely fantastic throughout the movie. From the cool blues associated with Atlantis to the vivid reds of the lava at the end to a myriad of other tones, the hues came across as tight and vibrant, with absolutely no concerns on display. Black levels also appeared deep and dense, while shadow detail looked appropriately heavy but not excessively thick. Overall, Atlantis provided a very strong picture.

On this DVD, we found both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 soundtracks for Atlantis. Lately I haven’t heard much difference between mixes found on this kind of dual-audio presentation, but Atlantis offered an exception. I preferred the DTS track to a moderate degree. As such, my comments will address what I heard in it, and I’ll sum up my perceived differences once I finish that.

Atlantis provided a consistently lively and engaging soundfield. We don’t usually find a movie that starts with a demo-worthy sequence, but that occurred here, as the loss of Atlantis kicked off the movie with a genuine bang. It set the stage for the excellent audio that would follow. All five channels received a fine workout, as they usually included some sort of useful information. Of course, during quieter scenes, the forward speakers dominated, but not to the exclusion of the rears; they still contributed realistic ambience.

All of this combined into a very smooth and well-blended package. Music showed solid stereo imaging and presence, and the surrounds added a nice layer of reinforcement to the score. Effects seemed very accurately placed and they moved about the environment with nice fluidity and clarity. Some reviewers have complained that the movie started and ended with vibrant audio but seemed lackluster in between, but I disagree. I thought Atlantis provided an active and involving mix from start to finish; just because things aren’t blowing up doesn’t mean the sound can’t be just as engrossing, and the movie provided a terrific soundfield at all times.

Audio quality also seemed excellent. Dialogue remained consistently natural and warm, with no problems related to intelligibility or edginess. Speech was integrated cleanly with the other pieces and fit into the package well. Music sounded vivid and bright, and the score displayed solid range. Low-end response was deep and rich without any signs of boominess. Effects also displayed terrific fidelity. They came across as clear and distinct at all times, and they packed a serious punch when appropriate. Bass response worked tremendously well, as it was powerful and distinct, but without the excessive thump heard in films like The Musketeer. Ultimately, the audio offered an excellent experience.

So how did the DTS and Dolby Digital tracks differ? Overall, I thought the DTS version sounded smoother and more vibrant. Bass response appeared tighter and more natural, while the elements combined together to create a more seamless and better-integrated package. The differences weren’t enormous, as the DD edition still provided a very good experience. However, I thought they were substantial enough to warrant a distinction in grades; the Dolby track got an “A-“ while the DTS one merited a full “A”.

Fans can choose from two versions of the Atlantis DVD. The “standard” release actually offers something unavailable on the Collector’s Edition: a fullframe transfer of the film. This may be a problem for some people, but personally, I won’t miss the butchered image; a 1.33:1 cropping of this flick would alter it badly.

Otherwise, all of the basic package’s materials make the cut here. Though clearly the special edition offers the more substantial set, the standard release includes a reasonable amount of extras as well; unlike the single-disc versions of A Bug’s Life or Toy Story, it provides some decent stuff. I’ll note anything that appears on both discs with as asterisk; it no such notation shows up, that means the feature is exclusive to the Collector’s Edition.

First up we find an \*Audio Commentary with producer Don Hahn and directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale. All three were recorded together for this running, screen-specific track. The men have worked together for years, and that easy camaraderie comes through in this very compelling and entertaining piece.

From start to finish, the participants provide an excellent look at the film. They cover the origins of the project, the many alterations that occurred during production, aspects of working with the actors and the composer, and about a million other topics. They even point out the one scene in which they needed to use a sound-alike actor to voice some of Cookie’s lines. The pace remains quick and they keep up a jovial and engaging tone. It’s a terrific track that offers a lot of worthwhile information.

In addition to this audio track, we also find a Visual Commentary. Disney isn’t the first company to attempt this kind of feature. From the crude MST3K stylings of the silhouettes found on Ghostbusters and Men In Black to the simple video snippets of The Goonies and Roots, the video commentaries all shared one element: they offered little you couldn’t get from the standard audio track. Oh, it was fun to see the participants interact visually to a certain degree, especially during Goonies or some of the pieces found on Kevin Smith flicks. However, the information remained exactly the same; you didn’t learn anything new if you watched the video.

That changes with Atlantis. Here’s how it works: with this feature activated, eleven times during the film, the movie will branch off to video segments with Hahn, Wise, and Trousdale. When the pieces complete, you return to the flick right where you’d left.

These snippets last between 31 seconds and four minutes, 32 seconds for a total of 23 minutes and 12 seconds of footage. We don’t just watch the three men as they talk. Instead, they offer a mix of elements. We get storyreels for three deleted scenes - none of which appear in DVD Two’s package of unused segments, by the way - plus outtakes and a hidden joke, images from two research trips, and a few other pieces. Some of this expands on information included in the audio commentary, and much of it also appears on DVD Two of this package. Nonetheless, it’s a nice addition to the set that I thought added some useful material and did so in a friendly manner.

Speaking of that, the visual commentary appears in a very user-friendly manner. If you want to see those segments, you don’t have to sit through the whole movie. Instead, the disc offers a “features index”. This displays all 11 pieces. You can choose from any of them or elect to “Play All”. This won’t let you see the 42-second introduction from the three participants that precedes the film when the commentary’s activated, but it’s definitely the most efficient way to check out the components.

Next we find the \*Disneypedia which covers “Atlantis: Fact or Fiction”. This narrated program shows lots of clips from the movie as well as a few images of appropriate things like a bust of Plato and a shot of hieroglyphics. It goes through six topics: “Atlantis”, “Ancient Writings”, “Submarines”, “Archaeology”, “Legends”, and “Ancient Civilizations”. Each of these offers a brief, kid-oriented look at their subjects in this six-minute, 35-second piece. The narrator’s “gee-whiz” tone got annoying, but these clips offer a decent little introduction to their various subjects; they’re very short, so they lack depth, but they could give kids the basis to become more interested in the areas.

Lastly, DVD One includes the \*THX Optimizer. Also found on DVDs such as The Phantom Menace and as Tron, it purports to help you set up your home theater to best present the movie on the disc in question. Apparently the Optimizer is unique for each DVD on which it’s included; unlike programs such as Video Essentials, the Optimizer should tweak your set-up differently every time. Frankly, I’ve been very happy with my already-established calibration and I’m afraid to muck with it, so I’ve never tried the Optimizer. If you lack calibration from Video Essentials or a similar program, or if you’re just more adventurous than I, the Optimizer could be a helpful addition.

When you start the DVD, you’ll find \*ads for some other Disney flicks. There’s a promo for the hotly anticipated DVD video release of Beauty and the Beast; interesting, the ad touts it as “The Special Edition”, not as part of their “Platinum Edition” line. I don’t know if this means they’ve abandoned the term “Platinum Edition” after one release (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), but as long as the quality remains high, they can call it the “Piece of Junk” edition for all I care. The trailer highlights the inclusion of “Human Again”, the song added for the IMAX theatrical release of Beauty.

In addition, the DVD opens with promos for Cinderella II: Dreams Come True as well as the Disney DVD collection in general. These clips also can be found in the Sneak Peeks area alongside additional ads for Tron, Schoolhouse Rock, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, and 101 Dalmatians 2.

Finally, Disc One includes some DVD-ROM content, but not much. All we find are some Weblinks. You can “register” your DVD, which then qualifies you for Disney’s disc replacement program. You can also enter a sweepstakes - when they offer one, that is, for currently (February 1, 2002) they’re running none. This section offers connections to “Disney’s Movie Finder” - a page that offers information about pretty much every Disney flick ever - as well as go to the Disney DVD site. It’s a pretty blah collection of links.

As we move to DVD Two, we find a wealth of extras. The disc starts with a goofy introduction to the program. We see a three-minute piece presented in the style of a newsreel. It’s anachronistic - supposedly from 1914, it features sound - but it’s a cute and fun way to start the set. (Yes, I’m picking nits.)

From there we find three different ways to investigate the DVD’s extras. Both the “Explore Mode” and the “File Mode” offer the same information; they just do so in different ways. They allow you to check out all of the materials, but the “Explore Mode” uses a graphic interface based on the movie’s sub, whereas “File Mode” simply presents text listings of the features grouped together by topic. I chose the latter since the graphics slow down access to extras, but I liked the inclusion of the flashier method as well.

The other option won’t provide everything available on the DVD, but it’s a very user-friendly way to go through much of it. The “Tour Mode” takes all eleven of the video segments found on the disc and combines them for one long documentary. In the past, fans complained about Disney’s tendency to give us scads of short video pieces with no coherent connection, so this seems to come as a response to that. It’s a great idea, as it really does mean we get a true documentary; I’ll discuss the sequences separately as I explore the disc, but one could definitely consider the package to offer one 119-minute program.

Since I examined the materials through the “File Mode”, I’ll discuss the features as they appear in the various subdomains. History begins with two of the eleven documentary segments. “The Journey Begins” runs nine minutes and five seconds and includes comments from Hahn, Wise, Trousdale, writer Tab Murphy, artistic coordinator Chris Jenkins, supervising animator for “Milo” John Pomeroy, artistic supervisor of visual effects Marlon West, editor Ellen Keneshea, artistic supervisor of layout Ed Ghertner, artistic supervisor of background Lisa Keene, and CAPS supervisor of scene planning Thomas Baker. Despite the length of that roster, the producer, the directors and the writers offer the majority of the remarks. This piece repeats some information from the commentary, but as a whole it offers a good introduction to the project’s creation. Most significantly, it expands upon some of the early dilemmas and choices, and it’s a nice start to the package.

”Creating Mythology” lasts eight minutes and 20 seconds and includes statements from Hahn, Trousdale, Wise, Murphy, Ghertner, and art director Dave Goetz. This program looks at the historical theories about Atlantis and discusses the ways in which these became incorporated into the film. It also goes over the development of the fake folklore invented for the flick, and it provides a very interesting exploration of these topics.

During some of the extras, the filmmakers discuss the backstory for the Shepherd’s Journal and its history. More information about the life and times of this fictional book appears in “History of the Shepherd’s Journal”, a text extra that includes a very interesting and detailed look at what happened to the book over the centuries. “The Shepherd’s Journal” offers stillframe glimpses of the pages actually seen in the movie, while “Shepherd’s Journal Designs” features 31 thumbnailed stills of drawings created to inspire the materials included in the tome.

History ends with \*”How to Speak Atlantean”. A cutesy fake instructional film, this two-minute and 15-second piece features Marc Okrand, the guy who invented the language for the flick. It’s pleasant enough but not something I’d care to watch again.

Next we move to Story and Editorial, which begins with another segment from the documentary. “Finding the Story” lasts 11 minutes and 20 seconds as it provides remarks from Hahn, Trousdale, Wise, artistic supervisor of story John Sanford, Ellen Keneshea, and Tab Murphy. This piece offers a very good look at the story development as the participants relate the ways in which it grew and changed. We hear about an early pirate theme as well as lava whales and other elements that didn’t make the final cut. It’s a terrific program.

Four “Deleted Scenes” appear after this. Most animated movies don’t have any fully realized unused material. The process is so expensive that the filmmakers use storyboards and the planning process to weed out any potential problems before they’re animated. However, every once in a while, one slips through and gets cut at the last minute. For Atlantis, \*”The Viking Prologue” fell into that category. Presented anamorphically-enhanced 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, the two-minute segment looks totally finished and could slip right into the end product. It’s a good scene that would have worked fine in the movie, but when you learn the filmmakers’ reasons for replacing it, you’ll understand why it didn’t survive.

The three other deleted scenes found on the DVD didn’t get so far in production. Presented as storyreels - filmed storyboards accompanied by sound - we see “The Squid Bats” (6:27), “The Lava Whales” (3:40) and “The Land Beast” (4:28). I’d guess the last too went farther than the first. Both include somewhat better artwork and mainly the voices of the real actors, while “Bats” offers temp voices. Ironically, I thought “Bats” was the best of the bunch; it’s the only one I think would have been fun to see in the movie. However, all of them add to what the filmmakers refer to as the “monster parade”, so I understand their deletion.

This domain ends with “Original Treatment”. This stillframe section combines text with conceptual art to show an early draft of the story. Though some alterations exist, I’m surprised at how close the final result hews to the treatment; I expected more changes. Anyway, it’s a cool look at the first basic version of the tale.

Many more drawings appear in Art Direction. This area kicks off with “Designing Atlantis”, another component of the documentary. This 11-minute and 20-second piece includes comments from Hahn, Wise, Trousdale, Dave Goetz, production designer Mike Mignola, Lisa Keene, Chris Jenkins, and president of Walt Disney Feature Animation Thomas Schumacher. It’s a solid compendium of information about the visual design of the movie. We learn of Mignola’s stylistic influence as well as research and a mix of other concerns in this informative and useful program.

From there we find lots of galleries. Seven of these cover various locations, while the eighth offers “Mike Mignola designs”. Thumbnailed as usual, each includes between eight and 76 images for a total of 296 shots. Mostly we find fairly lush conceptual art, along with some more rudimentary planning drawings. This kind of section exists for the hard-core fans who want to see everything, and it should make them happy.

The “Art Direction Style Guide” offers one of the coolest stillframe galleries I’ve witnessed. This packet is discussed in the documentary, so it’s great to see more of it here. Essentially, the 38-image thumbnailed gallery shows the decisions made for the look of the film as they’re spelled out for the artists. We find discussions of the architectural styles desired - “no Greek or Roman!” - plus an excellent deconstruction of Mignola’s look and other elements. It’s an absolutely fascinating view of the details behind the production process.

Within Animation Production, we find an even greater level of detail. This area starts with three sections of the documentary. “The Voices of Atlantis” looks at the actors. In the 12-minute segment, we hear from Hahn, Trousdale, Wise, John Pomeroy, supervising animator for “Kida” Randy Haycock, supervising animator for “King Nekadh” Michael Cedeno, supervising animator for “Rourke” Mike Surrey, supervising animator for “Vinny” Russ Edmonds, supervising animator for “Sweet” Ron Husband, supervising animator for “Cookie” Shawn Keller, and actors Michael J. Fox, Cree Summer, John Mahoney, James Garner, Jacqueline Obradors, Corey Burton, Don Novello, Phil Morris, Florence Stanley and Claudia Christian.

Whew - with such a substantial crew of participants, you might expect a substantial discussion. Unfortunately, “Voices” offers the weakest link in the documentary. While it includes some decent shots of the actors at work, for the most part it provides something of a puff piece. We hear how great everyone is and how much fun it was, but little substantial information escapes. It remains watchable but it seems disappointing, especially since most of the other documentary segments are so good.

Much better is “Creating the Characters”. The longest component, this one lasts 26 minutes and 15 seconds as it provides remarks from Hahn, Wise, Tab Murphy, Michael Cedeno, supervising animator for “Moliere” Anthony De Rosa, John Pomeroy, artistic supervisor of cleanup Marshall Toomey, Ron Husband, Mike Surrey, Randy Haycock, Russ Edmonds, supervising animator for “Helga” Yoshimischi Tamura, supervising animator for “Audrey” Anne Marie Bardwell, supervising animator for “Mrs. Packard” Dave Pruiksma, and Shawn Keller.

Overall, this piece offers a terrific look inside the mind of the animator. It provides one of the best discussions of their form of acting, as we learn more about how they get inside the characters and really emote via their pencils. It gives us a fine glimpse of the depth of this process and I really enjoyed it; this is one of the better parts of a generally excellent documentary.

Another segment examines another part of the animation experience. “Setting the Scene” goes for 12 minutes and 15 seconds as it includes statements from Hahn, Ed Ghertner, Chris Jenkins, Wise, Trousdale, Lisa Keene, Marlon West, and Thomas Baker. It splits into a few different areas: layout, background, effects animation, and scene planning. This program seems a little drier than many of the others, but it still offers good information on the subject. Best of the bunch are notes about Keene’s research and planning as well as the multiplane images featured in the film.

From there we encounter scads of stillframe materials. The “Color Script Gallery” includes 59 images used to denote the appropriate tones for various settings in the film, while “Layouts and Backgrounds” provides 141 examples of those elements. As with some of the other pieces found on the disc, these remain of interest mainly to the biggest fans, but they’re still nice to have.

Next we go to examinations of the various characters. Most of these areas include similar features. All of the sections feature stillframe galleries of conceptual art. There are 14 of these domains in all, and they offer between 14 (Mrs. Packard) and 191 (Miscellaneous Characters) images for a total of 842 pictures. Most of these depict conceptual art created to come up with the ultimate designs, but we also see images of character reference sheets used to make sure the various animators kept things consistent. These are quite interesting to see; unlike items such as color scripts, these should appeal to even more lukewarm fans.

For eight of the members of the Whitmore expedition - Milo, Rourke, Sweet, Helga, Audrey, Packard and Moliere - we also find animation tests and “dossier files”. Kida’s area provides animation tests but no dossier, while Vinny’s area includes a dossier but no animation test. The other four - Preston Whitmore, Miscellaneous Characters, King Nedakh, and Miscellaneous Atlanteans - just include the “design” galleries mentioned above. The dossiers are a lot of fun. These provide text biographies of the various characters. Just like the material about the Shepherd’s Journal, these are surprisingly detailed, and they add some nice depth to the package.

As for the animation tests, they each last between 12 seconds and 44 seconds for a total of 220 seconds of footage. Mainly these consist of rough pencil animation, and they’re worth a look mainly to hear some temp voice acting during a few of them. Milo’s section also includes a “Production Progression”. This lets you use your “angle” button to jump from rough animation to cleanup animation to final color for one 24-second scene. It’s a nice little feature but nothing terrific.

That finally concludes the “Animation Production” domain; now we move to Digital Production. This starts with a documentary segment also titled “Digital Production”. The 10-minute and 15-second program includes comments from Hahn, Wise, Trousdale, artistic supervisor computer graphics imagery Kiran Joshi, supervising animator “leviathan” Mike Merell, Marlon West, Ed Ghertner, Lisa Keene, Chris Jenkins and Dave Goetz. It’s another good piece, as we learn nice details about the manner in which 3D elements blended with their 2D counterparts. Disney animators have used computer technology since the Eighties, while the CAPS system launched in 1990; this is possibly the clearest and most sensible explanation I’ve heard about the various techniques.

In “Digital Production Tests”, we find something a little different from the other documentary segments. This six-minute and 20-second clip simply shows a variety of early animation works that are narrated by Wise. He describes what they tried to do and where the techniques went. It’s a good complement to the prior program, and it was also fun to see the Disney character they used for the digital tattoo tests!

This area includes a wealth of additional still galleries as well. Under the heading of “Vehicles” we discover 11 crafts found in the film. These areas provide between 4 and 87 pictures for a total of 278 images. I didn’t think these were as interesting as the character drawings, but more interested fans will enjoy them.

All of the 11 vehicles also includes “Turnarounds”. These show digital images that spin around the craft. The segments last between 19 seconds and 143 seconds for a total of 12 minutes and 58 seconds of footage. Frankly, I think these features are a little monotonous, but they do offer more depth, so I appreciate their inclusion.

A bit more interesting is the “Progression” provided for the Ulysses. This 40-second clip shows the various stages of completion for the craft. As such, it’s moderately watchable. We also get a “Vehicle Size Comparison”. This simply offers a 42-second clip that goes from smallest to largest to give us some scope.

The final sections of the “Digital Production” domain cover computer-created “Characters”. This includes stills for the Leviathan (17 images) and the Stone Giants (24 frames). Those two also provide “Turnarounds” that last 125 seconds and 28 seconds, respectively. The “Digital Extras” domain simply shows more “Turnarounds” of a variety of small characters; this segment goes for 98 seconds. (Note that the single-disc Atlantis lists “virtual tours of CG models - Ulysses and Leviathan” among its features. I’d feel shocked if those didn’t replicate materials I just described, but I couldn’t identify the specifics, so I didn’t include the asterisk to denote shared extras. Nonetheless, I’m sure that whatever is on the basic DVD also appears here.)

With that we leave “Digital Production” and move to Music and Sound. This section consists solely of a nine-minute documentary slice that includes statements from Hahn, sound designer Gary Rydstrom, editor Ellen Keneshea, executive Thomas Schumacher, and composer James Newton Howard. The parts that relate to sound design are a little general but fairly compelling, as they cover the various challenges caused by animation since literally all of the audio must come from a secondary source; with no set on which to shoot, there can be no natural sound. The discussion of the music is less useful, as it seems somewhat puffy and uninformative.

Within the Publicity we find four trailers as well as the film’s “Print Campaign”. This provides another thumbnailed gallery with 17 images. After that, the disc finally concludes with Atlantis Found, the last chapter of the documentary. This seven-minute and 40-second piece offers a valedictory look at the movie as we watch some footage of the flick’s premiere and also hear interviews with Hahn, Trousdale, Wise, Mike Mignola, Lisa Keene, Marlon West, Kiran Joshi, Thomas Baker, Chris Jenkins, Marshall Toomey, Tab Murphy, and John Pomeroy. It isn’t terribly informative and doesn’t work very well on its own; it really exists as an ending for the documentary. In that regard, it functions nicely; it’s a bit puffy, but it ends the package on the appropriate note.

If you’re looking for a classic Disney animated film, Atlantis: The Lost Empire won’t deliver the goods. It’s a more-than-competent piece that offers a reasonably enjoyable and entertaining experience, but it doesn’t stand as one of the studio’s best works. Still, it’s a good flick that remains above average when compared to cinema in general.

As for the DVD, it’s an absolutely stellar product. Both picture and sound quality maintain the exceedingly high standards of other fresh-from-the-theater Disney films; I’ve come to expect excellent reproduction of the movie, and Atlantis didn’t disappoint me. In regard to the extras, this may well be the best-executed DVD I’ve ever seen. I won’t say that it’s the most comprehensive, for that’s a tough call to make. However, it’s up there with the deepest packages, as it leaves virtually no stones unturned.

Where Atlantis breaks from the pack relates to the breadth of the materials. Virtually all two-disc Disney releases include extensive still galleries and archival materials, and they also toss in audio commentaries. Atlantis improves upon the latter model with some useful video components as well.

However, as fun as the video commentary was, the thing that makes Atlantis unique among other Disney DVDs is its documentary. Many prior packages offered lots of small video tidbits, and even when they attempted to connect them together - as with The Emperor’s New Groove - they remained fairly brief compendiums. Atlantis offers a documentary that lasts almost two hours, and it’s a rich, detailed piece of work.

Excuse me if I seem to gush over these extras, but it’s not often I find such a substantial package. Add to this the user-friendliness offered by a mix of interactive options and you have a truly special piece of work. I’ve seen many excellent Disney releases, but with its combination of elements that will greatly appeal to casual fans and diehards, Atlantis is the best of the bunch and also one of the finest DVDs I’ve ever seen.

Viewer Film Ratings: 3.8487 Stars Number of Votes: 119

View Averages for all rated titles.

DVD Movie Guide @ dvdmg.com
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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Cast:
Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Tony Jay, Kevin Kline, Paul Kandel, Jason Alexander, Charles Kimbrough, Mary Wickes, David Ogden Stiers, Heidi Mollenhauer
Screenplay:
Tab Murphy, based on the novel by Victor Hugo
Box Office:
Budget $70 million.
Opening weekend $21.3 million on screens.
Domestic gross $100.117 million.
MPAA:
Rated PG for violence and sensuality.

Academy Awards:
Nominated for Best Score.

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.85:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
English DTS 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English; Closed-captioned
Runtime: 91 min.
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 3/19/2002

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary With Producer Don Hahn and Directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale
• “The Making of The Hunchback of Notre Dame”
• “Topsy Turvy” Sing-Along Song
• “A Guy Like You” Multi-Language Reel
• Topsy Turvy Underground Game

PURCHASE
• DVD
• Music soundtrack
Search Products:

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

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The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson
1996’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame combines the best and the worst tendencies of Disney animation. At its best, the retelling of the Victor Hugo classic provides some of Disney’s most rich and vibrant story telling, and it can be very powerful at times. However, the filmmakers occasionally shoot themselves in the feet, as they can’t quite let themselves go and allow the movie to reach its full potential.

In the Disney version of the tale, we start with a prologue. We meet the mother of baby Quasimodo, a gypsy chased through the streets of Paris by nasty Claude Frollo (Tony Jay). She dies, and Frollo intends to kill the child after he discovers Quasi’s misshapen form. However, the archdeacon of Notre Dame (David Ogden Stiers) halts the murder and uses the power of the church to order Frollo to care for the child.

This he does, but only in a very basic - and semi-abusive - manner, as he restricts Quasimodo (voice acted by Tom Hulce as an adult) to the bell tower of the Notre Dame cathedral. Isolated from the world, he creates his own fantasy friends with the gargoyles who surround him; in that regard, he interacts with Victor (Charles Kimbrough), Hugo (Jason Alexander) and Laverne (Mary Wickes).

Quasi’s life remains simple until the annual Festival of Fools starts. He’s always fantasized about visiting this celebration, and with the “urging” of the gargoyles, he dares to venture down to the streets. There he encounters sexy gypsy Esmerelda (Demi Moore), an enchantress who pulls him onstage for the King of Fools competition. Of course, he wins, but things take a turn for the worse when the crowd discovers Quasi’s face is his own, not a mask. Matters become dark when Frollo confronts his charge, so Quasi and Esmerelda have to make a quick escape, and she takes sanctuary in the cathedral.

Along the way we meet Frollo’s new captain of the guard, Phoebus (Kevin Kline). Called back from the wars specifically to suppress the gypsy population, Phoebus lacks much interest in his new job, but he tries to carry it out as a dutiful soldier. However, he doesn’t factor in his meeting with Esmerelda; sparks fly, and it quickly becomes clear that the two connect. This doesn’t sit well with Quasiomodo, who develops a crush on Esmerelda. To complicate matters, Frollo obviously has his own issues; he lusts for Esmerelda, and he acts out to combat the desires he interprets as negative.

The movie essentially follows this love quadrangle. Frollo obsesses over his desire to eradicate the gypsies and launches violent crusades against them. Phoebus eventually stands up against Frollo’s senseless attacks and becomes an outlaw. Quasimodo tries to deal with all these issues, including his competition with Phoebus and his relationship with Frollo.

At its best, Hunchback offers one of the strongest releases ever from Disney. When I saw it theatrically in 1996, I felt genuinely astounded by the complexity of parts of the piece. Disney animation definitely offered some dark moments prior to Hunchback; starting with the wicked queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and running through others bits like Mufasa’s death in The Lion King, not all of these films consisted solely of sweetness and light.

I felt that parts of Hunchback took these tendencies to a new level, mainly because of the increased frequency of them. The film possessed a more consistently dark tone as a whole that made it different than most other Disney offerings. Hunchback includes some startlingly intense moments. From Frollo’s “Hellfire” tune through the pursuit of the gypsies, the film provides quite a few instances of unusually heavy segments that clearly pushed the envelope of their normal “family” fare; though it received a “G” rating, Hunchback really deserved a “PG”.

The opening sequence to Hunchback is terrifically strong, and much of the rest of the film follows along those lines. It never quite regains the power of the prologue and immediate introduction to Quasimodo, but it certainly stays in positive territory much of the time. Despite my customary aversion to musicals, I think Hunchback uses the form to its best advantage. Songs make sense thematically and they blend together seamlessly much of the time. The first scenes in which we meet adult Quasi and see his interactions with Frollo demonstrate this, as the music and score effortlessly move among characters and themes.

So where does Hunchback fall flat? In regard to its comic relief. Put simply, the film includes too many inappropriately wacky moments, and they come at the expense of the drama. Some of this material works well. After the powerful “Hellfire” number, the filmmakers have a noticeably weary Frollo deliver a subtle little line that helps defuse some of the tension, but not in a gratuitous way; the joke alleviates a little heaviness without seeming inappropriate.

Unfortunately, much of the comedy does appear unsuitable for this film, mainly because of those stupid gargoyles. They pop up at all the wrong moments, and they effectively wreck a lot of tense scenes. During the climactic battle, their goofiness deflates the power of the struggle, and right in the midst of some of the movie’s darkest scenes, the filmmakers decided to plop the inanely peppy “A Guy Like You”, a tune that essentially rips off Aladdin’s “A Friend Like Me”.

While the gargoyles and some of the other comic bits don’t ruin the flick, they restrict its potential greatness. Had the filmmakers been willing to go all the way, The Hunchback of Notre Dame might have been one of the finest Disney movies ever. I certainly respected and admired the depth they lent to much of the piece, but they seemed afraid to follow those parts to their natural conclusions. Even with its flaws, however, I still really like Hunchback, and it remains one of my favorite Disney flicks. It doesn’t follow through on its potential, but it works very well for the most part.

The DVD Grades: Picture B / Audio B / Bonus B-
The Hunchback of Notre Dame appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, dual-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Though much of the picture looked absolutely terrific, a variety of continuing problems

Sharpness appeared excellent. The film always remained very crisp and detailed, and I saw no signs of softness or fuzziness. It was a nicely distinct and well-defined presentation at all times. I also witnessed no indications of jagged edges, moiré effects or edge enhancement.

Colors seemed stunning. Hunchback boasted a lovely and rich palette that varied from soft pastels to burning reds, and the DVD duplicated these wonderfully well. The various hues virtually leapt off the screen, as they appeared vivid and vibrant from start to finish. Black levels also came across as deep and dense, and shadow detail looked appropriately heavy but never overly thick.

So far, so great, right? Unfortunately, Hunchback lost major points due to print flaws. Light grain appeared through much of the film, and I saw a mix of speckles, grit, blotches and marks. While I can’t say that these became overwhelming, they did cause distractions, and they seemed excessive for a fairly recent movie. These defects alone led me to lower my grade to a “B”, as I felt they took away from the presentation too heavily to warrant a higher mark.

The soundtracks of The Hunchback of Notre Dame possess no fatal flaws, but they also don’t do much to stand out from the crowd. The DVD includes both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 mixes. To these ears, the two sounded virtually identical. Hunchback wasn’t a sonic feast anyway, and I found both tracks to present very similar audio.

I always thought 1996 was a great summer for movie sound. Twister remains one of my favorite demo discs, and we also got terrific mixes like those for The Rock and Independence Day. While Hunchback provided a decent auditory experience, it wasn’t in that league. The soundfield mainly stayed with a bias toward the front speakers. Within that spectrum, music displayed very good stereo imaging and presence, while effects also offered strong delineation and movement. The front realm gave us a clear and well-blended environment in which elements panned smoothly.

Surround usage seemed somewhat limited, though it worked reasonably well for the film. The rear speakers mainly reinforced effects and music. On some occasions, decent split surround material appeared, but those instances happened fairly infrequently. The back channels added dimensionality to the proceedings but not to a huge degree.

Audio quality appeared good but not great. Dialogue came across as reasonably natural and distinct, and I heard no problems related to edginess or intelligibility. Music appeared clear and bright but seemed somewhat thin; the score and songs lacked substantial low-end response. Effects seemed moderately similar. Although some loud moments featured good bass - like blasts or thumps - a lot of the time the track failed to deliver a lot of pleasing warmth. Ultimate, Hunchback provided a good sonic piece, but it fell short of becoming a terrific track.

While not a full-fledged special edition, this DVD of The Hunchback of Notre Dame does pack a few extras, many of which ported over from the 1997 deluxe laserdisc release. First up we find an audio commentary from producer Don Hahn and directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale. If you heard their track for Atlantis: The Lost Empire, you’ll know what to expect here. Although at least four years separated the taping of the two commentaries, you’d be hard-pressed to notice, as they both come across with similar tones.

All three men were recorded together for this running, screen-specific track, and it’s a good one. They touch on a wide variety of topics. We learn of how the movie compares to the original book, technical challenges and techniques, working with the actors, and many other issues. They even point out many of the inside jokes along the way, and they keep things light and breezy the whole time. It’s a chatty and entertaining piece that offers a lot of good information about Hunchback. Can’t wait for their track for Beauty and the Beast!

Next we discover another retread from the laserdisc boxed set. The Making of The Hunchback of Notre Dame runs 28 minutes and offers a fluffy look at the film. Hosted by Jason Alexander, the program includes a large number of interview participants. We hear from producer Hahn, directors Trousdale and Wise, actors Tom Hulce, Demi Moore, Kevin Kline, Tony Jay, Charles Kimbrough, and Heidi Mollenhauer (the singing voice for Esmerelda), co-producer Roy Conli, art director Dave Goetz, layout supervisor Ed Ghertner, background supervisor Lisa Keene, visual effects supervisor Christopher Jenkins, composer Alan Menken, and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, as well as animators Dave Pruiksma, James Baxter, Tony Fucile, Russ Edmonds, Kathy Zielinski and Will Finn.

Whew - that’s a lot of folks! However, don’t expect much depth, for virtually none of them offer more than one or two lines of information. This show maintains a very rapid pace as it gives us a superficial look at the animation process. Alexander provides some moderately amusing comic moments, and the program will offer a gentle introduction to the subject for newbies, but there’s virtually nothing memorable here. It seems like a particular disappointment when compared to the terrific documentary that accompanies Atlantis.

The remaining extras are pretty minor. We get a Sing-Along Song for “Topsy Turvy” plus a Multi-Language Reel for “A Guy Like You”. Though the latter implies that it’ll include 31 different tongues, in fact we only hear 16. It’s a cute piece but not anything more than that.

Also frilly but surprisingly fun is the Topsy Turvy Underground Game. Essentially this lets you remix the sound effects for three different short sequences. It’s played totally for laughs, and it works; it seems like an entertaining little piece.

When you start the DVD, you’ll find ads for some other Disney flicks. There’s a promo for the hotly anticipated DVD video release of Beauty and the Beast. The trailer highlights the inclusion of “Human Again”, the song added for the IMAX theatrical release of Beauty. In addition, the DVD opens with promos for Tarzan and Jane, The Hunchback of Notre Dame II, Max Keeble’s Big Move, and Disney DVD as a whole. These clips also can be found in the Sneak Peeks area alongside additional ads for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Schoolhouse Rock, and American Legends.

As I noted earlier, Hunchback once appeared as a deluxe laserdisc boxed set, and this DVD doesn’t remotely attempt to duplicate that set. The audio commentary, the documentary, and the multi-language reel all showed up on the LD, whereas the other features are new. We lose tons of stillframe materials as well as deleted songs and a slew of other pieces. Frankly, Hunchback wasn’t one of Disney’s better LD boxed sets; others like The Lion King and Toy Story blew it away - but it still easily surpasses what we find on this DVD.

Despite the disappointing absence of so many extras, I still have to recommend The Hunchback of Notre Dame for one simple reason: it’s a terrific movie. It clearly suffers from some flaws, but it remains one of my favorites, and it works nicely overall. The DVD offers generally positive picture and sound plus a very good audio commentary and a few other supplements. While the disc could have been better, this release seems strong enough to merit your attention.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.6563 Stars Number of Votes: 259

View Averages for all rated titles.

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson
Title: Tarzan: Collector's Edition (1999)
Studio Line: Disney - An immortal legend. As you've only imagined.
Wild with exotic adventure and laughs, Disney's Tarzan is a magnificent adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic story of the ape man!

Raised by a family of gorillas, including the loving Kala and the wisecracking Terk, Tarzan develops all the instincts and prowess of a jungle animal. But with the sudden appearance of Tarzan's own kind, including the beautiful Jane, two very different worlds are about to become one.

Driven by five powerful songs from pop superstar Phil Collins, and starring the voice talents of Minnie Driver, Glenn Close and Rosie O'Donnell, Disney's Tarzan delivers incredible adventure as well as important reminders about acceptance and family!

Director: Chris Buck and Kevin Lima
Cast: Tony Goldwyn-Tarzan, Alex D. Linz-Young Tarzan, Minnie Driver-Jane Porter, Glenn Close-Kala, Lance Henriksen-Kerchak, Rosie O'Donnell-Terk, Brian Blessed-Clayton, Nigel Hawthorne-Professor Archmedes Q. Porter, Wayne Knight-Tantor
Academy Awards: Won for Best Song-"You'll Be In My Heart," 2000.
Box Office: Budget: $150 million. Opening Weekend: $34.361 million. Gross: $171.085 million.
DVD: 2-Disc set; Widescreen 1.66:1/16x9; audio English DD 5.0, French & Spanish DD 5.0; THX; subtitles Spanish; closed-captioned; single side - dual layer; 36 chapters; rated G; 88 min.; $39.99; street date 4/18/00.
Supplements: Disc One: The Movie
Audio Commentary Featuring Bonnie Arnold (Producer), Kevin Lima And Chris Buck (Directors); Tarzan Read-Along; Tarzan Interactive Trivia Game; Sneak Peak At Disney's Dinosaur; Descriptive TheatreVision For The Visually Impaired; DVD-ROM Special Features: Free Tarzan Action Game Playable Demo; Internet Links To Various Tarzan/Disney Websites
Disc Two:
The History And Development Of Tarzan; Introductions And Explanations By The Filmmakers; Early Presentation Reel; The Making Of The Music Of Tarzan; Original Phil Collins Song Demos; Phil Collins Music Videos; Behind The Scenes With The Voice Talent; Original Story Treatment; Storyboard To Final Film Split-Screen Comparison; Abandoned Sequences; The Deep Canvas Process; Glen Keane On The Animation Of Tarzan; Character Designs And Concept Art; Production Progression Demonstration; Trailers And Posters (Domestic And International)

Picture/Sound/Extras: A/A-/A
Few movie studios have absorbed as much abuse as Disney, and much of it comes well-deserved. One of their less-than-admirable traits was to release movie-only versions of DVDs and only announce special editions of those titles after the basic copies were already on sale. The intent seemed clear: get the film's big fans - the ones who want it as soon as it hits the streets - to have to buy it twice. A number of movies - including Armageddon, Shakespeare In Love and A Bug's Life - were part of this form of the old bait and switch.

Much justified grousing greeted this policy, and it appears that Disney actually listened to the complaints. When they announced the DVD release of their recent hit Tarzan in November 1999, they mentioned both a movie-only version that would arrive in early February 2000 and a Collector's Edition that would hit in mid-April 2000. It's too bad the two couldn't street simultaneously, but at least it offered a step in the right direction.

