The Beatles: The Making of A Hard Day's Night
The Making of Jurassic Park
Meet Me in St Louis 50th Anniversary Edition
The Muppet Christmas Carol
The Music Man
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (RSC Production)
1941 Signature Collection
Oklahoma!
Monty Python's Parrot Sketch Not Included
Pinocchio
The Beatles Live: Ready Steady Go!
U2: Rattle and Hum
The Rocketeer
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This is a nice companion piece for me. I don't have a copy of the movie itself, although I do have Voyager's CD-ROM version, which allows me the best of both worlds: the CD-ROM's interactivity and the laserdisc's picture quality, with little overlap in between. But enough about me. The documentary is an informative look into the making of the movie. The bulk of it is made up of recent videotaped interviews, punctuated by sound bites from the film. The Beatles do not appear, although George's voice is heard in a contemporary interview. The disc also boasts the original trailer (a re-release trailer was included in Criterion's version), a French trailer, and one deleted scene: "You Can't Do That" performed as part of the movie's TV show, which also gives the disc its name. The videotape footage is sharp and bright, the movie footage looks much the same but still looks good; but the disc is right up near the top of the list for bad side breaks.
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The back jacket says the disc is fifty minutes long but this refers only side one. This side is basically the NBC TV special, slightly extended. I probably should know this, but I can not say what changes were made. They must've been good, because I found the documentary more interesting than when I first saw it on TV. It also is more informative and includes better footage than side two in illustrating the movie's making. Scenes from the film, however, pale in comparison the THX-approved release; in fact, the blacks, as shown here, look posterized. Side two provides some elaboration to what is discussed on side one, including a grainily videotaped preproduction meeting, some videotaped location scouting, an outtake or two from the documentary, and, probably the highlight of the side, Phil Tippett's animated storyboards. It's obvious the filmmakers stayed close to their original intent, since these cheaply animated but still effective "storyboards" play like mini-visions of the film. It also proves that Jurassic Park still would've been a great monster movie if the decision had been made to stick with stop-motion animation. This animation is provided in CAV in side two, but unfortunately the CGI animation discussed in depth on side one, is not.
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This movie is a favorite of my mom's. Filled with lovely songs, beautiful sets and photography, and a winning nostalgic story, it makes a great film for and about the family. It's debatable it requires CAV capability, but I'm a fan of the format and will not gainsay it. It at least allows me to study the busy Smith house and also freeze-frame Judy Garland in her prime. MGM and Turner have remixed the music into stereo, including a stereo music-only analog track. The music sounds nice and has a decent separation on the analog track -- and the soundtrack CD which accompanies the box -- but this is not so on the digital film soundtrack. The music has been overlayed over the existing sound, so that its stereo separation is not as noticeable. The movie is spread to four sides with decent side breaks. The picture, in gloriously rich Techicolor, is gorgeous, but some shots appear softly focused. Side five is a documentary of the making of the movie, narrated by Roddy McDowell. It includes recent filmed interiews with actresses Margaret O'Brien and Lucille Bremer. It's probably impolite of me to mention, but the juxtaposition between Bremer youthful and lovely in the movie and her current appearance is particularly saddening. MGM continues to open the Judy Garland vault, as they did on their The Ultimate Oz box, by including outtakes and alternate takes on the analog tracks. The documentary is only around thirty-five minutes long but the disc continues, in black and in silence, another twenty minutes to accomodate the analog musical extras.
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The disc is letterboxed at 1.85:1 and provides much more information on the sides, and a little on the top and bottom, than its panned and scanned VHS counterpart. The cinematography is quite well done and the sets and Muppets provide lots of color. Paul Williams' songs are catchy (despite what my dad says) and the movie is quite enjoyable. Michael Caine's Scrooge is particularly effective, especially his climactic reclaimation. A tip of the hat to Jerry Juhl, responsible for the screenplay, for maintaining much of the poetical descriptions and conversations in the wondeful Dickens original. It's remarkable that a movie which so definitely revises the tale manages to still be quite faithful. The disc features an adequately clean side break, noticeable in that although the video cuts to black, the bell sound effect continues; but if they'd been equally creative about twenty minutes later, they could've managed to get side two in CAV, allowing us to study some of their well-done special effects.
