DVD reviews: Cinderella | Dinotasia

By ALISTAIR HARKNESS
Published on 27/08/2012 02:05

IT’S perhaps no surprise that Disney’s Cinderella was the animation studio’s first movie to go into production after the Second World War.

Cinderella

Walt Disney, £24.99

Dinotasia

Revolver, £15.99

First released in 1950, this simple, escapist fantasy was a world away from the traumatic life lessons of Bambi and the darker currents running through the likes of Snow White, Pinocchio and Fantasia. Reflective of the optimism of the post-war era, Cinderella became the benchmark for all future, slightly retrograde Disney fairytales, and has arguably been responsible for sowing seeds of romantic discontent in generations of young, impressionable minds. Still, let’s not hold that against it too much. It may not be part of the Disney golden age, but it remains an elegantly made film, one that tells a simple story with grace and style. It’s also more visually pleasing than many of its immediate successors; its lovely designs and modest set-pieces – even the transformation of the pumpkin into the carriage feels nicely understated – serving as a reminder of a time before every musical number and story beat had to be cranked up to eleven. This remastered blu-ray release gets the most out of these original elements and brings things up-to-date by including a new short featuring the characters from Tangled, Disney’s most recent fairytale princess adventure.

Sadly, there’s not much to recommend Dinotasia, a rather dreary, sub-Walking with Dinosaurs attempt to bring natural history to life. Integrating cheap-looking CGI with unimaginatively filmed live-action landscapes, its attempts to dramatise the life-cycle of the most fearsome creatures to have roamed the Earth falls far short of what audiences should expect from such an endeavour given it’s been nearly 20 years since Jurassic Park. Made originally for the Discovery Channel, its scenes of badly rendered raptors, T-rexes and the like is enlivened only by infrequent narration from a typically bemused-sounding Werner Herzog. A museum does not provide an adequate stage upon which to appreciate such magnificent specimens, warbles Herzog are one point, completely discounting the awe-struck wonder that coming face-to-face with an enormous dinosaur skeleton always seems to inspire in kids (and adults). Indeed, seeking out museum exhibits would be preferable to cheap, misconceived efforts such as this, which give no real insights into the past.

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