Peanuts:
Snoopy Tales (2017/Warner
DVD Set)/Pinocchio: The
Signature Collection
(1940/Disney Blu-ray w/DVD)/Shimmer
& Shine: Friendship Divine
(2017/Nickelodeon DVD)
Picture:
C+/B & C+/C+ Sound: C+/B & C+/C+ Extras: D/B+/D
Main Programs: B-/B+/B-
Here's
the latest children's releases....
Peanuts:
Snoopy Tales is a new
Warner DVD set of the new TV series (co-produced by the French)
simply called Peanuts
(or some may want to call it Peanuts
by Schultz as the title
appears with that text) and we have covered the show before. It is
amusing and not bad, but some may still find it difficult to deal
with how the artwork is purposely emphasizing the squares drawn
around each scene as if you were reading the strip in color from the
Sunday Funnies. You get 32 segments running over 3 hours, so that is
more than plenty to enjoy. This is not my favorite incarnation of
the strip, but it is still not bad and has its moments. Of course,
the show is not centered on Snoopy all the time, but this is the
volume for his fans for sure.
There
are sadly no extras.
Pinocchio:
The Signature Collection
(1940) is an expanded edition of the Platinum Blu-ray w/DVD set we
covered years ago from Disney at this link...
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/8321/Pinocchio+(1940/Disney+Blu-ray+w/DVD
It
is the same video and audio master set, with some variant on the
image (see below), but with a few more extras since that last set,
which is long out-of-print. Of course, the film holds up as well as
ever, but NOT losing older extras helps here.
Extras
from that original set
are all repeated here, if laid out differently and include BD Live
interactive functions, a feature length audio commentary with Leonard
Maltin, Eric Goldberg & J.B. Kaufman, Geppettos
Then & Now,
the still-terrific No
Strings Attached: The Making Of Pinocchio,
trivial, games, never-before-seen deleted scenes/alternate ending,
isolated songs, The Sweatbox, deleted songs, art galleries and a
bonus DVD version of the film. New additional extras are all I 1080p
HD and include the 2-part The
Pinocchio Project: When You Wish Upon A Star
featuring a new Music Video and its making, an new version of the
classic animated Oswald The Lucky Rabbit short ''Poor
Papa''
in black & white, Walt's
Story Meetings: Pleasure Island
about the making of that sequence in the film and In
Walt's Words - Pinocchio
with 1956 archival footage with Walt Disney discussing the film and
events surrounding its production.
Finally
we have Nickelodeon's show Shimmer
& Shine: Friendship Divine
(2017) in an 8-episode set that runs 94 minutes-long, which is longer
than the average for single DVD releases from the company of late
(like a few other companies) to not have much on a single DVD when
there is enough room for more. It is the same show we reviewed last
time (elsewhere on this site) with the same child-friendly set-up for
younger gals (and some guys), so fans will like it, but I was not
impressed beyond that because the show has no room for growth
following a confined formula that cannot use 'safe' as an excuse. In
that, I wonder how much longer the show will last unless they find
new avenues to take the similar characters. We'll see.
There
are no extras.
The
1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Pinocchio
looks fine and the same for the most part, but I thought its color
could have looked a bit better in the older edition. This time,
likely because of more extras, the picture has tomes it looks softer
or more color challenged than the older Blu-ray. Thus, it is still
not a total representation
of a 35mm dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor version of the film,
but this is just about the best it will look until Disney starts
issuing 4K 2160p Blu-rays. Otherwise, a fine film print or maybe 4K
theatrical screening are the only ways to see it look better. The
1.33 X 1 DVD more similar to the older DVD and nowhere near as good
as either Blu-ray.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on episodes of both Peanuts
and Shimmer are as good as they can look in the format and
almost as good as the Pinocchio DVD.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mix on Pinocchio
is well mixed and presented again for being an older film and holds
up as a fine upgrade from the original theatrical monophonic
presentation so many decades ago, so the sound is as good as it will
likely ever get. Going for 11.1 Dolby Atmos or DTS: X might be a
mistake. All three DVDs offer lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes that are
about on par with each other, so no surprises there and they are as
good as they will ever sound in that older, compressed codec.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
