Like the movie-only CLV edition, 'Dragonheart' is letterboxed to a 2.35:1 anamorphic ratio and the THX approved picture and sound are superlative. This set is all-CAV, which allows for perfect freeze-frames and variable playback speeds of the breathtaking visual effects.
This Signature Collection set also one-ups the standard edition with the inclusion of a Dolby Digital AC-3 track (this is MCA/Universal’s first AC-3 disc).
The 103-minute film is presented on four sides in CAV. All three side/platter breaks are well placed. The CAV platter break duplicates the side break on the movie-only CLV version.
For those who loved 'Dragonheart', the supplementary materials included will keep them busy for hours. The extras include an enjoyable, and quite revealing, running commentary by director Rob Cohen, outtakes, trailers, TV spots, a massive still gallery with storyboards, posters and design sketches, a sampling of the computerized storyboards made for the film and a made-for-laserdisc feature on the filming of the movie, filled with interviews with director Cohen, producer Raffaella De Laurentiis, screenwriter (and one-time director of the project) Patrick Read Johnson, stars Dennis Quaid and Dina Meyer and several ILM artists (Sean Connery, who provided the film with its humanity and soul by lending his voice to the animated dragon is conspicuously absent). Highlights include split-screen demonstrations of unfinished sequences compared to the finished shots after the CGI dragon effects were laid in, and an early effects demonstration from 1992 when Jim Henson’s Creature Shop wa!
s commissioned to do the film’s effects (after the breakthrough of 'Jurassic Park', the producers of 'Dragonheart' went instead to Industrial Light and Magic).
I must admit though that while I was hardly stirred by 'Dragonheart' in theaters, the movie does work on home video. And this new special edition laserdisc opened my eyes to just how complex a technical undertaking the film was. While the movie still doesn’t live up to its promise, the insightful making-of materials on this deluxe special edition disc made me realize that I’d taken the special effects in 'Dragonheart' for granted. The Oscar nomination the film earned for Best Visual Effects is highly justified. Though the wizards at Industrial Light and Magic make it look so effortless, this was one of the most technically-challenging films ever made. Hats off to ILM, and to MCA/Universal for making this special edition of a movie that, quite frankly, I didn’t initially feel was deserving of such a deluxe treatment.
Stats: MCA/Universal Home Video; 3 discs, 6 sides; CAV; Anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1); Stereo Surround; Dolby Digital AC-3; THX; Chapter stops; Closed captioned; Audio commentary; $129.98
S. Damien Segal.
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