Rating: 
Summary: Cult Status for Merlin Jones
Review: "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" is a very likable film from Walt Disney. Tommy Kirk is excellent as the absent-minded student genius Merlin Jones attending Midvale College. Annette Funicello is Jennifer his girlfriend who constantly tries to get his attention. Leon Ames plays the pivital role of Judge Hornsby. This is one of those movies from the 60s containing a lot of campus mayhem and mishaps. The main title song, "Merlin Jones" was composed by the Sherman brothers and performed by Annette Funicello. It's a fun movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Life's toughest questions tackled within.....
Review: How many diamonds can I hide in a peach pit?
How can I mimick the sound of a siren without using
a series of rotating disks?
How in the world can I put my cat into a state of hypnosis
so he'll finally stand up to that neighbor dog?
Watch...and learn.
Rating: 
Summary: Good family film but Disney screws it up again.
Review: I can't rate this less than 3 stars because I love the movie so much. That said, however, I feel that Disney's way of thinking regarding issues and reissues of it's videos makes no bones about what they feel is most important: make as much money off of the public as possible, even if you have to cheat them. Try to get them to buy the same product over and over.
I've waited a long time for some of Disney's classic live action features of the 50s and 60s to be made available in the superior digital format. "Merlin Jones" is one of my very favorites. Tommy Kirk and Annette were a great team and all of the supporting cast in this classic are fantastic in their roles. The thing is, when you watch a great Disney family classic like this one, you realize what a wonderful corporation the Walt Disney company was while Walt was still alive. They put the consumer first and always did their best to deliver a quality product.
I'm not sure I would have bought this DVD if I had known it was not going to be widescreen. I should have read the small print before making the purchase. After putting it in and getting disappointed to find out that it's full screen, I realized I had no one to blame but myself. I had no right to trust Disney because I know from experience that they rarely do anything right the first time. This is not because they don't know how to do it right the first time, but because they know that by doing it wrong the first time and right the second time, they can get everyone to purchase their favorite Disney titles twice. And by making them available for a limited time, they can get people to buy them right away. Then after several years of unavailability, the same title can be reissued with a different cover and a few bonus features, a "deluxe" edition, and everyone will buy it again!
I'm still angry when I think of how I paid thirty five bucks for "Mary Poppins" only to find out it was full screen when a friend of mine had a copy issued only a couple of years previous that was widescreen! Why would they take a step backwards? It's bad enough that Disney titles are more expensive than DVDs from other major studios. And when "Merlin Jones" is reissued in wide screen in another 5 years, guess what? I'm gonna buy it again.
I can say this though. I will not purchase DVDs of "The Shaggy Dog", the original "That Darn Cat", "The Monkey's Uncle" or "Dr. Syn" unless they are WIDESCREEN. If they are fullscreen, I will borrow them from a friend or a library.
I'd like to make one other comment about this DVD's supposed "bonus features". There's something on here called "Disney's Inventors: A Video Gallery". It's pictures of different characters who were inventors in Disney features over the decades. Click on the picture and you get a short scene from a movie or cartoon that's currently available for purchase. The scene has some horrendous voiceover saying insipid things like, "Donald Duck learns to make his own airplane from instructions he receives over the radio. Pretty cool, huh?" This is what Disney calls a "bonus feature" for the fan who paid premium price for one of their precious DVDs: adverstising for other Disney products. Some Disney DVDs have a bonus feature called "Sneak Peaks". If you choose this feature, all you get is the same video previews that you had to sit through at the beginning of the disc! Disney wants you to feel priveleged to sit through their commercials! The Disney vaults are LOADED with cartoons, serials, shorts, and scenes from Disney TV shows like "Wonderful World Of Disney" and "Mickey Mouse Club". Why must they use advertisements for bonus features?
Note to Michael Eisner: what goes around comes around.
Rating:
Summary: Zachary Taylor Craves Hot Fudge Sundaes
Review: I grew up watching this movie and just recently saw it again for the first time in probably ten years. It really is a Disney classic. I'm so glad they're finally releasing it on DVD. It's funny, campy, and the opening credits had me howling. They're just so hilarious. The story's pretty basic: Merlin Jones - the campus egghead - is working on his latest experiment, trying to chart alpha brainwaves. The experiment goes haywire, supercharging his brain, making sweet Merlin telepathic. What adventures ensue? Or should I say, misadventures? Catch the movie and be told a story of science phenomena as could have only been told by the great Walt Disney.