I already reviewed the more basic version of Tarzan and I won't repeat my comments on the content of the film; any interested parties can read those opinions through this link. However, I do want to note that now that I've seen the film again - a third time overall - I feel more positively about it. I've always liked it, but my earlier review was more critical about it and stuck it firmly in the middle of the pack when compared to other Disney films. Whereas I would have given it about a "C+" rating at that time, I'd jack that up to about a "B" now. I'm not sure why I've increased my respect for it, but that's what happened, and it's a good sign for future viewings. Tarzan is a solidly entertaining and very well-crafted film.

The DVD:

The image on Tarzan's single-sided, dual-layered DVD has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. As for the aspect ratio... well, that's a good question. Most sources report that it's 1.66:1, which provides a "windowboxed" image because of the anamorphic enhancement (since a 16X9 TV has a ratio of 1.78:1, that means any anamorphic DVDs for movies with 1.66:1 ratios have to provide small bars on the side to make the picture fill the vertical area).

Initially I disagreed with this 1.66:1 appraisal simply because the image on my 4X3 TV looked a lot closer to 1.85:1 than 1.66:1. However, my TV has a bit of overscan - as do most sets - so that apparently alters the observed dimensions.

As such, I'm now - finally - content to accept that the encoded image on the DVD actually is windowboxed anamorphic 1.66:1. However, you should know that unless your TV has virtually no overscanning, it won't look 1.66:1 on your set; I compared it to non-anamorphic 1.66:1 DVD The Nightmare Before Christmas and the latter picture showed much more mild matting. This means that when you watch Tarzan on your 4X3 TV, you're likely to see an image that's about 1.78:1; it most likely will not resemble other 1.66:1 pictures.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I can discuss the quality of this oddly-framed image. In a word? Exceptional. Sharpness looks absolutely immaculate from start to finish; I never noticed the slightest amount of softness or haziness at any point. Moire effects and jagged edges are also blissfully absent, and the print itself appears perfectly clean and smooth; I saw no signs of grain, speckles, scratches, nicks, hairs or other defects.

Colors are absolutely wondrous, and they display fabulous depth, clarity, and vivacity. Black levels seem deep and rich, and shadow detail looks appropriately heavy but not too thick. How good is this picture? I came very, very close to awarding it an "A+", and I don't do that very often.

The original "movie-only" DVD of Tarzan suffered from an infamous audio flaw. Essentially, much of the information that should come solely from the rear left channel also appeared in the front left speaker. This created a muddled effect on the left side of the spectrum, since the spatial definition often seemed weak; we hear a fair amount of information that comes (appropriately) from just the front left, but too much gets stuck in auditory limbo between the two left speakers; it's not a fatal flaw, but it's irritating.

The issue caused me to knock my rating of Tarzan's audio down to a "B" for that DVD. Happily, the Collector's Edition fixes the concern. I detected no signs of the flaw on the new DVD. The soundfield seems very engulfing and active, with a nicely-spatial image that offers well-placed sounds. The rears provide a high level of information and are active participants in the mix.

Sound quality seems excellent. Dialogue is consistently clear and natural; it seems well-integrated with the image, something that's not always easy to do in animation. The music seems pretty smooth and well-rounded, and effects are realistic and detailed, with some very good bass at times.

Oh, that reminds me of another controversial issue about the Tarzan DVDs. As you may have noticed, this isn't a 5.1 mix; it's 5.0, which means that no dedicated subwoofer channel exists. While the other audio issue clearly regards an error, as of yet there seems to be no consensus whether or not Disney messed up by not including that ".1" channel. Some folks say that it represents the original audio accurately, some say we lose bass because there's not enough sub action occurring. I'll skip opining on this one, because I really don't know which position is correct; all I can say is that the audio seemed pretty deep on my subwoofer-less system and there's been no official recognition from the studio that this may have been a mistake.

In addition to the afore-mentioned audio error, another controversial aspect of the first Tarzan DVD has been altered here. The movie-only release - as well as other Disney DVDs such as The Sixth Sense and The Aristocats - stuck a series of advertisements prior to the DVD's main menu. You had to manually skip past them if you didn't want to watch them, and their presence royally cheesed off a lot of folks. They didn't really bother me, but they're not an issue here, as no ads can be found.

Other materials from the first DVD do show up on the Collector's Edition, however; in fact, all of them appear, with the exception of the advertisements. As I go through the supplements on the CE, I will denote those that also came on the movie-only copy with an asterisk(\*).

Tarzan is the second CE Disney have released for an animated title, following the terrific A Bug's Life package. That DVD remains my choice for the greatest DVD yet produced. Tarzan CE doesn't quite match up with the supplements in that collection, but they're pretty good nonetheless.

In this two-DVD set, most of the extras come on the second disc, but the first platter includes a few as well. The main attraction is a running audio commentary from producer Bonnie Arnold and directors Kevin Lima and Chris Buck. It's a generally solid track as the participants do a nice job of relating the ins and outs of the techniques used to make the movie and a variety of other creative issues. It's pretty typical of other Disney commentaries as we hear mainly about the technical concerns but learn enough of other details that the track seems well-balanced. It's a solid piece.

Also on DVD 1 we find a preview for the upcoming Disney epic Dinosaur. The latter is mildly matted and appears with 5.1 sound, which is a nice touch. (The clip also comes with The Aristocats, but only in a 2.0 mix unfortunately.)

Two more features round out the first DVD. There's an "interactive trivia game" which presents 15 questions of varying difficulty, some of which are rather tough! It's nothing special but it's a little fun. There's also a "Tarzan Read-Along", which is basically a storybook with colorful art that's been put on the video. Obviously meant for wee ones, kids can either read the text on their own or have it read to them and they then follow along with it. It doesn't do anything for me, but it's a nice little touch, and one that will become more common; Columbia-Tristar's Stuart Little features a similar feature, and it looks like all future Disney animated DVDs will have them as well.

Actually, I spoke too soon when I finished off the first DVD. It also features some (\*)DVD-ROM content. We get a demo for the Tarzan PC action game, which essentially plays as a Tarzan version of a Mario game; it looks like it might be some fun but isn't anything original, and it doesn't seem to be especially well-executed. The DVD-ROM segment also includes links to various Disney-related websites.

(While it doesn't count as a supplement, I noticed one other cool aspect of DVD 1: it offers "Descriptive TheatreVision for the Visually Impaired". This means that a narrator essentially tells the story like it was a book as the movie runs. I've heard that other DVDs have this - I may even own some of them - but I never noticed it prior to this. I flipped to it a couple of times and thought it seemed pretty cool. Hey, it might even be fun to tape the recordings and listen to them in other settings - it'd be like a movie in a Walkman! In any case, I think it's terrific that Disney have included it on this DVD. I checked around and it looks like vision-impaired folks mainly have to acquire TheatreVision-enabled materials through mail order - most of the movies are on videotape, and obviously the demand is too low for regular retailers like Wal-Mart to carry them - so it's nice that a mainstream product offers the feature; I hope more DVDs do so in the future.)

Now onto the meat of the supplements on DVD 2. These appear in six different areas, and I'll present them in the order in which they come on the DVD.

First up is "History And Development". This area consists mainly of some brief video programs. "From Burroughs To Disney" lasts two minutes and 40 seconds and essentially acts as a brief introduction to the topic. The "Early Presentation Reel" runs for two minutes and it presents a visual introduction to the movie that was used to sell the suits on the idea; it combines concept art with an early Tarzan song from Phil Collins.

"Research Trip to Africa" shows the animators and other creative folks involved as they visit Africa to get a better feel for the subject; this piece lasts three minutes. Finally, "History of Production" presents text notes that discuss the life of Edgar Rice Burroughs, how he came to write the original book, and how the project came to Disney.

The next area we'll visit is "The Music of Tarzan. First we get "The Making of the Music", which is another general featurette. This two minute and 50 second piece offers interviews from songwriter/performer Phil Collins and score composer Mark Mancina and also combines film clips and shots of Collins performing the music. "Tarzan Goes International" functions along the lines of the usual "multi-language reel" except that in addition to hearing Collins sing "Stranger Like Me" in five languages (English, French, Italian, Spanish and German), we see some clips of this and we also watch some interviews with him. This program lasts for two minutes and 20 seconds.

Two music videos appear in this area. We find "You'll Be In My Heart", which is an odd clip. Collins does the usual lip-synching, but in an unconventional manner, with some high-tech effects involved. This video also barely relates the existence of the film; we see a rough sketch of Tarzan (the image shown on the cover of the DVD) as graffiti in one scene, and the human participants replicate the "hand-joining" facet of the movie, but these are almost subliminal forms of promotion. One could easily watch this four minute and 15 second clip and not know it has a connection to Tarzan.

Such is not the case with the DVD's other video, one for (\*)"Strangers Like Me". This offers a three minute clip that pretty closely follows the usual Disney "video for a song from an animated movie" formula: lots of fairly blah shots of lip-synching intercut with many scenes from the film itself. Yawn. The video portion of this area ends with (\*)"Studio Sessions With Phil Collins and 'N Sync", a two minute snippet that combines shots of those improbable partners recording in the studio with some interview clips. If you just can't get enough of those teeny-bopper boy bands, you'll love this piece. Me, I thought it was a bit dull.

Finally, the "Music of Tarzan" section includes "Original Phil Collins Song Demos". This starts with a one minute and 50 second introduction from music producer Chris Montan that briefly discusses the material we'll find. We then hear early versions of "Lullaby" (aka "You'll Be In My Heart"), "Son Of Man/Celebration", "Rhythm Piece" (aka "Trashin' The Camp"), and "I Will Follow" (aka "Strangers Like Me"). We also get one completely unused piece, "6/8 Intro". Each of these snippets lasted between three minutes and 10 seconds and five minutes, for a total of about 21 minutes. They provide a nice look at the creative process since we can hear the early beginnings of these tunes.

Up next is the "Story and Editorial" section. "Building the Story" is another general overview of the subject; it lasts for three minutes and 15 seconds and includes the usual interviews and production clips to tell us about the story process. "Original Treatment" presents the text synopsis that was used to initially sell the story, and the words are interspersed with some conceptual art in this area. It's interesting to read it and note where the film diverges - and doesn't - from the original plan.

"Storyboard to Film Comparison" offers the standard look at how the original conception of a scene compares to its ultimate execution. I'm not usually a fan of these, but Disney products are more interesting just because the boards are more extensive; it's fascinating to see just how close to the final movie their preparations are. This area presents the film's opening scene, with the boards on the top half of the screen and the finished movie on the bottom; it lasts for three minutes and 20 seconds.

Finally, "Abandoned Sequences" presents just that: potential parts of the film that weren't used. You rarely find actual deleted scenes from an animated movie just because the process is so expensive; they only animate what they eventually use, which is why the pre-animation process is so extensive and meticulous. As such, this area includes story reels for three unused segments. (Story reels film somewhat kinetic versions of the storyboards and accompany them with dialogue and effects.)

It starts with a one minute and 50 second introduction from producer Bonnie Arnold, who discusses the reasons these segments didn't make the cut. We get three sequences in all: "Alternate Opening" (two minutes, 15 seconds); "Terk Finds the Human Camp" (two minutes, 15 seconds); and "Riverboat Fight" (three minutes, 35 seconds). In the absence of actual deleted animation, these offer a great look at other directions the film might have taken.

Our next section is "The Characters of Tarzan, which focusses mainly on the visual evolution of the participants. Unsurprisingly, the first area - which examines the T-man himself - is the most extensive. "Creating Tarzan" follows the same general structure of all the other video featurettes we've seen, with interviews and production clips that discuss the basics of Tarzan; it lasts for four minutes.

Next is "Animating Tarzan", a slightly more extensive program that does a better job of detailing that process. It's narrated by lead animator Glen Keane and runs for six minutes and 40 seconds. This piece does a nice job of showing all of the issues that concerned bringing Tarzan to life.

The "Tarzan" area finishes with "Tarzan Designs". In this section we can advance through 123 still frames of character sketches and different possibilities for Tarzan; it's cool to see the various ideas for the character's appearance.

The rest of the "Characters" section details the other personalities and all follow the same template established in the "Tarzan" area except that all but "Supporting Characters" include just the "Creating (Whoever)" and "(Whoever) Designs"; none of them offer "Animating (Whoever)"; "Supporting Characters" just features "SC Designs".

Anyway, here are the details on these other sections. First is "Jane and Porter". "Creating Jane and Porter" lasts three minutes, while "Jane Designs" presents 30 drawings and "Designing Porter" gives us 23 of him.

"Kala and Kerchak" is next, with "Creating Kala and Kerchak" at three minutes. "Kala Designs" includes 23 sketches, while "Kerchak Designs" features 21 drawings.

"Terk and Tantor" shows up with "Creating Terk and Tantor" at - you guessed it! - three minutes. We then find 30 "Terk Designs" and 24 "Tantor Designs".

Up next is "Clayton and Sabor", which offers "Creating Clayton" at a whopping three minutes and 20 seconds. "Clayton Designs" features 21 drawings, while "Sabor Designs" presents 16. Finally, "Supporting Character Designs" - which includes personalities like Tarzan's parents, the baby baboon, and additional apes - gives us 23 sketches.

Next we move to the "Animation Production" section. This starts with "Concept Art", an area that presents a plethora of, well, concept art; we find 138 examples here. Then comes "Color Keys". Essentially, color keys seem to be small pieces of art that show the director of photography the ways colors should look in various scenes. We find 24 of them here.

"Layouts and Backgrounds" presents what it describes: examples of those parts of the animation. We get 24 screens of these, most of which depict layers that build on top of each other.

"Deep Canvas" involves the revolutionary new animation process used in Tarzan. Essentially, deep canvas lets artists create three-dimensional "sets" within the computer so the camera can fly all over the place and create a much more kinetic feeling. One program - "The Deep Canvas Process" - offers a two minute and 40 second overview of the technique. More detail appears in "Deep Canvas Demonstration", a five minute program that more graphically spells out the way it works.

"Production Progression Demonstration" gives you a reason to use your "angle" button on your remote. It presents the various steps through which animation must go: 1) The story reel, with its rough appearance and less-than-crude animation; 2) Rough animation, which offers very sketchy art; 3) Clean-up animation, which tidies up the previous step; and 4) Final animation, which is what we see on the screen. Each segment lasts one minute and ten seconds, and you can watch each in its entirety or just "angle" your way through all four as you please.

Finally, "Intercontinental Filmmaking" discusses an unusual aspect of Tarzan: it was created as a joint venture by Disney studios in the US and in France. As such, Tarzan was animated in Paris, while Jane was drawn in Los Angeles. This two minute program briefly covers how they made this collaboration work.

The final section is called "Publicity". "Poster and Ad Campaign" features nine screens of images, most of which are from US ads but we also see some foreign promos.

Three trailers complete the area. Trailer one goes for one minute and 55 seconds, (\*)trailer two lasts one minute, and trailer three runs two minutes and 15 seconds. I found it interesting to note that the music is trailer two sounds a lot like the last few minutes of Collins' ex-bandmate (in Genesis) Peter Gabriel's "The Rhythm of the Heat" - I mean an awful lot like it. Well, if Collins is responsible for it, at least he's ripping off the most talented member of the band; I'd hate to hear him rehash that miserable Mike and the Mechanics material!

One unfortunate note about trailer three: it - like the other two - appears only with Dolby Surround audio. However, on the "movie-only" DVD of Tarzan, it included full Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. Why the change? I have no idea; sloppiness, I'd assume.

Finally, we also get some decent production notes in the DVD's booklet. That's unusual for a Disney release; their titles virtually never include booklets, instead substituting a crummy two-sided card. (For the record, the ABL CE featured a booklet as well, but this one's better.)

Overall, these supplements make for a solid little package, but it's not quite up to the standards of the A Bug's Life CE. On Tarzan's DVD 2, we get 66 minutes of various forms of video features, with an additional 12 and a half minutes devoted to music videos and trailers. We discover more than 20 minutes of song demos, and we find about 540 still frames of various kinds of art.

I wanted to add up these components because I must admit the package as a whole feels vaguely underwhelming, mainly due to it presentation. If all those video programs had been combined into one 66 minute feature, I'd feel better about it, but when you run through each of them in this "dribs and drabs" format, it seems as though you hardly see anything; having information doled out a few minutes at a time can be a bit frustrating.

Nonetheless, the DVD does include some substantial supplements, though not on a par with ABL CE or some of the excellent laserdisc box sets Disney released in the Nineties. Of course, those laserdiscs sold for $100 and up, so while those packages were unquestionably superior in regard to supplements, any grousing I do about the "good old days" should be ignored promptly.

Tarzan isn't a perfect movie or a perfect DVD. However, it's pretty terrific on both accounts. The film itself seems to improve with extra viewings, and it looks and sounds absolutely fantastic on this DVD. Because of the way they're presented, the supplements can be frustrating at times, but they present a lot of solid information and give the viewer a strong understanding of the movie. With a list price of $40 - only $5 more than the cost of the more basic edition of the film - the Collector's Edition of Tarzan becomes an absolute must-buy DVD.

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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Ron Clements, John Musker
Cast:
Scott Weinger, Robin Williams, Linda Larkin, Jonathan Freeman, Frank Welker, Gilbert Gottfried, Douglas Seale, Bruce Adler
Writing Credits:
Roger Allers, Ron Clements, Ted Elliott

Tagline:
Imagine if you had three wishes, three hopes, three dreams and they all could come true.

Synopsis:
Soar away on a magic carpet ride of nonstop enchantment in the most spectacular animated adventure of all time! Embraced by critics and audiences of all ages, Disney's Aladdin became the #1 film of the year, winning 2 Academy Awards® for Best Song, "A Whole New World" (Alan Menken, Tim Rice) and Best Score (Alan Menken).

Set in the mythical city of Agrabah, the story follows a street-smart peasant, Aladdin, and his mischievous pet monkey, Abu. Aladdin falls in love with the free-spirited Princess Jasmine - despite a law that says she can only wed a royal suitor! His luck changes with one rub of the lamp, releasing the shape-shifting, fun-loving, wish-giving Genie - who turns him into a Prince! But the evil sorcerer, Jafar, and his wisecracking parrot, Iago, also crave the lamp's power. If Aladdin is to defeat them and win Jasmine's heart, he must learn to be himself - and that's one wish the Genie can't grant! With a magical mix of delightful Disney characters, breathtaking Disney artistry, and playful humor, "You couldn't wish for a more wonderful film!" (Joel Siegel, ABC-TV) Now enjoy all the phenomenal fun of Aladdin ... anytime you wish!

Box Office:
Budget
$28 million.
Domestic Gross
$217.350 million.

MPAA:
Rated G

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.66:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
English Enhanced Home Theater 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 90 min.
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 10/5/2004

Bonus:
Disc One
• Audio Commentary with Producer/Directors John Musker and Ron Clements and Co-Producer Amy Pell
• Audio Commentary with Animators Andreas Deja, Will Finn, Eric Goldberg and Glen Keane
• Four Deleted Songs
• Two Deleted Scenes
• Three Music Videos
• Disney Song Selection
• Pop Up Fun Facts
• Sneak Peeks
• THX Optimizer
Disc Two
• “Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride” Game
• “Inside the Genie’s Lamp” Interactive Tour
• “3 Wishes” Game
• “The Genie’s World Tour” Featurette
• “A Diamond in the Rough: The Making of Aladdin” Documentary
• “Alan Menken: Musical Renaissance Man” Documentary
• Art Review with Filmmakers’ Commentary
• Still Frame Galleries
• Trailers
• Publicity Gallery

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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Aladdin: Special Edition (1992)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (September 21, 2004)
1992’s Aladdin continued the brief-lived era of good feelings at Disney animation. After the doldrums of the prior decades, 1989’s The Little Mermaid marked the studio’s return to cultural relevance, and 1991’s Beauty and the Beast solidified that hold with newfound critical glory. Aladdin didn’t receive quite so many plaudits but it did well for itself in that department and also raked in the bucks at the box office. For the first time in decades, a Disney cartoon emerged as the year’s top-grossing flick; Aladdin’s $217 million put it well ahead of contenders like Batman Returns and Lethal Weapon 3.

This would be the last time a traditionally animated flick would top the box office charts. Since then, only 1995’s computer animated Toy Story had won a year’s box office competition, though 1994’s The Lion King and 2003’s Finding Nemo placed second for their years. In addition, 2004’s Shrek 2 stands an awfully good chance of earning this year’s crown.

At the start of Aladdin, evil sorcerer Jafar (voiced by Jonathan Freeman) seeks the Cave of Wonders, the repository for a magical lamp. His stooge Gazeem attempts to fetch it, but only “the diamond in the rough” may enter, as they violently discover.

From there we meet thieving street urchin Aladdin (Scott Weinger) and his loyal pet monkey Abu (Frank Welker). They live a hand-to-mouth existence but dream of fortune, a concept epitomized by the local Sultan (Douglas Seale). He lives with his teen daughter Princess Jasmine (Linda Larkin) who resists his attempts to find her a husband. The law dictates that Jasmine must marry by her next birthday, and it occurs in only three more days. She clings to the notion of romantic love, though, and pines for more freedom and independence.

The Sultan frets but his advisor Jafar offers a solution if he can use the leader’s magical blue diamond ring. He hypnotizes the Sultan and attempts to enact his own evil plan. He uses the blue diamond to find out the “diamond in the rough”. This person turns out to be Aladdin, so he sends palace guards to capture the boy.

In the meantime, Jasmine disguises herself to enter the community. She finds herself overmatched, though, and gets into inadvertent trouble. Aladdin rescues her and the pair immediately connects. They open up to each other before the palace guards find them. Even though Jasmine reveals her true identity and tries to get them to free Aladdin, they cling to Jafar’s orders and take the boy into the palace. When Jasmine orders Jafar to release the prisoner, the wizard claims that they already killed Aladdin as a thief.

Of course, he lies, as Aladdin is stuck in jail. Abu frees him and an elderly prisoner - Jafar in disguise - regales them with tales of the Cave of Wonders, a place filled with treasure that he can use to win over Jasmine. The “old man” leads Aladdin to the Cave and sends him inside, where he goes to fetch the lamp. Though warned not to take anything else, Abu can’t resist and he snags a gem. This causes the Cave to collapse, but they escape on a friendly flying carpet.

Jafar gets his lamp and tosses Aladdin back into the Cave, apparently to suffer his demise. However, he clings to life, and we see that Abu pilfered the lamp back from Jafar before he fell into the Cave. When they shine the object, they discover its secret: it contains a powerful Genie (Robin Williams). He gets them out of the Cave and then helps Aladdin with his first wish: to become a prince.

From there, the crew struts into Agrabah to win over the Princess. This crimps Jafar’s style, as he planned to marry Jasmine himself and take over as Sultan. The rest of the movie follows Aladdin’s attempts to win over Jasmine as well as Jafar’s plots and their ramifications.

One of Aladdin’s strengths may ultimately turn into a weakness. Much of the film’s success stemmed from its manic turn by Robin Williams. He single-handedly made it cool for big stars to do cartoon voiceovers and brought unprecedented attention to an actor in such a role. He infused the movie with relentless energy that often made it a comic wonder to behold.

Williams also left the movie with a stronger time stamp than usual. Virtually all films represent the eras in which they were made. Compare Saving Private Ryan to The Longest Day. Both cover similar subject matter but certainly don’t resemble each other in many ways, and it becomes clear that the attitudes of their respective chronological circumstances mark them.

This becomes especially true for Aladdin due to its style of humor. How many of its jokes will make sense 50 years from now? Probably not a lot. While it doesn’t feature extreme amounts of topical comedy, it roots many of the gags in social references that may not translate well.

I think that the film’s strengths ultimately override any of these concerns, however. Watching Aladdin for the first time in a few years, I was struck by just how much Williams owns this film. The Genie doesn’t appear until half an hour into the flick; we briefly hear from Williams in his short role as the merchant, but after that he disappears until a third of the film has finished.

When Williams reappears, he quickly grabs hold of the movie and makes it his own. In Disney flicks, supporting characters often overshadow the main roles, and the Genie presents an extreme example of that. Though the filmmakers don’t go out of their way to put the Genie at the center of the action, Williams’ manic personality ensures that this happens.

Don’t interpret that as a criticism of Williams and an indication that I see him as some sort of movie-hogging prima donna. Admittedly, I’m not a huge fan of the man’s work, mostly due to his modern tendency to select mawkish films in which he plays insufferably smug and condescending characters like Patch Adams. Nonetheless, he dazzles in Aladdin, as he makes the Genie a force of nature who carries the movie to the promised land all on his own.

Well, maybe not all on his own, though without Williams, this movie could have been much less satisfying. As for the rest of it, I can’t summon many reasons to complain, even though Aladdin and Jasmine don’t create a lot of sparks and the movie conveys an awfully generic “be yourself” message.

On the other hand, once we get past the Genie, I also find it difficult to conjure lots of compliments. The cartoony style of the flick made it unusual among Disney’s then-recent history, and its manic tone allows it to stand out from the crowd. Granted, much of that comes from Williams, but the filmmakers keep up with him and use the energy for the benefit of the story; the hyperkinetic attitude melds well with the story and humor. The movie builds well; even though its first third drags, the climax becomes fun and clever.

Aladdin also includes one of the most effective bits of animation I can recall in recent Disney history: the Magic Carpet. Supervising animator Randy Cartwright brings a remarkable level of personality and individuality to a rug. The character boasts no face or limbs to express emotions, but darned if he/she/it doesn’t turn into one of the movie’s most likeable and endearing participants.

Overall, Aladdin remains a pretty enjoyable and lively flick. I admit it doesn’t wow me like it did a decade ago, and some parts of it have started to age less than gracefully. Nonetheless, a knockout performance from Robin Williams carries much of the weight, and the rest of the film does enough well to make it amusing and entertaining.

The DVD Grades: Picture B+/ Audio B+/ Bonus A+
Aladdin appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Aladdin didn’t quite match up with Disney’s absolute best transfers, but it fared strongly overall.

Sharpness seemed solid most of the time. At most times, the movie remained crisp and well defined. Some shots looked a little soft, though, especially in wider angles. Jagged edges and moiré effects appeared absent, but I noticed mild to moderate signs of edge enhancement. These created most of the distractions, as they occasionally gave the movie its minor lack of definition. In regard to print flaws, I noticed none, as the movie looked clean and fresh from start to finish.

The setting of Aladdin meant that it boasted a wonderfully vivid and varied palette, and the DVD presented those hues well. The colors consistently looked terrific. The hues always came across as lively, and the movie handled lots of colored lighting with aplomb. Black levels mostly looked solid, though I thought nighttime skies seemed slightly inky. Low-light images were concisely displayed and tight, with no excessive opacity. Aladdin presented a consistently good transfer that fell below “A” level due to the issues created by edge enhancement.

Aladdin also provided a pretty strong Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. As occurred with The Lion King, we can watch the movie with either the “standard” Dolby 5.1 version or an all-new “enhanced home theater mix”. I opted for the latter and found it to present a generally strong piece.

Aladdin featured a moderately active soundfield. All five channels presented a mix of different elements that made them work frequently throughout the movie. Effects played an active role in the proceedings and helped bring the action to life. Quieter sequences demonstrated a nice feeling of atmosphere, while louder ones kicked the track into higher gear. Elements zipped around the spectrum convincingly.

Where the track lost some points connected to the music, especially the songs. The elements of the tunes tended to be too heavily isolated within their respective channels and they failed to mesh together well. The quality of the music also lacked great pep. The songs and score often came across as a little anemic, as they didn’t present the vivacity I expected. They never were bad, but I expected music with stronger punch.

Otherwise, audio quality seemed positive. Speech came across as natural and crisp. Music varied somewhat but usually was solid. Effects always sounded accurate and dynamic. Those elements presented good bass response and seemed tight and well defined with no signs of distortion. All of this resulted in a soundtrack that merited a “B+”.

Aladdin comes as a two-disc “Platinum Edition” release with plenty of supplements. On DVD One, we find two separate audio commentaries. The first presents remarks from producers/directors John Musker and Ron Clements and co-producer Amy Pell, all of whom sit together for a running, screen-specific chat. They get into a nice mix of topics. We learn about the visual design of the movie and how this represents themes, influences, the characters, their development and casting, the music and the songs, cut sequences and various changes made along the way. They toss in fun stories about working with Robin Williams and also make sure we know what animators did what on the film. The commentary moves at a good pace and provides a winning exploration of the flick.

For the second commentary, we discover remarks from supervising animators Andreas Deja, Will Finn, Eric Goldberg and Glen Keane. All four sit together for their running, screen-specific discussion. They cover a mix of subjects related to animation and the general production of the film. They point out who did what for the art and also talk about influences, inspirations, and character design and development. They also relate notes about changes and cuts. An awful lot of this information already appears in the first commentary, so don’t look here for great insight.

That comes as a disappointment. This track includes four men with a ton of animation experience, and I hoped to hear a lot about their styles, methods and whatnot. Instead I got a pretty general chat with only occasional examples of revealing information. They devote much of the track to praise and tell us how much they like different parts. While the occasional nugget of value appears, this commentary mainly comes across as redundant after the prior one.

Aladdin also presents a text commentary called Pop Up Fun Facts. This presents information on many topics. We get notes about historical inspirations and explanations of the movie’s references, the visual design and themes, casting and characters, the music and unused songs, trivia and hidden gags. A fair amount of the information repeats from the commentaries, so don’t expect an abundance of new material. In addition, the track goes “quiet” a little more than I’d like; it drops out for slightly extended periods at times. Despite those issues, it gives us a concise synopsis of various elements, with a particular emphasis on variations and changes, so it gives us a good look at the movie.

For actual examples of unused material, we head to Deleted Songs. This includes four numbers: “Proud of Your Boy” (three minutes, 59 seconds), “You Can Count On Me” (2:24), “Humiliate the Boy” (3:56) and “Why Me” (3:44). We see these via story reels, with basic renditions of the tunes. Each clip starts with an introduction; in these we hear from Clements, Musker, story supervisor Ed Gombert, and composer Alan Menken. They discuss the songs and we get information about their removal; some of this already appears elsewhere, but the participants explain the pieces well. It’s very cool to listen to these dropped sequences.

We get more removed material with two Deleted Scenes. This area features “Aladdin and Jasmine’s First Meeting” (two minutes, 53 seconds) and “Aladdin in the Lap of Luxury” (2:54). Story reels represent both, as no kind of animation appears. The former demonstrates a pretty silly alternate take on the characters’ initial encounter. The latter shows some elements of the removed subplot that involved Aladdin’s mother and also comes from a version in which our hero had unlimited wishes; it corresponds loosely to the sequence in which Aladdin reneges on his promise to free the Genie. Neither stands out as great, but I nonetheless appreciate the opportunity to see them. Introductions precede the clips; we hear from Musker and Clements. They again give us relevant discussion of the cuts.

Within “Music & More”, two subdomains appear. The first provides Music Videos for two songs. Actually, it’s not that simple, as additional elements come with these. For “Proud of Your Boy”, simpy American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken croons a predictably insipid take on the tune in this dull lip-synch video. The same “original story reel” for the song repeats from the “Deleted Songs” area, and we also find a three-minute, 22-second “Behind the Scenes of the Music Video”. It shows shots from the shoot along with comments from Menken, Aiken, Musker, Clements, and Walt Disney Music president Chris Montan. They provide some basic notes on the tune, choosing Aiken for it, the song’s relevance to the singer, and recording it. Not much more than fluffy talk shows up here.

For “A Whole New World”, we discover two separate music videos. In addition to the original from Regina Belle and Peabo Bryson, current flavors of the month Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey do a new version. Both renditions are soppy, over-produced messes; I like the movie’s take the best. As for the videos, both stick with the simple lip-synch/movie clip format typical of the genre. At least the Belle/Bryson edition gets a little creative and has them emote in a desert setting; Simpson and Lachey don’t even pretend to leave the recording studio.

We see more of them in another “Behind the Scenes” segment. Clearly intended to tout the DVD on TV, the three-minute and 48-second piece includes remarks from Simpson and Lachey. They chat about how excited they are, how much they love the track and movie, and how much they have to offer to it. The program’s so puffy that it makes the “Proud” featurette look fantastically deep by comparison. At least Simpson looks particularly cute here.

“Music & More” also provides Disney’s Song Selection. This basically acts as an alternate form of chapter menu. It lets you jump to any of the film’s five song performances, and it also allows you to show on-screen lyrics.

As DVD One starts, we encounter a mix of ads. We find trailers for Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, Bambi, The Aladdin Trilogy and the Make A Wish Foundation. These also appear in the disc’s Sneak Peeks domain along with promos for Mulan, Mary Poppins, Mulan II, JET IX and the Disneyland Resort.

DVD One features the THX Optimizer. Also found on many other DVDs, this purports to help you set up your system for the best reproduction of both picture and sound, ala stand-alone programs such as Video Essentials. I’ve never tried the Optimizer since I’m happy with my settings, but if you don’t own something such as Essentials, the Optimizer may help you improve picture and audio quality.

With that we move over to DVD Two and its myriad of features. These split into two areas. “Games & Activities” includes four elements. Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride touts itself as a “Disney virtual DVD ride”. Somewhat similar to the “Virtual Safari” on the Lion King DVD, this sends Aladdin around various settings to try to save Jasmine. Bizarrely, it plops Timon into the action as well! One difference comes up here: occasionally you need to find “clues” to help you on your way. This part of the game seems surprisingly unforgiving; it allows you one shot, often without much on which to base your choice, and that’s it. Not that it seems to matter in the end, as I solved it without many clues and without much idea what I’d done. The whole thing’s pretty tedious and not much fun. It concludes without any special reward.

Two options come with Inside the Genie’s Lamp: a “guided tour” and a “self-guided tour”. I tried the former, which lasted six minutes and 10 seconds. It takes a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous approach for another cute but insubstantial piece.

Next we get the 3 Wishes Game. Subtitled “Your Fortune Revealed”, this requires you to select a button that will release a coin to head toward a mechanical representation of Jafar’s head. If you get it in his mouth, he commands you to make a wish. Press a button and he tells you “your wish is granted”. And that’s it! As far as I can tell, nothing else happens here, so it comes as a waste of time despite some new voiceover performances for Jafar and Iago.

“Games & Activities” ends with The Genie’s World Tour. In the three-minute and 10-second piece, we hear Jafar and Iago comment on postcards they get from the Genie. We also see animated shots of these cards. It’s cute and that’s about it.

From here we go to ‘Backstage Disney” and its components. It begins with a documentary called A Diamond in the Rough: The Making of Aladdin. As a short intro from film critic Leonard Maltin explains, this piece can be viewed in three different ways. “Your Wish Is Our Command” presents a basic 42-minute and 31-second show that lets you branch off to “additional bonus segments” from time to time. “Play All” combines the main program with the extra bits into a single one-hour, 49-minute and 52-second monster documentary. Finally, an index lets you pick and choose from all the various elements.

In the interest of simplicity and completeness, I went “Play All” and watched the whole thing all in one neat package. It takes an unusual format in that it combines a broad mix of elements. The show starts with the Maltin-hosted “An Evening With the Creators of Aladdin”, a presentation with Musker, Clements and Pell. They chat about the flick’s origins and development. Although they already touched on the topics in the commentary, some new information manages to emerge here.

The “Evening…” presentation winds up as the anchor to “Rough”. The program interrupts it with a mix of other elements, but we always come back to it. Subsequent parts of “Evening” include remarks from Menken, Deja, Goldberg, Finn, supervising animator Randy Cartwright, production designer Richard Vander Wende, supervising CGI animator Steve Goldberg, and actors Scott Weinger and Gilbert Gottfried. Subjects discussed go over the songwriters’ role in the flick’s development and some specifics of the tunes, casting the animators and their approaches to their characters, other animation issues, signing the actors and their takes on the roles. Some “backstage” segments show Gottfried as he chats informally with the various participants.

What else shows up in “Rough”? UCLA associate professor Dr. Ali Behdad conveys the history of the Arabian Nights tales and differences between the original story and the movie. Goldberg, Pell, Musker, Clements, Gombert, co-writers Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott, and Cartwright reflect on “Black Friday”, the day in early 1991 after studio executive Jeffrey Katzenberg slammed the work in progress, and its impact on the production. Keane, Musker, Clements and actor Scott Weinger then chat about the design for Aladdin and methods used to reflect his character.

After a segment that shows the various stages of animation for one scene, Keane discusses crude methods artists use to check the fluidity of their work. A segment about the recording of “A Whole New World” follows with comments from Menken, Keane and singer Lea Salonga, and we then see rough animation for “Prince Ali”. Next Steve Goldberg, Cartwright and computer animator Tina Price discuss the approach to the Magic Carpet that almost made him CG. Eric Goldberg and caricaturist Ed Wexler go over the influence of Al Hirschfeld and that artist’s life.

Henn and his sister Beth talk about his work on Jasmine, the challenges she presented after two prior leading ladies and inspirations. Deja gets into the look of Jafar and early concepts before cleanup supervisor Vera Lanpher-Pacheco, Eric Goldberg and art director Bill Perkins discuss her department’s work on the movie and the use of thick and thin lines. Actor Jonathan Freeman goes to a specialty store to attempt to overcome his longtime fear of birds in a quirky feature.

Next Eric Goldberg introduces some clips of live action reference material used for “One Jumpy Ahead”. Some information about recording the voice actors shows up with remarks from Finn, Keane, Weinger, Henn, Salonga, Deja, Freeman, Musker, Clements, Eric Goldberg, and actors Linda Larkin and Frank Welker. Gottfried then discusses his work on Iago and we get a conglomeration of recording studio shots of Gilbert and others. Weinger, Larkin, Freeman and actor Douglas Seale discuss their roles and some facets of their connections to the film. (Larkin states that she gets recognized for her vocal work, but this seems odd, for her natural voice sounds very little like her voice as Jasmine.)

