The Fantasticks
by Michael Ritchie
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DVD details
Actor: Barnard Hughes, Jean Louisa Kelly, Joel Grey, Joey McIntyre, Jonathon MorrisDirector: Michael Ritchie
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 87 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-02-27
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of The Fantasticks
DVD Review: Francis Ford Coppola hack job
Summary: 3 Stars
Unlike some of the reviewers, I actually like Jonathon Morris' interpretation of El Gallo. I do wish we could get a director's cut, with the musical score intact -- cutting the opening "Try to Remember" was an unforgivable blunder. The scenes with the cop added something. Joel Grey was good, but I do wish they had found two father actors who could carry a tune.DVD Review: If You Liked the Play
Summary: 5 Stars
If you liked the play, you would like the movie production of it where there is time to savor details that otherwise can fly by quickly on stage. The extras on the DVD, that includes a commentary, provide additional enjoyment for follow-up. Recommended reading: other comments on the play available on internet websites, including Amazon.DVD Review: A cottom candy romance of a musical
Summary: 4 Stars
This film seems to have never found an audience.
I think it may have been the casting of Jean Louisa Kelly
in the lead role. Although she is beautiful and talented,
that is an acquired taste by those who know her work.
The almost too slick stagging would have learned something from
the musical "Oklahoma" in depicting the Midwestern American community.
The carnival never has an carnival "feel" to it
that it should have had like in "State Fair".
In this case failure may not have been a learning experience?
DVD Review: Shockingly Bad
Summary: 1 Stars
There was a reason why this film played in theaters for about 5 minutes, people stayed away in record numbers!! Goes into the "What Were They Thinking?" file. Terribly done, a misguided mess that ruins the score and plot,is totally void of charm. The performances are mediocre , at best. Transposing The Fantastiks to a realistic setting was a huge mistake and robs the audience of it's imagination, which is the key to The Fantastiks success. Should have been filmed on a black soundstage, much in the same way as the stage production. Stay away from this, go see a local community theater production instead, you'll enjoy it far more.DVD Review: An interesting take...
Summary: 4 Stars
The Fantasticks is a delightful show, full of metaphor. If you don't like metaphor, don't bother. If you do, this is a must for your collection. The two fathers make the show for me, so bumbling, but so in love with their children they'd do whatever it takes to make it work. Joel Gray is superb. And at this point in my life, "Try to Remember" always brings a tear...
Description of The Fantasticks
Set in America's heartland, this timeless musical tells the story of two young teens who find true love with the help of their fathers, a traveling carnival road show... and, of course, a little magic. This 1995 film was directed by Michael Ritchie and stars Joel Grey, Barnard Hughes, Jean Louisa Kelly, and Joe McIntyre. Based on the long-running off-off-Broadway musical by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt.Having opened off-Broadway in 1960 and still going strong, The Fantasticks would seem a natural for the movies. Or would it? The musical's charm hangs on a particular kind of intimate magic incubated exclusively in live theater. This didn't stop the chiefs of rudderless United Artists from bankrolling a film version in 1995, closely scripted from the play by original authors Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt. With the movie finished, the studio deduced there was no mass audience for the old-fashioned, stage-struck musical, and promptly set it on the shelf for five years.
A slimmer version of the film was briefly released to theaters in 2000, after being cut by Francis Coppola (with the approval of director Michael Ritchie). The cutting, sometimes within songs, seems capricious--if the movie was destined to be a flop either way, why not let it play out at full length? All of this ought to set off alarm bells... and yet, it turns out there's a bit of theatrical pixie dust left in the old thing after all. Ritchie and topnotch cinematographer Fred Murphy shoot many of the songs beautifully, setting them in the film's postcard-Midwest magic hour (best seen on the widescreen DVD). The genial tone, though admittedly precious, makes for a pleasant ride. It's a movie preadolescent girls can watch with their grandmothers without embarrassment on either side. Playing the archetypal boy and girl are former New Kid on the Block Joe McIntyre and Mr. Holland's Opus songbird Jean Louisa Kelly; he fits the part of an amiable doofus very well, while Kelly has the breathless dreaminess of youth and an intriguing undercurrent of restlessness. Their feuding fathers are the able Joel Grey and Brad Sullivan, and Jonathan Morris looks every inch the carnival maestro who gives these simple folk a glimpse at their dreams. Curiously, the show's signature song ("Try to Remember") is given only an abbreviated airing at the end. And how dare they cut "Plant a Radish"? --Robert Horton
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