I first saw Disney's Lady and the Tramp when I was nine. It immediately became a favorite, and has remained so. It was far more accessible to me at a young age than Alice in Wonderland, and just about on par with Peter Pan. I should note that the first film that I saw was a re-issue of Bambi.
One must keep in mind that the Disney animated features of that era were far rarer than they are today, when there seems to be an almost continuous stream of product, not theatrical, direct to video.
Back then, it was Alice in 1951, Peter in 1953, followed by Lady in 1955, and Sleeping Beauty in 1959. It would be another four years until Sword in 1963.
Lady was a beautifully produced film, with incredibly rendered multi-plane animation. It was the first in CinemaScope, and only produced that way after it has already been shot flat. With the exception of Sleeping Beauty, which was Technirama, I can't off the top of my head, think of another widescreen production.
As I was examining the Blu-ray, something came to mind that I'd not thought of before. All through the '60s, I had only viewed the film in 16mm flat. Now seeing it in 2.55, and in it's original CinemaScope format, it became readily obvious that something was missing from the image.
The dreaded CinemaScope mumps. I asked around a bit, and the most reasonable cause would seem to be the relatively flat depth of field of the cells during photography. Mumps have not been digitally removed, and should have been obvious. An interesting point for further discussion.
Set in approximately the same era as Meet Me in St. Louis, it takes on a similar small town ease. It was an era when small children (and dogs) could wander the countryside without fear of molestation, with the possible exception of the local dog-catcher.
While not my personal technical style, the removal of grain has been discussed ad nauseam, so I'll not go into it again here. The Disney organization is desirous of creating a Blu-ray with a sparkling new image that looks to have been created yesterday, and with the exception of the glorious animation style, succeeds.
There really is no way that a youngster could tell (or should care) that this film is not the latest and greatest from Pixar.
Colors are vibrant, crisp, clean and clear, with nary of bit of Disney dust or minus density to be found. The clean-up job on the 57 year old element is perfect. Not that it would have been over-run, but dirt does gather.
The aspect ratio is proper at 2.55:1, and audio can be had in one of two domestic flavors -- either as a new 7.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio mix, or the restored original.
Lady and the Tramp is one of the finest of the true Classic Disney animated feature films. It stands the test of time, and I'm certain will continue to entertain generations of children (and their parents) for generations to come.
It must be noted that the folks at Disney have made huge inroads toward getting their animation feature library to Blu-ray. While I may be missing something, it seems that when it comes to pure feature length animation, we're only missing Peter Pan, before reaching the more modern era of The Sword in the Stone, 101 Dalmatians and Jungle Book.
The major missing title for me, is still my absolute favorite Disney -- South of the South.
An absolutely gorgeous Blu-ray presentation.
Very Highly Recommended.
RAH
