Spirited Away Blu-ray Review

The Academy Award winning animated film Spirited Away is considered to be Hayao Miyazaki’s pinnacle work.  Like many of his works, Spirited Away did not have a script, but Miyazaki did write, direct, and provide the storyboards as he went along with the film.  It is about a 10-year old named Chihiro (voiced by Daveigh Chase, Lilo from Lilo and Stitch) and how she is trapped in the Spirit World with her parents and must save them and escape back to the human world.  It is the most successful film in Japanese film history, and Chihiro is considered one of the strongest heroines ever depicted.  Newly remastered, the film is now available on Blu-ray for you to take home and share with your family.

The Blu-ray contains the same Bonus features that were available on the 2003 DVD release.  In addition to the original Trailers and TV spots, these are:

Introduction By John Lasseter has (surprise) John Lasseter introducing the viewer to the movie.  And how he feels it’s Miyazaki’s greatest work, and how great it is that the viewer is getting to watch and enjoy the film.

In The Art Of Spirited Away Jason Marsden (Haku) is the narrator, carrying us through the elements of the film.  In this Miyazaki, John Lasseter, Glen Keane, Pam Coats and others talk about the origins of these elements. How Chihiro is based on a real 10-year old girl from Miyazaki’s life or how scenes like the river cleansing are based on his own real life events.  A note is taken to the little details that Miyazaki includes that other animators might otherwise ignore.  There is a a lot of discussion about how all his films include a flying scene.  They then talk about how cultural differences made adapting the script from Japanese challenging at times, including a mistaking of the “Golden Seal” for being the animal “Seal”.

Behind the Microphone shows the voice actors going through the process of having to synchronize their voice work to the existing film.  And how each actor was able to bring to lie their roles.  One important part of creating the English for the movie was that despite that it needed to be changed to suit American audiences, that it also needed to still capture the essence of Miyazaki’s storytelling.

Original Japanese Storyboards is a condensed version of the film where instead of animation we’re presented with Miyazaki’s storyboards for the film.

Nippon Television Special is a piece in Japanese with English subtitles.  It covers much of the same content as in the other pieces, but with a more cultural point of view.  It is also about the original creation of the film in Japan, and has nothing about the English version.

It’s hard to properly convey how good this film actually is, and how perfectly suited for all audiences it really is.  Please be aware some of the themes depicted in the film are a bit complex and may require some conversation with younger audiences.  Chihiro is a strong heroine who goes through a huge amount of growth during the course of the film.  As with most of Miyazaki’s film this is a coming of age film, and it’s fantasy elements, great humor, and general fun are what make it so good.  If you’re at all interested in this film, then it’s truly a must see.

The Cat Returns on Blu-ray

The Cat Returns is an animated adventure by Studio Ghibli that looks at the story of Haru (Anne Hathaway), a young girl who is able to talk with cats.  This ability which she’s hidden from others eventually leads to her rescuing an “odd-eyed” cat named Lune.  She quickly learns that he is the Prince of the Cat Kingdom, and somehow ends up engaged to him.  And an adventure ensues from there.  It’s a fun fantasy film in a way similar to the Wizard of Oz, and today, June 16, it’s available as a newly remastered Blu-ray edition for families to enjoy,

The bonus features on the Blu-ray are identical to those found on the 2005 DVD release of the film.  In addition to the original Japanese Trailers and TV Spots you will also find:

• Original Japanese Storyboards walks you through the story of the movie using the sketches originally used at Studio Ghibli to lay out the story of the movie.  It is a condensed version of the movie, but does cover the entire plot, so save it for after the movie.

• Behind The Microphone Anne Hathaway talks about how much fun she had voicing Haru, how she especially enjoyed all of her emotion and how she learned to scream without hurting her voice.  Cary Elwes and Peter Boyle talk about voicing The Baron and Muta, and what it’s like to dub English over an already existing Anime film, including the work involved in aligning syllables to the beats of the characters mouth movements.  Andy Richter, who is very well versed in voice work for animation, talks about voicing Natoru and how different the voice alignment was from the voice work he is normally used to.  Also chiming in are Elliot Gould, Tim Curry, and others.

