A behind the scenes peek at Anchor Bay's often frustrating dealings with Buena Vista (1 Viewer)

[Adam Tyner]

ATTENTION
At the request of Anchor Bay, this post has
been edited by Ron Epstein, owner of HTF.
According to Anchor Bay:

We've contacted Scott Michael Bosco, whose statement is quoted in the thread, and he will be removing his information off of his website. It contained many untrue statements as well as potentially libellous language involving our relationship with Disney.

 

[Greg_Y]

Looks like the page that's hosted on Geocities has exceeded its bandwidth limit. If someone knows of a mirror, please post the link. Sounds like a good read.

 

[BooneG]

Man I hate Disney. Anchor Bay would have done the Ernst series proud.

 

[Mike Frezon]

It seems at the time Michael Eisner didn’t even know of Anchor Bay, or the contract allowing them to release Disney product. He had only learned of this when one day he picked up the L.A. Times and read a interview with an Anchor Bay executive in which the writer of the piece applauded Anchor Bay on the excellent handling of the mouse’s product, case in point a musical, THE HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE (which Anchor Bay had the courage to release in two version, the longer roadshow edition, and shorter wide-release version.) Now for Disney, or rather Mr. Eisner, this was the ultimate insult making the studio look inadequate, especially in the handling of a film Walt himself had produced! The obvious had been addressed, why wasn’t “Disney” doing what Anchor Bay was!

The Happiest Millionaire is, indeed, a great movie (ask for the roadshow version -- accept no substitutes)! And, Anchor Bay did do a great job with it. Only complaint is...its a flipper!:rolleyes

 

[Walt Riarson]

This is the kind of stuff that really pisses me off.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

That explains SpaceCamp

Too bad they didn't get Natty Gann

I still find it hilarious that they knew that this little company was showing them up reguarly

Funny, Anchor Bay STILL produces superior editions of those niche titles

 

[Jean-Michel]

I find it consistently funny that AB will go to such ridiculous lengths to remix soundtracks, dig up and restore lost footage, record commentaries, and come up with wooden box and rubber book packaging, and yet still can't be bothered to make use of the damn "subtitle" function on anything except their foreign releases. How long has it been, guys? Four years? Five? Geez.
Not directly related to the subject at hand but I like to vent on this particular point every chance I get, just in case it might make a difference

 

[MatthewA]

Mike,

I bet Disney wanted The Happiest Millionaire to be a flipper.

Well, that studio can kiss any respect I had for them goodbye. (with their P&S madness, their virtually un-advertised and edited Pete's Dragon soundtrack CD, and the fact that I haven't seen a non-Pixar movie from them that I really liked in a while) I've never seen WATCHER, but this is a really disturbing story about studio interference.

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Would this have any bearing as well on why there don't seem to be any more ABC or Miramax titles forthcoming? I was always dismayed Anchor Bay never got around to doing a proper Panavision-framed CHARLY, or reissued any of the extras that Fox had placed on their limited laserdisc of THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY.

 

[Mike Friedrich]

Another example of the fleecing of America ! Our heritage being held captive by greedy little sheisters, er eisners.

 

[Brian Kidd]

I have to defend Scott MacQueen. Scott works tirelessly to ensure that the films in Disney's vaults are well taken care of and presented (whenever possible) in the best available manner. He does, however, still work for the company and, like all of us, need to keep his job. I'm sure that nothing that happened on this particular project was in any way his fault. He's a true film lover and a keeper of the flame.

 

[John Berggren]

Sounds like AB isn't going to get any further Disney features. Too bad, they tended to treat them with love and respect. I wish they'd let AB work their magic on Watcher. It's a title I was interested in, but I'm distressed to hear that it's not what it could have been. Disney should see the value that Anchor Bay provides. They certainly are not going to step up to the plate on these titles themselves.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

Oh geez, the old ABC Films are now owned by Di$ney too?? I've been hoping for "Charly" to come out sometime this decade.

 

[streeter]

I was very disappointed by Roy Disney's choices as stated in the article. I always thought that he was one of the few higher-ups who had any bit of decency and respect in them.

And that lady? Grrr... I hope she was one of the people fired lately.

 

[Roogs Benoit]

Wow there is quite a bit of mis information in this manifesto.

Specifically the Black Hole audio issue.

The audio was originally created by AB or an outside company

for them. They screwed it up eliminating the right channel on the DVD.

This was then brought to Disney's attention and Disney fixed it

themselves and supplied a new AC-3 for AB.

I won't touch on the other incorrect issues in this statement.

Just a word to all who read here.

Don't believe all you read here.

 

[Nick Graham]

Anybody have a copy of the orignal post/rant/article? Guess I looked at this thread a little too late.

I swear..........

Nevermind, found it.....good grief, Disney is awful.

Here's hoping Bill Hunt won't let them whore themselves on his website any more. While some of this may be erroneous, a lot of it seems to fit the bill. Why doesn't someone from AB address this forum with the truth, if Mr. Bosco has a skewered take on things, as opposed to just having it deleted? Having it deleted just makes it seem like it was more factual than it may have been.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Disney was given a chance to air their side

Unfortunately, the side they chose to air was BS

Why can't they say "Wal-Mart demanded it, so we did it?" is that so hard?

 

[Nick Graham]

Jeff, I'm still not buying this Wal-Mart excuse. I've been to multiple Wal-Marts all across Kansas (we tend to take a ot of cross-state road trips to see family), and they ALWAYS have equal amounts of OAR and pan and scan at EVERY one we go to. We should quit letting the studios slide with this Wal-Mart excuse, as anybody who steps into a Wal-Mart can see it's the studios scapegoat for laziness. This is our biggest problem. We scourge the Wal-Marts of the world for being the problem, when it's the studios who are too lazy to do double sided releases and quit rehashing LD transfers (ala a lot of these upcoming Disney catalog cheapies). From my perspective, the Wal-Marts of the world pay attention to us (except maybe for Target), while the studios ignore us. We need to see the real enemy before they win once and for all. I'm hoping this doesn't sound like I work for Wal-Mart, as I do not, but these studios are having their way with us while we have our focus on retail chains. BTW, I meant Anchor Bay should be open to addressing this issue as opposed to censoring it, not Disney.

 

[Brett C]

The fact that the post was removed only seals the fate of it not being true...

 

[ScottBos]

To put the record right...
I was just told of the posting above.
Yes Anchor Bay and I spoke. No, I never agreed in any form or reason that what I posted on MY site was libellous in any shape or form. In fact, that word never came up, or was ever mentioned. For those who have not been to my site I have posted the following in place of my editorial.
The Watcher In The Woods: The Mystery, Behind The Mysery
I would like it to be known that I was asked to remove my editorial on THE WATCHER IN THE WOODS. I have done so as a favor to a friend. For those who had a chance to read it I still stand by what I wrote, and what I stated was neither untrue, or libelous – since I have many emails to prove it. It is and was my true feelings on a very unpleasant situation due to MY dealings with the Disney group. I have not bent to the will, nor threats of any corporation, but as stated previous, I am doing this as a personal favor, and mutual point of respect. I WILL however post this editorial at a future date.
Thank you
Scott M. Bosco
Link Removed