"In almost every musical ever written, there's a place--it's usually about the third song of the evening, sometimes it's the second, sometimes it's the fourth, but it's quite early--and the leading lady usually sits down on something. Sometimes it's a tree stump in Brigadoon, sometimes it's under the pillars of Covent Garden in My Fair Lady or it's a trash can in Little Shop of Horrors. But the leading lady sits down on something and sings about what she wants in life. And the audience falls in love with her and then roots for her to get it for the rest of the night." -- Howard Ashman
Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel, remembers Howard Ashman and making The Little Mermaid.
The Little Mermaid Diamond Edition is available today on Blu-ray Combo Pack.
I love this photo of The Little Mermaid alums Samuel Wright (Sebastian), Jodi Benson (Ariel) and Ron Clements (writer/director) at a special Film Society of Lincoln Center screening of Mermaid in New York City on Saturday. The screening was held at the Walter Reade Theater to mark the film's October 1st Blu-ray debut.
Some home video releases are a big deal, like when Disney lets a Fantasia or Snow White out of the vault "FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY." Others cause barely a ripple (Air Buddies movies, anyone?...anyone?).
Some, though, just make you smile. The Emperor's New Groove is that kind of release. It's silly and irreverent--really one of the most un-Disney of Disney's animated films--but, it's still one their most fun and purely entertaining pictures. It will be out on Blu-ray in the U.S. this summer.
Emperor's very existence is the stuff of legend. Originally titled Kingdom of the Sun, it was intended to be an ambitious retelling of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper set in ancient Incan times. Roger Allers began directing Kingdom fresh off his incredible success with The Lion King, but the production bogged down because of creative differences between Allers and Disney management, not to mention poor audience test screenings. Allers was eventually removed from the production and replaced by Mark Dindal, who finished the film that evolved into The Emperor's New Groove. This long process of creative conflict and studio politics was captured by film maker Trudie Styler, who had access to much of the behind-the-scenes wranglings. Styler is the wife of singer-songwriter Sting, who wrote the original songs for Kingdom only to see a scant few of them make the final cut in Emperor. Styler's documentary The Sweatbox has been mostly kept under wraps by Disney, since it depicts the media giant as driven mostly by high-concept commercialism and disdainful of genuine creativity (now there's something we haven't heard before). A rough-cut version of The Sweatbox leaks out online periodically--I saw it as recently as last year--but Disney does a good job of quickly quashing it.
Supporters of Allers will still contend over a dozen years later that had he been given the time and resources to complete his original vision, Kingdom of the Sun had the makings of a classic. Sadly, we'll never know. What we're left with is a film of less lofty aspirations that is nevertheless hugely entertaining. The Emperor's New Groove is about a hip, but egotistical and self-centered young emperor, Kuzco (David Spade), who runs afoul of a sorceress (Eartha Kitt) who means to kill him, but accidentally turns him into a llama instead. It's then up to Kuzco to find redemption with the help of an easy-going farmer (John Goodman) whose land Kuzco had taken to build a summer palace. It's lighthearted fare with plenty of laughs that's right out of the Chuck Jones and Warner Bros. school of animation. The clips below give good examples:
The Emperor's New Groove will be out in a two-movie Blu-ray package along with the direct-to-video sequel Kronk's New Groove on June 11, 2013.
If the mice can talk with Cinderella, why can't the bluebirds? Or the dog? Or the cat?
Are mice multilingual? Do they possess an intellect and social development beyond that of other animals? Do they really like to wear little hats, shirts and shoes?
And where did they learn to sew so well?
These are questions that have puzzled me for years. Seriously, watch Cinderella--available for the first time on Blu-ray this week--and see if you can figure it out. I mean, I get the whole pumpkin coach and glass slipper thing. Bibbidi, bobbidi, boo--that's very simple, really. Fairy Godmother, hello!
The thingamabob that does the job
But...Lucifer the cat can only viciously purr and hiss. Bruno the dog, well, he doesn't do much but chase the cat--when he's not sleeping. Jaq and Gus-Gus, however, have regular conversations with the little cinder girl. Yes, they have speech impediments, but you can still understand them, kind of. What the hell does "zug-zug" mean, anyway?
