Halloweetown & Halloweentwon II
BOX-ART
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The cover features all four of the main charters from both films. My only complaint is that the only artwork shown is from the first film, with none from the second. It would've been better to have some artwork from both films to better showcase how this features two films, but I guess the, "DOUBLE FEATURE,' with the cats is good enough.
MENUS
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The menus are all static with some music from the first film looping over top of them. After some adverts for other Disney stuff, you're presented with a menu that lets you select which film you want. Both films have, play all, bonus, previews, set-up, register DVD info, and an option to switch to the other films' menu. The bonus menu is identical regardless of which film menu you select if from.
AUDIO
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A full bitrate 5.1 English Dolby Digital mix is included. Much like the video, I was expecting a low budget stereo track & was rather impressed there even was surround sound. It's quite front heavy though, with most audio coming from the center channel. The left, right, and rear surrounds mostly add extra ambience. Things like background music, chatter, and a few minor echoy effects. There isn't a huge amount of directionality, but the film was made for TV, so I'm assuming this is just a simple remix of something that was originally stereo or Dolby Surround.
VIDEO
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Being that these were made for TV films from the late 90's/early 2000's, I figured they would be recorded entirely on tape or at least transferred to tape from a film source. I was, however, wrong and both movies were indeed filmed and a digital master was used. It looks very good, nice film grain structure and no noticeable compression. The bit-rate is around about 5.3 MB/s. Great contrast and vibrant colors. The second film is a bit softer than the first, but I assume it was just the type of film or camera used.
EXTRAS:
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There are only two extras included. (Which can be accessed from either films' main menu.) Sneak peaks of Halloween High and Twitches. Although I guess if these are considered extras, so are the previews?
FINAL THOUGHTS
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I'm nostalgic towards these films, but from what I gather a lot of 90's kids are. The transfers are pretty good, despite me expecting they would be bad. The collection is, as far as I know, only available in the U.S and has never been released on Blu-Ray. I'd love one, but who knows with Disney. I also have no clue what material they have to work with, if it's HD or not. The second film does appear to be open matte widescreen on Disney Plus, but doesn't look HD.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer (7.67 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (448 Kb/s)
SUBTITLES: English SDH
RUN-TIME: 2 Hours 45 Minutes (Both Films)
Halloweentown High
BOX-ART
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At the top is the same yellow banner, but with the text now simply stating that the film is, "from the Halloweentown series." The cover features artwork of several of the cast members in front of the school, with a spooky purple background. The back has two screenshots from the films, with tech. specs. in an orange box beside them. A description of the film is at the top, with various logos at the bottom.
MENUS
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The menu has scenes from the film playing, within an animated render of the school covered in green fog & lightning. There are options for play, bonus features, scene select, set-up, and sneak peaks. The sneak peaks are the exact same as the previous DVD. Also, like the previous disc, the menu is anamorphic widescreen despite the film being fullscreen.
AUDIO
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Like the first two films, a full bitrate 5.1 surround sound mix is presented here. Again, not a hugely directional mix.
VIDEO
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The video here is more in line with the first film, with decent contrast, colors, clarity & compression. There does seem to be a bit of edge enhancement, which is a bit disappointing after unprocessed presentation on the previous two films.
EXTRAS:
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There's some DVD-ROM printable stuff, along with a menu quiz. Bizarrely, the featurette on the previous disc, that had behind-the-scenes footage of Haloweentown High, is not presented here. These DVD's are quite lacking in decent bonus features despite the cover boasting about "DVD extras."
FINAL THOUGHTS
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I remember enjoying this one as a kid, I still have a VHS recording of part of it. It's not as nostalgic as the previous two, but still decent. I, like most of the fan base, really didn't like the last film. The cast change was really jarring & I believe at one point Disney was even considering recasting Debbie Reynolds, which shows how little they cared about the franchise. Needless to say, I don't have that one on DVD.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer ( 4.09 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (448 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English SDH
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 22 Minutes
Smart House
BOX-ART
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On the cover are renders of the Coopers looking up in shock at the house, with PAT shaking her finger. In the clouds at the top is the films' title with the tagline, "When the computer at home has her own opinions." The back is rather basic looking with a plain blue background, some screenshots, and tech specs in a red frame. A description is in the center, with various texts & logos at the bottom.
