Mailbox round-up: Sleeping Beauty: Diamond Edition and Million Dollar Arm Blu-rays

Oct 07, 2014- Permalink

Digging through the mailbox unearthed two new releases from Disney: Sleeping Beauty: Diamond Edition and the Jon Hamm movie Million Dollar Arm.

1959’s Sleeping Beauty was a huge undertaking for Disney, with story work beginning in 1951 and animation running from 1953 to 1958. It was the first animated film to be shot with the Super Technirama 70 wide-screen process.

The video quality of this Diamond Edition release is a stunning 2.55:1 1080p transfer with amazing contrast , colour and clarity. The colours are rich and the black levels aren’t over-boosted. Any signs of print damage from the source material have been eliminated.

On the audio side the disc features a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 soundtrack. Again, the technicians went back to the source material and removed hisses and pops and remixed into the 7.1 experience with use of all channels for ambient sounds and music. The disc also features the original 4 track soundtrack as well as French DTS-HD 7.1 and Spanish, Portuguese and Russian Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks.

Sadly, the Diamond Edition is missing quite a few extras from that were on the previous Platinum edition, but it still has a good list of extras like deleted scenes, audio commentary from Leonard Maltin, Andreas Deja and John Lasseter, The Sound Of Beauty: Restoring A Classic, Picture Perfect: The Making Of Sleeping Beauty and Eyvind Earle: A Man And His Art, The Art of Evil: Generations Of Disney Villains, DisneyAnimation: Artists in Motion, Once Upon a Parade,Beauty-Oke: Once Upon A Dream.

If you don’t already have the Platinum edition, this Sleeping Beauty is a worthwhile addition to your collection.

The mailbox also contained the sports/inspirational Jon Hamm flick Million Dollar Arm, the story of a US sports agent who looks for the next baseball pitching hero on the cricket fields of India.

The film has a clean 1080p 2.39:1 aspect ratio transfer. Good skin tones, clothing textures and details. The colours are natural.

On the audio side we get an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track and French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks. Dialogue is clear and though the surround channels aren’t given an awe-inspiring workout, they are used to good effect for ambient sounds.

Extras on this disc are a collection of outtakes, an alternate ending, deleted scenes, a look at A.R. Rahman’s music, a look at the stories of the real Rinku, Dinesh, and JB, and the actors discussing their training for the roles.

If you’re into inspirational sports films, add this one to your team.