MRS. DOUBTFIRE - Blu-ray review

I cannot exactly remember the circumstances, but I'm pretty sure that I had been on a double date with my friend Jeff. It has been almost fifteen years since "Mrs. Doubtfire" first hit theaters and I can only guess what young ladies accompanied my friend and me to the theater. Time passes and memory fades. This is one of the realities of life. Remembering back to the days when Robin Williams was a big box office draw seems so very long ago. I wish I could remember who the young lady was, but I do remember enjoying the film quite a bit. While memories fade, technology at least provides us with a means to enjoy the films of decades past that we enjoy and the Blu-ray release of "Mrs. Doubtfire" shows us that while we cannot revisit our former experiences, we can enjoy these movies in high definition and with exquisite sound.

In "Mrs. Doutfire," funnyman Robin Williams is Daniel Hillard. He is an out of work voice actor who is happily married to wife Miranda (Sally Field) and has three lovely children; Chris (Matthew Lawrence), Nattie (Mara Wilson) and Lydie (Lisa Jakub). At least he was happily married until he ignored Miranda's orders and threw a huge birthday bash for Chris that included an entire petting zoo, plenty of friends and House of Pain's hit song "Jump Around." Miranda comes home from work early and finds Daniel and Chris dancing on the dining room table. This is the final straw for Miranda and she lets her irresponsible husband Daniel know that the marriage is over and that she can no longer take his comical and adolescent view towards life and responsibility.

The divorce proceedings send Daniel to a very cheap apartment and an appointment with social worker Mrs. Sellner (Anne Haney), who does not find Daniel even remotely humorous and helps him find employment as a shipping clerk for a local television channel. He is only given one night a week with his three children and this becomes increasingly problematic when Miranda begins to arrive late to deliver the children and pick them up early. With no other option in sight, Daniel hijacks an advertisement Miranda has created for a nanny and changes her number to an incorrect one. After the ad is placed, Daniel taps into his incredible talent as a voice actor and creates a number of undesirable requests for employment that Miranda quickly rejects. However, his last creation, Euphegenia Doubtfire, is hired by Miranda to watch the three children.

Daniel's brother Frank Hilliard (Harvey Fierstein) works with Daniel to create the makeup and facial prosthetics to transform him into an elderly woman who is not too far removed from looking like Daniel and Frank's mother. Under the disguise of Mrs. Doubtfire, Daniel easily gains employment and must quickly learn to cook and become a proper English nanny to keep the job and stay close to his children. Problems begin to mount when Miranda's new boyfriend Stu Dunmeyer (Pierce Brosnan) works his way into the family and attempts to become a surrogate father to Daniel's three children. Eventually the older two children learn that Mrs. Doubtfire is their father and that their Uncle Frank and Aunt Jack (Scott Capurra, and I loved that joke) were the ones responsible for his transformation.

Outside of his marital and nanny-related problems, Daniel also finds himself catching the attention of the television head, Mr. Jonathan Lundy (Robert Prosky). Daniel insults the current host of the television show and pokes fun at his lethargic presentation. Later, when Daniel is playing with the host's toy dinosaurs, Lundy witnesses what humor and energy Daniel could provide to the television studio and offers to meet him for dinner to talk about Daniel's ideas about entertaining children. This is the career chance that Daniel has been waiting for, however, it falls on Miranda's birthday and Stu wants Miranda, the children and Mrs. Doubtfire to all attend dinner at the same restaurant that Daniel and Mr. Lundy are to meet.

The trials, tribulations and final confrontation where Daniel must have both himself and Mrs. Doubtfire in attendance at the same restaurant are quite simply hilarious. "Mrs. Doubtfire" is a film that fully showcases Robin Williams' ability to impersonate and his high levels of energy. There aren't too many actors that have ever been as flexible as Williams and could have possibly pulled off a film such as "Mrs. Doubtfire." While Williams found earlier success with "Good Morning, Vietnam" in 1987 and 1991's "Hook"; it was "Mrs. Doubtfire" and the previous year's "Aladdin" that launched the actor into the stratosphere. Both film grossed over $215 million dollars, but the live-action "Doubtfire" showed the world just how well he could blend into any character; including that of an elder English nanny.

