[.ca] Licence to Kill (Widescreen) (ISBN 6302745276)

Generally sharp DVD:
The DVD is free of blemishes and is quite colorful; however, some images are pale, no doubt due to the aging of the original materials. This is especially apparent in composite shots where the models look bright but the backgrounds don't. Probably the best this film is going to look.

We have failed master, we have failed.:
I grew up and loved the musical version of this film as shown on the disney channel. I was disappointed to learn that only the dry and humorless version has been released on dvd. The masters at GoodTimes DVD made a crippling mistake and failed miserably by not making this version the musical version. This version of the movie is not worth the mere $4.95 that it costs here. The layer that the music adds is priceless...I watched the musical version of the movie with my girlfriend, and it was like falling in love all over again. You don't get that feeling from the original version. I'm planning on doing my own transfer of the musical version from VHS to DVD (for personal uses only, sorry guys, you're just going to have to wait until they come out with the musical version. I bet you're jealous.) I'm also going to add a special feature that will allow me to loop the songs over and over again, and I'll be singing "a spectacle" until the wee hours of the morning. Non-musical version=1 star. Musical-version=5 stars.

The non-musical version is godawful:
I am a huge fan of the musical version of this film. It is so deliciously bad that it completely won me over... I found it completely captivating--I was horror-struck and yet completely fascinated by the songs--a curious concoction of faux-opera (think "kill the wabbit")--interspersed with the cornball melodrama. I have no idea why the musical version has fallen into disrepute... the humorless non-musical version will bore you to tears--it is no fun at all. Until they release the MOST EXCELLENT musical version of this film, do not buy this!

Sadly this is not the horrifically wonderful Musical version:
The obviously over-dubbed musical numbers which elevate this film into a comedy classic are sadly missing from this DVD version. The insipid acting, asinine dialogue, goofy clay monsters, even the appearence of a chipanzee. All this hilarious comic potential seems wasted without the "positive" and "inspirational" musical numbers. I mean come on people, "We have failed master, we have failed" it's a freaking classic! Wake up! Looks like it's back to that worn VHS copy of the musical version I taped off T.V. (musical version = five stars)

Poor Man's Harryhausen Film:
I don't mean to berate the great Jim Danforth, but this is an extremely low budget rip-off of The 7TH Voyage of Sinbad. The legend is that producer Edward Small turned down Harryhausen's pitch for 7th Voyage. Ray went to Columbia, and the finished product was a huge hit, making 12 mill in America alone in 1958!! Small probably kicked himself a few times, and decided to make an exact duplicate of the film at MGM. He hired the same director (Nathan Juran) and same stars (Kerwin Mathews and Torin Thatcher).Unfortunately, the animation models were not of the quality of Sinbad, and the stop motion is rushed (Small had a very tight budget. The result is a fun film for kids, but fantasy film fanatics do not regard this as a classic. Jack (Mathews) must rescue a possessed Princess from an evil sorcerer who wants to take over the Kingdom. Columbia actually sued Small for ripping off Sinbad, and the film remained in limbo for many years. In the late 80's, MGM turned the movie into a musical!!!!!! They dubbed over dialogue and made it look like the characters are singing! This version was shown on the Disney channel for a few years, and it is a sight to behold. In the mid ninties, MGM restored the film for a VHS release, and now the "widescreen" DVD. There is some controversy regarding the films original aspect ratio (see stopmotionanimation.com). Kids will enjoy, but stop motion fans regard this film as a footnote in history.