A Few Words About A few words about...™ Treasure Island (1950) -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Dave B Ferris]

If you know you will just want 10 titles, ever, a finite number, then I suppose unjoining quickly is fine. However, although I am not yet an expert regarding the Club's workings, I have learned that there are deals offered to members above & beyond the initial deal (upon joining). For example, as I mentioned earlier, several months after having already joined, I was able to manipulate a deal that involved ordering Zootopia for full price, and then every other title on the order was 40% off. But I did not go hog-wild: my 40% off titles were Treasure Island, Blackbeard's Ghost, Davy Crockett Double Feature and Castaway Cowboy only on DVD <no Blu>).
I had already received Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson, Pollyanna & the Aristocats for .01-cents as my reward for (originally) joining. So, if you think your list of wanted titles will ever grow beyond 10, stay in the Club to take advantage of other deals.

 

[Robert Harris]

NOW everyone says eBay, whereas everyone said Amazon earlier. I just joined, got six movies for twenty bucks and will do four more quickly and unjoin.

Which will be the precise moment they announce 20,000...

 

[B-ROLL]

It's a good deal. It's definitely the route I will take.

That's similar to what I did. I still haven't un-joined. But this is the safest way to get them (If you are looking for more than one title) There have several cases on eBay where the person did not get what they thought they ordered

 

[B-ROLL]

If you know you will just want 10 titles, ever, a finite number, then I suppose unjoining quickly is fine. However, although I am not yet an expert regarding the Club's workings, I have learned that there are deals offered to members above & beyond the initial deal (upon joining). For example, as I mentioned earlier, several months after having already joined, I was able to manipulate a deal that involved ordering Zootopia for full price, and then every other title on the order was 40% off. But I did not go hog-wild: my 40% off titles were Treasure Island, Blackbeard's Ghost, Davy Crockett Double Feature and Castaway Cowboy only on DVD <no Blu>).
I had already received Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson, Pollyanna & the Aristocats for .01-cents as my reward for (originally) joining. So, if you think your list of wanted titles will ever grow beyond 10, stay in the Club to take advantage of other deals.

The official offer in this month's flyer was Buy one @ full price and anything else under that price is 50% off with free fee shipping for VI{ members (not to mention a pin I can put in my Looney Tunes shot glass). To the left on the website is "Special Offers" click on it and on the right will usually be three choices pick the offer you want (including "no discount" ) for VIP members (ie you paid off your obligation)

Keep in mind they are also offering the Marvel and LucasFilm titles they own as well. SWTFA was a selection of the month. Remember to log in at least once a month - or you can call an 800 number

Most, if not all of the Disney Movie Club Bluray exclusives are Regions A-B-C FYI.

 

[Dr Griffin]

I'd join if The Last Valley and Third Man on the Mountain were restored and released.

 

[Mark-P]

Keep in mind that you're hearing the tracks uncompressed from original elements.

Actually Mr. Harris, Disney has opted to not use lossless sound on most of these Club exclusives. The Blu-ray of Treasure Island contains lossy Dolby Digital sound at 320 kbps. However I strongly disagree with the poster who said the sound is poor quality. It is a proper representation of 1950s soundtrack technology.

 

[Robert Harris]

Actually Mr. Harris, Disney has opted to not use lossless sound on most of these Club exclusives. The Blu-ray of Treasure Island contains lossy Dolby Digital sound at 320 kbps. However I strongly disagree with the poster who said the sound is poor quality. It is a proper representation of 1950s soundtrack technology.

I stand corrected. Everything, however, is from optical, which means that there is little to be gained from lossless.

Don't understand why they'd not use it.

 

[dpippel]

NOW everyone says eBay, whereas everyone said Amazon earlier. I just joined, got six movies for twenty bucks and will do four more quickly and unjoin.

Who said Amazon? Glad you scored a copy.

 

[nanook]

Sometime back in the late 1970's, we (LACMA - Los Angeles County Museum of Art) had reason to run Treasure Island - and for the life of me, I can't remember what film series it was tied to. Anyway, Disney sent over a relatively-new CRI print (ouy vey-!) for us to project. A quick look, just over the light box, and then confirmed with actual projection, revealed a print displaying all the typically-unfortunate artifacts that came to be associated with new CRI prints of original Nitrate Technicolor films. In a word, it looked 'awful' from crushed blacks to a totally incorrect color pallet, and with the letters in the main title sequence "bleeding" into the background.

After convincing the 'lawyer-types' at the studio that indeed LAMCA was approved to run Nitrate prints, and Disney would not be held liable if the untoward should occur during projection, they exchanged the CRI print for an original Nitrate Technicolor print. Ahhhh, yes. Although I would not attempt a comparison with what we saw back then to the new BD (which I own) - who can honestly say for sure-?, the difference when compared to the CRI print, at least, was literally like night and day. How great that Disney still maintained a nitrate print of that title, and we were fortunate to run it 'on the big screen'. (I wonder if that print has ever been run publicly since then-?)

