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101 Dalmatians: Diamond Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Andreas Petersen & Noor Razzak (10th February 2015). |
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The Film
 "101 Dalmatians" is one of those movies that I only remember having watched it, while not remembering a whole lot about the actual movie. Before watching it again, if asked to give a plot synopsis, it would be along the lines of “I think a Dalmatian has 101 puppies and they get kidnapped or something.” Now, probably 15 years after my last viewing of the movie, I have the pleasure of getting reacquainted. I had forgotten how enjoyable of a movie this is. For those unfortunate enough to be in my forgetful shoes, or just haven’t gotten around to seeing this gem yet, I’ll offer a run through of the plot. Pongo (Rod Taylor), a Dalmatian living in London with his owner (who he calls his pet) Roger (Ben Wright). Pongo wants to find a mate for his pet, and in the process possibly finding one of his own. He spots Anita (Lisa Davis) walking her Dalmatian Perdita (Cate Bauer). One thing leads to another, and both couple get together. Pongo and Perdita have 15 puppies together. Cruella de Vil (Betty Lou Gerson) wants the puppies for a coat, so she kidnaps them, setting Pongo and Perdita on a journey to save their kids. Through all the years I had gone through before seeing this movie again as an adult, I forgot how charming it was. All the good characters are likeable, and I despised all the villains. I know in the world there is a blurry line between good and evil, but damn it, I want to hate that mean old lady and her henchmen, and this movie lets me live that sort of child hood simplicity. Also, when I was younger, there are many other aspects to the movie I think I incapable of appreciating. The animation itself just looks amazing. It’s a real shame that you never see any American animated features continue to look this legit, while selling out to an overly developed polished look. "101 Dalmatians" just looks great and feels classic. All the backgrounds look like animated works of art rather than cheap imitations of real life. I’m also not sure if I could have appreciated the film’s brilliant music, which carries an amazing vaudevillian quality to it. One thing I did appreciate when I was younger was the film’s humor, and for whatever reason every joke still made me laugh 15 years later. From a hilarious take on 60’s television ads, to good old fashioned slapstick, this film reminded me of how great children’s entertainment doesn’t need to be just for kids. I think this may be one of the reasons Disney cartoons of late (not counting Pixar) have decreased in quality. While modern Disney toons pander to kids and kids alone, their classics appealed to a universal audience, and I can think of no better example of this than in "101 Dalmatians". I honestly don’t think there is anything wrong with this cartoon. It’s written well, the direction is amazing, it looks fantastic, and has amazing lasting power and being nearly 50 years old. Maybe the bigwigs at Disney should sit down and watch this movie to remind them how to make great children’s entertainment once again.
Video
Presented in the film's original animated ratio of 1.33:1 fullscreen, mastered in high definition 1080p 24/fps using AVC MPEG-4 compression. Disney have been somewhat inconsistent with its classic films on Blu-ray, some of the transfers look incredible while others suffer from DNR, scrubbing the image clean of grain imperfections, the result can be a cleaner picture but there's a tangible loss attributed to this process, animation lines once prominent are less so, and the picture takes on a blurry effect to some of those lines. "101 Dalmatians" lies somewhere in the middle, while the HD format certainly makes the image appear crisper, colors appear more vibrant. There's no doubt that this film has never looked better, however I keep going back to the DNR, which seems to have been applied to this classic film. To the casual viewer it's nothing worth noting and most people will not likely be bothered by it, but cinephiles will spot it a mile away. What's so wrong with grain and a film showing its age? Not everything needs to look like it was made yesterday. On the flipside, the image is nice and clean.
Audio
Disney has included four audio tracks, English DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround (48kHz/24-bit) as well as audio options in French DTS-HD High Resolution 5.1 surround, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and the film's original English Dolby Digital 1.0 mono audio. I'm very pleased that Disney have included the original audio format for purists. They could have easily dropped this option for the more modern 7.1 variety. The mono audio does a suitable job, and when comparing it to the 7.1 option there's a considerable difference. Usually expanded and up-mixed audio doesn't really work too often, but this mix is pretty solid. Dialogue is crystal clear, direction sounds seem natural and the film's music pops throughout the sound space. Overall pretty decent mix. Optional subtitles are included in English, English for the hearing impaired, French, and Spanish.