Robins has had some successes after "Mrs. Doubtfire," but many of those have been in the area of voice acting. He won his third and final Golden Globe for his performance and it was well deserved. The premise of a hairy voice actor becoming a woman and successfully fooling his ex-wife into buying into his ruse seems absurd, but Williams is an actor that has the talent to pull off the stunt and without Williams in the starring role, the film would never have reached the $217 million dollar mark at the box office. He is a very funny person who has a certain zest for life, but also a humble and sensible side that allows him to portray the full-of-life Daniel and energetic Doubtfire, but also portray a man who is saddened that he has been taken away from his children. "Mrs. Doubtfire" was the perfect vehicle for Williams' talent.

The film's director helped make "Mrs. Doubtfire" the sure-fire successful comedy it is. Chris Columbus found early success as a writer for classics "The Goonies" and "Gremlins," but earned his first director's kudos for the first two "Home Alone" films. He has more recently gotten praise for directing the first two "Harry Potter" films and serving as executive producer for the two "Fantastic Four" pictures. With "Home Alone," "Mrs. Doubtfire" and the two "Harry Potter" films he has helmed, Columbus is a very talented director and while I do enjoy the world of "Harry Potter," I have always felt that "Home Alone" and "Mrs. Doubtfire" are his greatest successes. He is a master of comedy and has a talent of putting people into unusual, but hilarious situations. While I feel much of the success of "Mrs. Doubtfire" falls on Williams' shoulders, fellow Pennsylvanian Chris Columbus deserves a lot of credit.

Sally Field, Pierce Brosnan and the film's three young actors all kept a straight face while Williams' was at his zaniest. While I don't think either Field or Brosnan were standouts in their performances, I was impressed with how Matthew Lawrence, Lisa Jakub and particularly Mara Wilson performed. Young Mara Wilson was only about five years old during the filming of "Mrs. Doubtfire" and I loved her performance as Nattie. The two other child actors were a bit older, but they too kept a serious face and acted as normal children while the wild and outlandish performance of Robin Williams unfolded around them. I've seen outtakes of far older and experienced actors having difficulties keeping serious around actors such as Williams or Jim Carrey and I applaud the three actors who were so young during the production of "Mrs. Doubtfire."

The story itself is very nicely done and was based upon the novel Alias Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine. Columbus did not have a hand in the writing of this film and the screenplay was adapted by Randi Mayem Singer and Leslie Dixon. The original novel was targeted mostly towards older children, but the cinematic version of the story appeals to adults and children alike. Younger viewers will enjoy the physical humor and some of the situations provided by Robin Williams, while adults will find the underlying sexual humor to be laughable and some of the other situations that Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire finds themselves in. This is one of the rare storylines that is friendly for practically everybody. It may not be the most believable premise and aside from the apartment visit by Mrs. Sellner and the long absences in the restaurant, most of the story feels quite realistic.

I've always enjoyed "Mrs. Doubtfire" and while I cannot remember what pretty young woman I had taken to see the film, I definitely remember enjoying the picture. It has always provided some hearty laughs and is a wonderful escape from the daily grind. The film does help provide a message to younger children who may find themselves in a situation where their parents are divorcing and helps to show that they can still love their parents even if they never reconcile and while Chris Columbus is sometimes attacked for his sentimentality, this underlying message for children with divorced parents gives "Mrs. Doubtfire" an honest side that makes the film a little bit more than just a comedy. It is very funny, with perhaps the best performance of Robin Williams' career and although I've watched the film over half a dozen times, I still find every viewing to be equally enjoyable.