• The Making Of The Cat Returns is a piece originally recorded in Japanese at Studio Ghibli and is subtitled in English.  In it you’ll learn how the characters have their origins in another film Whisper of the Heart.  These characters were then to be tied to a Japanese Theme Park attraction, that was tied to manga called “Baron: The Cat Returns”, but the project was shelved.  Eventually, Miyazaki realized he needed to make sure that new blood was in charge of projects at Studio Ghibli and this lead to Hiroyuki Morita becoming the director.

As I indicated above this is a great family movie.  Completely fun and enjoyable with a lot of laughter and silliness to carry you through the story.  As with many Studio Ghibli films this movie is a “coming of age movie” as it really about how Haru needs to break out of her shy shell and move beyond the things in life that are holding her back.  Okay, yeah there’s a lot of talking cats, but you can liken the relationship between Haru and the Baron to other Disney pairs like Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket for example.  The parallels and familiarity are there.  This will make a great movie night for your family.

McFarland, USA Blu-ray Review

Now on Blu-ray, McFarland, USA is the inspirational story of the town of McFarland, CA, and how it became a town that, while heavily tied to agricultural farm labor, is able to inspire it’s youth to achieve more.  The story revolves around Coach Jim White a.k.a. “Blanco” and how his starting a track team and eventually leading them to the California State Championships brought about this transformation in McFarland.  If you’d like to learn more about the movie itself and it’s story you can listen to Episode 219 of the Disney Film Project Podcast.

The contents of the Blu-ray are few, and focus mostly around the inspirational message of the movie.  With a story that is so rich and full it might have been nice to have some of the background reporting that has existed for many years about McFarland, but I can at the same time see how this might have been considered a divergence from the movie itself.  Here’s what you will find:

McFarland Reflections is a look at the adults who comprised the real life McFarland team.  How actor Kevin Costner learned about the town, school, Coach White, and their story from an article in Sports Illustrated. They talk about brotherhood, growth, and belief, and how Coach White helped them believe in more than just the life they had.  How they it wasn’t just them that were inspired by what he taught them, but that the town was inspired too, and how it changed, and also grew.  They talk about how they all came back to the town and the school in their adult lives to give back to it, and continue to help it grow and evolve to inspire future generations.

Juntos is a music video of a song by Colombian musician Juanes that was made for the movie McFarland and performed at the 2015 Grammy Awards.  Juntos means “together”, and is, as you might expect, a song about togetherness.  It was shot on location in McFarland, where he can be seen performing for the town, meeting the townspeople, and running with the actors who played the team members in the movie.

Inspiring McFarland is a quick short that is a good teaser for the film itself and its message.  In it, Kevin Costner, Niki Caro, Jim White, and the actors who play the boys talk about how the story of McFarland is inspiring.  How inspiration can breed success, and how the story portrayed in the movie set a standard in the town of McFarland that lives on to this day.

There are then a few Deleted & Extended Scenes where you will find the following scenes

• Jim White and the football coach argue about him pulling a player early on due to him being injured.  And how the coach doesn’t really care about his players.
• Victor talks with his cousin about how he quit the running team.  His cousin tells him to “un-quit”.
• White takes a burger away from Danny, and tries to inspire Victor by showing him a picture of the Eiffel Tower and telling him he could go there some day.
• White follows Jose home and finds him living alone, without parents, in a condemned house.  He takes Jose home and their friend Dale says he will take in Jose.
• Thomas and his family watch his father leave to find work in fields outside McFarland.

This is a great Blu-ray release for fans of the movie, the story, both, or for people who missed the movie and would like to see it.  It does come with a digital copy that works with Disney Movies Anywhere which provides additional content not found on the Blu-ray.  It’s a great movie to watch with family, and one I really enjoy.

Into the Woods Blu-ray Review

Into the Woods is a musical written by Stephen Sondheim that was was recently adapted by Disney into a movie that was released this past holiday season.  Having never seen the play I had stayed away from trailers and other material about the film before seeing in the theater and I came away liking it very much.  The story, by James Lapine, intertwines a handful of fairy tales into a single tale that is magical, mysterious, funny, curious, dark, and whimsical.  Now available on Blu-ray for you to take home and enjoy.