Rodent evolution aside, Cinderella was Walt Disney's masterful return to fairy tale form following the studio's financial struggles during World War II. It was a make-or-break film that turned out to be a huge financial success. While not as ambitious or elaborately detailed as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio, it was still a beautifully animated film (Mary Blair's color styling is exquisite) with likable characters and the meanest bitch of a villain ever to inhabit a Disney film. There's a cruelty to Cinderella's evil stepmother that doesn't exist in other Disney villains who are motivated by greed or vanity. Lady Tremaine mistreats Cinderella and forces her to work as a scullery maid simply because she can--and that makes the stepmother the most evil of all.
Disney packages the Blu-ray release with a number of bonus features previously seen on the 2005 Platinum Edition DVD (in general, the bonus features from this earlier version are far more extensive and satisfying). Best among the new material is "The Real Fairy Godmother," a profile of the inspiration for Cinderella's Fairy Godmother, Mary Alice O'Connor. The wife of long-time Disney layout artist Ken O'Connor, Mary Alice was a passionate champion of charity work and community service programs. She eventually became known as the "Fairy Godmother of Burbank." "The Real Fairy Godmother" is a touching tribute to a woman who devoted her life to helping others with more than just a wave of a magic wand.
Disney has excelled at bringing it's classic animation library to Blu-ray, even when they've been skimpy with the bonus features. Still, if you're a completist adding to your Disney Blu-ray collection, Cinderella is a no-brainer addition. It looks and sounds beautiful.
Now, if they could just explain about those talking mice...
Without a lot of fanfare, Disney released its 1992 musical Newsies on Blu-ray this week. That's a bit of a surprise considering the current success of Newsies on Broadway (eight Tony nominations, two wins and a hugely popular open-ended run at the Nederlander Theater). Plus, it was home video that years ago gave the film new life and somewhat of a cult following after it failed miserably at the box office. You'd think Disney would be making a bigger deal about this 20th anniversary hi-def release.
Newsies is a fun, if hit-and-miss, affair about a celebrated 1899 New York newsboys strike against lions of publishing Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst. It's noteworthy for its cast of established actors and up-and-coming stars (Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Robert Duvall, Ann-Margret, Michael Lerner). It also was the feature film directorial debut of Kenny Ortega, who would use his stagy, but energetic, let's-put-on-a-show musical approach to better use in Disney's High School Musical franchise.
While it's every bit the family-friendly film it sets out to be, Newsies comes off as a bit too cleaned and polished for its own good. Cookie-cutter back lot sets and stereotypical street urchins right out of the Dead End Kids take the edge off what could have otherwise been a gritty big city tale of idealistic youth versus the greedy, corrupt establishment. Like Ortega's HSM movies, Newsies exists in an idyllic white bread vacuum that the real world wouldn't dare penetrate.
Still, it boasts a catchy musical score by Alan Menken (with lyrics by Jack Feldman), who was smack-dab in the middle of his incredible run at Disney that included music for The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. "King of New York" and especially "Seize the Day" are two of the more under-appreciated uplifting tunes in the Disney canon.
Watching the film, it's easy to see why Newsies was meant for the stage. It's full-screen choreography, complete with a plethora of jumps, high-kicks and flips, is crowd-pleasing fodder for a live audience. I was certainly entertained revisiting Newsies the movie after all these years, but it just made me want to travel to Broadway even more.
Last night, I watched The Muppets on Blu-ray with the audio commentary on. When it was over, I did something I don't think I've ever done before with a video. I left the commentary on and watched it again.
I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything.
There are a number of reasons to pick up The Muppets on home video starting Tuesday this week, the most obvious being the movie itself, which captures all the giddy anarchy that made TV's original Muppet Show a cultural phenomenon. Another reason is that the bonus features on the Blu-ray edition are just about as entertaining, particularly the commentary by director James Bobin, co-writer Nick Stoller and co-writer/star Jason Segel.
It's not that the trio offers a huge amount of revealing "making of" tidbits. On the contrary, they spend as much time not talking about film as they do talking about it. What's great is they're having such a hilarious time, you immediately understand why everything is so right about The Muppets. It's the same loose, anything goes mentality permeating the film that spills right over into the commentary.
Jason Segel and the Muppets.
