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Be aware, this is the 4:3, not the Widescreen version!

Easy to buy it by mistake as 99.9% of DVDs are widescreen!

In telling Schindler's story the director chose black and white and the beginning intimates that it might be in the great tradition of 'The Third Man' etc. Unfortunately the film meanders astray into detailed descriptions of the holocaust and the dynamic of the film is lost. Instead of a tense 1 hour 50 minutes of cunning,guile and threat there are literal hours when almost everything is 'spelt out' in many long takes and diversions. The great film techniques of suggestion and inference are little used as almost every action is shown literally and dramatic movement is lost to history lesson. It seems to me important that the dramatic 'backdrop' of any artistic production has to be understood and accepted for the story using that scenario to be successful and not 'told' as the film proceeds. Given the many favourable reviews that this film has received it must be that be that expectations of film have changed and long elaborate explanations and reconstructions are now the required item. If this is the case then it is a change of taste that I cannot share.

This is the first stand up Izzard video/DVD in a series and the only one not available on DVD. Over the years the Eddie stand up releases have got more glitzy and showbizzy but not necessarily funnier. For me the first two - Live at the Ambassadors and Unrepeatable are the best two. They are spontaneous, fun and silly and come over as natural. Many of izzard's classic gag territories are on these first two releases, the shame is perhaps that in more recent releases the material hasnt moved on.

Whilst unrepeatable has the classics on advertising and cats and dogs, live at the ambassadors gives a great glance at early Izzard. It may lack the glitz of circle or sexie, but it is natural, if raw, and funny.

With the new 6 dvd box set of eddie izzard material soon coming out, I think its a great shame that ambassadors wasnt included.

For anyone that has a vhs copy of this, Hold on to it!!

Great stuff

Disney's groundbreaking film "Fantasia", released in 1940, stands today as one of the most incredible films to come out of the studios glittering array of films. It symbolises Walt Disney's pursuit for experimentation in the art form he did so much to create. Disney's dream was to turn Fantasia into a constantly changing film that audiences would return to year on year, much like a live concert, to see different pieces set to music. It never happened... that is until "Fantasia 2000".

In Fantasia 2000, Disney's new generation of animators got their chance to carry on that legacy. It is of course a legacy almost impossible to surmount, but the miracle is that at times they achieve it. Eric Goldberg's animated versions of "Rhapsody in Blue" and Carnival of the Animals", hit the mark perfectly and the Brizzi brothers electrifying adaptation of the Firebird Suite has rightly been referred to as the 'Sistine Chapel' of Disney animation. Other segments, such as "Pines of Rome" and "Pomp and Circumstance" (Fantasia 2000's answer to "The Sorcerers Apprentice") fair less well and the interstitials are more frivolous that the original. However in my view, the short films that succeed are worth the DVD by themselves. It certainly is no surprise to see the original Fantasia standing proud and undiminished, and after seeing it previously on VHS, the DVD transfer reveals details and colours previously never seen. Baring in mind "Fantasia" is one of the few colour films made in the era and the first to experiment with a surround sound score, to see and hear the film in this quality is, I think, stunning.

The bonus disk, "Fantasia Legacy" is a treasure chest of achieve material, viewing galleries, interviews and rare animation footage, one of those rare bonus disks you find yourself actually returning to. Echoing the history of Fantasia, another new Fantasia was going to be made after this, but recent changes at Disney have put all of that on hold. Sadly two completed award-winning short films for this new Fantasia, Mike Gabriel's "Lorenzo and Salvador Dalí's "Destino" have as yet no distribution outside the festival circuit. Perhaps it will be for the next generation of Disney artists to take up the challenge of leaving their mark on Disney's masterpiece. Let hope so. For now, it makes this DVD compilation all the more special.

This video should be compulsory viewing for all parents of teenagers! It might help them to understand their troubled offspring a bit better.It is very funny,and compulsive viewing - watch it again and again.

I especially enjoyed the first two hauntingly beautiful episodes that are set among the "dreaming spires" of Oxford and the dreamy palazzi along the Canal Grande of Venice. Although initially I found the dynamic between Charles and Sebastian (the young Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews respectively) to be the most interesting, by the time I had arrived at the later episodes (and there are thirteen of them), I was wholly captivated by all the characters. I did not want the series to end.

The magic can be attributed to the fine production values--the stunning settings (some of the later scenes were shot in first class aboard the Cunard liner, Queen Elizabeth II) and rich vintage costumes, the evocative trumpets of the musical score, the splendid combination of John Mortimer's script and novelist Evelyn Waugh's actual words, the excellent direction--and the top-drawer actors, not only Irons and Andrews but also Sir John Gielgud, Sir Lawrence Olivier, and Claire Bloom, who are supported by a fine ensemble cast.

"Brideshead Revisited" allows even us viewers trapped in the twenty-first century, to dwell momentarily in a golden Arcadia that is gone forever.

We have a number of Teletubbies videos, and of course watch the occasional new episode on TV, but this is the best I have seen so far and undoubtedly is our young daughter's favourite. There is a delightful video of some young children in the rain and then a cloud comes and makes a big puddle in which all the Teletubbies get wet. This is followed by a computer animation of a parade of animals which always transfixes and delights our daughter. In fact this tape is just one delight after another - fantastic entertainment for tots from beginning to end.

With Pocahontas as an ancestor, I saw this movie in grade school and then followed it up with mountains of reading and research when it first came out. Disney has been well known for their distortion of stories and tale, but that generally doesn't bother me. Beauty and the Beast is my favourite movie of all time even though it differs drastically from the original tale. Disney went too far, however, when they decided to tackle American history and then twist it for their means. A few being, the aging of Pocahontas to make her old enough for romance (she would have been 12 or 13), the supposed love affair with John Smith, and the entire political correctness of the story defile an important part of our history (ie. Jamestown the first permanent English settlement, and the peace that Pocahontas was able to bring between the Powhatan tribe and the Settlers - for a piece). I will not begin to even talk about Pocahontas2's depiction of John Rolfe (her future husband in real life) as a bumbling idiot.

Historic unaccuracy aside though the movie does have its redeeming points.

1) Alan Meneken's score, like always, is phanomenal and stirs the soul. He really delivers with this one.

2) The animation is very good as well. A style slightly different than previous Disney films, the movie is a joy to watch strictly for the animation's sake.

Parents this is an enjoyable movie for both you and your children to watch. I would just suggest that you help them divide the fact from the fiction. It is also great learning tool for opening up a world to them ... encouraging them to go on a search for the truth even as they enjoy the DVD for it's entertainment's sake.