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The Aristocats: Special Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray ALL - America - Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (3rd September 2012). |
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The Film
 After Walt Disney’s death in 1966 the company’s focus started to get fuzzy, production on films continued but the 1970’s would be the start of a downfall of the house that the mouse built. The 1980’s were a particularly troublesome era for the company (until 1989’s “The Little Mermaid” brought them back to the forefront of animated features); back in 1970 the company released “The Aristocats” the last film to be approved by Walt prior to his death. The film followed the popular trend of talking animal pictures moving further away from the standard fairly-tale story involving a princess of some sort. The film was a minor hit, nowhere near as big as their previous efforts but popular enough to warrant a couple of re-releases in 1980 and 1987. “The Aristocats” tells the story of a very posh cat Duchess (Eva Gabor) and her little kittens, when one day the Butler (Roddy Maude-Roxby) of a very wealthy Madame (Hermione Baddeley) overhears a conversation with her lawyer. In this conversation he hears that her entire fortune will be passed over to her cats before going to her Butler (as she has no family left). After years of faithful service the Butler is outraged that the cats come before him. So he hatches a grand scheme, drugging the cats and driving them out to the middle of the French countryside and abandoning them so that the fortune immediately passes over to him. But little does the Butler know that these cats, despite their aristocratic upbringing are resolved to find their way back home and with the help of a few friends made along the way including an alley cat named Thomas O’Malley Cat (Phil Harris) and his band of scruffy mates. Although released in 1970 the film was in-production for a few years and the 1960’s jazz influence is all over the picture, the swinger-scat styling certainly dates terribly and I suppose even in 1970 they would have felt "old" seeing as the trend passed late into the 1960’s as a new era of music and attitudes swept the 1970’s. It very much feels like a lost Disney film. The music is catchy and entertaining which is what we come to expect from the studio, and I was pleased that there was more dialogue and story than sing-a-longs. The film’s animated style takes on a sketchy look, unlike previous films which have a clean classic style to the animation this film’s backgrounds and close-ups retain that sketchiness, which I suppose mirrors the aloof nature of the alley cats and the jazzy music but feels like the film was rushed to completion. There’s a certain quality control you come to expect with Disney films and this one feels like it skipped that altogether. The voice acting is excellent, despite some of the film’s flaws and that also includes the simple and unimaginative storyline. Gabor is perfectly suited to play the well-to-do Duchess and Harris does an equally impressive job as O’Malley...after all Harris was a real band leader and carries that attitude throughout his voice performance. However it would have been wonderful to have had Louis Armstrong play the role, the character was originally design after him and was approached to voice the character but a commitment was never really nailed down. “The Aristocats” has some great things going for it, as well as a few flaws. It’s certainly not the strongest film in the Disney canon but this "Special Edition" should please fans.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.66:1 mastered in high definition 1080p 24/fps with AVC MPEG-4 compression. The image is slightly more open than the film's original theatrical ratio. Prior editions featured a open-matte 1.33:1 full frame release as well a 1.75:1 image that fit the image into a wider ratio however crowding the picture at the top and bottom, despite it being the film's original ratio (which is featured on the DVD disc of this 2-disc release, originally released in 2008). This 1.66:1 picture looks like the better version of the three ratios, it's offers a nice wide image and doesn't make it feel too cramped and the top and bottom. Another thing to note is that this new Blu-ray image is newly restored and cleaned up for HD presentation. The colors are the most glaring improvement, they pop a fair bit more than the previous DVD editions. The image was also much cleaner looking, almost crisp. However the "roughness" of the animation I mentioned in the film's review above is a lot more pronounced due to being presented in 1080p. Overall it's a decent image given a spruce up for the format.
