The Parent Trap (1961)
BOX-ART
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N/A
MENUS
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N/A
AUDIO
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The audio mix here is just an uncompressed version of the same remix that is on DVD. It sounds quite harsh during the opening music theme, but I'm assuming they don't have better elements. It was intended to be a mono mix in theatrical release in the early 60's. They didn't know home video would be a thing decades later, so they probably didn't use cutting edge audio. The film is mostly dialog anyways, which sounds fine. There isn't much direction either, most of the surrounds activity is very artificial sounding.
VIDEO
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The aspect ratio has been opened up, on all sides, from the previous version on DVD. It was presented at 1.75:1, which is what the original theatrical ratio was. This version, however, is presented at 1.66:1. I don't really get Disney's decision here, why not just open it up slightly from 1.75:1 to 1.78:1 and fill modern screens entirely? But instead, they opened it up even further and added pillar boxing.
As far as quality goes, it's very crisp and sharp. It's a vast improvement in detail over the DVD. I noticed certain textures being completely smoothed over on the DVD, like the plaid & gingham on various clothing articles. The grain structure is also much better resolved on Blu-Ray, being smaller & finer. Various little debris also seem to be cleaned up from the previous transfer. Colors & contrast are a bit different on the Blu-Ray, leaning more towards warm & dark. The DVD had a very dull pastel look, whereas the remaster looks more earthy toned.
I'm a bit torn between preferring the more pastel colors on DVD, but with the obvious boost in clarity on Blu-Ray. I also feel like detail in the darker areas is a bit crushed on the Blu-Ray.
EXTRAS:
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A with most Blu-Rays from Disney movie club, there are no extras.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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I was surprised to see this on Disney movie insiders, so I snatched it up for 900 points! You can also usually buy movie club releases on Amazon or eBay, but usually at pretty high prices.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.66:1 (Open Matte Widescreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION CODE: A, B, C
VIDEO CODEC: AVC (30.2 Mb/s)
AUDIO: English 24 Bit DTS-HD MA 5.1 (4,767 MB/s)
SUBTITLES: English SDH
RUN-TIME: 2 Hour 9 Minutes
Hocus Pocus (25 Anniversary Edition Edition)
BOX-ART
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On the cover is a render of the three Sanderson sisters. On top of an image of the full moon in front of them is text that says the title and, "Anniversary Edition." There's also some blurbs at the top and bottom about digital version. Disney has been on this kick lately branding all their Blu-Rays with digital codes, "Multi-Screen Editions," which is just a bizarre way of saying: hey, it has Movies Anywhere support.
The back has a list of extras, at the top, with a render of Winifred beneath. Some stills are to the side; of all three sisters, and one of Binx on his own grave. (Some dark humor for you!) A brief description of the film is underneath. A small purple sliver under the description list various technical aspects of the disc. The bottom has your usual various copyrights and logos.
MENUS
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The menu starts out by asking you to select a menu language, of either English, French, or Spanish. After this, a non-smoking advert plays, with a pop-up menu allowing you to go to the main menu, or watch more adverts. After a short intro, of the witches summoning the spell book, you're given several options; Play, Bonus, Scenes, Set-Up. Each menu will take you to a sub menu within the spell book.
AUDIO
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I'm not sure how the film was originally mixed, but the main track here is a 24 Bit DTS-HD MA English 5.1 track. Two 5.1 Dolby dubs are also included at max bit-rate. The, "I Put A Spell On You, " Number is localized in the French dub, but not the Spanish. Also, the version used in the end credits is in English no matter which dub you choose.
The bass track, when amplified in Audacity, seemed very buzzy and lacked any actual low frequency effects. I'm guessing the film wasn't originally mixed for 5.1 so they added some digitally manipulated version of one of the other channels to fill the gap? The rest of the mix sounds good though.
VIDEO
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The video quality is great. Maybe a tad soft, but I seen no signs of noise reduction, sharpening, or compression artifacts. Colors are vibrant, contrast is great with no clipping or crushing. There's a nice layer of fine film grain, but no pops, splotches or debris!
For ages this film was only available as a letterbox fullscreen DVD, so it's great to finally have a Blu-Ray! There was also a DVD/BD combo that came out in 2012, but I expect the transfer is identical to this one.
