Mary Poppins: 40th Anniversary Edition DVD Press Release

[2099net]

Hi Luke, great review.

The Movie Magic of Mary Poppins" (7:00) is a kid-oriented featurette on the film's many visual effects. The young unseen narrator provides an overview of various techniques used in the film like audio-animatronics, stop-motion animation, and wirework. Most of the video footage is either the final Mary Poppins scenes or raw footage corresponding to the effects being discussed, and there are also some clips from other effects-filled Disney films like Song of the South and The Nightmare Before Christmas. (The feature's copyright date is 2002, which shows how long this re-release has been coming.)

Just a point: The Movie Magic of Mary Poppins was available on the PAL Mary Poppins discs, as was the I Love to Laugh game.

[AwallaceUNC]

Fantastic review, Luke! I'm so excited for this release! It's a real shame that I probably won't be getting some cash for my Gold Collection DVD now as I had been planning, though.

I'm wondering- when the Richard Sherman is talking about songs that didn't make it, does he mention The Beautiful Briny from Bedknobs & Broomsticks?

-Aaron

[Joe Carioca]

I'm wondering- when the Richard Sherman is talking about songs that didn't make it, does he mention The Beautiful Briny from Bedknobs & Broomsticks?

Yes, he does. Actually, we even get to see some excerpts from the Sherman brothers interview that is on the "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" DVD.

By the way, congratulations Luke, great review indeed!

[Luke]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. And for the information about the PAL release, 2099net!

Joe, your review of the picture/sound seemed to jive a lot more with what I was seeing than with the other reviews that have turned up. Maybe our discs are the same and everyone's elses are different! I didn't even really notice the grain that you mentioned. Anyway, you did a fantastic job with the review! Kudos again!

[Joe Carioca]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. And for the information about the PAL release, 2099net!

Joe, your review of the picture/sound seemed to jive a lot more with what I was seeing than with the other reviews that have turned up. Maybe our discs are the same and everyone's elses are different! I didn't even really notice the grain that you mentioned. Anyway, you did a fantastic job with the review! Kudos again!

Hehehe, thanks again Luke! Really, I was surprised to hear the complaints about edge enhancement, since I virtually had no problems with it. I don't say it was non-existent, but I could only see edge enhancement in very few scenes (Mary sitting on the cloud, for example).

Hmm, reading Colin Jacobson's review I wonder if he got confused and listened to the original mix instead of the Enhanced one. The two are very different, there is no way one could think they sound alike.

By the way Luke, great comparison pics of the two editions! I agree we should have gotten the whole picture, but the restoration is so great it makes up for it.

[Jack]

Your review was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Luke!

[That1GuyPictures]

Hmm, reading Colin Jacobson's review I wonder if he got confused and listened to the original mix instead of the Enhanced one. The two are very different, there is no way one could think they sound alike.

That's what I was thinking as well....he had to have listened to the older track. Besides some of the info that he states in the review is just completely wrong. He says there are two English 5.1 tracks. And as Luke and others have shown, there aren't. I mean the sound effects are almost completely new and/or extremely enhanced right?
I feel better about buying it again now....thanks Luke and Joe!!!!!

[deathie mouse]

Another great review that I have to sit down and read at leisure so much stuff!!

With Joe's review too, UD really is the best place for Disney DVD info.


Altho I still haven't got the disc, some dethi (techie) comments:

Joe, your review of the picture/sound seemed to jive a lot more with what I was seeing than with the other reviews that have turned up. Maybe our discs are the same and everyone's elses are different! I didn't even really notice the grain that you mentioned.

and then Joe said:
Really, I was surprised to hear the complaints about edge enhancement, since I virtually had no problems with it. I don't say it was non-existent, but I could only see edge enhancement in very few scenes (Mary sitting on the cloud, for example).

Maybe the other reviewers have their sharpness settings (or other controls) out of whack and you gentelmen have it set properly


Even from Luke's downrezed comparision capture it's easy to see that the new version has less grain than the previous dvd, and that's even on a process shot (Hollywooodspeak for a SFX shot ) which tend to be grainier.

