| This is a very sweet story of a little boy
who has been sold to a less than pleasing family of cruel slave drivers. Elliott the
Dragon has come to save him however and he is swept away to a little town called
Pasamaquoddy where he meets Nora (Helen Reddy) and her Father (Mickey Rooney). They decide
to take in young Pete and give him a good home all does not go to plan though. When his
guardians the Goggans come to take him back. Helen Reddy sings wonderfully and Mickey
Rooney is always entertaining. Well I don’t
have too much to say on this one. Pete’s Dragon, while there isn’t much info on
the original film, appears to be a circa mid 1970’s.
So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?
VIDEO
I would guess that this was originally a Black and White film, which has been
colour enhanced. The animation has a lot of problems where the colour is different from
shot to shot, one shot shows a pale washed out green and the next a nice rich darker
green. The overall film transfer is not bad considering the age, but the prevalence of
dust flecks is quite annoying to me. In all the transfer is just passable and I
wouldn’t personally spend money on this one unless I had little kids that
wouldn’t care about such things.
AUDIO
The audio is also pretty shocking. As a 2.0 surround track there is no use of the
surrounds and the front sound stage is also extremely flat and lifeless. The audio is not
recorded at a constant level and the dialogue at times sounds very muffled. The transfer
is plagued with sync problems right from the very beginning. The score is your typical
kids musical type score with lots of sing along songs that all have the same tune but
different words. Great for kids though.
EXTRAS
Once again nothing in the extra’s department from Warner.
| PICTURE QUALITY |
4/10 just passable |
| SOUND QUALITY |
3/10 yucko |
| FEATURES |
0/10 nothing |
| OVERALL |
3.5/10 great for the kids, but that's
it |
Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Samsung DVD907 (via S-Video)
Receiver/Proc: Sansui A505/Sony Amp & Yamaha DSP-E390
Speakers:-
Fronts: Wharfdale Diamond R6 (on a pair of custom made stands you'd KILL for)
Centre: Venturi
Rears: Sony bookshelf
- Reviewed 2nd January 2000 |
