OLD YELLER and POLLYANA Blu-rays (1 Viewer)

The Disney Movie Club recently released these titles (which I was able to get for $13.00 apiece using their 50% after the first title deal). In spite of my very real issues regarding their abandonment of 3-D in this U.S., I do have to give credit where credit is due. These are nice discs. They have not been scrubbed of grain. They are sharp. The color on YELLER seems a tad faded toward brown, but not unwatchably so. There are no special features. I am pleased with both of them.

If I may ask, do they include English subtitles?

Looks like I'm going to have to keep the DVDs.

MatthewA said:

Looks like I'm going to have to keep the DVDs.

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Without question. But I'll be getting the Blu-rays as well, for watching the feature itself.


It's ludicrous that we have to do that when the upgrade is issued by the very studio that's got the fistful of extras but chooses to leave them in the vault. It just boggles. What ARE they thinking?

Charles Smith said:

Without question. But I'll be getting the Blu-rays as well, for watching the feature itself.


It's ludicrous that we have to do that when the upgrade is issued by the very studio that's got the fistful of extras but chooses to leave them in the vault. It just boggles. What ARE they thinking?

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I can tell you what I'm thinking: those extras were SD and could easily have fit on a BD-50. Old Yeller isn't even 90 minutes long; it should have had plenty of room left even on a BD-25.

Charles Smith said:

Without question. But I'll be getting the Blu-rays as well, for watching the feature itself.


It's ludicrous that we have to do that when the upgrade is issued by the very studio that's got the fistful of extras but chooses to leave them in the vault. It just boggles. What ARE they thinking?

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They were thinking "Club Exclusive", which is what it says on the cover.

Judging it by the same standards as a commercial release is just silly, unless, of course....it DOES eventually get a commercial release.


And I'm still in "Hmm... " mode until the end of the year, until any more pointed evidence shows up.

This was supposed to be the Disney equivalent of Warner Archive, who doesn't casually drop extras to the extent they do. Oh wait, I thought Disney Generations was supposed to be their WA.


If nothing else, at least we can expect the live-action library won't get the same scrubbed-sterile treatment some of the animated films received. What about the audio?

MatthewA said:

What about the audio?

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Great question. I'm assuming they are at least lossless tracks. How do they sound?

Mike Frezon said:

Great question. I'm assuming they are at least lossless tracks. How do they sound?

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I can't find that information, but I wouldn't assume lossless based on the other DMC exclusives

MatthewA said:

This was supposed to be the Disney equivalent of Warner Archive, who doesn't casually drop extras to the extent they do. Oh wait, I thought Disney Generations was supposed to be their WA.

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Yeah, that didn't last long, probably since not enough people outside the Club were buying the niche archive material, and their WA dreams didn't pan out overnight.

Still, you can find all seven on Amazon.

David Norman said:

I can't find that information, but I wouldn't assume lossless based on the other DMC exclusives

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Wow. Maybe the OP can tell us...

Just received a pleasant surprise in my Saturday mail delivery..."Pollyanna" & "Old Yeller", 3 weeks earlier than I expected(official release date was slated as February 10th!)...will be checking these out later tonight and tomorrow for picture and sound quality and will report back on these accordingly...

Ejanss said:

Yeah, that didn't last long, probably since not enough people outside the Club were buying the niche archive material, and their WA dreams didn't pan out overnight.

Still, you can find all seven on Amazon.

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They barely advertised the program, they only made the discs available on Amazon, and (at least on the two titles I actually own, Amy and Child of Glass, which were both shot and edited on film) they used horribly outdated transfers. With the 1980s Disney Sunday Movies that made up the rest of the line, they would probably have had to go back and rebuild them in HD. Nobody bought them because nobody knew about them.

Warner Archive, for the most part, doesn't; they remaster stuff even if it's unknown to virtually anyone under 30, they keep extras where they existed, and they get the word out. Why DMC suddenly feels the need to jettison extras is beyond me. Some of the catalog Blu-rays that got released to stores managed to keep more than 50% of their DVD extras. I've speculated why they do this and I can't come up with a satisfying reason. Seriously, what is going on at this company's home video division?

