Disney Classics

[jbeall]

If you like the dark side in Pinocchio Bambi is also recommended. Bambi's mother dies!!!! It's pretty strong.

Mary Poppins is pretty dark, too.

[King Prendergast]

Has anyone read Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination by Neal Gabler? I'm considering about getting that book.

Whatever you do don't read that trash. For the best bio on Disney see Michael Barrier's The Animated Man published by the University of California Press, not some mass market shlock-meister like Vintage. Barrier is the foremost authority on American animation and does not hesitiate to shit on his competition. See his website for a thorough dressing-down of the Fox News contributor Gabler:
http://www.michaelbarrier.com/Commentar ... erBook.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[brendanjc]

As far as Mary Poppins goes, I liked it as a kid but find it pretty grating and dull now. I'm curious to see if everyone here writes off Sleeping Beauty as they seem to the other later animated features. I saw it for the first time recently and wasn't particularly impressed with most of it - it was simple, slight, and only a little bit funny. It does benefit from its brevity, though, and the structure of the story (in that it focuses most on the villain and the fairies, who are far more interesting than the prince, princess, and their parents). It was, however, drop-dead gorgeous - at least, on Blu-ray - to the point that I would definitely consider it a classic if simply because it's told so beautifully. I only wish that the final confrontation had been longer.

I doubt Pinocchio will wind up looking nearly this good when it comes out this March (due to the difference in budget and age), but if it's even halfway there it should be a must-own release, as I agree with others here who find it a far more compelling story.

[Saturnome]

Sleeping Beauty is my favourite post-war Disney. It's amazing to watch. It's not funny or anything, the storyline isn't amazing either (well it fits the tale I guess), but it's so beautiful. Earle's Backgrounds are stylized and gorgeous, the colors are just perfect, and the animation is simply among the best. It's a piece of art.
I kinda like 101 Dalmatians too, mostly for it's jazzy and light modern art style... it's so unlike Sleeping Beauty it's amazing these were made right one after the other (while cost mostly explain it).

I never saw Pinocchio but I'll surely get my hands on it.

[eight_and_a_half]

Sleeping Beauty is my favourite post-war Disney. It's amazing to watch. It's not funny or anything, the storyline isn't amazing either (well it fits the tale I guess), but it's so beautiful. Earle's Backgrounds are stylized and gorgeous, the colors are just perfect, and the animation is simply among the best. It's a piece of art.

I agree. Sleeping Beauty is one of Disney's most beautifully animated and stylized films. The story line isn't fantastic, but Earle's geometric design gives the film such a unique aesthetic look in relation to Disney's other animated fare. It's not just the backgrounds though. Maleficent is one of the strangest and most sinister looking Disney villains. It's amazing to think her character began in this far less triangular version, which is far less malicious in appearance to the actual character design used in the film.

[jojo]

Sleeping Beauty is one of those animated films that wants to be an art film but can't resist putting in some useless, mind-numbing silliness. It may have worked better if it stuck to being a near-silent film with a neverending series of beautifully gothic imagery (which it has, at times). I always roll with the film until I get to that too-long woodland cottage sequence with the damned animals.

My favourite Disneys are their "dog" movies--101 Dalmations and Lady and the Tramp. 101 Dalmations, as noted by someone earlier in the thread, features much of that "jazzy" modern illustration style you'd find in those late 1950s magazines (a favourite period of mine for magazine illustration). It's also got 1 song only, but WHAT a song! And Cruella de Vil is a character design Disney animators have been referring to for the past 49 years or so.

Lady and the Tramp is unique in that it's a scope-ratio film for what is actually a fairly small-scale story. There aren't any villains, the pacing is a little more leisurely and it's all very idyllically suburban. It all looks fantastic of course, visually not dissimilar to Minnelli's re-imagining of early 20th century suburban life in Meet Me in St Louis. I also think Lady and the Tramp features, even to this day, the most "believable" characterizations ever found in a Disney film. Most Disney characters are slightly stylized and in their fairy tale adaptations, often larger-than-life.

