Around the World in Eighty Days (DVD)

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"Around the World in Eighty Days" is a feast for the eyes if not for the brain. It's filled with mindless "fiddle-faddle" as Fogg would say, as well as atrocious stereotypes; but if it's accepted for what it is, the viewer will be rewarded with an entertaining time. It is a cartoon movie for a bygone age when Native Americans where still wild Indians and a princess from India could be played by a Virginia-born native. Besides, there's Victor Young's musical score with its unforgettable theme song also to consider. "Around the World in Eighty Days" may have its faults and lost some of its original allure, but it remains a sure-bet even today.

Video:
The movie looks great, presented in a 2:10 ratio anamorphic widescreen that comes close to matching its original 2.20:1 Todd-AO dimensions. The new digital transfer makes the film sparkle again, its colors deep and well defined thanks to a fairly high bit. Sometimes one notices a slight glassiness about the picture and a few moiré effects, but for the most part the image is remarkably stable and well focused, with very little color bleed-through. Hues are well modulated, never too bright and never too dull but vivid and natural throughout. Since simply looking at this movie is half the show, it was important that the image quality dazzle the eye, and it does.

Audio:
The new Dolby Digital 5.1 remixed soundtrack is a little on the hard side, and there isn't much information fed to the rear speakers, but otherwise these are pretty good sonics regardless of their age. While the early stereo sound provides a wide front-channel spread, good dynamics, and an especially well-extended high-end response, the deepest bass is wanting, and the loudest passages appear a tad harsh. In essence, though, there's nothing to worry about in terms of audio reproduction.

Extras:
As usual with a Warner Two-Disc Special Edition, every inch of disc space is crammed with material. But this time because the film is so long and WB wanted to use as little compression as possible, the movie occupies both discs. Disc one contains the widescreen presentation of Part 1 of the feature film, about the first two hours up until the intermission; a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack; English and French spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles. Disc one also includes an introduction to the movie by Turner Classic Movies host and film historian Robert Osborne; an audio commentary with BBC Radio's Brian Sibley; Georges Melies' classic, 1902 silent film, "A Trip to the Moon"; eleven outtakes totalling some sixteen minutes; a stills gallery; both the 1956 original and 1983 re-release trailers; some DVD-ROM links; and thirty scene selections.

Disc two contains the widescreen presentation of Part 2 of the feature film, the final hour or so; Mr. Sibley's audio commentary continued; a 1968 biography of the producer, "Around the World of Mike Todd," narrated by Orson Welles; excerpts of a Playhouse 90 gala, "Around the World in 90 Minutes," narrated by Elizabeth Taylor, among others; highlights from the March, 1957, Academy Awards ceremony; vintage newsreels of the Los Angeles première and the opening in Spain; and twenty more scene selections covering the rest of the film.

Parting Thoughts:
In addition to winning the Oscar for Best Picture, "Around the World in Eighty Days" won Oscars for Best Cinematography (Lionel Lindon), Best Film Editing (Gene Ruggiero and Paul Weatherwax), Best Music (Victor Young), and Best Writing (James Poe, John Farrow, and noted humorist S.J. Perelman, who wrote some of the Marx Brothers' early films). It was further nominated for Best Director, Best Costume Design, and Best Art Direction, plus won a ton of other awards from the Golden Globes, the National Board of Review, the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, and the New York Film Critics Circle.

Did the movie deserve all the praise, all the success, all the awards? In retrospect, probably not. After all, the contenders for Best Picture in 1956 were "Friendly Persuasion," "Giant," "The King and I," and "The Ten Commandments," any one of which strikes me today as a better picture than "Around the World in Eighty Days." But that's neither here nor there. The movie is big, the movie is fun, the movie is spectacular to watch. Which is all that counts.

Incidentally, the film was known in the U.S. as "Around the World in 80 Days," the number expressed as an arabic numeral, not as a word, and it's the way the title is presented on all of WB's documentation. However, the only time the film's title is announced on the screen, at the end of the closing credits, the number is written out as a word. Besides, Verne wrote out the number in the title of his book, "Le Tour du monde en quatre-vingt jours," and if it was good enough for him, it's good enough for me.

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