BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

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AndyDursin
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BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

#1 Post by AndyDursin »

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Our pre-schooler loves dinosaurs – brontosauruses in particular – and has worn out every entry in the “Land Before Time” saga (including its short-lived series) over the last year or so. You would imagine he’d be a perfect audience for BABY: SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND, yet I’m going to hold off on a viewing of this early Touchstone release with him until he’s ready for some oddly placed violence which makes an otherwise entertaining African-set adventure unsuitable for what should’ve been its main demographic.

B.W.L. Norton, whose main directorial credits up to that point were the memorable Cornel Wilde TV-movie “Gargoyles” and the uneven “More American Graffiti,” stepped into direct “Baby” after Roger Spottiswoode left the project in pre-production. Working from a Clifford and Ellen Green (“Spacecamp”) screenplay, “Baby” runs the gamut from being a wholesome Disney-esque genre film to an action-packed tale with married couple William Katt and Sean Young uncovering a living Brontosaurus family in the African jungle, and then trying to protect little “Baby” from evil scientist Patrick McGoohan.

“Baby”’s animatronic effects are a mixed bag – the larger dinosaur is well-designed but the expressiveness of the younger “Baby” is stiff -- but what makes the film appealing is the widescreen location cinematography of John Alcott and Jerry Goldsmith’s marvelous score. Goldsmith’s gorgeous, lyrical theme – one of his finest from an especially prolific period of film scoring -- sells the material in a way the story quite can’t do, while Katt (who I always thought should’ve been a bigger star) and Young work well together as the leads. In spite of its flaws, it’s hard not to be emotionally involved by the time the credits roll with Goldsmith’s music welling with emotion.

“Baby” is certainly an odd mix of a “cute,” E.T.-like fantasy with more adult overtones and violence than you’d ordinarily expect in this type of film. There are stabbings, shootings and the slaying of Baby’s father (a la “Bambi”) in a grizzly sequence that, today, would’ve easily netted a PG-13 rating. You have to wonder what was going through Norton’s mind in how these sequences were handled, yet I can’t deny that the film is fun to watch – an old-fashioned jungle adventure with dinosaurs that may have been a breakout smash had it been made with CGI effects in the wake of “Jurassic Park” just a few years later.

As far as the myriad of “E.T.” clones we endured in the ‘80s go, “Baby” is one of the better ones, and Kino Lorber’s Blu-Ray sports a Special Edition with revealing new interviews with Katt (15 minutes) and Norton (10 minutes). In fact, Katt’s description of an arduous shoot – complete with crocodiles, insanely humid conditions, a lack of quality food and intermittent power – is even more fun than watching the film. That Katt reflects so fondly on the picture at the same time he divulges the extreme difficulty the crew encountered shooting in Africa speaks to the actor’s graciousness and good humor. Norton’s conversation, by comparison, is more technically oriented as far as the special effects go, and he only mentions in passing that Disney didn’t want Spottiswoode directing the film (one wonders if Spottiswoode, who retained an Executive Producer credit, wanted to push the film even further into “adult territory”). The theatrical trailer is also on-hand.

Visually the disc – due out February 13th -- sports a roughly equivalent transfer to Mill Creek’s prior 1080p (2.35) AVC encode – it’s passable but has clearly been derived from an older master. However, the audio is configured differently, mostly in a good way: Kino Lorber’s release includes both the movie’s preferred 2.0 DTS MA Dolby Stereo mix and a 5.1 DTS MA track that’s too front-heavy by comparison. The Mill Creek disc only housed a strange 4.0 track that was missing center channel information, making the 2.0 mix the most satisfying forum for stereo separation and Jerry’s lovely score.

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Re: BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

#2 Post by BobaMike »

I had a coloring book of this movie that I colored from front to back when I was little. I remember watching the movie on Disney channel a lot back then, but I haven't seen it in years. I do love the Goldsmith score, though!

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Re: BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

#3 Post by jkholm »

Andy, you mentioned not letting your son see this for a while because of some violence. Am I crazy or was there nudity as well? I haven't seen BABY since 1985.

