April 9, 2009

Movie Review – Pinocchio (1940)

Filed under: Film Classic,Movie Review,Walt Disney Collection — Rodney @ 12:01 am

pinocchio-review-logo

- Summary -

Director : Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts.
Cast :
Voices of Cliff Edwards, Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Evelyn Venable.
Censorship Rating : G

Target Audience : Animated, kids, adventure.
Length :
88 Minutes
Synopsis:
When a wooden marionette is transformed into a living entity by the Blue Fairy after a lonely toymaker makes a wish, to prove himself worthy of becoming a real boy, he must prove himself brave, truthful and unselfish: which is harder than it seems with so much temptation around him.

Review : Pure, cinematic gold. While many people will probably skip this film in favour of the latest CGI mush from Dreamworks, Pinocchio deserves to be seen large and proud here in a digital format, full colour and larger than life. After all, the popular character from Shrek cannot be the only way kids today know of the famous marionette. Surely. Pinocchio is an animated masterpiece, and should not be missed.

Our Rating : 10/10.   A must see.

**********************

This film is a magnificent cinematic achievement. And that’s putting it lightly. Disney’s Pinocchio is a devastatingly lavish, luscious and delightful animated feast for the senses, both artistically and musically. Barely a frame of this film is anything less than perfection. It’s golden, a warm, frightening, often poetically made film filled with lovely characters and a sense of the sublime. This, quite simply, is Walt Disney at his absolute finest. As each of these classic films are released on DVD and BluRay as part of the Platinum Series, I keep being blown away with just how… well, awesome each of these early films actually are. A lot of people give the Disney Corporation a bit of grief these days about their overt commercialisation, and their somewhat cavalier attitude towards their inherited legacy of animation. And to some extent, perhaps that rightly so. After all, Disney have successfully whored their product out in a variety of ways that has effectively distilled their wares into nothing more than soft-core family-oriented slop: direct-to-video sequels of their most enduring and popular characters, for example, is only one instance that I can cite where they’ve tarnished their massive history.

PInocchio dances for Figaro... Thanks to Geppetto.

Pinocchio dances for Figaro... Thanks to Geppetto.

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November 2, 2008

Movie Review – Sleeping Beauty

Filed under: Movie Review,Walt Disney Collection — Rodney @ 12:00 pm

- Summary -

Director : Clyde Geronomi, Les Clark, Eric Larson, Wolfgang Reitherman
Cast :
Voices of: Mary Costa, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Barbara Luddy, Taylor Holmes.
Censorship Rating :
G
Target Audience : Animated, fairy story, Disney.
Length :
75 Minutes
Synopsis:
A curse is placed upon a newborn princess, that on her 18th birthday she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel, and fall asleep forever. Only the kiss of her true love, the prince, will wake her. And so begins the story of Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora, in one of Disney’s most awe-inspiring films.

Review : Hands down one of the most beautiful animated films of all time, Sleeping Beauty has style and lavish animation to burn, and the story to boot. Dazzling artwork and characterisations, plus an epic widescreen landscape to play with, ensure this remains one of the many pinnacles of Walt Disney’s animated empire. On DVD, it looks amazing.

Our Rating : 10/10.   Must own, must watch.

**********************

As a fan of the House Of Mouse over the years, I have to say the Disney platinum DVD’s they release every so often are a bit of a hit and miss affair at times. While Disney’s quality control on their films cannot be questioned, and their attention to detail is superb, the extra features they put on their two disc editions of their classic films leaves a lot to be desired.

Recently I had the pleasure of sitting down with the 50th Anniversary Edition DVD of Sleeping Beauty, one of my favourite traditionally animated films from childhood, and a film I haven’t seen in at least a decade or so. Sleeping Beauty was always renowned for its stunning artwork and animation, and seeing this film again after so long, I have to say that it is indeed one of the finest examples of the art form you’ll ever see. Lavish wide-screen imagery, captured from the original 70mm film source, looks simply amazing on DVD, vivid colours literally leap off the screen with a detail you’ll be stunned at.

Check out this film in more depth by clicking here!!!

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