Tuesday 22 July 2014

Aladdin

First off, the presentation is a knockout. Restored and cleaned up for the DVD release, the 1992 film looks grand, with the strong color scheme brought to a new level of vitality. The "Disney Enhanced" 5.1 sound is a bit warmer and robust than the standard 5.1 Dolby sound (also included). Disney has honed its ability to present a vast amount of information smoothly. "A Diamond in the Rough," the two-hour documentary, can be viewed three ways: via an index (with the duration of each segment nicely noted), an interactive menu, or a simple one-click "play all" mode. Add the information from the two new commentary tracks (one by the directors and producers, the other--much more amusing--by four character animators), and you can digest that even though Beauty and the Beast may have been more prestigious, Aladdin was much more challenging and fun to animate. A town hall-type retrospective brings together many of the talents to Robin Williams's lack of participation in the DVD is evident (he does appear--in rare form--in the vintage recording-session footage). In a nice change from the usual Disney sheen, the original story that was radically changed is discussed and deleted scenes are shown.
reminisce but, alas,

Another spotlight is on the music with four deleted songs on display with their rough animation (which was also deleted). One song, "Proud of Your Boy," receives an orchestral version with none other than Clay Aiken crooning the tune. For the kids, the games are quite lame, but a must-see--on the biggest screen possible--is the Magic Carpet Adventure. Like The Lion King DVD's "Virtual Safari," viewers race through the settings of the movie as if we are on a theme-park ride--without the motion. The adults will want to view it and might be needed to solve the puzzle via some quick inputting from the DVD remote. --Doug Thomas




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Monday 21 July 2014

Tangled

 

 Disney presents a new twist on one of the most hilarious and hair-raising tales ever told. Your whole family will get tangled up in the fun, excitement and adventure of this magical motion picture.
When the kingdom's most wanted - and most charming - bandit Flynn Rider hides in a mysterious tower, the last thing he expects to find is Rapunzel, a spirited teen with an unlikely superpower - 70 feet of magical golden hair! Together, the unlikely duo sets off on a fantastic journey filled with surprising heroes, laughter and suspense.
Let your hair down and get ready to cheer for "Tangled." Bursting with never-before-seen bonus features, it's even more enchanting on Blu-ray Hi-Def.

http://amzn.to/Uj4FhI

 Tangled, Disney's version of the oft-refashioned folk tale Rapunzel, is the studio's 50th animated film and one that is destined for classic status.
The Synopsis:
This latest retelling begins with a tiny piece of sunlight falling to earth and a magical golden flower sprouting where it lands. The flower, and its ability to restore youth, is discovered, used and kept secret by Mother Gothel. When the kingdom's beloved queen falls ill, a search for the flower (apparently its existence wasn't *completely* secret) is successfully undertaken and the healing potion brewed from it restores the queen's health. The flower's magical abilities are also transferred to the hair of the queen's unborn child, Rapunzel. When Mother Gothel discovers this and learns that the magical properties are only retained as long as the hair remains uncut, she kidnaps Rapunzel and raises her as her own child. Claiming that she wants to keep Rapunzel safe from a frightening world full of danger and thugs, Mother Gothel locks her away in a remote tower. While her hair (almost a character in and of itself) grows longer and longer, Rapunzel blossoms into a surprisingly well-adjusted young woman and gifted artist who longs to see the world - particularly the mysterious lights that appear in the night sky each year on her birthday.


Enter our amusing narrator, Flynn Rider, a roguish thief who has just stolen a tiara and is on the run from palace guards when he comes across Rapunzel's tower and takes refuge there. The very competent Rapunzel restrains Flynn, hides the tiara and strikes a bargain with him - she will return the tiara to him if he will agree to take her to see those mysterious lights, which he tells her are floating lanterns. 


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Product Details

  • Actors: Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi, Donna Murphy, Ron Perlman, M.C. Gainey
  • Directors: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
  • Format: Multiple Formats, AC-3, Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
  • Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
  • Subtitles: Spanish, English
  • Dubbed: French, Spanish
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
  • Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
  • DVD Release Date: March 29, 2011
  • Run Time: 100 minutes

Sunday 20 July 2014

The Land Before Time


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A lot of people are commenting about how negative and depressing this movie is. Well, not all kids are looking for a rainbows-and-cotton-candy kind of film. This was one of my favorite movies as a child. Sure, maybe I was a little aloof to what was really happening, but I found nothing depressing about the film. Yes, it's sad and yes the happy ending isn't a disney-type happy, but I'm sure that doesn't really matter to most kids.