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Re: BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

#4 Post by Monterey Jack »

Sounds like a decent upgrade to the Mill Creek disc...does Goldsmith's final horn fanfare in the end credits get "clipped" like it did on the MC release?

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Re: BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

#5 Post by AndyDursin »

jkholm wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2018 1:50 pm Andy, you mentioned not letting your son see this for a while because of some violence. Am I crazy or was there nudity as well? I haven't seen BABY since 1985.
No you're not crazy John! There's a little of that too -- a topless native at the outset, plus Katt is trying to push Young into having kids. There's a lot going on in this considering its PG rating!

I just wonder why Roger Spottiswoode left the movie. Norton mentions in the interview that "Disney didn't want him to direct it" and I have a feeling this movie may have been originally harder, in general, and that Disney walked it back and enhanced the "cute" elements, leading to Spottiswoode's departure. I guess we'll never know but you'd have to imagine Goldsmith came onboard because of Spottiswoode, rekindling their UNDER FIRE collaboration.

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Re: BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

#6 Post by AndyDursin »

Monterey Jack wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2018 2:29 pm Sounds like a decent upgrade to the Mill Creek disc...does Goldsmith's final horn fanfare in the end credits get "clipped" like it did on the MC release?
It's an upgrade for the interviews -- the a/v element is nearly a wash though. The transfer is from the exact same element, and indeed, the final horn fanfare is clipped here too, on both the 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. Must be a source issue, sadly, and I doubt Disney would ever bother to strike another master for it.

The good news is the audio is slightly better -- the 2.0 track that is. It has OK balance even if it's recorded at a lower volume than the 5.1, which seems to channel most of the activity into the front sound field. I didn't really care for it so I would choose the 2.0 mix.

I went back to the Mill Creek disc for comparison's sake -- that 4.0 soundtrack on the MC disc is really strange. There's no center channel activity at all, even the dialogue comes out of the left and right. The center channel is totally absent! It also sounded as if the left/right front was repeated in the rears -- very, very weird. So at least in the audio department, the KL disc is an improvement even if it's only a slight one.

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Re: BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

#7 Post by Monterey Jack »

AndyDursin wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2018 4:27 pm
It's an upgrade for the interviews -- the a/v element is nearly a wash though. The transfer is from the exact same element, and indeed, the final horn fanfare is clipped here too, on both the 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. Must be a source issue, sadly, and I doubt Disney would ever bother to strike another master for it.
Is it because they removed the Touchstone logo from the end, or what?

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Re: BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

#8 Post by AndyDursin »

Monterey Jack wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2018 4:32 pm
AndyDursin wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2018 4:27 pm
It's an upgrade for the interviews -- the a/v element is nearly a wash though. The transfer is from the exact same element, and indeed, the final horn fanfare is clipped here too, on both the 5.1 and 2.0 tracks. Must be a source issue, sadly, and I doubt Disney would ever bother to strike another master for it.
Is it because they removed the Touchstone logo from the end, or what?
It just sounds like an issue with the materials they used that nobody was paying attention to back when the master was prepared. I've seen a few movies where that's an issue. The end credits of METEOR on Blu-Ray sound like they're from a static-filled AM radio (whereas the laserdisc is full, beautiful stereo :(

I don't have the DVD or VHS but you wonder if it's been that way from the very start and all prints have that problem.

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Re: BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

#9 Post by Paul MacLean »

Trailers for Baby made it look more like Jurassic Park (even though that film was a good seven years away) -- i.e. more of a more science fiction / action flick. But the film was far-more "cute" than the trailer let on, and I'd agree with the other comments that the violence and sexual innuendos sit uncomfortably alongside the more cloying, "Disney-esque" scenes of the infant Brontosaurus. I thought the film was a mess myself.

And how on Earth could Disney's ad-pub department have thought an adventure movie about dinosaurs should be titled "Baby" (or that anyone would even go to see a picture called Baby)?

As far as Goldsmith's score, I thought it worked great in the film, and it was a "Holy Grail" of mine for years. Then when it was finally released, I found it didn't quite have the standalone appeal I expected it to (though it's better than Warlock!).

