Browse Disney Home Video. Live Action

New Price: $15.00

Inspector Gadget

Actors: Matthew Broderick, Rupert Everett, Joely Fisher, Michelle Trachtenberg, Andy Dick
ASIN : 6305616027
Sales Rank : 61916
Director : David Kellogg
Studio : Walt Disney Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Live, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9786305616023
ISBN : 0788817981
UPC : 717951005113
Release Date : December 07, 1999
Publisher : Walt Disney Video
Manufacturer : Walt Disney Video
Label : Walt Disney Video
Running Time : 78

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Strictly for kids, this 1999 live-action feature version of the popular cartoon series seems long even at 80 minutes. As a video, it's easier to take and appreciate for what works best in the story: the special effects. Matthew Broderick plays the security guard who is physically transformed into a multi-use cyborg with a zillion attachments, from stilts to helicopter blades to skis. A crimefighter in raincoat and fedora, and equipped with a nifty Gadgetmobile, the hero investigates the death of a man linked to the villainous Sanford Scolex (Rupert Everett). Scolex, who blames Gadget for having to wear a prosthetic hand, develops an evil robot twin of the good inspector, causing much mischief and giving Broderick an opportunity to poke fun at his own performance of the virtuous Inspector. The action is shaky, the script plods along, and the effects soon take over; Everett has to go to the extremes of hamminess just to be seen above it. But children of a certain age will almost certainly engage with the more clever stuff and forgive the rest. --Tom Keogh

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Return to Oz

Actors: Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, Matt Clark
ASIN : B00000JMQE
Sales Rank : 67944
Director : Walter Murch
Studio : Starz / Anchor Bay
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0013131082098
UPC : 013131082098
Release Date : December 10, 1999
Publisher : Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer : Starz / Anchor Bay
Label : Starz / Anchor Bay
Running Time : 113

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You don't fool with Mother Nature, spit into the wind, remake Casablanca, or trash the land of Oz. Perhaps that is why the 1985 live-action sequel split critics and audiences alike. The 1939 classic musical is so beloved that it's almost impossible to imagine seeing Dorothy in shock therapy, a crumbled yellow brick road, the ruins of Emerald City, and the Tin Man turned into stone. But L. Frank Baum, the author of the original Oz books, portrayed just that with his continuing stories of Dorothy. When you get by these tough facts, the film version is solid entertainment for the over-7 set.

Dorothy (a 10-year-old Fairuza Balk in her debut) is back in Kansas, where Aunt Em (Piper Laurie) is at the end of her rope: her niece is not sleeping and going on about a place called Oz. Therapy may be the answer, but luckily the scary clinic goes dark before Dorothy can be, er, cured (but the lead-up will scare the munchkins out of most kids). She wakes up in the land of Oz, now in tatters, and searches for its king, the Scarecrow. A new set of friends, including a tin soldier, a talking chicken, and a pumpkin man, help her against new villains, including Princess Mombi (Jean Marsh)--complete with a set of detachable heads--and the evil Nome King (Nicol Williamson with a great assist from Will Vinton's Claymation). The sole directorial effort of Oscar-winning editor Walter Murch is stuffed with marvelous effects that foreshadow later works by Tim Burton and the Henson non-Muppet films. --Doug Thomas

New Price: $15.00

102 Dalmatians (Widescreen Edition)

Actors: Glenn Close, Gérard Depardieu, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Evans, Tim McInnerny
ASIN : B00003CXQ7
Sales Rank : 43202
Director : Kevin Lima
Brand : Disney
Studio : Walt Disney Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780788828980
ISBN : 0788828983
UPC : 786936155099
Release Date : December 03, 2001
Publisher : Walt Disney Video
Manufacturer : Walt Disney Video
Label : Walt Disney Video
Running Time : 100

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Don't be fooled by the title. Rather than 102, there are 4 reasons to like this sequel to the successful live-action remake of Disney's animated classic. There are the 101 spotted pooches, Glenn Close back in fine form as Cruella De Vil, Oddball--the spotless dalmation pup--and Waddlesworth, a parrot who thinks he's a rottweiler (and is voiced by Monty Python's Eric Idle). There are just as many reasons to be disappointed. Like most sequels, the story line is virtually a rewrite of the first, the secondary casting isn't as interesting, the dialogue merely serves to move the plot along, and the third act substitutes mean-spiritedness for comedy. After a period of rehabilitation, Cruella has returned to her old tricks. Once again, she simply must have a spotted coat and will go to any lengths to get ahold of the 102 dalmatians needed to make one with a hood. She sets her sights on the pups owned by her probation officer, Chloe (Alice Evans), and the owner of a local animal shelter, Kevin (Ioan Gruffudd of Horatio Hornblower). Her servant, Alonso (Tim McInnerny), and flamboyant furrier Monsieur Le Pelt (Gerard Depardieu, in one ridiculous outfit after another) are drafted to aid in her quest. It should come as no surprise that Chloe and Kevin fall in love, Oddball helps to save the day, and Cruella is defeated. Children should enjoy the animal high jinks, but adults are less likely to be enamored by this perfectly competent, but relatively charmless affair. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

