MISSING DISNEY ON BLU-RAY (2 Viewers)

[Nick*Z]

I would put Schawn Belston over at Fox in this category too - and to a lesser extent, Ned Price at WB too. But yes, Ron, you are right. Generally, I am at a loss as to why studios fail to have their asset management dept. headed by someone who not only understands the biz end, but has a passion for the heritage. The passion means more, if you ask me, because with it comes a definite ingenuity for getting marketability and profitability from the archives - as well as serving as the custodians for future generations. Happily, I would toss my own hat into the ring - I think to manage Fox Home Video, or Disney. WB doesn't need help so long as they have Mr. Feltenstein steering the rudder. Just look at the riches spewing forth from the archive this year. Wow and thank you!!! My favorite studio would be WB because they hold MGM and RKO assets too. But I don't think this likely so long as Mr. Feltenstein is in charge. Even so, I would love to sit in on those meetings and help in the decision-making process. But Fox really needs someone at the helm of their classic library - desperately, in fact - as does the Walt Disney Co. So consider this my not so comprehensive cover letter, I suppose.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

For those who want to truly understand the passion George Feltenstein has for classic media (not just movies; he's a big classic TV buff as well), I recommend at least one listen to the Warner Archive podcast. Mr. Feltenstein doesn't have a "radio" voice, but you can hear his enthusiasm. It's quite palpable, and his knowledge of the efforts involved is encyclopedic.

 

[PODER]

To all those wondering why films such as THE PARENT TRAP were left off my original list: I should have made it
clearer that I was only listing ANIMATED films I was hoping I might someday see on Blu-Ray. The live action
list would be MUCH longer, and the subject of a whole different post. I apologize for any confusion.

 

[PaulaJ]

Still waiting for a decent version of The Journey of Natty Gann.

 

[Dr Griffin]

The Last Valley (1971), in Todd-AO with Michael Caine and Omar Sharif, is with Disney. The MGM DVD, a non-anamorphic letterbox/aliasing spectacular, has to be replaced.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Don't forget Schawn Belston at Fox, but yeah, I agree completely it's not a good situation in most places.

 

[Nick*Z]

I've posted the above link before but honestly, I sincerely feel this guy's pain.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I've posted the above link before but honestly, I sincerely feel this guy's pain.

I understand where the guy's coming from, but I hope he understands that posting a YouTube video will have zero effect on anything. Now, the truth is, there's probably nothing that any of us can do at the consumer level to affect change, but if there is anything that can be accomplished, it won't be by posting a video online that Disney almost certainly isn't aware of and wouldn't take the time to watch if they were made aware of it.

In my experiences, the only way to have your complaint or issue even register at a major company is to send a printed letter through snail mail. Online petitions and posts get no attention, and phone calls and emails are usually dealt with at the lowest levels of customer service where the people you're speaking to have little authority to make change.

I've said this before, but I strongly believe that if you have a concern or complaint with a company, it is far more effective to look up who the CEO and/or president is and to send a print letter to their office. Obviously the CEO won't read it himself, but almost every major company has a secret level of customer service at the executive level that will expedite handling of problems, and at least put things in front of other people's eyes to react to.

Nothing's going to change immediately, and maybe nothing will ever change, but I think by writing a letter there's at least a chance that someone who is not an outsourced customer service agent will take a look at it. In the case of customer service where there was a specific problem that could be addressed (for instance, a problem with an iPod from Apple, or a problem with a computer from Dell), writing directly to the CEO got customer service to pay attention to my issue whereas I had previously been trapped in form letter responses from regular customer service. Obviously that's not the same here since we're not looking for a simple repair request, but I think the point remains - passively communicating with the company via social media posts will get no attention, but letters sent directly to the executive offices will at least gather some attention behind closed doors.

 

[David Norman]

Also just that frozen picture of a RANT in process from what appears to yet another loon would make me delete it before ever clicking. Internet and You tube rants get files in the trash or virtual. Same thing with TV. Radio, Sports talk 'news' programs that begin like Crazy Eddie commercials (the financial guy comes to mind immediately) -- 2-3 seconds and I;m over to something else.

Calm, succinct letters addressed to proper dept are best. With no signs of sealed by blood and the first sentence doesn't start with 6 f-bombs, all caps, and 16 exclamation points -- shredder before the first period

Reminds me of DirecTV where Ellen Filipiak, Senior Vice President of Customer Relations Assistant VP corporate address, phone, and email were published (by them) to deal with problems that had hit the vortex. It seems 85-90+% of the people who went through that method got at resolution or reasonable solutions even if it wasn't what they wanted -- at least you got an answer. Almost immediately CS ratings jumped substantially and considerably.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Calm, succinct letters addressed to proper dept are best. With no signs of sealed by blood and the first sentence doesn't start with 6 f-bombs, all caps, and 16 exclamation points -- shredder before the first period

