A slew of classic Disney movies are hitting for the first time on Blu-Ray, including one double-pack release, and you’re going to want to make sure to pick these up. You haven’t paid attention to some of these titles for a while, and it’s about time you got the chance to catch them on Blu-Ray. The best part is that there’s a great mix of releases hitting. Bedknobs and Broomsticks is all but lost in the cultural consciousness, and it deserves a return. The Academy Award-winning movie from the year I was born is filled with a lot of fun and adventure, and like most Disney films, holds up well for a whole new generation.
The rest of the group covers a great spectrum, including two animated “big” titles, and a 10th Anniversary release. There’s a lot to expose your family to here, so check out all the info below,...
The rest of the group covers a great spectrum, including two animated “big” titles, and a 10th Anniversary release. There’s a lot to expose your family to here, so check out all the info below,...
- 8/6/2014
- by Marc Eastman
- AreYouScreening.com
The Movie Pool wonders if the Newsies 20th Anniversary Blu-ray delivers!
The Set-up
A musical about a group of young newspaper vendors in turn-of-the-century New York City who go on strike to protest a cut in pay. Stars Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Ann-Margret and Robert Duvall.
Directed by Kenny Ortega
The Delivery
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2012, Newsies is a musical whose reputation has grown with time. It even has its own Broadway play now, but back in the day, Newsies was a flop in theaters with less than $3 million in ticket sales.
It is easy to see why the film has gained a following, and now lives on in live revivals. It is an interesting story and has a certain charm. The performances are very good, and the film is very entertaining at times. Christian Bale is great in the lead role, but I'll be honest, this film has killed my impression of him.
The Set-up
A musical about a group of young newspaper vendors in turn-of-the-century New York City who go on strike to protest a cut in pay. Stars Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Ann-Margret and Robert Duvall.
Directed by Kenny Ortega
The Delivery
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2012, Newsies is a musical whose reputation has grown with time. It even has its own Broadway play now, but back in the day, Newsies was a flop in theaters with less than $3 million in ticket sales.
It is easy to see why the film has gained a following, and now lives on in live revivals. It is an interesting story and has a certain charm. The performances are very good, and the film is very entertaining at times. Christian Bale is great in the lead role, but I'll be honest, this film has killed my impression of him.
- 7/16/2012
- by feeds@themoviepool.com (Victor Medina)
- Cinelinx
Newsies
Directed by Kenny Ortega
Written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White
Starring Christian Bale, David Moscow, Bill Pullman, Robert Duvall, Ann-Margret
Why do we like the things we like? Sure, this may be a almost hilariously simplistic and loaded question, but one that can be fascinating to consider depending on the topic. Think of the major touchstones of nostalgia for most people born in the 1980s. Some are comic strips, such as Calvin and Hobbes; some are TV shows, such as Saved by the Bell; and some are movies, such as The Goonies. For many people, this the pop culture of their childhoods. This is their childhoods as a whole. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t really wade into nostalgic waters that often.
I realize, of course, that saying I don’t get too nostalgic for my childhood, or for a time that never fully existed in...
Directed by Kenny Ortega
Written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White
Starring Christian Bale, David Moscow, Bill Pullman, Robert Duvall, Ann-Margret
Why do we like the things we like? Sure, this may be a almost hilariously simplistic and loaded question, but one that can be fascinating to consider depending on the topic. Think of the major touchstones of nostalgia for most people born in the 1980s. Some are comic strips, such as Calvin and Hobbes; some are TV shows, such as Saved by the Bell; and some are movies, such as The Goonies. For many people, this the pop culture of their childhoods. This is their childhoods as a whole. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t really wade into nostalgic waters that often.
I realize, of course, that saying I don’t get too nostalgic for my childhood, or for a time that never fully existed in...
- 7/14/2012
- by Josh Spiegel
- SoundOnSight
Supposedly, Tarzan's creator, Edgar Rice Burroughs, once toyed with the idea of an animated version of his jungle hero, but nothing came of the project. Were he alive today, Burroughs would undoubtedly be thrilled. In the first full-length animated feature to star his Ape Man, Walt Disney's animators have aggressively embraced Tarzan's pulp origins.
A robust adventure for boys, "Tarzan" pins its emotions to the values of tenacity, loyalty and bravery. Backed by the pulsating rhythms of five Phil Collins' songs, the film is likely to become the most successful cartoon feature since Disney's last venture into Africa with "The Lion King".
In "Tarzan", the Ape Man attacks the jungle like a cocky surfer riding a huge swell. Swinging off an endless series of vines, Tarzan hurls himself onto sturdy tree branches and glides fearlessly through foliage rich with hyperactive monkeys, hungry snakes and cunning leopards. He's a matinee idol, Boy Scout and the last of the Mohicans rolled into one.