 This is one of those films that I expected to enjoy much less than many of my family's Disney favorites. As it turned out, both my children and my wife and I like the movie immensely.
The touching story of Little Foot, the last remaining member of his family of Brontosauruses (Brontosauri?), is a great adventure as well. He joins up with younger members of other dinosaur families as they all journey to the Great Valley in search of food.
Along the way they encounter hunger, thirst, earthquakes, and, not least of all, the dreaded Sharptooth. The feel of the dinosaur age is well presented and the characters are cute without being saccharine (and they don't sing!).
The lesson that friends can be friends even though they don't look like you or act just like you is a nice one for kids to see. The idea that working together is important for reaching a goal is also a valuable one.
Having owned a VHS copy of the movie, I was anxious to see the DVD. The result on this particular version is very dissappointing.
First, the version is full-screen with no wide-screen option. This seems to be a minor problem since most of the action seems to take place center screen. It would have been nice to have the option for widescreen, however.
Secondly, the color and brightness varies widely from scene to scene (and, more jarringly, sometimes within a scene). The opening scene, which starts underwater, is actually darker and less sharp than on the VHS version. In several quiet, close-up scenes the picture will be perfectly exposed and then the picture will shift to a darker look and then back. Very annoying. Various nicks and scratches appear throughout the film - it appears that no effort was made to clean up the video master at all.
There were also no extras on the disc at all, and at the price of this DVD, you would expect a little more than just the movie and chapter selections. Disney issued their first few DVDs with little problems like this: no widescreen option, varying degrees of video quality, etc. They however, have moved to a more consistent product over the last six months. Hopefully, movies like The Land Before Time will be given better treatment in the future. This one in particular deserves better than it got.

Sunday 20 April 2014

Cinderella

Cinderella

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Format:Animated,Closed-captioned,Color,NTSC,Subtitled

Binding:DVD

Manufacturer:Disney

The public made CINDERELLA one of the highest-grossing films of the year and Disney's most successful release since BAMBI. In fact, it was one of the top-grossing films of 1950, pulling in $4 million during its initial release.

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Stunning new 2-disc `Platinum Edition' of Disney's 1950 fairytale confection CINDERELLA. The story is as old as the hills: Cinderella is mistreated horribly by her cruel Stepmother and stepsisters Anastasia and Drisella. Her only friends are some pet mice, the birds and her faithful dog and horse. When the Prince invites all the eligible maidens in the land to his grand ball, Cinderella is heartbroken when her Stepmother forbids her to go. Enter the magical Fairy Godmother, who, with a little 'Bibiddi Bobiddi Boo' magic, enables Cinderella to live out her happily-ever-after dream.

From a historical perspective, the Disney studio was pinning it's future on the success of CINDERELLA. World War II had virtually wiped out the studio's international market and films like PINOCCHIO, BAMBI and FANTASIA had lost a lot of money on their initial releases.

Disney has performed a complete restoration on the film, including an extensive frame-by-frame cleanup of the original camera negative and the result is eye-popping (almost alarmingly-so as every hint of speckle, dirt and debris has been removed). The film looks showroom-new and it's hard to believe the thing was actually made over 50 years ago. Likewise the soundtrack has been sweetened with Disney furnishing the film with an all-new 'Enhanced Home Theatre' 5.1 mix. But purists need not worry, as the original mono soundtrack is also included.

There are some fantastic extras on Disc Two including an all-new `Making-Of' documentary which features recent interviews with Ilene Woods (voice of Cinderella), Mike Douglas (the Prince) and Lucille Bliss (Anastasia). 'The Art of Mary Blair' is an invaluable look into the life of the revered Disney concept artist and designer; 'The Cinderella That Almost Was' hosted by Don Hahn explores the scenes, songs and characters that were considered but eventually cut from the final film. 'Disney's Nine Old Men' is a charming segment hosted by Joel Siegel which has the leading Disney animators of today remembering the trailblazers who created the classic Disney animated masterpieces.

There is also a charming clip from Perry Como's television show which publicised the film with a performance from Ilene Woods. A clip from 'The Mickey Mouse Club' features Helene Stanley (the live-action reference model for the Cinderella character) enacting a scene with the help of the Mouseketeers. There are also extensive galleries, interactive games and DVD-ROM components.

There are however some needless (and downright questionable) extras like the ESPN Classic 'Cinderella Stories' programme, which profiles sport celebrities and their rise to fame. Just what exactly does all this have to do with Disney's Cinderella? Plain boring old filler. That said, the rest of the package is outstanding. For Disney collectors and families everywhere, this is a must-own.

