HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended - Page 6

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

is this what you mean by missing knee?

http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/minister.htm

or are you aying something from the origional theatrical release is missing from the film on dvd

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

I've just rented the DVD through Netflix and have done my comparison to the original DVD. Here's my 2 cents.

The picture is a vast improvement, though I could see the noise in Ariel's hair that DaViD spoke of.

As for the sound, not quite as horrendous as I was expecting. The main thing that I disliked about it was the vocals being spread across the three front channels. I was under the impression that this was only during the songs, but NO, ALL DIALOG is mixed this way. It created a disembodied, diffused effect that I hated. I just don't understand why Disney has chosen to do this to the last two platinums. I know that multichannel music albums (DVD-Audio and SACD) are recorded this way, but they don't have a visual image that the vocals need to be tied to. Directional dialog, where the voices pan from speaker to speaker to follow the actors on screen, would have been a good thing. The Toy Story movies used directional dialog to great effect.

I must agree with DaViD that Ariel's voice sounded much richer and smoother on the original DVD that on the new one.

If anyone has purchased another region of this disc, PLEASE report back and let us know what the soundtrack options are!

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

I have the R2/R4 version.

The audio tracks are: English Home Theatre Mix, French 5.1 and Dutch 5.1. And commentary. There is no original 5.1 mix, no region has that.

Im thinking of muxing the audio from the original DVD and putting that onto the new DVD picture. Anyone know how to do that?

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

Ben,

I did that and it's great...however, I am pretty sure discussing the methods are out-of-bounds on the forum. You can shoot me a PM if you want and I'll let you know what I used.

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

Watched last night. The "erection" is gone. His knee has apparently been digitally removed.

Anyone else find that a little ridiculous and kind of funny? By removing it they almost admit the story is true. A christian woman files suit because the perv mistakenly thought it was a penis, when it was clearly his knee. And Disney bends over backwards to remove the "offensive" image from the movie.

I realize most people don't really care all that much, and it's certainly the least troublesome issue regarding this DVD release, but I'm annoyed at the alterations made to movies I grew up with as a child. I just find it funny that something completely inoffensive was made offensive by someone who just insisted it was "filthy." Hilarious.

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

I agree with DaVid's comment about which release of THE LITTLE MERMAID has the best soundtrack. I tracked down an AC-3 CAV LTB THX release of the film on Laserdisc (circa spring 1998, I believe) to compare the sound to the 1999 DVD and this new 2006 DVD. The 1999 DDD 5.1 track is far superior to the 2006 "Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix" 5.1, and to my ears the 1999 DD 5.1 track sounds better than the AC-3 on the Laserdisc as well.

For the strongest, clearest vocals I go for the 2-channel PCM surround mix on the Laserdisc, though it is largely front-heavy. There is a certain strength to the sound - especially during loud passages - that trumps both DVD releases. I didn't go to the time or expense to track down the original 1990 Laserdisc release to compare its soundtrack, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was very similar - if not identical (save for the ending credits) - to the PCM sound on the 1997 Laserdisc.

BTW - Both the PCM & AC-3 tracks on the 1997 Laserdisc - as well as the 1999 DVD - have the instrumental after "Under the Sea" replaced by "Part of Your World", though the original instrumental has been restored on the 2006 DVD. There are now restoration notes added to the credits on the 2006 DVD as well. I've got to say this much for Disney - when they redo credits, as they have now 3 times for THE LITTLE MERMAID - they match the font and speed and all VERY well - lol.

Maybe its me, but the 1999 DVD transfer actually looked like it had more flaws in processing than the 2006 DVD. Backgrounds hold and shift and "float" when the camera pans. Maybe this was due to the DVD authoring, I'm not sure.

I guess the best version that could be made with what has been released is a version with the new 2006 video transfer and the DD 5.1 audio from the 1999 DVD release with the corrected instrumental to the end of the ending credits from the 2006 DD 5.1 soundtrack. Or better yet, a PCM Stereo version from the 1997 Laserdisc with corrected ending credit instrumental from either the 1990 Laserdisc or a mixdown of the DD 5.1 from the 2006 DVD.

Hmmm.... Well, time for me to start working on this one :-)

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

I apologize for referring to the Laserdisc as the "1997 Laserdisc" - it was based off of the 1997 theatrical reissue, but it came out on Laserdisc in March 1998. I stated the correct date at the beginning of my post, but after that referred to it incorrectly - lol - My bad.

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

Too add insult to injury, Ariel's cleavage has been digitally de-emphasised/toned-down-or so Ive read.
A quick scan of all 4 pages, and I didnt see this mentioned, but if it has been, Im sure youll pardon my ADD.

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

Link, pleeze?

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

a couple people have posted in this topic about changes or removed scenes without links or anything to back up the claim or any info on were the info came from/

i guess the knee was removed.
i forgot to look when i watched the copy i rented

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

There are before & after screencaps of the knee in the review at Ultimate Disney.

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

Still plenty of reasons to keep one's laserdiscs, then...

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

By removing it they almost admit the story is true.

No, they just rid themselves of a silly urban legend created by people who didn't know what they were looking at. The offstage "Good Kitty" line in Aladdin was scrubbed as well.

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

Well, one can't deny that the absense of the image now implies that they removed it out of fear. I'm a little annoyed at the fact that the line about the tiger has been taken out of Aladdin. These are NOT offensive scenes. A few people get angry about them, Disney removes the material instead of issuing statements regarding the fact that the scenes really aren't offensive.

I'm not so much upset about the movie being edited, I'm actually upset about the mentality behind it. Disney took something that was completely innocent and because someone else pointed out something they thought was perverted... went ahead and removed it. It just makes me wonder what else we can expect in the future at the request of people who apparently have their OWN heads in the gutters. These rumors of ariel's cleavage, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if in 50 years the seventh release of Alice In Wonderland removed "Drink Me" and "Eat Me" from the film because those phrases are "filthy!" and allude to drug use...

One can completely agree that the studio is obviously just covering their bases and know that a few seconds of footage isn't going to cause an outrage... but the question is how big is the next thing going to be? or What are they going to chop out next at the demands of angry parents who have sicker minds than they realize?

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

Wow. I believe IGN gave this disc a 10.

Re: HTF REVIEW: The Little Mermaid - Disappointingly NOT Recommended

Well, Disney does issue such statements, but its like a moth trying to fly against the gale of a hurricane, or trying to hear one voice in a packed football stadium.


Well, another way of looking at it is this way...Disney certainly never intended for the drawings or garbled rear audio to give people the impressions they did. So, in a way, these were flaws, and Disney has corrected them. i.e., "Hey! The top of that castle looks like a penis!" "It does? Oops! You're right! Sorry about that. Let me just fix it...there. How's that?" "Much better."


Let's not go the slippery slope route. I think we'll see Pinocchio rated R for tobacco use long before we see Alice in Wonderland tinkered with because of the associations with drug culture.


Reasonable people will usually make reasonable decisions. I hope that John Lasseter and the new people at Disney will do the right thing and release non-censored versions of Saludos Amigos, Make Mine Music, and Melody Time. Those alterations were far more egregious to my mind than "fixing" the knees of the clergyman in Little Mermaid.