Musicals & Performing Arts Videos
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Fantasia (Walt Disney's Masterpiece)
List Price: $24.99 Now Only: $6.24 You Save: $ 18.75 (75%)
Category: VHS Movies
 Publisher: Walt Disney Home Video Starring: Leopold Stokowski, Deems Taylor, James MacDonald (II), Walt Disney, Julietta Novis Directed By: Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, Ford Beebe Prices subject to change. Please verify pricing during checkout. |
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Groundbreaking on several counts, not the least of which was an innovative use of animation and stereophonic sound, this ambitious Disney feature has lost nothing to time since its release in 1940. Classical music was interpreted by Disney animators, resulting in surreal fantasy and playful escapism. Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra provided the music for eight segments by the composers Tchaikovsky, Moussorgsky, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Ponchielli, Bach, Dukas, and Schubert. Not all the sequences were created equally, but a few are simply glorious, such as "Night on Bald Mountain," "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," and "The Nutcracker Suite." The animation ranges from subtly delicate to fiercely bold. |
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Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas
List Price: $14.99 Now Only: $4.99 You Save: $ 10.00 (67%)
Category: VHS Movies
Publisher: Walt Disney Video/Touchstone Home Video Starring: Danny Elfman, Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Glenn Shadix Directed By: Henry Selick Prices subject to change. Please verify pricing during checkout. |
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For those who never thought Disney would release a film in which Santa Claus is kidnapped and tortured, well, here it is! The full title is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, which should give you an idea of the tone of this stop-action animated musical/fantasy/horror/comedy. It is based on characters created by Burton, the former Disney animator best known as the director of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and the first two Batman movies. His benignly scary-funny sensibility dominates the story of Halloweentown resident Jack Skellington (voice by Danny Elfman, who also wrote the songs), who stumbles on a bizarre and fascinating alternative universe called ... Christmastown! Directed by Henry Selick (who later made the delightful James and the Giant Peach), this PG-rated picture has a reassuringly light touch. As Roger Ebert noted in his review, "some of the Halloween creatures might be a tad scary for smaller children, but this is the kind of movie older kids will eat up; it has the kind of offbeat, subversive energy that tells them wonderful things are likely to happen." --Jim Emerson. |
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The Little Mermaid (A Walt Disney Classic)
Price: $8.98
Category: VHS Movies
Publisher: Walt Disney Home Video Starring: Rene Auberjonois, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Paddi Edwards Directed By: Ron Clements, John Musker Prices subject to change. Please verify pricing during checkout. |
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For those who never thought Disney would release a film in which Santa Claus is kidnapped and tortured, well, here it is! The full title is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, which should give you an idea of the tone of this stop-action animated musical/fantasy/horror/comedy. It is based on characters created by Burton, the former Disney animator best known as the director of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and the first two Batman movies. His benignly scary-funny sensibility dominates the story of Halloweentown resident Jack Skellington (voice by Danny Elfman, who also wrote the songs), who stumbles on a bizarre and fascinating alternative universe called ... Christmastown! Directed by Henry Selick (who later made the delightful James and the Giant Peach), this PG-rated picture has a reassuringly light touch. As Roger Ebert noted in his review, "some of the Halloween creatures might be a tad scary for smaller children, but this is the kind of movie older kids will eat up; it has the kind of offbeat, subversive energy that tells them wonderful things are likely to happen." --Jim Emerson. |
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Beauty and the Beast (Disney Special Edition)
List Price: $24.99 Now Only: $10.00 You Save: $ 14.99 (60%)
Category: VHS Movies
Publisher: Walt Disney Home Video Starring: Paige O'Hara, Robby Benson, Richard White, Jerry Orbach, David Ogden Stiers Directed By: Kirk Wise, Gary Trousdale Prices subject to change. Please verify pricing during checkout. |
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Special Edition. Featuring an all new Musical Sequence. The film that officially signaled Disney's animation renaissance (following The Little Mermaid) and the only animated feature to receive a Best Picture Oscar nomination, Beauty and the Beast remains the yardstick by which all other animated films should be measured. It relates the story of Belle, a bookworm with a dotty inventor for a father; when he inadvertently offends the Beast (a prince whose heart is too hard to love anyone besides himself), Belle boldly takes her father's place, imprisoned in the Beast's gloomy mansion. Naturally, Belle teaches the Beast to love. What makes this such a dazzler, besides the amazingly accomplished animation and the winning coterie of supporting characters (the Beast's mansion is overrun by quipping, dancing household items) is the array of beautiful and hilarious songs by composer Alan Menken and the late, lamented lyricist Howard Ashman. |
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Mary Poppins
List Price: $26.99 Now Only: $8.39 You Save: $ 18.60 (69%)
Category: VHS Movies
Publisher: Walt Disney Home Video Starring: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns, Hermione Baddeley Directed By: Robert Stevenson Prices subject to change. Please verify pricing during checkout. |