If I had to find a drawback about “Diamond in the Rough”, it would stem from the disjointed nature of the piece. Actually, it meshes together better than I thought it might, but it remains a loosely-connected collection of different materials, so it doesn’t flow like a standard documentary might. Nonetheless, “Rough” works quite well due to the sheer amount of information and the quality of the notes. Inevitably, some of these repeat previously-provided tidbits, but we find a lot of new elements on display, and the surfeit of archival materials adds measurably to the package. The footage from the recording studio works particularly well and makes one wish they’d provided an alternate audio track packed solely with Robin Williams’ improvisations. Despite a lack of fluidity, “Rough” includes a very good history of the project that complements the other aspects of the DVD well. It’s a terrific piece.

Continuing through “Backstage Disney”, we get a featurette entitled Alan Menken: Musical Renaissance Man. This 19-minute and 58-second program provides notes from Menken, parents Norman and Judy, wife Janis, Musker, Clements, Disney Music president Chris Montan, actor Paige O’Hara, lyricist Tim Rice and producer Don Hahn. We get a look at his life and the growth of his career from his early days through his partnership with Howard Ashman through his time at Disney. The piece offers a smattering of nice notes, particularly in regard to Menken’s early years, but it comes across as pretty fluffy and superficial overall. There’s a lot of praise on display here and not a ton of hard information.

Inside “The Art of Aladdin”, two elements appear. An eight-minute and 46-second Art Review shows a variety of drawings and paintings along with commentary from Musker and Clements. We watch concept art connected to Aladdin as the directors let us know how the material influenced the film’s development. It’s a tight and efficient examination of the subject.

When we go to the Still Frames Gallery, four subdomains materialize. These offer looks at “Visual Development” (38 images), “Story Development” (18), “Backgrounds and Color Keys” (15), and “Character Development” (173 spread across 16 subjects). These don’t present the most exhaustive package of stills for a Disney animated flick, but they offer a good cross-section and provide a nice examination of the various forms of development.

For the final area, we get “Publicity”. This presents trailers for Aladdin as well as direct-to-video sequels Aladdin and the King of Thieves and The Return of Jafar. Lastly, the Publicity Gallery divides into three smaller areas. We get stills for “Theatrical Posters” (three), “Unused Concepts” (10), and “Theme Parks” (22). I especially like the last two, as they give us fun glimpses of alternate ads and various attractions, respectively.

A sensation when it first appeared in 1992, some parts of Aladdin now seem a little creaky. Nonetheless, a stellar performance from Robin Williams helps overcome most of its problems and means that the movie continues to provide a lot of entertainment. Both picture and sound mostly work well, though they demonstrate a few minor issues. Few qualms greeted the DVD’s supplements, as the set packed in a slew of useful and informative pieces. Overall, I felt very pleased with the DVD of Aladdin, as it provided a strong depiction of a fun flick.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.2972 Stars Number of Votes: 74

View Averages for all rated titles.

DVD Movie Guide @ dvdmg.com
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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Ron Clements, John Musker
Cast:
Jodi Benson, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Pat Carroll, Jason Marin, Samuel E. Wright, Kennety Mars
Screenplay:
Roger Allers, based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen
Tagline:
Somewhere under the sea and beyond your imagination is an adventure in fantasy.

Synopsis:
The Little Mermaid, one of the most celebrated animated films of all time - and winner of two Academy Awards (Best Music, Original Score; Best Music, Original Song, "Under The Sea", 1989) - splashes onto an exciting 2-Disc DVD with an all-new digital restoration.

Ariel, a fun-loving and mischievous mermaid, is off on the adventure of a lifetime with her best friend, the adorable Flounder, and the reggae-singing Caribbean crab Sebastian at her side. But it will take all of her courage and determination to make her dreams come true - and save her father's beloved kingdom from the sneaky sea witch Ursula! Dive into a world of music and adventure in this new 2-Disc Special Edition your family will enjoy again and again!

MPAA:
Rated G

Academy Awards:
Won for Best Score-Alan Menken; Best Song-"Under the Sea." Nominated for Best Song-"Kissing the Girl."

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.78:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 83 min.
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 10/3/2006

Bonus:
Disc One
• Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Ron Clements, Writer/Director John Musker, and Composer Alan Menken
• Music Video
• Disney Song Selection
• The Little Mermaid III Musical Sneak Peek
• Sneak Peeks
Disc Two
• Deleted Scenes
• “Treasures Untold: The Making of The Little Mermaid” Documentary
• “Storm Warning: The Little Mermaid Special Effects Unit” Featurette
• “The Story Behind the Story” Featurette
• “The Little Match Girl” Featurette
• Art Galleries
• Early Presentation Reel
• Trailer
• Under the Sea Adventure Virtual Ride
• Disneypedia: Life Under the Sea

PURCHASE
• DVD
Search Products:

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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The Little Mermaid: Platinum Edition (1989)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson
Would it be a stretch to call 1989’s The Little Mermaid the film that saved Disney animation? Perhaps, as 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit gave that division a much-needed shot in the arm. However, there’s no question that Mermaid allowed the feature animation department to strut its stuff in a way not seen in decades.

Mermaid doesn’t stand as the best of the studio’s work – from the old days or the more recent era – but its historical importance remains. Without Mermaid, it seems doubtful that Disney would have experienced their neo-renaissance that gave us flicks like Aladdin, The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. Indeed, without the boost provided by Mermaid, I doubt we’d have seen works like the Toy Story movies. Though those were produced by Pixar and only distributed by Disney, had Mermaid not awoken the sleeping giant, they might have been unwilling to spread the cash for such a then-risky venture.

Beyond its historical significance, Mermaid functions as a good but unexceptional movie. It showed strong improvements from the bland Disney fare that preceded it, though. While Mermaid had its shortcomings, it definitely displayed greater character and charm than flicks like 1988’s Oliver & Company, 1985’s The Black Cauldron, and 1981’s The Fox and the Hound.

Interestingly, many pigeonhole Mermaid as the prototypical Disney animated movie. It came from a fairy tale, and it featured an innocent young heroine. While that kind of flick does represent some of the studio’s most prominent offerings – with siblings such as 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1950’s Cinderella, and 1959’s Sleeping Beauty - this trend was never as prominent as many believe. Indeed, Mermaid was the first Disney flick taken from a fairy tale since Sleeping Beauty, and of all the studio’s 27 prior animated features, only Mermaid and the three mentioned above starred young, female human protagonists. Most of the others focused on animals (1941’s Dumbo, 1942’s Bambi, 1955’s Lady and the Tramp, 1961’s 101 Dalmatians) or male children (1940’s Pinocchio, 1953’s , 1967’s The Jungle Book).

During the Nineties, female protagonists would develop more strongly in Disney movies. The older heroines tended to be rather passive, but Beast’s Belle and the title character from 1995’s Pocahontas were much more intelligent and forceful. Indeed, even when the females weren’t the top-billed participants, they still showed strength and personality that would have been alien to older Disney works. Look at Esmerelda from 1996’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Yeah, she still needed to be rescued in the end, but she offered a powerful and distinct personality that would have seemed unimaginable in the old days. Submissive Disney females have become the exception rather than the rule.

Mermaid’s Ariel doesn’t really belong to the new class of Disney heroine, but she doesn’t fit in neatly with the older gals either. Essentially Mermaid offers a fairly traditional “someday my prince will come tale”, though with a moderately spunky twist. At the start, we meet Ariel (voiced by Jodi Benson), a moderately willful daughter of mer-king Triton (Kenneth Mars). She swims to the beat of her own drummer to a degree. Though she’s supposed to perform in a big underwater ceremony, she begins the film off with her fishy friend Flounder (Jason Marin) as they ransack sunken ships for treasure, or her own interpretation of such; Ariel is fascinated by human detritus like bent forks and broken pipes.

Early in the flick, Ariel sees a burning human ship and rescues Prince Eric (Christopher Daniel Barnes). This encounter with the hunky young man accelerates her fascination with all things human, and her teenage rebelliousness leads her to act against her father’s wishes. To gain Eric’s love, Ariel enters a pact with nasty sea-witch Ursula (Pat Carroll); Ariel will be human for a few days, but if she doesn’t get the “first kiss of true love” by a certain point, she loses her soul to Ursula. Many complications ensue, of course, but anyone who doesn’t think this sucker’ll have a happy ending isn’t very aware of Disney’s track record.

On the positive side, Mermaid offers a well-structured and paced experience. The story may be fairly trite, but the telling of it seems solid. The animation appears smooth and vibrant; it may not equal the best of Disney, but it seems positive across the board. Little about the tale will surprise the viewer, but it provides a mix of fairly interesting and well-acted characters.

Carroll fills out Ursula nicely and makes her into a classic Disney villain. Benson feels a little thin as Ariel, but that fits the character fairly well, since Ariel’s little more than a headstrong teen; we don’t expect her to be a very strong or forceful role. Ariel lacks depth but she remains reasonably attractive and endearing for the most part.

Probably the weakest role is that of Eric. Other than his pretty face, it’s hard to tell why Ariel’s so nuts about the guy; he seems like a drab cipher. Future Disney fare improved upon this weakness; while there’s still too much “love at first sight”, at least we saw some sparks between the romantic leads and their affections were more affected by personality. Mermaid went more for the standard fairy tale and didn’t bother to deal with much exposition or elaboration in this regard.

Still, most of The Little Mermaid provided an entertaining and satisfying experience. The movie doesn’t reach the levels of Disney’s best work, but it helped bring the studio back to prominence, and the film was generally charming and entertaining.

The DVD Grades: Picture B+/ Audio B+ / Bonus A-
The Little Mermaid appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.78:1 on this single-sided, dual-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. While not one of Disney’s strongest efforts, the transfer of Mermaid was consistently quite good.

Sharpness showed few concerns. The occasional wide shot appeared just a bit soft, but not to a distracting degree. Instead, the movie almost always appeared concise and well-defined. I noticed no issues with jagged edges or shimmering, and edge enhancement also seemed to be absent. Don’t look for any print flaws, as they didn’t appear. A slight amount of grain popped up early but not to a significant degree. Overall, the image was quite clean.

Colors also looked pretty solid. Reds demonstrated a little noise at times – usually via Ariel’s hair – but I thought the tones usually seemed lively and distinctive. Blacks were deep and firm, while low-light shots demonstrated good clarity and delineation. Mermaid showed a little room for improvement but I felt the transfer satisfied in most ways.

For the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of The Little Mermaid, Disney created a new “Enhanced Home Theater Mix”. This supplanted the 5.1 track from the original 1999 DVD, though I thought both were pretty similar. The soundfield offered a surprisingly varied and active experience. The forward channels showed fine spread, as music demonstrated good stereo separation and presence, while effects blended neatly and moved clearly across the speakers. Localization of these elements seemed strong, and they meshed together nicely.

The surrounds added a positive layer of reinforcement to both effects and music, especially during some of the film’s showier scenes; for example, fireworks and thunder echoed convincingly from the rear. The 2006 mix used the surrounds in a moderately more active way when compared to the prior 5.1 track, but don’t expect them to go overboard. The rear speakers remained naturally integrated with the rest of the action. Overall, the soundfield created a reasonably vivid and involving piece.

Audio quality also seemed very good. Dialogue remained distinct and natural throughout the movie, as the speech integrated well with the animated action. I heard no problems related to edginess or intelligibility. Effects demonstrated good presence and depth, and they showed accurate and vibrant tones. Music appeared warm and dynamic as well. Both the score and songs showed fine clarity, and low-end response was fairly deep and tight. Ultimately, The Little Mermaid provided a solid auditory experience.

How did the picture and audio of this “Platinum Edition” compare to those of the original 1999 DVD? I thought the two soundtracks were a wash and neither seemed noticeably superior to the other. However, the 2006 transfer was significantly stronger than its predecessor. Cleaner, tighter and better defined, it was a clear improvement.

While that old disc included no extras, the Platinum Edition adds a slew of extras across its two platters. On DVD One, we open with an audio commentary for writer/director Ron Clements, writer/director John Musker, and composer Alan Menken. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific track. The commentary also throws in a few remarks from late composer Howard Ashman via a 1989 interview. We find notes about visual choices and animation challenges, actors and performances, score and songs, altered/cut scenes and characters, inspirations and influences, and general trivia related to the flick. The latter element offers some fun notes like where we can find cameos from legendary Disney animated characters.

Although commentaries for animated flicks can be dry, this one never suffers from that problem. The men interact well and offer a lively little look at the movie. Music receives a lot of attention as we learn many good notes about the score and tunes. All the other elements get their due as well in this tight and enjoyable chat.

Next comes Disney Song Selection. This basically acts as an alternate form of chapter menu. It lets you jump to any of the film’s four song performances, and it also allows you to show on-screen lyrics. This is a staple of Disney DVDs, and it’s harmless if uninspired.

A music video for “Kiss the Girl” by Ashley Tisdale runs three minutes, 30 seconds. Ashley is one of the many Disney pop princess Hilary Duff wannabes, though she actually looks a little like Paris Hilton. She offers a lite rock take on the movie’s tune that does nothing to improve it. At least the video’s slightly more interesting than most of this genre, as it mixes movie clips with shots of Ashley at a dance. It’s predictable but still beats the usual simple lip-synch fare.

An 80-second musical sneak peek for the upcoming Little Mermaid III allows us a glimpse of that production. This simply offers a brief excerpt of a tune from that flick. I guess this will interest folks who look forward to that release.

Disc One opens with a few ads. We get clips for The Little Mermaid III, Meet the Robinsons, Cars, The Fox and the Hound and Cinderella III: A Twist in Time. All of these also appear in the disc’s Sneak Peeks area along with additional trailers for Robin Hood, Tinker Bell, Peter Pan, Enchanted Tales and a spot for the Disney Cruise Line.

Now we head to DVD Two and its goodies. These come in three areas, and we start with Backstage Disney. The main attraction here comes from a 45-minute and 35-second documentary entitled Treasures Untold: The Making of The Little Mermaid. It mixes movie clips, behind the scenes elements, and interviews. We hear from Musker, Clements, Menken, film critic/historian Leonard Maltin, former Disney vice chairman Roy E. Disney and wife Patty, supervising animators Andreas Deja, Ruben Aquino, Duncan Marjoribanks, Mark Henn and Glen Keane, effects animator Ted Kierscey, former Disney animation chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, former feature animation VP Peter Schneider, story artist Roger Allers, co-producer/lyricist Howard Ashman (in 1989), Ashman’s sister Sarah Gillespie, Ashman’s partner Bill Lauch, Ashman’s assistant Nancy Parent, filmmakers Nora Ephron, Frank Oz and John Waters, actors Jodi Benson and Pat Carroll, visual effects supervisor Mark Dindal, and associate producer Maureen Donley.

“Untold” looks at the dire state of Disney animation at the time of Mermaid’s creation and how changes in Disney leadership altered matters. From there we go through aspects of the Mermaid production as we see Clements’ pitch of the story and its development, the work of the directors and composers, and aspects of the songs and score. We also hear about cast and performances, character design and animation, production challenges and pressures, and the movie’s success.

A lot of these kind of programs tend to be pretty fluffy, but “Untold” usually avoids those pitfalls. We get an honest appraisal of Disney in the 80s and see the tensions associated with the production. If I had a complaint about “Untold”, I’d probably feel that it doesn’t tell us enough about the movie’s creation; it tells us a fair amount but spends so much time on the studio issues that we don’t get a tremendous view of the production. Nonetheless, we learn more than enough about how they made Mermaid and really like the notes about the film’s impact on the studio. This is a consistently fascinating program.

Two featurettes follow. Storm Warning: The Little Mermaid Special Effects Unit goes for eight minutes, 40 seconds and includes Dindal, Kierscey, and effects animators Dorse Lanpher and Randy Fullmer. They tell us what “effects animation” encompasses and then focus on their work for Mermaid. We mostly watch them as they have a reunion to view and discuss the flick. They offer notes about influences on their work and some specifics. Although I wouldn’t call this a deep program, it offers a reasonable examination of the movie’s effects animation.

During the 11-minute, 30-second The Story Behind the Story, we hear from Clements, Musker, and Hans Christian Andersen Museum curator Ejnar Stig Askgaard. We get information about the original Andersen Mermaid story and its aborted early 40s pre-production at Disney. We also learn about the tale’s adaptation for the movie. “Behind” seems a bit disjointed and doesn’t follow a tremendously coherent path, but I like its emphasis nonetheless. We get a nice view of the original story and its connection to the movie in this enjoyable piece.

The Little Match Girl runs seven minutes, 13 seconds. Allers introduces this short that he directed. Also inspired by an Andersen tale, it offers a dialogue-free story of a poor Russian girl. It’s surprisingly somber and bleak, with a “happy ending” that isn’t traditional.

A collection of Art Galleries offers many stills. These break into six areas: “Visual Development” (46 frames), “Kay Nielsen Artwork (1940)” (26), “Character Design” (176 across six sections), “Storyboard Art” (47), “Backgrounds” (25) and “Production Photos” (25). A lot of good material shows up here. I particularly like the Nielsen pieces, and we find some interesting alternate concepts in the character area.

In addition to the film’s original theatrical trailer, we find an Early Presentation Reel. This goes for two minutes, 35 seconds and shows the original visual pitch for Mermaid. It plays a demo of “Under the Sea” accompanied by conceptual art and storyboards. It gives us a nice look at the movie’s early stages.

Deleted Scenes includes… deleted scenes. We get seven of these with a total running time of 26 minutes and 15 seconds. That includes introductions from Clements and Musker. We see “Fathoms Below (Alternate Version)” (2:31), “Backstage with Sebastian” (1:43), “Poor Unfortunate Souls (Alternate Version)” (8:35), “Sebastian Lost in the Castle” (1:52), “Advice from Sebastian” (1:30), “Fight with Ursula/Alternate Ending” (6:55), and “’Silence Is Golden’ Song Demo (Audio Only)” (3:01). Except for that last one, we view these via storyreels that show storyboards accompanied by rough audio; a little preliminary animation occasionally appears, but not much.

Should you expect any lost gold here? Not really, but Mermaid fans will definitely enjoy these glimpses of alternate options. “Below” and “Souls” give us interesting exposition, while “Backstage” allows us a little more with our crab buddy and Ariel’s sisters. Music fans will be happy to hear the unused “Silence” performed by Menken. Others offer fun but extraneous bits. Across the board, these are interesting to see. Clements and Musker offer good information about the segments and why they didn’t make the final cut.

Two elements appear under Games & Activities. We start with Under the Sea Adventure, a “virtual ride inspired by Disney Imagineers”. This splits into three options. “Ride the Attraction” takes us on a four-minute and 15-second first-person CG voyage through the proposed Disneyland attraction. It gives us a good feel for what the ride would have been like if they’d built it. If you’re curious, it’s very much like other FantasyLand attractions such as the Peter Pan ride; it takes us through segments from the movie in a fairly passive manner.

We can take the trip with or without commentary from Disney Imagineering Senior VP Tony Baxter. He gives us some insights into the ride’s design. Ride with Disney Imagineers gives us a mix of options. We can go through the attraction in the same way already seen, and Baxter’s commentary comes again. However, it also allows us to looks at storyboards for the ride, take a trip through the attraction’s original model, and occasionally “turn on the lights” to see it without the effects. These are all fun ways to get a feel for the attraction’s creation.

Finally, Behind “The Ride That Almost Was” gives us a five-minute and 56-second featurette. We hear from Baxter, Imagineering Creative VP Joe Lanzisero, Director of Sculpting and Chief Sculptor Valerie Edwards, Senior Show Designer Don Carson, and Model Maker Joe Stone. They discuss the challenges that come with the design of an attraction and methods they use to make the rides fun. From there we learn specifics of “Sea” and get glimpses of its elements. Although no one ever tells us why “Sea” didn’t get built, this feature presents a lot of good info about the creation of a Disneyland attraction.

We also find Disneypedia: Life Under the Sea. Oriented toward little ones, this eight-minute and 25-second program teaches about various aquatic creatures featured in Mermaid. It’s a light but reasonably informative view that should be fun for kids.

As remains the case for The Little Mermaid itself. The movie isn’t as good as some later Disney works, but it seems generally entertaining and compelling. It also deserves a warm spot in the hearts of Disney fans because it helped return the studio’s animated department to prominence. The DVD presents very good picture and audio as well as many interesting extras. I heartily recommend Mermaid, and that goes for folks who already own the original DVD; this Platinum Edition is the one for fans to own.

To rate this film visit the original review of THE LITTLE MERMAID

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DVD Movie Guide @ dvdmg.com
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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Tony Bancroft, Barry Cook
Cast:
Ming-Na, B.D. Wong, Soon-Tek Oh, Eddie Murphy, Harvey Fierstein, Gedde Watanabe, Miguel Ferrer, James Hong, Pat Morita
Writing Credits:
Anonymous (poem), Robert D. San Souci, Rita Hsiao, Chris Sanders, Philip LaZebnik, Raymond Singer, Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, Dean DeBlois, David Reynolds

Tagline:
The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all.

Synopsis:
An ancient Chinese legend is magically transformed into an unparalleled adventure bursting with action, emotion, and lots of laughs in Disney's heralded 36th animated classic, Mulan.

A spirited young girl named Mulan, who doesn't quite fit into her tradition-bound society, discovers that her aging father has been ordered to help defend China against the invading Huns! In a brave and selfless act, Mulan disguises herself as a man and takes her father's place in the Imperial Army, where she trains with a comical group of warriors, led by the handsome Captain Shang. Never far away are Mulan's hilarious guardian dragon, Mushu, and lucky cricket, Cri-Kee. But Mulan will need more than Mushu's razor-sharp wit to defeat the ruthless Hun leader, Shan-Yu. Only by staying true to her heart will Mulan blossom into a skilled soldier and bring victory to her nation and long-awaited honor to her family!

Triumphant on all fronts, Mulan's breathtaking animation, sensational music, and action-packed battles amid snow-covered mountains will amaze and inspire your family like no Disney Classic before!

Box Office:
Budget
$70 million.
Opening Weekend
$22.745 million on 2888 screens.
Domestic Gross
$120.618 million.

MPAA:
Rated G

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.85:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 88 min.
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 10/26/2004

Bonus:
Disc One
• Audio Commentary with Producer Pam Coats and Directors Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft
• Fun Facts
• Deleted Scenes
• Four Music Videos
• “DisneyPedia: Mulan’s World”
• Sneak Peeks
• THX Optimizer
Disc Two
• Music Video
• “The Journey Begins”
• “Story Artists’ Journey”
• “Design”
• “Production”
• “Music”
• “International Mulan”

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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Mulan: Special Edition (1998)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (October 19, 2004)
Following the success of Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988, the Disney animation studios finally started to return to their former stature with the hit 1989 release, The Little Mermaid. With the exception of 1990's less than boffo Rescuers Down Under, things just kept getting better and better for the animation wing: 1991's Beauty and the Beast scored big at the box office and made history as the first animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture.

1992's Aladdin wasn't as critically successful as Beast but audiences ate it up and it was the year's biggest moneymaker. This warming trend culminated in the phenomenal reception accorded 1994's The Lion King, Disney's biggest grosser ever to that point and also the year's most popular movie. (For the record, Forrest Gump made a bit more money than did King, but when one considers that many more of the latter's tickets were for matinees and also often discounted for the young 'uns, there's no question that King sold more tickets than did Gump. So there!)

After that, things started to go downhill. 1995's Pocahontas did fairly well but was a disappointment after the megabucks of King. Actually, a Disney release - Toy Story - captured the box office for that year, but it frequently is regarded as something of an anomaly since it's really a Pixar film financed by Disney and not a product of their own studios. 1996 (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) and 1997 (Hercules) saw a consistent downward trend in the revenues generated by Disney's animated releases; Hercules was actually the first animated release from Disney since Rescuers Down Under to make less than $100 million.

As such, things didn't look too rosy for the next animated film from Disney, 1998's Mulan and the studio's behavior reflected this attitude through a much more subdued publicity campaign for the film. Oh, we saw the usual McDonald's tie-in and plenty of other merchandise, but the entire enterprise seemed less interested in bludgeoning the consumer over the head with the movie's existence. Comparatively speaking, Mulan snuck up on audiences.

Happily for Disney, this "less is more" approach worked and the revenues rebounded, largely through very positive word of mouth. While its approximately $120 million gross was nothing spectacular - Pocahontas did better and was seen as a disappointment - at least it marked an upward trend, one that continued with the $162 million of A Bug's Life and the $170 million of Tarzan. Success, setback, renewed success - it all sounds like a typical Disney storyline, doesn't it?

Mulan itself is interesting to examine in comparison with other Disney films, especially opposed to its immediate predecessor, Hercules. That movie is one that I didn't much like even though I thought I should. It seemed to have everything one would want from a Disney film but yet it all seemed somewhat cold and calculated; while all the components were there, ultimately, it came across as less than satisfying.

Mulan, on the other hand, looks weak when dissected and viewed in traditional Disney terms. Most of the characters were flat and undistinguished. Mulan herself was interesting in a spunky way but she didn't portray a whole lot of personality. As our main villain, Hun leader Shan-Yu strikes an impressive pose and seems very menacing, but he also lacks personality and is one of the least compelling Disney villains of the era; Hades in Hercules was much more entertaining and provocative.

Most of Mulan's comic sidekicks appeared generic and one-dimensional except for main foil Mushu. That character, voiced by Eddie Murphy, added life to the movie but did so in a tremendously anachronistic way that seemed likely to trivialize and detract from the plot. Add in some very undistinguished and unmemorable songs and you have a recipe for a very weak Disney film.

But that's not what happened. Despite all the chinks in the armor, Mulan succeeds, and does so tremendously well. I'm not going to get into any of that "best Disney movie since..." nonsense because I've liked all of their animated films from the Nineties; even Hercules grew on me. Still, it's a very compelling film and one that offers a nice spectrum of thrills, drama, emotion and laughs. In short, it's exactly the reason most of us go to see Disney movies.

Normally in my reviews I try to use my feeble little brain to analyze the film in question and to discuss various aspects of it, but I'm not going to do so here because - as I've already noted - Mulan will not hold up well to close inspection. That doesn't mean that it really is flawed; it simply signifies that the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. Mulan is fantastically entertaining and quite exciting to boot - let's just leave it at that.

Okay, my "li’l Ebert” side insists I discuss one issue in the film: Eddie Murphy. His semi-jive talking dragon seemed quite popular with audiences but he received a bit of a critical drubbing because the character seemed so out of place. Why was this urban, African-American-influenced monster romping around medieval China? The popular criticism was that it didn't make much sense.

No, it didn't. Of course, neither did a story about a mermaid or a tale that involves a prince who was turned into a beast. One could argue that those were fairy tales whereas Mulan tries to be more reality-based, and that's a valid point. Really, the best comparison one can make is to Aladdin. It also came from something of a historical world vantage that featured moderate amounts of magic. However, no one seemed to mind the Genie in that film, a character whose personality made as much sense in the context of the world of Aladdin as does Mushu in Mulan.

Although I had my apprehensions about the character, Mushu works well within the film. Murphy offers a nice performance that doesn't quite compete with that of Robin Williams as the Genie - or even his own endearing Donkey from Shrek - but Murphy manages to make the character his own and keeps him interesting. Mushu could be obnoxious and painful to watch, but Murphy lends him an endearing quality that helps the character succeed.

Actually, Mulan integrates humor much better than was done in the previous few Disney efforts; in some of those, the lighter moments seemed randomly inserted just because the audience expected them. The worst offender in this regard was Hunchback. Frankly, I really liked that movie except for the fact that its creators backed down at key moments. Hunchback was a surprisingly intense effort - I really believe that if anyone other than Disney had produced it, it would have received a "PG" rating - but the producers often undercut the drama with inanely lighthearted scenes. For example, just as the film nears its climax, we stop to hear a comedic tune called "A Guy Like You". This completely deflated the tone. Mulan manages to make much smoother transitions and it comes across as much better assembled in that regard.

Ultimately I really like Mulan. It might not merit mention alongside Disney’s greatest achievements, but it stands as one of their more consistently engaging and likable efforts. It manages to combine a mix of different genre elements into one fun and entertaining package.

The DVD Grades: Picture B+/ Audio B+/ Bonus A-
Mulan appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Only a few modest issues marred this generally strong presentation.

Some light edge enhancement cropped up at times, and that resulted in a few mild examples of softness in wide shots. Otherwise, the movie showed good definition. The vast majority of the flick demonstrated positive clarity and crispness. No concerns with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and the movie seemed completely free from any print flaws.

Colors usually appeared very good. Blues occasionally looked slightly inky in nighttime shots, but those instances caused only minor distractions. The other hues were consistently vivid and vibrant. Blacks also looked deep and firm, while low-light shots offered strong depth and delineation. The mix of small issues meant the transfer of Mulan wasn’t a slam-dunk, but it fared well overall.

I also liked the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Mulan. Although a little subdued, the soundfield mostly filled out the spectrum nicely. The front soundstage was quite active and displayed some pretty good localization. Elements popped up in the correct places and blended together concisely. Rear usage was a bit lackluster, though the track kicked to life well when necessary. The battle scenes demonstrated positive action in the surrounds and helped create an involving piece. The track probably could have made the rear speakers more forceful, but they complemented the material in a more than acceptable manner.

Best of all was the quality of the audio. Mulan boast ed strong dynamic range. There's some real bass thumping in there at times and it always sounded crystal clear. Obviously all of the dialogue was dubbed, but it worked into the mix effortlessly and naturally. Effects sounded real and convincing, and the music appeared very smooth and packed a nice punch. It's not a demo mix, but it underscored the action very well and sounded quite good.

How the picture and audio of this new DVD of Mulan compare to the original release from 19999? Not surprisingly, the two Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks sounded identical, but the new transfer improved on the old one. This DVD presented somewhat tighter visuals without some artifacts that marred the prior set. Not a huge amount of differences occurred, but the new version was definitely superior in regard to its visuals.

One note about the two transfers: while this one gets a “family friendly” 1.66:1 framing, the old version went with 1.85:1. I didn’t notice any substantial differences between the two. I think it’s odd that Disney changed the aspect ratio from the earlier release; are families turned off by the minor difference between 1.85:1 and 1.66:1? I’m sure few will notice the variations, but I thought I should mention them nonetheless.

Whereas the old DVD of Mulan skimped on extras, this new two-disc edition includes a nice array of materials. On DVD One, we open with an audio commentary from producer Pam Coats and directors Tony Bancroft and Barry Cook. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific piece. If you’ve heard prior Disney commentaries, you’ll know what to expect here. We learn about story issues and pacing, characters and the actors, the film’s tone and use of Asian culture, research and attempts to balance accuracy, and other production elements. The piece seems more low-key than usual, but it covers the information concisely and gives us a nice examination of the movie’s creation and main issues.

When I saw Fun Facts listed as a feature, I thought this would offer a subtitle commentary. It doesn’t. Instead, “Fun Facts” presents a two-minute and 14-second montage. We see various behind-the-scenes clips with minor “pop-up” trivia about the movie. These are decent tidbits, and the track exhibits a playful sense of humor with remarks like “If the 27,780 pencils used to draw Mulan were laid end-to-end…the movie never would have been completed.” Still, it’s a disappointment that we don’t get the expected subtitle commentary, as this piece doesn’t tell us much.

Next we find seven Deleted Scenes. These run a total of 22 minutes, 48 seconds and include one unused song called “Keep ‘Em Guessing” along with the six excised moments. All are told via story reels, as no completed animation appears. The mix of alternate intros are interesting to see, and the “Betrothal” scene is pretty good. The others vary in quality but are all worth a look.

Each clip features an introduction that provides some notes about the scene as well as the reasons for the cuts. We hear from Bancroft, Cook, supervising animator digital production Rob Bekuhrs, and co-head story Dean DeBlois. Their remarks prove useful and illuminating.

Next we go with a DisneyPedia entry that tells us about “Mulan’s World”. Narrated by an Eddie Murphy impersonator Mark Mosely in character as Mushu, these lead us through a mix of topics individually or together via the “Play All” option. (Cutely, if you wait too long to select something, Mushu starts to complain.)

Taken through the “Play All” method, these segments last a total of eight minutes and 34 seconds; additional narration shows up in the menu screen as well. These clips cover topics like the historical Mulan, the role of ancestors in society, dragons and the huns. Obviously oriented toward the kiddies, these pieces offer a moderately entertaining little romp through the material.

We also see four music videos. Two repeat from the original DVD: "Reflection" from Christina Aguilera and "True to Your Heart" from Backstreet Boys wannabes 98 Degrees and Stevie Wonder. Both clips are fairly generic movie-song videos that intercut shots of the performers miming their songs with scenes from the film; "Reflection" shows Aguilera wandering around some sort of Chinese temple, I believe, while "Heart" depicts 98D and Steveland flopping about some city's Chinatown (LA, I'd guess). Both are completely average and not terribly interesting unless you are a particular fan of any of the acts involved. I'm not, so I seriously doubt I'll ever watch either video again.

As for the new videos, one shows “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” done in Mandariin by Jackie Chan. No movie clips appear; instead, Chan emotes and demonstrates various martial arts moves in this silly video. Finally, Disney Channel star Raven updates “True to Your Heart”. It’s not a very good version, and since the video only shows Raven as she lip-synchs in the recording studio, it seems cheap and unfulfilling.

As DVD One starts, we encounter a mix of ads. We find trailers for Pooh’s Heffalump Movie, Bambi, Mulan II and Mary Poppins. These also appear in the disc’s Sneak Peeks domain along with promos for Mickey’s Twice Upon a Christmas, Eloise at Christmastime, and a Mulan II preview that includes some comments from those involved with the flick along with snippets.

DVD One features the THX Optimizer. Also found on many other DVDs, this purports to help you set up your system for the best reproduction of both picture and sound, ala stand-alone programs such as Video Essentials. I’ve never tried the Optimizer since I’m happy with my settings, but if you don’t own something such as Essentials, the Optimizer may help you improve picture and audio quality.

Now we move to DVD Two and its supplements. These split into two domains. Entitled “Music & More”, the first offers only one component: a music video for “Reflection” sung in Spanish. Performed by some unnamed babe, it uses the same format as the Aguilera clip, though Mystery Girl is much hotter than “Xtina”. Still, it’s a dull video. (It’s strange that Aguilera doesn’t do this version herself, since she often performs Spanish renditions of her music.)

The rest of the extras pop up in the “Backstage Disney” area. We start with a subdomain called “The Journey Begins” and its three elements. A six-minute and 48-second featurette called Discovering Mulan opens. It uses movie snippets, behind the scenes materials, and interviews to tell its tale. We hear from Coats, Cook, art director Ric Sluiter, and artistic supervisor layout Robert Walker. They talk about their research trip to China and the ways that trek influenced the movie. They give us good insight into the processes and inspirations in this tight piece.

After this comes The Ballad of Hua Mulan, a five-minute and 19-second clip. It shows concept art created for the movie as we hear the poem that inspired the film. It’s an interesting segment as we compare the final tale with this precursor.

Lastly, we get two Early Presentation Reels. We see one from 1995 (two minutes, 21 seconds) and one from 1996 (one minute, 59 seconds). These display progress on the film to depict its path. The 1995 one is a story reel for the scene in which Mulan decides to take her place in the army, while the 1996 set shows various visual designs created for the flick. Both are worth a look but nothing fascinating, especially since we get similar material elsewhere in the package.

Within “The Story Artists’ Journey”, two sections appear. Finding Mulan gives us a seven-minute and five-second featurette with notes from Coats, DeBlois, Bancroft, Cook, supervising animator Mark Henn, character designer Chen-Yi Chang, and head of story Christopher Sanders. They chat about early thoughts on the Mulan and mistakes on that path, the character’s development and relationships, visual aspects, and different elements of her personality. They provide nice insight into the concepts behind Mulan and how they came to make her a full character.

We also find a Storyboard to Film Comparison. After a 47-second introduction from Bancroft, this lets us watch the scene with Mushu and the stone dragon. We can check it out via storyboard only, final film only, or a split-screen comparison of the two. The clip lasts 85 seconds and offers a good examination of the two elements.

Four sections come to us in “Design”. Art Design lasts five minutes, 33 seconds and includes information from Bancroft, Sluiter, Coats, Cook, Walker, artistic supervisor backgrounds Robert Stanton and production designer Hans Bacher. As one might expect, they discuss the film’s visual look and those elements. We hear about struggles to find the right tone, decisions made, influences, and the execution of the visuals. We get a solid feel for the choices and inspirations as well as problems encountered along the way.

Character Design goes for three minutes, 48 seconds with comments from Bancroft, Coats, Cook and Chang. They talk about the need for unity as well as how Chang designed the characters and decisions made in those areas. It’s another short but solid examination of its subject.

Called Ballad of Color, the final “Design” featurette fills four minutes, 28 seconds. It presents notes from Bancroft, Sluiter, Bacher, CAPS supervisor color models Irma Cartaya-Torre and Stanton. As one might expect, the cover the movie’s color design and let us know how they used various hues to symbolize various elements and add to the film’s depth as well as influences. The clip gives us a good interpretation of this side of the production.

For the last element of “Design”, we get some Still Art Galleries. These breakdown into three areas. “Character Design” then allows us a look at 10 smaller sections specific for the following subjects: “Mulan” (87 drawings), “Fa Zhou” (26), “Fa Li and Grandmother Fa” (29), “Khan” (36), “Mushu & Cri-Kee” (53), “Shang” (60), “Ling, Yao & Chien-Po” (17), “Emperor” (24), “Shan-Yu & Falcon” (34) and “Miscellaneous Characters” (47). “Visual Development” splits into “Moments” (18), “Landscapes” (34), and “Architecture” (44). Finally, “Backgrounds & Layout” includes 13 stills. All together, these add up to a rich examination of the visual elements.

Inside “Production”, we get two subdomans. Progression Demonstrations let us see stages of animation for two scenes: “Mushu Awakens” and “Matchmaker Meets Mulan”. For both sections, Bancroft introduces the concept; the two introductions differ slightly but perform the same purpose. From there, we can watch either sequence in a variety of stages: story sketch, rough animation, clean-up animation and effects, and final color. Not only can we check these out one at a time, but also we can flip through them with the DVD’s “angle’ feature. “Mushu” also comes with stage-specific introductions from Sluiter who gives us details about the steps. Overall, this area offers a solid look at the various elements that go together to create the final product.