Rating:
Summary: The Misadventures of Merlin Jones
Review: I have this movie on VHS and I have watched it over and over. It's one of my favorite Disney's film collections. Two Thumbs up!
Rating: 
Summary: The Misadventure of Merlin Jones
Review: I'll preface this by stating that I am writing this out of pure frustration.Once again I feel that I've wasted my money in buying another Disney DVD. Abysmal pan and scan done by technicians who appear to be on a benzadrine high. It's so apparent that the current Disney management have no regard for putting out quality material for their customers.
It appears that they want us to spend whatever it is on the current version and then in a year or so, when they release the "Special Edition" widescreen version of the same film with a bunch of extras, they will expect us to fork out more money for the same "enhanced" product. They've already released a truly awful DVD version MIRACLE OF THE WHITE STALLIONS - once again full screen and scratches. I hate to think what they'll do to DR. SYN or NEVER A DULL MOMENT when they are released. They don't seem to pay any attention to the complaints and views of people on websites such as this. They drag their feet before they act to address complaints. Case in point: The colorized ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR. After numerous shouts of indignation from a caring public of the original film, they finally released the film in the way it was supposed to be seen :"glorious black and white". You'd have thought they had smigen of loyalty to their own classic. But no. In years gone by, one expected quality from product bearing the Disney name. Now, like any major corporate giant, they don't give a damn - and pretty soon, we won't either.
Rating: 
Summary: Poor DVD quality, but correct aspect ratio!
Review: I'm in strong agreement with the complaints in these reviews regarding Disney's shoddy DVD releases: fullscreen, skimpy or no extras (not even movie trailers which bring back the first view of the next, highly anticipated Disney film), scratchy and dull prints, and comparatively very high prices. Regarding its aspect ratio, however, this film was made for TV but ended up in theaters instead. Filmed in November 1962 for the 1963-64 season of "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color," it so pleased Walt Disney that he decided to release it to theaters. The DVD presents its original aspect ratio, one intended for TV. It was filmed to be presented at 1.33:1 -- even though it was matted for theatrical presentation, probably at 1.75:1. But there are other problems with this DVD. The print is clearly inferior to the one used for years on The Disney Channel. Color timing is off, shifting in individual cuts within a scene; faces change color with the light. There are scratches. It is not sharp. It is not worthy of a DVD but looks more like a good VHS tape. As others here have pointed out, Disney used to be known for providing only the best quality in every product. The company has fallen very far short from that excellent standard. (It could have used one of the excellent prints still kept in the vaults -- but, as with so many recent releases -- it didn't bother.) What more could be expected from a company that fired the person responsible for the excellent-but-cancelled "Vault Disney" DVD line? I will be very reluctant to buy additional Disney DVDs until there's a clear turnaround by the company. Disney should announce it realizes it's gotten things wrong and will in the future always offer DVDs from the best -- or restored -- prints and at the correct aspect ratio.
Rating:
Summary: Nostalgic Disney fun -- Disappointing DVD
Review: It's a shame that Disney refuses to exert that little bit of extra effort (and possibly expense - "there's the rub") to restore its films and release them in their original theatrical ratios (aka: widescreen). These films appeal mainly to "grown-up" Disney fans, scholars, and collectors. For a modest comedy like this, the ratios aren't too distracting; for major productions - like Babes in Toyland, The Moon-Spinners, and Blackbeard's Ghost -- the pan-and-scan is horrible. It would be better for Disney to slow down its release schedule and take the extra time to prepare first class DVD's. The Disney name used to stand for quality and technical innovation; appparantly, those standards no longer apply.
Rating:
Summary: DISNEY DOESN'T GET IT!!!!!!
Review: No wonder the company is about to be taken over and broken up -- DVD was introduced to be an alternative to video, to offer more than video: better picture, more extras, and most importantly, more picture. Letterboxing. Widescreen. The complete image. So what does Disney do? They take some of their most beloved live-action films such as this one, and dump it on DVD in full-frame editions. What is the point of that? Who isn't used to widescreen DVDs yet? Why should I waste my money replacing my old Disney videos with the same crappy full screen image as before? Disney just doesn't get it, and their sales show it.
Rating:
Summary: It's Adorable!
Review: Professional critics for newspapers, magazines and TV Guides don't seem to like this movie too much but I don't know why. I think The Misadventures of Merlin Jones is a cute movie and Tommy Kirk and Annette Funicello are both great and are adorable together. I think this is a Disney movie and I hope they will put this out in widescreen DVD as I would like to have it in my collection.
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