New Mary Poppins Dvd (1 Viewer)

[Joe Caps]

An insider told me today that Disney has finished a new master for a new DVD of Mary Poppins. This will include for the first time the Blank screen Roadshow Overture but they have not decided yet whether to include the intermission music or not. I hope they do.

 

[ScottR]

I hope they do...if you are going to do something, do it right.

 

[Rain]

What would be the point of not including the intermission music?

 

[george kaplan]

It would certainly motivate me to rebuy this title if it included the intermission music.

 

[Jefferson]

Yes, the should include it
As i have heard it explained, back in 1964, the intermission was "optional"...but still...

Doesnt the new release of West Side Story have
an option for playing the intermission or not...
they could/should do it again here.

 

[Joe Caps]

Let's get a couple of things straight. The Mary poppins overture and intermission music was in very few early prints (including Radio City) but it was not optional but built into the print.
West Side story can not be called optional because it never had an intermission. Robert Wise talks about it in the liner notes of the original LP of the soundtrack -
" Of necessity there were changes. WITH THE INTERMISSION BETWEEN ACTS ELIMINATED, one rising line of tension, from beginning to end was required"
I can't imagine what music MGM came up with for the intermission. Odd, because they couldn't seem to find the intermission music for Exodus!!

 

[Jeff Krispow]

Well, maybe MGM just created it using existing music stems (or possibly cribbing from existing soundtrack CDs), then announced it to the public as a "long lost" intermission, then claimed it was originally produced back in 1961, and now after being missing for 40 years, it is being presented again "for the first time ever!"

Oh, but wait a sec... why would MGM do that? There's no reason for them to do so. If it was a newly-created special musical cue, why wouldn't they list it as such? Unless a certain deceptive practice has been revived...

You know the one I'm talking about... where certain producers would personally create phony opening overtures, entr'actes, intermissions and other various musical cues, and afterwards claim that these were "long lost" cues which were suddenly "found" again (such as 1776, The Cardinal, etc.). Supposedly this "process" died out when one producer stopped working in the laserdisc industry. In fact, I remember this one instance where said producer actually couldn't locate a musical cue for the "Lost Horizon" remake, and instead sang the cue himself and forever inserted it into the film's soundtrack (and always thought it was so funny that he was now in the film and that "nobody would ever know it... ha ha ha!").

But no... I certainly don't believe that any major studio these days would ever do such (or such a thing again), especially with something as major as an advertised "long lost intermission" piece... and considering it's coming from the MGM or Disney archives. If it's something that was newly-created or had to be re-created, they'd announce that.

 

[SteveP]

It would be nice if Disney could get Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke to do an audio commentary.

 

[Patrick McCart]

The new DVD will feature a cleaned up transfer by Lowry Digital Images.

 

[Jefferson]

(sighs and wonders why he opened his mouth)
Seems i used the incorrect word
:rolleyes.

I was just putting in a vote for the MP intermission music...if it ever existed at some point, only because it would be enjoyable for me to hear it. PERIOD

 

[Mike Frezon]

Don't be so hard on yourself. You just opened your mouth to smile!

Count me in as one who would instantly upgrade his Gold Collection edition of Mary Poppins for a new transfer. Quicker than you can say "Jane & Michael Banks"!

 

[Joe Caps]

It bothers me that everyone assumes that if a film is "cleaned Up" it will automatically be a better transfer. the problem is not in the cleaning up, the problem is WHO is doing the transfer. Do they know what the film is supposed to look like. ( Disney cleaned up Peter Pan and both DVDs certainly are cleaned - if badly colored.)
Disney spent a lot ofmoney to clean up Mary Poppins BEFORE they did the last DVD. But the dVD color is poor compared to earlier laser releases. The sound mix is a remix, NOT the original. It has also been EQed so it is bright and screamy. Disney also had the Overture and Intermission music before they did the last two Poppins DVDs and didn't use the extra music then.

 

[Jefferson]

i rarely have a comment about minute particlars, but...

On the current dvd of MP, the mix IS different.
On the English track, when mary p sings about "the honeybees that fetch the nectar"...the strings do a cool sounding "swarming bees" thing and it is somewhat lost.
You can hear it on the foreign language track tho...and on the CD soundtrack album and the LD.

And, years ago on one of the vhs releases, mrs. banks humming and singing while outside, approaching the house was INVERTED, partly. They finally cleaned that up on the laser version.

Indeed, this all must depend as joecaps said, on WHO does the transfer.

 

[Rob T]

I got the gold collection last year for my sister, but the re-release I will get for myself!

 

[Jeff_HR]

What would be the point of not including the intermission music?

It makes no sense to leave it out. Oh I'm sorry, I forgot we were dealing with the byzantine thinking processes of Studio decision makers.

 

[Doug Bull]

I will wait patiently until they get it right.( If ever)

I've owned every video version up until now and the only one that got any where near the original Technicolor was the very first overly soft pan and scan Laserdisc.

The recent region's 2 and 4 Pal Anamorphic DVD has the poor sound that Joe commented on and downright ugly flesh tones.
The actors all look as if they put on a Mud-Pack the night before and forgot to take it off during shooting the next day.
UGGHH!!

 

[Patrick McCart]

"original Technicolor" would refer to the dye-transfer prints of the time. The negative itself is Eastmancolor.

 

[Peter Kline]

I saw MP at a special screening in NYC prior to the opening. It had an Overture and Intermission music. I think it was little bit longer although I am not certain. I always thought the film had a "hard" look to it, very contrasty and not at all the traditional Technicolor look.

 

[Brian W.]

West Side story can not be called optional because it never had an intermission.

I don't know that that's true. Whatever Wise said on the LP liner notes (which may well have been written before the film was released), the insert in the original Criterion laserdisc of West Side Story said that theatrically the film DID have an intermission, but that Robert Wise, who supervised Criterion's laserdisc transfer, had never intended one, so they left it off.

Soundtracks are often released prior to the film... in any case, it's quite possible that Wise's comments were penned before the studio's decision to force an intermission.

 

[Stephen PI]

I am sure that I saw "West-Side Story" in London in the sixties and early seventies with an intermission.