I will be buying this

from Home Media Retailing

'Peter Pan' Flies to DVD
Author: ANGELIQUE FLORES
[email protected]
Posted: February 7, 2007

Walt Disney Home Entertainment has sprinkled a little fairy dust on its classic animated film Peter Pan.


Buena Vista Home Entertainment March 6 brings the film to DVD as a two-disc Platinum Edition ($29.99) for a limited time.

Peter Pan is one of three animated classics to feature all nine of Walt Disney’s famous “Nine Old Men” as directing animators, two of which were Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. The two animated Captain Hook and Mr. Smee.

They were good friends and neighbors, and the friendship between Hook and Smee spoke of the friendship between Frank and Ollie, Disney chief animator Eric Goldberg (Aladdin, Hercules) said at a special screening of Peter Pan in Hollywood.

Like all of Buena Vista’s Platinum Edition releases, the title comes packed with extras: “Camp Never Land” multi-level games; “Peter’s Playful Prank” DVD story book; an alternate opening that begins in Never Land instead of the Darling household; “In Walt’s Words,” a featurette in which Walt Disney shares why he made Peter Pan; the featurette “You Can Fly: The Making of Peter Pan”; “Magical Environment,” in which viewers can take flight with Peter Pan above the London skyline in their own homes; deleted songs; and a sneak peek at the upcoming Tinker Bell movie.

The 1953 film has been digitally restorated for DVD with a new 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater mix.

Among the bonus features on the DVD is a song written by Richard Sherman (Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). The composer was given a lyric that was written in 1939 for a version of the film never made. The now-yellowed old piece of paper read: “There never was another land like the Never Land.”

Thinking the lyric was “rather charming,” Sherman took it home and tacked it on his piano. Once he changed the words to “There never never was another land, like Never Never Land,” he was inspired to write “Neverland.” With Paige O’Hara (Belle of Beauty and the Beast) singing the new song in a room modeled after the Darling children’s room, the new video appears on the DVD.

“We never found out who the original lyricist was, so I get all the credit,” Sherman said.

I haven't seen Peter Pan in years, so I'm really looking forward to picking this up.

Just checked out the review and I can definitely say that I will be adding this title to my Disney shelf!

I'll pick this up for sure. :)

There's some question over the new color palate of the restoration at the Ultimate Disney Forum:

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/...ic.php?t=18606

Anyone know if they plan to rerelease the prev plat titles? I need Snow White and Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...eterpan10a.jpg

The screen caps from the ultimatedisney forum show the Platinum Edition on the left and the previous Special Edition on the right.

The new images are shifted towards yellow (as opposed to blue) - see the Mermaids cap's "greenery" especially. Some people call this "warmer colours", I call it "made to look old". The images are also inexplicably softer. On the plus side, the colours come through as more luminous in dark scenes (contrast doctoring?). I'm not sure I like this at all.

I also hear the new Home Theater 5.1 mix has slightly more involvement of the side and back speakers than the previous 5.1 mix, which was practically "fat mono".

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...peterpan14.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...eterpan14a.jpg
The Mermaid lagoon on the left (Platinum Edition) needs watering.

When I watched it, I didn't notice anything wrong with the images (of course, I never watched the previous edition).

Edit: But yes, the old edition looks better...

I agree the first editions colours look more vibrant

Yeah, way vibrant! I guess I have to search for the old edition on E-Bay and buy the Plantium

Picked this up at Best Buy at lunch and they were giving away free figures (not plushes). Just wanted to bitch that there was no Tink. Peter, Wendy, or Hook. I have two young girls and Tinkerbell is where it's at. Had to settle for a lazy-eyed Wendy.

Can't wait to watch this tonight with them!

I wonder if, when they compare the new digital image with "the original artwork", the Disney technicians are not aware that they're looking at yellowed 50-year-old paper with faded inks or if they simply forget to remove their sunglasses indoors as Californians are wont to do... :)

Hey!

I'm from California. :(

and to go totally off topic - I read that long term wearing of sunglasses, outdoor and in, actually does worse things to your eyes and vision.

now to go and actually find my older copy of 'Peter Pan' (and 'Pinocchio') - somewhere hidden in my collection.

Not off-topic at all. There seems to be an epidemic of restoration technicians with bad vision lately. Remember the latest digital restoration of "The Wizard of Oz" that turned Emerald City as yellowish as a used pine-scented urinal cake? And now this?

the more and more I look at the differences the more I get supremely annoyed. This new version isn't improved at all. Just look! - the hills have all nearly turned completely pink - all the colors: the blues, the greens, the slight purple have almost been completely removed.

Been all over town and can't find the widescreen version of this anywhere!

Those screen caps at ultimate disney look backwards to me. I have a hard time believing that a new anamorphic transfer looks that much worse than the old non-anamorphic.

Amazon only shows 1 version. Don't most platinum DVDs have both full screen and widescreen in the package?

And you will not find one. The original aspect ratio is 1.33:1 (1.37:1 according to IMDB).

The same thing is on other sites like this French site: http://www.dvdanime.net/critiqueview..._critique=2163

http://www.dvdanime.net/img_critiques/2163/premiere.jpg
http://www.dvdanime.net/img_critiques/2163/seconde.jpg

(The second one is the Platinum edition.)

Disney really screwed the pooch on this one. Looks like the lens is out of focus. Maybe enough clamor will spur on a recall.

I don't know if Groucho is serious but this film was never widescreen (except possibly in 1.66:1 in later theatrical reissues) and the transfer can't be anamorphic for that reason. The French site I quoted, which is reviewing the US DVD, says that the packaging makes an error is stating the ratio is 16/9 when it's really 4:3. Typical of video restorers who keep their sunglasses on when looking at artwork...