DVD Reviews: Mary Poppins 40th Anniversary and The Princess Diaries 2

Mary Poppins 40th Anniversary Edition DVD- Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Okay, there is this magic English nanny named Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) and she sort of floats into the lives of families who need some serious relationship tune-ups. By the time Mary leaves, kids and parents are living la vida perfect! In 1964, the Disney studio made a film about this magical nanny based on a series of books. Great music was added and voila!, a classic musical film was born. Now it is out on DVD for parents and a whole new generation of kids to enjoy.

Audio and Video – corrected colors are eye-poppin' with no obvious effort to fool with the matte lines and otherwise "correct" the look of original film beyond recognition. The musical numbers are well-balanced and clear.. You hear every word of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", etc.

Special Features - A nice "Making Of" documentary covers the origin and struggles to get the film rights from a reluctant book author. Commentary includes Julie and Dick Van Dyke, one of the now-grown children from the film etc., all in interesting interviews along with animators and the Sherman brothers composers. Fun.

There are features that deconstruct two scenes and another that gives you the how-to of the effects used at the time. The Art Gallery is especially good on this DVD, including storyboards, cool background paintings, costumes and make-up stills, etc. You get various musical features, including one piano-side chat with Dick and Julie and songwriter Richard Sherman; corny but nice. The DVD contains a musical journey that tips you on lots of songs that didn't make the film. One, "Chimpanzoo" sung by the composer over storyboards, is really cute.

My fave feature is a pieced-together reel that documents the original premiere at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. There is both black and white and color footage of lots of Hollywood classic stars as well as a very young Julie and Dick. The afterparty is also covered. It's a kick to look at all the totally retro 1960's gowns and hairstyles!

You should add this classic to your library and this special edition is really the way to go!

The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement - Buena Vista Home Entertainment

We again visit Mia Thermopolis (Anne Hathaway), now princess of the little country of Genovia. She's 21, a recent college grad and is ready to inherit the throne from her grandma Queen Clarisse (Julie Andrews). She's anxious to learn the ropes but there is a problem. Viscount Mabrey (John Rhys-Davies) wants his nephew Nicholas (Chris Pine) to take the throne. He digs up an ancient law that says Mia has to marry to become queen or abdicate to Nicholas. For her country, Mia gets engaged to nice but boring Brit royal named Andrew Jacoby (Callum Blue) but finds herself attracted to bad boy Nicholas, who maybe isn't so bad after all.

Audio and Video – Nothing remarkable here. Images are clean in foreground but kind of blurred in the background. Sound is fine for both dialogue and teen-pop musical numbers.

Special Features - "Royal Bloopers" on the set are the usual but fun. "Making a Royal Engagement" was created especially for the DVD so it's more unique than most making of features with info on the building of the whole country on the lot in Burbank and a funny series of director impressions by the cast, stuff on recording the soundtrack and putting Julie Andrews together with Raven for their song.

"The PD2 Makeover" shows not Anne Hathaway but her stand-in getting made up etc. A fun but silly quiz "Find Your Inner Princess" will let you know just what sort of princess you would make. There is an audio commentary over the film with Julie Andrews and director Garry Marshall that is cute and harmless but doesn't have a whole lot to do with what is going on on screen. If you are a Kelly Clarkson fan, there is "Breakaway", a music video set in a theater which is showing the film.

Although this film isn't as original and winning as the first, Anne is beautiful, Julie is regal and hey, it's nice that the country of Genovia learns that a woman doesn't need a man to rule or to live her life. A good buy, especially for pre-teen and young teen girls.

***

Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.