The sitting on a cloud edge enhancement could be a byproduct due to the sfx matte lines? Before the digital age, process shots were done optically by duping film and making high contrast mattes etc so grain and contrast would add up after each optical copy. (That's why the effects for films like STAR WARS, Star Trek, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, etc were done on VistaVision/70mm film to prevent such losses)

About the soundtrack, was Poppins released originally in 70mm blow ups too? Cus otherwise i'd think the original theatrical soundtrack woulda been optical mono.

A stereo one (even if made from original dialogue/effects/music elements) would be kinda remixed one too unless the film master was just a folddown of a stereo master but that was not done cus folding down to mono a stereo track looses or changes the balance so mono soundtracks were mixed to MONO.
(just like mono beatle albums and singles )

And now to the aspect ratio:



First: mvealf mentioned on july 28 that "The image on the Japanese laserdisc is wider and shows more picture than the U.S. laserdisc or DVD."

Since he was refering to the earlier DVD, would be interesting to hear what he has to say about this release.

Since there seems to be an even wider image on the Japanese LD than the 1.85 DVD, we can't just asume the 1.85 DVD was showing any extra non essential image by reproducing the full camera aperture width (which is 5% wider than the correct Projector Aperture width).
The only way to be sure is to see a full scan (including the sprockets! ) and calculating from there. Otherwise one has to asume the widest image one has (in this case that would be mvealf's LD) is the camera aperture, or the Projector Aperture and take it from there.

Anyway

Asuming the Gold DVD was using the correct Projector Aperture width, the Gold DVD capture indeed measured 1.85 using NTSC standarts. The new DVD measured 1.70 using the same numbers. BUT is showing 3.225% more image vertically compared to the Gold (2.895% more bottom, 0.33% more top ). The new DVD transfer also made the image narrower (shrunk the width) by about 0.9727% compared to the Gold image. (I mean the image itself, not the visible width ) When one takes into account all these numbers, the new DVD therefore is cropping about 6% of the width of the image of the Gold DVD

So all those numbers would make the aspect ratio of the new DVD about 1.75 wide (measured from the same image height that was shown on the 1.85 Gold DVD)

Showing 3.2% more height than 1.85 actually makes the vertical height the equivalent of an 1.79 aspect ratio projection, but since it's cropping the sides by 6%, if the Gold DVD was showing a 1.85 Projector Aperture, the new DVD is showing a 1.79 Projector Aperture image cropped by 6% on it's width. (not exactly the same thing as a true 1.75 Projector Aperture ).
SMPTE projection tolerances allow for a maximum 5% crop on each direction, with 3% recommended. So it's kinda within the SMPTE allowance if you averaged both directions (4%) (1.79 vertically is 2% crop error from 1.75 ya know)

If this side crop was done so that the resulting image would end up slightly bigger, filling up the sides It would make sense, but same as Luke mentions, I see no point of shaving up the sides on a 16:9 DVD which still has room for it. Showing the full "1.85" width of the Gold (therfore the full 1.75 width and the full 1.66 width since they are exactly the same) would STILL not fill the DVD 720 pixel width. It would fill up about 21 pixels more on each side, still leaving 2 to 3 empty black pixels on each side of the image. (1 or 2 each side on Luke's downrezed capture).

Makes you wonder why Disney is doing this

Maybe with the Japanese Laserdisc one can get closer to the truth.


(I could push a couple of theories forward, but no I won't elaborate, it would mean more numbers , going into PAL and HDTV land, corporate fear of aspect ratio numbers, and other crazi dethi speculations, and i'm lazy lately )

(If indeed the new scans/transfers are cropping/blacking out a little of the sides, one technical advantage of doing this is 6% less bits to compress. . A microimprovement of 1/4 of a dB in signal to noise ratio )


Anyway 4% is not the end of the world (Sleeping Beauty has lotsa more )



(As a purist i want 100.000000% tho )



_________________
The Incredibles, starring Violet


To include one digit that wasn't typed the first time (need to be accurate) and further fine tuning this was

[Wonderlicious]

Your review was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Luke!

