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OLIVER AND COMPANY (Blu-ray combo)

July 27, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Animation, Entire Family, G rated Leave a comment

olivercoverGrade:  B
Entire family:  Yes
1988, 74 min., Color
Rated G
Disney
Aspect ratio:  1.85:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  C
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD
Clip

The first Disney movie with attitude.

That’s the tagline for this 1988 animated feature, which draws its inspiration from Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. Instead of setting it in Dickens’ Victorian London, writers Jim Cox, Tim Disney, and James Mangold plunked this one down in the middle of New York City in the Eighties. A soundtrack that includes songs by Huey Lewis, Billy Joel, and Bette Midler date Oliver and Company just as much as Dickens’ stovepipe hats, and it’s a feature few would consider one of Disney’s best.

But boy, does Blu-ray breathe new life into it!

My wife has never been a fan of this film and has sometimes had a problem telling the difference between a DVD and Blu-ray. But even she remarked how much better the picture looked, and how it helps you to see details that you never saw before, and appreciate the art design more.

The juiced-up audio does the same thing for city sounds. It feels more authentically Big Apple now with this extensive HD makeover—the most dramatic, really, of any recent Disney catalog title new to Blu-ray. It really helps you appreciate the great mix of Dickensian allusions, upbeat songs, fun animal characters, poignant moments, and elements of peril.   More

THE SWORD IN THE STONE (Blu-ray combo)

July 27, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Animation, Entire Family, G rated Leave a comment

swordinthestonecoverGrade:  B
Entire family:  Yes
1963, 79 min., Color
Rated G
Disney
Aspect ratio:  1.75:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  B-
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy
Trailer

In the words of bumbling TV spy Maxwell Smart, The Sword in the Stone missed it by THAT much—Disney’s Golden Age, that is. Most students of cinema date the high point of Disney animation from 1938 (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) to 1959 (Sleeping Beauty), and this animated feature hit theaters in 1963. It was also a movie about Arthurian legend that had the misfortune of being released on December 25, just a month after America’s version of Camelot died with President John F. Kennedy.

I’m not about to argue that The Sword in the Stone belongs on the tail end of the Golden Age, but I do think it’s been underappreciated.

The writing is solid, for one thing. Bill Peet (Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians) gives us a script that’s based on a book by T.H. White, who adapted Sir Thomas Malory’s famous Morte d’Arthur into four novels, one of which, The Sword and the Stone, was published in 1939. Disney snapped up the movie rights to the novel that year, but it took decades to finally bring it to the screen. Peet’s screenplay juggles magic, whimsy, humor, and action, and gives us characters that are endearing—even lesser ones, like a mangy wolf. The Sherman brothers give us some solid music, too, with a number of songs really making scenes like Merlin’s “packing” and the squirrels-in-love montage more memorable.   More

THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW: SEASON 4 (Blu-ray)

July 12, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, G rated, TV Comedy Leave a comment

DickVanDyke4coverGrade:  A
Entire family:  Yes
1964-65, 800 min. (32 episodes), B&W
Not rated (would be G)
Image Entertainment
Aspect ratio:  1.33:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA Mono
Bonus features:  B+

Comedy of character never gets old—one reason why The Dick Van Dyke Show remains as fresh and funny today as it was when Season 4 aired in 1964-65.

It’s all about chemistry and personality, and this black-and-white series had plenty of both. Creator Carl Reiner surrounded Van Dyke with people he could play off of, but who could also react to him. It was comedic give-and-take, with the humor ranging from physical comedy (mostly Van Dyke, as head TV comedy writer Rob Petrie), Lucy-style situations (Mary Tyler Moore, as Laura Petrie, often with neighbor Millie) snappy one-liners (mostly provided by vaudeville vets Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie as Rob’s co-writers), and the kind of simple situational humor that derives from everyday family life and a not-so-everyday work environment.   More

THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW: SEASON 3 (Blu-ray)

June 17, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, G rated, TV Comedy Leave a comment

DickVanDyke3coverGrade:  A-
Entire family:  Yes
1963-64, 800 min. (32 episodes), B&W
Not rated (would be G)
Image Entertainment
Aspect ratio:  1.33:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA Mono
Bonus features:  B

Did you hear the one about the comedy writer for a top variety show who made a sitcom pilot about his life that was rejected by the network, only to have a producer recast the show so it worked so spectacularly it won 15 Primetime Emmys over five seasons and earned 13th place on TV Guide’s Top 50 TV Shows of All Time?