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I'd seen this enough times on TV, panned and scanned and with faded colors, that now to see it on disc is quite remarkable. The movie is widescreen, providing much more picture information on the sides; strangely this edition framed differently than TV versions I've seen, providing less image at the top (on the train, at the beginning, the salesmen's traveling cases are visible on the VHS copy) but much more on the bottom. Regardless, it's a treat just to see The Buffalo Bills singing all at once. The colors are fresh and strong. The stereo sound is good, but there are several snits and pops. The music is quite robust, if not downright intrusive, frequently coming to a life with startling abruptness. Robert Preston's performance is vivid and the movie's charms longlasting.
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The Royal Shakespeare Company's acclaimed adaptation of this Charles Dickens novel was originally staged in 1980/81. Performed as two separate four hour plays, it was videotaped for British television. I remember seeing it presented on three nights syndicated to local TV, and have never forgotten the event. It's a great thrill to finally be able to see it again. This Nickleby is a successful blending of a taped live performance and one done specifically for the television cameras. In this way, the actors are able to speak intimately to the viewer yet still allow the action to spill out into the theater audience. The play is a total, sheer, brilliant delight. It would be difficult for TV cameras to capture all the action on stage, but a capable job has been done. The video quality is at times grainy and pale, but this seems to typify PAL transfers of this time. It might've been nice if Image had slightly letterboxed the PAL image, since framing at the top is tight in places. The sound is boisterous; not only is the music in stereo, but so are the performers. The soundtrack shows its age somewhat with a bit of bleed-through when the actors get loud. The play is presented in nine chapters on nine sides, each about fifty-five minutes long, with adequate chapter markings. A&E, which revived the production on their network (and had previously released it in a VHS box set) has chosen to append the opening and closing credits to the chapters, breaking up the flow of the piece and the drama at each climax. Nevetheless, the play is a triumph.
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I guess I lucked out. I've only been collecting discs for a couple years so I did not have to be strung-along like many others, waiting eight years for this box set to finally be released. It's difficult to say if it is worth the wait. The movie has been expanded from its original theatrical version, adding twenty-eight minutes of deleted scenes and scene extensions. For the most part these are subtle additions, usually adding a stretch of dialogue to certain scenes, and on occasion restoring complete scenes. Some of these additions show their age, appearing faded and yellowed in an otherwise colorful sequence. The movie is as hazy and foggy as its theatrical version, which the disc handles capably. The colorful scenes, in the USO for instance, are still just as colorful. The movie is widescreen but doesn't add much more to the sides than the full-screen VHS version; a comparison, however, reveals why: the full-screen release was severely squashed, compressing the image so that more of the sides is visible than usual, but also turning all the cast members thin and gaunt. The letterboxing corrects this. The new audio mix is problematic, done in stereo surround for this release (mostly noticeable in the score). The dialogue is distorted and overmodulated (they probably blew out their microphones with all that shouting and screaming) and sometimes is almost buried by the music mix. An added bonus is the John Williams score isolated in stereo on the analog tracks. Some of the musical takes differ from their counterparts however, most noticeably in the USO Jitterbug dance; a bonus, I guess. The movie is spread to five sides in CAV. Supplements appear in CLV on sides six and seven, featuring extensive new interviews with Spielberg and his crew, and home movies and background footage. The structure is similar to Spielberg's Signature Collection Jaws box, but here, side eight, once again under a half hour, is thoughtfully provided in CAV.
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The version to which I refer is the recent THX-approved release, from the original 70mm Todd-AO print. It was shot at a groundbreaking 30 fps, the first movie in Todd AO's new widescreen process. As the informative liner notes say, in order to recoup their investment the filmmaker were forced to shoot each twice, once in Todd-AO and once in conventional widescreen. Therefore, this new version is both completely the same and completely different from the version with which most people are familiar. Remarkably, although this version is the director's preferred version the more conventional version superseded it. It's amazing how many great songs this musical has, and stars Gordon MacRae and Shirley Jones perform them beautifully. The colors are strong though age has yellowed and tinted some scenes. The stereo audio is quite strong, although the "Kansas City" scene is reversed. The movie is CLV on three sides and includes an Overture, Entr'Acte, and Exit Music.
