Blu-Ray Reviews: Tarzan, Hercules, Three Musketeers, Ichabod and Toad

Mitchell Stein- With the debut of five classic Disney features last week on Blu-Ray, we're here to review all of the releases and see if they stack up with their previous home releases, in technical aspect and in special bonus features.

TARZAN: 

Tarzan is by far one of the most brilliant well-done Disney movies of all-time and very much under-appreciated, blending beautiful stunning animation, spectacular story, wonderful music and great characters into the mix creates a terrific instant Disney classic which remains one of the greatest to this day. Chris Buck (who will later go on to direct Frozen) and Kevin Lima take the helm to direct, and Phil Collins lends his talents to supply the wonderful music to the movie.

Sadly, there's not much bonus features to be found in this new Tarzan release. The bonus features are lazily recycled from the old VHS features, and still lack in picture quality. The features remain great, but without any new exclusive Blu-Ray features, this release doesn't hold up.

(Read Ryan's Animated Review on Tarzan right here)

HERCULES: 

In my personal opinion, following the high standards that films like The Lion King and Aladdin set before it, Hercules doesn't stand-up as a very memorable Disney film and is easily forgettable. The story is rushed, the characters are boring and the relationship between Meg and Hercules feels forced.

Regardless, the movie still earns it's spot in the Disney movie family and has a major fan-base. But those fans will be disaappointed to find out that no new Blu-Ray bonus features can be found in this release, and just like Tarzan, it blandly recycles old bonus features from VHS, along with the grainy footage it always had. With lack of bonus features and an mostly under-appreciated film, this release doesn't hold up either.

(Read Ryan's Animated Review of Hercules right here)

The Three Musketeers: 
Disney's Fab Five star in a fun adventure with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy at the helm playing the roles of The Three Muskateers. There's really nothing too major about this film, besides it being another fun film from the famous and ever so popular mouse. Just like the other re-releases of this month, bonus features are lacking and there's not much extra entertainment to be found, with the exception of "Get Up and Dance" and a few Deleted Scenes and Sing-Alongs. A fun film, but seriously Disney, that's three releases in one day without any worthwhile features. Please get you act together and set this straight for your next upcoming features on home release.

The Adventures of Mr. Ichabod and Toad/ Fun and Fancy Free/The Reluctant Dragon 
An odd pair-up indeed, but I'm glad that these obscure forgotten Disney films are finally making their way to Blu-Ray. While not the most legendary and popular Disney films, Fun and Fancy Free stands up to be a fun entertaining film, pairing up the stories of Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk during the Second World War to keep the studio afloat.
Ichabod and Toad hit theaters in 1949 and still remains just a fun entertaining film, but not much more. It's easy to understand why these two films are forgotten easily, but it's good to finally see them get the Blu-Ray transfer. The only great bonus feature on the disc is the Disney forgotten classic The Reluctant Dragon and a great behind the scenes look at the making of Fun and Fancy Free...from 1997. I'm going to sound like a broken record, but the Blu-Ray transfer for the films look nice, but it still seems empty with old features.

(Ryan's Animated Reviews of Ichabod and Toad, review of Fun and Fancy Free)

Hercules, Tarzan, Ichabod and Toad and the Three Musketeers and now available wherever Blu-Rays are sold. 

Disney Animation Review 8/9 - Make Mine Music & Fun and Fancy Free

Disney Animation Review: 8-9/53 - Make Mine Music & Fun and Fancy Free

Ryan Dosier - Today’s review covers both Make Mine Music (1946) and Fun and Fancy Free (1947), two more of Walt Disney’s “package films” that contain two or more animated shorts or a mixture of live action. The films were made to recoup some of the losses the studio faced during World War II. Although they surely kept the Disney studio afloat, it’s a shame that these films couldn’t have been better.

Make Mine Music features ten cartoon shorts, all unrelated, all set to different kinds of music. It is a very odd film and only four or five of the segments are worth watching. “All the Cats Join In” is about teenagers having fun and is lively and entertaining but ridiculously sexist (but what in the 40s wasn’t?). At one point a girl with a slightly bigger ass than the other girls is rejected by a boy, so the artist’s pencil erases her ass and draws it smaller. I was stunned.

Thankfully, the rest of the film is innocent and harmless (for the most part). There are a few real gems here such as “Casey at the Bat,” which features great music and narration and animation. “Peter and the Wolf” should be better than it is... but it lacks quite a bit. “Johnny Fedora & Alice Blue Bonnet” is an adorable, wonderful little short that clearly inspired Disney and Pixar’s recent short film efforts such as “Paperman” and “The Blue Umbrella.” Finally, there’s the story of Willie the opera singing whale, which is enjoyable and a delight, but features a shockingly tragic ending.

But for the most part, Make Mine Music is a collection of boring, uninspired, and downright lame cartoon shorts. There are a handful of truly fun pieces, but overall I found myself bored and ready for it to be over.

Then there’s Fun and Fancy Free, which is one of the most polarizing movies for me. I adore the second half, but I fall asleep during the first half. The film features Jiminy Cricket as the sort of narrator for no real reason. He leads the movie into the story of Bongo the circus bear who winds up in the woods. The story is so dull and really does not contain any sort of Disney magic. There’s a bit of fun during the bear square dance, but 95% of Bongo is boring.

Fun and Fancy Free picks up momentum with “Mickey and the Beanstalk,” narrated by the great ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his puppets Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. But they don’t really matter, since the real stars are Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. This 25 minute cartoon reminds viewers how spectacular Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are as a team. They work off of each other so well, especially in this. Donald has one of his greatest, craziest angry flip out moments and the animation is to die for.

Goofy sings a great, funny little song about “pancakes a foot high” as their hungry desperation sits in. Mickey gets to be the hero (which he always excels at). It’s just a lot of fun and the animation is top notch. Willie the Giant is a little lackluster and the magic harp is lame, but Mickey, Donald, and Goofy make Fun and Fancy Free worth your time (at least the second half of it).

Make Mine Music - 2/5 Blue Bonnets

Fun and Fancy Free - 2.5/5 Magic Beans

The Mickey Mindset, mickeymindset@gmail.com