DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Cinderella - 2 disc Platinum Edition - ENTHUSIASTICALLY RECOMMENDED!!! (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Swearingen]

Can't wait to get this...especially with that awesome ESPN Disney cross-promotion special feature they added in! (Disney must have reached a new low when they thought up this tie in - I mean seriously - ESPN Cinderella Stories? What idiot in marketing thought of that gem?)

David...How long would you guess the docs are on disc 2? Specifically the nine old men, the making of Cinderella, and the Mary Blair pieces since I'm most interested in them. Do they go pretty in depth or are some of them the typical Disney 6 minute DVD filler material?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Hey Jeff,

My bad for not being more disciplined about recording the play-time...I had set out to do that with pen in hand and then ended up getting so into the bonus stuff that when I was done (hours later) I realized I hadn't recorded any of the run-times! Doh!

I want to say that most of them average about 10-15 mins each with a few shorter (around 6 mins) and a few longer.

I'll spend some time this weekend FF to get playtime and I'll update the review accordingly.

BTW, I'm glad to see from the comments so far that I'm not the only one who thought that the ESPN thing was just a little out-of-context on this DVD set...sometimes it's scary...you wonder if the marketing folks have even *SEEN* the movie that they're working on.

 

[ZackR]

Hey guys, maybe this is a bit off-topic, but I was at Wal-Mart today and they had a full size cardboard standup for Cinderella in the front of the store. They were advertising an "Exclusive" CD with songs from 10 Disney classics. Anyways, prominently displayed on the cover of the CD (at least in the advertisement) was a pic of Uncle Remus from Song of the South. Perhaps Disney is slowly warming up to the idea of releasing SotS. I mean, to have it displayed like that alongside one of its marqee films inside the nation's largest retailer, maybe we will see Song of the South soon. I can only hope...

Anyways, back to Cinderella: An excellent review as always, David. I will be in line on release day to add this true CLASSIC to my Disney library. I cannot wait!!

 

[Jeff Swearingen]

Zack...

Rumor has it that SOTS will be getting a 60th anniversary treatment next year. You can find discussion on this SOTS rumor in many existing threads on HTF and a couple of articles over at UltimateDisney.com SongoftheSouth.net and JimHillMedia.com. EDIT: http://www.jimhillmedia.com/mb/artic...le.php?ID=1313

Back to Cinderella...does anyone know what will actually be special about the deluxe box set they are selling? Is this a worthwhile purchase or should I stick to the 2 disc DVD set? What are other experiences from the Lion King, Aladdin, etc. deluxe box sets of this sort that y'all have seen in the past so I have a comparison to judge against?

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Well, the truly CLASSIC days of Disney were, of course, about one decade earlier, but Cinderella is close enough.

Great review, DaViD - obviously a must-buy.

That nice big laserdisc box set is ten years old now - one should not be surprised that technology has progressed since then.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Jefferson,

so you have the laserdisc box set? Those of you with that set...I'd love to hear a report from you about the special features that appear on LD but are not on the DVD, on the DVD only, or on both. That would be great to hear.

Of course, I'm sure some of the LD bonus material had to be sacrificed to make room for the new music videos and ESPN feature on Disc one...

 

[Greg Mariotti]

great review! Can you post the length of the bonus materials on disc 2. Specifically the 9 old men feature?

Thanks

 

[Brian Little]

I'm looking very forward to getting this on October 4th. I have the movie only LD release from the mid 90s and I'll have to say that its pretty amazing looking. I can't imagine how the DVD will top it but I had a feeling all along that it will.

Thanks David for the review.

 

[Jacinto]

This is my wife's favorite Disney flick. I bought the CAV LD Box for Valentine's Day before we got married. Hell, that's probably why she married me -- she didn't know anyone else with a LD player for her to watch it on! Now my four year old little girl gives the LD of this a spin about once a month. Looks like I can finally retire the box set (for viewing of the actual film, anyway), and replace it with the perfect stocking stuffer for Christmas.

Thanks for the excellent review, DaViD!

Edit: I don't have time to type up all of the Supplementals from the box set, DaViD, but at first glance in the Supplemental Audio section I count 8 demos for songs recorded between 1946-1948, the three Radio Broadcast excerpts with Ilene Woods, as well as 20 radio commercials for the film, 15 from 1950 and 5 from 1957. I don't think I 'll have time to type up an exhaustive list from the back of the Supplementals Disc, but maybe I can get to it.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

DaViD thanks for the review. I eagerly await viewing this one again. About the only thing that disappoints me is no commentary track. The tracks on Bambi and Sleeping Beauty are beyond cool. I think I've only seen this movie once and it was many years ago, probably something like 16 years which is 2/3 of my life.

 

[Jefferson]

Hey David...
I edited my original post to admit that most, if not all, of the original LD features *are* included, save for the music only track.
I will have to wait for the dvd to see if the tons and tons of images in the gallery are all included.
My main qualm, aside from the absence of "music only" track, is the addition of (sigh) this ESPN thing, although, you are correct: it will be someone's favorite thing. (guess that is what makes the world go round).