New Price: $39.98

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Actors: Jason Robards, Jonathan Pryce, Diane Ladd, Royal Dano, Vidal Peterson
ASIN : B00000K3CC
Sales Rank : 73495
Director : Jack Clayton
Studio : Starz / Anchor Bay
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0013131089196
UPC : 013131089196
Release Date : December 21, 1999
Publisher : Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer : Starz / Anchor Bay
Label : Starz / Anchor Bay
Running Time : 95

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Ray Bradbury adapted his own novel for Something Wicked This Way Comes, Jack Clayton's beautiful rendering of the turn-of-the-century fantasy of a mysterious carnival that literally blows into a small town to taunt and tempt the inhabitants. Jonathan Pryce (Brazil), the handsome but demonic proprietor of Dark's Pandemonium Carnival, preys upon the vanities, the delusions, and the regrets of the townspeople by granting their wishes at the expense of their souls. Jason Robards, as the meek librarian Charles Halloway, becomes his unlikely nemesis when his son Will, with his best friend Jim Nightshade (a deliciously dark name in its own right), discovers the secret of Dark's nightmarish carnival. When they become hunted by Dark's minions (including Pam Grier as the beautiful and mysterious Dust Witch), Halloway must confront his own fears and regrets to save the boys. Clayton captures the idyll of childhood in the fall with rich autumnal colors, his camera gliding along with the energetic boys as they tear through field and forests. The climax, however, gets lost in a cacophony of competing special effects, imaginatively visualized but never very terrifying, as if producer Disney resisted the uneasy undercurrent of the story. It's more dark fantasy than horror, a nightmarish adventure filtered through the memory of a man remembering his childhood in mythic terms. --Sean Axmaker

New Price: $22.95

Candleshoe

Actors: Helen Hayes, Jodie Foster, David Niven, Leo McKern, Veronica Quilligan
ASIN : B00000K3CD
Sales Rank : 90739
Director : Norman Tokar
Studio : Starz / Anchor Bay
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0013131089493
UPC : 013131089493
Release Date : December 14, 1999
Publisher : Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer : Starz / Anchor Bay
Label : Starz / Anchor Bay
Running Time : 101

New Price: $36.95

The Happiest Millionaire: Road Show Edition

Actors: Fred MacMurray, Tommy Steele, Greer Garson, Geraldine Page, Gladys Cooper
ASIN : 6305512116
Sales Rank : 57502
Director : Norman Tokar
Studio : Starz / Anchor Bay
Region Code : 0
Format : Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9786305512110
ISBN : 6305512116
UPC : 013131082791
Release Date : December 20, 1999
Publisher : Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer : Starz / Anchor Bay
Label : Starz / Anchor Bay
Running Time : 141

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Reportedly the last feature to be personally shepherded by Walt Disney himself, The Happiest Millionaire is a stubbornly old-fashioned musical intended to build on the success of Mary Poppins, relying on songs and score from Richard M. and Robert B. Sherman, the studio's resident songwriting team responsible for the hits of Poppins. Despite that pedigree, and a cast headlined by Fred MacMurray, Greer Garson, Tommy Steele, Geraldine Page, and, in their screen debuts, Lesley Anne Warren and John Davidson, the would-be successor wound up a white elephant.

Released in 1967, a watershed year for youth culture and social upheaval, The Happiest Millionaire romanticizes Philadelphia's upper crust circa 1916. Its title character, Anthony J. Drexel Biddle (MacMurray), is a militant industrialist urging America's mobilization against Germany, and noteworthy for an eccentric lifestyle that includes his own bible study classes, martial arts training, and (in a lone nod toward any remotely modern social values) a readiness to empower his lovely, headstrong daughter, Cordelia (Warren).

Under Norman Tokar's busy but routine direction, the project does muster moments of charm, and packs its story line with enough twists to partly explain its excessive 144-minute length. But the unintended irony of paeans to capitalism and conservative politics in an era of Sgt. Pepper isn't masked by the Shermans' music, which is eminently forgettable, despite the game mugging of Tommy Steele as an immigrant Irish butler. Equally game is MacMurray, but as a singer, he's no Rex Harrison.

