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Still Very Little Disney Live Action, Really? (1 Viewer)

Cinescott

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I had high hopes for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (my favorite Disney live action) for its 60th Anniversary this year, but it's not looking good.

We have Mary Poppins, but beyond that the Blu-ray catalog seems pretty weak. Why the dividing line between animated and live? Disney doesn't seem to have a problem at all releasing their blockbuster animated titles, but anything with real actors gets the shaft.

Doesn't give me much hope for the whole Star Wars series.
 

Vic Pardo

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Hmmm...don't quite see what STAR WARS has to do with live-action Disney, but you've got me thinking: if Disney had made STAR WARS in 1977 instead of Fox, who would they have cast?

Luke Skywalker: Kurt Russell
Han Solo: Dean Jones
Princess Leia: Jodie Foster
Obi Wan Kenobi: David Niven
Darth Vader: Cesar Romero
Grand Moff Alonzo Hawk: Keenan Wynn
C3PO: Jim Dale
R2D2: Tim Conway
Chewbacca: Don Knotts
Luke's uncle: Dick Van Patten
Luke's aunt: Nancy Olson

Who's to say this wouldn't have been better? :P
 

RBailey

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Vic...Great job on the Disney casting post! Funniest thing I've read all day! Love the Alonzo Hawk reference!
 

Vic Pardo

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RBailey said:
Vic...Great job on the Disney casting post! Funniest thing I've read all day! Love the Alonzo Hawk reference!

I figured if any forum would get that reference it would be this one.

Thanks. :)
 

Kyrsten Brad

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Hmmm, in regards to casting Princess Leia, love the Jodie Foster pick. But then again Disney might have taken a page from a old " Lost in Space" episode ( where Will Robinson encounters and wakes that little princess) and makes Leia a 12 year old princess casting a then 11 y/o Brooke Shields in the role. Hey it fits Disney's modis operadi for back in 1977.
 

John Kilduff

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When it comes to Disney and live-action, it's been a crapshoot. Even in the days when DVD was the dominant format and the market was booming, a lot of Disney's live-action titles were delivered to DVD with poor transfers and nothing in the way of extras, not even a trailer. It was just as bad with Disney's Touchstone titles. With the exception of certain titles ("Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Beaches", "Good Morning, Vietnam", "Dead Poets' Society" and "Tin Men" are the ones that come to mind, as well as most Touchstone titles released from 1997 to 2001), they just dumped titles onto the market with poor transfers and no extras. A lot of these titles were later pawned off to Mill Creek, which may have improved the transfers, but didn't add anything in the way of extras, even stripping titles of the meager extras they had, just as they've done with Sony Pictures titles. I call it strip-and-dump. No, it's not a bizarre sex fetish...It's stripping the titles of extras and dumping them into multi-film packs that land in bargain bins. The titles that remained with Disney didn't do much better in terms of bonus material. How could they release anniversary editions of "The Color Of Money" and "Adventures In Babysitting" and not give them any extras to indicate that they were celebrating these titles?

I've been rather disappointed with Disney's treatment of their live-action catalog titles, and it's not like there's much that can be done now.

Sincerely,

John Kilduff...

I would have loved better editions of Bette Midler's Touchstone work, for example. Imagine a "Ruthless People" Special Edition with ZAZ commentary, a theatrical trailer and the music videos for Dan Hartman's "Waiting To See You" and Luther Vandross' "Give Me The Reason". I would've loved that.
 

JoeDoakes

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Disney entered into a licensing agreement with Echo Bridge, but apparently, it only covered non"Disney" titles they own. It would be great if they would license out some of their Disney brand live action (if they're not going to release it themselves).
 

Konstantinos

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Yeah, it's really strange that there aren't more released..

My most wanted ones would be:

Treasure Island
20000 leagues under the sea
Old Yeller
Pollyanna
Swiss Family Robinson
The Parent Trap
Summer Magic
In Search of the Castaways
The Moon Spinners
Those Calloways
Blackbeard's Ghost
The Love Bug movies
The Witch Mountain movies
The Black Hole
Return to Oz
One Magic Christmas
White Fang
The Three Musketeers
Iron Will
 

Brian McP

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Here's a set Disney could put out in two minutes flat and it would sell very well -- the complete 'Medfield College' Collection.

The wha?

