Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat [DVD] [1999]

This rating is based on the Blu-ray product, and the low rating is purely about the appalling editorial and quality standard of the Blu-ray transfer.The film production which comprises the content, contrast sharply with this, and is a most marvellous musical, that deserves 6 stars (out of 5) - and is badly let down by the transfer.Whilst the picture quality is generally higher than you would get from a VHS tape, - it barely rates as high as you would expect from a plain DVD. Pixellation and fuzziness is very evident, clearly demonstrating that no effort was made to remaster this wonderful production. I bought the Blu-ray as an upgrade for the DVD (for which the quality wasn't that good either). I needn't have bothered. The Blu-ray is purely a money-catcher.I can only hope that the publishers either create a (far) better edition to replace this, - or pass the buck to a publishing house who can.

What on earth have they done to the original sound track?! I used to listen to the original for hours as a kid - it was timeless and brilliant. This dvd of, I think, the Stage show in my very humble opinion is rubbish and not true to the original. I guess that’s Stage shows for you. I’m only 30mins in and can’t wait to turn it off. The fact I don’t like the main female performer that runs through the whole thing doesn’t help. Also the sound editing is awful going from low to loud throughout. I’m really glad I haven’t bought tickets for the Stage show as I was about to. I will listen to the original on sonos instead!

Just about the worst performance of this production that I have ever seen. The producer really needs to make up his mind as to whether he wants to be a "kids show" or a Las Vegas production. The Amazon reviewer even states that while this should be viewed as a kids show, "this production might warrant a little discretion due to one suggestive scene and some risque & cute costumes." "Risque" is not quite the word I would have used - they leave very little to the imagination. OK for adults but totally unnecessary for young kids.Another irritation is the fact that subtitles are provided in French, German and Spanish but NOT in English. I see no point in that unless, for some reason, you want to listen in English while reading in another language.I really wish I had not wasted my money on this garbage, I suppose that just means another donation to the local charity shop, they may get 50p for it.

What a very good fast efficient service, DVD arrived within 2 days of order being placed.It was not what I was expecting, as it was a production of Joseph set in a School, but it was one of the best productions I have seen as it included Donny Osmond, Richard Attenborough, Joan Collins and other stars. It reminded me of the Schools Productions, which brought back many fond memories both watching and taking part. I'm glad I made an error and obtained this production. Very Very pleased.

Amazon really needs to seperate DVD and Blu-Ray reviews. There is no reason to combine them. When I bought the DVD in 1999, I would have given it 5 stars. The Blu-Ray I am giving one star because IT LOOKS WORSE THAN THE DVD!I know that Universal is bad about not doing new transfers for Blu-Ray releases, but this is a travesty. Have you seen the Young Frankenstein Blu-Ray? Yeah, this is worse.This film was originally released in 1999 on a 4x3 letterbox DVD. It looks like the exact same scan was used, with someone who had no clue what they were doing blindly applying digital filters to it. Truthfully, get the DVD and just do a zoom on it, it will look better than this mess.First, the disc has like 20 subtitle tracks, and the disc menu, like most European discs, pops up and ask you what language you want. It defaults.... to CHINESE!!! What the heck!Oh, if only this was the worst of the issues. After a half dozen warning screens, we are dropped into a menu with a video playing in the background that is obviously SD video. And the music starts in the middle of a word to a song. So poorly authored disc.Then you hit play, and you are presented by this beautiful Universal studios logo in breathtaking 1080p, followed by the production company's logo - and its all jaggied. Obviously rendered at 480. Then we are dropped into the hall of the school, and that is when the mess starts. Grain is frozen on the screen. It looks like they used a fine grain film, so the noise is everywhere. What is bad is the grain is actually frozen in the color from the first shot, which means kids are running through this multi-colored noise. The text is almost unreadable.But the DNR is not the only issue. It looks like some poorly done framerate conversion was done. This leads to blurryness anytime there is a camera pan or fast movement.You notice a lack of detail in everything and start to wonder if this is actually an SD upconvert. This is confirmed when they throw open the doors and Donny walks in - there are SCANLINES in the door!So I started to get disappointed. Maybe this film was originally shot on tape, and they tried to clean it up for Blu-Ray (badly) and then... You start seeing film spots and scratches and hairs in the video.Then you start seeing ringing and halos around Donny and other characters.Then Donny invites the kids to the stage as he is singing "Any Dream Will Do" and you see these blue streaks all over the kids, and you realize it is frozen film grain from the smoke and the blue lights that has frozen in place over these kids faces. It's awful.So how about the sound. I was very excited to see that it said DTS-MA 5.1. Don't be fooled - it is the exact same Dolby Digital track from the DVD. Actually, no, its not, it sounds worse - possibly from the conversion from one audio format to another. This shouldn't be the case, but this is way flatter sounding than the DVD ever was.This Blu-Ray is a nightmare! Everything that could be wrong with a digital transfer is wrong here - HORRIBLE DNR (I am okay if DNR is done correctly, that is not the case here), scan lines, contrast blown out of proportion, macroblocking, aliasing, ringing and halos, and an SD upconvert.This disc is a travesty. It has no redeeming factor. Do yourself a favor and pick it up on DVD - it really does look better than the Blu-Ray does.

The musical is an early (the earliest?) Tim Rice Lloyd Weber production. It is based closely on the biblical story. Lots to like about it: Joan Collins as a very seductive Potipher's wife, Donny Osmond as a very muscular Joseph and lots of dancing and interesting sets. No where near as good as Jesus Christ Superstar in terms of music and production. The music lacks the sophistication of Evita and is essentially just a sequence of musical pastiches of rock and roll and other styles. I have never seen it before, so I am not sure how it compares to other treatments.

After watching Joseph live for the first time I completely fell in love with the show. It was one of the best musicals I'd ever watched. So when I saw this I rented it to watch straight away. But I really hate this version of it. The acting is awful, that leading woman is a total pain and I was so disappointed. I'm glad I didn't buy it. I wouldn't recommend this to fans of the stage musical.