Video:

I wasn't sure of what to expect with the catalog release of "Mrs. Doubtfire" on the Blu-ray format. My experience with the average Fox catalog release has been quite run-of-the-mill. They typically never excite in visual splendor, but I would hardly call them awful. The average catalog title from Fox is average. "Mrs. Doubtfire" is a film I enjoy a great deal and have owned on a number of formats which included a pricey special edition on LaserDisc and the first DVD release. I can remember feeling that the DVD issue of "Mrs. Doubtfire" didn't separate itself too far from the quality of the LaserDisc and I had hedged my hopes that the Blu-ray release would finally make me feel better about selling off my $100 LD box set so many years ago.

The good news is that "Mrs. Doubtfire" is a quality catalog title from Twentieth Century Fox home video and easily one of their better efforts for catalog titles on Bu-ray. The picture is mastered with the AVC MPEG-4 codec at a solid 28.5 MBPS transfer rate. The picture is sharp and detailed with vivid coloring and hardly any noticeable flaws. In fact, about the only complaint I had with the picture was one minor instance when I saw a little of the dreaded shimmering on a car's grille. The vast majority of the film was very nicely detailed and highlighted every hair on Robin Williams' back. Not that you really want to see that, but it is provided by the clarity of 1080p resolution. Coloring was also strong and I felt that "Mrs. Doubtfire" on Blu-ray could rival most pictures produced today. Flesh tones were accurate and whites were clean and bright and blacks were deep and true and exhibited excellent shadow detail. The print is clean. I must say I was more than satisfied with "Mrs. Doubtfire" on Blu-ray.

Audio:

The first DVD release of "Mrs. Doubtfire" featured a 5.1 mastered soundtrack and I was quite impressed with that release. My LaserDisc set contained THX processed Dolby Surround. It was good, but lacked the top-of-the-line AC-3 mix of the day. Two moments always stand out when I think of the audio for "Mrs. Doubtfire" and that is the scene where "Jump Around" is played or Aerosmith's "Dude Looks Like a Lady." They are loud and fill a room with sound. The Blu-ray release of "Mrs. Doubtfire" features a potent, but front-heavy English 5.1 DTS HD Master Lossless Audio mix, as well as the English 5.1 Dolby Digital surround mix from the DVD release and Spanish and French tracks.

Well, the two musical selections that stand out are still head and shoulders above anything else heard in the film. The "Jump Around" scene exhibits a good degree of .1 LFE provided bass and contains a nice amount of bleed to the rear surrounds. The Aerosmith number where Mrs. Doubtfire air guitars along is another sonically strong moment. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is a number of decibels quieter and falls into the same lifeless front-heavy mix that plagues most comedies. It isn't a flaw of the technology, but caused from limited source materials. Most comedies just do not have the information needed for an overly engaging soundscape and "Mrs. Doubtfire" doesn't provide too many ambient effects in the rears to compensate. It is a technically sound mix with clear dialogue, but aside from two or three musical selections, it isn't overly lively.

Extras:

The latest release of "Mrs. Doubtfire" finally rivals the offerings from the previous three-disc LaserDisc release, but this new edition still cannot claim to be the definitive release of the film. The commentary track by Chris Columbus that was present on both the pricey LaserDisc release and the first DVD pressing is sadly missing from this Blu-ray release. I would have replaced Dolby Digital 5.1 mix with the commentary track if it was a question of space or perhaps limited the foreign language support on the disc. This Blu-ray release is similar to the recently released special edition on DVD and contains essentially the same supplements. While the commentary is not present (I'll save my old DVD for that if I ever feel the need to listen to it again), this is a very nice release when it comes to supplements.

The features are broken down into six categories; the first of which is called "Cutting Room." Two options exist under this category. The first is Deleted & Extended Scenes (32:06) and the second is Alternate Scenes (4:29). There are a total of eighteen deleted and extended scenes and they run for over half an hour. Many of these scenes add to the overall story and some showcase more of Williams' hilarity. "Mrs. Doubtfire" is a long film and I can understand why most were left on the cutting room floor, but some of these scenes are very good. They are definitely worth watching. The four alternate scenes are also good, but it is a short series of snippets and lacks the quality of the excised collection. Both collections can be viewed separately or collectively with a "Play All" selection.

