DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Aladdin - 2 Disc SE - UTTERLY RECOMMENDED!!! (1 Viewer)

[DaViD Boulet]

Moz,



thanks for sharing your impressions of the (DTS/French) DEHT mix. As the disc gets into more hands (R1 and other regions alike) I look forward to more comments. It sounds likey your impressions mirror my own to a good degree.

 

[DavidKNML]

Great review I'm looking forward to picking this up next Tuesday, My kids have never seen it.



When the early specs were released there was talk of some Robin Williams sketch animation as the Genie using some of his standup for the vocals. Was any of that included?

 

[LukeB]

quote:When the early specs were released there was talk of some Robin Williams sketch animation as the Genie using some of his standup for the vocals. Was any of that included?

There's a brief clip of this - the Genie doing Williams' schizophrenia material and it's discussed elsewhere too.

 

[Phil Carter]

DaViD, great review! I am SO looking forward to this disc, having seen Aladdin at least thirty times in the theater and countless more on VHS since then. Now I'll finally get to see it in proper widescreen and in lovely high res with a beautiful 5.1 mix.

DaViD, you mentioned that the film's 1.66 pillarboxed. Are the pillars visible on your system, or does your player's overscan eat them up? I'm curious -- I never saw any pillars on The Lion King, which is also 1.66 pillarboxed if I recall correctly. I'm guessing my Mitsu RPTV just stretches the image slightly to fill the available space, as it does that with 4x3 encoded stuff by default.

Again, great review. Thanks!

cheers,
Phil

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Hey Phil,



Good questions.



my display chain has minimal overscan...a combination of the DLP projector and mimitsu DVD player feeding it via DVI...so I see pillarboxing bars on 1.66:1 transfers all the time. I often see "side bars" even on other aspect ratios...just watch Notting Hill (a Universal title, 2.35:1 16x9) last night and noticed small vertical pillarboxing bars on the left and right of the image--probably there to keep the image from being cropped too heavily on standard TVs.



In any case, your RP set isn't showing those pillarboxing bars on Lion King because of overscan. They are very small, so most displays would completely hide them due to overscan. And you alude to something else worth noting...which is that many DVD players overscan the image prior to even reaching your display.



-dave

 

[Mike Frezon]

I was just about to post that I was having a dickens of a time finding the differences between the standard Platinum edition release and the gift set release when....just before I pushed the "submit reply" button, I found my answer. If anyone else has this question, here is the answer:



Releasing on October 5, Aladdin (Special Edition) will contain:

--The Making of Aladdin: A Diamond in the Rough

--Disney's Virtual DVD Ride: Aladdin's Magic Carpet

--3D tour: Inside the Genie's Lamp

--Genie's Magical Journey

--The Bizarre Bazaar Game

--Deleted song: "Proud of Your Boy"

--All-new music videos

--Sing-along songs

--Deleted scenes

--Fun fact trivia track



The Collector's DVD Gift Set will also include:

--All-new sketches by the original animator

--Actual film frame from Aladdin

--DVD companion book: Experience the Magic Behind the Masterpiece

 

[LorenzoL]

Thank you for the excellent review.



Can't wait to pick it up on Tuesday.

 

[Brent C]

Not sure if this is the right thread or not, but I didn't want to start a new one.



According to Amazon.com Disney is releasing the two DTV sequels together on DVD Jan 18th. I hadn't seen it announced yet.



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...?v=glance&s=dvd

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Looking forward to grabbing this today. Excellent review, David, and thanks to Ernest for all his comments.

The lyric change in "Arabian Nights" has always kind of bothered me. Of course, there's obviously nothing I can do about it, and that one moment certainly doesn't ruin the experience for me.

But what surprised me about the change when I first heard it on video wasn't so much that it was there, but that it was done so badly. It sounded like a completely different voice, and even if you hadn't heard the original version, it was pretty obvious something had been changed. Couldn't they have at least gotten the original vocal talent to re-dub the line?

At any rate, that aside, can't wait. Looks like a good set. And I'm so glad they've included the original trailer.

Probably the only way they could get anyone to buy Return of Jafar.

 

[Jay Pennington]

The inserted voice probably isn't Williams, as that was around the time he was pretty mad at Disney for using his voice and name in the publicity campaign against their agreement.

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Actually, I don't think the original voice was Williams, either. He was the speaking voice of the merchant, but I believe someone else actually sang the song "Arabian Nights." At least it was credited to someone else.

 

[RomanSohor]

quote:Actually, I don't think the original voice was Williams, either. He was the speaking voice of the merchant, but I believe someone else actually sang the song "Arabian Nights." At least it was credited to someone else.

Actually, you are right. I can't remember the actor's name, but he played Bella Zengler (sp?) in the original Broadway cast of "Crazy For You", along with Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel

 

[DaViD Boulet]

listened to my CD soundtrack the other night and it had the infamous "cut off your ear if they don't like your face" line...must have purchased my CD before the change to the product run.



-dave

 

[Ernest Rister]

"Arabian Nights" was performed by Bruce Adler.

 

[Mark Bendiksen]

post edited

 

[Luis Esp]

I remember seeing the original cut of the movie in the theatres when it was first released. This movie still has the magic that few movies today have failed to capture.



Was it just my imagination running away with me, or was there not a clip during Aladdin's transformation where the Genie was drawned in the likeness of fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld (fan and all)?

 

[Ernest Rister]

I think this is an exemplary DVD set, easily the best of the Disney Platinum Edition line since the 2001 release of Snow White.

 

[Rob Tomlin]

Picked this up today, looking forward to watching it!

 

[Tino]

I watched Aladdin tonight and it truly looked spectacular, however the Enhanced Home Theater 5.1 track was horribly distracting.



All the singing came from the surround speakers which made everything sound unnatural.

I'll stick with the original mix from now on.



Otherwise this is a fantastic set!

 

[Bryan Tuck]

Okay, watched the movie last night, and the inserted line doesn't sound quite as out of place as I recall (I was listening to the theatrical mix). I thought maybe they had sweetened it for the DVD, but then I dug out the old VHS and, aside from the obvious drop in quality, it does sound pretty much the same. I guess my memory was playing tricks on me. Or maybe at the time, I was so surprised by the change, that it sounded more badly dubbed than it really was. Oh, well; sorry to make such a big deal about it.



The movie itself is still a lot of fun; looking forward to going through the extras over the next few days. The movie looks and sounds terrific.