As far as adaptations of fairy tale/myths go, I'd agree Pinnochio is about the best Disney has done. It's never *too* cute, unlike Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and it's got genuine moments of horror that would be excised from almost all other subsequent Disney adaptations of classic fairy tales.

[Saturnome]

I'm not picking on jojo, but why do I read so, so, so often "Dalmation" ? As English isn't a language I use often, but only sometimes read, "dalmation" seems the most common mistake I read, but I can't exactly figure why. I never read, for exemple, "martion". So, to what "dalmation" is similar to?

Sorry for my naivety and out-of-subject question.

[jojo]

I'm not picking on jojo, but why do I read so, so, so often "Dalmation" ? As English isn't a language I use often, but only sometimes read, "dalmation" seems the most common mistake I read, but I can't exactly figure why. I never read, for exemple, "martion". So, to what "dalmation" is similar to?

Sorry for my naivety and out-of-subject question.

No idea. But you're right, it's a bad habit of mine and I don't know where I picked it up from--maybe animation? The company Filmation?. I had to train myself to refer to Thief of Bagdad without an "H", and the NBA player Dwyane Wade "y" before "a". Time to train myself again.

[Vic Pardo]

The only Disney animated features I consider true classics are: SNOW WHITE, PINOCCHIO, FANTASIA, DUMBO and BAMBI. BAMBI's my favorite of the five.

Some of the animated shorts are classics, too, e.g. "The Band Concert" and "The Old Mill," but not many. Not nearly as many as Warner Bros. made. "What's Opera Doc?" is worth 99% of all of Disney's shorts. Chuck Jones was a true animation artist who surpassed everyone who worked at Disney.

The classic animated features of the last 30 years have all come from Japan--and mostly from Miyazaki.

There's a Japanese animated version of THE LITTLE MERMAID that's either from 1973, '75 or '78, depending on what info source you read. It maintains the tragic ending of the original story and is quite a dark and powerful little film. Too bad the only copy I have is a poorly transferred, severely cropped p.d. VHS edition.

[flyonthewall2983]

I was all about Herbie when I was a kid. I've probably seen all the movies more back then than I've seen my favorite movies now as an adult. They showed all of them on TCM a few months ago, and it brought back quite a bit of that nostalgic feeling of being sucked into those films as a wee one.

[vanWarmerdam]

I rewatched Dumbo recently, and it struck me how depressing it all was. I remembered it was a bit of a downer, but I wasn't prepared it would be this dark. Anyone who says Bambi was the darkest Disney film should really revisit this.
Fantasia is still my favorite Disney film. The way the visuals and the music blend together is still unprecedented (at least when the same studio is concerned, I haven't watched too many other animation, unfortunately) and couldn't even be rivaled with the sequel that came out sixty years later. Fantasia 2000's problem is it plays safe too much. Fantasia was daring and original, with impressionistic pieces, some comedy stuff and some long, dark sequences. Fantasia 2000 mostly seems to play it safe, with only one impressionistic piece (Beethoven's Fifth) that's a well known piece of music. And the film is far too short, the pieces could be longer, if only they would step away from the fact that animation films can be longer than 70 minutes. The second sequel might've been better, but that was canceled, unfortunately.
And I really hope Disney will release the original Fantasia uncut, when it hits Blu-ray next year.

[Vic Pardo]

If you like the dark side in Pinocchio Bambi is also recommended. Bambi's mother dies!!!! It's pretty strong.

If you ask people, they'll swear up and down that the scene of Bambi's mother dying is in the movie. It's not. It happens offscreen. Those of you who "remember" seeing that scene need to look at the film again. That's how powerful the movie is. It allows you to fill in the blanks.

And I'll agree with the poster just ahead of me that DUMBO is darker than BAMBI. In DUMBO, we actually see Dumbo's mother getting horribly treated--and right in front of Dumbo, too!

