JamesDFarrow

I am looking for annimated Classic Literature on DVD.

I found some Dicken's stuff (A Tale of Two Cities, The Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickelby, Oliver Twist, David Copperfiend, Great Expectations, etc...) by Goodtimes. They are probably not the best quality but all run about 75 minutes and were around $5.00 each so I took a chance and ordered them.

Are there any other classic literature ones on DVD that I can check out?

I did search Amazon, DD, etc... but am not having much luck.

Thanks in advance,

James

Paul Mavis

Hi, James,

I did a review a couple of months back on the Hanna-Barbera Storybook Favorites DVD set, gathered from the CBS Famous Classic Tales series back in the 1970s. The collection includes Last of the Mohicans, Black Beauty and Gulliver's Travels. It's not the greatest, but for the nostalgia factor, it's not bad.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=27811

Hope that helps.

Paul

JamesDFarrow

Thanks!

Will check it out.

James

visitor Q

Not sure if you consider this classical, but Watership Down perhaps?

JamesDFarrow

Thanks!

Haven't seen that in years.

James

Yakuza Bengoshi

I'd don't know if you're just looking for English literature classics, or whether you're interested in world classics as well, but there's a series of Animated Japanese literature classics that may interest you here.

JamesDFarrow

Thanks!

I will look into them.

James

dhmac

That DVD is actually out-of-print (and commanding a growing price used).

Instead, I'd recommend the still-in-print The Plague Dogs made by the same filmmakers and based on another book by Richard Adams.

Yakuza Bengoshi

The 2-disc R2 release is £3.98 at Amazon UK: link

Admonisher

If you have a regionless player and can live with the PAL speed-up, the Region 4 releases from Big Sky Video are the way to go for both "Watership Down" and "The Plague Dogs". The former has an exclusive director's commentary (among other features), and the latter includes both the theatrical edit and the rarely seen UNCUT version of the film (albeit in lesser quality). These releases are inexpensive, and easily obtainable in the U.S. through EzyDVD. There's even a box set containing both films, which I wish I'd known about before I placed my order!

Completists who want all the available bonus features should, by all means, take advantage of the current price on the R2 DVD of "Watership Down". But if you have to choose, I'd go with the R4. I might also mention that the R4 has a reversible cover that utilizes the film's haunting original poster art.

Oh ... and if "The Last Unicorn" and "The Secret of N.I.M.H." count as classic literature -- which they do, in my book -- you might pick them up. And there's the Disney catalogue, of course. Not every adaptation is particularly faithful ("The Hunchback of Notre Dame", for example, is a great film, but not terribly source-accurate), but many are ("Winnie the Pooh"), and those that aren't often succeed in capturing the spirit of the original work ("Alice in Wonderland", "Peter Pan"). There's also a low-budget series of animated Sherlock Holmes films featuring the voice of Peter O'Toole which I've been curious about.

Trevor

I'm all set to order all these non region 1 Watership Down discs, have stuff in my cart at both Amazon.uk and ezydvd.au but am hesitating.

I know that as soon as I order these there will be a US release of a 2 disc Watership Down SE and the compete TV series boxset.