A Few Words About A few words about...™ Walt Disney's Alice in Wonderland -- in Blu-ray (2 Viewers)

[goteam007]

The stupid pop up appeared over the credits just like on Beauty and the Beast. There was no X to exit out of, I had to hit the pop-up menu button. I learned this after I hit enter and was unwillingly taken to the unnecessary game.

 

[Powell&Pressburger]

That same pop up occurred when I watched the film also, the pop up is really in poor taste. It is like spam and again I'm aware of the bonus features, I was watching the movie and that pop up took me out of tr mood and just annoyed me.

 

[bigshot]

Why would anyone want to play a game when they're sitting down to watch a movie. If it does that to me I'm sending it back.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Originally Posted by bigshot

Why would anyone want to play a game when they're sitting down to watch a movie. If it does that to me I'm sending it back.

Right after watching is probably when I'd be *most* interested in exploring the extras/ games (although generally once my child gets through an entire movie it's time to turn off the TV for a while).


Of course, that doesn't mean I want stupid popups over the credits reminding me about them.

 

[TravisR]

I can't remember the specific way to do it but there was a way to beat the pop-up on Beauty And The Beast.


Everyone who doesn't like the idiotic pop-up should call or e-mail Disney. Disney does listen to consumers so if they get enough feedback telling them to stop, they'll probably listen.

 

[gomezfan69]

On Beauty and the Beast you could get around the pop-up by selecting FastPlay to view the movie. Unfortunately Alice In Wonderland does not have this feature.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

I was going to pass on this one but have now decided to print out that $10 coupon and pick it up. It hadn't dawned on me that there were only 13 although I sure recall as a child seeing so many of these films re-released to theaters after a period, meaning there weren't many and I would go watch the same one again about 7 years later. I love all 13 although maybe this one is the 13th favorite out of the 13 for me.

 

[bigshot]

Wow. I watched Alice last night. I have no idea what I was seeing. There were so many weird digital anomalies that I've never seen on a bluray before. The color balances are all messed up. The colors of the characters are massively boosted, but the backgrounds aren't as much. So if you use saturation to tame the characters, the backgrounds would go flat. The hues seemed like they had all been shifted to primaries by the boosting too. There was no variety in hues. The backgrounds were rock solid video freezes, but the characters still had film weave, so there was a subtle jitter to the animation. On top of that, the hyper sharpening has made the lines shimmer a bit from frame to frame. Disney was always famous for the accuracy of their inking. But the lines here jiggle all over. The textures were completely smoothed over on a ton of the backgrounds, and in a multiplane shot the whole scene went blurry with super concentrated grain smoothing, then snapped back to sharpness in the static shot that followed. A friend who was watching it with me said that he could see the aliasing around the lines change color in one scene, and I thought I saw a fast pan strobe. But by far, the weirdest thing was the way every single one of the optical effects had been replaced by digital ones. There was a scene where the camera looks down into water and the ripple glass had been replaced by some sort of high contrast whispy remnant. A lot of the fades which had been timed to have slow ins or outs were replaced by completely evenly timed ones. And all of the double exposed effects like smoke were redone with sharpened edges and a weird sort of digital opacity. I can't even describe the problems with the opticals in words. I'll have to watch this a few more times and figure it out. I have to agree that this is something entirely different than the original film... A digital hybrid. There isn't a name for what this is. Very strange.

 

[Craig Beam]

I actually think "digital hybrid" is a great name for it! You should hurry up and trademark it.... maybe Disney (and other studios) will pay to use it to tout upcoming releases.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Kind of late to the game, but I just picked up the BD today. Did anyone else notice the absolutely horrible DVNR in THRU THE MIRROR? There were shots where the detail in the backgrounds would disappear in a ring around Mickey but still be present in the remainder of the picture. It was almost as if someone had smudged the background around the characters. All background detail would disappear any time a horizontal pan occurred, as well. I understand the Marketing folks wanting to remove grain to mollify the mouth-breathers who might think that grain=fuzzy picture but the job done on this short is unforgivably sloppy. It's a shame, as there are so few of the shorts released in 1080p.


As for the feature, those of us who are Film Buffs can complain all we want. In the end, it won't matter. We're a tiny drop in the consumer bucket. We don't count. At least the elements are in great shape and well-maintained. Perhaps someday, in the future, we'll get more film-like home video presentations. I doubt it, though. Soon the idea of owning a copy of a film in a collection will be a thing of the past. Digital distribution means a copy will only be viewable for as long as the studio gives its permission and only on approved viewing devices. It's sad. Enjoy BD while it lasts, folks.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Brian Kidd

Soon the idea of owning a copy of a film in a collection will be a thing of the past. Digital distribution means a copy will only be viewable for as long as the studio gives its permission and only on approved viewing devices. It's sad. Enjoy BD while it lasts, folks.

Why do you think the overwhleming majority consumers (more than just home theater buffs) would accept that? People have owned movies for 30 years, they aren't going to accept being told "Sorry, you're not allowed to see what you paid for anymore" by the studios. While I'm sure studios would love to do that, the only thing it would accomplish is pushing people into stealing movies online.

 

[ahollis]

Originally Posted by TravisR



Why do you think the overwhleming majority consumers (more than just home theater buffs) would accept that? People have owned movies for 30 years, they aren't going to accept being told "Sorry, you're not allowed to see what you paid for anymore" by the studios. While I'm sure studios would love to do that, the only thing it would accomplish is pushing people into stealing movies online.