Lately, Disney animators have pushed the envelope to explore more adult themes with films such as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Pocahontas" and "Mulan". While these adventures have allowed the animators to shake off the hoary shackles of European fairy tales, many admirers of Disney's animation have longed for a return to old-fashioned storytelling with traditional Disney values.
This is it.
"Tarzan" is a pulp-fiction fun house with a sinister leopard, evil trappers, comical sidekicks, a doubting father, a doting mother and a Victorian damsel in a perpetual mess.
The story scripted by Bob Tzudiker, Noni White and Tab Murphy moves with the speed of thought and a sharp eye for comic extravaganza. Only the most dour personality could keep a straight face at the sight of young Tarzan (voiced by Alex D. Linz) frolicking in an elephants' watering hole and stampeding the entire herd or his animal pals transforming the props of 19th century European civilization into a jungle band that knows how to swing.
The movie swiftly encapsulates Tarzan's early history. The shipwreck, his parents' deaths and his adoption by a family of apes happen in mere minutes. His jungle training takes place under the watchful eye of his patient ape mother (Glenn Close) and best pal (Rosie O'Donnell).
Passing a test for bravery, the adult Tarzan (Tony Goldwyn) is prepared for the toughest challenge of all: his confrontation with and bewildering attraction to fellow humans -- Jane (Minnie Driver), her dipsy scientist-father (Nigel Hawthorne) and their evil escort (Brian Blessed).
Directors Kevin Lima and Chris Buck keep the movie light and action-filled. And the animators' color palette -- deep emerald green for the jungle, fiery red for the melodrama and sad blue for its tragic consequences -- express the movie's unrepentant sentimental tugs.
But "Tarzan"'s secret weapon is Collins. His songs are lively, melodic and sure-fire platinum. And for once in animation, songs enhance the action without the characters being awkwardly forced to sing like Broadway musical stars.
The voice actors anchor the pulp conceits in clear human emotions. Close's maternalism can't help touch the heart while O'Donnell's boisterous, palsy-walsy comedy steadies the heroic nonsense. Goldwyn gives the athletic Tarzan a youthful macho mixed with playful boyishness. Driver, Hawthorne and Blessed turn British mannerisms into comic vigor.
Burroughs originated his jungle hero in 1912 for the All-Story magazine. Eventually, he cranked out 24 Tarzan novels, became one of the most widely read American authors of the first half of the 20th century and saw his Lord of the Apes turn into a movie hero, radio star and comic strip character.
Tarzan enjoyed decent success in all his literary forms -- and continues to as camp comedy. But Disney's "Tarzan" makes plain that Burroughs' hero was destined for the animator's brush.
TARZAN
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Walt Disney Pictures
Producer: Bonnie Arnold
Directors: Kevin Lima, Chris Buck
Writers: Tab Murphy, Bob Tzudiker and Noni White
Based on "Tarzan of the Apes" by: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Songs: Phil Collins
Score composer: Mark Mancina
Associate producer: Christopher Chase
Art director: Daniel St. Pierre
Editor: Gregory Perler
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tarzan: Tony Goldwyn
Jane: Minnie Driver
Kala: Glenn Close
Young Tarzan: Alex D. Linz
Terk: Rosie O'Donnell
Clayton: Brian Blessed
Professor Porter: Nigel Hawthorne
Kerchak: Lance Henriksen
Tantor: Wayne Knight
Running time -- 82 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
A robust adventure for boys, "Tarzan" pins its emotions to the values of tenacity, loyalty and bravery. Backed by the pulsating rhythms of five Phil Collins' songs, the film is likely to become the most successful cartoon feature since Disney's last venture into Africa with "The Lion King".
In "Tarzan", the Ape Man attacks the jungle like a cocky surfer riding a huge swell. Swinging off an endless series of vines, Tarzan hurls himself onto sturdy tree branches and glides fearlessly through foliage rich with hyperactive monkeys, hungry snakes and cunning leopards. He's a matinee idol, Boy Scout and the last of the Mohicans rolled into one.
Lately, Disney animators have pushed the envelope to explore more adult themes with films such as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Pocahontas" and "Mulan". While these adventures have allowed the animators to shake off the hoary shackles of European fairy tales, many admirers of Disney's animation have longed for a return to old-fashioned storytelling with traditional Disney values.
This is it.
"Tarzan" is a pulp-fiction fun house with a sinister leopard, evil trappers, comical sidekicks, a doubting father, a doting mother and a Victorian damsel in a perpetual mess.
The story scripted by Bob Tzudiker, Noni White and Tab Murphy moves with the speed of thought and a sharp eye for comic extravaganza. Only the most dour personality could keep a straight face at the sight of young Tarzan (voiced by Alex D. Linz) frolicking in an elephants' watering hole and stampeding the entire herd or his animal pals transforming the props of 19th century European civilization into a jungle band that knows how to swing.