One of they key elements of Into the Woods is that it is a musical, and a great creator always tries to enhance his work.  For the movie, Sondheim wrote an entirely new song for the Witch, played by Meryl Streep, called “She’ll Be Back” - a song about denial and loss.  And the entire piece, while filmed and edited, was eventually cut from the film.  Had it remained it, it would have been sung right after Rapunzel leaves the witch alone at the fallen tower after telling the witch she never wants to see her again.  The entire piece can be watched on the Blu-ray.

There’s Something About The Woods has the cast and crew of the movie talk about the woods themselves and how they set the mood for the story.  It goes into how they recreated parts of the woods as a set that encompasses all the parts of the woods where they designed the trees there to have shapes that make them “dance” along with the story and music.  Sondheim talks about woods near his property where he wrote the songs for the play and how he designed them to enhance the story.  The cast discusses how Rob Marshall was a perfect choice due to his love of film, musicals, and the play itself and how the costumes are designed to evoke each fairy tale on it’s own and yet mesh together.

In The Cast As Good As Gold the cast talks about what it was like to become and be a part of the cast for Into the Woods.  Rob Marshall talks about bringing the cast together as a family, and how important that is to him in his creative process.  The cast themselves keep coming back to that same point as well as discussing how much they all enjoyed working together and their characters.  Even the cow.

There is a section on the Blu-ray called Deeper Into The Woods which contains some material that was released prior to the film with some edits, additions, and changes:

• From Stage To Screen is a discussion about how both Sondheim and Lapine worked to adapt the play, both the music and the story, in order to better serve the way a movie carries a story differently than stage.

• The Magic Of The Woods talks about how the music carries the story as a whole, and how much of a challenge this was for the cast to live up to because it’s Sondheim.  We also learn how the music was enhanced by moving to a 60 piece orchestra for recordings.  As well as how the songs we hear are all mixings of on and off stage recordings that use of editing to combine disparate elements.

• Designing The Woods delves into how “The Woods” itself is a character in the film and how important that is to set the mood.  We learn how the crew handled the integration of the real woods with the stage woods they created on a soundstage.  And how together The Woods they created encompasses the various parts of the story and brings it all together.

• The Costumes Of The Woods is about Colleen Atwood and her ability to create perfect costume pieces.  They explain how each grouping of costumes represents a different time period and how each character’s costume has a theme.  For example, how the Witch’s costume is designed to “be the woods”.  We also learn that it was Johnny Depp said he wanted to play Tex Avery’s Wolf in a Zoot Suit, and how that concept was adapted to his costume.  There is also some information on Peter King and Roy Helland bringing the perfect hairstyles and makeup to enhance the costumes.

In addition there is also an Audio Commentary track for the film, which can be both watched and subtitled in a numerous array of languages.  For fans of the songs, there is a section titled Music & Lyrics where you can watch just the songs of the movie without having to fast forward all of which have special subtitles so you can sing along.  The Blu-ray also has a quick trailer for the upcoming DCOM Descendants.

As you can see from above, this Blu-ray is well designed to attract both new and old fans of Into the Woods.  You can learn so much about how the stage production was adapted into the movie.  And newer fans who might not yet know the songs as well as fans of the musical, can spend the time learning and enjoying them.  This is a very well packaged Blu-ray and is a welcome addition to my collection.

Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast Review

The Disney Fairies franchise was born 8 years ago when Tinker Bell was brought modernized from her origins in Peter Pan in the movie Tinker Bell. The movies tell the adventures of her and her friends, each one of them a fairy with a special talent just like Tinker Bell’s ability to Tinker. As the popularity of the series has been growing the past few years, it has attracted better and stronger talent to work on them. And that growth and maturity of the series has recently made a tremendous showing in the new Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast.

As has been a trend in the last few of the Disney Fairies movies, Legend of the NeverBeast centers around one of Tinker Bell’s friends rather than herself. In this case its the Animal Talent Fairy Fawn. Starting with this movie she is voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin who Disney fans may recognize as Mary Margaret / Snow White on ABC’s Once Upon a Time. While the story focuses primarily on Fawn with Tinker Bell and her other friends playing a secondary role, it also continues the trend of introducing new fairies by bringing aboard a new Scout Talent fairy named Nyx.

