Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)

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General		Extras
Category	Fantasy	Menu Audio
Rating
Year Of Production	1975
Running Time	93:29
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (51:13)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	John Hough
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Eddie Albert Ray Milland Donald Pleasence Kim Richards Ike Eisenmann Walter Barnes Reta Shaw Denver Pyle Alfred Ryder Lawrence Montaigne Terry Wilson George Chandler Dermott Downs
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Johnny Mandel

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.75:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired French German Dutch Portuguese French Titling German Titling	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The two have little memory of their life before the orphanage. They have vague memories of people and events in their lives before being taken in by the Malone family. When Mr. and Mrs. Malone are killed in an accident, the pair are taken to the orphanage. But in spite of their incomplete memories of times past, Tia (Kim Richards) has several flashbacks to their childhood. Still, there is little time to recollect the past as the two get used to the day to day life at the orphanage. While the pair have been getting used to their ever-growing psychic powers, it's on a field trip into the city where it gets them some real attention. Lucas Deranian (Donald Pleasence) is the employee of millionaire Aristotle Bolt (Ray Milland), a man possessed of the desire for total power. On a trip to the city, Bolt's man Deranian comes into contact with the young orphans and discovers their secret. When the two use their powers to save the life of Deranian, he immediately reports his startling encounter to his boss. Soon the plan is hatched and Deranian goes to the orphanage to claim the two as his long lost niece and nephew. As soon as the kids are trapped in the Bolt compound, the millionaire mogul begins to hatch his scheme to use the pair's psychic powers to make himself more wealthy and influential. This doesn't go unnoticed by the two children, and they escape the compound.

    Fleeing Bolt and Deranian, Tony and Tia stow away onboard the Winnebago of Jason O'Day (Eddie Albert). The grumpy retiree finds the pair and quickly kicks them out, but he soon develops an affinity to the two and instead allows them to stay with him. When he discovers their powers and hears their story, he decides to help them escape the power mad millionaire Bolt and perhaps learn the truth of their origin...on Witch Mountain!

    This one has really dated, but is a nostalgia trip for those who grew up with the film in the mid 70s. I loved this film as a kid, but seeing it now really shows just how far children's films have evolved over the years. Entertaining at the time, the special effects now stand out like a sore thumb in their simplicity. The look is akin to children's television of the time rather than a motion picture. Coupled with some fairly ordinary camera work and cinematography, this is little better than an after school special from 30 years ago.

    Disney in Region 1 have released this film in a package that features several interesting extras, including a cast commentary by Ike Eisenmann, Kim Richards and Director John Hough along with several making-of documentaries and interviews. I would find it surprising that this film would find any real audience with today's kids and can only think that those of my generation (late 30s) who remember this film will be interested. Sadly, it looks as if, again, Region 1 gets the lion's share of extras whilst we here in the antipodes miss out. Worth a look for the young at heart that remember the film from their childhood, but I think that it will have a fairly limited appeal to anyone else.

Video

    The film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.75:1 with the appropriate 16x9 enhancement. The movie was filmed in 35 mm using the Spherical process and then matted to 1.75:1.

    Within the technical and budgetary limitations of the time, we get a reasonable level of sharpness here. Although the image is a little washed out (typical of films from this era), the clarity is quite watchable. Shadow detail is workable. I had no problems with low level noise.

    Colour's use during this programme is fairly natural with little exaggeration. As would be expected, the palate is somewhat subdued but again, this could be due to the age of the film coupled with the quality of the film stock used during production. Colour's commitment to disc looks quite good considering the source material.

    For a film of this age and stature, I found the image to be quite clean. There is some obvious grain present and nicks and flecks are easily spotted, but the print here is by no means in bad condition and as I've stated before, you've probably not seen this film looking as good as it does here. Edge enhancement isn't out of control and MPEG artefacts seem to be a non-issue, thanks to the use of the RSDL format.

    I found the English subtitles reasonably accurate, whilst not word for word.

    This disc is formatted RSDL, with the layer change taking place at 51:13, which is between Chapters 5 and 6. It is a fairly obvious change and only the most sophisticated DVD players will render this change seamlessly.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

     The audio mix provided is somewhat limited but suits the material well

     There are 3 audio options here, these being English, French and German Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes. The English runs at 448 Kb/s while the French and German are at the lesser 384 Kb/s rate.

     I had no problems with the dialogue quality here and the spoken word is understandable throughout the programme. Sync is also reasonable throughout.

     Music for this film comes from film score composer Johnny Mandel. Although Mandel has composed a range of scores for such films as Caddyshack, Deathtrap and The Verdict, he will be most remembered for the song Suicide is Painless, which was the theme for the classic film and television show M*A*S*H. The score for this film is somewhat dated (as expected), but it does suit the material well.

     The rear effects on offer here are quite limited and the surround mix is derived from an original mono source. As much as can be extrapolated from the soundtrack is distributed around the soundstage, but the effect overall is a limited atmospheric sound that suits the material well.

     There is little LFE available, despite the presence of the .1 channel.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     You're kidding, right? This is a Buena Vista Australia live action back catalogue title. Do you really think that we'd get anything of note? Do you really think that we would get anything at all? Not a chance. Bare bones, all the way through.

Menu

     After the Language Selection we are taken to the normal copyright warnings and distributor's logos before going to the disc's Main Menu which offers us the following:

• Scene Selection (static image and Chapter number, no titles)
• Setup
• Play

    Assume the position, Australia, because we've been given the rough end of the stick...again.

     In my open letter to Buena Vista Home Entertainment in my review of The Parent Trap, I spelled out the annoying shortcomings of many of the live action back catalogue titles from Disney here in Region 4. The major titles seem to get decent treatment, but when it comes to some of the older film, especially those with limited appeal, we seem to get a raw deal. This is a major marketing error on Buena Vista's part as the main audience for many of these films is not 12 year olds, but those who were 12 years old when the films were first released. People like me. Yet people like me want extras to enhance the viewing of the film. This is a trip down memory lane and if we are going down that path, we would like some markers along the way. Our Region 1 cousins get it, with a disc that has a cast and crew commentary and a host of extras, but when it comes to our package, it's the film only. This is a major disappointment as those interested in the film want the extras. What are they? Have a look at what we miss here in Region 4:

• Audio Commentary from Ike Eisenmann, Kim Richards and Director John Hough
• "Pluto's Dream House" Mickey Mouse and Pluto short - approx. 8 minutes
• "Making the Escape" featurette - approx. 26 minutes
• "Conversations with John Hough" interview - approx. 6 minutes
• "Disney Sci-Fi" montage - approx. 3 minutes
• "Lost Treasures" visual effects featurette - approx. 11 minutes
• "1975 Disney Studio Album" montage - approx. 3 minutes
• Trailer for The Lion King, The Haunted Mansion, Stitch! The Movie and Sleeping Beauty
• THX certified transfer with THX Optimizer

     The Region 1 disc misses out on the following:

• French and German Dolby Digital 5.1 audio mixes
• French, German, Dutch and Portuguese subtitles

     Disappointing. We deserve better.

       This is one that many will probably remember from their youth. Sadly, we miss out on a host of extras that fans of this film would love to see. I wish that we had been given the total package here, but alas there's nothing more than the film here. Good for a dose of nostalgia, but I would have liked to have seen more.

        The video is reasonable.

        The audio is adequate and serves the material well.

       Not one extra, at all.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall