There's another staple of the live action Disney film from this era (and even dating back to Walt's time): the theme song. The very catchy '70s-style anthem "He's Gonna Make It" appears over the opening credits, turns up a few times throughout the film in jazzy instrumental form, and returns full-force in the end. As far as I'm concerned, this is right up there with Hot Lead and Cold Feet's "May the Best Man Win" and you might have trouble getting out of your head. But "trouble" never felt so good.

Disney fans will recognize The Three Lives of Thomasina as one of the "television programs" on which Steve and Raffles disagree. The Shaggy Dog and Babes in Toyland also turn up among the programming. The show titles used are all parodies of real television shows from the early '70s.

In closing, The Barefoot Executive isn't a great deal different from the Dexter Riley films or other Disney comedies based on silly premises. There's animal cuteness in the way of the headlining monkey, inept bad guys, Kurt Russell, and even the obligatory police appearance. Watching the film thirty-four years later, one doesn't suspect the filmmakers expected such longevity, but it's still highly entertaining, far more so than many live action family movies of today.

I'd be one of the last people to write off modern cinema altogether and indeed one can find plenty of well-made entries into this class from Disney and others. But more often than not, the words "brash" and "sudsy" come to mind in describing recent films of this type. Barefoot Executive never approaches "brash" and almost entirely avoids "sudsy." It may not be the type of film bestowed with awards or much critical acclaim, but it remains a lot of fun, offers some positive values, and is pretty much free of questionable content. As it's only the rare film meeting those criteria today, this comedy merits a solid recommendation.

DVD Details 1.33:1 Reformatted Fullscreen Dolby Digital Mono (English) Subtitles: English; Closed Captioned Release Date: April 12, 2005 Single-sided, single-layered disc (DVD-5) Suggested Retail Price: $19.99 White Keepcase

VIDEO and AUDIO

The Barefoot Executive is not in very good shape on DVD. The first problem is that the film is presented in a reformatted 1.33:1 "fullscreen" transfer. The lack of the original widescreen theatrical aspect ratio is indicative of a bigger problem: the film itself has not been properly remastered. Instead, an old video master appears to have been used. It looks very poorly.

Picture quality remains soft and sorely lacking detail throughout the film. It yearns for the sharpness that even much older films have often delivered on DVD. The colors are inconsistent and often look unnatural. In its lesser moments, the video appears blurry and out-of-focus. Other results of the weak mastering source turn up in shimmering and moiré effect. There are some but not many digital artifacts showing up as well.

I noticed no framing problems in the course of the film. It's tough to tell what has been done to achieve the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, but the film wouldn't have been shown in these dimensions theatrically in 1971. The transfer is probably open-matte from a mildly wider aspect ratio (Disney liked 1.75:1 back then). Minor cropping could have been employed, but I did not detect any of that, nor was there any apparent excess space.

The Barefoot Executive may not be the most picturesque film, but it's certainly entitled to a far better transfer than this.

Sound is provided in a Dolby Digital Mono track. It too is not coming from the original elements, but some kind of video master created a long time ago for less discerning ears. It's kind of lifeless, but still very serviceable. As with any Mono track, all of the audio comes from the center channel, and the mix of dialogue, mostly-present '70s score, and a few active sound effects is satisfactory and never difficult to distinguish. The biggest problem may be that the dialogue appears out-of-sync at times, and that's surely something that could be corrected by going back to the source rather than relying on this master. Fortunately, that doesn't occur too often. I'm not as quick to notice shortcomings of soundtracks as those of its visual counterpart, so for the most part, this audio presentation seemed unspectacular but not too bad.

BONUS FEATURES and DESIGN

As with the rest of April's catalogue debut DVDs, The Barefoot Executive arrives sans bonus features. There's the ubiquitous promo for other vintage live action Disney films on DVD, many of which are accompanied by some fun extras. But there's no Barefoot trailer or anything else to be found here but the movie.

The 16 x 9 menus are kind of neatly-designed. Each screen features a bank of televisions that feature a few characters or scenes from the film in the background, with another character in the foreground. Each menu is accompanied by a score selection, in fact the same selection, which is, of course, the funky '70s theme song in instrumental form.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

The Barefoot Executive is a very fun film. It shares its writer, director, two stars, and winning comedic spirit with the likable Dexter Riley films, and provides a similarly entertaining experience, with a charismatic chimp thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, its DVD is lacking, with a very disappointing transfer and no bonus features. As such, it's essentially a non-degrading VHS with chapter stops. While fans of Disney's '70s comedies are encouraged to check this movie out, the disc is difficult to recommend.

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