Disney has been incredibly prolific in their Blu-ray offerings in the last couple of months and each of them are worth your money, but each for drastically different reasons. The one reason unifying all of them is that they’re all entertaining films and more often than not, they’re good.
Bambi: Though Walt Disney was a renowned fighter of “Communism”, his films had some pretty radical messages by today’s standards and Bambi is no exception. (Fantasia, you’ll remember, had a pretty definitive statement of the truth of human evolution.) Bambi is a thoroughly stunning indictment of man’s encroachment into nature. Everything is idyllic and the animals are peaceful, happy, and adorable, until man enters the forest. He kills these cheery creatures indiscriminately and burns down the forest. It’s a pretty standard message of environmentalism and illustrates a fairly pointed opinion against hunting. And I loved every minute of it. I remember seeing Bambi as a kid, but I don’t remember any details of it, so seeing it on Blu-ray again was an eye opening experience. It was a very, very well animated film and in HD it was utterly breathtaking. Everything about it was so painterly and lovely, even the burning down of the forest. It wasn’t as much of a narrative as I expected it to be, much more of an animated vignette of nature with beautiful music and special effects, Bambi’s story is merely way of bringing the viewer through the seasons and to illustrate the destructive nature of man.
This is a classic film and there’s a reason for it and I would definitely consider
picking this up for your collection.
Tron and Tron: Legacy: Watching these films again was a joy, but I have to say, the original Tron film outmatches the sequel in just about every way. From story and heart to character and script, Tron was just head and shoulders a better film. The story certainly made more sense and there was this ambitious energy to it that made it perfect. The new film made little sense, though it was incredibly fun to look at. I’ve added both to my collection, but if you have to pick just one of these two to pick up, I’d go with the original. Aside from the fact that it’s hands down a better movie, it looks absolutely gorgeous on Blu-ray.
The Incredibles: Easily my favorite of the Pixar films, The Incredibles is out on Blu-ray tomorrow and is a bright and shining example of beautiful storytelling, brilliant filmmaking, and stunning animation. Wrap all of those things into a truly great, classic movie onto a Blu-ray and you’ve got one of the easiest excuses for dropping $25 in the galaxy. Everything about watching this film again on Blu-ray is a joy, particularly the characterizations and the music, both standout upon repeat viewings. That, and the style of the film, the cool 50s retro look in the beginning and the overstylized characters, it’s easy to fall in love with the visuals. But director Brad Bird takes the tried and true formula of a superhero family (much like The Fantastic Four) and knocks it up a notch on screen in a way that may never be replicated again. I could only ask for a Fantastic Four film half this good and I’d be completely satisfied.
This is one of those movies that you’d be foolish not to upgrade onto Blu-ray. I’ve said it over and over and over again that Pixar makes some of the best looking Blu-rays in the business and The Incredibles is no exception.
Disney has also been kind enough to give us a taste of some of the bonus features:
Tangled: Last on our list today is the newest animated release of the batch and I find that it’s really proving Disney’s return to form for the medium that brought them originally to greatness. You can read Scarlett’s more full review of the Blu-ray here, but I have to say that I enjoyed this movie quite a bit myself. My only complaint about this film is that it was in 3D animation instead of classic 2D animation. I don’t understand the fascination with 3D. I can understand Pixar clinging to it, but it’s frustrating that I can’t get my 2D hand drawn feature animation fix anywhere else. Having said that, Tangled is the epitome of a good story well told with a lot of tremendous elements to it that I really did enjoy more than most mid-list Disney movies. In particular, Ron Perlman’s appearance as The Stabbingtons.
If you have kids, this is definitely a movie that you’ll enjoy watching them if you missed it in the theatres. And you’ll probably find yourself watching it more than a few times.
That’s it for the recent Disney releases of note, and I have to say it’s a really solid batch. You’d not do much better than adding all of these to your collections. The picture quality on all of them is astounding, the movies are all range from watchable to fantastic.
I did have one issue with the Bambi disc, though. It was more than likely my Blu-ray player, but it took forever to load every time I tried playing it. And I’d have to eject it and put it back in over and over again. I have an older player, but the firmware is update. The loading time is probably my only complaint about Blu-ray as a whole.
If you had to pick one of these four, which one would you buy?