Summer Magic is Disney's somewhat dated 1963 semi-musical, semi-melodramatic fantasy. It is a showcase for two talents: the iconic British water sprite, Hayley Mills (Nancy Carey) and the kindly folk singer with a heart, Burl Ives (Mr. Poppem). Nancy's family moves from Boston to New England after their much beloved patriarch dies. Precocious and determined, Nancy manages to convince Mr. Poppem to rent her family a modest but stately home for $60 a year where can I get one of those? But the family's idyllic existence is soon threatened when an absentee landlord discovers this rental agreement. Tension also mounts after Nancy's cousin, the priggish Julia (Deborah Walley) arrives with preconceived notions of her own. These culminate in an inadvertently painful little scene where Julia and Nancy discuss how to accentuate femininity for the benefit of making a man happy, while concealing and/or sacrificing one's own feelings for 'his' ultimate soul of happiness oh please! Eventually Nancy learns to live with Julia's prattling and Julia gets a clue to become Nancy's best friend.
Resident Disney song writers, Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman penned the charming "Summer Magic", "Lavender Blue, Dilly-Dilly" and the corny "The Ugly Bug Ball," with incomparable rag time nostalgia brimming from every note. The direction by James Neilson is adroit and easy on the mind. But on this occasion, the poignancy one is likely to derive comes entirely from seeing the young Haley Mills and elderly Burl Ives, emphatically and musically sparing off of one another's formidable talents, and leaving us all a little bit better for their joust.
Summer Magic has been remastered on DVD with considerably good results. The image is very clean, crisp and smartly rendered. Colors are rich, vibrant and bold. Blacks are deep and solid. Whites are generally white. Only occasionally does film grain hint around the edges. Certain matte shots belie their faux reality on larger monitors. Overall, the picture will surely not disappoint. The audio is another consideration all together. Apart from the songs, which have been lovingly remastered, dialogue on the whole sounds more than strident and completely unnatural. The songs thus appear almost independent in their spread and sonic resonance offering one a sort of stereo concern buried under a mono melodrama.
Resident Disney song writers, Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman penned the charming "Summer Magic", "Lavender Blue, Dilly-Dilly" and the corny "The Ugly Bug Ball," with incomparable rag time nostalgia brimming from every note. The direction by James Neilson is adroit and easy on the mind. But on this occasion, the poignancy one is likely to derive comes entirely from seeing the young Haley Mills and elderly Burl Ives, emphatically and musically sparing off of one another's formidable talents, and leaving us all a little bit better for their joust.
Summer Magic has been remastered on DVD with considerably good results. The image is very clean, crisp and smartly rendered. Colors are rich, vibrant and bold. Blacks are deep and solid. Whites are generally white. Only occasionally does film grain hint around the edges. Certain matte shots belie their faux reality on larger monitors. Overall, the picture will surely not disappoint. The audio is another consideration all together. Apart from the songs, which have been lovingly remastered, dialogue on the whole sounds more than strident and completely unnatural. The songs thus appear almost independent in their spread and sonic resonance offering one a sort of stereo concern buried under a mono melodrama.