Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment will release more than 30 catalog titles on Blu-ray Disc in 2 (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

Why do I feel like executives in Burbank are staying up nights asking "What would Mike do?" right about now?

We all know what Disney did and did not do with their features, but given these budgets, what could they have done?

 

[NY2LA]

Why do I feel like executives in Burbank are staying up nights asking "What would Mike do?" right about now? 
We all know what Disney did and did not do with their features, but given these budgets, what could they have done?

You mean EISNER? yikes! It was his regime that did away with the 7 year reissue cycle for classic movies, first by eliminating all movies that were not produced during his rule, as if nothing was done before he got there. Now the only time we get a theatrical run, albeit a very brief one, is if they are promoting a DVD, and it's usually in just one location. Luckily I live a couple blocks away, but I'm a little tired of the limited fare add it sure ain't cheap!

 

[Alan Tully]

What's all this 1:75 stuff. A while back in the Aspect Ratio thread (before it became The Curse Of Frankenstein thread!). I posted a letter from a UK projectionist (published in a late 50's Films & Filming magazine), saying they were rigged up for 1:85 & 'scope, & that was it. So 1:75, 1:77, 1:66 = 1:85! Let's face it, cinemas could project films any way they like, do directors, lighting cameramen, or studio executives ever see a film in a public cinema!

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by NY2LA /t/319317/walt-disney-studios-home-entertainment-will-release-more-than-30-catalog-titles-on-blu-ray-disc-in-2012/120#post_3993944
You mean EISNER? yikes! It was his regime that did away with the 7 year reissue cycle for classic movies, first by eliminating all movies that were not produced during his rule, as if nothing was done before he got there. Now the only time we get a theatrical run, albeit a very brief one, is if they are promoting a DVD, and it's usually in just one location. Luckily I live a couple blocks away, but I'm a little tired of the limited fare add it sure ain't cheap!

I look at the Exclusive Archive Collection as the gold standard for what so many Disney Blu-rays could have been, and what future releases—and rereleases, as that's the Disney way—could yet be, in terms of the amount of extras and respectful attitude towards the people buying them.

They were right to ask "What would Walt do?" in the post-Walt era, but what every post-Walt executive regime, even in the tragically brief Golden Age™ of Ashman/Menken, missed is that Walt was a fanatical perfectionist. He would go back and scrap stuff that didn't look right to him, regardless of how much it cost to do so. Roy was an astute enough of a businessman to get the money. When a small company such as Criterion can do consistently good work on niche titles, what's Disney's excuse?

If Disney can afford to spend a quarter of a billion dollars on a single film they barely know how to promote (how long is this business model going to be sustainable?), getting movie stars and other creative personnel who are still with us to sit down and talk in-depth about their days at Disney before it's too late is a drop in the bucket in comparison. So is going back and fixing blatant technical goofs the studio refused to allot money or time to fix back in the day, but could fix now by recombining them digitally (i.e. what they plan to do with the sodium vapor shots in Mary Poppins, but I fear the films that have the most to gain from this may never get any kind of similar attention, even if it could be done cost-effectively without cutting corners). And I'd like to see more reconstructions of movies that were butchered by the execs in the editing room.

I have no doubt there are lot of people at WDHV who eat, sleep and breathe Disney and know this stuff inside and out, and feel the same way I do. They do acknowledge errors and recall or postpone defective or mis-mastered discs (though the DTS-HD English track on Pete's Dragon still has issues I doubt will be addressed), so I'll give them credit for that. But their influence seems to be limited by a corporate culture that can't see things in greater depth than the bottom line. That's why I think Frank Wells' death was as detrimental to the studio as Howard Ashman's, and possibly as much as Walt's. That's when Eisner's less savory business practice became more obvious, even to Disney die-hards.

Speaking of interviews, there were several very in-depth interviews with the key Walt-era animators done on film during the later part of the Ron Miller era (around the time they realized they needed to do—and still could do—better than Herbie Goes Bananas), and it would be great to see those used in some form. The Disney Channel used bits and pieces of them for years. As much as I respect the work of animation historians and people like Leonard Maltin who have been championing the Disney "canon" for generations now, the animators who actually made the films are the ones I want to hear from the most.