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I'm still sore at Paramount over their poor treatment of Python. It's ridiculous that their discs contain only three episodes, mimicking the videoptape releases. I've been boycotting them, therefore, but bent the rules just enough to get this Python best-of sampler. The image is faithful to the original, not looking all that much better than when the shows were first aired. The producers do a clever and well-appreciated job of stringing the disparate sketches along in the stream-of-consciousness approach of the original episodes. The flow therefore makes the abrupt side break even more jarring. Steve Martin introduces and closes the show, originally aired on Showtime; the sequence is well-intentioned but hurt by an obvious laugh track. The extra footage, touted to the extreme on the cover, turns out to be leftovers from the Python specials filmed for Germany. This is a shame, because there Flying Circus TV marterial does exist which has not been shown in America.
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This was one of the first attempts in Disney's restoration program. I'm hesitant to say it's one of the best. The colors are bright and strong, but this is part of the problem. The company claims that the darkening of the film, which they would rectify, was due to age, but I always found this one of its charms. It had a look of, dare I say it, old wood, dark and smokey, and the image now seems much too bright. In some scenes, noticeable in slo-mo on this CAV presentation, there's some strobing of the brightly colored characters against the darker backgrounds. Nevertheless, the animation is superb and the sound, generated in stereo (though, since this is an earlier laserdisc release, Disney had not yet begun to include the original mono soundtrack on the analog track; a pity), is quite nice and clean. Since the movie is spread to four sides the side breaks are well chosen. The set comes with a nicely illustrated and informative brochure, a mono soundtrack CD with detailed booklet, and a supplemental laserdisc. This disc, narrated by Robbie Benson, comes off more as a trailer for Beauty and the Beast than the making of Pinocchio. In comparison to more recent releases, the supplements are quite scarce. Side two contains the better stuff, including backgrounds and character studies, and a serialized newspaper comic strip. Both sides are quite short, and pale in comparison to later, more full-bodied releases.
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The Beatles perform in the round to an excited young audience in this short twenty-minute vide, culled from the Reiffusion TV special "Around the Beatles", taped late April 1964 and first aired May 6 1964. The original special featured more songs and some sketches (not included here). It was recently re-released as a 12" disc, but I refer to the original 8". In fact, my main reason for getting it was the novelty of playing an 8" disc. The audio is enjoyable, although not perfect. The video is commendable, on film from a videotape source. It looks better than many kinescopes, bright and clean but still soft. The boys do a creditable job of lip-synching, caught off guard mostly near the end during the medley of their hits; and the editing also covers up some possible blunders. The title also boasts the performance of "Shout" though now available on The Beatles Anthology CDs, volume 1.
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This movie was recently released letterboxed and in AC-3 -- at least from what I've heard. The disc was delayed many months and I have yet to actually see a copy in the stores, so I'm not even sure it's out. I refer to the original full-screen release anyway. The sound is quite strong, rivalling the soundtrack CD, and giving fans a unique way of collecting alternate mixes to some songs. The video, mostly shot in black and white, is well handled and crisp. The color sections surprisingly suffer in comparison, looking tame and soft. Typical with early Paramount releases, this disc is not chapter-encoded, which is a shame. I obviously cannot say for sure, but I'm tempted to suggest the widescreen relesase mattes the top and bottom of the full-screen to achieve its letterbox effect, adding nothing to the sides.
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Disney has released this in as a two-disc four-side letterboxed CAV set. This is the copy I have. The movie is a light-hearted throwback to earlier adventure serials and captures its Forties atmosphere well. The movie looks good widescreen and letterboxed. The colors are surprisingly muted though, lacking an intensity one would expect. The letterboxing bands have an odd vertical pattern to them, which can be disconcerting. The audio is good, the side breaks are well chosen, and the special-effects flying sequences -- and especially the action on the dirigible at film's end -- make the CAV worthwhile.
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Corrected May 17 1997.