1 week til Disney Vault DVDs... any early reviews? (1 Viewer)

[soop.spoon]

Has Disney stopped sending out advanced copies to reviewers, or have these releases just flown in under the radar?
I'd specifically like to know about the quality of Swiss Family Robinson. I have high hopes...

 

[GlennH]

I've wondered about that too, and posted to that effect elsewhere on the board. Why are all the DVD sites virtually ignoring these?

DVDAngle.com today actually has some comments e-mailed by the DVD producer describing the extras in more detail. I'd still like to see some independent reviews before they are released.

 

[soop.spoon]

Those specs look awesome!

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Has Disney stopped sending out advanced copies to reviewers, or have these releases just flown in under the radar?

Actually, Disney never sent out advance copies in the past, but they've recently started to do so. However, this policy affects selected titles. For the most part, this means recent live-action flicks like The Others and Serendipity. It doesn't seem to affect the mailing of any older titles new to DVD or direct-to-video animation; Hunchback II came on the usual day-after-street schedule along with its predecessor.

So I don't think anyone's ignoring the titles. I haven't received them yet, and I don't think anyone else has either. Look for reviews mid-late next week...

 

[soop.spoon]

Ok, dvdfile.com has posted a review (a very favorable one, I might add) for The Parent Trap. So we know there are early copies out there. Anyone seen any other reviews for these 4 discs?

 

[Robert George]

I snagged a copy of Swiss Family Robinson last night. I haven't had time to even look at the supplements, but I am more than pleased with the video transfer.
I had the original letterboxed "Archive" edition laserdisc and that transfer showed some age-related problems with the film element. For the DVD transfer, Disney has done a pretty good job of cleaning up the worst of the damage and has the aspect ratio right (the LD was over-matted to cover some bad splices). Colors are a bit pale at times, but certainly not bad.
This is one of my favorite Disney films ever, and this is a DVD that will see several trips through the system .

 

[Colin Jacobson]

Ok, dvdfile.com has posted a review (a very favorable one, I might add) for The Parent Trap. So we know there are early copies out there. Anyone seen any other reviews for these 4 discs?

Probably just to spite me, Disney did send all of these out a little early - mine came yesterday. Haven't had a chance to watch any of them, and won't for at least a week due to travel, but everybody else should have received them by now as well, so watch for reviews soon! (If anyone cares, no sign on "Winnie the Pooh" on my doorstep, unfortunately...)

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I was able to watch The Parent Trap last Friday evening and would definitely give it a . If you have not seen it before, you may be put-off by the somewhat flat look, but that seems to be pretty common to 60s Disney films. The audio is just a slight opening up of the mono, but that's as it should be, IMHO. It sounds a bit filtered at times, and there are some occasional synchronization issues which may be the result of inexpert re-dubbing from the original track. It seems a bit tightly framed at times, and appears to be windowboxed slightly wider than 1.66:1 in the anamorphic frame. That's all the negative stuff I could come up with, folks.
The supplements are very nice, and there are even more of them than there initially appear to be from the description on the box. My personal favorite is a featurette called, "Kimball & Swift: The Disney Years". I am really glad that they were able to pull together all of these supplements before the passing of writer/director David Swift last New Years Eve. He comes across as a charming guy and a capable raconteur.
If this title is any indication, Disney appears to know what they are doing with the "Vault Disney" series. I will be picking up the others as well.
Regards,

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I should have mentioned this in my previous post. It is mentioned in two other threads on the forum, but for the sake of completeness, I'll repeat it here: all of the "Vault Disney" titles released today are in anamorphic widescreen. Disney's website had previously indicated that Old Yeller and Pollyanna would be "fullscreen", but thet are in fact 1.75:1 anamorphic widescreen transfers.
Now you know what to spend your money on instead of "Snow Dogs"
Regards,

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Ken,

Thanks!

I picked up The Parent Trap today at the local Disney Store for just .... $19.95!

And I just cannot get over the the quality of the presentation and the wealth of supplements provided for the price!

I have stern instructions from my wife to return to the store tomorrow for Pollyanna.

How can Disney start doing such a fabulous job with their live-action catalog titles all of a sudden and yet totally drop the ball on new "family" titles??

I'll say this: With these new "Vault" series issues, in combination with their classic animation "Platinum" titles, it makes it really difficult to stay mad at these guys!

(At least, until the next time that I see Snow Dogs sitting up on the DVD rack.)