The joke was almost on Carl Reiner, who decided to draw on his experience writing jokes and skits for Sid Caesar’s Your Show of Shows and put all of his best material into a pilot that he starred in—only to be rejected. But producer Sheldon Leonard told Reiner he wanted to cast Dick Van Dyke in the lead and also bring seasoned entertainers Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie onboard. Despite disappointing ratings the first season, sponsor Procter & Gamble liked the show so much that they threatened to pull all advertising from CBS daytime programming if the show wasn’t given a second season.

That did the trick, and the public grew to love writer Rob Petrie (Van Dyke), his writing pals Buddy and Sally, his wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore), son Ritchie (Jerry Mathews), and quirky neighbors Millie (Ann Morgan Guilbert) and Jerry (Jerry Paris) Halper.

Part of the show’s broad appeal comes from its ingenious blending of two sitcom types:  the domestic sitcom, with an I Love Lucy pairing of neighbors, and the workplace sitcom, with Reiner appearing as Alan Brady, the star whose variety show employed Rob and his co-writers. That greatly expanded the range of jokes, and The Dick Van Dyke Show was one smartly written comedy. But Van Dyke’s natural talent for physical comedy and Laura’s knack for getting into her own “Lucy” predicaments make it a sitcom that appeals, even now, to family members of all ages.  More

OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (Blu-ray combo)

June 15, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, PG rated, Sci-Fi/Fantasy Leave a comment

OzcoverGrade: B+
Entire family: Yes
2013, 130 min., B&W and Color
Rated PG for sequences of action, scary images and brief mild language
Disney
Aspect ratio:  1.33:1 (beginning), 2.40:1 (remainder)
Featured soundtrack: DTS-HD MA 7.1
Bonus features: C
Includes: Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy
Trailer

It seemed almost sacrilegious to mess with a classic like The Wizard of Oz, so my family was a little apprehensive to watch Disney’s prequel that explained how the Wizard actually came to Oz. But it didn’t take long before everyone was caught up in the fantasy. Disney spent more than $200 million on this special effects film, and while the pacing and the visuals captivate, it’s really James Franco’s performance as the Wizard and an abundance of allusions to the 1939 classic that make it fun.

Franco really nails his character, a small-time two-timing traveling magician who comes to the Land of Oz via a hot air balloon propelled by a Kansas twister. In apparent tribute to the original film, director Sam Raimi opts to withhold color until Oscar (whose stage name is Oz) comes to that fantasy world. Purists will wonder, though, why he didn’t go with sepia over black and white for the Kansas sequences, to match the original, and anyone with a smaller television will wonder why he decided to tell the Kansas part of the story using a 1.33:1 ratio—smaller than that, actually, since the small square picture is bordered on all four sides by black bars.

It can become annoying, but as when the plot sags just a bit in the second act, it’s all those connections to the original movie or to elements of L. Frank Baum’s books that make you smile and help to pick up the slack. China Doll never made it into the movie, but she’s here in the prequel, and it gives Raimi another chance to play with the dual roles that we saw in the 1939 film. Joey King, who appears as a girl in a wheelchair in the first part of the movie, gives voice to China Doll, whose legs have been broken. Michelle Williams is both Annie, the magician’s former girlfriend who got tired of waiting for a real relationship, and Glinda, the good witch. And Zach Braff is Frank, the magician’s behind-the-scenes assistant, as well as Finley, the flying monkey who pledges a lifetime of service to Oz’s newcomer. Like Franco, he seems to really have a good time, and that translates into onscreen energy.  More

THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE / KRONK’S NEW GROOVE (Blu-ray combo)

June 3, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Animation, Entire Family, G rated Leave a comment

EmperorsNewGrooveGrade:  B, C-
Entire family:  Yes
2000, 2005; 78 min., 75 min.; Color
Rated G
Disney
Aspect ratio:  1.85:1
Featured soundtrack:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  C+
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVDs
Trailer

While the world was preoccupied with Y2K fears, Disney decided to start the new Millennium with something a little different from their usual animated features. The Emperor’s New Groove is a little sassier, a little hipper, and maybe just a little crazier—as if the cartoon cast drank some of the old Warner Bros. Kool-Aid.

I certainly had flashbacks to those irreverent cartoons when early in the film the emperor has an old man thrown off his mountain palace, and again when one of the characters experiences some quick changes into various creatures as he drinks potion after potion.