To keep the story quick and brief, and not too spoilerish, this story is, as you may have guessed, about the NeverBeast, or as he comes to be named in the movie Gruff. A green comet streaks through the sky one night and awakens Gruff. Eventually, Fawn discovers him and as an Animal Talent fairy she becomes instantly enamoured with him and tries desperately to become his friend. Meanwhile a green glow an clouds starts to surround Neverland. During this, Nyx is trying to discover Gruff with the help of other Scout Talent fairies in order to protect Pixie Hollow as she feels that Gruff is trying to destroy Neverland. One thing leads to another and Gruff eventually saves everything and everyone, earning the gratitude of Nyx and all the other fairies.

The movie is centered around some very strong themes for what is essentially a children’s movie direct to video release. Curiosity, exploration, love, pain, betrayal, growth, and loss. As I said above the series has truly begun to transcend it’s “child directed” origins and become something much more. Pet lovers young and old beware, you will be in tears through much of the last part of this movie. It’s that strong and powerful a moment, captured magnificently.

Strong writing, strong talent, and an extremely solid and focused story are what make this movie fantastic. That’s what makes this the best of the Disney Fairies movies yet, and that’s not just because it’s the newest. It reminds us that a good children’s movie doesn’t just have to be for children. Parents will enjoy watching this movie with their children, and should note that their kids may have a few questions about the ending. I’m very glad I spent the time to both watch and review Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast.

Places: Fire & Rescue Blu-ray Review

Released in the summer of 2014, Planes: Fire & Rescue is an animated Disney feature that is a sequel to the 2013 animated feature Planes.  It is one of the strongest animated sequels that Disney has ever put out, which is likely tied to the fact that the movies were developed at the same time as separate adventures in the life of the star of both movies Dusty Crophopper, voiced by Dane Cook.  Today, November 4, you can bring the movie home as a new Blu-ray release for your whole family to enjoy.  If you’d like to learn more about Planes or Planes: Fire and Rescue you can listen to episodes 137 and 189 of our podcast.

When you pop in the Blu-ray and get to main menu you’ll be presented with scenes from the movie presented as moving pictures interspersed with postcards, posters, and other paraphernalia from Piston Peak National Park.  It’s clever and reminds me of one of my favorite OS X screensavers.  There are a few bonus features on the Blu-ray, many of which have been previously released as part of the movie’s promotion prior to it’s release in theaters.

However, Vitaminamulch: Air Spectacular, is a completely new and enjoyable short with characters from the original planes movie and taking place in Propwash Junction.  In it we see Dusty open an airshow for his old employer Leadbottom.  Chug and Dusty excited to be seeing “Air Devil Jones” and “Vandemonium” perform a dangerous stunt at the show, but Skipper is concerned about it.  The daredevils get detained and don’t show.  This leads to Leadbottom dressing up Dusty and Chug as the the missing daredevils and forcing them to perform.  Mayhem ensues and things end with with a crowd pleasing bang.

There are two deleted Scenes introduced by Ferrell Barron and Bobs Gannaway:

• Honkers - is a mostly unfinished and longer version of the bar scene shown in the movie.  The basic difference is we see the outside of the bar, and learn that it was named Honkers.
  
• Dusty’s Dream No More - this is a storyboard animated scene where Dusty is feeling sorry for himself and goes back to his hanger to check out all his old trophies before getting inspired to test the limits of his broken gearbox.

Air Attack: Firefighters From The Sky is a short about how the crew of the movie visited the Hemet-Ryan Air Attack Base in Hemet California, the home of CalFire.  This is where much of the research for the movie occurred and has a focus on the smokejumpers and their training. We learn that all the new fire fighting characters introduced in the movie were taken directly from inspirations gained while visiting the base.  

The remaining Blu-ray features are:

• Welcome To Piston Peak! teaches the viewer about the various landmarks and places to visit in Piston Peak National Park.
  