Audio
Disney has released this film with four audio tracks in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit as well as audio in French Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and a Portuguese Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its English DTS-HD audio, up-mixed from the original audio elements (and yet again sadly lacking the original mono audio) this track does boast a much broader spectrum, however mostly still confined to the front channels. This is especially true in terms of dialogue and direction effects. Where this audio truly shines is with its music, the score really comes alive throughout the channels while not a totally immersive, it's expected considering the age of the film and the limitations of the original audio. Optional subtitles are included in English for the hearing impaired, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Extras
Buena Vista has released this "Special Edition" with a few extras that include a deleted original opening, a deleted song, a song selection, a featurette, TV excerptm a short film, a second disc features the previously released 2008 DVD that includes a couple of interactive games, photo galleries and a collection of bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. DISC ONE: BLU-RAY First up is "The Lost Open" deleted original opening which runs for 9 minutes 3 seconds (1080p), this clip is a newly-discovered clip, this scene was meant to be the original opening sequence for the film and features a deleted song. Richard Sherman intros the clip and also comments on it. The only featurette is "The Sherman Brothers: The Aristocrats of Disney" which runs for 4 minutes 23 seconds (480p), in this short clip we learn about the brothers and their involvement in writing songs for this film. A deleted song entitled "She Never Felt Alone" (480p) which runs for 7 minutes 54 seconds, the clip features Richard Sherman explains his involvement and the song which didn't make the cut which is featured in two parts, the first is played over the original storyboards and the second part of the song which was recorded as a temp track played over some artwork from the film. "Movie with On-Screen Lyrics" interactive feature (1080p) is basically a sing-a-long track to the musical numbers in the film. A Disney song selection (1080p) is next and allows you direct access to every musical number from the film. You are taken directly to the scene and can watch it with or without sing-a-long subtitles. The songs included are: - "The Aristocats" which runs for 2 minutes 18 seconds. - "Scales and Arpeggios" which runs for 1 minute 41 seconds. - "Thomas O'Malley Cat" which runs for 2 minutes 33 seconds. - "Ev'rybody Wants to be a Cat" which runs for 4 minutes 19 seconds. "Oui Oui Marie" is a music video by D!tto (1080p) runs for 1 minute 53 seconds and as expected it's terrible, skip this one. Following that is "The Great Cat Family" a TV excerpt that runs for 12 minutes 50 seconds, this clip was originally aired on September 19, 1956 and is a short animated documentary piece about the history of the domestic cat. Next up is a bonus short film entitled "Bath Day" from 1946 and featuring the cat Figaro. The film runs for 6 minutes 38 seconds, and features Minnie's pet getting into an alley scrape after a bath. I can't tell you how disturbing it is to see a giant female mouse bathe a cat. Bonus trailers (1080p) are also featured for: - "Disney Studio All Access" - "Cinderella: Diamond Edition" - "Finding Nemo 3D" - "Disney Movie Rewards" spot - "Disney Parks" spot - "Tinker Bell's Secret of the Wings" - "The Rescuers & The Rescuers Down Under: 2 Movie Collection" - "Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3" - "Planes" DISC TWO: DVD This disc is identical to the 2008 "Special Edition" DVD release, which also features the deleted song entitled "She Never Felt Alone", the Disney song selection, "The Sherman Brothers: The Aristocrats of Disney" featurette, "The Great Cat Family" TV excerpt and the bonus short film entitled "Bath Day". The DVD also includes: The first of two interactive games is "Disney Virtual Kitten", in this game you have to look after a virtual kitten by following the on-screen icons that appear. There's an expanded version of this game that you can access via DVD-ROM. The second interactive game is "The Aristocats Fun with Language" in this game you have to correctly name a musical instrument. There is a comprehensive "The Aristocats Scrapbook" a series of photo galleries that chronicles the various stages of the film and includes: - "Concept Art" which features 16 images. - "Story Development" which features 8 images. - "Character Development" which features 5 images. - "Behind-the-Scenes" which features 20 images. - "Publicity" which features 9 images. - "Merchandise" which features 6 images. - "Premiere" which features 3 images. - "Attractions" which features 1 image. finally rounding out the extras are a collection of bonus trailers for: - "101 Dalmatians: Platinum Edition" which runs for 1 minute 27 seconds. - "WALL-E" which runs for 1 minute 37 seconds. - "Sleeping Beauty: Platinum Edition" which runs for 1 minute 56 seconds. - "Snow Buddies" which runs for 2 minutes 13 seconds. - "Disney Movie Rewards" spot which runs for 20 seconds. - "The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning" which runs for 1 minute 1 second. - "Hannah Montana: One in a Million" which runs for 1 minute 14 seconds. - "Handy Manny: Fixing It Right" which runs for 1 minute 12 seconds. - "Little Einsteins: Race for Space" which runs for 52 seconds. - "My Friends Tigger & Pooh" which runs for 32 seconds. - "Twitches Too" which runs for 56 seconds. - "Tinker Bell" which runs for 47 seconds.
Packaging
Packaged in a 2-disc Blu-ray case housed in a cardboard slip-case.
Overall
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