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| WALT DISNEY TREASURES - DR. SYN: THE SCARECROW OF ROMNEY MARSH |
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| Actors: Patrick McGoohan, George Cole, Tony Britton, Michael Hordern, Geoffrey Keen, Kay Walsh |
| Creator: James Neilson |
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Studio: Walt Disney Video |
| DVD release: 11 November 2008 |
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Runtime: 287 min.
(2 discs) |
| Format: Color, DVD-Video, Limited Edition, Restored, NTSC |
| Features: Audio tracks (English - Restored Mono, Dolby Digital 5.1), Subtitles (English for the Hearing Impaired), 3 original Wonderful World of Disney mini-series episodes, Theatrical film version (British release), "Dr. Syn: The History of the Legend," "Walt Disney: From Burbank To London," Walt Disney TV introductions in widescreen |
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Dr. Syn: The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. Ah, I remember watching an episode of this series as a kid, looking for it later on DVD and coming up short. Now it's been released as part of Disney's eighth wave of "Walt Disney Treasures," and it was worth the wait. Weighing in at almost five hours of content, we have the three original episodes plus the feature-length film that was created from those episodes.
Leonard Maltin introduces the series by explaining some of the backstory of this character. Drawing from the original books and another feature-length film for a competing studio, he explains the history of how it became the Disney classic it is today. Additionally, he goes into great detail about the restoration and presentation of this series. I found his introduction to be informative and was surprised to learn that Disney shot this film and the original television introduction in widescreen. While the television broadcast and a later VHS release were both in the full-frame format, this is the first time it was been released for widescreen viewing.
Special features include the original introduction by Walt Disney (in both full-frame and widescreen for comparison), the feature-length release named "Dr. Syn alias The Scarecrow," and two additional documentaries. One is a detailed history of the character and a review of the different mediums he has appeared in. The other documentary, a quite interesting one, explains the situation the Walt Disney company found itself in following World War II and offers some insight into the creation of this film and a few others while much of the studio's money was frozen in England after the war.
But what we're after here are the original episodes themselves. This series premiered on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color in 1964, starring Patrick McGoohan in the title role of Dr. Syn. By day he is a well-respected man of the cloth serving his community; at night, he assumes the identity of a smuggler nicknamed "The Scarecrow." He and his band of followers smuggle goods and disperse the profits to help the locals with their financial burdens. These three interlocking adventures involve a complication with some government officials tasked with tearing apart the smuggling ring, dealing with a potential traitor in their midst, and ending with a jailbreak to rescue a friend in need.
The story they tell is intriguing and had no problem keeping my interest. It's a wonderful series to add to your collection, and if you enjoyed Disney's live-action Treasure Island , you'll have a great time watching this with your family.
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