It's too bad about this, because Disney can do a terrific job when they put their minds to it. My wife and I just watched 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea last night, and it looks spot on! Their Blu-rays of Pollyanna and Mary Poppins look great, too.
Since Disney closed the Movie Club, the prices for all the the Disney classic catalog have gotten pretty steep!
You mean the Blu-ray of Darby O'Gill? Yep, it's out of print now, like so many other classic Disney Movie Club Blu-rays that are now selling for $50 (or more) on the internet. But the DVD of that title is still readily available and cheap.
Huh?
Agreed. This is one of the ones Disney did okay by.
Thanks , I hadn't seen it and I'm glad they didin't give it the same lack of love that they did to Darby and SWTWC, it was a real let down for me, I can tell you!!
I bought it as well but it is still sealed. I almost don't want to watch it because I remember the print at MOMA vividly. They were showing films on which Peter Ellenshaw worked and had many examples of his matte work that were in an exhibit.
I saw the picture when it was first released and a couple of 35mm IB prints since then. It had the beautiful rich Technicolor look you fully expected from Disney films of those years. A huge expenditure of work and money went into the production of Darby O' Gill. Disney had it photographed by Winton Hoch who had shot The Quiet Man and The Searchers for John Ford. Considering the studio's technical resources and historically meticulous archiving of their film assets, they were certainly capable of producing a stunning product. Instead, the Blu-Ray looks like a faded dupe.
Yep, that's a pretty good way to describe it. I'm not surprised prints had that beautiful rich Technicolor look since the Technicolor lab would have processed them and, as you note, the film was meticulously photographed by top people.
I've been having a hard time finding reviews of the Blu-ray for this, though generally it sounds like it's a solid affair, and you seem to concur with this. It came up earlier in this thread that someone found it lacking. So I don't know. I'll be finding out soon, as it's on its way!
That's just not right.
We all have our own takes, and that's cool. When I'm reading others' reviews of discs, I always try to cast a wide net because different people pick up on different things. Then I filter those reviews through the lenses of what's most important to me and try to make the best decision as to whether a purchase is worth it for me or not.