Digital Production gives us a closer look at the computer elements for two scenes. We examine “The Hun Charge” (four minutes, 52 seconds) and “Digital Dim Sum” (four minutes, three seconds). We get remarks from Bekuhrs, Bancroft, artistic supervisor digital production Eric Guaglione, and animator digital production Sandra Groeneveld. They let us know how they choose when to use computer animation in a hand-drawn feature as well as the techniques involved and specifics about the segments. The featurettes give us good insight into the processes as they educate us about the methods utilized.

Inside “Music”, we get a five-minute and 15-second featurette called The Songs of Mulan. It includes information from Coats, DeBlois, Cook, lyricist David Zippel, and composer Matthew Wilder. They tell us about how they decide what moments could use songs, how they try to integrate the tunes, the composition of the tunes, fine-tuning and recording. “Songs” fits in with the other featurettes, as it adds to our understanding of the movie’s creation with a tight and informative program.

For the last domain, “International Mulan” gets into three smaller areas. Mulan’s International Journey lasts five minutes and 45 seconds as we find notes from vice president Disney Character Voices International Blake Todd, senior vice president Disney Character Voices International Jeff Miller, senior vice president, creative Rick Dempsey, They talk about the history of translated Disney flicks and discuss the challenges of these alternate recordings. Though many Disney DVDs include the multi-language reel I’ll discuss in the next paragraph, we don’t often hear much about how Disney created those dubbed renditions. As such, “International” offers a cool examination of the issues connected to this subject, and it’s a lot of fun to see.

The usual Multi-Language Reel runs and offers “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” in a mix of tongues. We get snippets in German, Castilian, French, Spanish, Japanese, Finnish, Thai, Portuguese, Italian, Mandarin, Swedish, Danish, French Canadian, Czech, and Cantonese. It’s cute but nothing special.

Finally, Publicity Art presents 31 stillframes. We see posters, lobby cards, and other ads.

Oddly, the package doesn’t include the movie’s trailer. That ad appeared on the original DVD, which makes its omission here all the more conspicuous.

Mulan remains one of the best Disney flicks from the modern era. It didn’t rake in mega-bucks of the studio’s most financially successful efforts, it stands as a very well-realized effort that aptly demonstrates the genre’s strengths with almost none of its weaknesses. The DVD presents very good picture and sound plus an informative and entertaining array of supplements.

When it comes to recommendations, I find it hard to think of anyone who shouldn’t pick up this version of Mulan. For all the folks who don’t already own it, definitely snatch one of these right away; it’s a great little flick and a strong DVD. If you currently possess the old disc, I’d still advise a purchase of the SE. With its improved picture quality and vastly expanded roster of extras, it greatly surpasses the prior release. I think it’s odd this one lacks the earlier package’s trailer, but I really like this set nonetheless and heartily endorse it.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.6315 Stars Number of Votes: 76

View Averages for all rated titles.

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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Cast:
Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers, Angela Lansbury, Bradley Pierce, Rex Everhart, Jesse Corti, Hal Smith
Screenplay:
Linda Woolverton
Tagling:
The most beautiful love story ever told.
MPAA:
Rated G.

Academy Awards:
Won for Best Score; Best Song-"Beauty and the Beast." Nominated for Best Picture; Best Sound; Best Song-"Be Our Guest"; Best Song-"Belle."

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
2-Disc set
Widescreen 1.85:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 92 min.
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 10/8/2002

Bonus:
• Original Theatrical Release
• Work In Progress Edition
• Audio Commentary with Producer Don Hahn, Directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and Composer Alan Menken
• Sing-Along Track
• Maurice’s Invention Workshop Game
• “The Making of Beauty and the Beast”
• “The Story Behind the Story”
• “Mrs. Potts’ Personality Profile Game”
• Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson “Beauty and the Beast” Music Video
• “Break the Spell” Adventure Game
• “Disney’s Animation Magic”
• “Chip’s Musical Challenge Game”
• Jump 5 “Beauty and the Beast” Music Video
• Virtual Galleries
• Booklet
• Sneak Peeks

PURCHASE
• DVD
Search Products:

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

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Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson
One could claim that 1991’s Beauty and the Beast offers Disney’s greatest achievement. That opinion wouldn’t relate to the film’s financial success. While Beast earned a more-than-respectable $145 million, that didn’t compare with the megabucks raked in by subsequent hits like 1992’s Aladdin and 1994’s The Lion King. Also, while Beast certainly stands as one of the studio’s better animated movies, it doesn’t quite approach the heights of their best material.

However, Beast enjoys one claim to fame that no other Disney flick can make. As of 2002, it remains the first – and last – animated film to earn a nomination for Oscar’s Best Picture. It didn’t win - The Silence of the Lambs nailed the prize – but this achievement still merits a lot of respect. Beast sparked the renewed interest in animation that eventually led to the creation of a new Oscar category in 2001; now we find a “Best Animated Feature” slot. Will this mean that no future animated film receives a nod as Best Picture? Perhaps, though the existence of Best Foreign Film doesn’t keep flicks like Life Is Beautiful from showing up in the more prestigious category.

Whatever happens in the future, Beast continues to shine as a Disney classic. It also stands as the film that brought me back into the Disney animation fold. I enjoyed their works as a kid, even though that meant I endured dreck like 1977’s The Rescuers and 1973’s Robin Hood. I essentially missed the studio’s mid-Eighties part of this malaise due to my age; not a lot of teen boys dig those kinds of cartoons. By the time that Beast arrived in 1991, I was 24 and more open to this sort of material, a fact aided by the movie’s grand reception from critics.

I really liked Beast when I saw it theatrically, and it helped ignite a slow-burning interest in Disney animation within me. I wouldn’t become fascinated by the studio’s full roster of films until the end of the Nineties, but without the positive adult reception accorded Beast, this may never have occurred at all.

In retrospect, I’m not totally sure where Beast falls within the Disney pantheon. I used to feel it belonged among their absolute best, but I must admit my ardor has cooled somewhat over time. Nonetheless, the movie remains a very strong piece of work.

Beast starts with a prologue that tells us how a handsome but arrogant young prince gets physically mutated into a beast. An enchantress gives him a specific period of time in which he must find true love, an idea that seems far-fetched given his furry appearance. As part of the deal, all of the prince’s servants got turned into household objects, and the group appears destined to live out their lives in unusual forms.

The film then moves ahead a few years and lands us in a small French village. There we meet Belle (Paige O’Hara), an intelligent, lively and beautiful young woman who feels constricted by the narrow minds in her provincial town. Town hunk Gaston (Richard White) sets his romantic sights on Belle, largely because none of the other women seem quire as lovely as she. However, Belle feels no interest whatsoever in the crude, crass, and self-absorbed lunkhead.

On the way to an inventor’s fair, Belle’s father Maurice (Rex Everhart) gets lost and then attacked by wolves. Out of desperation, he ends up at a gloomy castle, where the Beast (Robby Benson) holds him captive. Maurice’s horse Phillippe manages to gallop back to the family home, where his presence alerts Belle that a problem occurred.

The pair set out to find Maurice, and when they do, she strikes a deal with the Beast: the spare her father, she trades places with him. The castle’s staff – as highlighted by Cogsworth (David Ogden Stiers), Lumiere (Jerry Orbach), and Mrs. Potts (Angela Lansbury) – all hope that she will be their master’s true love. This will turn them human again, but they need to coach him through a rough start to set the pair on the path to romance.

The remainder of Beast essentially follows this road. Complications ensue largely due to the actions of Gaston. He still wants Belle; unless she marries him, he’ll get Maurice tossed in the loony bin. This threat ruptures the romance and threatens the return to human form, as Belle doesn’t know they’re under some time pressure. (Indeed, Belle isn’t aware that the Beast is human and everyone will turn back if the couple falls in love.)

Nothing about the story of Beast seems revolutionary, though the film shows some growth above and beyond the stereotypical Disney realm. For one, the independent-minded Belle represents a massive leap beyond man-crazy babes like Cinderella, Snow White, and Ariel. Belle displays an interest in meeting a beau, but she doesn’t display great eagerness toward the subject, and she seems to hold out little hope that she’ll find someone who matches her intellectual curiosity; her rinky-dink little town lets her down in that domain.

Belle also shows a lack of dependence on others that seems positive. Yeah, she gets rescued during the film, but she mostly appears proactive and in control of her own destiny. After all, she chooses to become the Beast’s captive, and while he saves her from the wolves, she comes to his aid as well. She clearly doesn’t seem as helpless as many Disney heroines, and unlike most, she actually displays a really personality.

With the film’s two male leads, we find a reversal of the normal order. The ugly Beast represents the positive role model – though it takes him a while to get there – while the studly Gaston offers a buffoon at best and a psychopathic menace at worst. At times, this contrast seems a little too forced for my liking. It doesn’t always come across as a natural choice, for I occasionally feel like the filmmakers tried really hard to be different just for the sake of being different. Still, it works for the film, and the two reversed evolutions develop fairly naturally.

Really, I find little about which to complain in regard to Beast. The story starts a little slowly, but it soon gathers steam and becomes quite engrossing, and it packs a much stronger emotional punch than the average Disney flick. The movie’s almost-tragic climax really pulls the old heartstrings, and this makes its ultimate payoff all the more satisfying.

However, I do have one complaint, and it’s a potential spoiler, so skip this paragraph if you want to avoid that information. At the end of the film, the Beast magically mutates back to his handsome human form, and he and Belle live happily ever after. I think this sends the wrong message, as it implies that looks do matter after all. Sure, Belle fell in love with the Beast, but then she gets to have her cake and eat it, too. I don’t think this ending actively harms the film. I’d just have preferred a more adventurous conclusion in which Belle declares her love a nanosecond too late, but she and the Beast remain lovers nonetheless. (Perhaps the suits at Disney smelled sequel and didn’t want to deal with how Beast/Belle offspring would look.)

Despite some small issues, I still really like Beauty and the Beast. While it may not be in my all-time Disney top five, it still lands high on my list, and it offers a charming and well-executed effort across the board. Beast put Disney back on the map, and it deserved much of the acclaim it received.

The DVD Grades: Picture A- / Audio B+ / Bonus A+
Beauty and the Beast appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. While the disc includes three separate versions of the movie, this section of the review will only discuss the “special edition” cut. Disney almost never botches the transfers of their prime properties, so I expected something special from this DVD. For the most part, I got what I anticipated via the positive picture quality of this disc.

Sharpness appeared immaculate. The movie always came across as crisp and well defined, as I noticed no signs of softness at any point. Never did the detail waver during this accurate and distinct image. Jagged edges and moiré effects created no concerns, and I detected no signs of edge enhancement. Print flaws seemed totally absent. At no point did I discern any specks, grit, marks, or other issues during this clean and fresh presentation. Some minor compression artifacts appeared, which made the film looked slightly noisy at times, but those remained fairly small.

Beast employed a varied and vivid palette, and the tones seemed terrific from start to finish. The colors always appeared vibrant and lush, and they displayed excellent clarity without any bleeding, noise, or other issues. Black levels also were wonderfully rich and dense, while shadow detail presented clear low-light sequences that lacked any excessive opacity. Overall, Beauty and the Beast looked very good.

The moderately subdued Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Beauty and the Beast didn’t quite compare with the visuals, but it worked well for the material nonetheless. The track usually featured a forward emphasis, though this broadened during logical sequences. Music showed excellent stereo delineation, and quite a few isolated elements appeared in the side channels during production numbers. Effects also created a nice sense of atmosphere, and bits such as carts or other moving pieces panned smoothly from one side to the other. Overall, the various elements blended together quite cleanly.

As for the surrounds, they usually did little more than generally support the music and effects, but a few exceptions occurred. Most of those happened during the movie’s action climax, as the surrounds kicked into gear more compellingly. The wolf attacks also brought noticeable dimensionality from the rear speakers, and we even got some decent and accurate split-surround material at times. Nonetheless, this mix remained fairly heavily oriented toward the front, which seemed appropriate for this sort of film.

Audio quality appeared generally solid. Speech came across as distinct and natural, and I noticed no signs of edginess or problems related to intelligibility. Effects sounded clean and accurate for the most part. They never displayed any signs of distortion, and they usually boasted positive dynamics, though I occasionally felt that bass response appeared slightly boomy. Music sounded bright and clear, and the songs offered fine range and delineation. Ultimately, Beauty and the Beast won’t be your demo soundtrack, but it worked just fine for this film.

As the second entry in Disney’s “Platinum Edition” series, Beauty and the Beast provides scads of extras, most of which show up on DVD Two. However, the first platter includes some interesting features, not the least of which comes from the three – that’s right, three! – different versions of the film itself. In addition to the original 84-minute theatrical release, we get the 2002 “Special Edition” cut that includes the number “Human Again” as well as the 84-minute “Work-In-Progress” version. To generate some buzz for the flick. Disney ran the unfinished Beast at the New York Film Festival about six weeks prior to its theatrical opening. This attempt worked, and the “WIP” became a sensation in its own right. In fact, the “WIP” appeared on laserdisc before the finished film made it onto video. I can’t imagine I’d want to frequently view the “WIP”, which features a lot of rough work due to its incomplete state, but I applaud the inclusion of the alternate version here; it definitely adds to the value of this package.

The SE differs from the older two mainly due to “Human Again”, though some of the art after that song alters the material seen in the original; the servants clean the house during “Human Again”, which meant the animators needed to tidy up things from the decrepit state seen in the original movie. While some small differences appear in that regard, not all of the theatrical cut shows up as seen in 1991. For example, blood was added for the SE after the wolves attack the Beast; it also shows up in the theatrical and “WIP” editions. In addition, the sound of the Beast smashing household items after Belle leaves to find her father should only exist in the SE but it pops up for all three. However, some of the cleaned-up parts of the house in the SE looked messy in the other two, so the changes are inconsistent. For instance, when the Beast bathes before his big dance with Belle, the SE shows a fixed background mirror, while it’s smashed in the original two releases.

Some controversy about the encoding of this DVD exists. Apparently Disney claims that disc one includes three totally separate versions of the film; they state that they used no seamless branching for the different presentations. I can’t absolutely confirm whether or not this is true, but the bitrates on the different versions seem low enough to support the claim. In addition, the compression artifacts I saw during the movie make more sense considering how tightly packed this disc appeared to be. Although the film still looks quite good, this decision means that it almost certainly could have presented stronger visuals with less compression, so Disney’s choice seems moderately disappointing.

Next we find an audio commentary from directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, producer Don Hahn, and composer Alan Menken. Their thoughts appear solely alongside the Special Edition cut; you can’t listen to them during the theatrical or WIP versions. Currently, lots of DVD producers like to offer alleged group commentaries during which not all of the participants actually sit together. For example, on Hart’s War, we’re meant to believe that Bruce Willis recorded his remarks alongside the director and writer, but it’s not true. Instead, Willis’ separate statements were deftly edited into the piece to create the illusion of a group session.

The same thing seems to occur for Beast. Clearly, Hahn, Trousdale and Wise sat together, and this is a good thing. The veterans of commentaries for Atlantis: The Lost Empire and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, they appear quite comfortable with the format and each other, and this track lives up to the highs of those other efforts. The three cover many aspects of the production. From casting to story changes to animation challenges, you’ll learn tons of details about Beast, and due to their light and engaging style, you’ll have a lot of fun along the way. I liked the earlier tracks and really dug this one as well.

As for Menken’s contributions, he adds some useful details. He covers the creation of some songs and also provides cool notes like the direction that late co-composer Howard Ashman gave to Paige O’Hara for her “There’s Something There” vocals. Although I enjoyed Menken’s remarks, I still don’t understand why the DVD’s producers tried so hard to create the illusion that he sat with the other three. Maybe I’m wrong and he really did tape his comments alongside that trio, but I strongly doubt it. Why bother to try to fool us? It seems odd and pointless, but this remains a terrific commentary.

Beast provides something called a Sing-Along Track. This provides subtitles for all the movie’s songs. With this feature activated, they pop up when any of the tunes appears. It does nothing for me, but it seems like a fun extra.

The Maurice’s Invention Workshop Game offers a trivia contest that ask questions about the movie. They’re not too tough for fans of the film, and even if you make a mistake, you get extra chances. Successful completion rewards you with a code to use on the second disc to continue through a “Break the Spell” piece.

DVD One also includes the usual complement of ads at the start of the disc. When you pop the platter in your player, you’ll find promos for The Jungle Book 2, Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, Lilo & Stitch, Sleeping Beauty, and The Lion King. In addition, the Sneak Peeks domain features all of those trailers as well as additional ads for Walt Disney World and Winnie the Pooh: A Very Merry Pooh Year.

Now we move to the meat of the extras on DVD Two. The disc splits into four different areas, three of which are led by different characters from the film; the fourth goes to the mysterious west wing and completes the “Break the Spell” game begun on the first disc. (There’s also an option to select the “magic mirror” and examine all the components in one place.)

I decided to go through the sections as split, and I started with the west wing and Break the Spell. Note that I had to select the appropriate icon twice before it let me advance; initially, I was told that the area was forbidden, but the second attempt gave me the chance to enter the code I got from DVD One. This gives us another game to complete. Actually, it consists of a series of mini-games. These alternate between Dragon’s Lair style direction selection contests and others that require matching and other choices. As a reward, you’ll see… a scene from the movie. I went through all of that for a snippet of the film??? What a waste!

Once we finish with “Break the Spell”, we go back to the main menu. Initially I opted to enter the Chip domain, the shortest of the three. It starts with its most substantial element, Disney’s Animation Magic. Hosted by Shia LeBouef and Christy Carlson Romano of the Disney Channel’s Even Stevens, this 14-minute and 24-minute program provides a hyperactive and breezy look at the creation of animated films. We see movie clips and behind the scenes material, and hear sound bites from talent like directors Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, John Musker, Ron Clements, producer Don Hahn, special effects animation supervisor Dave Tidwell, and Walt Disney Feature Animation President Tom Schumacher. Animation fans will already know all of this info, and they probably will have seen the behind the scenes clips on other Disney products, but the piece seems quick and informative for newbies. Oh, and Romano’s a babe, which doesn’t hurt.

Chip’s Challenge offers a “musical memory game”. This plays song snippets. You have to remember them and play back all seven by the end; this first has you recall one part of the sequence, then two, and so on until you’ve gotten to all seven. The slow pace makes it easy. The contest offers no real reward for completion.

”Chip” ends with a contemporary music video for “Beauty and the Beast” by Jump 5. Yet another bland teen pop group, these kids offer their insipid rendition with the requisite perky attitudes. The four-minute video combines lip-synching and dancing with some snippets from the movie. Skip it.

Now that we’ve finished with “Chip”, we move to the Mrs. Potts domain. That area starts with Tale As Old As Time: The Making of Beauty and the Beast, a 28-minute and two-second documentary bookended by comments from Celine Dion. In addition to the usual complement of movie clips and production materials, we get interviews with producer Don Hahn, film historian Paula Sigman, animation historian John Canemaker, Disney Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner, Disney Vice Chairman of the Board Roy E. Disney, film historian Robert Osborne, directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, story person Brenda Chapman, head of story Roger Allers, story person Chris Sanders, screenwriter Linda Woolverton, former Disney Studios chairman Peter Schneider, composer Alan Menken, Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook, animator Andreas Deja, head of clean-up animation Vera Lanpher, animator Glen Keane, animator Nik Ranieri, Disney Animation president Thomas Schumacher, and animator Will Finn.

”Time” offers a decent general look at the creation of the film. It hits most of the important issues, though it remains fairly superficial most of the time. It also includes way too many moments of back patting, as we hear lots of praise for the film and its participants. Overall, “Time” provides an enjoyable but fairly average documentary.

For Mrs. Potts’ Personality Profile Game, you answer a few questions and the DVD tells you which character you most resemble. This splits into “Monsieur” and “Mademoiselle”, and each category includes three different possible personalities. It’s a cute but inconsequential extra.

The Story Behind the Story resembles the “Disney Through the Decades” feature found on last year’s Snow White DVD. In this 25-minute and 36-second program, a series of celebrity hosts lead us through discussions of seven different Disney flicks: Cinderella, The Lion King, Pocahontas, The Jungle Book, Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. We hear from Celine Dion, Paige O’Hara, James Earl Jones, David Ogden Stiers, Robby Benson, Jodi Benson, Ming-Na, and Angela Lansbury.

These discussions mostly feature tellings of the different stories. The narrators then relate some details about the creation of each movie. Since these segments go by very quickly, we get little depth, and most of the material will seem familiar to Disney fans. Still, it’s a reasonably brisk and entertaining look at some Disney history, so it merits a look.

Finally, we get the music video for the pop version of “Beauty and the Beast” performed by Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson. It starts with a modern 25-second introduction from Dion and then launches into the four-minute clip. As with most videos for songs from movies, it simply combines some lip-synched performing with scenes from the film. It’s a syrupy rendition and a dull video.

Lastly we go to the Cogsworth and Lumiere section of the disc. Entitled Be Our Guest, this area offers a collection of 16 featurettes about the creation of the film. All in all, they last 51 minutes; they can be viewed separately or together via the “Play All” option.

If you already watched “Tale As Old As Time” in the “Mrs. Potts” domain, then this program will look very familiar. That’s because it’s simply an extended version of “Tale”, albeit one without the bookends from Celine Dion. The new edition adds eight new topics: “Vocal Heroes” about voice talent, “The Stage Is Set” about visual design, “Animating With Computers”, “A High Profile Preview” about the New York Film Festival debut of the “Work In Progress”, “Awards”, “In Memoriam” about Howard Ashman, “Broadway Bound” about the stage musical, and “The Special Edition”. Obviously, we hear from all the folks who appeared in the abbreviated “Tale” and we also find comments from actors Paige O’Hara, Robby Benson, Angela Lansbury, Jerry Orbach and David Ogden Stiers, head of layout Ed Ghertner, and head of background Lisa Keene.

The additional 23 minutes of material helps flesh out the subject, but it still doesn’t make “Tale” into a great documentary. Clearly the program seems more complete now, but it remains somewhat glossy and it still includes too much praise. Nonetheless, the added segments seem good. The Ashman piece provides a nice touch, and the visits with the voice talent appear entertaining. The extra looks behind the scenes are also quite fun to see. “Tale” doesn’t remotely compare with the excellent documentary created for Atlantis, but it offers a breezy and watchable piece.

Also within the “Cogsworth and Lumiere” area, you’ll find a mix of additional features. Oddly, the DVD kind of hides these. If you watch “Tale” via the “Play All” feature, you’ll not know they exist. You need to check them out individually through the separate sections.

Within “Development” we find one feature: Early Presentation Reel. After a 38-second introduction from Don Hahn, we get the two-minute, 14-second combination of music and rough art. The product doesn’t bear much resemblance to the final film, which makes it interesting to watch.

Inside “Story”, we get a few components. First up is an Alternate Version of “Be Our Guest”. Hahn provides a 73-second introduction before we see the three-minute, 42-second piece. A mix of pencil animation and storyboards, the house staff performs for Maurice instead of Belle, which creates the main difference. This means some different gags as well – they treat Maurice more comically than Belle, who also wouldn’t be allowed to drink beer – but much of the piece stays the same. Nonetheless, it’s very cool to check out the original conception of the number.

Next we get a 47-second intro from Hahn for the six-minute and 57-second Deleted Song “Human Again”. This alters the version seen in the SE. Instead, it offers a very early storyreel rendition of the number. It combines filmed storyboards with temp voices and a basic take of the song. Some of its elements show up in the SE’s versoin of the song, but others appeared elsewhere in the theatrical cut. It’s another cool glimpse of the film’s early concepts.

As we move to “Music”, we get three new components. Alternate Score: The Transformation starts with a 25-second introduction from composer Alan Menken. After that we see the film’s climactic change shown with rough pencil animation and different music. The 98-second clip doesn’t seem tremendously different, but it’s still good to get.

The “Music” area also offers a repetition of the Deleted Song “Human Again”. The only change here comes from the 40-second introduction from Menken, who adds his own comments about the piece.

Within “The Characters”, we get only one extra piece, but it’s a big one. The Character Art Galleries breaks down into nine different thumbnailed collections of drawings: “Belle” (31 images), “Beast” (43 stills), “Lumiere” (17), “Mrs. Potts and Chip” (20), “Cogsworth” (17), “Gaston and Le Fou” (48), “Maurice and Phillippe” (36), “The Townspeople” (22), and “Other Enchanted Objects” (41). These offer the usual insightful and compelling glimpse at character development.

In addition, the DVD provides an “Audio Guided Tour”. When you see a little rose in the thumbnail, click on that item and you’ll hear a little audio information about it. The details are a little sparse, but this is still a fun and interesting addition. This extra appears for 32 of this area’s 275 stills.

More of the same shows up in the “Production Design” domain. Concept Art & Design features 72 images of those elements; eight of them also come with the “Audio Guided Tour” comments. Layouts & Backgrounds provides 69 examples of those pieces created for the film; these also toss in eight audio notes.

“Animation” features another three subsections. Animation Tests, Roughs and Clean Ups runs four minutes, 55 seconds. Hahn narrates the piece, which shows early incarnations of some material. It’s fun to see the material, but Hahn’s insight makes the short piece especially useful.

The Transformation: Pencil Version starts with a 65-second introduction from Hahn. We then see the early rendition of the film’s climactic sequence. The four-minute and 20-second piece seems quite rough, but it offers a very compelling look at the basic product prior to much clean-up work.

In A Transformation: Glen Keane, we get a 194-second chat with the animator of the Beast. He discusses his work on the film’s climactic segment and gives us some useful notes about the topic.

Only one extra feature appears in “Tricks of the Trade”. The Camera Move Test begins with a 41-second introduction from Hahn before we see 86 seconds of the computer camera test for the ballroom scene. It’s another good look at the animation process.

“Release and Reaction” provides some additional publicity materials. Trailers & TV Spots begins with the requisite 34-second introduction from Hahn. We then find two trailers. One came from the film’s original 1991 release, while the other accompanied the 2002 “large format” release. In addition, we get four TV ads, all of which appeared back in the early Nineties.

Next we get two galleries. The Original Release Publicity Gallery consists of 14 posters and ads; three of them offer audio comments as well. The Large Format Publicity Gallery gives us 12 images from the 2002 “Special Edition” release; it tosses in two more audio segments.

More ads appear in “The Broadway Musical”, which launches with Broadway Musical Publicity Gallery. It provides 43 images, most of which show shots from the production; a smattering of promotional bits show up as well. The Costume Design Gallery includes nine sketches for those elements of the production. Neither of these areas includes an audio tour.

One nice touch: I believe that most of the voices heard on the DVD’s menus come from the original voice talent. Only Chip apparently needed a new voice, since Bradley Pierce would be a teenager now. Otherwise, it sounded like Angela Lansbury, David Ogden Stiers and Jerry Orbach all provided the work for their characters. That’s a nice element that makes the package more likable.

Finally, the package includes a nice little booklet. This provides an introductory note from producer Don Hahn as well as notes about the DVD’s features and whatnot. It’s a good piece that helps make the set more accessible.

Beauty and the Beast provides another excellent DVD from Disney. The movie remains one of their best. I probably prefer the original theatrical version to the new “Special Edition”, but since this set includes both, I won’t complain. The DVD offers very good picture marred only slightly due to the packed nature of the disc, while audio quality seems positive for a film of this vintage. The extras appear quite comprehensive; not only do we find three versions of the movie, but also we get an audio commentary and many other components. Overall, Beauty and the Beast is a winner that belongs in your collection.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.5973 Stars Number of Votes: 226

View Averages for all rated titles.

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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Dean DeBlois
Cast:
Daveigh Chase, Chris Sanders, Tia Carrere, Ving Rhames, Jason Scott Lee, Kevin McDonald, David Ogden Stiers
Writing Credits:
Chris Sanders
Tagline:
There's one in every family.

Box Office:
Budget
$80 million.
Opening Weekend
$35.26 million on 3191 screens.
Domestic Gross
$145.177 million.
MPAA:
Rated PG for mild sci-fi action.

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.66:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
French
Spanish
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
English
Runtime: 85 min.
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 3/24/2009

• Audio Commentary with Producer Clark Spencer and Writers/Directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
• “Your Ohana” Music Video
• “Lilo and Stitch Island of Adventures” Games
• DisneyPedia: “Hawaii – The Islands of Aloha”
• Create Your Own Alien Experiment Game
•” A Stitch in Time: Follow Stitch Through the Disney Years”
• Hula Lesson, Young Voices of Hawaii
• “Burning Love” – Behind the Scenes with Wynonna
• “Can’t Help Falling in Love With You” Music Video
• “Animating the Hula” Featurette
• Theatrical Teaser Trailers
DVD Two:
• “The Story Room” Documentary
• Documentary Footnotes
• Deleted Scenes and Early Versions

PURCHASE
• DVD
• Music soundtrack
Search Products:

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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Lilo & Stitch: Big Wave Edition (2002)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (March 16, 2009)
With 2002’s Lilo & Stitch, Disney earned an improbable hit. For one, neither they nor any other studio had put out a cel animated flick that made more than $100 million since Tarzan raked in a formidable $171 million in the summer of 1999. Between Tarzan and Stitch, Disney put out three other traditionally animated flicks: 2000’s The Emperor’s New Groove and Fantasia 2000 plus 2001’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire. None of them exactly cleaned up at the box office, though Groove showed stronger monetary legs than many expected.

With a take of $145 million, Stitch didn’t plow over the competition, but given the declining returns accorded traditionally animated flicks these days, that total sure looked good. It seems especially positive given the unusual nature of the film itself. With a small child as a leading lady, no real villains or heroes, and no musical numbers, Stitch differs from other Disney films. It provides a nice breath of fresh air that makes it a winning experience.

At the start of Stitch, we encounter an alien society in which Dr. Jumba Jookiba (voiced by David Ogden Stiers), the lead scientist of Galaxy Defense Industries, conducted illegal genetic experiments. These resulted in the creation of Experiment 626 (Christopher Michael Sanders), a tiny but powerful creature imbued with nothing more than the desire to destroy. The Grand Councilwoman (Zoe Caldwell) imprisons Jumba and banishes 626 to an asteroid-based prison, but while Captain Gantu (Kevin Michael Richardson) tries to fly away with the little fella, 626 escapes.

The monster hijacks a spacecraft and puts it into hyperspace. This randomly sends him toward Earth, where he crashes on a small Hawaiian island. Initially the aliens want to just gas the planet, but specialist Agent Pleakley (Kevin McDonald) indicates that Earth offers a protected habitat for an “endangered species”: mosquitoes. The Councilwoman then sends Pleakley and Jumba to quietly recapture 626.

In the meanwhile, we meet Lilo (Daveigh Chase), an orphaned young misfit who doesn’t connect well with the other kids. She lives with her older sister Nani (Tia Carrere), but their home doesn’t seem to work very well. Matters get worse when they receive a visit from intimidating social worker Mr. Bubbles (Ving Rhames), who warns Nani that she needs to shape up or Lilo will need to depart the home.

After 626 lands on Earth, a series of trucks hits him. The little guy’s indestructible, but the impacts stun him, and he ends up in a local animal shelter. Since Lilo seems so lonely, Nani takes her to get a pet, and Lilo immediately takes to her fellow misfit. 626 tries to escape, but when he sees Jumba and Pleakley ready to ambush him, he decides to stick it out with his new guardians. Renamed “Stitch” by Lilo, the odd family try to adjust to each other, but Stitch’s violent tendencies usually cause concerns, and these ultimately make things much worse when his actions get Nani fired from her job.

From there Stitch mostly follows two plot lines. We see the aliens’ attempts to recapture the escapade experiment, and we watch the ways in which Nani, Lilo and Stitch start to bond as a family. Also waiting in the wings we find David (Jason Scott Lee), a young dude with the hots for Nani.

Disney offers lots of movies with non-traditional families. Heck, it’s hard to think of many that aren’t missing a father (Toy Story, Cinderella) or a mother (Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas). The clan in Stitch seems different, however, if just because if presents a more realistic form of dysfunction.

Of the movies I mentioned above, either the groups appeared very warm and loving, or they came across as excessively problematic. For example, Belle and her father were very close, while it’s tough to fathom a less loving relationship than that between Cinderella, her stepmother, and her stepsisters.

Of the aforementioned flicks, only the two Toy Story movies provide characters in a modern setting, and those films don’t much concentrate on the human families. On the other hand, Stitch uses “family” as a main theme, so those dynamics become paramount. To its credit, Stitch shows that Nani and Lilo care for each other, but the flick doesn’t hesitate to present the strains that fall on both.

Lilo seems remarkably flawed and human for a Disney character. We clearly see her problems and issues, and while the film makes her sympathetic, we can also discern how she’d get on the nerves of Nani and the other kids. Lilo provides something of a “warts and all” little oddball. Normally when we encounter personalities that others in the film don’t like, we totally see the side of the shunned one. They’re made out to be superior in most ways and we’re told how stupid and myopic the others are.

That doesn’t really happen in Stitch. Admittedly, the little girls who disdain Lilo don’t receive positive treatment, but because Lilo comes across as so genuinely odd, we can see understand their attitudes. In addition, her interactions with Nani show how troubled a little girl Lilo is, and these make her much more dimensional than the average Disney character. Usually they have various personal concerns but present hearts of gold; they seem to possess some form of inner light, really. That doesn’t happen with Lilo, who comes across as a quirky but otherwise totally believable little girl.

At times, Stitch tends to hammer us with its family theme, but overall, that doesn’t become an issue. Indeed, it adds some depth to the movie. Periodically that concept seems a little forced and hokey, but it also resonates nicely much of the time. We grow to care about this odd little clan and actually begin to believe the notions it promotes, even if they do seem somewhat heavy-handed on occasion.

Lilo & Stitch doesn’t provide an exceptional piece of Disney animation, but it works well as a whole. Despite the unusual leading characters, much of the film seems pretty traditional, as it mixes action, comedy, and sentiment into a neat little package. An unassuming piece, Stitch provides a nicely charming and entertaining film.

The DVD Grades: Picture B-/ Audio A- / Bonus A+
Lilo & Stitch appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this single-sided, dual-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Were it not for one problem area, the transfer would have excelled.

The main issue stemmed from edge enhancement. Moderately heavy haloes permeated the movie and caused distractions. They occasionally affected definition as well. Most of the movie showed good delineation, but some elements came across as a little blurry and tentative due to the haloes.

Otherwise, I found a lot to like about the presentation. Jagged edges and moiré effects appeared absent. In regard to print flaws, I noticed none, as the movie looked clean and fresh from start to finish.

The tropical Hawaiian setting of Stitch meant that it boasted a wonderfully vivid and varied palette, and the DVD presented those hues well. The colors consistently looked dazzling. From the lush landscapes to the vibrant fish to the bold tones of the aliens, the hues always came across as lively and tight. Black levels also seemed terrifically deep and solid, while shadow detail was appropriately dense but never seemed overly murky. Though much of the image pleased, the excessive edge enhancement left this as a “B-“ presentation.

Lilo & Stitch also provided a pretty strong Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Much of the movie favored the front channels, but the mix opened up well when appropriate. It started strong in that domain due to the outer space escapades, and it also concluded with a lot of exciting sonic activity. In between, things seemed more subdued, but the soundfield matched the film nicely.

Music always demonstrated positive stereo imaging, and the effects created a realistic and involving sense of atmosphere. When the action heated up, the surrounds added a fine layer of material that contributed some lively and engaging audio. For example, when 626 escaped the prison vessel through the ventilation grid, he skittered about convincing, and all the shots that featured space flight appeared solid.

Audio quality seemed very positive. Dialogue always came across as natural and warm, and I detected no concerns related to edginess or intelligibility. Music appeared bright and dynamic, with concise highs and rich lows. Effects also were tight and realistic. Those elements betrayed no distortion, as they consistently appeared clean and accurate.

The effects provided some strong bass response as well. From laser fire to explosions to Captain Gantu’s pounding steps, the low-end sounded deep and rich without any boominess or other issues. Because much of the movie lacked a very ambitious soundfield, I nearly gave Lilo & Stitch a “B+” for audio, but the terrific climactic sequence demonstrated enough activity to bump it up to an “A-“.

How did the picture and sound of this 2009 “Big Wave Edition” compare to those of the original 2002 DVD? Both seemed identical, which was a disappointment in terms of visuals. Given the edge enhancement, I wish Disney had offered a better presentation for the 2009 version.

When it came to extras, the two-disc “Big Wave Edition” added a ton of components to those found on the original disc. I’ll mark new supplements with an asterisk. If you fail to see a star, then that component popped up on the old release.

We start with an \*audio commentary from producer Clark Spencer and writers/directors Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story and characters, rewrites and changes from the original script, cast and performances, Hawaiian elements, the movie’s visual style and use of watercolors, and music.

Apparently recorded back around the time of the film’s 2002 release, the filmmakers provide a terrific look at the flick. I especially like the notes about story elements; the commentary starts with a discussion of radical changes made to the opening, and it continues to dig into many fascinating similar issues as the flick progresses. The filmmakers throw out many other cool notes and turn this into a terrific little chat.

By the way, if you don’t normally stick around through the end of audio commentaries, you should make an exception here. We get some surprisingly snarky and sarcastic thoughts about one of the film’s musical contributors during the end credits. I love it!

Next comes a \*music video. We find “Your Ohana” performed by the Kamehameha Schools Children’s Chorus, and we watch movie clips as they perform. It’s as forgettable and blah as that description sounds.

Another new component arrives via the \*Lilo & Stitch Island of Adventures Games. This breaks down into three mini-games, some meant to be played with friends. This is actually a sampler from a DVD available separately. None are especially memorable. (Note that these come from a 2003 DVD game also titled Island of Adventures.)

DisneyPedia entry that tells us about “Hawaii – the Islands of Aloha”. Narrated by Tia Carrere and Daveigh Chase in character, these lead us through six islands individually or together via the “Play All” option. (Cutely, if you wait too long to select something, Chase starts to complain.)

