Pocahontas: Deluxe CAV Laserdisc Edition (1995) [6875 CS]Movie:
What was supposed to be Disney's best shot at another nomination turned out to be dead in the water from the very beginning. With a weak villain, a historic tale drenched in disillusioning romanticism and fantasy, and a weaker cast of supporting characters, there is quite a bit wrong with Disney's Pocahontas. But that's not what I want to talk about, because I absolutely love Pocahontas. I'd rather acknowledge its issues early on so I can discuss why this film is worth your time.
Most of what makes Pocahontas a great film is what lies within its musical score. Much of the film is driven along by a masterful score written by the ever fantastic Alan Menken. When tension is required, the music shifts into high octane and creates tension. When romance is in the air, romance echoes through your surrounds through the score. While some might say this weakens films significantly I feel in Pocahontas's case that it pieces the film together, as it does with many of Disney's Renaissance films.
The songs featured in Pocahontas, scored by Alan Menken and written by another Broadway veteran Stephen Schwartz are some of Disney's finest, if not their finest. Songs like Steady as the Beating Drum and The Virginia Company may get lost in the large shadow of the film's "epic songs" help establish the contrast in which the two prevailing factions exist in a way that defies the normal time period in which films tend to slow down and introduce characters. The film's grander songs explore themes such as preserving and understanding nature, fate, and the ignorance of the masses in an appropriate way that only Disney could handle. Did I forget to mention the songs and score of the movie won both of the musical Academy Awards?
The film is sub standard in the ways of plot, but manages to sweep you off your feet with excellent music, and wonderful animation, truly showing us what the CAPS animation process is capable of. I wholly recommend you give this one a shot. It's not for everyone, but younger kids and less cynical adults will surely find something within it's shallow depths.
Video:
Who ever supervised this transfer must have had a few screws loose, because this is one trainwreck of a transfer. Signal noise is overwhelmingly present throughout the entire movie, obscuring detail and giving this masterpiece of animation an ugly, sometimes deformed look.
But underneath that heavy layer of noise is a somewhat colorful movie. Colors are well represented(as opposed to the muted look that The Little Mermaid had) and the movie as a whole looks somewhat natural. I saw to aliasing or any artifacting anywhere else, but who knows, perhaps all that noise obscured the other issues. If you don't already own this film, don't go out of your way for the Laserdisc transfer, just wait till the end of August for the Blu Ray.
Audio:
Rushing, jumping, shooting, and cannoning onto Laserdisc with a well mixed AC-3 track, Pocahontas generally sounds excellent with this release of the film. The movie generally takes place in the front soundstage, so expect your surrounds to mostly provide quiet, subtle noises for the majority of the dialogue sequences in the film
The sound opens up into the surrounds and low frequency range for all of the key musical numbers, with the score providing an excellent level of immersion. It seems to me that most of the surround utilization comes in almost exclusively to highlight the musical arrangements and Broadway style numbers that appear frequently throughout the film, which is slightly disappointing.
I will say one thing though, it's not often you hear your subwoofer emit musical tones, and that might be my favorite part about this overall satisfying mix.
Extras:
You probably didn't buy this box set for its gorgeous looks or lovely voice however, for this box set comes jam packed with 3 discs using mixed encoding formats to provide a plethora of extras that will satisfy any Disney fanatic such as myself. The entire fourth side is jam packed with both a Disney Channel produced making of featurette as well as pieces on the 70mm premiere event, the Pocahontas Animation Discovery Adventure Tour, as well as a multi language presentation of Colors of the Wind.
On the third disc, completely CAV, we gave several essays on the production of Pocahontas as well as dozens of story board frames for several key sequences, several concept pieces for abandoned scenes and character designs for all main characters as well as pictures of several deleted characters, and the complete, but uncolored animated song If I Never Knew You followed by some promotions material. Did I also mention the feature has a commentary track as well? What's not to love?
Overall:
Entertaining movie, poor video transfer, adequate AC-3 mix, and a lovely bunch of extras. Buy it if you're into your Disney Laserdiscs, but all others should avoid the cost of admissions, which has dropped quite a bit since I acquired mine.
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