Mrs. Doubtfire comes to Blu-ray in what might be one of my easiest reviews since it ports over all of the items found on the “Behind the Seams” DVD edition. That’s actually a good thing considering Fox’s previous track records with Blu-ray.
A lot of this review is going to be ported over directly from my review of the two-disc DVD “Behind the Seams” edition. Before you cry “man in drag” let me say that this is actually a good thing. Fox has a history of releasing special features on DVD and not bringing them over when they put them on Blu-ray.
For example, Fox/MGM put out a great two-disc edition of Robocop. When the time came to put out the Blu-ray what did they do? All it had on it was a trailer. In Internet language you’d need a W, a T, and an F to spell out my reaction.
My thoughts on bringing over titles is that you start with whatever was on the DVD and add to it, maybe even using the technology, Blu-ray in this case, to add some different interactivity.
They did right in this case, but we’re not out of the woods yet as I’m preparing reviews of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Master and Commander and those will have some missing SE features, stay tuned.
From my other review:
“Daniel Hilliard (Robin Williams) is a voice-over actor who quits his latest job because he objected to the cartoon character lighting up a cigarette. He drowns his sorrows by throwing a huge birthday party for his son Christopher (Matthew Lawrence), including a portable petting zoo. Everyone’s having a great time, including eldest daughter Lydia (Lisa Jakub) and youngest daughter Natalie (Mara Wilson). Daniel’s wife Miranda (Sally Field) comes home early and finds her house engulfed in the chaos of the out of control party.
This is the straw that broke the camel’s back for Miranda and she tells Daniel that she wants a divorce. This not only shocks Daniel, but he’s further destroyed when Miranda is awarded full custody and he’s only allowed weekend visits with his children. He discovers that Miranda is looking for a housekeeper/nanny and concocts a brilliant scheme.
He approaches his brother Frank (Harvey Fierstein), a make-up artist (along with his partner “Aunt Jack” (Scott Capurro)), to make him into a woman so that he can see his kid on a daily basis. He sabotages Miranda’s ad and calls up as the English housekeeper/nanny Mrs. Doubtfire, after calling as a litany of deranged responders to the ad.
He arrives in disguise and fools his ex-wife into hiring him. Things are working out well for Daniel until Miranda starts seeing an old flame, Stuart (Pierce Brosnan), and his jealousy threatens to mess up his time with the kids.
Mrs. Doubtfire is a showcase for the talents of Robin Williams and he gets to act in and out of prosthetics. At the core of the film is the subject of divorce and how it tears families apart. It seems that Hilliard has come up with a novel way to spend more time with his kids and discovers that he becomes a better man while posing as an old woman. Lessons are learned and the kids get closer to dad.
However, don’t expect an ending that sees the divorced parents getting back together (they tried it but test audiences didn’t react well and it rang false). Williams has found his niche in tons of makeup and support hose but he also hits the right sentimental notes. This may well be one of his most successful screen personas.”
Mrs. Doubtfire is presented in 1080p anamrophic widescreen (2.35:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. Special features are all presented in standard definition.
They’re divinded into “Cutting Room,” “Production Office,” “Animation Studio,” “Make-up Department,” “Stage A,” and “Publicity Office.” They include the “Cutting Room” which contains 32 minutes of deleted and extended scenes and 4 minutes of alternate scenes.
“Production Office” starts off with the 26 minute “From Man to Mrs.,” which chronicles the making of the film with vintage interviews. Next is the new 13 minute “Aging Gracefully” in which director Chris Columbus and Williams sit down to remember the feature. This section also contains a behind-the-scenes photo gallery. “Animation Studio” starts off with a 4 minute conversation with legendary animator Chuck Jones (from 1994) that talks about the cartoon he did for the film.
Next is the 2 minute Pencil Test, the 5 minute animated sequence, and another 5 minute version of the sequence with different backgrounds. The “Make-up Department” has a 4 minute featurette about the make up application with artist Ve Neill (from 1993), a makeup photo gallery, and 18 minutes of makeup tests. “Stage A” is 36 minutes of Improvisations from Williams.
It’s not hard to imagine that 36 minutes only is the tip of the iceberg with the way Williams goes off on a riff. The “Publicity Department” contains the 5 minute 1993 featurette, a 5 minute featurette where Williams interviews Mrs. Doubtfire, 3 trailers, 2 TV spots, theatrical posters, and a publicity photo gallery.
The commentary that Columbus did for the original DVD (which I think came from the laserdisc) is still missing. However, that’s a minor niggle from their other titles that are missing a majority of the special features.
The only problem now is convincing them to do the Blu-ray releases at the same time they do the DVDs because I wonder how many Doubtfire fans bought the regular edition not knowing that a Blu-ray was coming.
They’re on the right track with this release, but there’s definitely room for improvement. I’m still rating this one highly since I thought highly of the standard DVD edition.
Mrs. Doubtfire [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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