Jack, that's a total cliche, but very true. I loved your review, Luke!

[MickeyMousePal]

Great review Luke!!!

[That1GuyPictures]

One of your best reviews, Luke! And thanks for including the screenshots!

(Goodness Deathie, you love to type Long posts! But I love you for it!)

[deathie mouse]

Just imagine how long they would be if I used my other 20 fingers. err I mean 9 *hides his tentacles.

I'd probably leave out half of it anyway

[That1GuyPictures]

Hey Luke, just out of curiosity, what program do you use to capture the images for your DVD reviews? They seem to be really high quality...

[That1GuyPictures]

There is a new review up at DVDFILE.com...

http://dvdfile.com/software/review/dvd- ... _40ae.html

This one is a whole lot more positive,
and I usually tend to agree with this particular
reviewer more than any other DVD reviewer. (Except Luke !)

[Jordan]

Hi Luke, great review.

The Movie Magic of Mary Poppins" (7:00) is a kid-oriented featurette on the film's many visual effects. The young unseen narrator provides an overview of various techniques used in the film like audio-animatronics, stop-motion animation, and wirework. Most of the video footage is either the final Mary Poppins scenes or raw footage corresponding to the effects being discussed, and there are also some clips from other effects-filled Disney films like Song of the South and The Nightmare Before Christmas. (The feature's copyright date is 2002, which shows how long this re-release has been coming.)

Just a point: The Movie Magic of Mary Poppins was available on the PAL Mary Poppins discs, as was the I Love to Laugh game.

I'm a little confused about it because I own the Region 2 of Mary Poppins and the featurette availble is 'The Movie Magic Of Mary Poppins'. If I undersand well the Region 1 had a longer featurette called The Making of "Mary Poppins", not the same as the Region 2's, is that right ? Not the same at all ?

[MickeyMouseboy]

see i knew we were loosing picture! thanks dethi what would we do without you mate! Sleeping Beauty is a freak of nature!

[Luke]

Thanks for the compliments, folks!

That1Guy, I have an older version of WinDVD that does the caps just fine.

[Joe Carioca]

I'm a little confused about it because I own the Region 2 of Mary Poppins and the featurette availble is 'The Movie Magic Of Mary Poppins'. If I undersand well the Region 1 had a longer featurette called The Making of "Mary Poppins", not the same as the Region 2's, is that right ? Not the same at all ?

The special edition includes both the 50-minute "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: The Making of Mary Poppins" and the 7-minute "The Movie Magic of Mary Poppins" featurettes.

[Jordan]

I'm a little confused about it because I own the Region 2 of Mary Poppins and the featurette availble is 'The Movie Magic Of Mary Poppins'. If I undersand well the Region 1 had a longer featurette called The Making of "Mary Poppins", not the same as the Region 2's, is that right ? Not the same at all ?

The special edition includes both the 50-minute "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: The Making of Mary Poppins" and the 7-minute "The Movie Magic of Mary Poppins" featurettes.

Thanks.
When I was referring to the "Region 1", I forgot to mention that I meant the Gold Collection DVD.
But there is a featurette from the Gold Collection not in the SP, right ? as Luke mentionned it in the review ? This is this segment I was talking about.

[Jordan]

The special edition includes both the 50-minute "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: The Making of Mary Poppins" and the 7-minute "The Movie Magic of Mary Poppins" featurettes.

Thanks.
When I was referring to the "Region 1", I forgot to mention that I meant the Gold Collection DVD.
But there is a featurette from the Gold Collection not in the SP, right ? as Luke mentionned it in the review ? This is this segment I was talking about.

And it means, I won't see it if it's neither on the old 1-Disc Region 2 nor in the SE. Too bad, Hope it wasn't that great !