DVD Review HTF DVD Review: Mary Poppins 45th Anniversary Edition (1 Viewer)

[rich_d]

Eric,

Nice work. I tried a simple Google search for that and came up empty.

William and Scott ... you guys are bringing it.

 

[BBbrowd]

Though there was no surprise with the same print of the film being used on this new release, I was amused by the new menus. The brand new menus for this 45th addition are very impressive. They are a major improvement over the 40th Anniv release menus. Out of her carpet bag comes the hat stand that blooms like a flower into the lamp, daisies, cherries, then the weather vane. The scene goes up to her on the cloud as kites rise into the background sky. All the sub-menus then branch off on command with the wind gusts and bloom into iron work adorned with cherries, chimneys, medicine bottles, birds, etc. It's really gorgeous.

The new documentary on the Broadway show is nice looking, very well produced and informative, although I wish they would have included more actual footage from the show. There is some great footage of the New Amsterdam Theater's marquee and of the city of London. As for the filmed version of the show's "Step In Time" number, it didn't come anywhere close to the excitement and spectacle of it when you see it live. The audio for Step In Time is great, but the picture has a rather washed out look and does not seem to have the punch overall that the performance usually has on stage.

Hopefully one of these years soon will have a new blu-ray addition.

 

[rich_d]

Agreed. And until that time they can take keep their new menus of Mary's long hat stand.

-self-edited because it was rude.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

So, they got rid of the rotten remix from the last release and replaced it with a good one...but is the picture still misframed? The consensus seemed to be that the aspect ratio was correct, but zoomed in, so picture was lost on all four sides.

 

[Brian Borst]

Well, apparently it's the same video transfer used on the previous dvd. And I thought that the original aspect ratio should be 1.75:1 instead of 1.66:1, but I don't know if that's correct.

 

[Joe Caps]

Some odd things are going on here..

Over at Ultimatedisney.com they asy that the 5.1 mix is the SAME mix as last time.


From folks I knew who worked at Disney, they tell me that Most Disney wide screen films were soft amtted at 1.75.

Mary Poppins was the first Disney film to be released hard matted at 1.85.

Indeed, prints I saw that were with private collectors, were all hard matted at 1.85

 

[Colin Jacobson]

They're wrong. They also claim that Oliver & Company is the same transfer, and it's not. I think they're just assuming these things are the same and not actually comparing them... :frowning:

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I'm beginning to suspect that the 5.1 mix included here *has* been used before.

I still own the "Gold" release which provided a 1.85:1 non-anamorphic video presentation ... and the 5.1 audio mix included with that release appears to the same as the one included on the 45th Anniversary disc. So this may not be a brand new 5.1 mix ... but it's at least not the awful "Enhanced Home Theater Mix" that was foisted on us with the 40th Anniversary release.

As far as the aspect ratio: I actually thought the 1.85:1 AR presentation on the "Gold" disc was a better representation of the way the movie appeared in the theater. Everything else regarding the video presentation on the "Gold" disc was disappointing, though. (Non-anamorphic; soft and "dull" in places.)

The bottom line is that this 45th Anniversary disc probably represents the best overall presentation that Mary Poppins has ever had on DVD.

 

[Lyle_JP]

It sounds like Disney heard the fan complaints about the DEHT, and used the 5.1 mix originally prepared for the first AC-3 laserdisc (this mix and transfer were later recycled onto the "Gold Collection" DVD). That's fine with me; many of the laserdisc 5.1 tracks were superior to the dreaded "fill every speaker you can in every scene" DEHT tracks. Lady and the Tramp was an LD 5.1 track vastly superior to the DVD DEHT counterpart. And of course, the DEHT track of the Little Mermaid is a disaster compared to the 5.1 track on the Gold DVD.

Here's hoping all the future Disney releases of these titles conveniently forget those DEHT mixes ever existed (with the exception perghaps of Lion King, which was actually an improvement over a lackluster original 5.1 mix).