Segal, Stoller and Bobin riff about their favorite movies, their favorite cars and their favorite clothes. Segel makes sure to name as many of his costar's film credits as possible ("Amy Adams from Cruel Intention 2," "Jack Black from High Fidelity") and throws out every plug he can for the holdings of the Muppets' parent company (Downtown Disney, the Times Square Disney Store, Enchanted on DVD and Blu-ray). We do get some superficial Muppets insight, like how Chris Cooper ("Academy Award winner Chris Cooper," stresses Segal) was cast as wicked oil man Tex Richman and how Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory) stumbled into the funniest cameo of the film. If you're looking for any in-depth analysis, however, you're not going to find it here. It's all good, though. What is discussed is a hoot.
If you can, make sure to get a Blu-ray version of The Muppets. The "Wocka Wocka Value Pack" is the best choice with all the Blu-ray features (the commentary, a "making-of" featurette and deleted scenes), an extra DVD and digital copy of the movie, and a code to download The Muppets soundtrack (with the Academy Award-winning song "Man or Muppet"). The DVD-only version has scant extras: only a surprisingly flat blooper reel.
The Mouse Castle is giving away a free copy of The Muppets. Click here to learn how you can win.
Robin Williams and Betty White
with the "six-foot rat" at the 2009
Disney Legends ceremony
"You try and do special things for your kid. I thought, 'I'll take him to Disneyland. That'll be fun.' Disneyland for a three year old...Mickey Mouse for a three-year old...bullshit! Mickey Mouse to a three-year old is a six-foot f***ing rat!"
--Robin Williams, An Evening at the Met (1986)
Who would've suspected that 23 years after this stand-up performance at New York's Metropolitan Opera House, Robin Williams would become a Disney Legend?
Disney fans mostly associate Williams with his inspired comedic turn as the voice of the Genie in Aladdin, but his first work for Disney came with the Touchstone Pictures releases Good Morning, Vietnam and Dead Poets Society, both signature films for Williams and both available on Blu-ray starting today.
Williams burst onto the American conscience in 1978, becoming a national sensation playing the oddball alien Mork on TV's Happy Days and later Mork and Mindy. He possessed a rapid-fire, cerebral wit and an alarming gift for improvisation. His stand-up performances in An Evening with Robin Williams (1982) and An Evening at the Met still astound. In the early 1980s, Williams began to stretch himself as an actor with noteworthy starring roles as a struggling writer in The World According to Garp and a Russian defector in Moscow on the Hudson.
Robin Williams in Good Morning, Vietnam
His movie breakthrough, though, was as the iconoclastic DJ Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning, Vietnam. This was the ideal role for Williams, one that allowed him to use his improvisational skills to great effect. His hysterical on-air riffs about everything from Nixon to LBJ to Ethel Merman are still a marvel to watch 25 years later. Even though they take up less than 20 minutes of the movie's two hours, they are what you remember most from the film and are primarily what earned Williams his first Academy Award nomination.
Good Morning, Vietnam is based very loosely on the real-life Adrian Cronauer, who was the first Armed Forces Radio DJ to play rock music and who did teach English as a second language to the Vietnamese. Beyond those two elements, however, very little of Good Morning, Vietnam actually happened. The movie Cronauer is a thorn in the side of his commanding officer Lt. Hauk (Bruno Kirby), an uptight prig who thinks soldiers in the field are best served listening to Ray Conniff, Montovani and Percy Faith instead of James Brown, the Beatles and Motown. Both Hauk and his sergeant major Dickerson (a menacing J.T. Walsh) disapprove of Cronauer's off-the-wall style even as his popularity soars with the troops.
While stationed in Saigon, Cronauer befriends a local girl (Chintara Sukapatana), her brother (Tung Thanh Tran) and a restaurant owner (Cu Ba Nguyen) with a bizarre obsession with Walter Brennan. Against the backdrop of war, they introduce Cronauer to Vietnamese culture, but their friendships are tested following a tragic bombing by the Viet Cong.
Good Morning, Vietnam is in turns silly, serious and sentimental, but it's Williams manic moments that give the movie its most entertaining lift.
Robin Williams in Dead Poet's Society
Williams dialed the irreverence down considerably to play English teacher John Keating in Dead Poets Society. Still, his character is every bit the non-conformist Adrian Cronauer is. At a prestigious--and stodgy--New England boys school, Keating uses unconventional methods to enlighten his students. His mantra is "carpe diem" or "seize the day," an admonition to his students to make their lives extraordinary. It's a philosophy that flies in the face of how his young charges have been brought up, with their destinies to become doctors, lawyers and titans of business already preordained by their families.