Taken through the “Play All” method, these segments last a total of eight minutes and 34 seconds; additional narration shows up in the menu screen as well. These clips cover topics like volcanoes, surfing, luaus, ukuleles, leis, and other issues that connect strongly to Hawaii. They also offer a short vocabulary lesson in many native terms. Obviously oriented toward the kiddies, these pieces offer a moderately entertaining little romp through the islands.

Next we get the Create Your Own Alien Experiment Game. Narrated in character by David Ogden Stiers, this combines trivia questions and guessing contests to get you to make three different alien critters. The problems seem fairly easy, and the color sequencing activity is very forgiving. “Experiment” doesn’t go much of anywhere – it offers no reward for successful completion – but it offers a painless experience.

A novel extra, A Stitch in Time: Follow Stitch Through the Disney Years lasts three and a half minutes as it presents the notion of Stitch as a struggling actor. Narrated out of character by David Ogden Stiers, it shows stills from many Disney classics like Pinocchio and 101 Dalmatians. Though not as much fun as the ads I’ll soon discuss, “Time” still presents a moderately cute extra.

The Hula Lesson provides what its title implies. We get a three-minute, 35-second presentation from Mark Keali’I Ho’omalu, hula consultant and Hawaiian music composer. We learn a little about the hula and then get led through some basic steps. Brief and insubstantial, “Lesson” does at least offer a decent little overview of the dance form.

”Burning Love” – Behind the Scenes with Wynonna looks at that song’s recording. We watch her sing and hear from Wynonna as well as writer/director Chris Sanders during this 90-second clip. It seems very flimsy and pointless, especially since it doesn’t even bother to toss in a full performance of the tune.

After this we do find a music video for “Can’t Help Falling In Love” by A-Teens. Like most other clips of this ilk, “Falling” mixes movie clips with very cutesy lip-synch images of the performers. Clocking in at a mere 60 seconds, this video seems lame.

For a little more behind the scenes material, check out Animating the Hula, a three-minute and four-second featurette. This discusses the challenges of bringing that dance to the cartoon screen. It shows behind the scenes dance footage and animation shots, movie bits, and interviews with Sanders and De Blois and producer Spencer. It doesn’t present a wealth of information, but it mentions some of the methods used to translate the dance, and it also includes a nice split-screen comparison that lets us watch real hula alongside the animated version.

Another very fun extra, the theatrical teaser trailers section includes four ads. Each of these places Stitch within the milieu of a different Disney classic: Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and The Lion King. All of them seem wonderfully ingenious and amusing.

With that, we head to DVD Two and its components. The primary attraction comes from \*The Story Room, a two-hour, five-minute and 25-second documentary. The program features Sanders, DeBlois, Spencer, Ho’omalu, Disney Feature Animation executive vice president Pam Coats, Disney Feature Animation president Thomas Schumacher, Disney Feature Animation chairman Roy E. Disney, art director Ric Sluiter, visual development Marcello Vignali, background supervisor Robert E. Stanton, visual effects supervisor Joe Gilland, supervising animators Alex Kupershmidt, Byron Howard and Andreas Deja, production designer Paul Felix, layout supervisor Arden Chan, story artist Chris Williams, co-head of clean-up Christine Lawrence-Finney, associate editor Eric Dapkewicz, Walt Disney Music president Chris Montan, composer Alan Silvestri, and music teacher Lynell K. Bright.

We learn how the filmmakers got into animation and their growth at Disney, the origins of Lilo and the development of its story, and research in Hawaii. From here we go through character and visual design, cast and performances, alterations to the original story plans, art and animation issues, test screenings and further changes. Finally, the show looks at maintaining sanity during the long production period, score and songs, and promoting and premiering the movie.

Frequent readers know that I often malign DVD documentaries that tell us everything about the production was happy, happy. “Room” does not provide that kind of program. No, it doesn’t provide a dark, dismal view of the film’s creation, but it feels much more “warts and all” than usual, as it presents many conflicts and problems that accompanied the production

Since the commentary includes so much information, I worried that “Room” would be little more than a long rehash of the same bits and pieces. Happily, that doesn’t occur, as it presents many fresh notes and perspectives. Told in a straightforward, uncomplicated manner, the documentary works exceedingly well as it gives us a great view of the production.

(Truth in titling note: I’m not sure that the documentary is actually named “The Story Room”. That’s the title listed on the box, but the DVD just refers to it as “documentary”. “Story Room” doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense as the title of a comprehensive documentary, but it’s the only name I can find, so I’ll go with it!)

For more info about the elements referenced in the show, we get 25 Documentary Footnotes. Some of these also appear elsewhere; “Footnotes” repeats the four teaser trailers on DVD One as well as the eight “Deleted Scenes/Early Versions” I’ll discuss soon.

That means “Footnotes” provides 13 clips not located elsewhere. Simply show scenes from movies alluded to during the program: we get short scenes from Mulan and Dumbo. The other 11 fall into the “behind the scenes” category. These include “Walking Is Falling: Joe Grant In Conversation With Dean DeBlois” (10:40), “Chris’ Pitch Book” (42 screens), “Chris’ Photo Gallery” (1:04), “Treatise on Stitch” (7:09), “Andreas Deja’s Sketches of Lilo” (4:32), “Fishing with Ric” (9:15), “Ric Sluiter Interviews Maurice Noble” (10:46), “Chalk Talk: Alex Kupershmidt on Stitch” (8:38), “Chalk Talk: Andrea Deja on Lilo” (9:36), “The Sanders Style Book” (9:51), and “Dean Pitches New Sequence, Early Version of ‘Dysfunctional Angel’” (3:07). All together, the components unique to “Footnotes” run a total of one hour, 14 minutes and 36 seconds.

What do we find in these pieces? We mostly get more notes from the filmmakers, though exceptions occur. “Falling” offers thoughts from legendary 95-year-old Disney animator Joe Grant, “Interviews” features long-time Disney artist Maurice Noble, and “Pitch Book” lets us see Sanders’ early story outline. “Pitches” throws in footage that takes us to a story meeting, and “Photo Gallery” includes stills taken during a Hawiian research trip. “Treatise” presents details about Stitch made to look like they come from a government agency. Both “Chalk Talk” segments show the animators in the film’s early days of production as they instruct their peers about how to design the characters.

I think it was a good idea for the documentary’s creators to omit this material from the final documentary, as the stuff feels like footnotes; some get pretty technical. That said, we find plenty of interesting pieces here, so give them a look. I think the producers put a lot of thought into what they included, and the “Footnotes” add value to the set.

DVD Two also presents five \*Deleted Scenes and three \*Early Versions. In terms of the “Deleted Scenes”, we find “Stitch’s Trial” (2:17), “Gantu’s Challenge” (1:30), “The Untimely Death of Pudge the Fish” (2:16), “Bedtime Story” (1:51), and “The 747 Sequence” (3:16). Under “Early Versions”, we find “Model Citizen: Mayhem on the Beach” (1:49), “Jumba Attacks” (2:23), and “The 747 Sequence with Stitch’s Gang” (5:19). (“Trial”, “Challenge” and “Bedtime” repeat from the 2002 DVD; the others are new to this set.) These snippets mix finished art, pencil animation, and a few storyboards; they vary radically in terms of level of completion.

The deleted “747” sequence was pretty much finished; as we learn elsewhere, it got revamped to suit post-9/11 sensitivities. Though referred to as an “early version”, “Jumba Attacks” also features mostly final animation; it was dropped because test audiences thought it was too violent. In that vein, “Pudge” seems awfully dark; I’m surprised it ever got off the drawing board. Many of the scenes probably would have worked fine in the film, and all are a lot of fun to see.

Does this “Big Wave Edition” omit anything from the prior DVD? Yup – it omits a few featurettes. Also, the old disc’s “Deleted Scenes” included some intros from the directors that fail to reappear here. I don’t know why the new disc cut those, and it’s too bad the other snippets didn’t reappear; some may’ve been redundant when combined with this DVD’s extras, but I still think reissues should provide all the old material, even when the stuff may seem repetitive.

While not the best of Disney’s animated films, Lilo & Stitch nonetheless provides an entertaining and unusual piece of work. It doesn’t totally reinvent the Disney wheel, but it stands as something different for them, and it generally achieves its goals as it offers a compelling experience. The DVD provides erratic picture, terrific audio, and a simply fascinating collection of supplements. On the surface, it doesn’t look like this DVD provides tons of extras, but the bits we find are really well done.

Your interest in bonus features will dictate your decision to get the “Big Wave Edition” of Lilo & Stitch. If you don’t care about extras, you’ll be fine with the single-disc 2002 release; both releases feature essentially identical picture and audio. The “Big Wave” set throws in some excellent supplements, though, so it’s definitely the way to go for fans who want to learn more about the film.

To rate this film visit the original review of LILO & STITCH

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DVD Movie Guide @ dvdmg.com
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FOX

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha
Cast:
Ewan McGregor, Robin Williams, Halle Berry, Greg Kinnear, Stanley Tucci, Dianne Wiest, Mel Brooks, Jay Leno, Amanda Bynes, Drew Carey, Paul Giamatti, James Earl Jones
Writing Credits:
Ron Mita (story), Jim McClain (story), David Lindsay-Abaire, Lowell Ganz, Babaloo Mandel

Tagline:
Repair for adventure!

Synopsis:
Fasten your seat bolts and gear up for a hilarious, heartwarming comedy that's "Fun for the whole family!" (Clay Smith, "Access Hollywood")

With the help of his misfit mechanical friends, a small town robot named Rodney embarks on the adventure of a lifetime as he heads for the big city to pursue his dreams — and ultimately proves that anyone can shine no matter what they're made of.

Featuring an all-star voice cast and a groundbreaking visual style that pushes the boundaries of animated filmmaking, Robots is a dazzling, fun-filled feast for the eyes and a riveting good time for all ages!

Box Office:
Budget
$75 million.
Opening Weekend
$36.045 million on 3776 screens.
Domestic Gross
$128.195 million.

MPAA:
Rated PG

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.85:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
English DTS 5.1
Spanish Dolby 2.0
French Dolby 2.0
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 89 min.
Price: $29.98
Release Date: 9/27/2005

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Director Chris Wedge and Production Designer/Producer William Joyce
• Audio Commentary with Lead Technical Director (Effects) Tim Speltz, Lead Technical Director (Materials) Michael Eringis, Lead Technical Director (Layout) Kevin Thomason, Layout Supervisor Robert Cardone, Animation Supervisor James Bresnahan, Animation Technical Lead Matthew D. Simmons, and Lighting Supervisor David Esneault
• “Aunt Fanny’s Tour of Booty”
• “Robots Original Test”
• “Discontinued Parts”
• “You Can Shine, No Matter What You’re Made Of”
• Blue Man Group
• Meet the Bots
• Robot Arcade
• Robots Multi-Player XBox Video Game Demo
• Fox Promos

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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Robots (2005)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (January 25, 2005)
To me, no film better represented the dominance of computer animation than 2002’s Ice Age. Prior to its release, Fox struggled to find an audience for its animated flicks. Efforts like 2000’s Titan AE and 1997’s Anastasia either underperformed or outright stiffed as they couldn’t make inroads into the genre dominance of Disney and DreamWorks.

Then along came the CG revolution and voila! Even Fox could pump out an animated hit. Ice Age mustered a tidy $176 million gross and spawned a sequel that will arrive in 2006.

In the meantime, director Chris Wedge went on to a different computer animated project with 2005’s Robots. The film opens with the “delivery” – assembly required - of baby ‘bot Rodney Copperbottom, the child of dishwasher Herb (voiced by Stanley Tucci) and his wife (Dianne Wiest). As Rodney grows, he learns to accept hand-me-downs and other issues connected to his family’s tenuous financial state, but he maintains a dream. He sees robot mogul Bigweld (Mel Brooks) on TV and responds to the corporate dynamo’s vision of a society in which all droids can create and succeed.

When Rodney (Ewan McGregor) reaches maturity, he takes his inventions on the road and moves to big Robot City where he hopes to catch on with Bigweld’s company. Alas, all is not as happy as he anticipates, and he finds a corporation obsessed with profits. Bigweld has been deposed by money-obsessed Ratchet (Greg Kinnear) and Rodney fails to get anywhere. He ends up almost on the scrap heap, but he makes friends with nutty Fender (Robin Williams) and his pals. The rest of the movie follows Rodney’s attempts to succeed in the big city as he gets to know his new buddies and also eventually connect romantically with Bigweld executive Cappy (Halle Berry). In addition, see more of Ratchet’s insidious plans to take over Bigweld – and the world! – along with the real mastermind, his evil mother (Jim Broadbent) and watch as Rodney becomes a major cog in the battle against this plan.

Why did I even bother to write a synopsis for Robots? The paragraphs above imply that the film features a true narrative. Not so. Instead, Robots ties together bits and pieces into this loose conglomeration of plot ideas. The story elements come across as afterthoughts, concepts created simply because the filmmakers figured no one would go to see 90 minutes of general animated goofiness.

Apparently their plan worked, since Robots earned a decent $128 million at the box office. That ain’t Shrek 2 - or even Ice Age - money, but it isn’t bad. $128 million is more than this flick deserved, however, as it lacks the quality needed to make it a winner.

Like 2004’s Shark Tale - and the Shrek flicks, to a degree - Robots largely sacrifices story to serve its gags. This method works okay in the other movies because they manage to toss out some reasonably clever bits, and they offer enough charm and spirit to engage us.

That never happens in Robots, a film that clearly seems much more in love with its production design and secondary elements. The side bits overwhelm the movie. From start to finish, the film comes across like a random conglomeration of gags with little coherence. It feels like the filmmakers thought up moments they saw as clever and built a movie around them.

This becomes “cart driving the horse” territory, and the cast don’t do anything to elevate the material. With a roster of many big names, the actors should have brought spirit to the flick. Unfortunately, they either get submerged by the tedium of the gags or they sound like they barely made it into the studio.

Put McGregor and Berry into the latter category. Both sound badly disengaged from their roles and give me the impression they’re on sedatives. No, there’s not much to either part anyway, but the lack of personality found in either performance certainly doesn’t help matters.

The same quality infects a lot of the actors’ work, and even the normally dynamic Robin Williams lacks effervescence. Williams does his normal shtick but without much impact. Mel Brooks brings a little spunk to Bigweld, and Greg Kinnear delivers a certain oily charm to Ratchet, but otherwise the performances go down as shockingly bland and forgettable.

I have to say the same for Robots itself. The film had a lot of potential in its droid-centered world, but it rarely mined any of the material well. I didn’t laugh once during the flick, and I think I only cracked a smile twice. There’s most robot cleverness and comedy to be found in any episode of Futurama than in this feature-length dud.

The DVD Grades: Picture B+/ Audio A-/ Bonus B+
Robots appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. While the visuals of Robots consistently seemed strong, they were a little less dynamic than I expected from a computer animated film.

Softness was one minor issue. The majority of the film depicted very concise and accurate images, but not always. At times the shots looked just a smidgen soft. I also noticed occasional examples of shimmering and jagged edges. Again, these remained quite modest, but they appeared more prominent than I’d anticipate. No source flaws came with the transfer, as the movie lacked any form of defect.

To match the film’s metallic world, colors were somewhat subdued much of the time. Occasionally they became more dynamic and vivid, but a lot of the movie used a metallic blue tint. Within that palette, the hues were quite good, and when the picture demanded more from them, they appeared lively and vivacious. Blacks also seemed dark and firm, while low-light shots offered good delineation. As I considered a grade, I flip-flopped between an “A-“ and a “B+”. I went with the lower mark simply because I thought the transfer should have been virtually perfect, so the minor issues made it a little less positive than expected.

On the other hand, the soundtracks of Robots fared nicely. The DVD came with both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 mixes. Except for a slight difference in volume that made the DTS one louder, I thought the pair sounded identical.

And that was fine with me, since both presented lively audio. The soundfield broadened the material in a positive way. With all the droids and silly scenarios on display, the movie offered many opportunities for vivid elements, and it took advantage of most. The big scenes like the dominoes, the Robot City transport, and the climactic battle worked best. Others added spark as well, however, and the movie left us with a rich, involving impression.

Audio quality was stellar. Bass response seemed especially positive, as the film consistently presented deep, firm low-end. Effects used that dimensionality well and created a good impact along with fine clarity and precision. Speech was warm and natural, and music appeared distinctive and dynamic. No problems caused concerns in this very strong soundtrack.

When we head to the DVD’s extras, we find two separate audio commentaries. The first presents director Chris Wedge and production designer/producer William Joyce, both of whom sit together for their running, screen-specific discussion. They chat about the project’s origins and growth, characters and their development, working with the actors, visual elements, the score and instrumentation, references and inspirations, cut sequences and alterations, and story topics.

The commentary starts out very well, as Wedge and Joyce dig into many useful subjects with vigor. We get a good look at the production during those moments. Unfortunately, as the track progresses, the men devote more and more time to praise. They talk about what they love and heap plaudits on all involved. We still get some decent notes about the film through its end, but the dominance of the happy talk makes it turn tedious.

For the second commentary, we hear from lead technical director (effects) Tim Speltz, lead technical director (materials) Michael Eringis, lead technical director (layout) Kevin Thomason, layout supervisor Robert Cardone, animation supervisor James Bresnahan, animation technical lead Matthew D. Simmons, and lighting supervisor David Esneault. All those guys sit together for their own running, screen-specific chat. As one might expect, technical concerns dominate the discussion. They get into character and set rendering, lighting, movement and design, alterations and techniques, and a myriad of different challenges.

Although I’ve heard drier commentaries, I have to say this one becomes pretty yawn-inducing before too long. I don’t fault the participants for this – it’s simply the nature of the subject matter, as such technical issues don’t lend themselves to exciting discussions. Folks with a great interest in the nuts and bolts of CG animation may find this track worthwhile, but I didn’t get much from it.

When we examine Aunt Fanny’s Tour of Booty, we find a five-minute and 10-second short. In it, Aunt Fanny takes us on a comedic tour of the Robot City train station. It’s similar to material in the film, though the relentless parade of gags works better in a brief clip like this than it does in a feature-length flick.

The Robots Original Test lasts two minutes and three seconds. It shows the concept clip created to show how the film’s world would look. That makes it an interesting historical artifact. We can watch it with or without commentary from Wedge and co-director Carlos Saldanha. They fill us in on details connected to the short.

Called Discontinued Parts, we get a collection of three deleted scenes. We see “Tim from the TV Show”, “Rodney and the Rusties” and “Rodney’s Visitor”. The first is an extended version of an existing sequence and features finished animation. The other two offer incomplete scenes in which Rodney deals with his buddies; they use some crude animation and/or storyreels. None of these seem very exciting, though they’re fun to see.

We can inspect these with or without commentary from Wedge. He offers some nice notes about the abandoned storylines and other issues. He also lets us know why he cut the material in this useful discussion.

A featurette called You Can Shine, No Matter What You’re Made Of runs 18 minutes, 13 seconds. It offers an overview of the production with remarks from Wedge, Saldanha, Joyce, executive producer Chris Meledandri, art director Steve Martino, lead color key artist Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi, designer Michael Knapp, lead character designer Greg Couch, and designer Peter de Seve. They discuss the project’s origins, inspirations and development, visual and character designs, robot specifics, and general thoughts about the processes.

“Shine” is what the commentaries should have been. It covers useful design issues in a brisk and informative manner. It moves us along well but still manages a reasonable amount of detail. This featurette stands out as one of the DVD’s better components.

Another piece entitled Blue Man Group lasts five minutes and 57 seconds. It looks at the contributions of that oddball organization via comments from Wedge, composer John Powell, and Blue Man Group founders Chris Wink and Phil Stanton. We learn about the movie’s general musical design, the origins of BMG, and their contributions to the soundtrack. I was afraid this would be a puffy glorification of BMG, but instead it offers a pretty tight little coverage of their work on the flick.

Next comes Meet the Bots, a section with plenty of information about the movie’s 11 main characters. Each one offers short, humorous biographies of the personalities and then breaks into three areas: “The Voice Behind the Bot”, “Design Gallery” and “3-D Turnaround”. The “Voice” featurettes present short clips in which each voice artist talks about his/her character and their work. Some are better than others; Jim Broadbent, Jennifer Coolidge, Ewan McGregor and Halle Berry offer nice notes, while Mel Brooks and Drew Carey don’t tell us much. They’re still cool additions. (Note that the section for “Diesel” simply includes a montage of his different voices since no single actor did his lines.)

Each “Gallery” includes stills from the characters’ development. We see concept sketches and final drawings. All in all, we get 95 frames. In a nice touch, the concert art displays the name of the person who drew it. Finally, the “Turnarounds” show CG renderings of all the characters to demonstrate their final design. These areas add up to a good view of the robots.

Attempts at fun pop up in the “Robot Arcade”. It features three elements. Robot Dance lets you choose any of eight different moves and then watch a droid perform them. The “Mega Moves” option selects dances at random. It’s silly but minor fun.

Fender Photo Shoot shows you stills of various movie characters and quizzes you on how well you remember them. It’s moderately challenging but not too stimulating. Finally, Invent-A-Bot sounds like it’ll let you create your own droids. Instead, it’s a tedious game that forces you to “find” components to use for a predetermined creation.

The DVD also presents a Robots Multi-Player XBox Video Game Demo. Is this fun? Since I don’t own an XBox, I have no clue.

The package ends with ads. A collection of Fox Promos touts the Robots soundtrack, Bratz: Rock Angelz, Ferngully, Strawberry Shortcake, Garfield, and Malcolm in the Middle. Inside Look features a trailer for Ice Age 2 and a “tour” of the flick with voice actor John Leguizamo. The latter is quick and not very informative, though Leguizamo adds some fun to it.

Too bad Robots itself provides so little spark of its own. The movie concentrates so heavily on visual minutiae that it forgets to develop memorable characters or an involving plot. It looks great but lacks any substance to make it worthwhile. The DVD offers good picture quality, though the image is a little disappointing when compared to other CG animation. The soundtrack is very positive, and despite a couple of lackluster audio commentaries, the extras round out the package well. I think this DVD is a generally good product, but the movie itself doesn’t merit a recommendation.

Viewer Film Ratings: 3.7619 Stars Number of Votes: 21

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WARNER

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Brad Bird
Cast:
Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, James Gammon, Cloris Leachman, Christopher McDonald, John Mahoney, Eli Marienthal, M. Emmet Walsh
Writing Credits:
Ted Hughes (book, "The Iron Man"), Brad Bird, Tim McCanlies

Tagline:
It came from outer space!

Synopsis:
Based on poet Ted Hughes' 1968 children's book, former Simpsons producer Brad Bird's adaptation proves to be a work of art the family can enjoy together - simple and visually captivating enough for kids and sharp and touching enough for adults. Hogarth is a young boy in 1950s Maine. When he finds a kind and very large robot (of unknown origin), a strong bond of friendship is formed between the two. It isn't long, however, until a government agent is on their trail, wanting to destory the robot. A beautifully rendered fable.

Box Office:
Budget
$48 million.
Opening Weekend
$5.732 million on 2179 screens.
Domestic Gross
$23.159 million.

MPAA:
Rated PG

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 2.35:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
French
Spanish
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 87 min.
Price: $19.96
Release Date: 11/16/2004

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Director Brad Bird, Head of Animation Tony Fucile, Story Department Head Jeff Lynch and Storyboard Artist Steven Markowski
• Additional Scenes
• 13 Branching Mini-Documentary Segments
• “Teddy Newton: The X-Factor” Featurette
• Duck & Cover Sequence
• “The Voice of the Giant” Featurette
• Cast & Crew
• Motion Gallery
• Trailers

EQUIPMENT
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The Iron Giant: Special Edition (1999)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (November 2, 2004)
Early word on 1999’s The Iron Giant - an adaptation of Ted Hughes' 1968 novel - said it was terrific, and when it hit the screens, the critics agreed. 1999 offered a lot of well-received animated movies, but Giant got some of the best notices of them all. Toy Story 2 may actually have surpassed its critical approval, though.

Unfortunately, audiences didn't notice the plaudits for Giant and it suffered an ignominious fate. Despite all the glowing reviews and the ecstatic word of mouth, nothing could save the film at the box office. After an anemic gross of about $23 million, the movie disappeared from theaters.

Gone, but not forgotten, as Giant maintains an avid fan base who continue to proselytize about the movie. I don't know how it's done on home video, but I'd guess fairly well, and I'd be surprised if it hasn't fared better than would expect from such a box office bomb.

One problem created by all the raves is that they set up the viewer for an experience that the film itself may not be able to match. That's the danger of hype, and although it was small-scale for Giant, the film received a lot of secondary buildup nonetheless.

That was my position when I saw the movie theatrically. As a result, while I enjoyed the film, I couldn't help but wonder why it received such acclaim. It was a well-executed picture but I didn't think it was anything special.

On subsequent viewings, my opinion hasn't changed radically, but I definitely liked the movie more. It still isn't one of the all-time great animated films, but it is a charming, fast-paced, witty and moving little offering.

One interesting aspect of the film is that it possesses many parallels with E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Normally I'd scream "rip-off!" and leave it at that, but this situation is a little more complicated since Giant adapts the 1968 book. As such, that story predates E.T. by 14 years, so it's altogether entirely possible that the Spielberg classic stole ideas from the book. I haven't read the original text, so I don't know this. Suffice it to say that whichever came first, the 1999 movie of Giant presents a lot of scenes that are strongly reminiscent of those in E.T.

Even if Giant does steal from the earlier alien-related film, it still offers enough of its own to make it enjoyable. For one, I thought the voice acting in Giant was just terrific. The cast includes a nice complement of different folks who all add up to one terrific bunch. We get Jennifer Aniston playing against type as the mother of our protagonist Hogarth, plus Harry Connick Jr. working with type - but still effectively - as beatnik artist Dean, Christopher McDonald as government heavy Kent Mansley, and John Mahoney as military not-so-heavy General Rogarde. All are splendid.

Best of the cast, however, are our two main characters, Hogarth and the Iron Giant himself. Vin Diesel plays the Giant, and although I thought his vocals were heavily affected by electronic tampering, a viewing of the DVD's extras disavowed me of that notion quickly. Oh, there's definitely been some sweetening, but I was shocked to hear how effectively Diesel could do the metallic, gravelly voice without help. It's a great performance that adds a lot of charm and character to the Giant.

Also fantastic is Eli Marienthal's work as Hogarth. The kid's absolutely amazing in this key role; he makes Hogarth much more intelligent, charming, witty and clever than we have any right to expect from a youngster. It's a tour de force, and really allows the film to become much more effective than it otherwise might have been. (Marienthal also offers another funny - though much smaller - turn as Stifler's brother in American Pie.)

The animation in The Iron Giant isn't the best you'll see, but it's very good in its minimalist style. It serves the piece nicely and creates a somewhat unique atmosphere. Some of the best aspects of the animation regard the Giant himself. For one, I thought his character design was marvelous; all at once, he can be adorable, ominous and intelligent, which can be quite hard to pull off as a combination. Additionally, the Giant is one of the best-integrated pieces of computer animation I've seen. Many largely traditionally animated films feature CGI that stands out like a sore thumb; Prince of Egypt suffered from this, and even Tarzan presented some backdrops that just don't blend all that well with the rest of the action.

Such a problem does not affect the Giant. Really, I thought the character - who apparently was completely computer-drawn - melded flawlessly with the rest of the cel-based animation. If I didn't know computers did the Giant, I wouldn't guess it from the way he so neatly matches the rest of the art.

(Another potentially interesting trivia note: if you're wondering, yes, the "Pete Townshend" listed as executive producer is the Pete Townshend. Why is he involved in such a project? Pete has close ties to the story, and actually produced an album in 1989 based on the book, though the record was called The Iron Man.)

Despite my initial misgivings, I ultimately find The Iron Giant to be a very satisfying and enjoyable little film. I have to join the chorus of folks who don't understand why it did so badly at the box office; the movie's a treat.

The DVD Grades: Picture A-/ Audio B-/ Bonus B
The Iron Giant appears in both an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Across the board, the movie looked great.

Sharpness seemed consistently strong. Only a sliver of softness interfered on a couple of occasions. 99 percent of the time, the film remained concise and well-defined. No issues with jagged edges or shimmering occurred, and I also noticed no edge enhancement. Print flaws remained absent, as the movie failed to display any specks, marks, or other concerns.

Giant featured a broad and mildly rustic palette that highlighted reds and oranges. Along with the occasional glimpse of “futuristic” blues, we got forest greens, and the colors always appeared excellent. The hues always came across as firm and dynamic. Blacks looked deep and dense, while low-light situations appeared smooth and well-delineated. Overall, I thought Giant offered an excellent transfer.

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of The Iron Giant succeeded in general, but it suffered from one huge flaw: the dialogue. I can't recall another modern film with such muffled speech. At times it seemed relatively distinct and clear, but for the most part, I thought dialogue sounded really flat and dull. I understood what the characters said, but the poor quality made it much harder to buy the illusion of the animation; the entire presentation seemed "off" and the audio really distracted me at times. This became especially noticeable during louder scenes. During those instances, the muddy speech was very hard to hear.

Otherwise, the sound seemed very good. The forward soundstage was well-defined and audio appeared neatly placed. Some smooth panning could be heard, and the entire package blended well. The track didn’t use the surrounds relentlessly, but they added some useful auditory information and meshed well with the entire proceedings.

Except for the dialogue, audio quality was positive. The music fared well, for Michael Kamen's score came across as clear and crisp. Effects were nicely realistic and detailed, and they presented some deep bass. Low-end was tight and distinctive. It’s a shame that the speech problems occurred, for they caused the mix’s only real problems. Without them, this could have been an “A”-level track, but as it stood, I didn’t think it merited anything above a “B-“.

How did the picture and sound of this special edition compare to those of the original 1999 DVD? Both seemed virtually identical. I expected the two discs to sound alike, but the visual comparisons surprised me. I thought the new DVD might offer stronger picture quality, but instead, I found them to look very much the same.

Whereas the old version of The Iron Giant included a smattering of extras, the new special edition packs a better roster, almost none of which repeat from the prior release. The Giant special edition starts with an audio commentary from director Brad Bird, head of animation Tony Fucile, story department head Jeff Lynch and storyboard artist Steven Markowski, all of whom sit together for this running, screen-specific piece. Bird takes the helm here and dominates the discussion. The commentary covers topics such as visual design, influences and inspirations, characters and cast, animation challenges, story issues, and cuts and alterations made to the original plans.

Given the personnel involved, one might expect a technical bent to the track, and one would assume correctly. However, the piece doesn’t become dry or stiff. It moves briskly enough and goes over a lot of interesting issues. It’s not one of the best animation commentaries I’ve heard, but it explores appropriate topics nicely and proves useful.

Behind the Armor offers a branching video option that runs during the movie. Whenever a certain icon appears onscreen, hit “enter” to watch any of 13 clips. The pieces run between 60 seconds and four minutes, 53 seconds for a total of 25 minutes and 43 seconds. These include remarks from Bird, Fucile, Lynch, animatic artist Andrew Jimenez, composer Michael Kamen, producers Allison Abbate and Des MacAnuff, designer Joe Johnston, production designer Mark Whiting, screenwriter Tim McCanlies, animator James van der Keyl, storyboard artists Mark Andrews and Kevin O’Brien, and animator Dean Wellins. They chat about the film’s new Warner Animation logo, aspects of the score, the development and design of Hogarth, the Giant, Kent, Dean, and Annie, the book’s path to the screen and changes along the way, bringing personality to the Giant, storyboards and animatics, and creating the battle sequence and limitations involved.

Across the board, these components present good information. They tell us many neat notes about the movie’s various elements and almost always prove compelling. However, the format bites. Who wants to split off from the film for a few minutes of information? It’s a distraction that was unnecessary, as the DVD’s producers easily could have linked these together to make a nice little documentary.

For those who don’t want to sit through the whole flick to find the branching elements, a solution exists. Go to title 19 for the first segment, and the rest follow on titles 20 through 31. On my player, I found it easy to flip from one to another. I’d still prefer a more connected presentation, though.

Inside Cast & Crew, we find very rudimentary biographies for actors Jennifer Aniston, Harry Connick Jr., Vin Diesel, James Gammon, Cloris Leachman, Christopher McDonald, John Mahoney, Eli Marienthal, and M. Emmet Walsh plus director Bird, producers Allison Abbate and Des McAnuff, executive producer Pete Townshend, author Ted Hughes, screenwriter Tim McCanlies, production designer Mark Whiting, art director Alan Bodner, head of animation Fucile, and composer Kamen. Note that none of these include information on completed projects finished after 2002, which leads me to believe this DVD sat on the shelf for a while.

Eight Additional Scenes appear. These come with introductions from Bird; storyboard artist Kevin O’Brien and story department head Jeffrey Lynch also chime in during the final clip. Including those intros, the “Additional Scenes” last 18 minutes and 34 seconds. Most come in the form of animatics, though a few feature rough pencil animation. Some nice sequences appear that flesh out the characters and situations. None of them seem revelatory, but they’re fun to see. The intros add some useful production notes, though Bird doesn’t always tell us why the snippets failed to make the final film.

A featurette about Teddy Newton of the storyboard department, The X Factor fills five minutes and 33 seconds. We get notes from Lynch and Bird as they talk of Newton’s talents, and we then see an example of a blind date story reel he created. It’s very odd and doesn’t connect to the final movie at all. It’s entertaining, though, and an interesting extra.

Next we get a little information about the Duck and Cover Sequence. It runs two minutes, 20 seconds and presents comments from Newton. He tells us his inspirations and aims for the little film within the film. We see the original story reel as well in this brief but nice piece.

In The Voice of the Giant, we get a short featurette about actor Vin Diesel. It goes for two minutes, 35 seconds, and includes remarks from Bird and actor Vin Diesel. We learn a little about his casting and some vocal challenges. It doesn’t tell us much, but I like the shots of Diesel in the studio.

Titled The Motion Gallery, this four-minute and 20-second feature mostly presents filmed versions of stills. Some movie snippets pop up as well, and those differentiate it from a standard static gallery. Mostly we see various forms of preparatory art, from character sketches to storyboards to backgrounds. Some rough animation and animatics appear as well, and the movie snippets allow us to compare the final product to the early renditions. Plenty of cool material shows up here, but the presentation doesn’t work for me. It gives us the art in a disjointed manner.

Finally, the disc includes two trailers. We get the movie’s theatrical clip plus the “Brad Bird” trailer. The DVD doesn’t explain this feature, but we can assume it’s an ad assembled by the director himself.

Note that this new DVD loses two extras from the original disc. That release presented a music video and a promotional documentary. I can’t really say I miss either, but I think it’s nonsensical they failed to appear here. Why cut existing materials?

The Iron Giant is a delightful and charming film that seems certain to stand up to repeated screenings. Picture quality appears excellent, but poorly-recorded speech mars the audio. The supplements don’t offer an exhaustive look at the film, but they present a mix of useful facts and elements. The Iron Giant is a DVD well worth your time and money.

That’s definitely the case if you don’t already own the 1999 release of Giant. Should the folks who do possess that platter double-dip? Only if they’re really interested in the supplements. I didn’t see any picture or sound improvements in the new release, so the only difference comes from the extras.

Because of that, I don’t think Giant merits a second purchase. The supplements are nice but not so amazing that they’re worth a double-dip. Maybe if you can sell your old copy and find the special edition cheap, but otherwise, stick with the original disc.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.2142 Stars Number of Votes: 28

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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO
Synopsis:
In the tradition of classic Disney storytelling comes a breathtaking tale of friendship, courage, and self-discovery. Buckle up for adventure as the directors of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid give Robert Louis Stevenson's timeless tale, Treasure Planet, a sensational, futuristic twist for an all-new generation.
Director:
Ron Clements, John Musker
Cast:
Roscoe Lee Browne, Corey Burton, Dane A. Davis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tony Jay, Austin Majors, Patrick McGoohan, Laurie Metcalf, Brian Murray, David Hyde Pierce
Writing Credits:
Ron Clements, John Musker, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson

Tagline:
Find your place in the universe.
Box Office:
Budget $140 million.
Opening weekend $12.083 million on 3227 screens.
Domestic gross $38.12 million.
MPAA:
Rated PG for adventure action and peril.

Academy Awards:
Nominated for Best Animated Feature Film.

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.66:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Surround
Spanish Dolby Surround
Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 95 min.
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 4/29/2003

Bonus:
• Visual Commentary with Producer Roy Conli, Directors Ron Clement and John Musker, Animators Glen Keane and John Ripa, and Assistant Art Director Ian Gooding
• Three Deleted Scenes
• John Rzeznik “I’m Still Here (Jim’s Theme)” Music Video
• “Disney’s Animation Magic” Featurette
• “DisneyPedia: The Life of a Pirate Revealed”
• “RLS Legacy: An Exploration Adventure Game”
• Still Galleries
• Trailers
• Sneak Peeks

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• Score soundtrack
• Tie-in book
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Treasure Planet (2002)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (April 24, 2003)
Sound a new death knell for traditional animation, as we find an another flop for the format. After the genre received a nice little shot in the arm from Lilo & Stitch in the summer of 2002, it experienced an expensive flop with that fall’s Treasure Planet. While Stitch raked in a fairly impressive $145 million, Planet limped home with a weak take of $38 million and generally lackluster reviews. That box office figure made Planet Disney’s lowest-grossing traditionally animated flick since 1990’s Rescuers Down Under. (I excluded half-assed efforts like Piglet’s Big Movie from this assessment, though even cheapo “sequels” like The Jungle Book 2 and Return to Neverland outgrossed Planet!)

In a number of my reviews, I’ve discussed the growing gap between all the successful computer-animated films and the many recent cel-animated disappointments. However, I’ve never offered my opinion of the reasons for the disparity, probably because I really don’t get it. Perhaps kids these days see cel animation as appearing old fashioned, and they only want the sparkly images of computer work. However, that doesn’t explain the success of Stitch, so your guess is as good as mine.