I am going to have to agree with you on this Travis. One of the reasons the studios jumped into lowering their prices on VHS at the beginning was the rampart copy making of the higher priced rental VHS. Stopping the ability to own a copy of a favorite movie will just push more honest people into finding other outlets to own it. Owning that copy can come in many various forms such as DVD, Blu-ray, digital download, and other venues that we do not know anything about today.

 

[Douglas R]

Originally Posted by TravisR



Why do you think the overwhleming majority consumers (more than just home theater buffs) would accept that? People have owned movies for 30 years, they aren't going to accept being told "Sorry, you're not allowed to see what you paid for anymore" by the studios. While I'm sure studios would love to do that, the only thing it would accomplish is pushing people into stealing movies online.

I agree as well. We've been hearing for many years now how physical media will become defunct but many people, including myself, want a product to hold in their hands which forms part of a collection and will never ever be interested in downloads. there will always be a market for that. I've got plenty of films on the hard drive of my TV receiver but I rarely have any interest in seeing them. Without the physical packaging they just don't have the same appeal for me.

 

[Brian Kidd]

Why do I feel the way I do? There are several reasons.

1. Sales of DVDs are steadily decreasing and Blu-Ray isn't making up for the loss. The reason that prices of DVDs fall so quickly is because people aren't buying them nearly as much as in the past.
2. Video rental and sales stores are becoming a thing of the past. Even Redbox isn't doing as well as in previous years, mostly because of the studios holding back on new releases. Netflix is fast moving to a streaming-only model. They don't even bother to purchase many new DVD or BD releases any longer.
3. Digital downloads of films on services like iTunes and Amazon have been very successful.
4. The cost of digital distribution is a much lower than that of physical distribution.
5. People love services like Netflix Instant Watch and Hulu. Unlike film buffs, the average person watches most movies one time and are finished. Heck, they don't even particularly care if the picture and sound quality are stellar, as long as it's watchable. As faster Internet speeds continue to become cheaper and more available, decent picture quality won't be an issue.

Look, I am a person who enjoys nice packaging and being able to own physical copies of films. I'd hazard to guess that most, if not all, of the folks who frequent the HTF are the same way. Don't think for a minute, though, that we represent the majority of the population. I would love to be wrong about all of this and will dance a tarantella in the nude in Times Square if I am. I don't believe that I am, though.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Originally Posted by Brian Kidd

I would love to be wrong about all of this and will dance a tarantella in the nude in Times Square if I am.

I suddenly find myself no longer hoping that you're wrong about all of this. . .

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Brian Kidd

Why do I feel the way I do? There are several reasons.

1. Sales of DVDs are steadily decreasing and Blu-Ray isn't making up for the loss. The reason that prices of DVDs fall so quickly is because people aren't buying them nearly as much as in the past.
2. Video rental and sales stores are becoming a thing of the past. Even Redbox isn't doing as well as in previous years, mostly because of the studios holding back on new releases. Netflix is fast moving to a streaming-only model. They don't even bother to purchase many new DVD or BD releases any longer.
3. Digital downloads of films on services like iTunes and Amazon have been very successful.
4. The cost of digital distribution is a much lower than that of physical distribution.
5. People love services like Netflix Instant Watch and Hulu. Unlike film buffs, the average person watches most movies one time and are finished. Heck, they don't even particularly care if the picture and sound quality are stellar, as long as it's watchable. As faster Internet speeds continue to become cheaper and more available, decent picture quality won't be an issue.

Look, I am a person who enjoys nice packaging and being able to own physical copies of films. I'd hazard to guess that most, if not all, of the folks who frequent the HTF are the same way. Don't think for a minute, though, that we represent the majority of the population. I would love to be wrong about all of this and will dance a tarantella in the nude in Times Square if I am. I don't believe that I am, though.

I would assume that downloading and streaming are going to continue to grow in popularity, physical copies will probably eventually go away and the majority of public most likely doesn't care about quality but even if movies became download-only tomorrow, you'll still be able to own movies on some type of storage device. The majority of the public is going to balk at the idea of buying any product that a company can just decide to take away from them whenever they want.

 

[marcco00]

i think that it is still up in the air..... and the studios will back whichever avenue that will make the most money for them, that's for sure.

 

[Johnny Angell]

If the studios figure out a way to make more money from their movies, they'll do it. It doesn't have to coincide with what the public would prefer. They would love for the public not to have physical ownership of the movies. They would love to make money each time we watch a movie.


You can say the public won't go along with not owning the movie, not going along with paying for each viewing. I grew up when the closest thing to advertising on the theater screen were the previews, maybe 2-4 of them at most. I considered them part of the entertainment. Now there's 5 commercials and up before we see the 6-7 previews and I'm resigned to it. Of course I no longer go to the theater as often as I used to. The audience has accepted the commercials.


The public will bend over, spread 'em, and take whatever the studios can get away with. Yeah, call me cynical.

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angell Has there ever been a product where the manufacturer can decide to take it away from you when they want to? Every company would love to make consumers rebuy their product every time that they want to use it but that doesn't mean that they are able to do it. The disastrous PR that would result and the loss in sales (compared to what they'd make from a product that the public is allowed to own for as long as they want) would be so massive that it's not worth it. The studios, as much as they'd love to put the genie of ownership back into its bottle, know that and they know that they'd only succeed in boosting piracy rather than sales.

 

[cafink]

Originally Posted by TravisR Has there ever been a product where the manufacturer can decide to take it away from you when they want to?

Amazon famously removed copies of 1984 from their customer's Kindles a while ago.