The movie swiftly encapsulates Tarzan's early history. The shipwreck, his parents' deaths and his adoption by a family of apes happen in mere minutes. His jungle training takes place under the watchful eye of his patient ape mother (Glenn Close) and best pal (Rosie O'Donnell).
Passing a test for bravery, the adult Tarzan (Tony Goldwyn) is prepared for the toughest challenge of all: his confrontation with and bewildering attraction to fellow humans -- Jane (Minnie Driver), her dipsy scientist-father (Nigel Hawthorne) and their evil escort (Brian Blessed).
Directors Kevin Lima and Chris Buck keep the movie light and action-filled. And the animators' color palette -- deep emerald green for the jungle, fiery red for the melodrama and sad blue for its tragic consequences -- express the movie's unrepentant sentimental tugs.
But "Tarzan"'s secret weapon is Collins. His songs are lively, melodic and sure-fire platinum. And for once in animation, songs enhance the action without the characters being awkwardly forced to sing like Broadway musical stars.
The voice actors anchor the pulp conceits in clear human emotions. Close's maternalism can't help touch the heart while O'Donnell's boisterous, palsy-walsy comedy steadies the heroic nonsense. Goldwyn gives the athletic Tarzan a youthful macho mixed with playful boyishness. Driver, Hawthorne and Blessed turn British mannerisms into comic vigor.
Burroughs originated his jungle hero in 1912 for the All-Story magazine. Eventually, he cranked out 24 Tarzan novels, became one of the most widely read American authors of the first half of the 20th century and saw his Lord of the Apes turn into a movie hero, radio star and comic strip character.
Tarzan enjoyed decent success in all his literary forms -- and continues to as camp comedy. But Disney's "Tarzan" makes plain that Burroughs' hero was destined for the animator's brush.
TARZAN
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Walt Disney Pictures
Producer: Bonnie Arnold
Directors: Kevin Lima, Chris Buck
Writers: Tab Murphy, Bob Tzudiker and Noni White
Based on "Tarzan of the Apes" by: Edgar Rice Burroughs
Songs: Phil Collins
Score composer: Mark Mancina
Associate producer: Christopher Chase
Art director: Daniel St. Pierre
Editor: Gregory Perler
Color/stereo
Cast:
Tarzan: Tony Goldwyn
Jane: Minnie Driver
Kala: Glenn Close
Young Tarzan: Alex D. Linz
Terk: Rosie O'Donnell
Clayton: Brian Blessed
Professor Porter: Nigel Hawthorne
Kerchak: Lance Henriksen
Tantor: Wayne Knight
Running time -- 82 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
Nothing much rhymes with Bolshevik or communism, apparently, as these words and such crucial historical figures as Lenin and Trotsky are nowhere to be found in the curious, well-mounted animated musical epic "Anastasia". Historical accuracy aside, the Fox Family Films holiday release, the first project from Fox Animation Studios, is consistently bountiful in delivering lush visuals and drawing one into an engaging, if slow-moving and often preposterous, scenario.
A rare wide-screen animated feature, with Fox resurrecting its CinemaScope trademark, "Anastasia" presents a marketing challenge with a story that is not a widely known classic. Directed by Anatole Litvak and inspiring the current film, Fox's 1956 live-action "Anastasia" earned comeback star Ingrid Bergman an Oscar, but the translation of a historical sideshow into a "20th century fairy tale"-- complete with supernatural villain and cute creatures -- is another titanic gamble for the studio most in need of a hit.
A breezy overview of the Russian Revolution introduces Princess Anastasia Nicholaevna Romanov (voice by Kirsten Dunst), the young daughter of the czar. Miraculously spared from the revolutionary violence that claims her immediate family, she is lost in the turmoil.
Ten years later, the lead (Meg Ryan) is a nobody in St. Petersburg, but rumors abound of one survivor of Russia's last imperial rulers.
Enter con men Dimitri (John Cusack) and Vladimir (Kelsey Grammer), who recruit Anastasia for a scam involving the Dowager Empress Marie (Angela Lansbury), an elegant lady in Paris who searches for the young girl she gave a music-box key to before disaster struck. In songs and lively nonmusical scenes, Dimitri convinces Anastasia she might be the lost Romanov, and the two gradually fall in love.
Alas, the central romance is a bit sophisticated for younger children, and the filmmakers resort to making Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd), the peasant mystic who had great influence at the court of Nicholas II, into a Disney-like villain by way of EC Comics. Although the maniac's loyal sidekick Bartok (Hank Azaria), a fruity bat with brains, will amuse the kiddies, most of these scenes are instantly forgettable comic relief.
