A DVD Too Magical To Miss

Obviously, it's no secret that Sleeping Beauty is my all time favorite Disney film.  However, when I heard news of the re-release on DVD of the film, I was somewhat less than excited.  Sure there was part of me that was excited for the DVD, but at the same time I wasn't sure what to expect given that Disney had only released this film on 2 disc DVD 5 years ago.  In short I had a few concerns about this release.  

First off, I hoped they would correct the glaring marketing mistake made with the 2003 release.  The cover art for the 2003 release, while nicely drawn, was not faithful to the film itself.  The colors and design of the dragon Maleficent were all wrong and Aurora was sleeping in a pink dress.  Well, the cover art for this release is beautiful.  The colors and design on Maleficent are right on and Aurora looks like herself now.  It was a good beginning.  The moment that sealed my decision to buy this release was the announcement of the original Sleeping Beauty Castle walkthrough as a bonus feature on this DVD.  I'm such a huge fan of the film and Disneyland that this was something I must have.  That and I concluded that someday I will get blu-ray, and I figure that the film will be back in the vault when I get a blu-ray player and HD TV set.  

Recently I decided to pick up the regular DVD as well since I had been able to ascertain that there were a few more brand new bonus features on this release.  And while I'm still going through them, one thing is clear.  Disney has done an outstanding job on this release.  In short, Disney could have taken the cheap and easy way out of this.  There are many people who didn't even realize that Disney released this film on DVD 5 years ago.  Disney could have merely repackaged the 2003 release and called it good, but they didn't.  From what I've seen to this point, the overwhelming majority of the bonus features on the 50th anniversary are brand new. Simply put, the 2008 release of Sleeping Beauty is a wonderful companion to the 2003 release. For people who love the film like myself, both the 2003 and 2008 releases are must owns.  For fans of the Disney classics, this release is worth picking up even if you own the 2003 release.

A few quick notes about this release.  First off, gone is the fullscreen option available with the 2003 release and it's a good thing.  Sleeping Beauty was filmed in Technirama 70, which is a wider ratio than even the standard widescreen we've grown accustomed to.  In my opinion, this film should never even be viewed in the fullscreen format since so much of the artistic beauty and scope of the film is cut off.  And with a complete restoration, this release is the first time the public has seen the film the way Walt Disney intended it since the original release in 1959.  The aspect ratio of the 2008 release is 2.55 to 1, whereas the standard widescreen ratio is 2.35 to 1.  

In the coming days and weeks, I hope to go through and share my thoughts and reviews about various bonus features found on this new release.  In fact I won't allow myself to watch the actual film itself until I've gone through all the bonus features first.  Granted this is much easier to do considering that I did see it twice during its' engagement at the El Capitan Theatre in August.  More about that experience in a future release.

And So It Begins

October is soon upon us and in addition to a very busy month at work, that means one other thing:  the most recent Disney DVD release.  And with Sleeping Beauty coming out, I'm doubly excited.  Admittedly I'm not as excited as I might normally be since when the first 2 disc release was done back in 2003, I picked that one up.  At that time, I wouldn't have identified Sleeping Beauty as my favorite Disney film, but I had such fond memories of it from my childhood that I bought it. Well, it didn't take too long before the film had once again become my favorite.  

Even though I already own the film, it looks like Disney has put a lot of great new bonus features on this release that I can justify getting the film again.  Now having bought every classic Disney film released since 2002, I've noticed that there usually tends to be some sort of free gift with purchase, so I've been trying to figure out what the various free gifts would be.  

Disney's Soda Fountain and Studio Store had a free pin with pre-order, but while I collect pins, I didn't have much interest in a pin featuring only the forest animals pretending to be Briar Rose's Prince, so that was a pass.  Best Buy has an internet exclusive free lithograph, but you also had to order The Tinkerbell Movie and The Little Mermaid:  Ariel's Beginning, neither one of which holds any remote interest for me, so I hope that Best Buy does something in stores that I just haven't heard about yet.  But then the other day I found what I was looking for.  