 

[NY2LA]

I look at the Exclusive Archive Collection as the gold standard for what so many Disney Blu-rays could have been, and what future releases—and rereleases, as that's the Disney way—could yet be, in terms of the amount of extras and respectful attitude towards the people buying them.
When a small company such as Criterion can do consistently good work on niche titles, what's Disney's excuse?
If Disney can afford to spend a quarter of a billion dollars on a single film they barely know how to promote, getting movie stars and other creative personnel who are still with us to sit down and talk in-depth about their days at Disney before it's too late is a drop in the bucket in comparison.
So is going back and fixing blatant technical goofs the studio refused to allot money or time to fix back in the day, but could fix now by recombining them digitally
And I'd like to see more reconstructions of movies that were butchered by the execs in the editing room.
I think Frank Wells' death was as detrimental to the studio as Howard Ashman's, and possibly as much as Walt's. That's when Eisner's less savory business practice became more obvious, even to Disney die-hards.
As much as I respect the work of animation historians and people like Leonard Maltin, the animators who actually made the films are the ones I want to hear from the most.

Totally agreed, Bad executive decisions, great loss in Wells, Ashman and Roy Disney... They have a very rich catalog and do not at all cultivate and utilize it well... and I am getting SO sick of Maltin, especially when he keeps popping up everywhere, like on cartoon intros that you cannot skip. Enough already!

 

[Mark-P]

...and I am getting SO sick of Maltin, especially when he keeps popping up everywhere, like on cartoon intros that you cannot skip. Enough already!

Save Leonard Maltin! Save Leonard Maltin!

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by Mark-P /t/319317/walt-disney-studios-home-entertainment-will-release-more-than-30-catalog-titles-on-blu-ray-disc-in-2012/120#post_3994461
Save Leonard Maltin! Save Leonard Maltin!

IIRC, if it wasn't for him, then those cartoons on the Walt Disney Treasures sets would have been censored (same mentality that led to Whoopi warning us about the Looney Tunes fans have loved for years and still been able to tell the difference between fantasy and reality).

 

[Larry-Bender]

BELOVED?

 

[NY2LA]

IIRC, if it wasn't for him, then those cartoons on the Walt Disney Treasures sets would have been censored (same mentality that led to Whoopi warning us about the Looney Tunes fans have loved for years and still been able to tell the difference between fantasy and reality).

Where did you hear that?
I see no excuse for an forced content on any disc that one is expected to purchase. It became almost a joke that every time I bought a set of cartoons, no matter who it was from, I was forced to sit through another one of his intros every time I played it. There are lots of people they could get to do intros, we shouldn't have to watch them every time, and why does it always have to be him? He has gotten rather full of himself over the years, and I had my fill years ago.

 

[Escapay]

Maltin created the "Walt Disney Treasures" line and has been the one to decide (at Disney's discretion, of course) what material ended up being released. I assume that also included the decision to include uncensored shorts, even though some material was still censored. For example, "Three Little Pigs" contains the re-animated salesman shot that replaced the original Fuller Brush Man version (though a clip of it is featured in one of Maltin's introductions).
I remember e-mailing him a few years ago about whether or not the Treasures series would continue, and he said it was Disney's decision, not his, to end the line after the "Zorro" sets. If I had my druthers, the WDT line would have been continued/re-issued on Blu-Ray, but with an open-ended print run and without those ridiculous metal tins. After all, Warner's having success with their Looney Tunes Platinum Collections. Surely Disney could release Blu-Ray equivalents of the Walt Disney Treasures sets.
Regarding the forced introductions, in an UltimateDisney interview from 2005, Maltin actually answers a couple questions about that:
How do you decide which cartoons need a contextual introduction?
It's not my call. There's someone at the studio who determines that.
How do you feel knowing that for some viewers, these short films and episodes will be eternally associated with you from your introductions?
(Laughs) I'm sorry. (laughs again) It's the price they have to pay.