MENUS
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A static render of the PAT is used on the main menu, with options of play, scenes, and captions. The captions sub menu has a render of the Coopers.
AUDIO
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The audio is a Dolby Surround matrixed 2.0 track at 192 KB/s. Despite the futuristic plot of the film, they dropped the ball on surround discrete sound audio. Disney is rather random in regards to what TV films get remixed 5.1 on DVD and which don't.
VIDEO
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The video looks rather...middle of the road for the most part. It looks like there is both film grain & digital noise visible throughout. It seems the movie was filmed but then transferred to SD video, which is what is being used here. Colors are decent, not vibrant, but also not dull either. Contrast is okay, but with some clipping white levels in brighter scenes. Clarity is also decent, not razor sharp, but not blurry either. The average bitrate is in the mid six megabit-range, so there's no visible compression artifacts.
The biggest issue is that the video has been cropped from it's original 4:3 aspect ratio. Compared to what is on iTunes, both Disney Plus & this DVD seem to be using a center cropped version of the movie. For the most part it looks okay, but every now & then I couldn't help but notice the tight framing cropping things out. People's heads or chins get awkwardly lobbed off at times. There was one scene where two character shook hands, but most of it was completely cropped out! This DVD came out a full ten years before Disney Plus, so I'm not sure why they cropped the movie. I highly doubt it was meant to be matted this way either, since the framing looks incorrect compared to the originally broadcast 4:3.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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I remember seeing this on TV as a kid, and I liked it a lot. Sure, it's got that late 90's cheesiness to it now, especially with all the CGI. Some of the green screen effects don't really hold up, but the whole concept of a smart house was kind of ahead of it's time.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1 (Cropped Widescreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer ( 3.87 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 2.0 Dolby Surround (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English SDH
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 22 Minutes
That So Suite Life of Hannah Montana
BOX-ART
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N/A
MENUS
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The main menu cycles through various animated renders of the main cast of the three shows. An instrumental version of each show's theme plays as well. Sub menus feature addition artwork, with the music restarting on each menu change. You can select each episode individually from the episodes menu, or you can simply click play & plays them back-to-back seamlessly. This will not, however, play the bonus episode which must be accessed through the bonus features menu.
AUDIO
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I'm not sure it the episodes were always mixed in surround sound, or if they remixed them specifically for this DVD. Most of the audio comes from the front three channels, but with some reverb in the surrounds. Bass is used sparingly, mostly during musical segments. The mixing is quite echo-y, which makes it seem like they intended on a stereo mix but also wanted to expand the mix slightly? It's not terrible, but also has a slightly theatrical feel to it.
VIDEO
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The bitrate is almost maxed out, in the high eight megabit range through the disc, therefore, no pesky compression artifacts were visible. The video is decent, but is slightly dated looking. Some artifacts such as light grain, and dot crawling are visible at times. It looks a little soft and fuzzy, but serviceable for what it is. Colors and contrast are great, overall it looks about how you'd expect it to: not amazing, but good for the era. Hannah Montana, despite being the newest of the three shows, looks the softest out of them.
EXTRAS:
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Three bonuses are present, one corresponding to each show. First, is a trivia game that goes along with That's So Raven. Second, is a Music video for Hannah Montana's song, "Who Said?" Lastly, is a bonus episode of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. The back of the case states that the episode is "never before seen" which I think means that it just hadn't aired on Disney Channel at the time of the DVD's release. This, by far, makes it the best of the three extras. Interestingly, despite the main episodes being surround sound, the bonus Suite Life episode is only stereo at 192 KB/s. (This furthers my theory that the main episodes were remixed just for this DVD.)
Various previews, of other Disney related content, are also available via the sneak peak menu.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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I really wished That's So Raven & The Suite Life of Zach & Cody had full DVD sets. Unfortunately, Disney only ever did a few compilations of the two series. Hannah Montana did get full sets. All three of the shows are on Disney Plus, an I believe they looks about the same, quality wise, but I'd still much prefer DVDs. Well, the first two series anyways, Not Hannah Montana. I liked it as a kid, but not so much now.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer (6.64 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (448 Kb/s)
SUBTITLES: English SDH
RUN-TIME: 1 Hours 8 Minutes (Not Including Bonus Episode)