Keating challenges his students to think for themselves and to view the world differently from how others see it. At his direction, they rip out pages from an analytical textbook that reduce the aesthetic importance of poetry to a cold mathematical formula. Keating urges them to stand on top of his desk and appreciate how the classroom looks from a differing perspective. Mostly, he instills in them a love of words and language and encourages them write poetry. Thus, the Dead Poet's Society is secretly born amongst the impressionable boys as they sneak out into the woods together to express themselves (and, as Keating puts it, to "woo women") beyond the control of the school's stern headmaster (Norman Lloyd).
Williams plays Keating as a man with a passion for creativity who's not afraid to tweak the nose of the Establishment. He keeps his usual shtick to a minimum, staying true to Tom Schulman's literate screenplay and Peter Weir's artful direction. Williams does minimal ad-libbing, but his occasional improvisations do add some funny moments like when Keating demonstrates to his students how Shakespeare would be interpreted differently by Olivier, Brando and John Wayne.
When one of Keating's students, Neil Perry (Robert Sean Leonard), finds the courage to try out for a nearby theater production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in defiance of his bullying father (Kurtwood Smith), it leads to Dead Poets Society's most triumphant--and tragic--moment, a moment where Keating is held accountable for his unorthodox methods in an unfair clash of school politics.
Williams received his second Oscar nomination for his role in Dead Poets Society and it remains one of his best.
With the hectic holidays (almost) behind us, I finally checked out Disney's newly-released 20th anniversary edition of The Rocketeer on Blu-ray.
What a letdown.
No, not the movie. The movie's fun. It's a sincere piece of action hero hokum, with straight arrow aviator Cliff Secord (Billy Campbell) coming into possession of a top secret rocket pack that both the good guys and the bad guys are after. Set in the 1940s, the movie pays tribute to the delightfully absurd serials of that era, pitting good against mustache-twirling evil. There's a beautiful, spunky girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly), a plucky sidekick who's handy with tools (Alan Arkin) and a charmingly slimy villain (perfectly cast Timothy Dalton--if Errol Flynn had been a Nazi, this would've been him). The film has a striking Art Deco design--our hero's crash helmet looks like it was torn right off the Chrysler Building--and director Joe Johnston keeps the action moving forward nicely, climaxing with a nifty chase aboard a very flammable zeppelin.
The problem with The Rocketeer is the Blu-ray disc itself. You'd think commemorating the movie's release 20 years ago would be worth some tribute, right? Maybe a "making of" documentary or a commentary by Johnston (who added to his action hero cred this year with the whiz-bang Captain America: The First Avenger). Nope, nada. With the exception of a paltry 1991 movie trailer, The Rocketeer has absolutely no bonus features, and that's a shame. It may not be Disney's most acclaimed film, but it's well crafted and does have a loyal following--filmmaker Kevin Smith admits to being a huge fan. This year, Smith moderated a Q&A with some of The Rocketeer's cast and crew at a 20th anniversary screening at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood. Some of that footage would've been a nice addition to the Blu-ray package. A commentary by Smith would've even been better.
That Disney pluses direct-to-video piffle like the Buddies franchise (see: Spooky Buddies or the upcoming Treasure Buddies) more than The Rocketeer is a disservice to one of its more under-appreciated films. I can recommend the film as the diverting action adventure it is, but its Blu-ray release deserved better.
Released to theaters in July, the same weekend as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, it was summarily crushed at the box office and never recovered, barely making back its $30 million production cost. Granted, Pooh didn't exactly scream summer blockbuster, but up against the overwhelming forces of Hogwarts, it could never gain any traction.
So, when the time came for Winnie the Pooh's home video release, what did Disney do? Sandwich it between the releases of the box office hits Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Cars 2.
If Christopher Robin falls down in the Hundred Acre Wood, does he make a sound?
Pooh has been available online and in stores for over a week now. Hopefully, you noticed. Just in case you didn't, though, do yourself a favor and buy it, rent it, stream it--most importantly, just find it--and enjoy. It's a charming return to the gentle characters first introduced by A.A. Milne and brought to life by Disney over forty years ago. The silly old bear searches for honey, gloomy Eeyore loses his tail and Christopher Robin is captured by a monstrous imaginary creature (or not). That's pretty much all that happens and it couldn't be more delightful, particularly set against those lovely, hand-drawn, 2D watercolor backgrounds.