Here, to the best of my knowledge is a list of the Laser Disc contents that I found on the internet so i didnt have to type it all out myself:

LASER DISC release Supplements:
Documentary "The making of Cinderella"; 1922 Laugh-o-Gram version of Cinderella (complete motion footage); 1933 Silly Symphony version (unrealized) artwork; 1940 Story Concepts; Sequence Breakdown and Storyboards for Introduction scene; Abandoned storyboard sequence for "The Music Lesson"; Abandoned storyboard sequence for "Cinderella Work Song";
Abandoned storyboard sequence for "Dancing on a Cloud"; Character designs for Cinderella, Stepmother, Stepsisters, Fairy Godmother, Prince, King, Duke, Lucifer, Mice, Bruno, Major, and Miscellaneous animals; Character design for Music Teacher (deleted character);

Preliminary Design Concepts; Layouts and Backgrounds; Live-Action Test Footage (actually, *stills only* from the live action sessions. The motion footage is missing.); Clip from "The Mickey Mouse Club" with Helene Stanley (model for Cinderella, full motion
clip from the show); Production Photo Gallery; Trailers; Publicity materials: Posters, Lobby Cards, and 1950 pressbook; Merchandising; 1950 Sunday Color Comic Strip.
Audio Supplements:
*MUSIC ONLY TRACKS
DEMOS:
"Cinderella"
(demo), "I'm In The middle of a Muddle" (demo), "I Lost My Heart at the Ball" (demo for unused song), "The Mouse Song" (demo for unused song), "Sing a Little, Dream a Little" (demo for unused song), "Dancing on a Cloud" (demo for unused song), "The Dress My Mother Wore" (demo for unused song),
"The Face That I See In The Night" (demo for unused song), "Village Store" (excerpt of radio broadcast announcing Ilene Woods' casting as the voice of Cinderella. She sings "When You Wish Upon A Star"), "Gulf Oil Presents" (excerpt of radio broadcast in which Ilene Woods is interviewed. She sings "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes", "Scouting the Stars" (radio interview), 1950 Radio Commercials (5 50-second spots), 1950 Radio Commercials (5 11-second spots), 1957 Radio Commercials (2 15-second spots), 1957 Radio Commercials (3 55-second spots). Physical Supplements: A multi-image lithograph showing 4 stages in the character development process for Cinderella; a cute storybook telling the story of Cinderella in pictures and words,with a second section telling the story of the film's production.

 

[BBbrowd]

Definitely a release to look forward to with excitement! Though it's not perfect, it is one of the most touching and memorable films of all time. The voice talents and music alone make it a true masterwork. A heartfelt piece from start to finish.

I agree with Jefferson! The ESPN stuff is really out of place. I can imagine for myself why they chose to include it, but come on Disney! Don't you think this animated classic has enough drawing power on it's own? David's enthusiastic review has me looking forward to this release though in spite of the out of place sports extras and lame rock videos. The restoration of the film sounds incredible! Can't wait.

David, I have a question for you about the stills galleries. Is there a section included for the Cinderella art at the Disney Parks? The Sleeping Beauty DVD extras included a gallery with great photos of the castle tapestries from the Parks and I'm hoping they included it in the Cinderella galleries as well. As I'm sure you know there is so much beautiful art based on the film in and around Walt Disney World's Cinderella Castle including the magnificent mosaic murals that tell the story. Worth showcasing as well are the castle details, the birds and mice adorning the columns, and the bronze Cinderella fountain the courtyard.

 

[Jay Pennington]

Thanks for the review!

Concerning the live action "tracing"...I am almost positive this was never done at Disney. Using live action as reference, sure, but not outright tracing.

What happened to Ernest?

 

[Mike Frezon]

Ernest stopped posting at the HTF about a month or so ago.

 

[Jay Pennington]

Not since June, now that I've looked. He edited out the content of his last several posts. Looks like he got fed up about something. Too bad; his Disney posts were very informative.

 

[ZackR]

He seems to have left, at least for now. A shame. I wold love to hear Ernest's thoughts on Cinderella...

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I'd love to hear Ernest's comments too, though my understanding is that he's no longer posting at HTF.





I'll check on that, as well as get play-times for the special features tonight and update tomorrow.

BTW, the "tracing" I brought up in the review was actually mentioned in the bonus material...so I'm just trusting that it's correct. I'm not sure what precise technical way in which this was done, but one of the documentaries seemed pretty clear that much of the human-character motion was traced over live-action footage to save animation time.

 

[Mark-P]

I've been a reader of this forum for years, and now I've decided to finally join in the conversation.

Regarding the "tracing" of live actors, this is called roto-scoping and from all I've read, Walt Disney was always strongly opposed to this practice, feeling it had no artistic merit. He looked down on other studios who roto-scoped, like Max Fleischer did in "Gulliver's Travels" in 1939.

David has said that the supplements on this DVD mention the fact that tracing was done for Cinderella. I'm wondering if some of the people involved in the documentaries might perhaps have misunderstood what they were told. The Disney studios used live action models, both human and animal and even filmed them and made prints of the frames to analyze and learn to animate more natural movement for their characters, but I do not believe they ever roto-scoped for the end product.

But on the other hand, maybe this new information is true and a long-held secret is being let out of the bag?

P.S. David, I have always enjoyed your extensive reviews and I share your enthusiasm for classic Disney animation. I am anxiously waiting to get my copy of Cinderella.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Mark,

thanks for posting. Just the kind of discussion I love to see in these HTF review threads.

If anyone out there has any "Ernest-esque" inside knowlege of what the deal is with the "tracing" I heard tale of in the special features do let us know...let's get to the bottom of this.

BTW, it's quite possible that the characters were "traced" as a point-of-reference (as a guide not necessarily to be followed line for line) to speed up the animation...but with taking liberties to stylize the look so as to avoid the obvious effect as seen in Gulliver's Travels.

Just a thought...would love to know more...

dave

 

[Josh Simpson]

I love old Disney movies and have never seen this one. I've enjoyed the Platinum Editions... and even the non Platinum ones... (Sleeping Beauty). I'll have to pick this one up for sure.