SANTA CLAUS IS COMIN' TO TOWN/LITTLE DRUMMER BOY DVD Flaw??? (1 Viewer)

[Jo_C]

By now you will have indulged yourself in all those Rankin/Bass specials on DVD, tape, and ABC Family Channel.

There is one flaw in the "Little Drummer Boy" portion of the "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town/Little Drummer Boy" DVD from Classic Media/Sony Wonder.

As you know, Greer Garson narrates the whole thing. But if you are true fans of the movie, you may have noticed something...in the DVD version, the narration line "As Aaron looked at the babe, he thought it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen" (towards the end of the film) IS NOT DONE BY GREER GARSON!!! It most likely would be a temp track done by what sounds like either Orson Welles or Paul Frees. I remember vividly that Miss Garson did the narration throughout when I saw the film on TV (and on the previous Family Home Entertainment video releases).

I contacted Rick Goldschmidt, R/B historian and keeper of the RankinBass.com website, and he told me he doesn't know about the "mistake" other than the fact that the transfer was not from the original 35MM negative, and that NBC most likely may have the original elements.

So if you have the "Drummer Boy" DVD, you have been warned.

 

[Randy A Salas]

That one line of changed dialogue hardly ruins the experience of seeing this wonderful holiday special. I certainly wouldn't pass it up over it. Most viewers wouldn't even notice.

 

[Keith Paynter]

You mean like most viewers can't tell the difference between the Deems Taylor audio on the original Fantasia video/LD release and the DVD Roadshow release?

 

[Lafe F]

I see there's a new cover for this DVD this Christmas season; I wonder if the content is any different?

The old cover looked like this:

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I didn't notice that, but I compared it with the version that appears with Frosty the Snowman on the old Image Entertainment laserdisc, and the sound is a LOT dirtier (for lack of a better word) on the LD!

 

[ScottR]

The Little Drummer Boy on DVD is also missing ALL of the sound effects from the original.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I've been astonished at the amazing PQ of these short specials. I need to add this to the collection of all the others I already own to get little Drummer boy!

-dave

 

[LukeB]

Little Drummer Boy's PQ will leave you disappointed, Dave. Significantly worse than the other *STOP MOTION PUPPETS* specials. Sure, it's old, but it looks like it's taken a real beating, in comparison to another *STOP MOTION PUPPETS* special on the same disc, Santa Claus is Comin' To Town, which looks pretty clean and good.

 

[Brian Kidd]

LukeB: They aren't claymation. These are stop motion puppets. Big difference.