The Boys – The Sherman Brothers Story + Walt
& El Grupo – The Untold Adventures (Disney Documentary DVDs)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: B- Documentaries: B
Disney
has gone back into their archives to create another round of documentaries and
issued them for DVD. We will soon look
at Waking Sleeping Beauty about the
fall and rise of the studio starting in the early 1980s, but begin with two
pleasant surprises that will impress anyone who enjoys filmmaking and offer
rare looks inside the studio when Walt Disney himself was calling the shots.
The Boys – The Sherman Brothers
Story is a near
biography on the two men who became the main songwriters for the studio. Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman
could have landed up in all kinds of work, but after a series of jobs that did
not work out, they landed up working together and became songwriters. At first, there was no guarantee that they
would succeed, but writing Pop records for Annette Funicello and the Disney
Records label led to the brothers having a fateful meeting with Disney
himself. Part of this was in his dream
to make the book of Mary Poppins
into a live action musical motion picture and continue to work for the
studio. Ads a matter of fact, Mr. Disney
was so impressed, he put them under contract.
The
result is that they became a hit machine for the studio as well as delivering
much critical acclaim and songs that helped make movies for the company
hits. Their run at the studio was
extraordinary and one of the last of its kind in Hollywood
history as Disney was the last mogul of any type from the Classical Hollywood
era. When Disney passed away, the
brothers soon left the studio, then were quickly picked up by James Bond
producer Albert R. Broccoli to make a score for a very different Ian Fleming
book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, more
than proving that they could thrive strongly outside of Disney.
There is
also the long term uneasy relationship they had over the decades, not always
getting along, getting on each other’s nerves, keeping their families oddly
separate at special occasions and the like.
However, when they got to work on a song, extraordinary things happened
and we get to witness this chemistry and genius often in this impressive documentary
by Jeffrey C. Sherman and Gregory V. Sherman.
Hope they consider trying another documentary.
Then
there is Walt & El Group – The
Untold Adventures, another tale of the Disney Studios surviving tough times
by taking risks and finding themselves taking a U.S. Government-sponsored trip
to South America on a good will tour! In 1941, the studio had outlasted its chief
rival, The Fleischer Studios, but WWII was another story, hurting the company
(which was not a major studio yet) by losing some very profitable markets to
invading Axis Powers. This goodwill trip
resulted in a trip they would never forget that was a success and also resulted
in informing the studios work, even to the extent that they created classic
animated work as a result.
Writer/Director
Theodore Thomas and company recreate the trip through stills, documents, audio,
actual work from the studio, interviews old & new and tell the story of
this trip that expanded the studio is many ways. Walt Disney himself went all out and not only
got to know the area thoroughly, but enjoyed it and the studio triumphed again
because it was willing to get involved in real life that became a further
inspiration. “El Grupo” is the term the
group of Disney employees became known as.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on both DVDs are just fine, with good
quality footage, including new HD interviews and great archive film. Boys
has more film clips, but both are smoothly edited, which extends to the audio,
presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The
sound can be a little more towards the front speakers and center channel, but
not as much in either case as expected.
Extras on
both include featurettes. Boys has Why They Are ‘The Boys’, Disney
Studios In The ‘60s, Casting Mary
Poppins, The Process, Theme Parks, Ray Williams, Bob’s Art
and Celebration, while Grupo has Photos In Motion and three pieces from the Director’s Cut: Home Movies For The Big Screen, My Father’s
Generation and Artists and Politicians.
Boys also adds a Jukebox function to hear some of their hits, while Grupo adds a feature length audio
commentary track by Director Thomas & Historian J.B. Kaufman, the
full-length 1943 animated classic Saludos
Amigos and trailers for that film and The
Three Caballeros.
Our DVDs
came with extras include. Boys had a music sheet from Mary Poppins, while Grupo contained a Disney Timetable.
Let’s
hope Disney continues making and releasing gems like this.
- Nicholas Sheffo