The second sub menu selection is "Production Office." This contains three supplements. From Man to Mrs.: The Evolution of Mrs. Doubtfire (26:37) is a quality five-chapter feature. "From Man to Mrs." looks at the production of the film from script to screen and contains many nice interviews with those involved. Robin Williams details how his wife first read the story and thought it would be a great movie for the actor to star in. A Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery is included as well as a second featurette, Aging Gracefully, A Look Back at Mrs. Doubtfire (13:42). "Aging Gracefully" is a retrospective look at the film from a few years ago, but what is said still holds quite true today.

"Animation Studio" is the third set of features. These features pertain to the original animation short featured in the beginning where Daniel quits his job over one of the characters smoking. These offerings begin with A Conversation with Legendary Animator Chuck Jones (4:17), which has the animator talking about his work on the film and views towards animation. This is a short but sweet vignette. The Original Pencil Test (2:26) is pulled over from the LaserDisc and shows the animation in pencil art form. The Final Animation Sequence (5:14) shows the full Chuck Jones created animation with the voice work of Robin Williams in place. It's fun. Finally, the Final Animation Sequence with Alternate Backgrounds (5:51) with a style more in line with Jones classic work. Never before has a small part of a film had this much supplemental material provided for it.

The fourth category of special features is "Make-Up Department" and you can bet that the fictional work of Uncle Frank and Aunt Jack is worth checking out. Make-Up Application with Ve Neill (4:10) is a brief little feature with Robin Williams talking about getting the make-up placed onto him. Ve Neil then provides some commentary to a few scenes showing the transformation occur. I really do wish that a little more time was spent on the transformation of Daniel to Mrs. Doubtfire. The second feature of the "Make-Up Department" is a Make-Up Photo Gallery that shows the stages of make-up. The third and final extra found here are a series of Make-Up Tests (17:54). These five tests are dress rehearsals with Robin Williams in make-up as he masters his performance under the latex and make-up. These are quite funny at times.

The next stop is "Stage A." Only one feature is contained her and it is the Improvisation of Mrs. Doubtfire (36:55) and provides the ability to view Robin Williams improvising a number of scenes throughout the film. Seven scenes are provided after the introduction. These scenes are collections of alternate takes of Robin Williams improvising through the script. The scene number and take number of each alternate take are shown. What is unique with these scenes is they show what goes on around the takes and you can hear and see many aspects of filmmaking that goes along with these improvisations. This is perhaps my favorite feature of the Blu-ray release and more than makes up for the absence of the commentary track and deleted scene comments that existed on previous releases.

The final category is the Publicity Department. These are all promotional materials and the Original 1993 Featurette (5:29) is perhaps the highlight of these numerous, but short features. This is a short vignette that advertises the film with some talking heads moments, a very familiar narrator's voice and some clips from the film. There is even a Barbara Bush joke in there. Meet Mrs. Doubtfire (5:22) is a unique little promotional clip that uses some tricky camera work (and a poorly blended split screen) that allows Robin Williams to interview Euphegenia Doubtfire. This was cute, but a little too promotional to be as entertaining as it could have been. Three Theatrical Trailers, two TV Spots and a collection of Theatrical Posters and a Publicity Photo Gallery finalizes the lengthy collection of supplements on this Blu-ray disc.

Closing:

"Mrs. Doubtfire" is a comedy that I've always enjoyed and the primary reason for my enjoyment of this film is the incredible performance by talented comedian Robin Williams who lends his finest performance for this film. He is absolutely outstanding in this movie, a role which allows him to showcase his impersonation abilities, physical humor and energy. It has been a few years since I last watched the film and I can no longer remember my date from seeing the film theatrically. Time may have eroded my memories, but the Blu-ray release shows that the look of the film has not eroded one bit as "Mrs. Doubtfire" looks better than she ever has. The sound is limited, but potent during two moments in the film. The supplements are first rate and although they are not complete, they are numerous and entertaining. "Mrs. Doubtfire" may very well be the finest catalog title release from Fox and an argument could be made that this is the finest release of a fifteen year or older film on the Blu-ray format.