EXTRAS:
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There are two extras included on this edition, both of which were never on any of the previous editions. A trivia pop-up version of the film, and a production featurette. The featurette, which runs about five minutes, was originally available only on a demo VHS tape. It's just a short behind-the-scenes type of video, with cast interviews and some on-set video.
The main extras here, is a trivia version of the film, dubbed, " We Love Hocus Pocus: Trivia and Treats Edition." While I assumed this would be a PiP (Picture in Picture) thing, it's actually just a completely re-encoded version of the film, with the "pop-up" tracks being hard coded onto the frame. The pop-up videos look like they were made during the films production, so it's neat to see them finally being used for something since I don't they were ever available before.
It's only English Dolby 2.0 at 320 Kb/s, with video being 1.78:1, rather than the main versions 1.85:1. Quality is identical, and it uses up about the same amount of space as the main version. To be honest, they could have used real PiP elements and saved a ton of space, but the film still looks good, even if the trivia version takes away some extra disc space.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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For years I only ever had a VHS copy I recorded off the Disney Channel, mainly because I didn't want the Letterbox DVD, and there was nothing else. I'm one of those people who loves watching this every time Halloween comes around. I wanted to own it, even if they show it on TV each year. But finally, we have this Halloween classic in HD!
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.85:1 (Original Widescreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION CODE: A
VIDEO CODEC: AVC (23.8 Mb/s)
AUDIO: English 24 Bit DTS-HD MA 5.1 (5.7 MB/s)
French & Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital (640 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English SDH, French, Spanish
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 36 Minutes
The Princess Diaries & The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
BOX-ART
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The cover is rather bland, with just renders of Hathaway & Andrews with two gradient colored backgrounds. A blue banner at the top says, "10th Anniversary Edition." The back, like the front, is bland and mainly features a screenshot from each film. Tech specs are split between the top & bottom, with a description of the set in the center.
MENU
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The Menu has play, set-up, scene select, and extras. The play option will allow you to select which of the two films you want watch and then play it. Scene select will also ask you which film you would like to access, and then allow you to scroll through all available chapters.
AUDIO
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Both films Include a lossless 5.1 surround sound mix and two lossy dubs. Interestingly, the Spanish dub has the song, "Miracles Happen," fully localized which I found neat. Similarly, Crowning Glory in the second film is also fully localized.
Surrounds aren't used massively, it's mostly dialog which, of course, is in the center. When music kicks in the other channels are used for more directionality, along with sound effects. (Birds chirping, people chatting, rain, that kind of thing.)
Bizarrely, none of the commentary tracks are carried over to the Blu-Ray either, so you'll have to listen to them on their respective DVD copies.
VIDEO
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While comparing the first film to the original DVD, the Blu-Ray seems to be from a remastered source. The colors are better, and the framing is slightly opened to full 1.78:1. It's sharp and clear, with a nice fain grain structure. It wouldn't surprise me if they were using a 4K scan for this version. I'd like to note that the included DVD copy is exclusive to this set and is not available separately. It uses the same transfer as the Blu-Ray, but with the extras from the 2 Disc DVD collectors edition tact on.
The second film, however, looks very much like the same source used for the DVD, just with the matting opened. It certainly looks better on Blu-Ray, but hasn't been remastered like the previous film. The DVD copy of Princess Diaries 2 is identical to the original release, down to the 2004 print date on the disc label. You can check out the review on the other page for more info.
EXTRAS
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Bloopers are on both the DVD copies and the Blu-Rays, however, all other extras are exclusive to their respective DVD copies. Extras, regardless of format, are presented in standard definition. The only extra that is excluded from this set is the preview of the second film that was on the first films DVD collectors set, which was released just before the second films theatrical release.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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N/A
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1 (Open Matte Widescreen)
VIDEO CODEC: AVC (18.4 Mb/s Film 1)
(19 Mb/s Film 2)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1 (Blu-Ray) / 2 ( DVD Copies)
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer (42.4 Full BD Size)
REGION CODE: Free (Blu-Rays) / 1 (DVDs)
SUBTITLES: English, French, Spanish
RUN-TIME: 3 Hour 49 Minutes
AUDIO: English 5.1 DTS-HD MA (6 MB/s)
French & Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 (640 KB/s)
English (448 KB/s on Film 2), French, Spanish (Film 1 Only) 5.1 384 KB/s Dolby (DVD Copies)
