101 Dalmatians (Limited Issue) dvd movie.|
101 Dalmatians (Limited Issue) cheap dvd videos, dvd movies for sale |
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List Price: $34.99 Features • Animated • Closed-captioned • Color • Dolby • DVD-Video • THX • NTSC In Theaters : 1961 DVD Release : 09 November, 1999 |
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101 Dalmatians (Limited Issue) description Back in 1961, Walt Disney got a little hip with 101 Dalmatians, making use of that flat Saturday morning cartoon style that had become so popular. The result is a kitschy change in animation and story. Pongo and Perdita are two lonely dalmatians who meet cute in a London park and arrange for their pet humans to marry so they can live together an ... review details |
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| ♥♥♥♥♥ | Dalmations Platinum Edition: Home Run! |
| 101 Dalmatians never looked so good! The film absolutely leaps off the screen with its colors. A dazzling restoration job...which is one of my few gripes. It would have been nice to have a short featurette with before/after and how they go about restoring the picture.
The plot is familiar to most Disney enthusiasts: Pongo is the dalmatian of Roger Racliffe, a single song writer. Pongo helps him meet Anita, who also owns a dalmatian, Perdita. Roger & Anita and Pongo & Perdita fall in love (of course). Shortly after Roger & Anita get married, Perdita gives birth to 15 puppies...which attracts a psychotic over the top former school chum of Anita's to visit--Cruella De Vil. She wants to buy the puppies to make a coat for herself, but Roger tells her "no." Unable to accept that, she hires two bumbling fools, Jasper & Horace, to steal the puppies. It is up to Pongo and Perdita to find the puppies with the help of some animal friends. "Dalmatians" is known as the first Disney film to break away from the traditional "romantic" style of animation that Disney was known for. The studio was suffering financial setbacks from the expense and lack of revenue of "Sleeping Beauty," so it was imperative that "Dalmatians" cut a few corners where possible. Un Iwerks came up with the idea of Xerox the drawings directly onto the cels, thus cutting out the expensive step of having the drawings re-inked. Xerox captured all the imperfections of the original drawings, which is why this film has such a hand-drawn quality to it. You will learn on this DVD that Walt actually didn't like it at first, and it took many years for him to accept this new style, as he was definitely partial to the perfected romantic stylings of "Snow White," "Sleeping Beauty," and "Cinderella." You will also learn that this Xerox process was tested in one of the sequences from "Sleeping Beauty." There are many who will curse Disney for releasing this DVD in full-frame and not widescreen; the truth is that this was originally a full-frame aspect ratio film. Therefore, you are getting the film as it was originally seen in the theater. Review of the Extras: on Disc 1, you can watch the movie the regular way or choose 2 options for pop-up trivia facts. One version is for The Family, the other is geared for "The Fan." I truly enjoyed watching with these pop-ups; they really aren't very invasive and give lots of fun and interesting info which enhances the viewing of the film. Example: you will learn that several characters from "Lady and the Tramp" were used in cameo roles in this movie. There is a new music video by Selena Gomez (from "Hannah Montana") for the song "Cruella De Vil." I could have done without this, but it probably will be appealing to teens, as it is definitely aiimed at them. The other extra on this disc is the 101 Dalmatians Fun with Language Games. These are somewhat pitiful; to have a game that you play with a virtual dog seems lame. You can choose between "play dead," "rollover," "show love," etc. for your dog. Just made me feel like instead of playing this, a kid should go play with a real dog. Maybe very young children would enjoy it. The Fun with Language Game was the worst; whoever the narrator was sounded like she was drugged. She spoke in such a slow drawn-out manner that I couldn't even finish both of the games. Again, learning the words "sandwich" and "teapot" would definitely appeal to an extremely young audience. Disc 2 extras are geared more towards the adults, and they really are fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed the "Sincerely Yours, Walt Disney" featurette. This documents the correspondence between the author of the book that this film was based upon, Dodie Smith, and Walt Disney. Unlike the often adversarial relationship with Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers, Dodie and Walt shared a mutual respect and admiration for each other that continued even after the film was released. Although there were a few interesting bumps along the way, the two were able to iron out their differences. The reenactments depicting Walt & Dodie are very well done. "Cruella De Vil: Drawn to be Bad" is truly a tribute to the genius of animator Marc Davis. See how he was able to take Bill Peet's storyboards (which were genius themselves) and give life to this top Disney Villain. He made her evil, loveable, funny, over-the-top, and extremely memorable. From the moment she slams the door open and is breathing green cigarette smoke from pink cigarettes, she becomes a legend. You will also see the original production photographs of Mary Wickes acting out the role for Davis to use for his drawings. The voice was done by yet another actress, Betty Lou Gerson. Davis was able to blend all of these elements together to create perfection. Archival interviews with Davis and recent ones with his widow Alice are enlightening. "Redefining The Line: The Making of One Hundred And One Dalmatians" is an excellent documentary. Concentrating on the revolutionary new style of animation (mentioned previously here in the references to the Xerox of the original art), you will get an inside peak into the makings of the film from archival interviews of the people involved, as well as present day critiques and appreciation from some of the top Disney/Pixar animators of this generation. Pre-dating computer animation, Disney animators had 3D models built of Cruella's car in white, outlined the shape in black, and used the camera/xerox to capture the movement to astonishing effect. Lisa Davis, the voice of Anita, gives many touching memories of the making of the film and her contributions. It is also touching to see Ken Anderson's interviews discussing his art direction of the film and its backgrounds, and how Walt's displeasure with the style deeply affected him. Plenty of theatrical trailers on board; the original trailer, one formatted for Cinemascope, and one for TV. Interesting to see that the TV trailer has not a frame of Cruella, and the original one only has a second glimpse of her in a car. Of course now her character is credited with much of the success of the film. Plenty of re-release trailers and radio audio spots, too. LOTS of art, from concept, to storyboard, to backgrounds, to production photographs, and more. Some of the character styling sheets are difficult to see due to the amount of characters on one photo, however, the backgrounds are a treat. Seeing the color treatments of Bill Anderson married with the details of artist Walt Peregoy...sheer magic. Anderson did a great job of matching the new animation style with his backgrounds, creating a seamless visual feast. The deleted songs are somewhat interesting, but as usual, it is easy to see why they weren't used. The ones here on this DVD set were either replaced by better songs or cut because they slowed the story down. There are also some interesting alternate takes and rehearsal recordings of Bill Lee, who dubbed the singing for Ben Wright (Roger). Bill Lee also did the dubbing for Christopher Plummer in "The Sound of Music." Overall, this one is definitely a 5-Star Set. Excellent movie and interesting extras. Add it to your collection now! |
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