• “CHoPs” TV Promo is the TV show introduction as shown in the movie.
  
• A music video of the movie’s theme song “Still I Fly” starring Spencer Lee.
  

• “Dipper” - in this Dipper introduces herself to the audience.  She talks about who she is, and what she does for her job.  She posts it as her profile on a PlanesDate.com website.
  
• “Smoke Jumpers” - in this we learn about the 5 smoke jumpers from the movie.  They build a campsite to roast marshmallows, and then get called off to put out a fire.

That there is not a huge amount of bonus material as can be attributed to the young age of the movie.  Those looking for a good movie for their “Family Movie Night” can count on this film to deliver whether they’ve seen it already or not.  Fans of the characters and/or the movie itself will enjoy that the Blu-ray also includes a DVD and a Digital copy.  Overall, this is a fairly standard Blu-ray release for a new movie.

Million Dollar Arm Blu-ray Review

Million Dollar Arm is possibly one of the more underrated Disney films of the year.  It has a lot of good feelings wrapped up into it, an almost indie film quality to it, and a really awesome soundtrack.  While it is presented as a sports movie, it really is more of a family drama that takes you through an adaptation of real life events.  If you’d like to learn more about the movie itself please listen to Episode 178 of our podcast.  If you missed the movie in the theater it is now available to own on Blu-ray.

The Blu-ray contains the following extras:

• Training Camp - Actors Madhur Mittal and Suraj Sharma discuss their own pitching and athletic training for the movie. Like their real life counterparts they too had to learn how to pitch and throw a baseball.

• Their Story - A discussion by the real JB Bernstein, Dinesh Patel, and Rinku Singh about their story and how it changed them and their lives.

• Million Dollar Arm: Music by A. R. Rahman - Rahman talks about his creation of the soundtrack for the film  His focus on maintaining balance even through the transition from India to Los Angeles in the film.  And his desire to keep it emotional, while maintaining the focus on it being a sports movie.

• Deleted Scenes - Watch 3 scenes that were deleted from the movie, the last of which is most interesting as it involves some additional discussion about the contest by the boys in the dormitory while still in India prior to the competition.

• Alternate Ending - This is a slightly abbreviated ending to the film.  It has the the same result as the original, only this one takes a bit of a leap and does not have quite as much impact or emotion to it.

• Outtakes - Some simple, funny outtakes.

Here we have a very standard Blu-ray release of a recently released movie. It has the same bonus content problem that many Blu-ray releases of movies that occur close to a new movie.  However in this case there is so much content readily available about the real life counterparts of the characters in this movie that perhaps more of that could have been added to help round out the bonus features more.  The movie itself is still good, and if you missed it in the theater, and are at all interested in the story, it is likely worth picking up a copy.

Sleeping Beauty Diamond Edition Blu-ray Review

With what has always felt like the perfect mix of fairy tale elements - the classic hero, the fearsome villain, and a beautiful heroine - it’s no wonder that Sleeping Beauty is one of the most beloved Disney animated films of all time.  To celebrate its 55th anniversary Disney has made this a banner year of celebration for the movie.  Earlier in the year with the movie Maleficent, and now with a Blu-Ray re-release of the original classic as the Sleeping Beauty Diamond Edition.  

The Blu-ray contains some alternate scenes from what you find in the movie:

• Deleted Scene: The Curse is Fulfilled - This is a storyboarded scene that would have occurred just after Aurora is returned to the castle.  She hears a voice calling to her, when she comes upon an old woman with a spinning wheel that she refers to as a “wishing wheel”.  The old lady convinces Aurora to touch it, and she falls to sleep upon doing so.

• Alternate Scene: The Arrival of Maleficent - Maleficent arrives at the party as “Miss Maleficent Fairy of Darkness”.  It’s a somewhat different version of the scene.

• Deleted Scene: The Fair - Here was get what is almost an entirely different plotline.  We learn that the fairies cast a spell of protection on the castle, and King Stephan keeps her locked in the castle.  The Princess swaps places with a servant to go to the Fair.  Maleficent’s vulture, who can talk, disguises himself as a bluebird to get some intel about Aurora.  Maleficent meets with Aurora at the fair disguised as a gypsy and gives her a prediction about the future and meeting a tall dark man.  And the vulture finds such a man, and he is introduced to Aurora, and they meet and fall in love.