MatthewA said:

This was supposed to be the Disney equivalent of Warner Archive, who doesn't casually drop extras to the extent they do. Oh wait, I thought Disney Generations was supposed to be their WA.

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Kinda, except the WA blu-rays have been good about porting their extras from the respective DVD releases.


Also, the less said about Disney Generations, the better.

JoHud said:

Kinda, except the WA blu-rays have been good about porting their extras from the respective DVD releases.


Also, the less said about Disney Generations, the better.

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What gets me is that with all of Disney's resources, these releases have the potential to be much better than they are. They didn't have to create anything new, just include what was already there to begin with (not that I'd object if they offered something that wasn't on the DVD).

lukejosephchung said:

Just received a pleasant surprise in my Saturday mail delivery..."Pollyanna" & "Old Yeller", 3 weeks earlier than I expected(official release date was slated as February 10th!)...will be checking these out later tonight and tomorrow for picture and sound quality and will report back on these accordingly...

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Thank you as my order is being held up because of another title.

MatthewA said:

Why DMC suddenly feels the need to jettison extras is beyond me. Some of the catalog Blu-rays that got released to stores managed to keep more than 50% of their DVD extras. I've speculated why they do this and I can't come up with a satisfying reason. Seriously, what is going on at this company's home video division?

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Probably they just don't want to bother with the time and financial expense of authoring the menus, and perhaps having to pay new royalties to cast members for a Blu-ray release. Instead, they just want to tack on those vacuous FBI warnings and throw the movie out here with only a "Play" link on the menu. But at least what little they are throwing out here looks decent.


As to what is going on in their home entertainment division, perhaps Disney has always been so taken with their insipid Tommy Kirk/monkey comedies of the 60's that they hired chimps to run the division. Low pay, no union concerns.

After The Barefoot Executive, I thought the chimps would be running ABC by now.

I've had a cursory view of my blu-ray of "Pollyanna" and in terms of what it has and does, I'm satisfied overall with the visual and sonic presentation of this HD remaster...the opening credits has a softness to it that's "baked in" by the fact that it's almost entirely an optical sequence, but afterwards, the photographic image is detailed, naturally colorful and clean of detritus with natural film grain present...as for the sound, it's lossless DTS-MA-HD 1.0 mono and quite good for its vintage(1960)...the musical score and sound effects are full-bodied, dynamic and the dialogue clearly rendered. One of the earlier posters of this thread asked if there are subtitles and the answer is YES, but there's no menu setting for it, so it has to be done via the player's front panel or remote control buttons...


As for the lack of bonus features ported over from previous DVD releases, I agree that Disney SHOULD have at least included existing extras and am disappointed by that aspect of this reissue...but if you're looking for a true upgrade of the movie itself, a serious Disneyphile need look no further than here!!!

MatthewA said:

They barely advertised the program, they only made the discs available on Amazon, and (at least on the two titles I actually own, Amy and Child of Glass, which were both shot and edited on film) they used horribly outdated transfers. With the 1980s Disney Sunday Movies that made up the rest of the line, they would probably have had to go back and rebuild them in HD. Nobody bought them because nobody knew about them.

Warner Archive, for the most part, doesn't; they remaster stuff even if it's unknown to virtually anyone under 30, they keep extras where they existed, and they get the word out. Why DMC suddenly feels the need to jettison extras is beyond me. Some of the catalog Blu-rays that got released to stores managed to keep more than 50% of their DVD extras. I've speculated why they do this and I can't come up with a satisfying reason. Seriously, what is going on at this company's home video division?

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I was hoping that the Disney Generations line would bring us all those lovely, cozy Disney Channel films I remember so well from my 80's childhood... "The Girl Who Spelled Freedom", "Help Wanted: Kids", "Save the Dog!", "Rock 'n' Roll Mom", and the 2 remaining "Parent Trap" sequels. Another wasted opportunity.