'Alice' in re-release looks wonderfully wilder than ever
By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service
Disney's system of releasing animated features on DVD is frustrating, the way it removes titles from the market, only to re-release them in reconfigured editions a couple of years later. But because Disney was wise enough to hoard and preserve nearly every scrap of paper and celluloid its animators touched, each reissue — for animation fans, at least — is like opening a treasure box.
The latest upgrade is 1951's "Alice in Wonderland." It replaces the original single disc transfer from 2000 with a two-DVD "Masterpiece Edition." It is not only a significant visual upgrade, rendering the brash, poppy, pre-psychedelic coloring even brighter, but also isolates elements of the soundtrack to compose a new 5.1 Surround mix. (Purists have the option of the original mono.)
Long considered a second-tier Disney, like "Peter Pan," the adaptation has grown in stature since it was re-released for the hookah hippies in the early '70s, and there's a wildness to this trippy adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic that wouldn't rear its head again in Burbank until 1992's "Aladdin."
For true fans, the revelation here will be a sequence featuring the Cheshire Cat singing "I'm Odd," with visuals to prove it, and the Mickey Mouse short "Thru the Mirror" from way back in 1936.
Parents shouldn't fret: There's an hour or so of kids-oriented games, riddles and sing-alongs.
A package of 'Friends'
Impending "Friends" withdrawal might be made easier with the release of "Friends: The Complete Sixth Season" (Warner), which is exactly that: a four-disc set containing all 23 episodes from a year which ended up one of the best of the run.
It begins with "The One After Vegas" (in which the credits added an Arquette to everyone's name to commemorate the marriage of Courteney Cox and David Arquette) and ends with the two-part "The One with the Proposal," in which a wrench gets thrown in Chandler's proposal to Monica when Richard (Tom Selleck) returns.
Three episodes get commentary by the longtime producers and writers, and the gag reel will delight fans. Plus, Warner offers a $10 rebate to anyone who buys any other "Friends" complete season DVD at the same time.
From Sundance 2003
With the 2004 Sundance Film Festival wrapped up, two of the best premieres from the 2003 edition make their DVD premiere. The first is "Capturing the Friedmans" (HBO), the acclaimed documentary-mystery about a middle-class family that comes apart when the father and one of the sons are accused of child molestation.
Director Andrew Jarecki, making one of the most impressive first films of any type in a long time, crafts a Pandora's box out of this sad, true story, with each revelation turning our conclusions in a different direction.
The extras include the short film Jarecki originally set out to make, about New York City party clowns (the eldest Friedman son, David, was considered one of the best). Also included is an update on Jesse Friedman, who pleaded guilty but who is now seeking to get his conviction overturned, and even more of the home movie footage that Jarecki used to make this story so unforgettably intimate.
Tough but true
Also from last year's Sundance festival is "Thirteen" (Fox), which parents may want to watch only after their teenagers are grown. It paints such a realistic picture of the temptations teenage girls confront and the conflicts their parents face, it almost hurts to watch.
The film's R rating prevented many teenagers from seeing this drama, starring Evan Rachel Wood as a good girl who falls under the sway of a sexy, exciting, but troubled and manipulative classmate (played by the film's cowriter Nikki Reed); the DVD release will make it more accessible, which may not be a bad thing. Despite the sex and drugs and parental failures, it's an instructive and honest depiction.
Dull and boring
On the other end of the spectrum, the Merchant-Ivory adaptation of Diane Johnson's Americans-in-France comedy of conflicting manners, "Le Divorce" (Fox) turned out to be a tedious bore, despite starring the vivacious Kate Hudson as the adventurous sister of a weepy Naomi Watts.
Hudson's character comes to France to comfort her older, pregnant sibling after her French cad of a husband has abandoned her and then lays claim to a piece of art that has been in the family for years. This is a movie in which an expensive purse is given more attention than the characters, none of whom is even mildly appealing.