A random search on ebay revealed that the Disney Store is giving out 4 lithographs when you order the movie.  Now this sounds great to me, so yesterday I made the 25 minute drive to my nearest Disney Store to pre-order the film.  Now, while I normally wouldn't do this, I haven't been inside a Disney Store in 5-6 years so I wanted to check one out and I figured that going to get the lithographs here would be much simpler than going the ebay route plus there was a pin I knew about from the Disney Store and wanted to see if they still had it.  

The first thing I noticed was how the store is obviously hyping Halloween right now, but the pleasant surprise is that the front of the store is loaded with costumes for pirates, princesses, and pooh characters.  You actually have to walk into the store for a few feet before you find the obligatory costumes for the latest tween fad on the Disney Channel(hereafter until such time as they actually consistently show programming featuring Walt created characters and/or movies to be called the Channel Bearing Walt's Name).  So that was a nice surprise.  Not that any of this effects me at this point in my life, but I'm still glad that there was a lot more classic Disney costume options than current fad options.  

Then I found the Sleeping Beauty section.  It was nice.  At least for the present time when they're focused on the 50th anniversary of the film it looks like Disney is paying attention to the fact that Aurora wears the blue dress for most of the film.  It was also nice to see a Briar Rose plushie there.   I know that Princess Aurora stuff will sell more for the company than Briar Rose, but it's nice to know that for the 50th anniversary at least, they're acknowledging Aurora's full history.  They also had a store exclusive doll, but I passed on it.  It was somewhat tempting as it actually had a Briar Rose peasant dress in addition to the standard pink and correct blue, but I already have an Aurora action figure(she used to be a doll until I gave her a blue lightsaber to match her dress) and I already have some very nice Briar Rose collectibles, so that's the end of that.  All that said, if you want a Sleeping Beauty doll that features all 3 dresses, this may be right for you.  

It was also quite nice to find a sword and shield set for aspiring Prince Phillip wannabes, complete with sound effects on the sword.  Of course the shield featured Maleficent instead of the cross on Phillip's actual shield, so this wasn't really tempting for me.  Of course, if we ever see a high quality replica of Phillip's sword and shield, I'll be pre-ordering the first day possible.   And given Disney's lack of quality male heroes for little boys, sword and shield toys are welcome additions.  After all, I suspect that part of my boyhood interest in the film had to do with the fact that Phillip was a hero like the Jedi Knights of my imagination(and now you understand why my Aurora action figure has a lightsaber, even if my sister still wonders why Aurora has a lightsaber).  

I soon found the pin I had been looking for, and it was on sale, so things worked out quite well here.  With that, it was up to the checkout to pre-order the blu-ray and pick up the lithographs. I think the lithographs are quite nice.  They may be somewhat tricky to frame as they're in a widescreen format, but I think the scenes chosen are perfect.  The scenes are the good fairies looking into Aurora's cradle, Phillip and Aurora dancing in the forest, Phillip fighting Maleficent, and Phillip and Aurora dancing in Stefan's castle.  As an added bonus, Aurora is in blue.  

Just a little over a week now until the DVD release.  I plan to immerse myself in the bonus features before watching the movie.  I'm looking forward to it, though part of me will feel sad seeing it on the small screen again considering that I caught it twice at the El Capitan Theatre.  

WALL-E Reflection

Well, I had intended this entry to be more in depth, but after seeing WALL-E for the second time, I'm having a very difficult time expressing my feelings about this film. You'd think that having seen the film at Pixar nearly a week and a half ago would have given me more time to reflect on it, but I'm still trying to absorb the full impact of this film. In short, it is nothing short of remarkable. I place it now in a category reserved for only a small group of films, those that in one way or another have changed my life.

I hesitate to use the term changed my life when discussing films. After all, I'm an accountant, not a filmmaker. Movies are not something that affect my day to day life. However at the heart and soul of it all, some movies are different. Some films inspire my imagination and ignite my dreams. Others cause profound reflection in me about my life and the twists and turns it has taken. These are the films that I consider life changing. Star Wars, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Saving Private Ryan, and now WALL-E.