Viewers hungry for a family musical with bright production values may be more forgiving. For the film's most ardent fans, Anchor Bay has also released an even longer, widescreen "Road Show" edition of the first-run theatrical version, clocking in at 164 minutes. --Sam Sutherland

New Price: $144.99

Condorman

Actors: Michael Crawford, Oliver Reed, Barbara Carrera, James Hampton, Jean-Pierre Kalfon
ASIN : B00000IQB6
Sales Rank : 58667
Director : Charles Jarrott
Studio : Starz / Anchor Bay
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0013131082395
UPC : 013131082395
Release Date : December 18, 1999
Publisher : Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer : Starz / Anchor Bay
Label : Starz / Anchor Bay
Running Time : 90

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A pre-Phantom Michael Crawford plays Woody, a goofy cartoonist-accidentally-turned-spy in this Cold War-era lark. In Paris visiting his friend, a CIA "file clerk," Woody is sent on a cloak-and-dagger errand and is mistaken for an operative by his beautiful Russian counterpart. She then contacts the agency with the demand that he, and only he, help her defect. Writer adopts comic book persona and voilà: Condorman! This wide-winged hero thwarts the pesky Soviets at every turn. From the old run-down farmer's truck he's driving emerges a flashy race car that outruns a fleet of Russian vehicles. Later, in a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang moment, the car sprouts floaters, allowing the pair to escape their pursuers by sea. Barbara Carrera's Natalia--the true spy of the two--is really just along for the ride. It's Condorman's show, as confirmed by the ending: a shot-filled showdown off the shores of Monte Carlo.--Kimberly Heinrichs

New Price: $197.88

One Magic Christmas

Actors: Mary Steenburgen, Gary Basaraba, Harry Dean Stanton, Arthur Hill, Elisabeth Harnois
ASIN : 6305537372
Sales Rank : 79130
Director : Phillip Borsos
Studio : Starz / Anchor Bay
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9786305537373
ISBN : 6305537372
UPC : 013131092899
Release Date : December 31, 1999
Publisher : Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer : Starz / Anchor Bay
Label : Starz / Anchor Bay
Running Time : 88

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Grab an econo-pack of tissues, gather your loved ones around a cozy television, and bring on the hot cocoa--it's time for a dose of Christmas spirit. The tender and charming Mary Steenburgen (Parenthood) dons a sour disposition in her role as Ginny Grainger, a woman who finds little joy in life lately--let alone in the impending holiday season. Money is tight, her husband (beautifully downplayed by nice-guy Gary Basaraba) lost his job, and the family must move out of their house. Ginny cannot even bring herself to say, "Merry Christmas," despite her family's enthusiasm about the big day. With help from Ginny's brave and loving daughter (sweetly performed by Elisabeth Harnois) and a Christmas angel named Gideon (Harry Dean Stanton), Ginny undergoes a life-altering experience à la It's a Wonderful Life. The result? Happy endings, hugs and kisses, pass the tissues.

Not a light holiday entertainer by any means, the plot verges on depressing at times, as the family struggles through money issues and the tedium of daily suburban survival. While handled fairly subtly, some of the bridging story--including a shooting, a kidnapping, and a drowning--might prove disturbing to children under 6 years old. And really: if the somber Harry Dean Stanton (Paris, Texas) repeatedly appeared in your neighborhood, cloaked in a cowboy hat and overcoat, would you allow your kids outside? Still, a well-made favorite to cherish. --Liane Thomas

New Price: $94.95

The Castaway Cowboy

Actors: James Garner, Vera Miles, Robert Culp, Eric Shea, Elizabeth Smith
ASIN : 6305808023
Sales Rank : 90425
Director : Vincent McEveety
Studio : Starz / Anchor Bay
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9786305808022
ISBN : 6305808023
UPC : 013131109696
Release Date : December 25, 2000
Publisher : Starz / Anchor Bay
Manufacturer : Starz / Anchor Bay
Label : Starz / Anchor Bay
Running Time : 91

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Texas cowpoke Lincoln Costain (James Garner) washes ashore on the Hawaiian island of Kauai and helps the widowed owner of a potato plantation (Vera Miles) turn her ailing farm into a thriving cattle ranch, despite the machinations of a sneaky local merchant (Robert Culp). The Castaway Cowboy has all the qualities of Disney's other live-action movies from the 1970s: a clear, straightforward story; serviceable, unfussy acting; a dose of ethnic stereotypes (in this case, the simple, happy-go-lucky islanders); a mixture of sentiment, slapstick, and modest adventure; and a cute, spunky kid, for whom the hero becomes a substitute parent. Garner's easy charm makes the proceedings pleasant enough, though the cultural chauvinism doesn't date well. --Bret Fetzer

Browse Live Action Online

Inspector Gadget

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Return to Oz

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102 Dalmatians (Widescreen Edition)

Product Description

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Something Wicked This Way Comes

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Candleshoe

The Happiest Millionaire: Road Show Edition

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Condorman

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One Magic Christmas

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The Castaway Cowboy

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The Legend of Lobo