 

[Mark-P]

...He has gotten rather full of himself over the years, and I had my fill years ago.

Seriously? From my observation, Leonard Maltin is quite the opposite. He's self-effacing. He loves and admires Disney's golden age and from his years of research he probably knows more about the history of the studio than any other outsider, but he would never say so himself. Really I'm surprised that anyone could find him to be annoying in the least.

 

[NY2LA]

Really I'm surprised that anyone could find him to be annoying in the least.

Have you ever met the guy?
At any rate, between the Disney sets and the WB sets, he is overexposed, and it doesn't make him any more appealing being forced to watch him give the same comments over and over every time you play a cartoon...

 

[rich_d]

So is going back and fixing blatant technical goofs the studio refused to allot money or time to fix back in the day, but could fix now by recombining them digitally (i.e. what they plan to do with the sodium vapor shots in Mary Poppins,

What's being proposed to do with the matte/process shots in Poppins?

 

[NY2LA]

gee I really doubt Walt Disney refused to budget money and time to fix anything in Mary Poppins. Nothing in the movie came off as a "blatant technical goof" that I recall back in 1964. It was lauded as cutting edge back then.
I thought the idea to go back and redo that stuff was due to the aging of the elements and newer technology that could make the picture look better in Hi Def.

 

[Dick]

Have you ever met the guy?
At any rate, between the Disney sets and the WB sets, he is overexposed, and it doesn't make him any more appealing being forced to watch him give the same comments over and over every time you play a cartoon...

You can thank Mr. Maltin for the availability of many of the Treasures DVD sets which he apparently fought to have released. He has a particular presence on his many intros to various DVD's and Blu-rays which I suppose, after a while, could irritate some people (wholesome, overly Pro-Disney), but in spite of his seemingly reverential (therefore minimally critical) appreciation for the studio, he has impeccable knowledge of it, having been allowed an astonishing degree of access. Maltin is so upbeat onscreen that he comes across as a bit sheepish sometimes, but if you read his book The Disney Films, you will discover that he backs up his claims and is not always complimentary to the studio. He has a consistent aura in almost all of his interviews and commentaries, which could be construed as boring or redundant, but he is a certifiable Disney fan, and he quite clearly cares about the quality of every one of the studio's films. You may deem him to be overexposed, but the fact that the Disney Studio has entrusted him with so much rare material makes him a true embassador, a role which I feel he has well fulfilled.

 

[MatthewA]

Several years ago, I met Maltin very briefly at a screening of The Red Shoes in Hollywood. I found him pretty personable, but unfortunately, I didn't have time to stay and talk more.

Originally Posted by NY2LA /t/319317/walt-disney-studios-home-entertainment-will-release-more-than-30-catalog-titles-on-blu-ray-disc-in-2012/120#post_3994861
gee I really doubt Walt Disney refused to budget money and time to fix anything in Mary Poppins. Nothing in the movie came off as a "blatant technical goof" that I recall back in 1964. It was lauded as cutting edge back then.
I thought the idea to go back and redo that stuff was due to the aging of the elements and newer technology that could make the picture look better in Hi Def.

For years, rumors have been circulating about Disney going back to the separate negatives of the film's live-action and animated sequences (and anything else that used sodium vapor), scanning them and recombining them digitally. They lost at least a generation by using the optical printers, and that generation loss is going to show up on a Blu-ray.

 

[NY2LA]

For years, rumors have been circulating about Disney going back to the separate negatives of the film's live-action and animated sequences (and anything else that used sodium vapor), scanning them and recombining them digitally. They lost at least a generation by using the optical printers, and that generation loss is going to show up on a Blu-ray.

