The Films of Michael
Sporn – The Tales Of Hans Christian Anderson (Two Volumes, sold separately)
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: B- Films: B-
As follow-ups to some impressive works by Michael Sporn released on DVD, First
Run has issued two more discs of two more animated films each, but instead of
more outright gritty, original and challenging works, he has adapted literary
classics this time around in these Tales Of Hans Christian Anderson
collections.
Each
again running a half-hour each, the first set includes The Emperor’s New
Clothes (with Regis Philbin!) and the lesser-known Nightingale (with Mako). The Red
Shoes (done as a classic live action feature by Michael Powell and Emeric
Pressburger, featuring the voice of Ossie Davis as narrator) is here in a
comparatively abbreviated form with the somewhat-known Little Girl March (narrated by F. Murray Abraham) round out the
releases.
The previous DVDs were covered long ago on this site,
which you can read more about at:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/479/Films+of+Michael+Sporn+(Volume+1
Though these are high quality, they did not work for me
overall as much as the previous material simply because I am not a big fan of
Anderson’s work, yet these are some of the more engaging versions I have seen
(as most I equate with the term suffering) and feel they actually make the
original literary works more accessible.
I hope it is not a few more years before more of Sporn’s work arrives on
DVD.
The 1.33 X 1 full screen, color images on each DVD are
stylistic and not bad at all. As with
last time, the color really jumps out. However,
these copies tend to be a bit softer than the previous releases overall. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is not bad
either, which extends to the documentaries on each DVD about the sets of films
they offer. Sporn also offers commentary
on all four shorts, which are very useful, and you get brief still galleries of
animatics and the cell & sketch work.
All in all, this is some of the higher quality child safe
material we received in a while and if you are interested, you should get them.
- Nicholas Sheffo
