Hey folks, Valkor here. And it's Christmas time, baby! Yea I know Thanksgiving is this week, but all attentions are locked on what jolly old St. Nick will bring (I'm hearin his sleigh will be packed with TVs this year). But today I'm not here to talk tech - I'm in animation mode. And thanks to the folks at Warner Home, we've got an update on a classic animated short released on DVD last year, "Twas the Night Before Christmas"; it's been given the Blu treatment this round. Check it out its 'Twas the Night Before Christmas Deluxe Edition.
'Twas the Night Before Christmas is a musical, animated short based on the original poem penned by Clement Clarke Moore. In the piece Santa has returned letters to the people of Junctionville because someone wrote an op-ed piece stating he was a fake (and it was signed "from all of us" to mean the town). The piece was actually written by Albert Mouse, eldest son of Father Mouse, who's a skeptic to the existence of Santa. After Father Mouse shows him the error of his ways, he begins to have a change of heart. The local clockmaker, Joshua Trundle has devised a plan that will insure St. Nick stops by the town – he has created a clock that will play a special song in hopes of luring him back to the town. On the day of its first run the clock breaks and guess who's responsible? Yep it was Albert. For the record his intent wasn't malicious, he was curious to see how the clock worked. But now it's the night before Christmas, the clock doesn't work, and it would appear Christmas won't happen in Junctionville. But Albert makes a last ditch effort and repairs the clock just as Santa passes overhead, in time to hear teh clock chimes, which begins the event as presented in the poem.
This deluxe package contains both a blu-ray and DVD copy of the film; the DVD is presented in full-screen while the BD has the black bars on the side. However the BD gets a 1080p HD boost so the image is much sharper. You get one extra "Christmas: A Global Holiday" that looks at how Christmas is celebrated around the world and both contain a set of holiday trailers of other WArner Home product.
So if you've already purchased the DVD, do you really need to get this version?
The Good/Bad (there is no ugly):
My thoughts about the DVD version of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas still stands, so we'll just take a look at the BD copy; I was impressed at how clearer the picture quality is, even though it's not in full screen. The downside to that is you can see all kinds of scratches in the film, which is funny because you don't see them in the DVD. You'd think the producers would just take the original DVD and give it the 1080p boost. The audio on the BD side is done up in Dolby Digital and sounds clearer and sharper than the DVD – yes I watched both versions to compare. So while you do get a better picture with the BD, if you don't like the black bars you can simply switch to the DVD since this set has both. However if you already own the DVD, I'd say you don't really need this copy as it doesn't offer anything new.
'Twas the Night Before Christmas Deluxe Edition is available now and worth the price of admission… if you don't already own the first DVD. It's a charming Christmas classic that's a definite pleaser. And out of TOV 5 stars I'm giving this set a 4. Happy Holidays!
Email: valkor@the-other-view.com