The Sound of Beauty: Restoring a Classic is a discussion about how the creation of the original 2-channel stereo music for the movie and how it was restored for the Blu-ray release.  Original musical recording sessions were found in the archives, including alternate takes and versions.  We learn how they had to take the magnetic recordings of the audio tracks and clean up the hisses and pops in order to be able to cleanly remix them with the music.  Including some discoveries that had been hidden and obscured due to compression and re-recordings and multiple releases.

In Picture Perfect: The Making of Sleeping Beauty we take a look at the progression of Disney movies from Snow White, to Cinderella, to Sleeping Beauty.  How it moved away from certain story elements like sub-plots, and instead focus on the story elements.  How despite being released in 1959, the story was set in 1952.  Walt’s desire to cater to new expectations of the post-war culture of the 50s.  How he didn’t want the artwork in the film to be watered down, and he turned the reins of art direction over to Eyvind Earle.  Creation, origins and designs of the characters and the challenges of Maleficent’s interactions which are often her speaking to herself and the addition of Diablo to offset that. As well as discussion of many more aspect of the film’s creation and design.

For fans of the Disney Legend there is Eyvind Earle: A Man and his Art.  This is a look at Eyvind Earle, his life, and his artwork and how he came to work at Disney.  And then his climb through his career as he came to work on Sleeping Beauty which is considered his magnum opus.  Earle’s artwork can be found in Sleeping Beauty as well as Peter Pan and Lady and the Tramp.

Continuing this series of shorts that has appeared on other Diamond Edition Blu-rays is @DisneyAnimation: Artists in Motion.  Here Brittany Lee (Frozen, Wreck-It Ralph, Paperman), whom we’ve seen in prior shorts, talks about how she works with paper to help bring to life the designs of herself and others.  As she talks about her chosen medium we watch her build a paper sculpture of Maleficent.

Perhaps the most curious of extras on the Blu-ray is Once Upon a Parade which is the legend of the Festival of Fantasy parade as told by actress Sarah Hyland.  There is also The Art of Evil: Generations of Disney Villains which talks about how the creation and evolution of villains in Disney animated features.  Finally we have Beauty-Oke: “Once Upon a Dream” which continues the theme of including Disney karaoke songs on Blu-ray releases.

This second Blu-ray release of Sleeping Beauty is very well packaged.  If you are not a prior owner of the movie and are looking to complete your collection it is an excellent choice.  Having been previously restored, the movie itself is not changed from the prior release.  The combo pack is the best choice if you’re also looking to own a digital copy of the movie to watch on your tablet or smartphone.  Overall this is a well packaged and presented release.

Disneynature Bears Blu-ray Review

Disneynature’s 2014 release of Bears was well received by nature documentary fans. The story of Sky and her two cubs as she guides them through their first year of life is beautifully filmed with the same attention to detail that we’ve come to expect from Disneynature films.  The film is narrated by Rhomann Dey… errr I mean John C. Reilly, and directed by seasoned nature documentarians Alastair Fothergill and Keith Scholey.  If you missed this film in the theater, or just want to see the gorgeous landscapes of Alaska, you can now take this movie home on Blu-ray.

The bonus features of the Blu-ray start off with “Welcome to Alaska”, which takes us to Katmai National Park where the film was shot.  It is one of the only places in the world where you can go to see Bears living in a natural habitat.  We learn about how the small production crew (common for nature documentaries) went about choosing and setting up their basecamp.  We also learn about some of the ways they tracked Sky and her cubs as well as get to see a close encounters with a wolf (presumably Tikaani).  At the end they had to pack up and leave as winter set in - the movie similarly ends with Winter.

“The Future for Bears” is discussion about how the bears and other animals shown in Disneynature films are protected.  One of the things we learn is that Disneynature films try to demonstrate how the animals they show are smarter than generally portrayed than their counterparts in stories and legends.  The main goal is to interact with the bears as friends, not enemies.  We learn that while the bears are protected their primary food source, salmon, is not. As this is mostly a message about conversation we get to see Jane Goodall visiting the sets to see her first bears up close ever.

