Progress City, U.S.A.

Happy 61st birthday to Song Of The South, the Disney/RKO motion picture that debuted on this day at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. This movie was obviously based on the Uncle Remus stories from Joel Chandler Harris (who in turn wrote them from previously told folk tales), but nonetheless gave us three frequently used characters in Disney parks: Brer Fox, Brer Bear, and my favorite Brer Rabbit.

Obviously, we can ride Splash Mountain to celebrate, or we could sit and sulk about how Song of the South is not yet released in home video format. Eisner and Co. thought it too racially sensitive to release, and I can see why. I do believe that this movie has much more charm than the racial issue though.

There’s been a buzz recently that Iger and Co. are looking to rerelease Song Of the South, and Iger’s even admitted pondering this himself. Let’s hope that soon we will be able to get this movie as next in a long line of the Walt Disney Treasures series.

In addition to Ratatouille, Pixar has another release hitting stores on Tuesday, November 6. Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 1 collects the 13 shorts released by Pixar since the company’s inception (one short, The Adventures of André & Wally B, predates the creation of Pixar itself). While the disc itself boasts a few interesting features (read the review on Ultimate Disney), it’s way overpriced considering that only two of the shorts included have not been previously released on Pixar DVDs. Still, there’s some great work here and if you’ve never seen these shorts it’s worth checking out. Thankfully, the new management at Disney Feature Animation has seen fit to reinstate a shorts program there, so we’ll hopefully have many new releases like this in the future. The Pixar collection is available on DVD and Blu Ray.

In other news, Disney announced specifics for the next release in the rapidly diminishing Platinum Collection of DVDs. 101 Dalmatians is now available for preorder and hits stores on March 4, 2008, just in time for me to not ask for it for my birthday. The movie is great, of course, but the specs for the disc (listed here and here) show that Disney continues its slide when it comes to these ‘deluxe’ releases. The line of releases which began with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 2001 have slowly devolved from archive-quality troves of information for animation fans to kiddie-game and cheesy cover song laden panderfests. But hey, the movie is still a classic and hopefully they won’t skimp on the transfer (who knows - they may need all that bitrate for the no doubt seminal Selena Gomez performance of “Cruella de Vil”).

Also coming down the pipe: A Special Edition of The Aristocats on February 5, 2008.

This Tuesday, Ratatouille (subtitled for the lawyers out there: “A Disney-Pixar Presentation of a Pixar Animation Studios Film”) comes to home video. Since the movie came out this summer, more press has been devoted to the performance of the film at the box office and how it reflected on the Disney-Pixar merger than was written about the movie itself. This is a shame, as the movie itself is fantastic. While it certainly received a lot of love from critical circles, a typically clueless performance from Disney’s PR machine contributed to the film never reaching the level of awareness it deserved; Remy wound up getting lost in the flood of other, more crudely conceived ‘funny talking animal’ films that have come out in recent years.

Thankfully, good word of mouth kept the film going at the box office and it is currently expected to break Pixar records overseas. The little film with a troubled development process found its audience and, as of this writing at least, is my favorite of Pixar’s films.

Sadly, the impending DVD release follows recent trends by presenting discs short on extras. Pixar discs used to be the gold standard in the early days of DVD; these “super genius” editions presented hours of background material on each film’s development process. Starting with Cars, however, Pixar DVDs have become mostly featureless affairs. A recent column on Jim Hill Media speculates on the reasons for this, and while two-disc premium priced ‘Special Editions’ of these titles may be coming out in two to three years, for now we’re stuck with the bare bones versions.

Thankfully, we’re not completely left out in the cold. The crown jewel of the DVD is the new 11 minute short “Your Friend the Rat”. The short, directed by Jim Capobianco, is not only the longest in Pixar history, but as can be seen in these stills is the first to incorporate traditional 2-D animation, live action, and stop-motion animation. The film features rat protangonists Remy and Emile as they indoctrinate viewers into the world of the rat so as to improve inter-species relationships. According to Sci Fi Wire, Capobianco cites the work of Ward Kimball as well as midcentury educational films as influences on the short.

In other Ratatouille news, director Brad Bird has spoken to Sci Fi Wire about his pleasure with the film’s performance and the benefits of viewing it in the home theater. He also tells Movieweb about the creative process behind the film, the quality of Blu Ray and digital film presentation, and hints about his future plans. Finally, Ultimate Disney reviews the disc itself and, while I disagree with most of their review, it does give a rundown of features and presentation. If you haven’t seen this movie, you should. It’s fantastic. And while you’re at it, buy the score!

Buy the DVD — Buy the Blu Ray