Yeah I've heard about that too, and the most recent print of Poppins I've seen, even at the El Cap, looked terrible, and I think I had heard something about the elements not being good anymore, but I think Walt used the best technology available at the time, and what didn't exist, they invented, so I wouldn't say in this case that they refused to spend money to do better effects for Poppins, nor were there any "blatant technical goofs" at the time.
As for not enough being spent on effects, or tech goofs, maybe later films after Walt - Watcher in the Woods comes to mind - I recall very well that movie opening exclusively at the classy Ziegfeld in NYC, and at the end - there was this place where a big plot-solving effect was supposed to be - and it wasn't there. The ending therefore was confusing as hell.

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by NY2LA /t/319317/walt-disney-studios-home-entertainment-will-release-more-than-30-catalog-titles-on-blu-ray-disc-in-2012/120#post_3994918
Yeah I've heard about that too, and the most recent print of Poppins I've seen, even at the El Cap, looked terrible, and I think I had heard something about the elements not being good anymore, but I think Walt used the best technology available at the time, and what didn't exist, they invented, so I wouldn't say in this case that they refused to spend money to do better effects for Poppins, nor were there any "blatant technical goofs" at the time.
As for not enough being spent on effects, or tech goofs, maybe later films after Walt - Watcher in the Woods comes to mind - I recall very well that movie opening exclusively at the classy Ziegfeld in NYC, and at the end - there was this place where a big plot-solving effect was supposed to be - and it wasn't there. The ending therefore was confusing as hell.

I never meant to imply that Poppins was one of the titles where money was an issue. Obviously the big-budget features got the lion's share of the money, but in several other 60s and 70s movies, they let stuff slip through the cracks because they just didn't have the money for retakes/reshoots. I have never seen any of the sodium vapor hybrid musicals in dye transfer prints (what I wouldn't to do see Song of the South in that form at least once before I die), so I can't say how much the IB Technicolor printing process compensated for generation loss.

Watcher in the Woods, which I have yet to see in any form, is another "edited-by-committee" title that needs to be restored to its original intent (the shot wasn't ready for its premiere) Anchor Bay tried to do that years ago, but Eisner fought them at every turn after being shown up on how good the Anchor Bay DVDs of stuff like both cuts of Happiest Millionaire were compared to how shoddy the early Disney DVDs were (I think there was an article in the LA Times that set him off). All that came out was a stop-gap version that is in no way the true reconstruction AB wanted to do.

 

[rsmithjr]

I never meant to imply that Poppins was one of the titles where money was an issue. Obviously the big-budget features got the lion's share of the money, but in several other 60s and 70s movies, they let stuff slip through the cracks because they just didn't have the money for retakes/reshoots. I have never seen any of the sodium vapor hybrid musicals in dye transfer prints (what I wouldn't to do see Song of the South in that form at least once before I die), so I can't say how much the IB Technicolor printing process compensated for generation loss.
Watcher in the Woods, which I have yet to see in any form, is another "edited-by-committee" title that needs to be restored to its original intent (the shot wasn't ready for its premiere) Anchor Bay tried to do that years ago, but Eisner fought them at every turn after being shown up on how good the Anchor Bay DVDs of stuff like both cuts of Happiest Millionaire were compared to how shoddy the early Disney DVDs were (I think there was an article in the LA Times that set him off). All that came out was a stop-gap version that is in no way the true reconstruction AB wanted to do.

The 1964 prints of Poppins were indeed wonderful, one of the best 35mm-negative instances of dye-transfer in my opinion. Of course, it is perhaps easy to look at them today with different eyes, but I haven't seen one. The film was reissued theatrically in the 70's but I suspect that was Eastman.
BTW: I have seen Song of the South in dye-transfer during a reissue in the 50's. It looked very good. I actually like the film and don't think that it should be held back.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

I only knew Maltin from his old "Entertainment Tonight" appearances and his sometimes knee-jerk movie reviews, but when he moderated a Ray Harryhausen screening / Q&A at the Motion Picture Academy a few years back and turned an embarrassing audience question about the suicide of Willis O'Brien's first wife (who murdered O'Brien's children) into something palatable for the (fortunately) hard-of-hearng Harryhausen, he earned my respect forever.