Saturday 19 April 2014

5 best traditionally animated Disney movies

5 best traditionally animated Disney movies

After almost three years the suspected operators of a private BitTorrent tracker have finally been prosecuted for their alleged crimes. Said to be one of Sweden's biggest file-sharing cases in terms of content shared, the pair face accusations they spread at least 1,000 movies, some which belonged to Warner Bros. and Disney.

warnerpirateWhile pressure is being applied to file-sharing sites all the time in various ways, overall there seems to be a reduced appetite for expensive litigation. In Sweden, however, direct prosecutions of file-sharers are still raising their head.

The latest involves two men who were arrested way back in 2011. They are the suspected operators of a private tracker called eXcelleNT, or XNT.nu as it was publicly known. The site launched in 2010 and in its first year accumulated some 17,000 users who between them uploaded around 30,000 torrents.

Among those torrents were copyrighted Hollywood movies and TV shows, something which triggered an investigation by anti-piracy group AntipiratbyrĂ„n. In May 2011, police in BorlĂ€nge, Sweden, arrested one of the men, moving on to Stockholm where they arrested another. Computers were seized locally, plus XNT’s server in Germany.

The men were soon released, leaving them to speculate on their fate.

“Since we haven’t heard much from the police after being released, much of the information in this post is speculations,” one of the men wrote on the XNT blog.

“Anyhow, we’ll have to assume that the police is running an investigation. Since they confiscated almost 10 computers in this bust it’s probably going to take a while. For the time being, we are living life as usual. Minus all the tracker stuff of course.”

It did indeed take a while. Yesterday, almost three years after the raids, prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad announced that the men had been prosecuted and would be heading to court.

“This is one of the largest cases in terms of number of films distributed,” Ingblad told the Siren news agency.

The case, which received support from German authorities, centers around the unauthorized distribution of some 1,050 movies between March and May 2011, including content owned by Warner Bros. and Disney.

The men, now aged 23 and 24, face fines or potential jail sentences when they appear later in the year. Both are believed to have offered some level of confession.

In December 2012 it was reported that a man suspected of being an active XNT user was acquitted of copyright offenses after police were unable to decrypt his hard drive.

The Top 5 Disney Princess Movies

Trying to decide what the best all time Disney movie is not an easy task to do, but trying to determine what the top five Disney princess movies are is even harder. One of the best things about the Disney princess movies are how much they have influenced kids of all ages. Little girls enjoy princess dress up clothes even more so because of the Disney princesses. Putting on that Cinderella costume or even a Snow White dress allows them to dream that someday they will find a prince.

Princess dress up clothes even encourages socialization in kids because of the role-playing involved. Sure, any girl that puts on a Cinderella costume or a Snow White dress is going to think they are Cinderella or Snow White. However, the princess dress up clothes also encourage boys to role-play because they can be the prince that rescues Cinderella or Snow White from an evil stepmother. However, in order to learn how to play the role of Cinderella, Snow White or any of the other princesses the children have to watch the top Disney Princess movies.

First, Cinderella is one of the best Disney Princess movies out there; almost every child imagines twirling around a ballroom dressed just like Cinderella. The movie is one of the classics, but is still enjoyed by many today. A Cinderella costume is easy to find in most retailers because of how popular Cinderella is as a princess.

Second, Snow White is another classic fairy tale that has been told by Disney. However, the ending in the Disney version is far different from the original fairy tale much more suiting for a princess story. However, it is the Disney Snow white dress that is used when creating a Snow White Costume because of ho popular the Disney version is compared to the original.

Third, Little Mermaid is not the newest Disney princess, but she is not a classic either. However, her movie The Little Mermaid is one of the most popular Disney movies. The movie has won many awards, but stands out because of how much character Ariel has, especially when compared to the other princesses. Like the other princess movies it is good versus evil in the end, and of course good wins over evil.

Fourth, Aladdin is another popular Disney princess movie, even though the focus is not on the princess. Aladdin is the main character of the movie and he wins over Princess Jasmine by pretending he is a prince when he is really a pauper. The Genie makes the movie even better than imaginable, which is what causes everyone to remember it. Jasmine costumes are a hit with adults for Halloween.

Fifth, The Princess and the Frog is the newest Disney princess movie and is already quite popular. Many people enjoy the movie because it features the first African American Disney princesses, but the story line is also great. The story takes place in New Orleans and features some great jazz music. While Tiana's costumes have not caught on yet, it is only a matter of time.


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