By Leonard Malton, from his website:
SILLIER THAN EVER
Reviewers of DVD releases, especially online, tend to be harshly critical and demanding. Most of them are savvy film buffs who hold the video companies to a very high standard, as they should. But now that I am involved in the production of DVDs, I’ve become more forgiving as I see the daunting number of pitfalls that lie between good intentions and great results.
You wouldn’t think there was anything terribly complicated in taking a master copy of a movie off the shelf and reproducing it. I can’t begin to explain how many problems can arise along that path. Last December, upon release of the four latest entries in the Walt Disney Treasures series, I discovered to my dismay that while exceptional new digital masters had been made for some of the Silly Symphonies cartoons, someone used older versions when authoring the discs. What’s more, after the folks at Sparkhill, with whom I work, slaved over a series of replica main titles for the black & white shorts in this series (since the originals were destroyed fifty years ago), they were somehow never attached to the actual films for DVD mastering! This can only be ascribed to “human error,” and should have been caught before the product was finalized.
At least one sharp-eyed viewer also noticed a subtle edit in the 1932 cartoon The Night Before Christmas. It consists of a seven-second cameo appearance by Amos and Andy in toy form, participating in a parade of Santa Claus’s goodies. This footage was removed at some point, for the sake of political correctness, but no one in the Disney archives could identify when, nor could they locate the missing material. Fortunately, I remembered that this was one of the first Disney cartoons donated by Walt himself to the Museum of Modern Art Film Library , decades ago. I’d seen the 35mm Technicolor nitrate print projected there on more than one occasion. Luckily for us, archivist Peter Williamson at MoMA was willing and able to help out. The fragile print was copied, then integrated into the Disney video master and color-corrected so that the addition would be seamless.
Now, finally, the good news: anyone who purchased the More Silly Symphonies, Volume 2 DVD set can obtain replacement discs with all of these errors corrected. Simply call 1-800-723-4763 in the U.S. or 1-888-877-2843 in Canada . You will receive replacement discs, not replacement packaging, so please hold on to your current packaging. I am glad that the folks at Walt Disney Home Video committed itself to set things right in this manner...and they have put safeguards in place to see that this kind of problem doesn’t occur on the next three Walt Disney Treasures coming out in December.
SILLIER THAN EVER
Reviewers of DVD releases, especially online, tend to be harshly critical and demanding. Most of them are savvy film buffs who hold the video companies to a very high standard, as they should. But now that I am involved in the production of DVDs, I’ve become more forgiving as I see the daunting number of pitfalls that lie between good intentions and great results.
You wouldn’t think there was anything terribly complicated in taking a master copy of a movie off the shelf and reproducing it. I can’t begin to explain how many problems can arise along that path. Last December, upon release of the four latest entries in the Walt Disney Treasures series, I discovered to my dismay that while exceptional new digital masters had been made for some of the Silly Symphonies cartoons, someone used older versions when authoring the discs. What’s more, after the folks at Sparkhill, with whom I work, slaved over a series of replica main titles for the black & white shorts in this series (since the originals were destroyed fifty years ago), they were somehow never attached to the actual films for DVD mastering! This can only be ascribed to “human error,” and should have been caught before the product was finalized.
At least one sharp-eyed viewer also noticed a subtle edit in the 1932 cartoon The Night Before Christmas. It consists of a seven-second cameo appearance by Amos and Andy in toy form, participating in a parade of Santa Claus’s goodies. This footage was removed at some point, for the sake of political correctness, but no one in the Disney archives could identify when, nor could they locate the missing material. Fortunately, I remembered that this was one of the first Disney cartoons donated by Walt himself to the Museum of Modern Art Film Library , decades ago. I’d seen the 35mm Technicolor nitrate print projected there on more than one occasion. Luckily for us, archivist Peter Williamson at MoMA was willing and able to help out. The fragile print was copied, then integrated into the Disney video master and color-corrected so that the addition would be seamless.
Now, finally, the good news: anyone who purchased the More Silly Symphonies, Volume 2 DVD set can obtain replacement discs with all of these errors corrected. Simply call 1-800-723-4763 in the U.S. or 1-888-877-2843 in Canada . You will receive replacement discs, not replacement packaging, so please hold on to your current packaging. I am glad that the folks at Walt Disney Home Video committed itself to set things right in this manner...and they have put safeguards in place to see that this kind of problem doesn’t occur on the next three Walt Disney Treasures coming out in December.
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