The more I think about it, the more I begin to see WALL-E as a story about what it means to be human. What are we here for? What is the purpose of life? That's the beauty and power of the story. As the tagline says, "After 700 years of doing what he was built for, WALL-E will discover what he was made for." Like two other Pixar classics Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, WALL-E goes beyond just telling a story and looks at the purpose of life. It's a beautiful love story, full of hopes, dreams, and wonders. In that sense, it reminds me very much of the classic Disney love stories.

This I suspect is part of why I love this film so much. The more I think about it and analyze it, I begin to see elements of Sleeping Beauty in WALL-E. It's touching and heartwarming to see WALL-E do his best to watch over and protect EVE after she falls asleep, and of course, there's the moment where EVE kisses WALL-E to bring him back to life. This may well be an idea that I explore more later, but for now I'm still trying to take in the magnitude and wonder of WALL-E.

Riding Out of the Dawn

I suppose I was destined to be a Disney fan. I couldn't really avoid it even if I had wanted to. My parents put a poster of Mickey Mouse up in the nursery before I was even born. They took me to Disneyland for the first time when I was two. Later on that year they took me to Mickey's 50th birthday party. So I basically grew up figuring that Mickey was a member of my family.

It's worth noting here that my parents are not big movie goers, yet they took me and my siblings to just about every Disney movie released in theaters. I still remember seeing The Fox and the Hound and Mickey's Christmas Carol among others. Yet for some reason, one film stood out in particular in my mind, 1959's Sleeping Beauty. Of the many Disney films I saw and loved, something about Sleeping Beauty embedded itself in my mind. As I've grown older the film has come to be deeply personal to me and very special. I suppose it begins with the music. No, hearing Tchaikovksys' score did not inspire me to become a musician. In fact, I have very little, if any, musical talent.

However, seeing the film in the 1980s exposed me to Russian classical music. In 1995, I would be called to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Moscow, Russia. While serving in Moscow, I had the opportunity to even visit the only home in which Tchaikovsky lived that is still standing. I was familiar with his music in part because of Sleeping Beauty. In short, long before I would live amongst the wonderful people of Russia for a season, God was preparing me to live among them by giving me an appreciation for and love of their culture.

My faith provides another reason why the film means so much to me. I love the depiction of the triumph of good over evil in the story. In a world so full of pain and suffering I believe we need to be reminded that good will triumph over evil. While fairy tales may to some degree simplify that triumph, it does happen in the real world. These stories resonate so strongly with us because I believe that we want to see the triumph of good over evil. In a sense, fictional stories depicting the heroic efforts of valiant men and women to defeat evil give us hope that we can find strength to overcome the evil we must face in our own lives.

I know the story is fictional, but the heroes of Sleeping Beauty are very real to me. Princess Aurora represents our hopes and dreams. Prince Phillip represents our better natures as we strive to fight for those we love, especially in the face of overwhelming odds. In that climactic battle, Phillip never gives up even when it looks grim. The 3 Good Fairies represent those "guardian angels" who love us and watch over us, even giving us hope and strength in the times we need it most. I love the idea of Philllip fighting for Aurora armed with weapons of righteousness, a sword of truth and a shield of virtue, for that is how we will defeat the enemy of our souls.

After Aurora has pricked her finger on the spindle of the spinning wheel and lays asleep, a lullaby is sung by the choir while the 3 good fairies put the people in the castle to sleep. One line in there stands out to me as it represents the kind of man I want to be.

Sleeping Beauty fair,
Gold of sunshine in your hair,
Lips that shame the red, red rose
Dreaming of true love in slumber repose
One day he will come
Riding out of the dawn
And you'll awaken to true love's kiss. . .

That's the kind of man I want to be. Armed with weapons of righteousness and worthy to come riding out of the dawn, find, and even in a sense, rescue my princess. I believe firmly in the responsbility of men to provide for, protect, and defend their families. In life we must do battle with spiritual dragons who want to destroy our peace. But with God's help and strength, we can help in the triumph of good over evil for true love conquers all.