Agreed. And I think, in most instances, it does pay off to do it right. On an individual level, I've never not gotten the help I needed when writing politely to the head of a company about a customer service problem. (For example, had a Dell computer that never worked right from Day 1, and went through a series of frustrating repairs and replacements of individual parts for over two years, and it just kept getting more ridiculous, but I was told that they had to repair the machine and not replace it - even though they could not diagnose the issue or resolve it. Finally wrote to Dell's CEO, and a week later, a brand new computer showed up at my doorstep. Had a similar issue with a Compaq laptop, where it came defective, the store I bought it at replaced it the next day, that one was defective too, store wouldn't take it back, Compaq serviced it, still came back defective twice, wrote to CEO, they arranged for an exchange for a brand new machine. Had an issue with an iPod around 2006 where it kept shutting off after less than ten minutes of listening, and required a total reinstall each time to get it to run again - sent it in to Apple for service three times, three times it came back with a note saying they couldn't detect a fault and it was fine. Wrote to the CEO, got a phone call from a secret customer service department that you had to enter in a password just to call them back, and they sent me a replacement iPod within a week. In all of these instances, normal customer service had failed, but because I had written a polite letter to the heads of each of these companies, my issue was resolved without any further hassle almost immediately.) Now I realize that in this specific case, it's not a defective widget that Disney can just replace, but I think the same principles apply. Right now, Disney are doing what they're doing because they think it's working for people. No company would do something that lost them money on purpose. They clearly think that they're satisfying customer demand, and that if anyone isn't happy, it's just one or two malcontents that can never be satisfied anyway, so why bother. The way to change that impression is to write to them in such a way that they eventually come to the conclusion, "Our customers aren't as happy as they used to be, how can we fix that?"

 

[Dr Griffin]

I've posted the above link before but honestly, I sincerely feel this guy's pain.

Hold up, that looks like HTF member Andrew (Darkrock17).

 

[Nick*Z]

[QUOTE=" Right now, Disney are doing what they're doing because they think it's working for people. No company would do something that lost them money on purpose. They clearly think that they're satisfying customer demand, and that if anyone isn't happy, it's just one or two malcontents that can never be satisfied anyway, so why bother. The way to change that impression is to write to them in such a way that they eventually come to the conclusion, "Our customers aren't as happy as they used to be, how can we fix that?"[/QUOTE]

No company is that naive! I'll agree corporate intel' is generally flawed, relying on market research and other seemingly 'fact-based' data to 'predict' an outcome - a futile effort, indeed. How do you predict the greatness of a Citizen Kane or Lawrence of Arabia, when no template before them existed to draw a direct comparison? Walt had no template for Fantasia but he took a gamble on it nonetheless. No kidding, Walt did not live to see Fantasia enter the annals as a prized piece of uniquely ambitious animation; regarded by many today as 'art' more than a movie.

But it sure as heck explains why we're not making any more Kane's, Lawrence's or Fantasia's these days. Still, custodianship of ANY film library ought to be predicated on more than just 'how can we make a buck off this right now?' While I agree not everything that came from golden age Hollywood was of the artistic merit of the aforementioned releases, and, equally not warranting a deluxe platinum series Blu-ray reissue with 6 hours of extra features; without question, everything that has survived the deluge of the last 80+ years in wanton neglect is decidedly worthy of some sort of more concerted preservation effort.

If we were talking about saving Da Vinci's Last Supper or Michelangelo's statue of David there would be no discussion; each regarded as a work of art and an artifact worthy of the necessary patronage to ensure its existence for another 150 years. Sadly, the same mantra is never applied to 'movie art'; considered for far too long the disposable red-headed stepchild of the 20th century's art forms. Can you imagine a world where we could so callously junk and/or ignore the 20th century's other artisans. Would you junk a Warhol, Dali or a Chagall. Would you throw out all of Harper Lee's notes on To Kill A Mockingbird, or allow every last copy of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby to turn to dust?

Celluloid entertainment IS art - period! And art should never be subjected to the exclusive domain of a few 'well-meaning' novice exec's who know little if anything of their assets, but think they know better than their audience what should and should not be seen. Can you imagine what would happen if management at the Louvre suddenly looked at the Mona Lisa and made the snap assessment "nobody wants to see that" ergo "nobody should" and "nobody will"? That's the same scenario as what's been going on with Song of the South.

Management of movie art are its caretakers - not the arbitrators of what constitutes good taste or the greater good in terms of shielding contemporary society at large with their own pious attitudes toward morality, race relations and censorship of art they alone have unceremoniously labeled as 'degenerate', which is basically what this amounts to at Disney Inc. today. Hitler tried to do as much in Germany during the war - no loin-clothed Tarzan movies for Der Fuhrer. But Walt would certainly have not agreed with the decision-making going on within his company walls today. But alas, the old edict that used to stand "what would Walt have done?" no longer seems to provide the necessary fail safe to preserve the company's cultural heritage he created, seemingly built to last for the ages. That's a very sad state of affairs indeed.