The Emperor’s New Groove is very loosely based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes, about a vain ruler who’s taken in by a pair of con artist weavers claiming a new suit of clothes they’re making for him will be invisible to anyone unfit to behold it or too stupid to hold their jobs. Of course, all of the emperor’s advisers are too afraid to admit they can’t see this pretend garment, and it takes a naive peasant child to shout “But he isn’t wearing anything at all” as the emperor parades half-naked in public and finally realizes his folly.

It’s probably the loosest adaptation of a fairy tale that the House of Mouse has attempted. In this Disney version, the emperor is an extremely vain (“It’s all about ME”) 17 year old who rules a tiny Incan empire somewhere in ancient Mesoamerica with no thought for anyone but himself. Instead of two weavers it’s a shriveled up adviser named Yzma (Eartha Kitt) and her boy-toy assistant Kronk (Patrick Warburton) who try to bamboozle the emperor. And the child-like peasant who is finally able to make the emperor see the error of his ways is village leader Pacha (John Goodman).  More

LILO & STITCH / LILO & STITCH 2: STITCH HAS A GLITCH (Blu-ray combo)

June 1, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Animation, Entire Family, PG rated Leave a comment

Lilo&StitchGrade:  A-, C 
Entire family:  Yes (and no)
2002 / 2005; 85 min. / 68 min.; Color
Rated PG for some mild action
Aspect ratio:  1.66:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  C
Includes:  Blu-ray, DVDs
Trailer

Ohana means family, and family in this fun and feisty 2002 animated Disney feature means a little Hawaiian girl, her caretaker sister, the sister’s boyfriend, and a mutated monster of an alien that little Lilo adopts, thinking he’s a dog.

Just when you think it can’t get any more dysfunctional than that, the multi-eyed alien mad scientist who created Experiment 626 (whom Lilo names “Stitch”) and his companion show up, charged with eliminating or bringing back the tiny blue creature that looks like a deranged koala bear, but with a lionfish spine and an extra pair of arms. And when their failure seems imminent? A gigantic intergalactic henchman shows up to finish the job . . . and because of all the sparks that fly, a man-in-black from the U.S. Government threatens to take Lilo out of Nani’s custody.

It seems like an odd combination—a Hawaiian family trying to make it on an island paradise, and a mutant alien programmed to destroy things—but after the little guy crash-lands into their lives, it somehow works. Maybe it’s because Lilo’s behavior isn’t much better than Stitch’s. Since her parents died, she’s had anger management issues of her own—even to the point of biting friends and conjuring up voodoo dolls to “punish” them.

Stitch may be more destructive and quick to blast things with his plasma gun, but anyone familiar with the behavior of four to six year olds will find her character dead-on:  the gestures, the melodramatics, the expressions, the quick fuse. Whether she’s trying to explain why she’s late for a hula lesson or squirting Stitch with a water bottle to try to train him, she evokes full-on sympathy. What’s refreshing is that everything in Lilo & Stitch isn’t all sweetness and light. The relationship between Lilo (Daveigh Chase) and Nani (Tia Carrere) isn’t exactly the model behavior one finds on The Cosby Show, and Lilo and her sister have real issues to resolve following the death of their parents. The little alien, ironically named “Stitch” (as in sewing), tears them apart before he ends up helping them to mend.   More

CLEOPATRA (50th Anniversary Blu-ray)

May 25, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Drama, Entire Family, PG rated Leave a comment

CleopatracoverGrade:  B
Entire family:  Yes (and no)
1963, 251 min., Color
Unrated (would be PG for some violence and sensuality)
Aspect ratio:  2.20:1
Featured audio:  DTS-HD MA 5.1
Bonus features:  A-
Trailer

Until 1993, Cleopatra was the most expensive film Hollywood produced, and it’s also the last of the BIG Hollywood spectacles—which makes it a film every movie-lover ought to see at least once.

Cleopatra would probably merit a PG stamp because of some violence and sensuality—though it all seems tame by today’s standards. There’s more drama than action, with the most violence occurring when Julius Caesar is stabbed on the Ides of March. Other killings are offstage, and while there’s talk of a rival general’s head, only the top is shown pulled from a jar, not the features. As for sensuality, star Elizabeth Taylor is shown in a bath and it’s clear she’s nude, though you can’t see anything. She also appears in several scenes nude but artfully covered with drapery. The most revealing shot shows the full-length contour of her body from the side, with her buttocks covered. African dancers later wear what could be called oversized “pasties,” but many families will find nothing here to prevent younger family members from watching. It’s all pretty tastefully handled.