Bonus features on the DVD and movie download versions include deleted scenes and "The Mini Adventures of Winnie the Pooh," which consists of the "Little Black Rain Cloud" segment from the first Pooh short, 1966's Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. The Blu-ray version also includes a behind-the-scenes short, "Winnie the Pooh and His Story Too" and a sing-along feature that puts the film's song lyrics on screen. Sadly missing is a commentary track. Insight from Winnie the Pooh's directors Stephen Anderson and Don Hall or even veteran Disney artist and story man Burny Mattinson, who worked on all the Pooh films, would've been greatly appreciated.
Best among the bonus material (available on all home video versions) is The Ballad of Nessie, the silly sweet short cartoon about the title creature's search for a new home in Loch Ness.
Jack's back on October 18, 2011 when Disney releases Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides to home video.
The Mouse Castle is giving away a 2-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack of the 4th installment of the POTC saga to one of our loyal readers. The Combo Pack includes both a Blu-ray 2D and DVD version of the film. To enter, all you have to do is:
1. Visit The Mouse Castle Facebook page at www.facebook.com/themousecastle and become a fan (click the "Like" button, if you haven't already).
2. Find the event "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES Blu-ray Giveaway."
3. Confirm that you will be attending this event.
4. Wait for us to announce the winner, savvy?
Get your entry in no later than October 26, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. Pacific time. You must be a resident of the United States to enter. Only one entry per person, please.
Remember, you must "Like" The Mouse Castle on Facebook and RSVP for the giveaway event by clicking "I'm Attending" (mobile Facebook users may see a button labeled "Confirmed" or similar).
Sometime after the entry deadline, we will draw one winner at random. The winner's name will be posted on The Mouse Castle Facebook page.
On October 4, after an incredibly successful theatrical re-release, The Lion King will debut on hi-def home video...and you can win a copy of your own from The Mouse Castle!
We're giving away a 2-Disc Blu-ray Combo Pack of The Lion King to one of our loyal readers. The Combo Pack includes both a Blu-ray 2D and DVD version of the film. To enter, all you have to do is:
1. Visit The Mouse Castle Facebook page at www.facebook.com/themousecastle and become a fan (click the "Like" button, if you haven't already).
2. Find the event "THE LION KING: Diamond Edition Blu-ray Combo Pack Giveaway."
3. Confirm that you will be attending this event.
Pretty easy, huh?
Get your entry in no later than October 11, 2011 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific time. You must be a resident of the United States to enter. Only one entry per person, please.
Remember, you must "Like" The Mouse Castle on Facebook and RSVP for the giveaway event by clicking "I'm Attending" (mobile Facebook users may see a button labeled "Confirmed" or similar).
Sometime after the entry deadline, I will draw one winner at random. The winner's name will be posted on The Mouse Castle Facebook page.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment (WDSHE) announced this week they will continue combining Blu-ray and DVD versions of their premium titles in the same boxes for home video release through the end of 2010. Citing popular demand by consumers, Bob Chapek, President of WDSHE, said, "The Disney Blu-ray Combo Pack is the perfect marriage of value, quality and versatility all wrapped-up in a single package."
That may be true Bob, but you failed to mention that Blu-ray hasn't exactly taken off in the hearts and minds of the public. A year and a half has passed since Blu-ray won the format war against HD DVD, and standard DVD is still the leader in sales and rentals. You can blame the higher cost of Blu-ray, especially in a sour economy, but I think it has more to do with Blu-ray simply not being the game changer DVD was over VHS. There are plenty of people who are perfectly content with their existing DVD collection and see no reason to upgrade to Blu-ray (I count myself among them).
There are some positive signs, however, as Toshiba, the last HD DVD holdout, recently announced they will release a line of Blu-ray players later this year. There's also a rumor (albeit a shaky one) that Apple will offer Blu-ray support on the next major release of iTunes.
Still, I think Blu-ray is destined to become a niche format for videophiles only, because the real future of home video is not in shrink wrapped Blu-rays or DVD's, but in on-demand content from the cloud.
Read between the lines of Disney's announcement and it's really not about consumer value. It's about Blu-ray not selling as a stand-alone format.
Upcoming Combo Pack releases from Disney:
8/18/09 - Hannah Montana: The Movie
10/6/09 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
10/27/09 - Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
11/10/09 - Up
11/10/09 - Monsters, Inc.
11/24/09 - Santa Buddies
