I may get to replace my Japanese Mary Poppins laserdisc...


M

MusicMajor

New Member
Just found this over on the Digital Bits DVD enthusiast's site:

"Disney is apparently readying a new DVD of Mary Poppins (1964), which will feature a cleaned-up transfer by Lowry Digital Images and include for the first time the blank screen Roadshow Overture and possibly the intermission music."

I hope it's accurate. The current DVD comes from the period when Disney showed great disdain for the DVD market (a malady that for the most part they have recovered from) and I refused to support a crappy release like that. So our subtitled Japanese laserdisc has tided us over.

My kids (4 and 8) have never seen it without Japanese titles and never all the way through without breaks. They bugged me about the DVD, but we sat down and compared the Music Man laserdisc with the Music Man DVD. Then we discussed the Mary Poppins DVD and the shameful release given it by Disney. Now when we see Poppins DVD for sale Tevis (my 4-yo) pipes up "we don't want that one, we'll wait for a good version."

Timothy
 
Gurgitoy2

Gurgitoy2

Active Member
Sounds good, hopefully this will happen. Maybe it will be part of the Vista series, or maybe Vault Disney (if they're even using that series anymore).

Hopefully they can do to Mary Poppins in cleanup, what they did to My Fair Lady. The restoration on that was amazing!
 
X-S Tech

X-S Tech

Active Member
It's about time!! Of all the films that they could capitalize on. This is one of the only live action films they have that has any real respect as a real "film" a true classic and they haven't done anything with it. Hopefully the stuff about the overture and intermission is accurate. And lots of extras.....with commentary by Julie Andrews and Dick VanDyke! how cool would that be?
 
X-S Tech

X-S Tech

Active Member
And of course perhaps they will finally release a more complete version of the soundtrack, with the One Man Band, the extended Jolly Holiday dance sequence, intermission, and other instrumentals!!
 
C

chris

Member
Yes, I like the "Archive" laser disc of Mary Poppins. The extras are nice. I also have the "restored limited edition" laser disc that came out at the same time as the first DVD version. It has all the extras of the Archive LD, plus it has the entire instrumental music score isolated on an analog track. The score is in mono, but it's so great to listen to. Only the music, no vocals at all for the entire film. It would be wonderful if they included that extra on the future DVD release.

Even though the laser discs have been pretty good, we need a definitive DVD set on Mary Poppins. There is so much more that is yet to be included as extras.

Yes, Bill, that would be so great to hear Glynis Johns talk about the film as well. Karen Dotrice lives in New York right now I believe. On a recent London talk show, Julie briefly spoke with Karen live on the air. They both sounded very happy to speak with each other.

Perhaps Julie has loosened up a bit when it comes to talking about her past films. In her live lecture series, she spoke at length about the making of Mary Poppins. I was in heaven. She told some interesting behind the scenes stories. She's really got a few gems, especially the one when they dropped her too fast from the sky like a sack of potatoes. She hit the ground and used some "four letter British swear words that Disney had never heard before". It's a great story.

The fact that she did the commentary on the Princess Diaries DVD is encouraging.
 
M

MusicMajor

New Member
If memory serves, I seriously considered the Archive Edition LD but upon comparison the letterboxing on the Japanese disc was more accurate and the sound seemed less processed. In any case, with the LD player relegated to a 27" TV in the basement exercise room, I would like a primo DVD release.

Timothy
 
M

MusicMajor

New Member
Laughing, Bill... ;D

Okay, so I'm a bit obsessive about these kinds of things... comes from my melancholy nature: it's not worth doing if it's not done right.

(As such, I'm dying over the current state of the Uncle Mike's empire)
 
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