Of more concern for family movie night is the film’s length—more than four hours—and the talky nature of many scenes. Though Cleopatra is an epic, the emphasis is the politics and relationships among three historical figures: Cleopatra, Caesar (Rex Harrison), and Marc Antony (Richard Burton). Children under 13 may need an explanation of what’s going on, as director and co-writer Joseph Mankiewicz stayed pretty close to Plutarch’s published account of Julius Caesar’s life. Most of what you see really happened, but Caesar’s interests in Egypt and senatorial politics in Rome can seem confusing.

In the first half (there’s an intermission) Caesar is charmed by Cleopatra, and their relationship runs parallel to each of their political ambitions. The second half of the film picks up after Caesar’s death, with Cleopatra leaving Rome for Egypt again. She’s pursued romantically by Caesar’s trusted lieutenant, Marc Antony, who wants to build a political base for himself and his army in Egypt, because of the threat to his own dreams of empire posed by Caesar’s nephew, Octavian (Roddy McDowall).

If the action is dwarfed by politics, the plot seems secondary to the spectacle itself. Cleopatra earned nine Oscar nominations and also won for cinematography, costume design, and special effects. Our teenage son, who enjoyed the film despite its length and overlong scenes, said he’d give it three-and-a-half stars, while our ‘tween daughter appreciated the glam but found it too slow-going.  More

DANCE ACADEMY: SEASON 2, VOL. 1 (DVD)

May 24, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, PG rated, TV Drama Leave a comment

DanceAcademy2.1coverGrade:  A-
Entire family:  Yes
2011, 325 min. (13 episodes), Color
Unrated (would be PG for mature themes)
New Video
Aspect ratio:  1.78:1
Featured audio:  Dolby Digital 2.0
Bonus features:  D+
Trailer 

I frankly don’t know why New Video is marketing the first two seasons of Dance Academy as four separate DVDs, because this teen/’tween series—intelligent enough for adults but still acceptable for younger family members—has a continuing storyline. If you get hooked, you’re going to buy all of the DVDs. And Season 2, like the first, has a definable arc.

The Australian-made half-hour TV drama gets a little soapier the second time around, with a serious injury, divorce, a life-threatening illness, a domineering stage mom, a false claim of sexual harassment, a search for a birth father, and a death all written into the script. In the first half of the season, the emphasis seems more on relationships and personal dramas than on dance, and that can turn off older boys in the family who aren’t into (or who don’t want to appear as if they’re interested in) that sort of thing. Season 2 has lying, backstabbing, and more of an OMG feel to it than the first. But it’s just as addictive. The characters are interesting, the writing is believable, and the direction nothing short of a marvel, if you consider that believable drama develops, unfolds, and plays itself out in effective 22-minute chunks.   More

DANCE ACADEMY: SEASON 1, VOL. 1 (DVD)

May 17, 2013

James Plath, Family Home Theater Entire Family, TV Drama Leave a comment

dance1.1coverGrade:  A-
Entire family:  Yes
2010, 325 min. (13 episodes), Color
Unrated (would be PG for mature themes)
New Video
Aspect ratio:  1.78:1
Featured audio:  Dolby Digital 2.0
Bonus features:  D
Trailer

What a drought it’s been! For the past several weeks I’ve received no screeners appropriate for family viewing . . . until Dance Academy turned up on my doorstep. Like H20: Just Add Water, it’s an Australian-made half-hour TV drama aimed at ‘tweens and teens, but good enough to draw in the whole family. I haven’t seen Center Stage, but my dancing daughter tells me Dance Academy is like the TV version.

If you have younger children, though, be warned that while it would still be rated PG, Dance Academy is a darker, edgier drama than the campy fantasy we got in the mermaid show. One male dancer with a troubled past steals and fights. A female dancer comes unhinged because her breasts are getting bigger and she thinks it will topple her chances of becoming a prima ballerina. The edgier content is evident from the very first sequence, when one of the girls auditioning for the National Dance Academy in Sydney is directed to the men’s locker room instead of the women’s, and is standing there in her bra when a boy walks in. Of course, except for the color, what we see is no different from the bikini tops the mermaids wore in H20, but the context is totally different.

Though Dance Academy is an ensemble show, the focus is on Tara (Xenia Goodwin), a naive first-year student from isolated sheep country who lacks the training of her counterparts. She crushes on the cute guy, tries to find out which friends she can trust, and navigates the tricky regulations and unwritten rules of the Academy—a live-in high school for both sexes where dance takes top priority over other classes (as with Glee) never shown.   More

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