- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,416
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
The folks at Disney Home Entertainment have been re-working their classic animated features since the birth of DVD in a very positive effort to make them look new on the format.
With the release to DVD of the 1951 Alice in Wonderland, fans and collectors of quality classic animated films can add what is essentially only the seventh fully animated feature film produced by Disney out of a total of ten, produced between 1937 and 1959.
These films are rare commodities. Of the ten fully animated Disney features, only two remain unreleased -- the 1942 Bambi and 1950 Cinderella.
These films have been judiciously (and brilliantly) re-issued every seven years or so to new audiences of children, and generally have been seen in high quality prints.
Releases in the past on video tape and laserdisc have looked more like the film versions that we know -- based upon the original hand-inked and painted cells, with all of their idiocyncratic brush strokes and Disney "dust."
Now digitally cleansed, but returning to original elements, this new release of Alice is not precisely the one that played in theatres for your parents as children, but that may not be a bad thing.
The image is sparklingly clear, colors more vibrant than ever, and the ever-present dust, which had adhered to the cells is now virtually absent.
One point of historical (and archival) interest, is that Alice is now seen with its original RKO logus intactus, rather than the replacement Buena Vista.
Although I personally prefer the original "un-cleansed" look, this new version glistens and glows, sending a message of precisely how much work the studio put into the release. Any negative comments would be nitpicking.
We'll view it as a new edition, the same conceptually as their DVD release of Snow White. Anything lost to originality is more than made up for by the high quality of the release.
This is a two disc set, with a myriad of extras as have been the recent offerings by of Disney on these releases.
It comes highly recommend from these quarters.
A DVD that fits into that "no-brainer" must buy category. I'm not aware if this release fits into the limited time availability of some of the other Disney titles, which are now going for a premium.
I do have one negative point regarding the packaging. Disney still refuses to date their releases with any sort of information regarding the year of production. The only annotation is "2004 release." Even the copyright notice is kept to a simple copyright Disney.
With the amount of history held in the Disney vaults, and the overall and constant quality of their animated work, I would think that this would be information of interest to lovers of film. That Alice in Wonderland is now over half a century old and looking - and sounding - incredibly beautiful, might be something to share with the public. I don't see a negative here.
RAH
With the release to DVD of the 1951 Alice in Wonderland, fans and collectors of quality classic animated films can add what is essentially only the seventh fully animated feature film produced by Disney out of a total of ten, produced between 1937 and 1959.
These films are rare commodities. Of the ten fully animated Disney features, only two remain unreleased -- the 1942 Bambi and 1950 Cinderella.
These films have been judiciously (and brilliantly) re-issued every seven years or so to new audiences of children, and generally have been seen in high quality prints.
Releases in the past on video tape and laserdisc have looked more like the film versions that we know -- based upon the original hand-inked and painted cells, with all of their idiocyncratic brush strokes and Disney "dust."
Now digitally cleansed, but returning to original elements, this new release of Alice is not precisely the one that played in theatres for your parents as children, but that may not be a bad thing.
The image is sparklingly clear, colors more vibrant than ever, and the ever-present dust, which had adhered to the cells is now virtually absent.
One point of historical (and archival) interest, is that Alice is now seen with its original RKO logus intactus, rather than the replacement Buena Vista.
Although I personally prefer the original "un-cleansed" look, this new version glistens and glows, sending a message of precisely how much work the studio put into the release. Any negative comments would be nitpicking.
We'll view it as a new edition, the same conceptually as their DVD release of Snow White. Anything lost to originality is more than made up for by the high quality of the release.
This is a two disc set, with a myriad of extras as have been the recent offerings by of Disney on these releases.
It comes highly recommend from these quarters.
A DVD that fits into that "no-brainer" must buy category. I'm not aware if this release fits into the limited time availability of some of the other Disney titles, which are now going for a premium.
I do have one negative point regarding the packaging. Disney still refuses to date their releases with any sort of information regarding the year of production. The only annotation is "2004 release." Even the copyright notice is kept to a simple copyright Disney.
With the amount of history held in the Disney vaults, and the overall and constant quality of their animated work, I would think that this would be information of interest to lovers of film. That Alice in Wonderland is now over half a century old and looking - and sounding - incredibly beautiful, might be something to share with the public. I don't see a negative here.
RAH
