..Gary
Dretzka
..Noah
Forrest
..Leonard
Klady
..R.J.
Matson
..David
Poland
..Douglas
Pratt
..Ray
Pride
..Michael
Wilmington
Walt Disney's
Cinderella
Walt Disney's 1950 animated blockbuster, Cinderella, arrives on DVD for the first time as a Walt Disney Home Entertainment two-platter Platinum Edition release (35024, $30). As is often the case, the validity of Disney's color transfer is ambiguous, although it appears less manipulated than it has on other cartoon features. The image is crisp and clean, and the hues are brighter and better detailed than the hues on the LD. The heroine's hair is kind of a greenish yellow on the LD and a more believable orange-brown on the DVD. Her flesh is usually a pure white on the LD and a more amenable peach on the DVD. The dog is a pure brown on the LD, however, and is reddish brown on the DVD, and the pumpkin is clearly nicer on the LD, a true orange as opposed to something pinkish and un-pumpkin-like on the DVD. Without side-by-side comparisons, nobody is going to be bothered by the presentation, but it is worth noting that the clock may strike twelve someday and the movie's colors will change again. The 76-minute film is presented in full screen format.
There are two English language audio tracks, and both are highly satisfying renditions of the film's audio elements. The soundtrack has been painstakingly cleaned up and clarified, so that each noise and every tone is distinctly defined and solidly delivered. There is a 5.1-channel Dolby Digital mix, which brings the expected dimensionality to the musical score and a few of the sound effects, but you can also access a scrubbed up version of the original mono track, and if you toggle between them you may find that even without the stereo enhancements, the purity and crispness of the mono track is spine tingling. There are also French and Spanish audio tracks in 5.1 Dolby. As is usual with the Disney productions, even the songs are in the alternate languages. There are optional English subtitles, two music videos running a total of 9 minutes, and a 34-minute ESPN documentary, designed for kids, about 'Cinderella' performances in sports, hosted by Joe Namath.
The second platter contains a solid 39-minute production documentary. Among other things, it is mentioned that Disney originally envisioned a larger part for the Prince, including an early sequence where he is shown hunting, and another feature on the platter is a 1922 Disney Laugh-O-Gram cartoon short called Cinderella, which does indeed have an extensive sequence in which the Prince captures some bears. Another segment, running 14 minutes, goes into more details over the dropped sequences and dead end plot turns, including storyboards and deleted songs. There is an entire section, running 17 minutes, which presents songs that were canned or altered for the finished film, and a 10-minute reconstruction of two song sequences.
Also featured is a good 15-minute profile of design artist Mary Blair, an excellent 22-minute roundtable discussion about Disney's principal animators by several current animators, a 7-minute storyboard comparison segment looking at the film's beginning, six trailers, a 4-minute plug with Helene Stanley on The Mickey Mouse Club from 1956, a 6-minute excerpt from a plug on a 1950 Perry Como TV program, an 18-minute Disney cable piece about 'how to dress like a princess,' the original 2-minute demo recording of the title song, 12 minutes of radio program segments promoting the film, a 'dance along' interactive segment, a minute-long charity promotion and some DVD-ROM features.
October 3 , 2005DVD Roundup: This Week's DVD Releases
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