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 10/11: Melody Time & The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

Disney Animation Review: 10-11/53 - Melody Time and The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr. Toad

Finally, I’ve made it to the final two of Walt Disney’s unfortunate “package films” made to recoup the cost World War II took on the studio. Melody Time (1948) is the 10th Disney animated feature, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) is the 11th.

Melody Time is my least favorite of the package films by some stretch. It is dull, dull, dull all the way through. The only somewhat entertaining cartoon of the seven in the film is “Pecos Bill.” This is where the animation is the liveliest and the colors are splashiest. The rest of the shorts bore like nothing else Disney has done. There is an adaptation of the Johnny Appleseed story, which is incredibly preachy and loses any of its charm. Donald Duck and Jose Carioca return for “Blame it On the Samba” but don’t speak and thus lose all of their appeal.

Overall Melody Time is a lame, sleeper of a film. The animation in most of it lacks completely and the cartoons chosen for the piece are entirely lackluster. “Pecos Bill” is the only one that stands out even a little bit, and even that is relatively lame.

However, the eleventh animated feature, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is a lovely little movie. It is made up of two stories, one inspired by “Wind and the Willows,” and the other inspired by “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” The story of Mr. Toad and his motor-mania leads the film and it is the superior story. Mr. Toad is engrossing, fun, and silly. The story’s character designs are incredible. The story is a blast and the animation is really impressive. This is a true highlight of the “package film” era.

Ichabod Crane’s story is less engrossing as Toad’s, but it’s still fun. It’s narrated/sung by Bing Crosby, which adds a lot to it. The animation is stylish and the character design remains fun. You can see a lot of this film’s influence in films like Beauty and the Beast. The end is frightening and dark, but very enjoyable.

As a whole, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad works on countless more levels than the previous package films. The narrative, animation, and design all work infinitely better than the five films before it.

Melody Time - 1.5/5 Apple Trees

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - 3.5/5 Motor Cars

The Mickey Mindset, mickeymindset@gmail.com