Extras
Buena Vista in true 'Platinum Edition' style has packed this set with an impressive amount of extras, below is a closer look at these supplements broken down per disc. DISC ONE: "The Further Adventures of Thunderbolt" is an animated short (1080p) which runs for a short 1 minute 46 seconds, this is a clip that shows more from the TV show that the puppies watch in the film. Next up is "Lucky Dogs", a featurette (1080p) which runs for 9minutes 8 seconds, this is a retrospective look back at the film with the people that worked on it. "Dalmatians 101" is the next featurette (1080p) which runs for 5 minutes 20 seconds, this is a short Disney Channel special that takes a look at what makes this film so great. The disc also features “The Best Doggoned Dog in the World” a 1961 episode of "Walt Disney Presents" (1080p) which runs for 51 minutes 5 seconds, this one of the best extras on the disc, nice piece of nostalgia that takes a look at the dogs and the film itself. The following features can be accessed using "DisneyView" where you can access them while viewing the film, you can also watch these supplements on their own: The main attraction is "Redefining the Line: The Making of One Hundred and One Dalmatians". This fascinating documentary (480p) is a look at the process behind the film and is broken up into 7-parts, total runtime is 33 minutes 55 seconds. The individual parts are: - "Puppy Dog Tales" runs at 5 minutes and 32 seconds. This section serves to introduce the rest of the making-of. Disney elite such as former animators, historians, and Brad Bird weigh in on why the film so timeless. - "Howling at the Moon" runs at 3 minutes and 36 seconds. This section examines the people behind the film’s brilliant score and songs. Also, the fact that this was the first non-musical Disney animated feature is discussed. - "New Tricks" runs at 5 minutes and 15 seconds, and takes a look at the new animation techniques introduced with the movie, moving on from traditional pen on paper methods, and moving to directly animating on the cell. - "Animation 101" runs at 7 minutes and 50 seconds, and further explores how the new animation techniques changed the way Disney made animated films. - "Drawing All Cars", running for 2 minutes and 18 seconds, shows the interesting techniques used to capture images of cars for the film. - "Seeing Spots" runs at 1 minute and 53 seconds, and examines how difficult it was to add the spots to all the film’s Dalmatians. Also, the title sequence of the film is praised. - "A Dog’s Eye View", running at 7 minutes and 24 seconds, closes the making-of by taking a look at the film’s unique art direction. "Cruella de Vil: Drawn to Be Bad" is a featurette (480p) running at 7 minutes and 8 seconds, is a fun little look at every aspect of the film’s iconic villain, including her look, voice, and all around presence. "Sincerely Yours, Walt Disney" is another featurette (420p) running for 12 minutes and 36 seconds, is a heart warming re-creation of the letters corresponded between Walt Disney and Dodie Smith, the author of the original book that inspired the movie. This feature really shows the care and passion that went into this project from both sides of the creative spectrum. It really makes me wish more people would correlate with the author’s of the source material this way when adapting a book into a movie. Also Included is a multitude of trailers and TV spots from the film’s multiple releases. They include: The 1961 Original Release: - Teaser trailer running at 42 seconds. - theatrical trailer running at 1 minute and 53 seconds. - TV spot running at 31 seconds. The 1969 Reissue: - Theatrical trailer running at 1 minute and 8 seconds. - TV spot #1 running at 32 seconds. - TV spot #2 running at 32 seconds. - Combined TV spot with "The Swiss Family Robinson" (1960), running at 32 seconds. The 1979 Reissue: - Theatrical trailer running at 1 minute and 35 seconds. - TV spot #1 running at 32 seconds. - TV spot #2 running at 31 seconds. - French Canadian TV spot running at 31 seconds. The 1985 Reissue: - Theatrical trailer running at 1 minute and 23 seconds. Also included are several radio spots from the different releases of the film. They include: The 1961 Original Release: - "60 Second" radio spot running at 58 seconds. - "30 Second" radio spot running at 29 seconds. - "10 Second" radio spot running at 13 seconds. The 1969 Reissue: - "60 Second" radio spot running at 1 minute and 3 seconds. - "60 Second - R&B Version" radio spot running at 1 minute and 3 seconds. - "30 Second" radio spot #1 running at 34 seconds. - "30 Second" radio spot #2 running at 33 seconds. - "20 Second" radio spot running at 24 seconds. - "10 Second" radio spot running at 14 seconds. The 1979 Reissue: - "10 Second - Kids Version" radio spot running at 11 seconds. - "30 Second - Adult Version" radio spot running at 33 seconds. - "30 Second - Adult Version: Detective” radio spot running at 33 seconds. The next section of the supplements is entitled "Music & More" which includes the following features within its submenu: A music video (480p) for a pop version of the 'Cruella de Vil song', performed by Selena Gomez. This runs for 3 minutes and 26 seconds. The disc also includes alternate takes/deleted songs (480p) from the movie’s soundtrack. They are: - "March of the One Hundred and One", running at 1 minute and 56 seconds. - "Cheerio, Good-Bye, Toodle-oo, Hip Hip!", running at 2 minutes and 31 seconds. - "Don’t Buy a Parrot From a Sailor", running at 2 minutes and 39 seconds. - "Dalmatian Plantation", with a Extended Alternate Version running at 2 minutes and 20 seconds, and a Temp Version running at 3 minutes and 15 seconds. - "Cruella De Vil" is offered in many different versions, including a "Spooky Version" running at 3 minutes and 55 seconds, "Blues Ballad Version" running at 2 minutes and 17 seconds, “Roger Composing” #1 by Ben Wright running at 3 minutes and 6 seconds, “Roger Composting” #2 by Bill Lee, running at 5 minutes and 32 seconds, "Honkey-Tonk Piano Version" running at 4 minutes and 14 seconds, and "Radio Hit Alternate Versions #1" running at 1 minute and 14 seconds, "Radio Hit Alternate Versions #2" running at 2 minutes and 33 seconds, and "Radio Hit Alternate Versions #3" running at 3 minutes and 33 seconds. - "Kanine Krunchies Jingle" is presented in different takes, and they are "British" running at 36 seconds, "Very Young" running at 37 seconds, "Young" running at 37 seconds, "Little Boy" running at 38 seconds, "Flubbed Take" running at 24 seconds, "False Start" running at 43 seconds, "Older English Incomplete" running at 35 seconds, "Younger British" running at 40 seconds, and "Eton Boy" running at 37 seconds. Also, some bonus trailers (1080p) are on the first disc for: - "Aladdin Diamond Edition" runs for 1 minute 17 seconds. - "Cinderella" runs for 1 minute 9 seconds. - "Dog with a Blog" runs for 46 seconds. - "Disney Parks" runs for 1 minute 1 second. - "Star Wars: The Clone Wars – The Lost Missions" runs for 43 seconds, - "Big Hero 6" runs for 2 minutes 29 seconds. - "Tinkerbell and the Legend of the Neverbeast" runs for 1 minute 1 second. DISC TWO: DVD This is a DVD version of the film. Also included in the package is a promo code to unlock a digital copy version of the film.
Packaging
Packaged in a 2-disc Blu-ray keep case housed in a cardboard slip-cover.
Overall
Film and extras reviewed by Andreas Petersen, A/V and some extras reviewed by Noor Razzak.
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