Are there G-rated fantasies? You betcha! In fact, at the movies that's the most enduring kind. What else can so fully engage the innocent dreams and fears of our endless adolescence?

This week, two of the best G-rated celluloid safaris to that mythic realm of evil curses, lovely princesses and heroic rescuers return to Maryland shelves in mint condition: Walt Disney's animated "Sleeping Beauty" and Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion adventure yarn, "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad." Each is being honored on its 50th anniversary with a splendid new restoration on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

What made Walt Disney's animated films so perfect? I believe it was only partly due to Disney's singular artistry and vision; the rest came from what he inspired in others. Disney's colony of craftspeople seemed eager to go the extra mile to please their boss.

Evidence abounds in the first Disney-supervised animated feature released in high-definition. The "Sleeping Beauty" 50th Anniversary Platinum Edition (Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, two-disc DVD $29.99, and Blu-ray Disc $35.99) is a fabulous showcase not only for its art design, story and remastered Tchaikovsky soundtrack, but for the overall innovation and personality of the Disney touch.

That 1959 release was the first wide-screen animated feature and was six years in the making, mainly because of the technical problems it posed. Seeing its panoramic stylizations of 14th-century tapestries and costumes in vibrant Crayola colors on today's wide-screen TVs has to be one of the biggest video delights of 2008.

The two-disc anniversary edition contains a full DVD of supplements, including a 3-D guided tour of the original Disneyland "Sleeping Beauty" castle by its team of "Imagineers;" an all-new "making of" documentary titled "Picture Perfect;" and four deleted songs presented with original storyboard art. Of stronger interest to some will be the remastered bonus programs, such as the Oscar-winning nature film "Grand Canyon," set to the symphony by Ferde Grofe; the Disney TV show episode "The Peter Tchaikovsky Story" and the superb filmed art course, "Four Artists Paint One Tree."

Other materials on the Blu-ray Disc include picture-in-picture features, a "Dragon Encounter" experience, and a game called "Maleficent's Challenge." The disc also launches the new Disney BD-Live Network, which allows viewers with an Internet connection to chat, stream video, play communal games and more.

Only slightly less loaded is "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" 50th Anniversary Edition (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, DVD $19.94, and Blu-ray Disc $28.95). Besides documentaries on the film's making and its special effects, bonuses here include interviews and commentaries with Ray Harryhausen, who is also being honored in the four-title "Ray Harryhausen Collectible DVD Gift Set" ($80.95 standard DVD, $107.95 on Blu-ray).

"The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" might have been titled "The Little Princess," since it charts what happens when Baghdad bombshell Kathryn Grant is shrunk to palm-size by a wicked wizard. When the only cure appears to lie on an island populated by Cyclops, armed skeletons and a relative of "Sleeping Beauty's" flame-throwing dragon, Sinbad (Kerwin Matthews) sets off on the riskiest voyage of his career.

It's all great fun, thanks to colorful art design, Harryhausen's stop-motion monsters and the flavorful scoring of Bernard Herrmann. The Blu-ray Disc doesn't do the 1958 movie many favors, revealing all the film grain and artifice in the numerous processed effects. But it's all more vivid than I've ever seen it; it's like watching a sparkling celluloid print projected onto your home screen -- and with superb stereo surround to boot!

As with "Sleeping Beauty," no matter which edition you select, these new restorations make the two fantasies ripe for rediscovery and repeated family viewings.

Alice Faye returns!

Yes, the radio singer whose mellow contralto voice warmed many a GI's heart in World War II is back in a second volume of films from 20th Century-Fox Home Entertainment. "The Alice Faye Collection, Volume 2" ($49.95 retail price) is the latest in the label's "Marquee Musicals" line, and brings five missing Faye favorites to DVD.

Of special note here is the lesser-seen 1941 musical, "The Great American Broadcast." It retraces the birth of radio as a mass communications media in fictional terms, much as "Singin' in the Rain" addressed the arrival of talkies.

Frequent Faye co-star John Payne plays a discharged World War I flying ace who sees the potential in Jack Oakie's wireless basement hobby. The two men spar over their new singing star while Payne promotes the new medium into a coast-to-coast phenomenon bringing news, presidential speeches and major sporting events, like the Jack Dempsey fight, to far-flung American homes.

Adding to the entertainment are new songs by Harry Warren, super-smooth vocal performances by the Four Ink Spots, laughs courtesy of the zany Weire Brothers, and fabulous footwork by the dancing Nicholas Brothers.

The set includes two Technicolor treats: 1943's "Hello, Frisco, Hello," about saloon musicians on the Bowery, and 1939's "Hollywood Cavalcade," a non-musical serving of slapstick comedy and unchecked emoting set within the fledgling movie industry. Buster Keaton and Mack Sennett appear as themselves in the latter film, and bonuses on the disc include a "making of" featurette, a Keaton short and yet another look at the Fatty Arbuckle scandal.

"Four Jills in a Jeep" from 1944 is of interest for being based on the real-life adventures of the first group of female entertainers sent overseas by the U.S.O. in WW II. All four stars play versions of themselves -- Carole Landis, Kaye Francis, Martha Raye and Mitzi Mayfair -- with generous backings by Jimmy Dorsey's band. Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, and other stars show up to sing along the way.

The collection is topped off by 1939's classic "Rose of Washington Square," starring Faye, Tyrone Power and the great Al Jolson in a showbiz saga that closely mirrors the life of Fanny Brice as later retold in "Funny Girl."

All five discs, also available individually at $14.95, include rare deleted scenes and outtakes, new and vintage featurettes, still galleries, commentaries and even isolated score tracks.

Also new on DVD

"Paranoid Park" (Genius Entertainment, rated R, DVD $19.95). Gus van Sant knows Portland's skateboarding-slacker milieu better than any filmmaker, and here he captures its aimless energy in an array of experimental film techniques. There's a slight story about police investigators trying to gain the kids' confidence in order to get a lead on a local killing. The boy who saw what happened (and it is nightmarish when ultimately revealed) is at risk not so much from the law as from living with his own bottled-up guilt. It may be Van Sant's best film -- though not for the squeamish nor for the casual escapist.

"You Don't Mess With the Zohan" (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, rated PG-13, DVD $28.96, and $38.96 on Blu-ray Disc). Adam Sandler plays an Israeli special forces legend who leaves it all behind to come to New York and give shampoos to wealthy ladies as a boutique hairstylist. You either go with the premise or you don't mess with the movie. Either way, Sandler's ego and terrible accent are only tolerable in short stints, and this supposed comedy seems like it may never end.

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