I haven’t seen this movie except on DVD and blu. The bluray mix is indeed a bit gimmicky with voices moving across channels. Does the stereo mix have a lot of oomph? I remember being quite impressed by the sound mix of other Touchstone films at this time (Rocketeer and Sister Act.)
Also can you say why the commentary is in 3 channel?
Firstly, yeah, there is oomph in the Dolby Stereo (and the 1997 5.1 mix) mix. And also, the reason the commentary is 3.0 is because it is isolated with the film audio.