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There is only one word that comes close to accurately describing the enchanting Mary Poppins, and that term was coined by the movie itself: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even at 2 hours and 20 minutes, Disney's pioneering mixture of live action and animation (based on the books by P.L. Travers) still holds kids spellbound. Julie Andrews won an Oscar as the world's most magically idealized nanny ("practically perfect in every way," and complete with lighter-than-air umbrella), and Dick Van Dyke is her clownishly charming beau, Bert the chimney sweep. The songs are also terrific, ranging from bright and cheery ("A Spoonful of Sugar") to dark and cheery (the Oscar-winning "Chim Chim Cher-ee") to touchingly melancholy ("Feed the Birds"). |
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The Pirates of Penzance
Price: $110.00
Category: VHS Movies
Publisher: MCA Universal Starring: Kevin Kline, Angela Lansbury, Linda Ronstadt, George Rose, Rex Smith Directed By: Wilford Leach Prices subject to change. Please verify pricing during checkout. |
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When New York theatrical producer Joseph Papp decided to bring Gilbert and Sullivan to Broadway, he added typically broad, bold strokes to make their singular operetta format meaningful to 1980s audiences. In The Pirates of Penzance, Papp had a story that offered a mixture of potential action and comedy that was less arcane than other G&S chestnuts, which Papp's production underlined by playing up its antic conflict between its hapless, titular pirates and the citizens of Penzance, the Cornish town targeted for plunder. Adding to the new production's mainstream allure was the theatrical debut for erstwhile country-rock siren Linda Ronstadt as the virginal Mabel, along with a plum role for another putative pop heartthrob, Rex Smith, as the "good" pirate, Frederic. Naturally, such amendments piqued complaints from self-appointed G&S purists, for whom the duo's original satirical edge and theatrical innovation were obscured (if not ossified) by their canon's patina of respectability. |
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Moonwalker
Price: $50.00
Category: VHS Movies
Publisher: Sony Starring: Michael Jackson, Dion Basco, Kimberly Duncan, Maurissa Tancharoen, Dove Dellos Directed By: Jerry Kramer (II), Jim Blashfield, Colin Chilvers Prices subject to change. Please verify pricing during checkout. |
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When New York theatrical producer Joseph Papp decided to bring Gilbert and Sullivan to Broadway, he added typically broad, bold strokes to make their singular operetta format meaningful to 1980s audiences. In The Pirates of Penzance, Papp had a story that offered a mixture of potential action and comedy that was less arcane than other G&S chestnuts, which Papp's production underlined by playing up its antic conflict between its hapless, titular pirates and the citizens of Penzance, the Cornish town targeted for plunder. Adding to the new production's mainstream allure was the theatrical debut for erstwhile country-rock siren Linda Ronstadt as the virginal Mabel, along with a plum role for another putative pop heartthrob, Rex Smith, as the "good" pirate, Frederic. Naturally, such amendments piqued complaints from self-appointed G&S purists, for whom the duo's original satirical edge and theatrical innovation were obscured (if not ossified) by their canon's patina of respectability. |
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The Jungle Book
List Price: $26.99 Now Only: $3.19 You Save: $ 23.80 (88%)
Category: VHS Movies
Publisher: Walt Disney Video Starring: Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima, George Sanders, Sterling Holloway Directed By: Wolfgang Reitherman Prices subject to change. Please verify pricing during checkout. |
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Disney's 1967 animated feature seems even more entertaining now than it did upon first release, with a hall-of-fame vocal performance by Phil Harris as Baloo, the genial bear friend of feral child Mowgli. Based on fiction by Rudyard Kipling, the film goes its own way as Disney animation will, but the strong characters and smart casting (George Sanders as the villainous tiger, Shere Khan) make it one of the studio's stronger feature-length cartoons. Songs include "The Bare Necessities" and "Trust in Me." --Tom Keogh. |
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Yentl
Price: $66.93
Category: VHS Movies
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD) Starring: Robbie Barnett, Lynda Baron, Danny Brainin, Renata Buser, Allan Corduner Prices subject to change. Please verify pricing during checkout. |
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Barbra Streisand made her directorial debut with this 1983 adaptation of the Isaac Bashevis Singer story about a young Eastern European woman (Streisand) who disguises herself as a male at the turn of the century in order to get an education. Except for an excessive musical score with too many songs and Streisand's tiresome tendency to play characters who suppress their beauty, the film is crisp and engaging, and the gender-bending love story complications are fun, if gimmicky. Streisand gives a smart, vulnerable performance and gets fresh work from costars Mandy Patinkin and Amy Irving. --Tom Keogh. |
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The Wizard of Oz
Price: $8.94
Category: VHS Movies
Publisher: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Starring: Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley Directed By: Victor Fleming, Mervyn LeRoy, Richard Thorpe Prices subject to change. Please verify pricing during checkout. |
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When it was released during Hollywood's golden year of 1939, The Wizard of Oz didn't start out as the perennial classic it has since become. The film did respectable business, but it wasn't until its debut on television that this family favorite saw its popularity soar. And while Oz's TV broadcasts are now controlled by media mogul Ted Turner (who owns the rights), the advent of home video has made this lively musical a mainstay in the staple diet of great American films. Young Dorothy Gale (Judy Garland), her dog, Toto, and her three companions on the yellow brick road to Oz--the Tin Man (Jack Haley), the Cowardly Lion (Bert Lahr), and the Scarecrow (Ray Bolger)--have become pop-culture icons and central figures in the legacy of fantasy for children. |
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