I don't know the guy in the video, but I can empathize with his rant. And yes, Josh, David and Dr. G...I think more cool heads ought to prevail, if for no other reason, than to draw reason from the insanity that has been taking place, and stir logic rather than fervor to the cause. Posting the video here wasn't done to incite a riot or affect a change of corporate logic at Disney - good, bad or indifferent; merely to point to the fact Disney Inc. hasn't been pleasing some of its most die hard fans for some time.

Look at the wellspring of memorabilia behind this kid. Obviously, he's into Disney more than most and not at all impressed by what's been going on at the Mouse House for some time. If the company can tick off someone who was once this obsessed and devoted to them, can it be all that much of a stretch for Disney Inc. to reconsider they haven't exactly been painting happy faces on the rest of us? Wishing wells and sincere pleading aside - perhaps it's time some of the more violently opposed among us took up our creative coloring pencils and sketched out our thoughts with a little more passion than ennui. Hmmmmm....

 

[Ronald Epstein]

My overall concern on this issue is just how much Disney management is paying attention to Internet fans.

I think, like most companies, they are counting beans instead of looking at the bigger picture.

The Home Video department reads these forums, but I would imagine their hands are tied.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My overall concern on this issue is just how much Disney management is paying attention to Internet fans.

Exactly!

That's all I'm saying, that I don't think Disney (or any other corporation) is paying attention to Internet traffic. My personal belief is this video on YouTube has the same chance of being viewed by Disney whether or not the guy ever pressed "upload". Open letters are passive. They require the person on the receiving end to make an effort to seek them out, and I just don't think there's anyone at Disney whose job it is to search the Internet each day for open letters.

If the person in the video had written down all of his thoughts on a piece of paper and mailed them to Robert Iger's office, an executive level assistant would have at least read it. Had it been sent to people on the board of directors, someone might have addressed it. The response would probably be vague at not instantly gratifying, but the writer's voice would have been heard in some small way.

I apologize if I'm taking this too far off track. It kinda hit on a pet peeve of mine. I see on my Facebook everyday, for instance, someone I know reposting a meme or promoting an anonymous online petition or tweeting at someone hoping to accomplish some goal, but never taking any direct action. I can't seem to impress upon them that major corporations do not view the Internet as a two way street to engaged with the public; it's a novelty item to them. Emails and social media doesn't tip the scale for them in 99.9% of the cases. Whether it's fair or not, even in the year 2016, a print letter carries more weight than any form of online communication. I can't guarantee a letter will get you want you want, but I can guarantee posting an "open letter" on YouTube won't.

But if everyone who clicks "like" on Facebook or whatever could be persuaded to write a real letter, or show up to public meetings, or whatever else, I think that might be something to see.

 

[Dick]

Still waiting for a decent version of The Journey of Natty Gann.

This has a beautiful HD master -- I've seen it -- and about time, too, as the studio has traditionally neglected this wonderful film as an ugly ducking foster child. All previous releases have been panned and scanned or OAR but crappy, distorted, aliased, overly grainy DVD's. The HD master is 2.35:1 and looks and sounds superb. Hopefully the Movie Club will release this. Otherwise, what a waste of a lovely family flick!

 

[MatthewA]

I've been snooping around to see how many titles only available on streaming but not Blu-ray in HD, and it looks like Midnight Madness, one of the first proto-Touchstone/PG Initiative titles and a personal favorite of mine, is now available for rental* in HD. Though they missed the 35th anniversary last year, it would be nice to have a Blu-ray in Michael J. Fox's lifetime; the two DVDs** look like the same 1980s home video master, complete with dirt, scratches and analog dot crawl.

*Or as they used to say in the white ridged clamshell VHS box days, "For Rental Only, Not For Sale".
**This was one of the titles in the Anchor Bay deal. Part of that deal involved downplaying the fact that the movies were made by Disney as much as possible. For this movie, that was easy since they took the Disney name off preemptively in the hopes that teenagers, the one group least likely to go see Disney films, would see it. But for Disney's in-house DVD, they finally brought themselves to put their name on it.

 

[MatthewA]

Hold up, that looks like HTF member Andrew (Darkrock17).

It is. That was his reaction to the short version-only Bedknobs and Broomsticks Blu-ray, as well as the hideously smeary transfer on The Sword in the Stone that they had the audacity to call a "restoration." Surely someone who actually works for the studio who felt similarly* made their thoughts on the subject known to their superiors.

*I have no idea how many people involved with the reconstruction of the film are still at Disney. There must be a few who haven't moved on to other jobs by now as Scott MacQueen has. And certainly the just-turned-88-year-old Richard M. Sherman, who was there supervising them every step of the way, must have said something to someone by now.

 

[benbess]

I've been waiting 8 years for a blu-ray of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea....

 

[Capnvid]

That's the one we want! Really nice poster. Whale of a tale!

 

[MatthewA]

They restored it and Operation Undersea but they've been holding it back to tie in with a remake that may or may not actually get made.