In the case of Planet, however, I will advance a theory: it shot for the wrong audience. It seems clear that teenage boys will attend computer-animated flicks, but they appear to shy away from cel pieces. However, studios consider that age group to stand as a virtual holy grail for success, so they continue to attempt to court them with traditional animation. Apparently no one learned from the dreadful failure of 2000’s Titan AE, probably the most aggressive attempt to land the teen boy fish. Disney did somewhat better with 2001’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire, but its gross of $84 million made it another Disney disappointment.

With Treasure Planet Disney went after the action crowd again, but as I noted already, the results seemed ugly. Why did Planet tank so badly? I don’t know, for I thought it offered a fun and lively adaptation that I genuinely enjoyed.

A reworking of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, Planet takes place in an unspecified future and starts on the planet Montressor. We meet three-year-old Jim Hawkins (voiced by Austin Majors), a cute little kid who feels fascinated with the legend of a Treasure Planet; this involves a place totally filled with loot. After this brief prologue, the movie leaps forward to show us the 15-year-old Jim (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a risk-taking rebel who gets arrested due to some solar-surfing in a restricted area. This doesn’t provide Jim’s first encounter with the law, and his mother Sarah (Laurie Metcalf) pleads with the sullen teen to take the right path. She commiserates with one of her restaurant’s customers, astrophysicist Dr. Delbert Doppler (David Hyde Pierce), but she seems to be at the end of her rope.

Into this less than tranquil situation comes a crashed spaceship with an injured pilot named Billy Bones (Patrick MacGoohan). He claims that someone’s chasing him for his treasure, and before he passes, he warns Jim that a cyborg will come to get his chest. Some baddies immediately arrive, so Jim, Sarah and Delbert attempt to flee. Sarah’s Benbow Inn burns down in the process, and all that remains of Bones’ loot is an unusual glowing metallic orb.

As he plays with it, Jim finds a way to open it, and the sphere reveals a three-dimensional map. This seems to reveal the location of Treasure Planet. Of course, Jim wants to pursue the booty, but his mother resists. Surprisingly, the cautious Delbert supports the concept, and when Jim offers a heartfelt promise to go straight via this quest, she agrees to let the pair seek the bounty.

From there Delbert hires a crew to sail toward the legendary world. On the RMS Legacy, we meet Captain Amelia (Emma Thompson) along with first officer Mr. Arrow (Roscoe Lee Browne) and a crew of potential ne’er-do-wells organized by Delbert. The latter group include the ship’s cook, a cyborg named Long John Silver (Brian Murray) and his shape-shifting pet Morph (Dane A. Davis). After Bones’ warnings, Jim becomes suspicious of Silver and worries that he may be the cyborg the deceased alien feared. The pair get to know each other when the captain assigns Jim the job of cabin boy under Silver’s command.

The rest of Planet follows the quest to find the fabled land. We find out if Jim’s suspicions prove correct and learn of the truth behind Treasure Planet itself. Along the way, the gang meet a nutty robot named B.E.N. (Martin Short) as well, and they go through lots of adventure.

Whereas Atlantis mostly attempted to provide an action flick, Planet seems more like a hybrid. It incorporates a lot more comedy than I expected and it comes across as quite a lot of fun. I’ve read some comments from folks who felt B.E.N. was obnoxious and grating, but I fully disagree. I think Short’s presence helps bring the film’s second half to life and makes those elements quite lively and amusing. He provides a vivid performance that doesn’t seem showy; instead, Short creates a funny personality who shines when he appears.

Planet features good vocal performances from the majority of the remaining talent as well. Both Thompson and Pierce make the most of their underwritten characters, and Murray helps allow Silver to become much more three-dimensional than I expected. Actually, Silver provides one of the richest villains in recent Disney memory. He deftly skates between badness and more warm tendencies to keep us constantly off-guard, and Murray makes the personality quite vivid.

The only moderate weak link comes from Gordon-Levitt’s turn as Jim. He pours on the sullen loner elements but doesn’t bring much life to the performance. Gordon-Levitt doesn’t seem bad in the part, but he makes Jim appear more one-note than I’d like.

Jim creates a small hole at the film’s center, as the character also receives some of the flick’s worst dialogue and never comes across as terribly compelling. Still, there’s so much happening in Planet that I can excuse a less than stellar lead personality. At 95 minutes, Planet runs a little long for an animated film, but it moves at a good pace and keeps the viewer’s attention well.

The animation seems solid, though Planet involves a gimmick that could have been a dud. They created Silver via both traditional animation and some computer-generated elements; mostly he appears via cel work with a few CG bits grafted on to him. This proceeds surprisingly smoothly. A lot of time CG material in a cel film seems obvious and distracting, but the integration of Silver works well enough that it doesn’t stand out in a negative way.

Treasure Planet doesn’t quite measure up with the absolute best Disney flicks, but it provides a nice combination of comedy and action. The movie reworks a classic story well and comes across as a consistently fun and delightful experience. Planet may be stuck with a negative reputation due to its box office failure, but the film doesn’t deserve that status, as it mostly gives us some charming and entertaining family fare.

The DVD Grades: Picture A / Audio A- / Bonus B+
Treasure Planet appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.66:1 on this single-sided, dual-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. A “digital-to-digital” transfer, Planet presented a consistently excellent picture.

Sharpness looked immaculate. The movie always remained crisp and detailed. At no point did I discern any signs of softness or fuzziness during this distinct image. Jagged edges and moiré effects created no concerns, and I also witnessed no signs of edge enhancement. Given that the movie as transferred never saw a frame of film, it presented absolutely no source defects, and I thought that artifacts also caused no problems.

Planet featured a vibrant and rich palette, and the DVD demonstrated excellent color reproduction. It mixed a nice variety of hues. For example, the supernova sequence featured some brilliant orange lighting, and the reds seen during a segment on the Legacy late in the flick also looked vivid and dramatic. Overall the colors were excellent. Black levels seemed similarly distinct and rich, while low-light shots came across as appropriately dense but lacked any issues related to excessive opacity. The supernova segment demonstrated highlights in that department as well; the shadow detail in those shots looked smooth and tight. Disney don’t often botch transfers of modern flicks, and Treasure Planet presented another visual winner.

Treasure Planet’s Dolby Digital 5.1 audio didn’t seem quite as impressive, but it also worked well. Although the soundfield moderately emphasized the front domain, it presented a nicely balanced and engaging effort. Some smooth directional dialogue popped up at times, and the score demonstrated clear stereo imaging. Effects appeared in their appropriate places and moved cleanly across the spectrum. The surrounds added solid reinforcement of these elements throughout the film, and they kicked into gear well during louder sequences. The movie’s many action sequences provided some nice discrete audio, with elements that seemed accurately located and dynamic.

Audio quality was similarly positive. Speech seemed natural and distinct, and the lines showed no problems related to edginess or intelligibility. Music was lush and vivid, as the score appeared bright and dynamic throughout the film. Effects came across as accurate and clean. They demonstrated no signs of distortion, and they presented fine bass response as necessary. Low-end was warm and tight overall, and those elements lacked any signs of looseness. Ultimately, the audio of Treasure Planet lacked the ambition to earn a really high grade, but it came in with a solid “A-“.

While not equivalent to Disney’s superb two-DVD special editions, Treasure Planet nonetheless tosses in a pretty good package of extras that seems better than what I anticipated. We open with an unusual feature called a Visual Commentary. This combines a traditional audio commentary with some automatic branching features that include additional material. For the chat-only portions, we hear from directors Ron Clements and John Musker, producer Roy Conli, animators Glen Keane and John Ripa, and assistant art director Ian Gooding. A deftly edited piece, it sounded like the track came from two separate sessions; I got the impression one included the directors and the producer and the other recording involved the animation talent.

Whatever the case may be, the track provided a lot of great information and it neatly melded technical and creative elements. In the former category, we learn about the film’s combination of cel and computer animation, the use of color, and other filmmaking challenges that arose. Amusingly, the participants noted that the most difficult to draw characters were the first to die. For the creative side, we heard about the tale’s long gestation, casting and character development, story issues, elements that got dropped along the way, comparisons with the original story, and other pieces. I usually enjoy the commentaries that accompany Disney animated flicks, and the solid and informative track for Treasure Planet was no exception; it worked well and gave us a great deal of nice notes.

As for the visual components, here’s how those functioned. After a 50-second introduction from Clements, Musker and Conli, you’ll find that the DVD “branches” off 20 times during the film. When that occurs, we find clips that last between 38 seconds (a feature about Silver’s CG arm) and four minutes, 14 seconds (a music video); all told, the visual elements last a total of about 38 minutes.

The branching videos cover a variety of topics. We find discarded concepts, deleted scenes, character development, discussions of technical elements like lighting and the 2D/3D integration, other design concerns, and much more. The different pieces offer lots of useful notes and give us a nice look behind the scenes.

However, I must admit I’m not wild about the DVD’s implementation of the program, mostly because of the way it affects the audio commentary. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to listen to that track without the branching activated. I tried to flip audio channels to no avail. This meant that the commentary constantly got interrupted with video pieces, and that made it more disjointed than I’d like.

As for the video snippets, those are much easier to access. You don’t have to watch the whole movie to get to them. Just flip ahead to the various chapters and they’ll appear that way.

In addition, all of the visual commentary components except its introduction show up in other areas on Planet. I’ll denote pieces that don’t pop up in the visual commentary with an asterisk. When we head into the Behind the Scenes domain, we discover a myriad of elements. Story includes two bits. We get the trailer for the 1950 version of Treasure Island plus a \*“Story Art Gallery”. This offers 26 drawings intended to help with the visual design of the film.

Art Design breaks into three smaller areas. “The Brandywine School” gives us a two minute, 25-second clip about the storybook look of Planet. We hear from chairman of Walt Disney Feature Animation Roy E. Disney, artistic supervisor backgrounds Dan Cooper, art director Andy Gaskill and associate art director Ian Gooding. “The 70/30 Law” lasts 98 seconds and provides remarks from Gooding and Gaskill. They relate the movie’s design philosophy of 70% traditional, 30% sci-fi for the flick’s look.

“Art Design” concludes with three \*“Still Art Galleries”. These look at “Visual Development” (127 drawings), “Paintings” (92 stills), and “Moments” (47 frames). The last one seems a little odd since it looks like nothing more than a collection of cels from the final product, but the first two feature some really gorgeous art.

The next section covers The Characters and it divides into a whopping 16 subdomains. 13 of these present \*concept art for specific characters: Jim (11 frames), John Silver (19), Dr. Delbert Doppler (10), Captain Amelia (22), Mr. Arrow (7), Scroop (16), Sarah Hawkins (5), Billy Bones (6), B.E.N. (10), Hands (4), Flint (3), Morph (16), and Blind Pew (4). More general sections cover Pirates (59) and Spaceport Crescentia (89).

A repeat from the visual commentary, a three-minute and 12-second clip examines “Maquettes”. This features remarks from character sculptor Kent Melton, CG animator Eric Daniels and John Silver supervising animator Glen Keane. In addition, the John Silver and B.E.N. sections include some extra material. For Silver, we get “The Hook Test”, a featurette that shows footage created to test the integration of Silver’s CG arm. In this 62 second clip, we watch one scene from Peter Pan mutated to give Captain Hook a robotic arm. Glen Keane introduces this piece.

The “Silver” section also features a “Silver Arm Test”, a 38-second piece with Eric Daniels in which we get details about the pirate’s artificial appendage. The “B.E.N.” domain adds “3D Character/2D World”, another repeat from the visual commentary. Clements, Musker, and Conli comment on the character’s visual development in this 65-second clip.

Now we go to the Animation domain, where we again split into smaller areas. After a repeat of “The Hook Test” we move to “Animation: Delbert Doppler”. The 70-second piece includes information from Doppler supervising animator Sergio Pablos as he chats about how they came up with the visual look for the personality. “Silver Progression Animation” runs two minutes, 28 seconds and starts with information from Glen Keane. We then watch a scene involving Silver go from rough status to final product.

“Pencil Animation” divides into two sections. Despite the odd name, “Amelia’s Cabin” actually involves the visual development for that character. We hear from Capt. Amelia supervising animator Ken Duncan and see a examples of different concepts and rough animation in this two-minute and 10-second piece.

The “Rough Animation to Final Film Comparison” offers a look at the scene in which Jim meets B.E.N. The snippet runs 100 seconds and begins with an intro from Jim Hawkins supervising animator John Ripa. It runs the rough material on the top of the splitscreen with the finished footage at the bottom.

Deleted Scenes gives us three cut sequences. “Original Prologue: Adult Jim” lasts three minutes and begins with comments from Musker and Clements. The other two also include similar directorial introductions. “Alternate Ending: Rebuilding the Benbow” runs 69 seconds, while “Jim Meets Ethan” goes for one minute, 58 seconds. None of these seem terrific, but they’re fun to see. (Note that the three deleted scenes also occupy their own separate area on the DVD, but nothing different appears there.)

Dimensional Staging breaks into four sections. \*”Color Keys” gives us 36 stills with art to help establish appropriate lighting in various scenes. “Layout Demonstrations” lasts 84 seconds and provides comments from artistic coordinator Neil Eskuri and artistic supervisor CGI Kyle Odermatt as it looks at the film’s sets.

Eskuri and Odermatt also appear in “Treasure Planet Found”, a two-minute and nine-second examination of the design of the world’s core. Lastly, “Lighting” brings back the pair for this 73-second look at how lighting affects different elements.

In Merging 2D and 3D Worlds, three subdomains appear. “Pose Camera” covers the integration of these pieces and provides information from Eskuri. “Effects Animation” combines Eskuri and Odermatt again for a 79-second discussion of that topic.

Finally, the “RLS Legacy Virtual 3D Tour and Treasure Hunt” breaks into another three subsections. \*“Technical Tour” includes remarks from Eskuri as he guides us through a CG representation of the boat. It runs 11 minutes and 10 seconds and offers a nicely executed and well thought out piece.

The \*”Nautical Tour” provides a similar feature with production designer Steven Olds. It lasts nine and a half minutes as Olds gives us a different perspective from the one by Eskuri. Finally, the \*”Treasure Hunt” features narration from Roscoe Lee Browne as Mr. Arrow, who gives us another tour of the boat from an alternate viewpoint. It’s more interactive and lets you click on items to get information, and it includes a modest game as well. All of these seem pretty fun and informative.

The only component of the Music domain is the same music video seen in the visual commentary. We get this clip for John Rzeznik’s “I’m Still Here (Jim’s Theme)”. Release features some ads. We get two \*trailers: theatrical and teaser. \*”Posters” includes two sheets shown in the same frame.

That finally finishes “Behind the Scenes”. The Intergalactic Space Adventures area repeats two of its extras: this domain provides the same music video and “RLS Legacy Virtual 3D Tour and Treasure Hunt” we’ve already seen.

It adds two new components. DisneyPedia: The Life of a Pirate Revealed. This narrated program shows lots of clips from the movie as well as a few images of appropriate things like paintings and shots from other pirate flicks. It goes through six topics: “Pirate Definitions”, “Pirate Flags”, “Real Pirates”, “Code of Conduct”, “Pirate Ships”, and “Treasures: Lost and Found”. Each of these offers a brief, kid-oriented look at their subjects. These bits offer a decent little introduction to their various subjects; they’re very short – the entire program runs a little more than 12 minutes - so they lack depth, but they could give kids the basis to become more interested in the areas.

Hosted by Roy E. Disney, Disney’s Animation Magic offers a 14-minute and 25-second featurette that offers a quick look behind the scenes. Unfortunately, other than Disney’s introductions, we find almost nothing new here. The program simply rehashes four of the same clips we saw in both the visual commentary and the “Behind the Scenes” domain: the modification of the Captain Hook shots, creation of maquettes, the Silver animation progression reel, and the “Jim Meets Ethan” deleted scene. If you’ve already watched these, there’s no reason to bother with “Magic”.

As the DVD starts, we encounter a mix of ads. We find trailers for Finding Nemo, Brother Bear, Atlantis II: Milo’s Return, Stitch, Bionicle The Movie, and The Lion King. In addition, you’ll see these clips in the DVD’s Sneak Peeks domain along with promos for Castle In the Sky and George of the Jungle 2.

We also get the THX Optimizer. This purports to help you set up your home theater to best present the movie on the disc in question. Apparently the Optimizer is unique for each DVD on which it’s included; unlike programs such as Video Essentials, the Optimizer should tweak your set-up differently every time. Frankly, I’ve been very happy with my already-established calibration and I’m afraid to muck with it, so I’ve never tried the Optimizer. If you lack calibration from Video Essentials or a similar program, or if you’re just more adventurous than I, the Optimizer could be a helpful addition.

While not on a par with the greatest Disney animated flicks, I felt Treasure Planet seemed a lot more entertaining than its poor box office reception might lead you to believe. It provided a lively and amusing movie that moved at a good pace and was generally well executed. The DVD presented excellent picture and sound as well as a surprisingly deep set of extras. The supplements repeated too many materials throughout the package – examine everything and you’ll see the same stuff many times – but there’s a lot of good things here, and the disc’s pieces occupied me for quite a while. I thoroughly enjoyed Treasure Planet and I highly recommend this solid DVD.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.3478 Stars Number of Votes: 69

View Averages for all rated titles.

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson

Title: Osmosis Jones (2001)
Studio Line: Warner Bros. - He's One Cell Of A Guy!
He's a new strain of hero. He's one cell of a guy. He's Osmosis Jones! This infectiously funny live-action/animated caper kicks off in the "real" world as Frank (Bill Murray) ingests a villainous virus named Thrax (Laurence Fishburne). Now, deep inside the spectacular, animated inner realm of the City of Frank, it's up to a maverick white blood cell cop named Osmosis Jones (Chris Rock) and his reluctant sidekick Drix (David Hyde Pierce) to thwart Thrax's epidemic of evil!

Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Cast: Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, David Hyde Pierce, Brandy Norwood, William Shatner, Ron Howard, Bill Murray, Molly Shannon, Chris Elliott
DVD: Widescreen 2.35:1/16X9; Audio English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Surround; Subtitles English, French; closed-captioned; single-sided, dual-layered; 12 chapters; rated PG; 95 minutes; $24.98; 11/13/01.
Supplements: Audio Commentary by Animation Directors Tom Sito and Piet Kroon, Producer Zak Penn, and Writer Marc Hyman; HBO First Look Special; Behind-the-Scenes Featurette; Deleted Scenes; Trailer; CD Sampler.
Purchase: DVD | Music soundtrack - Various Artists
Picture/Sound/Extras: A-/A-/B
Three years ago, the Farrelly brothers - Peter and Bobby - were on top of the world. With There’s Something About Mary they created a new trend in gross-out humor they’d already explored in 1994’s Dumb and Dumber and 1996’s Kingpin. However, after multiple imitators like Saving Silverman and Joe Dirt crowded the multiplexes - and flopped - the seemed to be dead.

2001 hasn’t been particularly kind to the Farrellys. Early in the year they produced another flick in this genre, but Say It Isn’t So totally tanked at the box office and with critics. The Farrellys put out two of their own directorial efforts as well. As I write this, Shallow Hal has found a modest audience, but it hasn’t exactly produced Mary-esque results; after three weekends of release, the film had earned a good but unspectacular $55 million.

At least that distinctly topped the results of their other 2001 flick, Osmosis Jones. The combination of live-action and animation failed to excite audiences, and the summer release grossed an extremely anemic $13 million. Geez - I think the Harry Potter movie made that much in it first 15 minutes of release!

Despite their names on the marquee, Osmosis actually doesn’t seem to be the Farrellys’ baby. As I’ll discuss further when I get to my plot synopsis, the film features both live-action and animated sequences, though the latter dominates the flick. During the DVD’s supplements, we hear some vague discussion about the origins of the Farrellys’ involvement, but the story never becomes clear. My impression is that the project was already well under way when they stepped in for the live-action sequences. I got no sense whatsoever that they did anything on the film other than the “real world” bits; it seems that the animated scenes were totally under the purview of that particular team.

Do the separate sequences fit together well? Yeah, sort of; the filmmakers were able to blend the different elements fairly cleanly from a technical point of view, though some computer animated human pieces looked a bit silly. However, the disparate nature of the two sets of directors led to a difference in quality, as the animated parts were decidedly more engaging than the human ones.

In Osmosis, we meet Frank (Bill Murray), a single Dad slob whose life went downhill when his wife died and he lost a good job. Now he performs grunt work at a local zoo while he tries his best to raise daughter Shane (Elena Franklin). Actually, that should probably be the other way around, as Shane seems to exert a lot more effort toward getting Frank into shape than he does with any parenting; his heart’s in the right place, but he lacks the will power to do much of anything.

Frank’s poor physical conditioning leads us to meet the stars behind the show, all of the various elements within his body. They represent citizens of the world of Frank, as led by Mayor Phlegmming (William Shatner). There’s a whole world at work inside Frank’s body, and it takes a lot of work to keep them operating. There’s even a police force, of which white blood cell Osmosis Jones (voiced by Chris Rock), is part.

However, Osmosis is a bit of a renegade, and that doesn’t always sit well with his bosses. After he causes a mishap during one routine maneuver, he gets stuck with a minor detail to accompany a new cold capsule named Drix (David Hyde Pierce) on his mission. While he does so, Osmosis sees something mysterious and scary, as a deadly new virus named Thrax (Laurence Fishburne) appears on the scene. Unfortunately, Drix ices the only bacterial witness to the newcomer, so Osmosis has to work harder to find the interloper as well as convince others that there’s a real danger afoot.

Basically the film follows dual plots they interconnect at times. Osmosis tracks the new virus and tries to eradicate it, while Frank attempts to maintain positive relations with his daughter. She wants to go on a school-related nature trip, but he’d rather head to upstate New York for a Buffalo wing festival. Eventually, his health becomes more of a factor, and that’s where the two sides more closely intertwine.

Nonetheless, Osmosis often really did come across as two different films. Again referring to the supplements, I got the impression that the Farrellys took a fair amount of liberties with their material and left it up to the animated side to make it all fit. Actually, I’m sure they weren’t quite so cold and cavalier about their end, but it still sounded as though they made many changes that necessitated lots of reworkings from the animated end.

That would be fine if the material merited it, but unfortunately, the live-action side of the coin was fairly dull. Despite the presence of Murray, Molly Shannon as Shane’s teacher Mrs. Boyd, and Chris Elliott as his friend and co-worker Bob, the “real-world” scenes rarely rose above the level of “mildly watchable”. Murray seemed bored and uninvolved in the proceedings, possibly because the material with which he had to work was fairly weak. We found some of the usual Farrelly gratuitous gross-out gags but little else to make the experience engaging, and the live-action scenes usually felt like filler.

Happily, the animated shots were enjoyable enough to make Osmosis more interesting. I won’t go so far as to say they save the day, but at least they allowed the movie to become reasonably compelling. A lot of cleverness was afoot in these segments, as they seemed consistently creative and inventive. I don’t know how funny all of it was; the comedy appeared mildly amusing but didn’t exactly have me rolling in the aisles. Still, the material was interesting and fun enough to keep me with the film.

Some solid voice acting also helped. On the slightly negative side, Rock seemed a little flat as the title character. To be sure, he wasn’t bad in the role, but he didn’t really imbue Osmosis with much personality. Still, he offered a likable presence, and I had no strong complaints about his work.

Much better, however, were the other two main voice actors. Fishburne provided a wonderfully cool and evil presence as Thrax; this was one virus we really took seriously, as the performer made the germ wicked and charismatic. Pierce didn’t stray far from his usual mild-mannered personality, but that tone worked surprisingly well for the enormous and powerful Drix. The discrepancy between the capsule’s physical presence and his tame voice may sound lame, but it seemed fun, especially because Pierce didn’t play it up in any obvious ways. He made the part seem natural and gave the lines a great deal of life and personality. Pierce was easily the best thing about the movie.

All in all, Osmosis Jones was a decent piece of work, but not one that stood out to me. Part of the problem stemmed from the dull and bland live-action sequences, none of which seemed very interesting or entertaining. The animated parts appeared considerably more engaging, however, and they allowed the film to become reasonably enjoyable. I’m not wild about Osmosis, but I found it to offer a fairly fun experience at times.

The DVD:

Osmosis Jones appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this single-sided, dual-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Warner Bros. continued their string of solid DVDs with Osmosis, as it offered yet another terrific picture.

Sharpness consistently looked crisp and concise. At no time did I discern any concerns related to softness. The movie always came across as detailed and accurate and it seemed nicely distinct. A few concerns with jagged edges and moiré effects appeared at times, however; those were really the only issues I had with the transfer. Print flaws seemed to be totally absent, as I detected no signs of grit, speckles, nicks, grain, marks or other defects; this was a clean and fresh image.

Throughout the live-action sequences, colors appeared solid, but the hues really came to life during the animated scenes. The live-action world stuck mostly with an accurate and clear naturalistic palette, while the animated shots allowed for much more vivid and vibrant tones. The colors always appeared clear and bold, and they showed no signs of bleeding, noise, or other concerns; they were a consistent treat to watch. Black levels also came across as deep and rich, and shadow detail appeared appropriately opaque but not excessively dark. Overall, this was a fine image that seemed consistently satisfying.

Also excellent was the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Osmosis Jones. As with the picture, the audio during the live-action sequences went with a more naturalistic tone, whereas the animated scene benefited from greater artistic freedom. (Actually, who’s to say those bits weren’t natural as well? I don’t know what it’d sound like inside someone’s body, though I’m well acquainted with my own exterior bodily noises.) The portions of the film from the microbial point of view provided a very active and engaging soundfield. The entire movie showed good presence and stereo separation for the music, but the effects became more involving during the animated shots. All sorts of bodily blurps and blops popped up from the sides and the rears, and elements moved from place to place neatly. The presentation provided a “you are there” atmosphere to a solid degree, though it kept from becoming excessively disgusting; honestly, I don’t really want to know what it’d sound like inside some dude’s body, so this brisk and vibrant mix will happily remain my only experience.

Audio quality appeared strong. Dialogue consistently sounded warm and natural, with no signs of edginess or problems related to intelligibility. Music came across as bright and clear, as the score provided good fidelity and nice dynamics, including nice low-end reproduction. The effects were still the best elements of the track, though, as they appeared believable and clean, with strong clarity and no sign of distortion. Bass response seemed excellent throughout the movie, as those tones appeared deep and tight. In the end, Osmosis Jones offered a very positive piece of audio.

The DVD release of Osmosis Jones packs some decent supplements, and we start with an audio commentary from writer Mark Hyman, producer Zak Penn, and animation directors Piet Kroon and Tom Sito. All four were recorded together for this running, screen-specific track. Although it ran into some problems along the way, overall I thought the commentary was a fairly informative and entertaining affair.

On the negative side, a few too many blank spaces occurred during the track. Osmosis is a short flick, and one would think that four participants should have been able to fill all the spots. In addition, a bit too much of the piece told us how good the work was; it never collapsed into a serious case of happy talk syndrome, but the self-congratulation got a little heavy at times.

Nonetheless, I did learn a nice range of information about the film. Some technical details received attention, but much of the good parts addressed changes that took place over the years. Compared to the original plan, it sounds like Osmosis was very different as released, and the participants covered some of these alterations. However, it would have been good to find out more about the Farrellys’ involvement; apparently they entered the project late in the game and made substantial changes.

I liked the light and jokey tone heard. Penn especially provided a funny and glib presence that made even the less compelling parts of the track more entertaining. Overall, the commentary was generally good, but not a classic.

Next up is an HBO First Look Special about the movie. Hosted by actress Brandy Norwood, the documentary runs for 14 minutes and five seconds. Like virtually every other entry in that series, this one combines lots of film clips as well as a few shots from the set and interviews with participants. In the latter category, we hear from directors Peter and Bobby Farrelly, actors Bill Murray, Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, David Hyde Pierce, Norwood, William Shatner and Molly Shannon as well as animation directors Sito and Kroon, art director Steve Pilcher, animators Ricardo Curtis, Richard Bazely, Wendy Perdue and Dean Wallins, and writer Marc Hyman.

Despite the length of that roster, in reality the show offers little more than a very general overview of the process. We learn a lot of basics about the movie’s characters and stories and also get a smidgen of good information about the production, but this piece clearly exists to tout the flick. As such, expect lots of vagueness and not much rich information.

One oddity about the HBO special: during the end credits, we see parts of the “Kidney Rock” performance from the movie. However, no audio accompanies this! Very strange.

The next program follows along the same lines. A Behind the Scenes piece, this five-minute and five-second clip concentrates a little more on the voice talent. We see some of the same kinds of elements as in the HBO special and hear from Norwood, Pierce, Shatner, Fishburne, Rock, Shannon, Sito, Kroon, Bazely, producer Zak Penn, and CGI animator Adam Dotson. A few new bits of information appear, but this snippet doesn’t give us much addition detail. It’s watchable and moderately interesting but not very detailed and useful.

More compelling are the DVD’s Deleted Scenes. We find three of them, and they last five minutes and 50 seconds in all. They focus primarily on animated sequences and usually extend existing bits. Most of the artwork is finished, though some pencil work remains. In any case, I liked the three clips and thought they were interesting additions to the package.

In addition to the film’s trailer, “Choose a Foul Scene” from the Main Menu offers an unusual way to access certain sections of the movie. There we find a photo of Murray with lines pointing to nine parts of his anatomy. Pick any of these and you’ll get some cutesy notes about the area plus the option to jump to a scene that relates to the body part. It’s nothing too exciting, but it’s a fun way to focus on scenes.

I don’t know if all future pressings will include it, but my copy of Osmosis tossed in a Bonus CD Sampler. This disc features full-length songs from Sugar Ray (“Disasterpiece”), P.O.D. (“Satellite”), and Willa Ford (“Ooh Ooh”) as well as snippets of tunes from Craig David, Ray J, Little T and One Track Mike, Nappy Roots, and Invertigo. It beats a kick in the head, I suppose.

For DVD-ROM users, Osmosis adds some links. We find connections to the Warner Bros. “Special Events” page as well as WB Online. In addition, we can head to the movie’s original website, learn about the studio’s latest releases, and sign up for “Movie Mail”, a feature that will contact you with new WB information.

At best, Osmosis Jones offers some good animated action and comedy. However, generally weak live-action sequences undermine it and make the end product less than stellar. Still, it has enough going for it to be generally enjoyable. The DVD provides very solid picture and sound plus a reasonably decent roster of extras. In the end, the movie is too inconsistent to merit a strong recommendation, but fans of somewhat irreverent and satirical animation might want to give it a look.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.25 Stars Number of Votes: 68

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20TH CENTURY FOX

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Chris Wedge
Cast:
Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary
Screenplay:
Peter Ackerman, Michael Berg, Michael Wilson
Tagling:
They came. They thawed. They conquered.
Box Office:
Budget $60 million.
Opening weekend $46.312 million on 3316 screens.
Domestic gross $176.387 million.
MPAA:
Rated PG for mild peril.

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
2-Disc set
Widescreen 1.85:1/16x9
Standard 1.33:1
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Surround
French Dolby Surround
Subtitles:
English, Spanish
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 81 min.
Price: $29.98
Release Date: 11/26/2002

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Director Chris Wedge and Co-Director Carlos Saldanha
• Three All-New Interactive Games
• “Scrat’s Missing Adventure”
• Deleted Scenes
• “The Making of Ice Age”
• Theatrical Trailers
• DVD-ROM Features
• “Behind the Scenes of Ice Age” HBO First Look Special

PURCHASE
• DVD
Search Products:

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

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Ice Age (2002)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson
With the success of Fox’s Ice Age, we get the answer to one question: can anyone other than Disney or DreamWorks create a hit animated film based on an original property? Sure, flicks like Warner Bros.’ Pokemon: The First Movie and Paramount’s The Rugrats Movie made some decent change, but they came from already established series. Disney and DreamWorks produced original successes over the years, but no one else seemed able to crack that collective monopoly.

Fox sure tried hard in the years prior to 2002, but they never succeeded. Many of their flicks went by largely unnoticed, and they also scored some notable bombs. 2000’s Titan AE decimated their animation department because it registered as a terribly expensive flop; with a budget of $75 million, it raked in a poor $22 million.

Actually, after Titan, I thought Fox wouldn’t attempt any future animation projects, so the release of Ice Age surprised me. However, computer animation has become the great equalizer in the field. While traditional cel animated films largely fail to reach much of an audience, CG flicks tend to do pretty well. Shrek and Monsters, Inc. cleaned up at the box office – both earned over $250 million - whereas Atlantis: The Lost Empire earned a pretty mediocre $84 million. In 2002, DreamWorks’ cel-animated managed a fairly blah gross of $73 million. Lilo & Stitch marked a modest rebound for cel animation as it took in a decent $143 million, but the future of the format remains in doubt.

That concern becomes especially pronounced since computer animation does so well. The success of Ice Age likely will accelerate the push toward computer animation and make studios less willing to invest in cel projects. While I enjoy computer animation, I’d hate to see cel films fade.

In regard to Ice Age itself, I must admit its success surprised me for reasons not limited to the studio from which it emanated. Admittedly, I don’t expect anybody other than Disney or DreamWorks to score animated hits, so logically, I figured Ice Age would tank just because Fox produced it.

However, that wasn’t the only reason I thought it wouldn’t make much money. I saw the flick during its opening weekend and felt genuinely underwhelmed with the product. While the movie seemed modestly entertaining, it lacked much spark and appeared fairly ordinary.

Would a second screening alter that opinion? Nope. Again, the film seemed generally watchable. However, I thought it failed to become anything much more compelling than that.

Ice Age opens with a sequence that has virtually nothing to do with its plot. We see Scrat the squirrel as he tries to bury an acorn. After this comic beginning, we meet our main characters. Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) gets left behind at the start of the yearly migration. As he rushes to catch up with the gang, he runs afoul of some rhinos, and he gets Manny the mammoth (Ray Romano) to rescue him. A definite loner, Manny doesn’t want to go south with the others, and he doesn’t want anything to do with Sid either. However, the chatty Sid won’t take no for an answer, and he clings to Manny.

In the meantime, we meet a clan of saber-toothed tigers led by Soto (Goran Visnjic). Logically cheesed after a group of humans slaughtered their kind, they plan their revenge; Soto wants to eat a baby. They attempt their attack, but the mother escapes with her infant son. She doesn’t survive, but Manny and Sid find the child. Manny wants nothing to do with the boy, but Sid insists that they return him to the other humans.

Into this situation comes Soto’s right-paw tiger Diego (Denis Leary). Soto sends Diego to obtain the baby. When the pack discovers that a mammoth became involved, this sets their stomachs to growling. They hatch a plot in which Diego will lead the group to a trap. There the tigers will slaughter the baby and the mammoth and enjoy some good eating.

Diego meets up with Sid and Manny. He feigns interest in the baby’s welfare and declares that he can help them quickly return the child. From there, the remainder of the movie follows their journey to find the human tribe and bring back the boy. Many inevitable plot twists ensue.

Does it count as a spoiler if I indicate that all three animals become attached to the baby? Maybe, but that development seems so inevitable that I can’t regard it as something that would catch anyone by surprise. Really, little about the story of Ice Age offers anything terribly original. Yeah, you don’t see too many movies with packs of prehistoric animals who try to save human babies, but once we strip the story of that novelty, it falls into more predictable traps.

Not that I regard this as a bad thing necessarily. Movies don’t need to be wholly original to be good, so Ice Age still had a lot of potential. Many parts of it succeed quite well. The film mixes humor with emotionality in a nice way. For example, when we learn more about Manny’s past, the flick executes the material in a touching and memorable way. The picture’s climax also includes an impressively moving element.

However, much of the flick simply seems ordinary. The animation falls short of the levels set by Pixar or even DreamWorks with Shrek. The animals manage acceptable levels of depth and movement, but they don’t go beyond that. The humans all look like they came straight from videogame cut-scenes; I felt astounded by the crudeness of their depiction. Ice Age offers a decently attractive and well-executed piece of animation, but it doesn’t seem terribly strong in that regard.

The voice acting also appears competent but unspectacular. Actually, that fact surprises me. All three of the lead actors are quite talented, and I’d expect them to shine in this setting. However, they come across as somewhat bland and unmemorable. Leary appears especially neutered as Diego. He provided such a great turn as the surly ladybug in A Bug’s Life, but here he feels flat and bland. Even Diego’s funniest scene – in which he plays a scary game of peek-a-boo with the baby – works mostly due to the visuals; Leary fails to contribute much to the role.

Ultimately, Ice Age gives us a moderately entertaining piece of animation, but it doesn’t really impress me. After two screenings, my opinion remains the same. It offers some gentle humor and a modicum of effective emotion, but it lacks the panache or inventiveness of better animated movies. Actually, when compared with the majority of animated films, it seems pretty good. However, the majority of animated films stink, so that doesn’t say much. In the end, Ice Age provides a moderately enjoyable flick and nothing more.

The DVD Grades: Picture A / Audio A / Bonus A-
Ice Age appears in both an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 and in a fullscreen version on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the widescreen image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Only the letterboxed picture was reviewed for this article. While not quite on a par with the amazing quality seen on DVDs for Pixar flicks, Ice Age presented a generally excellent image.

Sharpness appeared terrific. At all times, the material remained distinct and accurate. I noticed no signs of softness during this detailed and crisp presentation. Jagged edges and moiré effects created no concerns, and I also detected no examples of edge enhancement. As for print flaws, I saw none. I don’t know if this picture came from a film print or from a digital transfer, but it seemed immaculate, with no instances of any kind of defects.

Ice Age featured an earthy, natural palette, and the colors consistently looked fine. The various hues came across as warm and vibrant, and they showed no problems related to noise, bleeding, or other concerns. Black levels seemed deep and dense, but I thought shadow detail looked a little heavy at times. For example, the tiger attack on the human village appeared somewhat too thick. However, this might simply have been a question of personal taste and not an issue related to the transfer itself. In any case, Ice Age looked wonderful as a whole.

While I expected terrific visuals – after all, how many computer-animated blockbusters don’t look amazing on DVD? – I didn’t anticipate a soundtrack quite as excellent as the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix of Ice Age. This active track made marvelous use of all five channels. It placed elements appropriately and showed very positive localization and blending. For example, one scene featured a waterfall on the left side of the screen. The roaring water neatly occupied both the front left and rear left speakers, which made it nicely involving.

