Customer Reviews

Banjo the Woodpile Cat 30th Anniversary Edition 2-Disc DVD (2009)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This movie is one that I loved as a child and I know my kids will love. Great movie! All I had ever seen was the cable version, which left out a bit of the beginning, with Banjo's sisters. I was excited to see the "new" stuff that I hadn't seen before!

I been a loyal supporter of Don and his creations since I was a little boy. His fan club was wonderful and fun. I remember waiting for the mailman to bring me my next issue.

Banjo is quite an amazing little short considering the budget constraints and that it was created inside Don's garage.

This dvd completes my entire collection of the work of the wonderful Don Bluth.

I encourage everryone to check out all of Bluths films.

Bartok
An american tail
rockadoodle
Land before time
All dogs goto Heaven
The secret of Nimh
Thumbelina
The troll in central park
Titan A.E.
Anastashia
The pebble and the Penquin

I have an autistic sister who collects all Don Bluth films as her personal hobby, this product came in less than the time projected, and made a little girl very happy this past Christmas

I loved this movie as a child and my boys love it too! Everything about this movie is so sweet and age appropriate for my 3 and 6 yr olds. I like the lessons taught in it. The older cat Crazy Legs even prays for little Banjo!! LOVE IT! That is such a rare thing these days. If you don't own this movie...BUY IT!

I enjoyed a thirty year career in the business of Motion Picture and Television (traditional-hand drawn) Animation, four of those early years with the Don Bluth Studio. I joined the Studio just a few months after the group's departure from Disney, and it was on the strength of viewing "Banjo The Woodpile Cat" for the first time on cable television in 1979 that inspired me to apply with them. I had been working at Hanna-Barbera Studio on their next-to-last feature: "Heidi's Song", and felt I was not learning what I really needed to know about executing the classical form of animation techniques on display in beloved features such as Disney's Bambi, Pinocchio, Cinderella, Peter Pan and Sleeping Beauty; and the myriad of films that came out of the Max Fleischer Studio in the thirties and forties. "Banjo" had all the qualities of the kind of animation I had been wanting to make. I was hired on in 1980 to Key-Assist on the "Secret Of NIMH", and so began a new, glorious career in Animation! "Banjo" is a milestone in contemporary animation history, for so many reasons. Many of those reasons are all detailed on the second supplementary disc of this DVD set, which is exceptional! The documentaries offer information that even I was previously unaware of! Great behind-the-scenes footage and photos, circa-1979. And Don Bluth's personal encouragement to the young animators of today throughout the supplemental material is well-worth repeated viewing! Any student of today's forms of animation could benefit from this well-constructed look at "Banjo" and it's making, an important component of American Traditional-Animation History. Please enjoy!
Philo Barnhart.........

This film was one of my kids favorites when they were small and Banjo reminded us of our daughter. Great Movie.

We have had this movie on vhs since it came out years ago and wanted it for my childrens children on DVD as they have an easier time putting the movie in them selves. We fell in love with this wonderfull movie and have look for years for it on DVD. Thank you so much and I recomend this for all ages to watch. It is a blast, great story, wonderful music and an attention keeper. Better get one quick.

My children loved this when they were young. For them it ranked right up there as one of their very favorite shows. 20 some years later they still remember it.

As an animator, this movie is great insight into one of my favorite animators, Don Bluth. The extras are a great addition.

Just so we're all on the same page, "Banjo" is a short film (about thirty minuted wrong, making it a TV special or featurette) made by Don Bluth and other young animators in their spare time while they were still employed at Disney. As the DVDs special features will tell you, these young animators were looking to learn techniques they felt Disney had abandoned by making an animated film on their own. Though "Banjo" was certainly not the only factor that led to the exodus of Bluth and his crew from Disney, it certainly helped to give the animators confidence that they could make animated films without Disney's help.

For its place in history, "Banjo" is interesting. As a film, it's less so. Banjo is a mildly mischevious farm kitten. After getting into trouble one too many times, he decides to run away to the big city, Salt Lake City in this case. Almost immediately, Banjo is overwhelmed by the perils of the big city. He meets some friendly cats who try to help him find his way home, has a brief adventure escaping from some mean dogs, and eventually gets his happy ending. The plot feels pretty rushed between the short running time and the need to fit in a song or two. Though the artists working on the film are obviously talented, the animation is still a little rough around the edges, not quite up to the classic Disney standard they had set for themselves. It's a cute film, but it doesn't have much more going for it and I doubt either kids or adults will find it particularly enthralling.

The 2 disc set has an impressive amount of extras for a small, relatively unknown film. The interviews, while certainly a little one sided, are not entirely self serving and it is very interesting to see the work that went into making this film outside of the studio system. I wish there had been a little more discussion of the film's shortcomings and how the animators learned from their work on "Banjo" and applied the lessons to the films they made after leaving Disney. Trailers for many of Bluth's feature films are included, which make for interesting viewing, as you can watch the quality of the films lessen as time goes on and Barry Manilow songs become the main selling point.

Serious animation fans will be happy to see "Banjo" and the various included extras, but more casual viewers will probably want to pass on it.