Medfield College was the high school Fred MacMurray taught at in "The Absent Minded Professor" (1960) and was still there in "Son of Flubber" After the success of "The Love Bug", Disney had a new lease of life with their live action comedies (it was the no. 1 box office hit of 1969) so they rebooted their Medfield premise again with Kurt Russell, Joe Flynn and Cesar Romero in "The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes" (1969) -- this was a big hit was followed with "Now You See Him, Now You Don't" (1972) and "The Strongest Man In The World" (1975)

Following Joe Flynn's death (40 years ago this week) and Kurt Russell leaving Disney around the same time, it wasn't until the late 90s when Robin Williams and "Flubber" tried to reboot the premise again -- despite the movie being a huge hit, Medfield College hasn't been revisited since -- dvds of all movies have been in stores for years, they could repackage these into one set very easily.
 

ajabrams

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Konstantinos said:
Yeah, it's really strange that there aren't more released..My most wanted ones would be:Treasure Island20000 leagues under the seaOld YellerPollyannaSwiss Family RobinsonThe Parent TrapSummer MagicIn Search of the CastawaysThe Moon SpinnersThose CallowaysBlackbeard's GhostThe Love Bug moviesThe Witch Mountain moviesThe Black HoleReturn to OzOne Magic ChristmasWhite FangThe Three MusketeersIron Will
Nice list. I'd like to add:So Dear To My HeartThree Lives of ThomasinaGreyfriars BobbyDarby O'GillStory of Robin HoodSword and the RoseRob Roy
 

Kyrsten Brad

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Konstantinos said:
Yeah, it's really strange that there aren't more released..My most wanted ones would be:Treasure Island20000 leagues under the seaOld YellerPollyannaSwiss Family RobinsonThe Parent TrapSummer MagicIn Search of the CastawaysThe Moon SpinnersThose CallowaysBlackbeard's GhostThe Love Bug moviesThe Witch Mountain moviesThe Black HoleReturn to OzOne Magic ChristmasWhite FangThe Three MusketeersIron Will
Swiss Family Robinson is now available from the Disney Movie Club as a tin container special (DVD only )And I want a Blu for Disney's The Three Musketeers.
 

classicmovieguy

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I would have put money on Disney bringing "Return to Oz" to Blu as a tie-in with their "Oz: The Great and Powerful" release, but we all know how Disney loves to let these golden opportunities pass on by.
 

classicmovieguy

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Brian McP said:
Following Joe Flynn's death (40 years ago this week) and Kurt Russell leaving Disney around the same time, it wasn't until the late 90s when Robin Williams and "Flubber" tried to reboot the premise again -- despite the movie being a huge hit, Medfield College hasn't been revisited since -- dvds of all movies have been in stores for years, they could repackage these into one set very easily.
They kind of did (well, the Kurt Russell titles anyway)...

http://www.amazon.com/Disney-4-Movie-Collection-Strongest-Computer/dp/B008H6GHG0/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1405576132&sr=1-1&keywords=kurt+russell+disney

51ebX+WtwGL.jpg
 

Vic Pardo

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Long story short: just this morning I read about the existence of roadshow versions of THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE and THE ONE AND ONLY GENUINE ORIGINAL FAMILY BAND. MILLIONAIRE's been released (DVD) in both of its versions, but FAMILY BAND has yet to see a proper aspect ratio release and has come out only in its shortened version. To be honest, I hadn't given any thought to either of these films since their original releases 47 and 46 years ago, respectively, neither of which I saw. (I was more into Sergio Leone, John Wayne and James Bond back then.) But I'm at an age where I'm curious about films like this that were based on actual history that I was unaware of.
 

John Maher_289910

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There are high definition masters of lots of Disney live-action films, without proper Blu-ray releases. No idea, why?
 

Mark-P

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Vic Pardo said:
Long story short: just this morning I read about the existence of roadshow versions of THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE and THE ONE AND ONLY GENUINE ORIGINAL FAMILY BAND. MILLIONAIRE's been released (DVD) in both of its versions, but FAMILY BAND has yet to see a proper aspect ratio release and has come out only in its shortened version. To be honest, I hadn't given any thought to either of these films since their original releases 47 and 46 years ago, respectively, neither of which I saw. (I was more into Sergio Leone, John Wayne and James Bond back then.) But I'm at an age where I'm curious about films like this that were based on actual history that I was unaware of.
It's out it HD and widescreen from streaming/download services. I posted some screencaps a while back.
 

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