Bedknobs and Broomsticks blu-ray on August 12 (1 Viewer)

[Noach Kowalski]

According to Amazon Canada, bluray is coming on August 12!

 

[atfree]

Yep...pre-order link:http://www.amazon.ca/LApprentice-Sorci%C3%A8re-Blu-ray-num%C3%A9rique-Bilingual/dp/B00K5ZXKMA/ref=sr_1_10?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1399427162&sr=1-10&keywords=bedknobs+and+broomsticks

 

[Vahan_Nisanain]

Don't know why they won't offer both versions to the consumers: The standard 2-hour version (with original mono), or the 25th anniversary edition. Not everyone likes hearing the badly redubbed dialogue for much of the extra footage, much of which isn't even from the original actors.

 

[MatthewA]

And the announcement came on what would have been David Tomlinson's 97th birthday. What a coincidence!

 

[Dick]

Now we need a U.S. release, so we can get a good Amazon or Best Buy or Disney Club discount.

 

[bluelaughaminute]

Over $31 seems a tad over priced

 

[classicmovieguy]

What a pleasant surprise! I hope we'll see this available from the main Amazon soon.

 

[Patrick McCart]

Both cuts would be nice, too. While some of the scenes really should have stayed in, the extended "Portobello Road" sequence is ridiculous.

 

[classicmovieguy]

The overdubbed voices in the restored extended version are pretty painful (particularly the ones for Charlie and the Professor). Thankfully Angela Lansbury and Roddy McDowall were both able to re-record their own missing dialogue.

 

[MatthewA]

The dubbing is also poorly synced. The first "new" scene involved redubbing two existing lines of dialogue for Tessie O'Shea and adding Mr. Widdenfield's line "Halt, who goes there!," which is what Mrs. Hobday and the children reacted to. Yet it seems like she reacts before he says anything.

Some of the voices do match the originals, so it seems like they at least tried. Corey Burton dubbed both Arthur E. Gould-Porter (Captain Greer) and Sam Jaffee (the Bookman) and got pretty close. Arthur Malet's voice double seemed to match okay. I suspect many of the tracks for the redubbed lines must have deteriorated beyond repair, as sometimes there's a switch between the two actors within individual sentences. Ironically, the worst-dubbed scene is one of the most integral to the plot: the scene where Mr. Browne meets Mrs. Hobday.

There's also another problem: the dialogue in Disney movies of this era always had the most unusual dynamics. Part of this is because of the age of the sound equipment. It made the films sound older than they were, but for musicals it allowed for a smooth transition between spoken and sung dialogue. They didn't change it until the 1980s, so when they did these redubs, they were using more modern equipment.

Perhaps some technology that didn't exist then now exists that can at least make them sound closer (via equalization or even pitch correction), and perhaps they can be synced better.

 

[darkrock17]

I'm beyond estatic about this release, FINALLY my favorite live action Disney movie get's the blu-ray treatment. Now the most important thing for me for this release is Disney going to give it the edition it trully deserves? I'm hoping they do this right, and that there's new interviews or an audio commentary from Angela.

The dubbing for the 25th Anniversary never bothered me, as I never notice it when I first watched it on TV and then on DVD. I guess I'm not the kinda of person who notices those things.

 

[MatthewA]

I'm beyond estatic about this release, FINALLY my favorite live action Disney movie get's the blu-ray treatment. Now the most important thing for me for this release is Disney going to give it the edition it trully deserves? I'm hoping they do this right, and that there's new interviews or an audio commentary from Angela.

The dubbing for the 25th Anniversary never bothered me, as I never notice it when I first watched it on TV and then on DVD. I guess I'm not the kinda of person who notices those things.

Ideally, they'd take the same approach as Blade Runner and present a box set of all extant versions, swimming in extras, doing whatever is possible to make the dubbing less jarring. If they don't want to do new extras, there's plenty of stuff in the archive they could include (when and why did isolated scores become a luxury only Twilight Time could afford?). They do need to go more in-depth into the history of the film. Even The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story skirts around the reasons for the Sherman Brothers' departure from Disney; dropping a third of this film's score was definitely one of many reasons, but all we heard was "it just wasn't the same" as Miss Price sang the last verse of "The Age of Not Believing."

Realistically, I'd be surprised if they did go that far. The last DVD already dumbed down the extras and turned it into an ad for Wizards of Waverly Place. That's why the girl from that show did the special effects extra. Incidentally, whatever happened to any of the kids from this film?

They cut the Music Magic featurette in half, removing all the footage of Scott MacQueen, who no longer works for Disney, talking about the reconstruction. As far as I know, no additional scenes or sound elements for existing ones have been found since the reconstruction was completed.

One thing regarding the dubbing I will say in the studio's defense is that certain things were beyond their control. Tessie O'Shea died in 1995, just as they were starting to work on it. David Tomlinson apparently was not able to make it out to Hollywood due to health reasons. And there was no way to keep the children from getting older.

 

[classicmovieguy]

Even that marvellous TCM documentary "The Age of Believing", which tracked the production of the Walt-era live-action classics with tonnes of interviews with the surviving stars (still unavailable on video) would be a most welcome inclusion with this release.

 

[MatthewA]

Even that marvellous TCM documentary "The Age of Believing", which tracked the production of the Walt-era live-action classics with tonnes of interviews with the surviving stars (still unavailable on video) would be a most welcome inclusion with this release.

Who owns the rights to that? The fact that they were able to get Disney clips at all is amazing.

 

[classicmovieguy]

It must have been a TCM/Disney co-production. TCM does air Disney films (the classic live-actions) in its schedule.

 

[darkrock17]

I never got to see the TCM documentary, I think I've seen some clips though. I'd really hope Disney goes deep, deep into their archives and vaults and can find stuff from this movie.

 

[Jason_V]

There are clips on YouTube, but I didn't find anything for the whole doc. It would be fascinating to see since it covers a wide range of genres.

 

[darkrock17]

I'm kinda surprised that TCM documentary hasn't been released on DVD yet, but then again TCM dosen't release a lot of their documentaries or specials that the air. It wasn't until the 2005 DVD release of The Wizard Of Oz, that I was finally able to see the Memories of Oz documentary in full.

 

[MatthewA]

I'm kinda surprised that TCM documentary hasn't been released on DVD yet, but then again TCM dosen't release a lot of their documentaries or specials that the air. It wasn't until the 2005 DVD release of The Wizard Of Oz, that I was finally able to see the Memories of Oz documentary in full.

TCM and WB have the same corporate parent, so that made it easier to include a TCM documentary on a DVD of The Wizard of Oz. I suspect new licensing agreements would have to be drawn up. With whom I can't say with all certainty, though.

Then again, WB did release a disc of the Lifetime Intimate Portrait episodes about the stars of The Golden Girls.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

This is GREAT news. One of my favorite (if not THE favorite) Disney
live-action film.

I would just about guarantee a U.S. release will be forthcoming on the
same date.