DVD The Misadventures of Merlin Jones
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Review(s): DVD The Misadventures of Merlin Jones | |
| Cult Status for Merlin Jones from Disney |  |
"The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" is a very likable film from Walt Disney. Tommy Kirk is excellent as the absent-minded student genius Merlin Jones attending Midvale College. Annette Funicello is Jennifer his girlfriend who constantly tries to get his attention. Leon Ames plays the pivital role of Judge Hornsby. This is one of those movies from the 60s containing a lot of campus mayhem and mishaps. The main title song, "Merlin Jones" was composed by the Sherman brothers and performed by Annette Funicello. It's a fun movie.
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| Good family film but Disney screws it up again. |
I can't rate this less than 3 stars because I love the movie so much. That said, however, I feel that Disney's way of thinking regarding issues and reissues of it's videos makes no bones about what they feel is most important: make as much money off of the public as possible, even if you have to cheat them. Try to get them to buy the same product over and over.
I've waited a long time for some of Disney's classic live action features of the 50s and 60s to be made available in the superior digital format. "Merlin Jones" is one of my very favorites. Tommy Kirk and Annette were a great team and all of the supporting cast in this classic are fantastic in their roles. The thing is, when you watch a great Disney family classic like this one, you realize what a wonderful corporation the Walt Disney company was while Walt was still alive. They put the consumer first and always did their best to deliver a quality product.
I'm not sure I would have bought this DVD if I had known it was not going to be widescreen. I should have read the small print before making the purchase. After putting it in and getting disappointed to find out that it's full screen, I realized I had no one to blame but myself. I had no right to trust Disney because I know from experience that they rarely do anything right the first time. This is not because they don't know how to do it right the first time, but because they know that by doing it wrong the first time and right the second time, they can get everyone to purchase their favorite Disney titles twice. And by making them available for a limited time, they can get people to buy them right away. Then after several years of unavailability, the same title can be reissued with a different cover and a few bonus features, a "deluxe" edition, and everyone will buy it again!
I'm still angry when I think of how I paid thirty five bucks for "Mary Poppins" only to find out it was full screen when a friend of mine had a copy issued only a couple of years previous that was widescreen! Why would they take a step backwards? It's bad enough that Disney titles are more expensive than DVDs from other major studios. And when "Merlin Jones" is reissued in wide screen in another 5 years, guess what? I'm gonna buy it again.
I can say this though. I will not purchase DVDs of "The Shaggy Dog", the original "That Darn Cat", "The Monkey's Uncle" or "Dr. Syn" unless they are WIDESCREEN. If they are fullscreen, I will borrow them from a friend or a library.
I'd like to make one other comment about this DVD's supposed "bonus features". There's something on here called "Disney's Inventors: A Video Gallery". It's pictures of different characters who were inventors in Disney features over the decades. Click on the picture and you get a short scene from a movie or cartoon that's currently available for purchase. The scene has some horrendous voiceover saying insipid things like, "Donald Duck learns to make his own airplane from instructions he receives over the radio. Pretty cool, huh?" This is what Disney calls a "bonus feature" for the fan who paid premium price for one of their precious DVDs: adverstising for other Disney products. Some Disney DVDs have a bonus feature called "Sneak Peaks". If you choose this feature, all you get is the same video previews that you had to sit through at the beginning of the disc! Disney wants you to feel priveleged to sit through their commercials! The Disney vaults are LOADED with cartoons, serials, shorts, and scenes from Disney TV shows like "Wonderful World Of Disney" and "Mickey Mouse Club". Why must they use advertisements for bonus features?
Note to Michael Eisner: what goes around comes around.
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| The Misadventures of Merlin Jones | |
I have this movie on VHS and I have watched it over and over. It's one of my favorite Disney's film collections. Two Thumbs up!
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