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Re: BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

#10 Post by Monterey Jack »

I find Baby uneven, but I still enjoy it as a slice of somewhat-awkward "80's PG" (i.e. wholesome, innocuous family entertainment filled out with odd intrusions of violence, language and/or sex appeal that'd NEVER fly in the era where the PG rating has become so defanged it's almost indistinguishable from a G). Jerry Goldsmith's excellent score is a perfect example of how flawed genre fare from that era was enormously improved by the music, whereas today's expensive, technically-flawless B-movie fare is given ZERO support from the composer. :? Even a movie as notoriously dumb as Howard The Duck had a lovely/lively John Barry/Sylvester Levay score that gave the film a lot more heart and movement than most of today's leaden escapist fare (and where's our deluxe CD release of that, already? We got a three-disc set for The Golden Child, and that's a FAR worse movie than the silly but underrated Howard).

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#11 Post by AndyDursin »

I like Baby for reasons I outlined. It's not cohesive and the lapses in taste were odd, but I like Katt and Young, plus the score and the settings. A personal favorite as they say.

Following on what MJ said, I dont get the Howard holdup either. Barry's score is actually a lot of fun and a lot more inspired than his other works from that period...the love theme is sweet, the main Howard theme is suitably heroic, and the Body Heat like main credits is great too. I really like that score and enjoy Thomas Dolby's songs also. Personally I found The Golden Child score pretty dull and yet it was hyped as this undiscovered, rejected Barry classic. Frankly it's not that great....kind of like Barry going through the motions. On Howard he seemed a lot more engaged and that was a case where he came in after Dolby's score didn't work out. I wonder if Levay's involvement had to do with the rush they were in getting the score finished. Either way WHERE IS IT?

As for BABY Goldsmith was clearly inspired writing the score. The theme is wonderful and the bridge soars. It's kind of like the CONGO score but "better," like comparing most of his 90s scores to their 80s counterparts.

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#12 Post by Monterey Jack »

AndyDursin wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:18 pmPersonally I found The Golden Child score pretty dull and yet it was hyped as this undiscovered, rejected Barry classic.
I got the LLL release when it was on sale for ten bucks, and I really enjoy the Barry score...and sound the "hip" Harold Faltermeyer replacement almost unlistenable, the kind of drum machine/"electronic woodchipper" 80's scoring that's like nails on a blackboard today. It probably sold that turd of a movie better than the Barry score (it still made a ton of money, based on Eddie Murphy's yet-to-be-dimmed star wattage at the time), but I've never listened to any of the three discs in that set more than once aside from the Barry score.

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#13 Post by Paul MacLean »

AndyDursin wrote: Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:18 pm Personally I found The Golden Child score pretty dull and yet it was hyped as this undiscovered, rejected Barry classic. Frankly it's not that great....kind of like Barry going through the motions.
I like it better than you guys do (I think it's more inspired than High Road To China, or frankly even Out of Africa) but it's certainly not in league with the 60s Bond scores, or Dances With Wolves.

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#14 Post by AndyDursin »

I'm not a big fan of any of those either though I have to admit I do like the Out of Africa theme an awful lot. The score itself I don't even own. In general I'm not a huge fan of any of that era's Barry scores (Until September , Mike's Murder, Masquerade, High Road to China, Jagged Edge, etc) minus his last two Bond scores. I own a few of them but don't find myself revisiting those albums much.

I don't dislike Golden Child but I listened to it a few times and felt I had heard enough of it. The disc is also redundant and the music likewise repetitive as some Barry scores are also which doesn't help.

Either way I much prefer Howard the Duck! Bring me my 3CD set! (Someone posted some decent Dolby demos and alternates years back but no extra score beyond what was on the LP)

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Re: BABY - SECRET OF THE LOST LEGEND (Kino Lorber) Blu-Ray Review

#15 Post by Paul MacLean »

AndyDursin wrote: Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:51 am Either way I much prefer Howard the Duck! Bring me my 3CD set! (Someone posted some decent Dolby demos and alternates years back but no extra score beyond what was on the LP)
I wonder if Howard isn't being held-up because soundtrack label proprietors simply don't want to release the songs, while Barry's score is fairly brief (isn't most of it on the LP's side B?) and "isn't long enough" for a CD.

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