[knives]

I remember always falling to sleep on Bambi, just wasn't the Disney for me. Dumbo though is easily in my top five. That is some very mature,interestingly progressive storytelling in what is a very simple tale. I can't wait until they announce that puppy for rerelease.

[Murdoch]

For me, the endless days spent watching Fantasia will never be topped, my favorite Disney by a mile. Rite of Spring and Night on Bald Mountain were too of the most terrifying things I had seen as a kid, while Pastoral Symphony never failed to wow me into a fit of happiness. Pinocchio would probably fit a similar category, although I didn't watch it nearly as much mainly because the kids-turning-into-donkeys scene gave me horrible nightmares.

edit: I just popped in my old VHS of Fantasia and I am suddenly very angry I don't have this on DVD, fucking Disney vault!

[knives]

Back about three years ago all I would watch was fantasia, everyday two or three times. Only stopped because my VHS was eaten. Luckily I found a working one a few months ago. If the new release is uncut, oh boy.

[Finch]

Fantasia Diamond Edition release is a 4-disc box set
http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/Di...-Blu-ray.shtml" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"The Fantasia four-disc boxed set will contain a beautifully restored version of the 1940 classic--scanned at 4K and remixed for 7.1 channels--as well as Fantasia 2000, plus a platter of Blu-ray extras and a DVD copy of the film. Among the many special features will be an interactive edition of the fabled Shultheis Notebook, a priceless animators "bible" compiled over the career of one of Fantasia's key creators, and the first-ever home video release of Destino, Walt Disney's collaboration with Salvador Dali. Destino is backed by its own 70-minute documentary.

The folks at Disney have also thought up a novel way to preserve archival, standard-definition bonus features without cluttering up the disc: We will be able to download them via BD-Live! The Fantasia box will be released in December, at a price to be determined."

[domino harvey]

cluttering up the disc

Man, just fuck this sentiment

[knives]

What aspects will be available through BDlive? Never used it and really don't want to bother. Would be upset if it's the Dali stuff.

[tojoed]

Imagine having discs with content on them, that would never do!
Actually, a disc without Fantasia on it would be a bonus.

[Finch]

I think the 1940 original holds up quite well despite one or two sections (the Stone Age chapter especially) being far too long. The inclusion of Destino makes this a must-buy surely.

[domino harvey]

My mom loved Fantasia and I remember sitting through it with her on more than one occasion and trying awful hard to pretend it was as good as, say, the Aristocats

[Murdoch]

Wow, there are actually people who don't like Fantasia, that's a new one to me. It's the only Disney movie I can still watch and enjoy, maybe Pinocchio as well but it's been a while since I've seen that. Maybe it's because it's so unique from the generic formula Disney punches out that I like it best, it's not bound by narrative but just an experiment in the power of animation - and the Night on Bald Mountain is probably the best thing Disney has ever produced.

Fantasia 2000 on the other hand...

[knives]

It's been so long since I've seen 2000 that I can't speak on it, but the original is simply essential to me. Not a fan of the Rites of Spring sections, but the rest, especially Night on Bald Mountain/ Ave Maria and the opening fugue, are some of the best examples of what film can be to me. Every movie would be like those two pieces if it were up to me.

On a side note I hope they don't go with the VHS version. The character maybe totally racist, but it is simple revisionism to remove her.

[Finch]

Knives I am pretty sure Dumbo is scheduled for Blu Ray in Europe and Australia/UK before the end of the year.

The UK Dumbo Blu-ray has been out since April actually, and looked just lovely on my 50 inch plasma.

[David M.]

The folks at Disney have also thought up a novel way to preserve archival, standard-definition bonus features without cluttering up the disc: We will be able to download them via BD-Live! The Fantasia box will be released in December, at a price to be determined."

Which probably means, you'll be able to download them for a small amount of time, and also dependent upon the country you live in, and when your BD player dies or runs out of space or its memory gets wiped by some sort of update, you've lost them all.

SD bonus features can be smushed into tiny bit rates thanks to MPEG-4/AVC so the clutter is almost non-existent.