One of the best sequences, however, occurs when the resurrected--from-hell Rasputin tries to fulfill his curse and kill Anastasia, Dimitri and Vladimir on a train.
On a pure entertainment level, the story is largely successful. The songs of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty have memorable moments, with singing duties handled capably by Liz Callaway (Anastasia), Jim Cummings (Rasputin) and Jonathan Doluchitz (Dimitri).
In terms of animation, "Anastasia" is a stellar achievement for co-directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. They use a familiar, illustrative style with an ambitious agenda that is unfortunately tweaked too far into fantasy -- or maybe not far enough.
ANASTASIA
20th Century Fox
Fox Family Films presents
a Don Bluth/Gary Goldman film
Producer-directors: Don Bluth, Gary Goldman
Executive producer: Maureen Donley
Screenwriters: Susan Gauthier, Bruce Graham, Bob Tzudiker, Noni White
Animation adaptation: Eric Tuchman
Songs: Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty
Music: David Newman
Directing animators: Len Simon, John Hill, Troy Saliba, Fernando Moro, Sandro Cleuzo, Paul Newberry
Casting: Brian Chavanne
Voices:
Anastasia/Anya: Meg Ryan
Dimitri: John Cusack
Vladimir: Kelsey Grammer
Rasputin: Christopher Lloyd
Bartok: Hank Azaria
Sophie: Bernadette Peters
Young Anastasia: Kirsten Dunst
Dowager Empress Marie: Angela Lansbury
Running time -- 92 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
A rare wide-screen animated feature, with Fox resurrecting its CinemaScope trademark, "Anastasia" presents a marketing challenge with a story that is not a widely known classic. Directed by Anatole Litvak and inspiring the current film, Fox's 1956 live-action "Anastasia" earned comeback star Ingrid Bergman an Oscar, but the translation of a historical sideshow into a "20th century fairy tale"-- complete with supernatural villain and cute creatures -- is another titanic gamble for the studio most in need of a hit.
A breezy overview of the Russian Revolution introduces Princess Anastasia Nicholaevna Romanov (voice by Kirsten Dunst), the young daughter of the czar. Miraculously spared from the revolutionary violence that claims her immediate family, she is lost in the turmoil.
Ten years later, the lead (Meg Ryan) is a nobody in St. Petersburg, but rumors abound of one survivor of Russia's last imperial rulers.
Enter con men Dimitri (John Cusack) and Vladimir (Kelsey Grammer), who recruit Anastasia for a scam involving the Dowager Empress Marie (Angela Lansbury), an elegant lady in Paris who searches for the young girl she gave a music-box key to before disaster struck. In songs and lively nonmusical scenes, Dimitri convinces Anastasia she might be the lost Romanov, and the two gradually fall in love.
Alas, the central romance is a bit sophisticated for younger children, and the filmmakers resort to making Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd), the peasant mystic who had great influence at the court of Nicholas II, into a Disney-like villain by way of EC Comics. Although the maniac's loyal sidekick Bartok (Hank Azaria), a fruity bat with brains, will amuse the kiddies, most of these scenes are instantly forgettable comic relief.
One of the best sequences, however, occurs when the resurrected--from-hell Rasputin tries to fulfill his curse and kill Anastasia, Dimitri and Vladimir on a train.
On a pure entertainment level, the story is largely successful. The songs of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty have memorable moments, with singing duties handled capably by Liz Callaway (Anastasia), Jim Cummings (Rasputin) and Jonathan Doluchitz (Dimitri).
In terms of animation, "Anastasia" is a stellar achievement for co-directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman. They use a familiar, illustrative style with an ambitious agenda that is unfortunately tweaked too far into fantasy -- or maybe not far enough.
ANASTASIA
20th Century Fox
Fox Family Films presents
a Don Bluth/Gary Goldman film
Producer-directors: Don Bluth, Gary Goldman
Executive producer: Maureen Donley
Screenwriters: Susan Gauthier, Bruce Graham, Bob Tzudiker, Noni White
Animation adaptation: Eric Tuchman
Songs: Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty
Music: David Newman
Directing animators: Len Simon, John Hill, Troy Saliba, Fernando Moro, Sandro Cleuzo, Paul Newberry
Casting: Brian Chavanne
Voices:
Anastasia/Anya: Meg Ryan
Dimitri: John Cusack
Vladimir: Kelsey Grammer
Rasputin: Christopher Lloyd
Bartok: Hank Azaria
Sophie: Bernadette Peters
Young Anastasia: Kirsten Dunst
Dowager Empress Marie: Angela Lansbury
Running time -- 92 minutes
MPAA rating: G...
- 11/10/1997
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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