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| Category | Family | Theatrical Trailer(s) | No |
| Rating |  |
Other Trailer(s) | No |
| Year Released | 1963 | Commentary Tracks | No |
| Running Time | 76:20 minutes | Other Extras | No |
| RSDL/Flipper | No |
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| Start Up | Movie | ||
| Region | 2,4 | Director | Wolfgang Reitherman |
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Distributor |
Warner Home Video |
Starring | Merlin the Wizard (Karl Swenson)
King Arthur |
| RRP | $34.95 | Music | George Bruns |
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| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | No | MPEG | None |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.33:1 | Dolby Digital | 2.0 mono |
| 16x9 Enhancement | No | Soundtrack Languages | English (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192 Kb/s)
German (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192 Kb/s) French (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192 Kb/s) Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192 Kb/s) Dutch (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192 Kb/s) Hebrew (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, 192 Kb/s) |
| Theatrical Aspect Ratio | 1.75:1 |
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| Macrovision | Yes | Smoking | No |
| Subtitles | English
Greek English For The Hearing Impaired |
Annoying Product Placement | No |
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is not 16x9 enhanced. Whilst this is not the intended theatrical ratio of 1.75:1, I noticed no hardships in terms of framing, nor did I notice any panning or scanning. Naturally, I would have preferred an anamorphic widescreen version, but this isn't too much of a concern unless you are remarkably anal.
The image is wonderfully sharp and clear throughout, and never waned in this respect. Shadow detail was very good, and there was no low level noise at all.
Colours are always bright, clean and well saturated.
There are no MPEG artefacts, which is a blessing. Animation, with its myriad of hard lines can be problematic for compression but not here. There are absolutely no film-to-video artefacts; no telecine wobble, no aliasing and no shimmering. The only quibble is that throughout the entire movie there are small film artefacts; to complain about them is really being overly pedantic given that they consists of tiny white flecks and do not intrude in any serious way. This is the only real visible indication of the age of the movie.
There are six audio tracks in this disc, being English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, German Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, Dutch Dolby Digital 2.0 mono and Hebrew Dolby Digital 2.0 mono. This is another disc whereby the soundtrack cannot be changed on the fly. Whilst one would not normally want to change languages whilst the movie is in progress, I simply resent that feature being blocked.
Given that all the voices are of course recorded in a controlled "booth" environment, dialogue was (not surprisingly) clear and easy to understand at all times.
One thing I must say is that lip-sync is very poor. That is not to say that the timing is out, just that the mouthing is often of very poor quality.
The music is simple, plain yet well recorded and very clear. It sits in the background and does its job without calling attention to itself, and in this respect it succeeds.
You are not going to find any other speakers active apart from the centre, and that includes the subwoofer. As the Goodfellas say, "forget about it."
The video quality is most impressive given the age of the movie, but a widescreen transfer would have been appreciated.
The audio is unremarkable.
To the mouse with the big ears - EXTRAS!
| Video |  |
| Audio | |
| Extras | |
| Plot | |
| Overall | |
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| DVD | Panasonic A350A S-Video output |
| Display | Pioneer SD-T43W1 125cm Widescreen 16x9 |
| Audio Decoder | Internal Dolby Digital 5.1 (DVD Player) |
| Amplification | Sony STRDE-525 5x100 watts Dolby Pro-Logic / 5.1 Ready Receiver; 4 x Optimus 10-band Graphic EQ |
| Speakers | Centre: Sony SS-CN35 100 watt; Main & Surrounds: Pioneer CS-R390-K 150-watt floorstanders; Subwoofer: Optimus 100-watt passive |