|
|
Whistle Stopper - Sleeping Beauty (Fully Restored Limited Edition) (Walt Disney's Masterpiece)
|
List Price: $26.99
Our Price: $3.13
Your Save: $ 23.86 ( 88% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Home Video
Starring: Mary Costa, Bill Shirley, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy
Directed By: Clyde Geronimi
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304401132
Format: Animated
ISBN: 6304401132
Label: Walt Disney Home Video
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Walt Disney Home Video
Release Date: 1997-09-16
Running Time: 75
Studio: Walt Disney Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1959-01-29
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: The best in Blu-Ray
Comment: This is yet another reference Blu-ray title from Disney! I've come to expect nothing less than the best from them and they keep delivering. I have owned Sleeping Beauty, in VHS, Laserdisc, DVD Platinum and now Blu-ray format. It has never come close to looking or sounding as good as it does now. Disney Blu-rays are an automatic purchase for me!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great, but not perfect
Comment: I ordered this Blu-Ray disc as a Christmas gift for my girlfriend. The disc arrived in time and was perfectly playable. It was, however, missing the cardboard sleeve that comes with the original product. Not a big deal, since the content of the disc is what is important. But it should not have been advertised as "Like new". Again, the disc and seller were great, just the minor details of missing original packaging had an affect on the final score.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Perhaps the greatest of Walt's films, fatally marred by Blu-ray technical problems
Comment: Woe is me!
I've been looking forward to this most recent release of Sleeping Beauty for a long time - my VHS tape was wearing out, and when my young son discovered the film, it was getting significantly higher playing time. It is, in my opinion, the best of the classic Disneys (herein defined as those that Walt personally supervised). Thus, it was was with great relish that I made this my first-ever Blu-ray purchase.
The film itself is as good as ever, obviously. The sound has been cleaned up some, but is still not fantastic. That's okay, because there's something charming about the thin-ness of these old films. The video looks better than ever. The extras are numerous and range from ho-hum to fascinating. The audio commentary by Pixar guru John Lassiter, film critic Leonard Maltin, and others is informative but unspectacular - it tends to cheerleading at times. There is a Wonderful World of Disney fictionalised account of Tchaikovsky's life, most interesting as a period example of what was being shown on the WWD TV show.
In fact, Disney really dug around in its vault for this disc! Also included is a short film on the Grand Canyon (apparently the preview short shown in the theatrical run) and another WWD episode on the making of the film. The best extra, though, is a short film (15 minutes) on four Disney animators playing artist for the day. They all take the same subject (a particular tree) and make a "picture" of it. The four pictures are as diverse as the personalities of the artists, and makes for an interesting case study, as well as showing art in progress. There are also a number of original songs that were written before the decision was made to blend in the Tchaikovsky ballet score, so they sound more like traditional Disney pop songs.
So why the 3-star rating? Well, this Blu-ray disc was so incredibly annoying that I wish I'd bought the DVD instead. The menus are not easily navigated and worst of all, if you stop the playback, there is no memory, it simply re-starts from the very beginning (including the FBI copyright warning and the ads - and WHY MUST I WATCH ADS WHEN I'VE PAID GOOD MONEY FOR A DISC! ARGH!). This is not a problem with my Blu-ray player (a PS3-80GB) as all the other DVDs and Blu-rays I've tried retain memory of location and will not restart cold, even when ejected from the machine.
My recommendation: buy the DVD instead. You don't get the same number of extras, but there are lots on the Platinum edition, including the commentary and the alternate songs.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Pleased
Comment: I ordered for my grandaughter for Christmas. They offered free shipping and I was surprised how quickly it still arrived. My grandaughter just loves the movie. The price was below the store price. WOW. Every Christmas gift should be so easy and make the recipient so happy.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Defective DVD
Comment: This was a gift for our granddaughter and the DVD is defective. We will soon be going through the return process.
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Disney's 1959 animated effort was the studio's most ambitious to date, a widescreen spectacle boasting a gorgeous waltz-filled score adapting Tchaikovsky. In the 14th century, the malevolent Maleficent (not dissimilar to the wicked Queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) taunts a king that his infant Aurora will fatally prick her finger on a spinning wheel before sundown on her 16th birthday. This, of course, would deny her a happily-ever-after with her true love. Things almost but not quite turn out that way, thanks to the assistance of some bubbly, bumbling fairies named Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. It's not really all that much about the title character--how interesting can someone in the middle of a long nap be, anyway? Instead, those fairies carry the day, as well as, of course, good Prince Phillip, whose battle with the malevolent Maleficent in the guise of a dragon has been co-opted by any number of animated films since. See it in its original glory here. And Malificent's castle, filled with warthogs and demonic imps in a macabre dance celebrating their evil ways, manages a certain creepy grandeur. --David Kronke
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
