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Lady and
the Tramp
(50th Anniversary Platinum Edition) |
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| Starring: Voices of Peggy Lee, Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill
Thompson, Bill Baucom, Stan Freberg, Verna Felton, Alan Reed, George Givot, Dal McKennon Directed by: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske |
Theatrical Release: 1955
DVD Release: 2006
Released by: Walt Disney Home EntertainmentDolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 3.0
Widescreen, Fullscreen |
| Miyazaki: A Disney for Our Age from
Across the Sea  Watching Hayao Miyazaki’s newest,
Academy-Award-nominated feature Howl’s Moving Castle (Japanese: **** ;
English: **1/2) so soon after Lady and the Tramp, I speculated what might have
happened had these two giants of animation met and worked on a project together. Though
each is distinctly different, they share good story telling. Howl’s Moving Castle
is about a handsome sorcerer, Howl, who travels about the landscape in a moving fortress
with fowl’s legs. It looks like a cross between Baba Yaga’s hut from Russian
folklore and the animated drawings that Monty Python used on their television show. As
usual with the Japanese director’s work, anachronism abounds, and fantastic elements
are made to be part of everyday life.
The film is beautifully drawn and has a buoyant score by
Joe Hisaishi that should have been nominated for an Academy Award along with the movie. It
has arrived on DVD looking and sounding amazing. But there is a rub. I listened to the
English dubbed version first, which includes such headline stars as Christian Bale, Jean
Simmons, Lauren Bacall, Blythe Danner, and Billy Crystal, and I really didn’t like
the movie. Playing the same film with the original Japanese soundtrack, I was thoroughly
enchanted. It seems to me that even though Pixar did the dubbing and went to great lengths
to get it right (as documented in the extras), the English-speaking actors overact and
distract one from the lyrical nature of the movie. Thanks to DVD, you have a choice, but I
am betting most folks will end up preferring Japanese with English subtitles. Whatever
language you choose, be sure to see this vibrant, enchanting movie.
...Rad Bennett
radb@hometheatersound.com |
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This movie was also Disney’s first animated feature in
CinemaScope. Walt was not only up to date with technology, he often set standards for
others to follow. CinemaScope had come about in response to television. Movies needed to
offer something that TV could not, and widescreen presentations complete with stereo,
perhaps surround sound, got folks out of the house and back into the theaters. Disney knew
that not all theaters would be equipped to project the new format, so he had an Academy
Ratio version prepared simultaneously with the CinemaScope one. There are some comparisons
in one of the featurettes on this DVD. Looking at footage of the original fullscreen
version, however, and then comparing it with the fullscreen version on the disc, makes me
wonder if this is really the original fullscreen version. It looks more like a pan and
scan of the restored widescreen movie.
And fully restored it is. The colors are so rich and deep
that one would think this movie was made today, not 50 years ago. There is not a blemish,
a pinhole, or a scratch. I doubt that anyone who viewed the original saw a copy this good,
considering that film deteriorates rapidly when it is shuffled from one theater to
another. The sound is offered in two versions. There’s a new 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home
Theater Mix, which is done with extreme restraint and discretion. Most of the sound is
still up front but occasionally you might hear thunder or a train from the rear channels.
But the original 3.0 tracks have been restored as well, and I found I preferred these.
They were cleaner and offered better balance, being particularly good on center-channel
dialogue. One of the marvels of the DVD format is that both versions can be provided on
the same disc.
It has become standard for Disney Platinum Editions to
contain a treasure trove of extras, and this one is no exception. The best one is a Disney
television segment on the music. Peggy Lee, looking oh so young, sultry, and lively, is
shown working with Sonny Burke on the songs. She demonstrates to the viewer how the cat
song was overdubbed so that she could sing both parts (an easy task now, but not so simple
back then) and is filmed live singing her sizzling version of "He’s a
Tramp." It is nostalgic touches like that which make Platinum Editions so special. |
