Customer Reviews

The Emperor's New Clothes (30th Anniversary Edition) [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have had this special for several years now and urged GOLDEN BOOKS...now known as CLASSIC MEDIA to issue it....they listened! It's a GREAT lost 'ANIMAGIC' gem! It only aired a few times on television and then was locked up in a vault for many years. It features DANNY KAYE in LIVE-ACTION and ANIMAGIC form and he is in RARE form! ALLEN SWIFT, who voiced all the male characters in MAD MONSTER PARTY (Which is also NEWLY released to DVD in PERFECT 35 mm quality), is back as Danny's partner and Bob McFadden does a fine job as the evil Court Jester! IMOGENE COCA also makes a RARE appearance in Animation in this special! What is especially noteworthy here is the 7 minute featurette from RANKIN/BASS included on this disc. Nothing gives a better look into how these special specials were made by RANKIN/BASS, than this! It is re-mastered too! A SPECIAL treat for all RANKIN/BASS fans to enjoy! It's finally here from the Negative! Pick it up QUICK! Rick RANKIN/BASS Historian/Biographer

This new fully restored DVD release of "The Emperor's New Clothes" was the first time I had ever seen this Romeo Muller story, and what a gem it is!!! It has all the charm and fancy of "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town", "Here Comes Peter Cottontail", "Frosty the Snowman", "Puff the Magic Dragon", and some of his other better stories. The originality and imagination put into this story is beyond belief! It is beyond belief because it has not become a widely loved piece of entertainment. It is a shame that the other episodes in this TV series were never produced. Given how well this one turned out the other stories in this anthology series would most likely have been of equal stature. You'll be doing your family a dis-service to your family if you do not add this film to your library.

What a GREAT find! Seeing this RARE 'ANIMAGIC' Special in DVD format is beyond words and that MAKING OF documentary is really something! With it being a RAREly seen special, my hat goes off to CLASSIC MEDIA for issueing it for all the RANKIN/BASS fans to enjoy! DANNY KAYE is wonderful in this special and glad he did another special for RANKIN/BASS besides the wonderful HERE COMES PETER COTTONTAIL! Some GREAT music in here too! You can't lose!

My daughters and I just LOVE Danny Kaye. We have seen all of his movies and the favorite is "The Court Jester". My girls and I also love "Peter Cotton Tail" told and sung by Danny Kaye and we just discovered "The Emperor's New Clothes". What a delight for all ages. Danny Kaye is one of the most talented and versatile musical comedy actors that ever lived. Share this and all of the other Danny Kaye movies with your children. You will laugh till your sides ache!

What ever made this show get released on DVD prior to all the other more popular Rankin/Bass specials is beyond me, but I am quite pleased to see it, nonetheless! I don't even think this was ever out on video, so it's here first in all DVD splendor.

Nice to see Danny Kaye in Denmark with all the kids. My son loves the animagic the most, but has no trouble paying attention to Danny and all the kids having a grand ole time in great Danish settings. It's a shame the rest of the Danny Kaye series never materialized as they invisioned it.

Lacking the charm of the classic Rankin/Bass Holiday specials, "The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor's New Clothes" is still good fun to watch and has some really great animagic action in it, including perhaps the only fully nude animagic puppet ever made.

The mix of live action and animagic is not great, and the special would have been better as a pure animagic feature, but it was meant to launch a series of specials with Danny Kaye supplying the star power and Rankin/Bass providing the magic. Unlike the Holiday specials, this one is dated by the live action. Danny Kaye is awfully "70's." However, this is a small complaint as the special is maybe 90% animagic with only a few lead-ins by Danny Kaye. The animagic portion is charming and Romeo Muller did a great take on the traditional Hans Christian Anderson story. Imogene Coca is the voice of the flighty Princess Jane Klockenlocher, and makes for a good romantic foil for Danny Kaye's tailor. The nude Emperor's stroll through town makes this story.

The big problem with this DVD is its lack of punch. Ringing in at just under an hour, "The Enchanted World of Danny Kaye: The Emperor's New Clothes" is not enough feature to carry an entire DVD on its own. There is a short 6-minute making of documentary, which is interesting. Paired with Danny Kaye's other Rankin/Bass outing, "Here Comes Peter Cottontail" would have made for a great DVD. As an extra feature to a DVD of Rankin/Bass's other Hans Christian Anderson feature "The Daydreamer" would have been even better. As it is, probably my least favorite Rankin/Bass DVD.

This was a gift for my granddaughter's bday who turned 8.
It is a timeless story that entertains children from the
past to our present and hopefully in the future.
A good story never ages, only stays enchanting. She loved
it as much as her daddy did at this fun age of 8.

"The Emperor's New Clothes" is a from the 1972 ABC television series "the Enchanted World of Danny Kaye."
This series featured Danny Kaye serving as the storyteller for many of Hans Christen Andersen's fairytales.
In this particular episode Danny plays Marmaduke who along with his partner, Musty are tailors engaged by the Emperor Klonkenlocker(voiced by famed actor Cyril Richard) of Bibbentucker to make him a new suit of clothes. What follows is pure magic with the Rankin and Bass animation along with the songs and storytelling which have made Danny Kaye a legend.
It would be a delight to see this entire series available on dvd.

I eagerly awaited the arrival of this DVD having played the tape of Hans Christian Anderson many times to my children when they were growing up, the theme tune went around & around in my head for days. I couldn't wait to play it when it arrived but to my disapointment the theme tune had been changed to something else,while it is still nice to see Danny Kaye I'm afraid to me it was just not what I wanted to hear.

Loved this as a child, and now my kids love it too. The quality is very good. Though, now the movie seems to be shorter than when I watched it as a kid. However, don't be misled...the movie is complete...the time is just my perception.