In “A Guide to Living with Bears” the main focus is to remind is that while bears are protected they are still wildlife and as such they are still dangerous creatures and omnivores - they eat deer same as berries.  The crew was primarily ground based and as such they had to rely on the use of professional bear trackers and guides.  The bears in the movie have never been hunted because of their protection, but they are still dangerous animals / predators.  We learn about Bear Flares and how they are used in the most dangerous of situations to ward off bears without harm.  Even with more than 1700 bears in the region, the crew spent 2 years filming, and had no aggressive approaches.

If you’ve seen the film and are wondering “How did they film that?”, now you can find out.  Starting with a discussion about aerial filming of Sky’s den emergence with the cub.  The rigors of landscape filming outdoors.  About how they had to make a second base camp in the mountains to be able to track and search for the bears.  In addition to hiking we also see how they both skied and snowboarded down to the mountains investigate the bear dens.  You can also learn about how they set up for underwater filming using divers.

The final bonus feature is the music video of “Carry On” by Olivia Holt which is the theme song for the film.  There is also a preview of the next Disneynature film Monkey Kingdom due out on Earth Day 2015.  Overall this is a well put together Blu-ray, each of the bonus features is solid and interesting.  My usual complaint of “not enough” rings true here as one of the pieces tells us that the crew filmed more than 400 hours of footage.  And knowing this, and presenting only a 78 minute movie and 30 minutes of features makes you want to know what wasn’t shown.  Nature documentary films will want to add this to their collections of course, seeing the Alaskan wilderness alone is worth the price.

The Pirate Fairy Blu-ray & Movie Review

Today, April 1, 2014 marks the release of the latest of the Disney Fairies films, The Pirate Fairy. It is the 5th film in the Tinker Bell Series produced by Disney Toon Studios. It is a story about a new fairy named Zarina who is a Pixie Dust Fairy who is very inquisitive about her place in the world. It also introduces the character James played by Tom Hiddleston. It becomes an origin story about both of these characters and introduces many elements that play into the story of Peter Pan.

The movie itself is really good. What I appreciated most is that while this film is intended to be primarily about Zarina and her quest to find her true fairy talent as the first “Pixie Dust Alchemist”, it does a great job of balancing in the roles of Tinker Bell and the other fairies as well as James. The intertwining of providing an origin story for Captain Hook and Tic Toc is also well done. Sure it’s another version of the legend, but it does help to cement his place in Never Land. And it will be great if in future releases they can get Tom Hiddleston to come back to reprise the role.

When starting the Blu-ray you can watch the trailer for Disney’s Legend of the NeverBeast, which right now looks to me to be Rocket Racoon with gamma irradiated eyes. The menu shows the deck of the Jolly Roger with Zarina looking toward Skull Rock while the fairies fly around with a brief appearance by baby Tic Toc. It’s a nice clean, crisp menu where the options are very clearly presented and easy to read.

In the bonus feature Second Star to the Right: The Legacy of Never Land Peggy Holmes, Jeffrey Howard, and Jennifer Magee-Cook talk about the how the movie started from it’s roots about a rogue fairy who could change the properties of Pixie Dust, and how at the suggestion of John Lasseter it incorporated Pirates and became the final product. It’s nice to see that the fairy characters of Pixie Hollow remain in good hands that really care about them.



The Deleted Scenes are introduced by Director Peggy Holmes and Producer Jennifer Magee-cook. In all cases these are very preliminary rough sketch scenes:

• Tea House Disappointment was intended to demonstrate that Zarina felt like she was an outsider from the other fairies.
• Vidia’s Birthday Surprise depicts a surprise birthday for Vidia, where Zarina feels that her abilities as a Pixie Dust Fairy do not compare to those of the other fairies as she sees the gifts the others give when compared to her own.
• Zarinas Experiments is an alternate version of the scene where Zarina learns that she is able to change pixie dust in ways that allow for it to take on new magical properties that mimic the special abilities of the other fairies.
• Fairies United is a longer version of a scene in the movie where the Frigate is flying for the first time while the fairies are trying to switch back their re-arranged talents.

