Originally Posted By Doobie This topic is for discussion of the May 5th Toon Talk review of Dick Tracy on DVD at <a href="News-ID114430.asp" target="_blank">http://LaughingPlace.com/News-ID114430.asp</a>.
Originally Posted By TimothyC Just got the Dick Tracy DVD recently... I was 10 and loved it then and it was really my first taste of Dick Tracy. Now, even though I've seen it many times on the VHS, I see that this is the time when a better, more faithful version of the movie is made. Warren Beatty really did do a pretty bad Tracy. And Madonna was *not* Breathless. And, one of the most important characters was missing: Vitamin Fletcher. And, as far as faithfulness to the comic, Flattop really should've had a better part. He was a much stronger villain in the comics, being the only one to come back from the dead. As well as the huge family he had... and, well, his death wasn't so easy as stepping out of a car and being shot. Dick Van Dyke was greatly cast, as well as Charlie Korsmo. Even Tess was great. But, it's just that too many of the major characters were mis-cast. By the way, if you want a good commentary on the film, get the Dick Tracy Collection DVD set. Max Allan Collings, who wrote Dick Tracy after Charles Gould as well as the book based on the Disney film, provides some rather interesting commentary. Yes, he seems highly annoyed over what was done in the movie. And, apparently, he was trying too hard to rebel against the script and write his own version of the movie, which, because of one of those versions of the book, caused the scene where Tess is with her mother to be changed. But, while that's not purely commentary for the Disney flick, it's still great commentary on that and the rest of the Tracy universe. -Tim
Originally Posted By Inspector 57 How disappointing to learn how "bare bones" the DVD is. I liked the movie well enough, and listen to the soundtrack frequently. One of my frustrations with the film is that they created really fun production numbers for many of the songs. But the director showed only snippets of the cabaret numbers in the movie, apparently not wanting to detract from the dramatic nature of the film. I was hoping that the full routines would be presented on the DVD, a la Moulin Rouge. Oh, well. I wasn't that crazy about the film. If it would've had good extra features, I'd buy the DVD. As it is, I'll probably rent it some weekend when I've seen all the new releases.
Originally Posted By carljimenez As I recall, this was released theatrically the same year or shortly after the Disney-MGM Studios park opened. I worked in merchandise at the Animation Gallery at the studios at that time and remember there being some ill-will between Beatty and the new Florida animation staff. Florida animation was at the time working on the Rollercoaster Rabbit short which was scheduled to be released along with Dick Tracy. In his comment above, Inspector 57 says "But the director showed only snippets of the cabaret numbers in the movie, apparently not wanting to detract from the dramatic nature of the film." Along those same lines, I had heard that Beatty tried having the Roger Rabbit short dropped from his film because he didn't want a silly cartoon taking away from the seriousness of his feature. This drove a wedge between him and the animation staff. I remember a lot of people biting their tongues the day that Beatty came by for a screening of the Roger Rabbitt short. I also remember having a lot of Dick Tracy merchandise sitting around for a long time. I believe that the short did end up being released along with Dick Tracy. Can anyone confirm this? If so, this would have been another great item to include with the DVD bonus materials. On a related topic, I seem to recall a couple of years ago hearing about a Roger Rabbit video collection of all the shorts (weren't there 3 or four?). Are they available on VHS or DVD? I'd love to get those along with Mickey's ''Runaway Brain''.
Originally Posted By toon-fan carljimenez, Rollercoaster Rabbit was released theatrically with Dick Tracy. I was surprised when it was not on the video release, as Tummy Trouble had been on the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids video. Then around 1995 or 1996, a video collection of the three theatrical Roger Rabbits (Trail Mix-Up being the third) was issued, but it was in print for only a short while. You might be able to find it for a decent price on eBay. I am hoping that when they release a Special Edition version of WFRR on DVD, it will include all three cartoons.
Originally Posted By JeffG >> "I am hoping that when they release a Special Edition version of WFRR on DVD, it will include all three cartoons." << I hope Disney will include them as well, but there may be some hesitance to do so because the shorts contain a rather large quantity of still-frame gags that would be considered to be of questionable taste. At the same time that they released the VHS collection of the shorts, they also released a laserdisc of them. Literally a day or two after it was released, Disney quickly issued a recall notice with the request that stores return all copies. The official explanation at the time was that there was some non-specific manufacturing flaw in the discs, but I've never heard any reports of problems with any of the few discs that made it into consumers' hands. The widely accepted rumor was that the discs were pulled from the market when key people at Disney learned of all those still frame gags and realized how easily accessible they were via the laserdisc. This theory is pretty well supported by the fact that replacement discs never materialized. Since DVD would presumably provide equally clear still frames, it will be interesting to see if the shorts ever make it onto that format or if they end up being edited. -Jeff
Originally Posted By TikiRoomer I was able to buy a video copy of the Roger shorts for $4.00 from Blockbuster when the recall was done. Still a favorite, but I wish there was a DVD. But you know Disney... even if the shorts ARE included on the new WFRR DVD, odds are good that the best gags will be chopped out. "For the children."
Originally Posted By Flick Dick Tracy is one of the worst Disney films ever made. Let it rest in peace.
