Easter Parade Blu-ray Judy Garland

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Irving Berlin's Easter Parade" )

directed by Charles Walters
USA 1948

After "For Me and My Gal" Gene Kelly was going to be paired again with Judy Garland, but broke his ankle, so they sent for Fred Astaire instead. The only time he starred with her turned out to be the most successful of his post-Ginger Rogers musicals. He plays one half of a top Broadway dance team whose polished partner (Ann Miller) goes off to strike it alone. He finds an untried unknown (Garland) and grooms her Svengali-style to fill the same shoes. Romance and jealousies inevitably ensue.

The slight plot is laced with generous dollops of vintage Irving Berlin songs, several of them staged with dazzling ingenuity, such as Fred's brilliant solo "Drum Crazy", his "Stepping Out With My Baby" with its accomplished slow-motion effects, and the show-stopping comedy duet with Judy, "A Couple of Swells", which they play in tramp makeup.

Ann Miller's lightning tap-dancing is also magnificently showcased in her solo "Shakin' the Blues Away" and she effectively partners Astaire in "It Only Happens When I Dance With You". But Garland, although a lesser dancer, eclipses her in sheer star power, and overcomes the age difference with Astaire.

Excerpt from BBC Reviews located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: June 30, 1948 (New York City, New York)

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

Comparison:

Warner (Special Edition) - Region 2 - PAL vs. Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition) - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC vs. Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Big thanks to Henrik Sylow and Gregory Meshman for the DVD Screen Caps!

1) Warner (Special Edition) - Region 2 - PAL - LEFT

2) Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition) - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC - MIDDLE

3) Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray RIGHT

Box Covers
	The Classic Musicals Collection - Broadway to Hollywood ( Easter Parade Two Disc Special Edition / The Band Wagon Two Disc Special Edition / Bells Are Ringing / Finian's Rainbow / Brigadoon )
Distribution	Warner Region 2,5 - PAL	Warner Region 1 - NTSC	Warner Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:39:04 (4% PAL speedup)	1:43:08	1:43:21.236
Video	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.96 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.91 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	Aspect ratio 1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 33,894,219,972 bytes Feature: 26,399,772,672 bytes Video Bitrate: 29.93 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: Warner (Special Edition)
Bitrate: Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Bitrate: Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Audio	1.0 Dolby Digital Mono English	1.0 Dolby Digital Mono English and French DUB	DTS-HD Master Audio English 1049 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1049 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit) Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB Dolby Digital Audio German 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB Dolby Digital Audio Portuguese 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps / DN -4dB
Subtitles	English, German Portuguese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, Greek, Turkish and more	English, French, Spanish, None	English, French, German Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, and none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Warner Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Audio commentary by Ava Astaire McKenzie and John Fricke • Garland Trailer Gallery • Easter Parade: On the Avenue (34:23) • Mr. Monotony Outtake (20:25) DVD Release Date: April 26, 2005 Keep Case Chapters 30	Release Information: Studio: Warner Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen - 1.33:1 Edition Details: • Audio commentary by Ava Astaire McKenzie and John Fricke • Garland Trailer Gallery • Easter Parade: On the Avenue (34:20) • Mr. Monotony Outtake (21:16) • American Masters: Judy Garland - By Myself (1:56:04) • Radio Promo (4:25) • 3/11/1951 Screen Guild Playhouse Broadcast (53:57) DVD Release Date: March 15, 2005 Keep Case Chapters 30	Release Information: Studio: Warner Aspect ratio 1.33:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 33,894,219,972 bytes Feature: 26,399,772,672 bytes Video Bitrate: 29.93 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • Audio commentary by Ava Astaire McKenzie and John Fricke • Easter Parade: On the Avenue (34:25) • Mr. Monotony Outtake (3:09) • Mr. Monotony Dailies (18:11) • Radio Promo (4:24) • 3/11/1951 Screen Guild Playhouse Broadcast (54:00) • Theatrical trailer (1:59) Blu-ray Release Date: February 19th, 2013 Standard Blu-ray Case Chapters 30

Comments

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were ripped directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray (February 2013): The image on the SD versions were quite strong and hence the improvement is more subtle on the 1080P transfer - but it is still there. Colors are richer and tighten, skin tones warm a semi-tone, it has notable textures and there is more information in the frame (on all 4 sides). The larger that this is projected, the more apparent the superiority of the Blu-ray will be. I think it looks marvelous and the dual-layered rending gave me a grand presentation.

For some the lossless audio upgrade may establish a larger improvement. We get a DTS-HD Master in original mono at 1049 kbps. Irving Berlin's soundtrack from "Drum Crazy" to "Steppin' Out with My Baby" still sounds authentically flat but crisper with a perception of some power-packed depth. This Blu-ray may be worth it for the musical numbers alone sounding better than every before. There are optional DUBs and subtitles and the Warner Blu-ray disc is region FREE - playable world-wide.

Unfortunately we lose the magnificent Garland documentary although the commentary and other extras on the 2-disc are still here. Perhaps the right to it ran out. Regardless, this is a brilliant music looking and, especially, sounding better than ever before. Fans of the film won't want to pass this up. Absolutely recommended!

***

ON THE DVDs: The UK DVD is a Region 2 PAL edition. Looking at the bitrate and bitrate graph, it is basically an exact copy of the NTSC, but there are minor differences.

Where the R1 edition is slightly sharper in details, it’s also more grainy, and when zooming into 200%, there are clusters of pixels around images, not present in the Danish edition, which is softer in tone. The R1 edition has a better colour definition than the Danish. If you look at the bottom down pin on Astaire in Image #3, the R1 pin is golden, but almost silver in the Danish edition. Considering all pros and cons, due to the more even image, I prefer the Danish.

Henrik Sylow -

NOTE: Regarding Garland documentary - it's not just the PAL edition that is missing this extra. In fact, both Canadian and U.K. edition are also without this excellent documentary. I think it has to do with licensing it from PBS to include in non-U.S. editions, since Warner doesn't own it. (Thanks Gregory)

DVD Menus

(Warner (Special Edition) - Region 2,5 - PAL - LEFT vs. Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition) - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC - RIGHT)

Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

Subtitle Sample - Blu-ray version

1) Warner (Special Edition) - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition) - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC - MIDDLE

3) Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

1) Warner (Special Edition) - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition) - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC - MIDDLE

3) Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

1) Warner (Special Edition) - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition) - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC - MIDDLE

3) Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

1) Warner (Special Edition) - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition) - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC - MIDDLE

3) Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

1) Warner (Special Edition) - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition) - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC - MIDDLE

3) Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

1) Warner (Special Edition) - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition) - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC - MIDDLE

3) Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

1) Warner (Special Edition) - Region 2 - PAL - TOP

2) Warner (Two-Disc Special Edition) - Region 1,2,3,4 - NTSC - MIDDLE

3) Warner - Region FREE - Blu-ray BOTTOM

More Blu-ray Captures

Hit Counter

Report Card:

Image:	Blu-ray
Sound:	Blu-ray
Extras:	Two-Disc Special Edition

Box Covers

The Classic Musicals Collection - Broadway to Hollywood ( Easter Parade Two Disc Special Edition / The Band Wagon Two Disc Special Edition / Bells Are Ringing / Finian's Rainbow / Brigadoon )

Distribution

Warner

Region 2,5 - PAL

Warner
Region 1 - NTSC

Warner
Region FREE - Blu-ray

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