Different elements also moved cleanly from channel to channel. Whether side to side or front to rear, those pieces meshed together seamlessly. The whole package blended neatly and presented a lively and engaging soundfield that really helped embellish the film.

Audio quality also came across as solid. Speech seemed natural and warm, and I noticed no issues related to intelligibility or edginess. Music sounded reasonably vivid and dynamic. I felt the score needed a little more oomph at times, but it usually offered a rich representation of the material. Effects also packed a nice punch. At times, I questioned whether Manny’s footsteps seemed too gentle; they didn’t provide the loud bass response I expected. However, I felt this probably occurred as a design decision; since Manny played such a heavy role in the film, it’d become distracting to constantly hear those stomps. Otherwise, low-end material sounded deep and resonant. To my surprise, the audio of Ice Age lived up to the visuals, as the sound provided a very fine addition to the project.

Ice Age earned the deluxe special edition treatment on DVD, and the set starts with an audio commentary on disc one. It includes director Chris Wedge and co-director Carlos Saldanha, both of whom sat together for this running, screen-specific piece. Overall, this seemed like a good but unspectacular track. At the start, Wedge heavily dominated the piece, but Saldanha became much more involved as it progressed. Both provided some nice notes about topics such as why the film opened with Scrat, changes to the original script and other alterations made during the production, and different animation challenges. Unfortunately, quite a lot of the track consisted of simple praise for the film and its participants, and this watered down the proceedings noticeably. As a whole, the commentary gave us some good information about the production, but too much happy talk made it less compelling than it should have been.

Within the Games domain on DVD One, we find three different contests. “Hide and Eek” offers a very simplistic test in which you have to find Scrat’s lost acorn. It requires no skill and just makes you guess randomly. “Frozen Pairs” seems more challenging, as you must select a match for different movie characters; you choose from three images that nearly replicate a model. It’s not great, but it’s a little fun. “Playing Darwin” has you manipulate body segments of different film animals to match all three. When you finish a character, you get some basic information about that species. Though easy, this game seems like the best of the bunch since it actually offers a modest reward for accurate completion.

DVD-ROM users will find some additional Ice Age stuff. “Sid Shreds” offers an arcade snowboarding game. I never played any of the Tony Hawk videogames, but I imagine this one “borrows” from it. The content seemed pretty lame – when I got it to work, that is. It frequently crashed, and the game appeared lackluster even when it functioned properly. I saw some of the worst clipping problems I’ve ever witnessed; Sid usually looked buried in the snow!

Another game appears as well. “Super Dodo Ball” seems less ambitious than “Sid Shreds”, but at least it works. You try to collect melons and avoid/attack dodos. It doesn’t go much of anywhere, but after the clumsy and frustrating “Shreds”, it comes across as a little more entertaining.

“Printables” lets you create a number of Ice Age items with your printer. You can produce a mobile, a 2003 calendar, a boardgame, a paper doll, snowflake ornaments, a puppet playhouse, and an activity book with some puzzles. This seems like a rich and useful selection of materials for kids. I found myself rather impressed with the breadth of the “Printables”; usually those kinds of features offer little of use, but this area appears chock full of neat items.

Also on DVD One we found the THX Optimizer program. It purports to help you set up your home theater to best present the movie on the disc in question. Apparently the Optimizer is unique for each DVD on which it’s included; unlike programs such as Video Essentials, the Optimizer should tweak your set-up differently every time. Frankly, I’ve been very happy with my already-established calibration and I’m afraid to muck with it, so I’ve never tried the Optimizer. If you lack calibration from Video Essentials or a similar program, or if you’re just more adventurous than I, the Optimizer could be a helpful addition.

On DVD Two, we get lots of additional materials. Referred to as Scrat’s Missing Adventure, we find a new animated short called “Gone Nutty”. Scrat the squirrel again obsesses over acorns in this cute and inventive cartoon. Presented anamorphic 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1, “Nutty” lasts four minutes and 48 seconds.

More animation appears in a collection of six Deleted Scenes. Each of these runs between 48 seconds and 141 seconds for a total of eight minutes and 38 seconds of footage. Most offer fairly complete animation, though one - “Sabre Stake Out” – remains pretty rough. Sid features prominently in all but one of the clips, and we see a few alternate introductions to that character. Overall, these scenes seem interesting to see.

One can watch the deleted scenes with or without commentary from Wedge and Saldanha. They provide some general information about the segments and – more importantly – they tell us exactly why the snippets failed to make the final cut. The commentary offers some useful information and seems better focused than the material the men offered during the main film.

Sid on Sid lasts three minutes, 12 seconds and provides a clever spoof of the traditional audio commentary. We see Sid as he watches parts of the movie and gives us behind the scenes notes about them. Voiced by Leguizamo, the snippet is short enough that it doesn’t wear out its welcome, so this adds a fun touch to the set.

For something a little different, check out Scrat Reveals. This section offers three interstitials that I guess appeared on Fox TV. In each short clip, Scrat does something that causes the ice to reveal the Fox logo. It’s an odd little piece, but it’s sort of interesting.

To satisfy your more technical urges, take a look at the Animation Progression. This area includes three different scenes and lets you watch them from five angles each. You can look at “Opening”, “Tigers Attack”, and “Almost Home”. As for the various angles, those cover “Storyboards”, “3D Layout”, “Un-rendered Animation”, “Final Render”, and “Composite of all stages listed above”. I liked the latter angle the best, as it let me easily examine all three stages at the same time. This fun extra helped demonstrate the varying levels of animation and seemed compelling.

If you wonder what Sid sounds like in Swedish, move to International Ice Age. The two-minute and 52-second clip offers bits translated into French, Italian, German, Swedish, Polish, Greek, Cantonese, and Korean. Similar pieces on Disney DVDs tend to offer more options, and the absence of Spanish seems weird, but this bit is moderately amusing nonetheless. Too bad they failed to offer Manny in Mandarin and Diego in Danish!

Under the Ice breaks down into nine separate pieces. To further complicate matters, The Making of Ice Age then splits into seven smaller featurettes. Each of these lasts between 109 seconds and seven minutes, 16 seconds for a total of 26 minutes, 59 seconds of footage. One annoyance: the DVD’s producers failed to provide a “View All” option, so it can be awkward to navigate this area.

As for the content, it follows the standard procedure. We get a combination of movie snippets, behind the scenes materials, and interviews. In the latter category, we hear from director Chris Wedge, producer Lori Forte, actors Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, and Denis Leary, character designer Peter de Seve, modeling supervisor Mike Defeo, modeler Alexander Levenson, co-director Carlos Saldanha, editor John Carnochan, lead animators Mike Thurmeier and Jim Bresnahan, lead technical animator Mark Piretti, and lighting leads David Esneault, Mitch Kopelman and Jodi Whitsel. All together, these pieces go through most of the movie-making process, and they do so in a reasonably concise and informative manner. Fans won’t find any revelatory details, but it offers a good look at the specifics as they relate to Ice Age. I most enjoyed the longest piece, “Acting in Animation”, as it gave us a better-than-usual glimpse at the voice performers.

A more traditional promotional HBO “First Look” program, Behind the Scenes of Ice Age lasts 14 minutes and three seconds. Hosted by Ray Romano, it includes the usual complement of movie shots, behind the scenes images, and interviews. We hear from Romano himself as well as actors John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, and Cedric the Entertainer, director Chris Wedge, producer Lori Forte, co-director Carlos Saldanha, executive producer Christopher Meledandri. Animator Nina Bafaro, and lead animator Michael Thurmeier. The program doesn’t expand the boundaries of this sort of piece, but it moves by briskly and offers a reasonable amount of decent information. In addition, the bumpers from Romano provide some amusing bits.

The remaining seven pieces of “Under the Ice” each offer brief featurettes about different subjects. At three minutes and 38 seconds, Sid Voice Development is the longest of the seven, and probably the coolest. We watch pictures of John Leguizamo as well as some production images and other film images and initially hear him discuss his approach to the role. That part seems good, but it gets better when we listen to a few minutes of Leguizamo’s different takes on the voice. He runs through a slew of variations, and it’s terrific to hear this creative process.

Compositing lead Andrew Beddini takes us through a discussion of Using 2D in a 3D World. In this 69-second piece, we look at some movie shots and learn how the studio executed the cave painting sequence. Making a Character runs 67 seconds and offers comments from supervising modeler Mike DiFeo. He chats about how they translate clay maquettes of characters into the computer models.

In The Art of Rigging, we find 83 seconds of commentary from lead technical animator Mark Piretti as he covers how the animators work on the character movements. Animators Acting lasts 51 seconds and features co-director Saldanha. He goes over the challenges of bringing emotions to the animated screen.

Master lighting lead David Esneault chats about Lighting and Materials. In this 66-second clip, he quickly relates how the animators convey realistic appearances, especially about the lighting. Finally, in the Art of Effects, we get a 64-second piece in which technical director/effects Tim Speltz discusses those elements of the production. Overall, this six animation-related featurettes seem brief but fairly informative. One comprehensive program would have been more satisfying than these quick bits, however.

Another animated short called Bunny appears. This seven-minute and 19-second cartoon comes from 1998, and it earned an Oscar for Best Animated Short. An unusual and surprisingly touching computer-animated piece, “Bunny” merits a look.

One can watch “Bunny” with a couple of optional bits. We find a 112-second introduction from director Wedge, who sets up the piece with some interpretation of it. The short can also be viewed with commentary from Wedge. He contributes some good technical and background notes about the cartoon in this informative piece.

Trailers includes three ads for Ice Age. We find the teaser as well as two full theatrical trailers. We also get a promo for Like Mike.

In the Design Galleries domain, we find two sections. “Size Comparison/Behind Ice Age” lets us see how the film’s critters vary in height, and it also gives us some factual information about each species. “Create Your Own Gallery” offers a unique take on the traditional stillframe compendium. It includes 14 subsections of art. 12 detail the film’s creatures, while the other two depict backgrounds and cave paintings, respectively. You can select to browse through as many or as few of them as you’d like and can arrange them in any order. It’s a cool way to provide some user control. In addition, you can go for the “Play All” function and work through the whole bunch. The different sections include between three and 70 drawings for a total of 241 frames of material. One nice touch: each piece of art lists the person who created it.

One unusual aspect of the Ice Age packaging: affixed to the back of the flap that holds DVD One I saw a sticker for a major pizza chain. Though my copy was an early screener, I assume all the retail editions will have this as well. I know they assume we DVD reviewers are fat pizza-guzzling slobs, but I doubt they did this simply to attract our business. I don’t know if I regard the sticker as a negative, but it was something different and I thought I’d mention it.

While I enjoyed Ice Age, I frankly can’t figure out why it became such a big hit. The movie offers a gently amusing diversion but it lacks the cleverness and wit that enhance the best films in the genre. The DVD itself provides a top-notch piece of work. Picture and audio quality appeared excellent, and it also packs a reasonably comprehensive and engaging selection of supplements. Although I remain somewhat lukewarm toward Ice Age, it works well enough to merit a recommendation, especially since this DVD seems so solid.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.4633 Stars Number of Votes: 218

View Averages for all rated titles.

DVD Movie Guide @ dvdmg.com
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FOX

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Carlos Saldanha
Cast:
Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Seann William Scott, Josh Peck, Queen Latifah, Will Arnett, Jay Leno, Chris Wedge
Writing Credits:
Gerry Swallow (and story), Peter Gaulke (and story), Jim Hecht

Tagline:
Kiss Your Ice Goodbye.

Synopsis:
Your favorite sub-zero heroes are back for another incredible adventure in the super-cool animated comedy Ice Age: The Meltdown!

The action heats up - and so does the temperature - for Manny, Sid, Diego and Scrat. Trying to escape the valley to avoid a flood of trouble, the comical creatures embark on a hilarious journey across the thawing landscape and meet Ellie, a female woolly mammoth who melts Manny's heart. With its dazzling animation, unforgettable characters and an all-new Scrat short, Ice Age: The Meltdown is laugh-out-loud fun for the whole family!

Box Office:
Budget
$80 million.
Opening Weekend
$68.033 million on -unknown- screens.
Domestic Gross
$195.329 million.

MPAA:
Rated PG

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 1.85:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Surround 2.0
French Dolby Surround 2.0
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 90 min.
Price: $29.98
Release Date: 11/21/2006

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Director Carlos Saldanha
• Audio Commentary with Producer Lori Forte, Art Director Thomas Cardone, Materials Supervisor Michael Eringus, Animation Supervisors James Bresnahan, Galen Tan Chu and Michael Thurmier, Effects Supervisor Robert V. Cavaleri, Lighting Supervisor David Esneault, Story Artist Chris Renaud, Lead Animator Aaron Hartline, Technical Animation Lead Matthew D. Simmons, and Senior Lighting Lead Andrew Beddini
• “Crash and Eddie Stunts”
• “No Time for Nuts” Short
• “The Animation Director’s Chair” Featurette
• “Meet Crash and Eddie” Featurette
• “Meet Ellie” Featurette
• “Lost Historical Films”
• “Scrat’s Piranha Smackdown Sound Effects Lab”
• Outtake Prank
• Silly Sid and John Leguizamo
• Music Montage
• Sloth Dancing to Sid’s Sing-Along
• “Marketing the Meltdown”
• Ice Age Arcade
• Previews

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

RELATED REVIEWS

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Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (October 31, 2006)
Back when Ice Age hit movie screens in the spring of 2002, it established that a studio other than Disney or DreamWorks could create a hit animated flick. To show they can keep up with the big boys, Fox produced a sequel, 2006’s Ice Age – The Meltdown, and it proved even more successful. While the original took in $176 million, Meltdown topped out with an impressive $195 million.

Too bad the sequel wasn’t nearly as good as its predecessor. Meltdown picks up on the adventures of characters from the first flick. These include Manny the wooly mammoth (voiced by Ray Romano), Sid the sloth (John Leguizamo) and Diego the saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary). As was the case with the first movie, Manny remains depressed about the loss of his family. Other issues weigh on the group as well since it looks like the Ice Age is ending and everything will melt.

These two issues motivate much of the story. A local dam will soon bust and drown all the creatures that don’t immediately evacuate. They need to hike a fair distance in a short period of time to get to a boat and make it away from the flood. As an additional threat, some vicious aquatic beasts escape from the melting ice and chase after the evacuees.

Manny leads the way, and along their travels, he discovers he’s not the last of the wooly mammoths. He runs into another mammoth named Ellie (Queen Latifah). However, since possums raised her, she believes she’s one of their kind. Manny has to deal with that odd side of things to woo her and save the species. The movie follows their relationship as well as the march to survive the impending flood.

To say that the original Ice Age left me underwhelmed would be completely accurate. It offered mild entertainment but never became anything more involving than that. I came, I saw, I pretty much forgot about it.

With such modest heights to scale once again, it seems to me that Meltdown should have been able to equal the minor pleasures of its predecessor. Unfortunately, it disappoints. At least the original boasted something somewhat unusual in regard to setting and characters; the sequel can’t even claim anything new in those departments.

The story sure fails to explore any fresh ground. What was the message of the first movie? Family. What’s the message of the second movie? Family. The two flicks take somewhat different paths to explore their themes, but they don’t vary in truly substantial ways. They go down similar paths and end up in nearly identical places.

At only 90 minutes, Meltdown doesn’t sound like a long film. However, there’s “real time” and there’s “stuck in the theater time”. Although the movie spanned only 90 minutes real time, it came across as about 10 hours stuck in the theater time.

Hoo boy, does Meltdown drag! A lot of the problem stems from the lack of story inspiration. Meltdown rehashes the same “family” theme but it fails to involve all the characters very well. Manny and Ellie are clearly the focus of this one, so Sid and Diego get shunted to the sidelines. Sure, they have their own little subplots; Diego tries to conquer his fear of water while Sid finds a society of mini-sloths that worship him. Neither of those elements really goes anywhere, and they feel tacked on just to give those characters something to do.

In essence, Meltdown amounts to a long series of sight gags in search of a real story. It incorporates all sorts of wacky bits that fail to meld together well. Instead, the movie often comes across as a loose collection of shorts instead of one coherent flick.

And that’s what kills it. The film’s obsession with potty gags doesn’t help, but I could excuse that if Meltdown actually managed a moderately interesting plot or compelling characters. It prefers to just echo the uninspired original flick to become something even less interesting.

The DVD Grades: Picture A-/ Audio A / Bonus B+
Ice Age – The Meltdown appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. I expected a strong presentation from Meltdown and that’s what I found.

No issues with sharpness occurred. The movie offered nicely crisp and detailed images from start to finish. If any softness marred the presentation, I couldn’t find it. Jagged edges and shimmering remained absent, and only a smidgen of edge enhancement appeared. I also found no source flaws.

Meltdown started with a chilly bluish-white palette but warmed up as the surface temperature increased. Much of the movie offered a nice natural look with lively greens and blues. Blacks came across as deep and rich, while shadows presented good clarity and visibility. This was a very satisfying transfer.

Even better, the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack of Meltdown worked very well. With cracking ice and all sorts of action sequences, the movie boasted many opportunities to feature all five speakers. It did so quite well. Various effects elements zoomed around the room to create a fine sense of immersion. The pieces meshed together smoothly and transitioned well. Localization was clean and precise, and the score featured solid stereo imaging. The mix turned into a broad, encompassing piece.

Audio quality also was very good. Speech seemed crisp and distinctive, as I noticed no flaws like edginess. Music seemed warm and full, while effects added a real bang to the proceedings. Those elements showed good clarity and accuracy, and they offered tight, deep bass as well. The track seemed vibrant and dynamic as it accentuated the movie.

Ice Age – The Meltdown comes with a mix of extras. The main attractions come from two separate audio commentaries. The first presents director Carlos Saldanha in a running, screen-specific piece. He discusses challenges related to making a sequel, returning characters and new personalities, technical and animation issues, storytelling and editing, actors and performances, and other production topics.

Eternally chipper, Saldanha offers a very informative chat. He covers the appropriate material in a reasonably thorough manner and makes matters entertaining as well. Due to his sunny personality, I worried Saldanha would throw out tons of praise, but he avoids that trap. Instead, he focuses on the useful details in this excellent track.

For the second commentary, we hear from producer Lori Forte, art director Thomas Cardone, materials supervisor Michael Eringus, animation supervisors James Bresnahan, Galen Tan Chu and Michael Thurmier, effects supervisor Robert V. Cavaleri, lighting supervisor David Esneault, story artist Chris Renaud, lead animator Aaron Hartline, technical animation lead Matthew D. Simmons, and senior lighting lead Andrew Beddini. To my surprise, all of these folks sit together for a running, screen-specific discussion; with so many participants, I anticipated an edited affair.

The content of the commentary offers fewer surprises, though, as it covers expected subjects. We get notes about many technical issues. The track examines character design and animation, other visual decisions, story development and related choices, problems related to making a sequel, the film’s rushed production schedule, updating old characters and introducing new ones, and many nuts and bolts related to the execution of the material.

As I went into this track, I feared it’d be chaotic due to the number of participants. However, it works just fine. Forte acts as ringleader of sorts, and to my great surprise, no one ever interrupts or speaks over the others. They cover the topics in a concise and informative manner that helps make this a pretty good track. The subject matter means it occasionally can be a little dry, but it still offers a solid overview of animation techniques.

In addition to the commentaries, we find a slew of short video pieces. Crash and Eddie Stunts breaks down into three components: “Lava’s Leap” (0:21), “Dungball Dribble” (0:21) and “Peace Out Duel” (0:21). Each of these offers a short animated clip in which we watch the possum characters do some wacky activities. They’re mildly amusing at best.

The ever-popular Scrat reappears in a new short called No Time for Nuts. In this seven-minute and six-second cartoon, the squirrel comes across a time machine and chases nuts throughout the centuries. It’s a fairly effective twist on Scrat’s usual shenanigans.

For some multi-angle material, we go to The Animation Director’s Chair. This consists of six scenes from the movie: “Play Dead” (1:33), “Fish Story” (1:02), “Nuts” (1:45), “Family” (1:33), “Face Off” (1:27) and “Drain” (1:15). Four of the segments can be viewed in any of five modes: “Storyboard”, “Layout”, “Animation”, “Combo” and “Final”. “Fish Story” and “Nuts” drop the “Layout” option but include the other four. These let us see the scenes at various stages along the way toward completion. I like this kind of feature, as it gives us a fun way to inspect the animation processes.

Two quick character featurettes follow. We find Meet Crash and Eddie (2:04) and Meet Ellie (2:05). These act as quick promotional pieces to introduce us to the movie’s new characters. The clips include remarks from Saldanha, Forte, and character designer Peter De Seve. A couple of very minor design notes appear, but these pieces exist to promote the movie, so don’t expect much.

A collection of Lost Historical Films let us see more about the movie’s animals. We find “The Sloth” (2:01), “The Wooly Mammoth” (2:01), “The Saber-Toothed Squirrel” (1:49), “The Saber-Toothed Tiger” (1:26), “The Vulture” (1:22) and “The Possum” (1:24). These offer humorous fake educational programs, each of which features basics about the real-life critters and gags. This is a simple but fun feature, especially when we get narration from John Leguizamo for the “Sloth” entry.

Audio comes to the forefront in Scrat’s Piranha Smackdown Sound Effects Lab. This allows us to view the same 37-second clip of Scrat and some piranhas but with different effects for each one. It’s a moderately fun way to see how various audio elements affect the same piece of material.

Called Outtake Prank, a 17-second clip shows a bit the animators did for fun. It uses the possums in an alternate version of an existing scene. It’s insubstantial but cute.

A little info about actor and character appears in the six-minute and 56-second Silly Sid and John Leguizamo. It presents notes from Saldanha, executive producer Christopher Meledandri, character designer Peter de Seve, and actor John Leguizamo. We get information about the elements that make up Sid’s look as well as Leguizamo’s vocal performance. A few decent elements emerge, particularly when the actor reveals his methods in a comedic piece.

Next comes a 67-second Music Montage. It acts as something of a blooper reel since it shows rough animation, goofing around and promotional bits. It’s an odd piece but it’s worth a look.

Sloth Dancing to Sid’s Sing-Along goes for four minutes and 26 seconds. Leguizamo hosts as he demonstrates how to do the dance from the Fire King scene. Leguizamo contains to entertain here.

Two separate components appear in Marketing the Meltdown. “Scrat on Family Guy” features an 18-second snippet that indeed shows the squirrel as he interacts with Peter Griffin. It’s uninspired. “Sid Hosting Fox Animation Domination” breaks into eight pieces, each of which served to lead into Fox Sunday night series. These offer a series of amusing little promos.

In the Ice Age Arcade, we find four elements. “The Ice Age Factoid Meltdown” offers trivia questions about the movie, many of which are tough because they require you to notice real minutiae such as the number of times Sid’s name is said during that flick. At least they’re forgiving, so you can try again and again.

“Sid’s Soccer Challenge” has you pick spot in a goal so you can try to kick 10 balls past a dodo goalie. It’s random, pointless and not interesting. “Who’s Your Buddy?” has you choose from various options to figure out which character is your “buddy”. (Mine’s Sid.) Finally, “Video Game Memory Challenge” gives us two versions of the old “Concentration” game. They’re mildly entertaining, even if they do exist mainly to promote a videogame.

The DVD opens with a mix of promos. We get ads for Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, Home Alone, Cheaper By the Dozen 2 and Big Momma’s House 2. The disc also includes “First Look”, a spot that features a preview for A Night At the Museum and a “First Glimpse of The Simpsons Movie. This 62-second snippet shows rough animation and already appeared on the X-Men: The Last Stand DVD.

Although the original film offered only modest pleasures, Ice Age – The Meltdown couldn’t even live up to its minor legacy. Disjointed and rarely amusing, the sequel fails to stake out any interesting territory. The DVD presents very strong picture and audio along with a long roster of extras headlined by two useful audio commentaries. Fans will be pleased with this very good DVD release, but other animation fans should go for superior flicks like Over the Hedge or Cars, as they’re vastly more entertaining than this plodding dud.

Viewer Film Ratings: 3.8333 Stars Number of Votes: 12

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DVD Movie Guide @ dvdmg.com
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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO
Director:
Peter Docter, David Silverman
Cast:
Billy Crystal, John Goodman, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, Mary Gibbs, Steve Buscemi
Screenplay:
Dan Gerson, Andrew Stanton
Tagling:
You Won't Believe Your Eye.
Box Office:
Budget $115 million.
Opening weekend $62.577 million on 3237 screens.
Domestic gross $$255.832 million.
MPAA:
Rated G.

Academy Awards:
Won for Best Music-Randy Newman.
Nominated for Best Animated Feature; Best Sound Effects Editing; Best Score.

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
2-Disc set
Widescreen 1.85:1/16x9
Standard 1.33:1
Audio:
English DD EX 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 92 min.
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 9/17/2002

Bonus:
• Audio Commentary with Director Pete Docter, Co-director Lee Unkrich, Executive Producer John Lasseter, and Executive Producer/Screenwriter Andrew Stanton
• Sound Effects Only Soundtrack
• All-New Animated Short “Mike’s New Car”
• Outtakes
• “For the Birds” Short
• “Humans Only” Area with Features Related to Pixar, Story, Monster File, Design, Animation, Music and Sound, and Release
• “Monsters Only” Area with “New Monster Adventures”, “Behind the Screams”, and “Orientation”
• THX Optimizer
• Sneak Peeks
• Booklet

PURCHASE
• DVD
• Music soundtrack
Search Products:

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

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Monsters, Inc. (2001)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson
No production company is as much of a "sure thing" as Pixar. The computer animation studio enjoys a stellar reputation, and you can't top their track record. From 1995 through 1999, they produced three feature-length animated movies, and all did terrifically well. From 1995's Toy Story to 1998's A Bug's Life to 1999's Toy Story 2, they produced a run of big hits.

Would they continue this string with their fourth full-length film, 2001’s Monsters Inc.? Commercially, yes. Actually, Monsters grossed more money than any prior Pixar film. With a take of $255 million, it narrowly topped the $245 million of Toy Story 2 and easily beat the $191 million of Toy Story and the $162 million of A Bug’s Life. Monsters, Inc. barely lost the crown for 2001’s top-grossing animated flick as well; champ Shrek took in about $12 million more than Monsters.

Would Pixar continue their string of animated films that I loved? Maybe - I guess you’ll have to read the rest of the review to find out about that!

Monsters Inc. operates from the basic childhood fear that monsters lurk in our closets. Actually, it turns out that they use closets simply as portals to get into kids’ bedrooms. From there, they terrify them to nab wee screams, which they use to power their own monster realm. We meet a successful scream-catcher team. James P. “Sulley” Sullivan (John Goodman) does the prime terrifying, while his assistant Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) runs the behind the scenes machinery to capture the shrieks.

All goes well for the boys, at least until one disastrous outing. After hours, Sulley finds a mysterious door and tries to check out why it’s there. By accident, a tot comes back to Monstropolis with them. As it happens, monsters feel absolutely terrified of little kids, and they even think there’s nothing more toxic and harmful than the touch of a child; when one monster returns with a tiny sock stuck to his back, the authorities go ballistic to prevent contamination.

Not surprisingly, it causes a panic when little “Boo” (Mary Gibbs) invades their world. The authorities discover her presence, so Mike and Sulley need to find a way to deal with the child problem. That complicates when they discover a plot led by competitor Randall (Steve Buscemi), and it doesn’t help that Sulley and Boo become pretty attached to each other. The rest of the movie follows attempts to keep Boo undercover from the authorities while they also avoid the problems posed by sleazy Randall.

At its heart, Monsters enjoys a tremendously clever premise. Pixar flicks always emanate from a simple but winning notion: toys come to life when kids aren’t around, for example. The concept that kids really do have monsters in their closets is terrific, and the twist that shows the beasties to be even more afraid of us than we are of them makes it even more compelling.

At times, Monsters exhibits the spark that one expects from Pixar. It displays a wonderfully lively visual world with lots of viscerally compelling elements. The screen always pops with different pieces that keep us amused and entertained.

The film also features the usual stellar cast. Goodman brings both the right tones of warmth and menace to Sulley. We buy him as a nice guy and as a scary monster. The movie requires more of the former element, but Goodman moves effortlessly between them. I never much liked Crystal, but he appears perfectly cast as the high-strung assistant Mike. He tosses off his lines with the requisite zing and makes the character neurotic but likeable. Even tiny Mary Gibbs - only a couple of years old when recorded - creates a lively and charming personality.

And yet, I still don’t find myself as impressed with Monsters as I might expect. I truly loved all three prior Pixar films, but I merely enjoyed Monsters. The movie goes by quickly and it keeps me entertained, but it lacks the easygoing charm of the previous Pixar entries.

Part of the problem - actually, most of the problem - relates to the Sulley/Boo relationship. That side of the story tends to drag Monsters into a sappy side that doesn’t work very well. Earlier Pixar flicks melded emotion and wit neatly so that the former never overwhelmed the latter. Unfortunately, Monsters tends to become syrupy at times. The bond between the two characters seems charming but overly sugary.

Ultimately, however, I can’t really put my finger on the reason I like Monsters, Inc. substantially less than I care for the other three Pixar films. To be sure, it provides a lively and consistently entertaining experience, and I still recommend it to fans. It just lacks that spark that drove the earlier movies. At their best, Pixar do animation better than anyone else; you simply can’t find flicks more entertaining than their first three films. Monsters is just good, not great. I won’t damn the picture because of that, but I must admit I still feel a little disappointed by the result.

The DVD Grades: Picture A+ / Audio A / Bonus A+
Monsters, Inc. appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 and in a fullscreen version on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the widescreen image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. Only the letterboxed picture was reviewed for this article. Two of the three prior Pixar DVDs earned “A+” grades from me for visual quality, while Toy Story “slipped” to an “A”. Needless to say, I had high expectations for the image of Monsters, but nothing here disappointed me; the DVD offered another virtually flawless visual presentation.

Sharpness seemed immaculate. At all times, the movie remained terrifically crisp and detailed, and not a single instance of softness or fuzziness occurred. The image stayed detailed and distinct from start to finish. No signs of jagged edges, moiré effects or edge enhancement appeared, and the movie also was totally free of any source flaws. As with the other Pixar flicks, they created the DVD transfer straight from the original computer files; they used no print at all. This ensured a presentation completely devoid of any defects.

The fantasy setting of Monsters offered a nicely bright and varied palette, and the DVD reproduced the colors wonderfully. From the broader tones of the monster world to the more natural and lifelike hues found in the human realm, the colors always came across as vivid and lively, and they appeared absolutely gorgeous at all times. Black levels also seemed deep and rich, while shadow detail looked appropriately heavy but not overly dense. In the end, Monsters, Inc. provided a tremendously clear and exciting visual presentation that never faltered.

Almost as strong was the film's Dolby Digital 5.1 EX soundtrack. The soundfield seemed very broad and engaging. For the most part, the forward spectrum dominated, but the entire package seemed well distributed and nicely balanced. It provided a virtually seamless mix that spread the audio cleanly between the various channels. Effects and music often emanated from all five speakers, and the sound blended together neatly so that the environment seemed smooth and convincing.

Various auditory elements appeared precisely located in the spectrum; even dialogue was focused in the correct location across the front speakers, and we also heard some speech from the rear when appropriate. The surrounds contributed excellent reinforcement of the information and also used split-channel details quite effectively. Best of the bunch was probably the climactic sequence that included the many flying doors in the factory; it created a vivid and engaging setting.

Equally solid was the quality of the audio. Speech appeared warm and natural, with no signs of shrillness or concerns related to intelligibility. Music sounded clear and smooth, with terrific range; the score seemed appropriately brassy and bright. Effects were the best part of the package. They appeared very accurate and realistic and showed absolutely no signs of distortion or harshness. The track boasted fine resolution and terrific depth, with solid bass response throughout the flick. Overall, the audio packed a fine punch and added a lot to the Monsters, Inc. experience.

In the grand tradition of the A Bug’s Life Collector’s Edition and the Ultimate Toy Box, Monsters, Inc. receives the deluxe two-DVD treatment. As usual, most of the extras appear on the second disc, but DVD One includes a few components. First we encounter an audio commentary from director Pete Docter, co-director Lee Unkrich, executive producer John Lasseter, and executive producer/screenwriter Andrew Stanton. It may sound like all four were recorded together for this screen-specific track, but they weren’t - I think. It sounded like Docter and Unkrich sat together, and their remarks strongly dominated the piece. Lasseter and Stanton apparently were taped together in a separate session; the producers of the commentary then integrated those statements into the track with Docter and Unkrich. However, a couple of examples arose in which it sounded like the whole crew sat together, so who knows? I’m getting confused just thinking about it!

In any case, since all these guys appear on other Pixar commentaries, they seemed comfortable with the format and we got a lively and informative track. As with prior Pixar commentaries, they covered some useful technical details that communicated issues related to the animation, but the emphasis remained on characters, cast and story. They provided lots of great information about how they chose the various actors, how the characters and plot elements developed throughout production, and many other fun tidbits. Heck, when they couldn’t recall why they dropped one plot point, they even phoned co-writer Dan Gerson to get the answer! Overall, this commentary offered a very compelling and educational track that I thoroughly enjoyed.

DVD One also includes a second audio feature. We get an effects only soundtrack. Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, you can view the entire film with just the sound effects. A similar piece appeared on the Bug’s Life CE, and it’s a fun little addition to the disc.

When you start DVD One, you’ll find the usual complement of advertisements. Here we get a preview of Pixar’s next flick Finding Nemo plus clips for Treasure Planet, Inspector Gadget 2, Lilo & Stitch, and Beauty and the Beast. From the main menu, you’ll discover a Sneak Peeks area that includes the same promos. Unlike virtually all other “Sneak Peeks” domains, though, this one provides no additional ads; it just repeats the collection from the DVD’s start.

Also on disc one, we get the THX Optimizer. This purports to help you set up your home theater to best present the movie on the disc in question. Apparently the Optimizer is unique for each DVD on which it’s included; unlike programs such as Video Essentials, the Optimizer should tweak your set-up differently every time. Frankly, I’ve been very happy with my already-established calibration and I’m afraid to muck with it, so I’ve never tried the Optimizer. If you lack calibration from Video Essentials or a similar program, or if you’re just more adventurous than I, the Optimizer could be a helpful addition.

Batten down the hatches, pull up a chair, and brace yourself: now we move to DVD Two, which includes scads of supplements. When you first launch the disc, you’ll encounter a brief video introduction from director Pete Docter, co-directors Lee Unkrich and David Silverman, and producer Darla Anderson. They tell us how to navigate the set, which becomes necessary since it places most of the extras behind two different “doors”: “Humans Only” and “Monsters Only”.

A few supplements land on the main page, however. We get five minutes and 28 seconds of Outtakes. These use the same fake blooper format seen in the last two Pixar flicks. While some of them seem amusing - especially the production of “Put That Thing Back Where It Came From or So Help Me” - but honestly, this feature has become tiresome. The outtakes seemed hilarious and pointed when they originally accompanied A Bug’s Life, but now they appear somewhat stale. Time to retire the outtakes, folks!

Next we find two shorts. A brand-new clip, Mike’s New Car lasts three minutes, 43 seconds, and it reprises John Goodman and Billy Crystal as Sulley and Mike. A very simple piece, “Car” offers a lot of funny gags; in fact, this brief cartoon might include more true laughs than all of Monsters itself. “Car” definitely merits a look.

You can watch “Car” with or without commentary from Docter and Gould. However, this doesn’t feature directors Pete Docter and Roger; instead, we hear from their kids, Nicholas Docter and Leo Gould. They try to explain how their dads made the film, and they offer lots of silliness during this hilariously irreverent commentary.

The last extra that doesn’t fall behind the two big doors, For the Birds offers the short that appeared prior to theatrical showings of Monsters. The cartoon lasts three minutes, 25 seconds and offers a cute and entertaining little piece.

Another commentary accompanies “Birds”, but this one’s for real. We hear from director Ralph Eggleston. He offers a fairly technical track that quickly runs through the project’s genesis and some fine points about the animation. He also provides a few more general remarks during this short but engaging commentary.

Now I decided to step behind the first of the two doors, and I chose to go with “Humans Only”. I began with the Production Tour. This piece lasts 18 minutes and 35 seconds, and it consists of short clips that mostly appear elsewhere on the DVD. As such, I’ll discuss the featurettes more fully when I go over those domains.

However, you may want to watch these within this area, because when the “Production Tour” ends, you’ll find a screen populated by cartoon doors with no additional information. Flip through these to find some Easter eggs. These consist mostly outtakes from the taping of the different “Tour” segments. We also find a quick clip from the movie, an animation test, and a collection of rough sketches that showed different possible uses for the giant atrium at the new Pixar studios. These eggs aren’t very hidden, but they’re fun.

Called Pixar, the first of the seven domains under “Humans Only” consists solely of the Pixar Fun Factory Tour. Hosted by John Lasseter and Pete Docter, this three-minute, 46-second piece quickly shows us through the new Pixar studio. It seems superficial but fun.

Another Easter egg appears here. Click to the left of the Monsters, Inc. icon to highlight a scrawled circle. Hit “enter” and watch a 133-second clip from the “1st Annual Pixar International Air Show”, which features lots of paper airplanes launched in the enormous Pixar atrium.

When we shift to Story, we get seven subdomains. Hosted by co-director David Silverman, Story Is King provides another of the featurettes that comprises the “Production Tour”. The 123-second clip features remarks from story supervisor Bob Peterson and director Pete Docter as they discuss the storyboard pitch process and other creative elements. This is old news for veterans of these kinds of DVDs, but it’s quick and interesting nonetheless, and it provides information crucial for newbies to learn.

The 92-second Monsters Are Real offers movie clips and quick comments from actors Billy Crystal, James Coburn, and John Goodman, writer Andrew Stanton, Walt Disney Feature Animation President Thomas Schumacher, executive producer John Lasseter, co-director Lee Unkrich, and producer Darla Anderson. They quickly discuss the story’s main conceit that kids are scary to monsters. It’s fairly useless but at least it’s brief.

