Home theater fans roller skate down memory lane with the 4K debut of ‘Xanadu’

One of the strangest movie musical fantasies in the history of the genre gets a fresh look in the 4K format to offer its cavalcade of hit songs and legendary icons in Xanadu (Kino Lorber, rated PG, 1.85:1 aspect ratio, 93 minutes, $44.95).

The woeful tale of a struggling commercial artist, Sonny Malone (Michael Beck, who looks a lot like Andy Gibb), falling in love with one of the Nine Muses of Olympus plays out in and around the soon-to-be-opened Los Angeles roller disco nightclub named Xanadu (shot at the legendary Pan-Pacific Auditorium).

His romance with Kira, aka Terpsichore (Olivia Newton-John), is short-lived as she is forbidden to get involved with a mortal, but apparently only the gods can intervene to save this relationship.

A singing, dancing, roller skating and convincing Gene Kelly (in his last film) plays a former 1940s band leader as well as new friend and club partner to Sonny.

Despite his presence, the legend cannot save a plot muddled by cheesy, forced dialogue and overshadowed by a string of oddly paced dance numbers tied to hit songs.

Smart viewers should consider the film just a series of music videos and forward to the hit song sequences propelled by Jeff Lynne and his Electric Light Orchestra and Newton-John that included “I’m Alive,” “Suddenly” (a Newton John duet with British icon Cliff Richard), “All Over the World” and the No. 1 hits “Xanadu” and “Magic,” while quickly forgetting any of the odd plot.

I’ll admit that I was gobsmacked by Newton-John in the 1980s, so I have a guilty pleasure with “Xanadu,” a film that was so underappreciated, it was a partial inspiration for the infamous Golden Raspberry Awards (Robert Greenwald won for worst director).

4K in action: Viewers get a vivid and saturated 4K digital remaster from the original camera negative, graded for high dynamic range.

The new screen-filling presentation immediately delivers an opening scene with neon color outline and trails of the Muses as they come to life out of a mural.

Also worth noting visually is a Don Bluth animated short of Sonny and Kira as birds and fish (“Don’t Walk Away”) and a nearly 15-minute-long roller skating, disco dancing, tightrope walking, 1980s costuming cacophony and cotton candy-colored extravaganza near the end of the film.

However, the remaster remains woefully inconsistent throughout with grain, smothering at points, soft focus and even some visible pops and scratches, which makes zero sense with today’s modern cleanup technology.

Although, after watching the included really terrible-looking high definition version of the film on Blu-ray, the digital restoration artisans obviously had a mighty task in front of them.

Best extras: Viewers get four, that’s correct, a quartet of optional commentary tracks on the 4K disc, completely deconstructing the production and the movie’s legacy.

Let’s start with the most important, an in-depth interview with Mr. Greenwald as executed by Kino Lorber producer Douglas Hosdale, with both men sitting down to watch the film.

Viewers get a consistent fount of memories from Mr. Greenwald, starting with his career and the origin of the film that never had a completed script.

He talks about the extensive pre-production and location scouting; casting; working with the easygoing Newton-John and not-so-easygoing icon Kelly; explaining the merging of the 1940s and 1980s styles during a key dance number; and details such as Newton-John pushing the wearing of legwarmers as she was sure it would become a popular fashion trend (of course, it was).

Next, giddy filmmaker Jennifer Clymer and Mondo Digital’s Nathaniel Thompson offer a lighthearted analysis after admitting they are “Cuckcoo for Coco Puffs” about the movie.

They defend the film as not being a flop and go on to discuss its strengths and weaknesses in detail, pointing out the muses’ appearances throughout the film while considering it a 1980s time capsule of Los Angeles through a look at its fashion and architecture.

Third, enthusiastic film historians David Del Valle and Krystov Charles focus on delivering a “joyful” commentary and steady stream of trivia, anecdotes and encyclopedic information such as repeating the Mr. Beck quote, “’The Warriors’ opened the door for my career and ‘Xanadu’ closed it,” mentioning one of the muses was a Gold Digger dancer for the Dean Martin variety show and Newton-John had a store on Melrose Avenue called Koala Blue.

Finally, film historian and huge fan of the film Samm Deighan offers a serious analysis balancing positives and negatives as well as taking a deep dive with the cast and crew, touching on the miscasting of Mr. Beck, the inclusion of Kelly (extensive career and dance origins) and the varied projects of Mr. Greenwald.

Move to the Blu-ray disc to also find a 27-minute retrospective from 2009 featuring entertaining nuggets on the production as provided by the director, Mr. Bluth; writers Marc Reid Rubel and Richard Danus; producer Larry Gordon; The Tubes band members Fee Waybill and Michael Cotton (featured on of the films songs); costume designer Bobbie Mannix; choreographer Kenny Ortega; actress Sandahl Bergman (one of the muses); and even the widow of Kelly, Patricia, to name a few.

Anecdotes include Kelly not wanting to dance in the film (that changed); the constant struggles of working with an uncompleted script; using an impressive group of local dance talent; Kelly becoming a mentor to Mr. Ortega; and Kelly and Newton-John coming back after the end of filming to shoot a dance and singing duet.

After watching the retrospective, it’s much easier to appreciate the film, considering how much fun the talented cast and crew had in making it.