There are also the following additional bonus features:

• Croc-u-mentary is a documentary style look at the life cycle of crocodiles as narrated by a fairy with an Australian accent.
• The making of “The Frigate that Flies” shows actors like Tom Hiddleston as they talk about what it’s like to be voice actors. You also get to watch them record bits and pieces of various scenes in the movie with a bit of a focus on the song “The Frigate that Flies”.
• Two Animated Shorts, “AAARRGH!” and “Treasure Chest”, where Vidia bears the brunt of the jokes.
• And Sing-along Songs has two bouncing blue fairy dust versions of the songs “Who I Am” and “The Frigate That Flies”.

This is a solid Blu-ray release, which is not surprising since rather than being a video release of a theater film it is a direct to video release for one of the most popular direct to video series of all time. It’s also a really good story that parents can enjoy with their children. The new music introduced in the film is top notch and very catchy. Peter Pan fans will notice right away that the “Frigate that Flies” is not the Jolly Roger, and they will get a nod to that at the end of the film. Disney Fairy fans will not want to miss this film or the introduction of the newest fairy, Zarina.

Saving Mr. Banks Blu-ray Review

This past December Walt Disney Pictures released Saving Mr. Banks which is a movie that goes into some of the details about what went on during the making of the movie Mary Poppins as well as the history behind the character and story created by P. L. Travers. While the movie was generally well received by audiences, it carries with it a lot of controversy about the factuality of the elements of the film. To learn more about the film itself and what we thought about it please listen to Episode 156 of our podcast.

The main menu has in the background the old fashioned reel-to-reel tape recorder playing original recordings of P. L. Travers that can be seen during the closing credits of the movie. I do wish they’d have included more of the recordings than they did as it’s only a very short piece that keeps repeating. The movie can be viewed in English, French, Spanish for both audio and subtitles. It includes a piece filmed during the closing of the set, Richard Sherman played “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” for the cast and crew, all of whom sang with him - absent are Tom Hanks and a few others. It’s a small tribute to Sherman himself as it’s interspersed with cuts to some more emotional moments during filming.

The Walt Disney Studios: From Poppins to the Present is narrated by John Lee Hancock and his journey making Saving Mr. Banks and in learning the history of the making of Mary Poppins. Talking with Michael Corenblith about their investigations into the Disney Archives. They talk about the construction of the studio, and the Animation building. Sons and daughters of various Disney Animators and staff discuss their childhoods growing up on the studio lot. And how so many of the tricks and tools of the trade that Walt and the Studio learned and invented before making Mary Poppins were used to make the movie. Richard Sherman discusses what it was like working on Mary Poppins with his brother, Walt, and Travers. It’s really more a piece about Walt and the Studio than it is about Mary Poppins and Saving Mr. Banks.


There are a few Deleted Scenes from the movie. As is typical of these you can sort of tell why they were cut as they’re all good scenes but they don’t bring anything new to the table that the other scenes do not:

• Stargaze - Ginty and her father are sitting on their porch at night while he plays a flute. Her mother comes out and sends Ginty off to bed, then they look at the stars and talk about their future in their new home.
• Nanny Song - As the Sherman Brothers play “The Perfect Nanny” for P. L. Travers, she declares how much she hates every line and then at the end tells them it was the worst song she ever heard.
• Pam Leaves - Before Travers heads back to England, Walt comes out to talk with her, and she tells him that broken promises made to children are like poison that eat away at them inside. He tries to determine why the entire process has been so hard for her. She tells him that the books were not written for children, but rather for the “promise breakers”. When pressed she lets slip that “he’s” not something she can let go of, leaving Walt perplexed.

Considering all the research and exploration that went into the making of the film, I found the Blu-ray to be quite sparse. Both the movie itself and this Blu-ray still leave me wanting to better understand the choices made for the movie. What’s missing more than anything else is more of the archival audio of the sessions with P. L. Travers - having access to some or all of these on the Blu-ray would have made for a fantastic addition. This Blu-ray is really about being able to own the movie itself for your home collection.