The Original Treatment seems much more worthwhile. This 13-minute and 44-second program combines filmed artwork with light background music and narration to communicate the film’s first incarnation. No Sulley, no Mike, no Boo - in fact, very little of the finished flick appeared in this rendition. That makes it all the more compelling, and it definitely merits a look so we can see just how radically the plot and characters changed from beginning to end.

More early material shows up in the Story Pitch: Back to Work (Early Version), Bob Peterson acts out the boards for a prototypical rendition of the scene in which Sulley and Mike bring Boo to the factory for the first time. It also differs heavily from the finished piece, which means it offers some very interesting viewing within the four-minute, 38-second clip.

Within Banished Concepts, we see other discarded ideas. Lee Unkrich offers a 30-second “Introduction” to the area, and then we can check out four difference scenes: “Assistant Sulley” (135 seconds), “End of Day” (155 seconds), “Bad Scare” (180 seconds), and “Scream Refinery” (67 seconds). All provide story reel renditions of the segments. Some of these bear some resemblance to the final film; the main difference comes from Sulley’s position as an assistant and not a scarer.

The Original Sulley Intro offers some fairly complete computer animation. The 60-second clip shows a slightly different way to first view Sulley. It doesn’t provide the wonders of the radically altered footage we saw earlier, but it offers an interesting piece.

Finally, the “Story” area finishes with Storyboard to Film. This allows us to view one scene in two different states: storyreel only, and final color only. We can also check out a split screen comparison of the two. You can use the angle button to cycle through the three presentations. The moderately interesting piece lasts five minutes, 42 seconds, as it offers the first sequence in which Sulley and Mike dealt with Boo.

After this we head to the Monster Files. Another segment found in the “Production Tour”, Cast of Characters lasts five minutes, 54 seconds and comes hosted by Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, Darla Anderson, and David Silverman. We mostly get comments from Docter, Unkrich, Anderson, Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Thomas Schumacher, Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Mary Gibbs, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, and Steve Buscemi. We see a few quick shots from the recording studio, but mostly we just get some short and superficial sound bites that don’t offer a lot of depth.

What Makes a Great Monster? runs 87 seconds, and it includes dsjal Bob Pauley and sjl Tia Kratter as they quickly discuss the visual elements of the monsters. This segment essentially acts as an introduction to the next area, Character Designs. A collection of stillframe galleries, that section splits into 12 subdomains: “James P. Sullivan” (36 images, plus a 33-second “turnaround” that shows the computer model), “Mike Wazowski” (18 stills, 34-second turnaround), “Boo” (27 shots, 69-second turnaround), “Sulley and Boo” (9), “Henry J. Waternoose” (9, 34-second turnaround), “Randall/Rivera” (9, 35-second turnaround), “Celia/Roz” (9, 69-second turnaround), “Fungus/Jerry” (9, 34-second turnaround), “Ted/Smitty/Needleman” (9, 68-second turnaround), “George/’Claws’” (9, 68-second turnaround), “Bile/Harley” (9, 69-second turnaround), “’Bud’/Bob/Rickey” (9, 67-second turnaround), “C.D.A.” (9, 34-second turnaround), and “Monster Wannabes” (45). Overall, this adds a nice package of conceptual work.

The Design area starts with another piece of the “Production Tour”. Monstropolis lasts two minutes, 51 seconds and comes hosted by David Silverman. We also hear from Lee Unkrich John Lasseter and production designer Harley Jessup as we get another quick look at one part of the film. The piece seems brief, but it nicely introduces the topic.

Setting the Scene splits into two areas. Hosted by Docter and Unkrich, “Set Dressing” runs three minutes, 24 seconds and mainly features information from set dressing supervisor Sophie Vincelette. She leads us through a solid look at the way the artists populate the sets with different props and items and how they integrate them into the film. The “Step Through” uses 29 stillframes to show set dressing as it builds through six different sets.

Essentially, Color Scripts seem to be very small pieces of art that show the director of photography how the hues should look in various scenes. We get 71 examples of these drawings here. Master Lighting serves a fairly similar purpose. Via 16 screens, it depicts conceptual drawings and the final filmed results.

Location Flyarounds covers five different spots. We see quick computer-drawn moves through some largely unpopulated sets: “Downtown”, “The Apartment”, “Monsters, Inc.”, “Simulator”, and “Boo’s Room”. I liked this section, as it offered a great look at the basic locations. One even includes a few humorous touches that I’ll let you discover on your own.

In Monstropolis Art, we again split into a few different subdomains, each of which contains conceptual and design drawings related to the specific location. We check out “Door Vault” (nine images), “Monstropolis” (50), “Door Station” (9), “Monsters, Inc.” (18), and “Scare Floor” (20). (Isn’t Scare Floor slated to be the sequel to Panic Room?)

“Design” ends with a Guide to “In” Jokes. This 21-screen stillframe feature shows us the small elements we might have missed along the way. It also tosses in cool details like the menu at Harryhausen’s, something we never could have read during the flick.

Within Animation, we get six subsections. Another piece in the “Production Tour”, Animation Process runs three minutes and 14 seconds. Featuring comments from Docter, Silverman, Unkrich, supervising animator Glenn McQueen, and simulation and effects supervisor Galyn Susman, it follows one specific scene and shows how it went from storyreel to layout to animation to simulation shaders and lighting. This offers a nice walk-through of the various elements.

Early Tests includes commentary from supervising technical director Thomas Porter, simulation and effects sequence supervisor Steve May and sequence supervisor Michael Fong as we view preliminary designs for some of the characters. The eight-minute and 15-second piece mostly covers issues related to Sulley and his fur, and we also see some tests for Boo and Mike. It’s a fascinating look at the growth and variation in the characters.

Next we take a look at the Opening Title Animation. This 129-second piece includes remarks from Docter and main title design and animation director Geefwee Boedoe. They relate the genesis of the sequence as well as some of its details and offer good notes about the subject.

For a view of the most significant production challenges, check out Hard Parts lasts five minutes and includes comments from Thomas Schumacher, Lasseter, Docter, Silverman, Unkrich, Thomas Porter, Steve May, Michael Fong, Pixar CEO Steve Jobs, modeling artist Steve Milliron, simulation and effects sequence supervisor Mark Henne, and modeling artist Guido Quaroni. Parts of this dealt with fur and clothing, which seemed redundant after the “Early Tests”, but the featurette still offered enough new info to become worthwhile.

A two-minute and 15-second featurette about the Shots Department describes their work. We hear from Galyn Susman as she tells us more about fur and clothes. The information takes a slightly different stance than what we learned earlier, but the information still came across as somewhat redundant. Nonetheless, enough new material appeared to make the clip worth a look.

The final component of the “Animation” domain, the Production Demo allows you to exercise the “angle” function on your remote. After an “Introduction” from Unkrich, you can check out a scene via four different views: “Storyreel”, “Layout”, “Animation”, and “Final Color”. This provides a nice examination of the varying stages of completion.

Time for Music and Sound, the penultimate domain in the “Humans Only” area. It starts with Monster Song. This three-minute and 18-second segment includes quick comments from Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Docter, Lasseter, composer Randy Newman, Thomas Schumacher as well as shots from the recording sessions. This also provides some shots of Newman’s own version of the vocals. It’s another quick and superficial piece, but it’s fun to watch the recording.

Sound Design runs four minutes, 16 seconds, and it features remarks from sound designer Gary Rydstrom and co-sound designer Tom Myers as they cover the topic. We watch as they discuss the challenges and add specific elements to the mix. Like some of the other pieces, it remains fairly short and superficial, but it adds some good information along the way.

In the Binaural Recording area, we start with a 72-second “Introduction” from senior manager of editorial and postproduction Bill Kinder. He tells us what binaural recording is and preps us to get out some headphones. Binaural Video uses the technique with Goodman and Crystal as they run around the recorder and try to mess with us in this 55-second clip. Binaural Audio offers a comparison of three different mixes of the music for “Sulley’s Work Out”. You can listen to the stereo film mix, the scoring stage binaural track, and the “special” 5.1 surround mix.

Lastly, we head to Release, a domain that deals with promotional elements. The Premiere shows 58 seconds of footage from the film’s LA debut. It’s cute but insubstantial. Toys gives us a 92-second party in which Lasseter and some of his cohorts play with the flick’s trinkets. This also features a few comments from toy designer “Ricky” - they don’t identify him beyond that. I felt disappointed by this section, as it should have tossed in a still gallery of all the toys created for the movie; instead, we get a scattershot and fairly uninformative discussion of them.

Posters provides still images of 15 different ads created for the flick. Outtakes repeats the collection we already saw in the main menu of the DVD. Trailers and TV Spots includes a teaser, two theatrical trailers, and four TV ads. The teaser and the second trailer both consist of unique material, so they’re easily the best parts of this section.

The International Inserts domain shows some of the changes made for non-US releases. This offers a look at the translations and other visual alterations as well as some remarks about casting for dubbing. The Multi-Language Clip Reel depicts the results of those efforts. The three-minute and 47-second piece translates different parts of one scene into German, Japanese, Euro-Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, French, Swedish, Polish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Icelandic, Danish, and Hebrew.

Hooray - I can finally open the second door and enter the “Monsters Only” area! This splits into three different domains, each with subtopics, New Monster Adventures launches with “Mike’s New Car”, which we already found in the main menu. Monster TV Treats lasts a total of 73 seconds and offers six short animated clips that focus on Thanksgiving, Christmas, baseball and football. I’m not terribly sure where all of these aired, though at least one clearly mentions Monday Night Football, so I’d assume it ran as part of that broadcast. Whatever their origins, these are fun to see.

More alternate animated material appears in Ponkickies 21. Created for a Japanese TV program of that name, this absolutely bizarre feature shows dubbed versions of Mike and Sulley as the play “Janken” - the Japanese form of Rock, Paper, Scissors - and the “Lucky Door Game”. These brief but freaky pieces may merit the purchase of this DVD all on their own! I don’t need to drop acid; I can just watch Japanese children’s TV instead.

Peek-A-Boo: Boo’s Door Game offers yet another in an apparently unending series of guessing contests found on Disney DVDs. At least this one’s pretty simple and doesn’t feature the frustrations involved with many of them. One nice touch: Billy Crystal does all of Mike’s lines here. That may not sound like a big deal, but it’s very unusual to find original voice talent involved with this kind of supplement.

Another Disney DVD staple appears via the Welcome to Monstropolis Storytime. As usual, kids can read along with the narrator or decode the text on their own. Despite the generic narrator, the piece includes some original voices and it offers a mix of interactive elements that make it much more fun than the average “read-along”.

The final part of “New Monster Adventures”, we find a music video for “If I Didn’t Have You”. This fairly pointless 73-second piece compiles movie clips played along with the John Goodman and Billy Crystal rendition of the tune.

Next we move to Behind the Screams. There we find the “Outtakes” yet again; did we need to discover these in three different parts of the DVD? We also get the Company Play Program, a 23-screen stillframe piece that shows the booklet created for the monsters’ musical production. It’s very fun to see.

On the Job With Mike and Sulley gives us a two-minute and 33-second provides a news report that features our pals. An anchorman interviews the pair to learn their scream-collection secrets. As always, it features the original voices, and it offers an entertaining addition.

Finally, the Orientation area introduces us to the Monsters, Inc. factory. Welcome to Monsters, Inc. lasts 56 seconds as it shows the entire commercial excerpted during the film. Your First Day provides a short “training film”. It lasts three minutes, 36 seconds and compiles movie clips and production art. Though a little cheesy since it comes from bastardized sources, it’s another fairly entertaining extra.

History of the Monster World looks like a deleted sequence from the film. It runs like a storyreel as we learn how the monster world came into being and why they started to scare humans. It lasts 100 seconds and seems cute and fun.

Next we get a stillframe feature called the Employee Handbook. This area lets us see employee cards for 18 monsters, a “Monster Occupational Safety and Hazard Poster”, a chart that states “How to Avoid Repetitive Scare Injury”, a list of CDA warning codes, some precautions, a lunch menu, door station operation overview, Roz’s directions for paperwork, and a few other paper details. Some of this stuff showed up in the film, but we can’t check it out so closely there, so this section offers a lot of interesting components.

Monster of the Month shows a year’s worth of winners, while Scarer Cards depicts a collection of collectible monster trading cards. This area covers 14 Monsters, Inc. employees. You can read the text of the cards yourself or listen to Needleman and Smitty as they relate the details to you. It’s another very cool addition to the DVD.

That finally ends all of the features on the main area of the disc, but we also find some DVD-ROM extras. The main menu launches with a cute animation of Boo quivering in bed. Click on any - or all - of the six colored panels to the right; they’ll add monsters to the room, and this cheers up the little girl.

Otherwise, the DVD-ROM domain doesn’t add much to the package. It repeats “Boo’s Door Game” and “Disney Storytime: Welcome to Monstropolis” from the main package, and it contributes only one new piece: a game called “The Lunch Room”. This simply offers a demo version of part of a retail product. It forces you to play a virtual cafeteria lady - that ain’t exactly my idea of fun.

Lastly, the Monsters, Inc. package includes a booklet. This nice piece of text offers a map to guide you through DVD Two, and it also describes the content of many of the extras. It provides a helpful addition to the set.

As one who adored the prior three films from Pixar, I expected great things of Monsters, Inc. However, while I enjoyed the movie as a whole, it lacked the spark that made the earlier flicks so special. Monsters provided a reasonably fun experience, but it never took off and became something truly special. On the other hand, the DVD continued the excellent work seen with the other movies. Picture and sound quality appeared absolutely terrific, and the set packed a slew of fun and informative extras. Combine the stellar properties of this package with a fairly entertaining movie, and Monsters, Inc. comes with a positive recommendation.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.2867 Stars Number of Votes: 136

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DISNEY

MOVIE INFO Director:
Brad Bird
Cast:
Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee, Dominique Louis, Teddy Newton, Jean Sincere, Eli Fucile, Maeve Andrews, Wallace Shawn
Writing Credits:
Brad Bird

Tagline:
Save The Day.

Synopsis:
From the Academy Award®-winning creators of Finding Nemo (2003 Best Animated Feature Film) comes the action-packed animated adventure about the mundane and incredible lives of a house full of superheroes. Bob Parr and his wife Helen used to be among the world's greatest crime fighters, saving lives and battling evil on a daily basis. Fifteen years later, they have been forced to adopt civilian identities and retreat to the suburbs where they live "normal" lives with their three kids, Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack. Itching to get back into action, Bob gets his chance when a mysterious communication summons him to a remote island for a top secret assignment. But he soon discovers that it will take a super family effort to rescue the world from total destruction. Exploding with fun and featuring an all-new animated short film, this spectacular 2-disc collector's edition DVD is high-flying entertainment for everyone.

Box Office:
Budget
$92 million.
Opening Weekend
$70.467 million on 3933 screens.
Domestic Gross
$258.938 million.

MPAA:
Rated PG

DVD DETAILS
Presentation:
Widescreen 2.35:1/16x9
Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English
Spanish
French
Closed-captioned
Runtime: 115 min.
Price: $29.99
Release Date: 3/15/2005

Bonus:
Disc One
• Audio Commentary with Director Brad Bird and Producer John Walker
• Audio Commentary with Animators Tony Fucile, Steven Hunter, Alan Barillaro, Gini Cruz Santos, Dave Devan, Kureha Yokoo, Dave Mullins, John Kahrs, Robert Russ, Angus MacLane, Travis Hathaway, Doug Frankel, and Peter Sohn
• Sneak Peeks
• THX Optimizer
Disc Two
• All-New “Jack-Jack Attack” Short
• “Boundin’” Short with Optional Commentary
• “Who Is Bud Luckey?” Featurette
• Six Deleted Scenes
• “Making of The Incredibles” Documentary
• “More Making of The Incredibles” Documentary Outtakes
• “Incredi-Blunders” Reel
• “Vowellet - An Essay By Sarah Vowell”
• Art Gallery
• Trailers
• Character Interviews
• “Mr. Incredible and Pals” Cartoon with Optional Commentary
• NSA Files

EQUIPMENT
Sony 36" WEGA KV-36FS12 Monitor; Sony DA333ES Processor/Receiver; Panasonic CV-50 DVD Player using component outputs; Michael Green Revolution Cinema 6i Speakers (all five); Sony SA-WM40 Subwoofer.

The Incredibles: Collector's Edition (2004)
Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (January 25, 2005)
Maybe Pixar shouldn’t release any of their films in the same years that DreamWorks puts out Shrek flicks. Back in 2001, Monsters Inc. raked in a terrific $255 million, but the first narrowly topped it with a take of $267 million.

Flash ahead to 2004, another year that featured both a Shrek release and a Pixar movie. The latter studio soared even higher in the interim, as 2003’s Finding Nemo earned a terrific $339 million - the most ever for a Pixar movie - and set great expectations for 2004’s The Incredibles. That effort didn’t match up to Nemo levels, but it did awfully well with a gross of $258 million.

In any other year, that should have made Incredibles the most successful animated movie. However, the sloppy green giant dominated the box office, as Shrek 2 took in a remarkable $436 million. Never mind that once again, Pixar put out the superior product - the public spoke!

The Incredibles launches with some quick interview snippets with superheroes Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson), Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) and Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) as they discuss the ups and downs of their work. From there we watch Mr. Incredible handle some cases on the way to an appointment. He gets pestered by adolescent Buddy (Jason Lee), who aspires to be Mr. Incredible’s sidekick IncrediBoy.

That factor causes problems when Incredible battle the villainous Bomb Voyage (Dominique Lewis). Buddy pops up in the middle and almost gets taken out by a bomb. Incredible saves him but other problems arise, and he dismisses the boy despite Buddy’s talent as an inventor.

Once Incredible disposes of this problem, we see the appointment he needed to make: his own wedding. In his secret identity as Bob Parr, he marries Helen, aka Elastigirl. Unfortunately, their dual lives soon take a turn for the worse. Incredible caught a suicidal jumper in midair and got sued for his action. Other superhero lawsuits follow and the public protests against the powerful crusaders. This leads the government to initiate the Superhero Relocation Program. Via it, the heroes will get amnesty for the prior work but can’t ever use their powers again.

The film then jumps 15 years ahead and we meet Bob as a fat, middle-aged insurance claims adjuster. Helen stays home as a housewife with their three kids: introverted middle schooler Violet (Sarah Vowell), rowdy fourth grader Dash (Spencer Fox), and baby Jack-Jack. Bob hates his job, largely due to his nasty boss Mr. Huph (Wallace Shawn).

In the meantime, Dash gets in trouble at school for his rambunctious behavior and feels frustrated because he can’t take advantage of his superpowers. Dash can run extremely quickly, but his parents won’t let him go out for sports because they worry the competitive Dash will reveal his abilities. Violet pines for classmate Tony Rydinger (Michael Bird) but she’s too shy to do anything about it, and she uses her power to turn invisible to avoid him.

Bob clearly hates his ordinary existence, so he finds an outlet. Along with pal Lucius - the former Frozone - he goes out weekly to surreptitiously do some good. This causes arguments with Helen and also attracts the attention of Mirage (Elizabeth Pena), apparently a representative for a powerful secret branch of the government that tests new technologies. When he assaults Mr. Huph and loses his job, Bob finds a high-tech message from Mirage who says her group needs his help to stop an out-of-control device called the Omnidroid.

Bob takes the job but doesn’t tell Helen about it. He manages to take down the Omnidroid and continues to perform other tasks for the group. This leads to a lot more pep in his step, as he gets into shape and feels much better about himself.

Inevitably, problems arise. Helen becomes suspicious, and Bob eventually discovers the identity of his benefactor. It turns out to be a villainous sort named Syndrome, and this character comes from Incredible’s past. Syndrome captures Incredible, so Elastigirl has to come out of retirement to save him. Against her wishes, her superpowered kids come along to help, and the rest of the movie follows the rescue attempts along with their bid to stop Syndrome.

When I saw Incredibles theatrically, I can’t say it dazzled me. I enjoyed it but couldn’t figure out why it earned so many rave reviews. To me, it continued Pixar’s post-Toy Story 2 path. I loved the studio’s first three flicks: 1995’s Toy Story, 1998’s A Bug’s Life and 1999’s Toy Story 2. On the other hand, I simply liked Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo. I thought they offered perfectly enjoyable movies but lacked the spark of genius I saw in the first three Pixar films, and additional screenings didn’t convince me otherwise.

The same didn’t hold true for Incredibles. Again, I liked it theatrically but didn’t regard it as particularly memorable. However, my opinion changed considerably when I watched it a second time on DVD. While I’m still not sure it compares with the near-perfection of the first three Pixars, it comes much closer than I originally believed.

Key to the success of The Incredibles is its emotional impact. Pixar always manages to give its flicks a heart that the others lack. Competing studios work too hard to pack their flicks with glib humor and cultural references, but they forget to try to make characters and stories with more than a modest reason for us to care. Take Shark Tale, for example. The movie offers a fair amount of funny moments and becomes reasonably entertaining, but it never elevates above the level of one-dimensional characterizations. We have a few laughs and forget about the flick as soon as it ends.

That’s not the case with the Pixar flicks, and Incredibles falls into line. The decision to show us the family of the superhero is a stroke of genius, especially since the movie doesn’t simply play the scenarios for laughs. Lesser moviemakers would have just used the set-up as an opportunity to pour on cheap gags, but that doesn’t happen here.

This means Incredibles features a surprising range of styles and emotions. It works on many different levels. On one hand, we can take it as a broad spoof of both superhero conventions as well as Bond flicks. Indeed, despite its comic book-style characters, Incredibles often has a lot more in common with Bond efforts. For sure, it takes its stylistic cues from that camp, as the movie’s Sixties look and sound feels like they come straight from pictures like Thunderball or Goldfinger. Heck, Michael Giacchino’s score sounds as though John Barry wrote it!

But Incredibles broadens well beyond simple spy/superhero parody with its other notions. The examination of the superhero family is clever and also a nod to the Sixties via Marvel’s “Silver Age” in which they made their new heroes like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four more human than their predecessors.

Incredibles doesn’t use the family elements as a gimmick, however. It plays much of that side of things semi-straight, which gives it a considerable impact. The movie doesn’t develop all the personalities equally - really, Violet and Dash get very little exposition - but it provides enough for us to invest in them and worry about them. Do we truly believe the movie will kill off any of them? No, but it puts them in enough danger to make us concerned.

This also gives the film a warmth and depth it easily could have lacked. There’s a naturalism to the interactions that gives the story range, and it also loses the simple moralizing of most animated films. Yeah, it gets into “be true to yourself” or some such nonsense, but it never beats us over the head with its concepts.

Even if you ignore the character interactions and emotional dimensions, you’ll probably enjoy Incredibles as a straight action romp. The movie’s first half seems a little light on those segments, but the rest of the flick pours on plenty of great sequences. The attack on Helen’s plane is a real nail-biter, and the climactic battle in the streets also makes a mark. In between we find many exciting and fun bits like the one in which Dash finally gets to let loose. The movie gleefully conveys his exhilaration as well as his fear in this terrific segment.

Of course, Incredibles tosses in plenty of low-key humor as well. This isn’t a broad belly-buster of a movie, and that’s more than fine with me. Instead, it gets most of its laughs from fairly subtle gags, and that makes them more endearing than the usual wild antics. We find clever, creative moments like the one in which Elastigirl infiltrates Syndrome’s compound and becomes stuck in three different doors; it’s tense and funny at the same time.

I also like the quirky touches like the drinking game created by Syndrome’s henchmen: when someone shoots at the Omnidroid, they down a shot. Some of these jokes fall in the “blink and you’ll miss them” category, but things like that make additional screenings of the flick worthwhile. It seems likely that you’ll pick up on previously missed nuances with each new viewing.

Not everything about Incredibles soars. I’m not wild about the pacing, as it loses track of some story elements for too long. Frozone vanishes for a considerable period, and that comes as a disappointment as he’s a cool character. As I already noted, the kids don’t get a lot of elaboration either, and they occasional become lost in the shuffle.

Ultimately, these minor complaints don’t mean much, though. There’s simply too much to love about The Incredibles for me to fret over some minor quibbles. A consistently warm, rich and inventive movie, it works on almost every level to become a classic.

The DVD Grades: Picture A+/ Audio A/ Bonus A+
The Incredibles appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.39:1 on this single-sided, double-layered DVD; the image has been enhanced for 16X9 televisions. To date, the worst picture grade I’ve given to a Pixar DVD was the “A” earned by Toy Story. The other four received “A+” marks, and the same followed for the flawless transfer of Incredibles.

At no point did sharpness appear anything other than stellar. Even in the widest shots, the image remained tight and rock-solid. I never noticed a hint of softness in this tight, detailed presentation. In addition, no concerns with jagged edges or shimmering popped up, and I saw no signs of edge enhancement. As with all the other Pixar flicks, this transfer came straight from the digital source, so it lacked any form of distracting defects.

With its stylized Sixties look, Incredibles presented a broad palette, and the DVD replicated those hues wonderfully. It veered from bright, warm tones to quieter, more subdued colors with ease and made all of them look vivid and distinctive. Blacks were deep and dense, and the shadows - of which we got more than usual for an animated movie - seemed smooth and accurately rendered. I’ve come to anticipate excellent visuals from Pixar DVDs, and this one lived up to expectations.

Although the audio of the other Pixar DVDs wasn’t quite as impressive, the studio nonetheless always presents strong soundtracks. The lowest audio grades I’ve ever issued to a Pixar DVD were the “A-“ marks I rated Toy Story and Nemo. Incredibles offered yet another solid mix that enhanced the material.

Actually, Incredibles may well be the best of the Pixar soundtracks since it boasted the liveliest material. With all the superhero action, the movie had many chances to make great use of the five channels, and it lived up to those expectations. At all times, the movie created a good sense of environment and utilized the different speakers to its advantage. Elements were well-placed and blended smoothly, and that included liberal use of localized speech; voices came from logical spots in the spectrum. Music also presented nice stereo imaging.

Of course, the action sequences were the most memorable. From start to finish, those helped place us in the world of the heroes, as the battles and destruction came from all around us. For possibly the most fun pieces, look at those in which Dash runs around the room. Others also came across as winning and involving too, and they helped make the mix very involving.

Audio quality kept up with the high standards of the rest of the package. Speech always sounded natural and warm, with no edginess or intelligibility issues. The brassy score was bright and vivid, as the track punched the music well. Effects finished things with accurate, dynamic audio that represented the elements in a lively manner. Bass response remained consistently deep and firm, as the low-end added solid punch to the track. The audio wasn’t quite good enough to match with the picture’s “A+”, but it definitely merited a straight “A”.

Yet another packed 2-DVD special edition, the fun starts on Disc One with two separate audio commentaries. The first comes from director Brad Bird and producer John Walker, both of whom sit together for this running, screen-specific track. Recorded almost exactly two months before the movie opened, Bird and Walker didn’t know how it’d be received, but that didn’t stop them from providing a peppy and optimistic look at their film.

Bird dominates as the pair discuss a mix of production issues. We get notes about story and character concerns, cut and altered scenes, influences and inspirations, technical challenges and general comments about the movie’s creation. On the negative side, some of the time the pair just praise the folks who worked on the movie. However, we still find much insight into the various processes, and Bird comes across as passionate about his work. Amusingly, he threatens to punch the next person who refers to animation as a “genre” and he clearly really gets into his job. The surfeit of praise keeps this from becoming a great commentary, but it presents more than enough information to satisfy.

For the second commentary, we hear from supervising animators Tony Fucile, Steven Hunter and Alan Barillaro plus animators Gini Cruz Santos, Dave Devan, Kureha Yokoo, Dave Mullins, John Kahrs, Robert Russ, Angus MacLane, Travis Hathaway, Doug Frankel, and Peter Sohn. All of them sit together for this running, screen-specific track. With such a huge roster of participants, it becomes tough to keep score. I can’t be sure, but it sounds like the three supervising animators sit together for their parts while the other animators are with each other for theirs.

Whatever the alignment may be, the commentary edits together neatly and works well. As one might expect, it focuses mainly on technical animation concerns. A particular focus looks at all the animators who came from the world of cel work and the challenges they faced as they moved to CG and its three dimensions. We also find nice notes about character design and the work of the voice actors, visual problems and inspirations, story issues, working with Bird, the movie’s look, and general technical topics. Some of the more intriguing remarks go into actors considered to play Mr. Incredible; names like George Clooney and Harrison Ford appear. I also like the information about how the Rankin-Bass “animagic” shows influenced their work, and a lot of affectionate mockery of Bird’s intense style gives the track humor and life. The commentary moves briskly and gives us a solid examination of the animation processes.

Director Bird gives us an introduction to the film. In this 60-second clip, he offers an overview of the DVD set and also recommends we use the THX Optimizer. It’s not a terribly interesting piece, but it helps lead us into the product.

As the DVD starts, we encounter a mix of ads. We find trailers for Cinderella, Chicken Little, and Cars. These also appear in the disc’s Sneak Peeks domain along with promos for Lilo & Stitch: Stitch Has a Glitch, The Cat Returns, Porco Rosso, Nausicaa, an Incredibles videogame and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror theme park attraction.

Lastly, DVD One features the THX Optimizer. Also found on many other DVDs, this purports to help you set up your system for the best reproduction of both picture and sound, ala stand-alone programs such as Video Essentials. I’ve never tried the Optimizer since I’m happy with my settings, but if you don’t own something such as Essentials, the Optimizer may help you improve picture and audio quality.

At the open of DVD Two, we get another introduction. In this 50-second snippet, Bird again sets up what we’ll find on the disc.

Fans will be happy to encounter the new animated short Jack-Jack Attack. Presented anamorphic 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, the four-minute and 43-second cartoon follows what happened to Kari the babysitter while the family was off battling Syndrome. It’s a highly entertaining piece.

A second short appears here as well. Boundin’ accompanied theatrical screenings of Incredibles. Also anamorphic 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, the four-minute and 41-second cartoon depicts a lamb with a glorious coat who loses his sense of self when a farmer shears his wool. It’s a cutesy short that doesn’t do much for me, perhaps because the western motif presents some annoying music.

We can watch the short with or without commentary from writer/director/narrator Bud Luckey. He discusses visual influences, his own background, story and character inspirations, music and technical elements. It’s fun to hear all the cannibalized parts of the cartoon, as Luckey mentions that he used a vehicle from Cars and a character from Nemo. Luckey presents a quick but informative chat.

A little more information about the animator appears in Who Is Bud Luckey? The three-minute and 56-second featurette presents comments from Luckey, Bird, executive producer John Lasseter, Monsters Inc. director Pete Docter, and Pixar president Ed Catmull. They let us know about Luckey’s career and his work on “Boundin’”. A little of the information related to the short repeats from Luckey’s commentary, but we get nice insight into the animator and his other work.

Six deleted scenes pop up next. Including introductions, these fill a total of 34 minutes and 34 seconds. The longest and most significant of these is the “Alternate Opening”. It would have started the movie with a different tone and it would have altered the ending as well; some of the material from the actual conclusion shows up in the “Alternate Opening”. We also see a deleted character - Snug, Helen’s old pilot - and a few smaller bits that didn’t make the cut. None of them come in animated form; they’re all storyreels that consist of storyboards and audio. Despite that, they’re a lot of fun to see.

The inclusion of introductions and other discussion from Bird and story supervisor Mark Andrews helps make this area more interesting. Bird does the majority of the talking as he gives us notes on where the scenes would have gone in the movie, what he liked and disliked about them, and why they were cut. The material gives us lots of fine facts.

A number of pieces appear within the “Behind the Scenes” domain. First comes a 27-minute and 23-second documentary called The Making of The Incredibles. It consists of movie clips, behind the scenes bits, and interviews. We hear from Bird, Lasseter, Walker, Kahrs, Sohn, Barillaro, Hunter, MacLane, Fucile, Andrews, editor Stephen Schaffer, co-director of photography Andrew Jimenez, character designer Teddy Newton, production designer Lou Romano, animators Bret Parker and Jim Murphy, character technical artist Mark Therrell, art director Ralph Eggleston, production manager Katherine Sarafian, composer Michael Giacchino, sets sequence supervisor Nigel Hardwidge, character supervisor Bill Wise, and supervising technical director Rick Sayre.

A wide variety of subjects are covered here. The program goes into Bird’s strong personality and how he came to Pixar from the 2-D world, origins of the film and its development, character decisions, moving from 2-D to 3-D, the score, approaches to the animation, the three supervising animators, videotapes of the animators as they work out acting, technical specifics, challenges connected to the rendering of humans, the emphasis on stories and depth at Pixar, elements of Bird in various characters, battles between Bird and producer Walker and various changes.

What you won’t find in “Making”: a clear, concise part “A” to part “B” synopsis of the production. While it starts with Day One - literally - of Bird’s tenure at Pixar plus the origins of the project, it soon hops around the various aspects of the movie’s creation. What you will find: a lot of good insight into the film and its participants. Some of the usual happy talk pops up, but we also get more than a few frank moments. More than a few arguments pop up due to Bird’s passionate personality, and we see them in all their glory.

Behind the scenes footage acts as the star of this piece. Some of the information offered already appears in the commentaries, but the inclusion of the video shots from the workrooms adds a lot of spark here. Plenty of new material appears as well, and we get solid details about a number of issues. I admit I’d have preferred a more logically delineated documentary, but this one nonetheless fills out the subjects well.

Additional information crops up via the outtakes piece entitled More Making of The Incredibles. It provides 40 minutes and 52 seconds of segments that didn’t make the standard documentary. Here we find notes from Bird, Andrews, Walker, Schaffer, Jimenez, Romano, Eggleston, Newton, Fucile, Sayre, Wise, Therrell, Giacchino, Hunter, Mullins, shading art director Bryn Imagire, cloth development lead Christine Waggoner, hair and cloth simulation supervisor Mark Thomas Henne, software team lead Andy Witkin, technical artist Bill Sheffler, musician Rick Baptist and Clayton Haslop, conductor/orchestrator Tim Simonec, recording engineer Dan Wallin, director of photography Janet Lucroy, software team leads Karon Weber and Tom Hahn, and sound designer Randy Thom.

A more intentionally fragmented program, this one goes through a number of topics. It gets into story development and fitting unique sequences together, story pitches and animatics, character design, specifics about “E”, making humans both realistic and stylized, problems with clothing, hair and muscles, creating digital extras with “Universal Man”, the film’s many sets and environment, sound design and music, lighting, and software tools.

Oddly, though this collection of clips doesn’t try to blend them together, it flows better than the main “Making” show. The latter’s shifts feel more awkward because they come without natural pauses, whereas “More” clearly stops and starts its snippets.

Both provide similarly useful information. “More” digs into quite a few tasty topics and really helps flesh out our understanding of the flick. It repeats little from the commentaries as it goes over many neat subjects and gives us a lot of insight.

A form of “blooper reel” appears with Incredi-Blunders. The 103-second clip shows the usual assortment of freaky rendering errors. In an amusing touch, though, it comes with its own laugh track! That cheesy choice actually makes the goofs funnier.

An unusual piece, Vowellet - An Essay By Sarah Vowell consists of a kind of video diary created by the voice actor. In this nine-minute and 24-second piece, she chats about her real life as a historical writer and other facets of her personality. She also discusses her work on the film, and we see some outtakes from Incredibles plus a test reel for Violet. It’s a funny and intriguing look at the person behind the voice made more interesting since acting isn’t her focus.

Within the Art Gallery, we go into six different areas. The domain includes “Story” (11 frames), “Character Design” (26), “Set Design” (10), “Color Scripts” (14), “Lighting” (26) and “Collages” (19). Compared to other Disney DVDs, this section doesn’t include as many stills as usual, but they’re all quite good. They offer a solid examination of the visual elements used to create the flick.

Inside “Publicity” we get three trailers. We find a “teaser” along with two full theatrical ads. The teaser is the best since it shows footage not meant for the movie.

”Publicity” also gives us six minutes and 31 seconds of Character Interviews. This puts Mr. Incredible in a situation with KABC TV’s George Pennacchio, Elastigirl with Access Hollywood’s Nancy O’Dell, Extra’s Jerry Penacoli with Frozone, and E!’s Patrick Stinson with Edna. The original actors supply the voices, but they don’t make this anything more than a cute trifle.

After this we go to an area called “Top Secret”. Its first element is a fabricated kiddie cartoon show named Mr. Incredible and Pals. We see a four-minute and two-second clip in which Mr. Incredible and Frozone work with Mr. Skipperdoo, a bespectacled rabbit. It’s appropriately crappy and also very entertaining, partially due to its short length; it’d get old if it lasted much longer.

We can watch “Pals” with or without commentary from Mr. Incredible and Frozone. Voiced by Nelson and Jackson, they bicker about the quality of the program; Frozone hates it while Incredible defends the program. It’s quite good and might be funnier than the show itself.

Also in “Top Secret”, we get NSA Files. This presents information about 21 superheroes and also gives notes about three superhero groups. Not only does the section show text details about the heroes’ powers and personalities, but also sound bites appear in which the heroes chat about themselves. This becomes a cool and creative extra that’s a lot of fun, especially the audio clips; those are tremendous fun, and they demonstrate that the folks behind this area put a lot of effort into it.

Helpful element: absolutely every extra includes subtitles in English, Spanish and French. That includes the trailers and even the commentaries! Very few DVDs do this and it’s a very welcome touch.

If you thought The Incredibles might end Pixar’s amazing string of success, you thought wrong. Six films, six huge hits - they’re the most reliable studio we’re likely to ever find. Actually, I admit I wasn’t wild about their two efforts prior to Incredibles, but this terrific flick firmly brings me back into the fold. It combines parody with homage to create a warm, witty, exciting and very endearing action flick.

Unsurprisingly, the DVD lives up to the studio’s extremely high standards as well. Once again we get virtually flawless picture quality, and the movie also boasts excellent audio. Extras round out the experience well, as they give us a rich and informative examination of the flick’s creation. A great DVD for a wonderful movie, The Incredibles earns my highest endorsement. Snag this one as soon as you can.

Viewer Film Ratings: 4.1612 Stars Number of Votes: 93

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