When Lady and the Tramp was released in 1955, audiences immediately fell in love with the story and the characters. It’s the love story of Lady, a spoiled uptown Cocker Spaniel and Tramp, a mutt from the other side of the tracks. Besides this enduring family favorite film, the Diamond Edition Blu-ray Combo Pack includes some very interesting bonus features.
Walt Disney
The additional features delve into the life of Walt Disney. To many he is an enigma. He is a man who loved animation and created Disneyland. But through these features viewers get to see more of Walt Disney the man, the father, and the grandfather.
In one bonus featurette, Walt’s daughter Diane Disney Miller discusses the Disney apartment above the firehouse in Disneyland. She discloses that Walt and his wife decorated it with some of the treasures they collected when vacationing. Mrs. Disney loved cranberry glass, so the apartment is filled with cranberry glass objects, and a lot of red! Viewing this apartment is interesting. It was the Disneys’ Victorian getaway.
From the Disneyland apartment the family viewed the parades. The small dwelling provided private time and a place where Walt could enjoy spending time with his grandchildren. As Diane explains, often her father would arrive there before the park opened and he walked along the streets, alone in his thoughts, while workers readied Disneyland for the day.
Walt spent his childhood in Marceline, Missouri, and through interviews with residents of that small town as well as video showing Disney returning to his hometown viewers see another side of this now iconic man. As is explained, much of Lady and the Tramp is modeled after Marceline. The film portrays a simpler time on the verge of major changes.
One interesting element of the visit to Marceline shows the “Dream Tree” where Walt, as a boy, would go to think and create things in his imagination. It was the start of his career.
Walt Disney’s mark was part of every project on which he worked. Learning about how he came up with ideas, especially the original story of Lady and the Tramp, shows his limitless imagination.
More on Lady and the Tramp
Other features on this combo edition include deleted scenes about a conceited Russian dog that moves in near Lady, the arrival of the baby who stole some of Lady’s thunder in the home, and a scene where Lady accidentally winds up in the middle of a dog show. This dog show is not like what you think. It’s an actual show with performing dogs. This last scene looks like it would have been fun to see animated, but for reasons not disclosed, these three scenes only made it to the drawing stage with dialogue to explain how they would play out when animated.
Features also look at how the artists animated the dogs. The movements of all the dogs in the film are taken from the way actual dogs move and interact. There is a look at how important music is to all the Disney films and a look at the voice talent behind the characters. In this film there were many different accents to individualize the different canines.
Lady and the Tramp was the first Cinemascope wide screen movie. The artists created the backgrounds to reflect the times of a small town, and as one says, it is “almost like an animated Norman Rockwell painting.”
And another fun bonus is a song that never made it into the film. Tramp sings “I’m Free as a Breeze” which I found to be a cute little song that audiences would have loved to see and hear. But the filmmakers decided not to let Tramp sing.
And finally there is the Disney Second Screen feature that lets viewers synch their iPad or computer to the film for more information about the story and the characters, as well as interactive elements for the young and old.
Through interviews, excerpts from the Disneyland TV shows, and videos, this new edition has a lot to offer fans of Lady and the Tramp as well as Disney devotees.
- Lady and the Tramp Diamond Edition Blu-ray Combo Pack (2 discs: Blu-ray + DVD)
- Studio: Walt Disney Home Entertainment
- Rated: G
- Running time: 76 minutes
- Street date: February 7, 2012
- Also available: 3 disc: Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy and 2 disc (Blu-ray + DVD in DVD packaging