 

[Dick]

If you know you will just want 10 titles, ever, a finite number, then I suppose unjoining quickly is fine. However, although I am not yet an expert regarding the Club's workings, I have learned that there are deals offered to members above & beyond the initial deal (upon joining). For example, as I mentioned earlier, several months after having already joined, I was able to manipulate a deal that involved ordering Zootopia for full price, and then every other title on the order was 40% off. But I did not go hog-wild: my 40% off titles were Treasure Island, Blackbeard's Ghost, Davy Crockett Double Feature and Castaway Cowboy only on DVD <no Blu>).
I had already received Old Yeller, Swiss Family Robinson, Pollyanna & the Aristocats for .01-cents as my reward for (originally) joining. So, if you think your list of wanted titles will ever grow beyond 10, stay in the Club to take advantage of other deals.

I have been consistently send offers of "Buy one at full price and get 60% off additional titles," which started happening after about 2 years as a member. Every once in a while they offer free shipping. For me, because I pretty much keep up with desirable Disney titles as they are released, I wouldn't find quitting and rejoining of much value, since there wouldn't be 6 Blu-rays I'd want at this point, unless I simply planned to sell them, or unless I simply held back from buying new releases and allowed them to accumulate.

 

[Dick]

I'd join if The Last Valley and Third Man on the Mountain were restored and released.

THE LAST VALLEY may now be a Disney property, but it was originally an ABC picture, and it is unlikely Disney will get around to releasing it on Blu-ray, but it would be nice.

THIRD MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN, on the other hand, is one of those lovely films that sneaked by too many people when first released, and was shown very quickly thereafter on the Wonderful World Of Color as "Banner In the Sky" in two parts. There is an extant HD master of this film and it's a revelation. Looks stunning, especially when compared to the crappy p&s (or open matte) DVD that is criminally still in print for public consumption. The HD is apparently framed properly at 1.66:1, and has vivid color and detail. I hope that the suits decide to add this to the slowly growing list of titles in the club exclusives, because it's a gem. James MacArthur's best role ever, and his mother (Helen Hayes) puts in an uncredited cameo. Plus, of course, there is the gorgeous Janet Munro. I just love this film.

 

[PMF]

Would I be right in saying that only Disney and Chaplin knew how to store, maintain and preserve their OCN's better than any other studio?

 

[cb1]

I'm not a member of the DMC, I got my copy off the auctions at pretty reasonable price with free shipping. And RAH is right, it is glorious to watch. One of my favorite Disney films.
Now I'm waiting on 20k and Johnny Tremain.

 

[Dr Griffin]

THE LAST VALLEY may now be a Disney property, but it was originally an ABC picture, and it is unlikely Disney will get around to releasing it on Blu-ray, but it would be nice.

THIRD MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN, on the other hand, is one of those lovely films that sneaked by too many people when first released, and was shown very quickly thereafter on the Wonderful World Of Color as "Banner In the Sky" in two parts. There is an extant HD master of this film and it's a revelation. Looks stunning, especially when compared to the crappy p&s (or open matte) DVD that is criminally still in print for public consumption. The HD is apparently framed properly at 1.66:1, and has vivid color and detail. I hope that the suits decide to add this to the slowly growing list of titles in the club exclusives, because it's a gem. James MacArthur's best role ever, and his mother (Helen Hayes) puts in an uncredited cameo. Plus, of course, there is the gorgeous Janet Munro. I just love this film.

I've seen the HD Third Man on the Mountain, I think TCM showed it. That stands a better chance, I would guess, than the Last Valley, but they are my perpetual whines.

 

[notmicro]

Wow wow wow! This has been at the top of my Disney classics on Blu wish-list for years. Its another title that's going to surprise a lot of people when they see it in HD. My favorite line: "Oh for ten toes!"

I figured that Disney would have the original 3-strip Technicolor negatives, seeing as how they retain basically everything ever created - UNLIKE CERTAIN OTHER STUDIOS WE COULD MENTION **coughFOXcough** - which means that a meticulous Wizard of Oz / Gone With The Wind type of restoration is at least theoretically possible.

Note that, so far as I am aware, this is the first full live-action feature produced by Disney (previous features like SOTS intermixed animation). The reason that it was made - and in the UK - is because following WWII, Britain had draconian laws in place blocking foreign companies from taking their profits out of the country. Disney used some of their accumulated UK profits to film this feature there, which they could then take it out of the country instead of cash, and release globally. They ran into major legal tangles by using non-Brit actor Bobby Driscoll, and barely got away with it.

Just ordered it from eBay for $23, no problem; I've purchased previous Disney releases of this type this way.

My Blu Disney wish-list:

Song of the South (1946) Technicolor

the Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952 UK) Technicolor

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) CinemaScope

Tonka (1958)

Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)

Third Man on the Mountain (1959)

the Parent Trap (1960)

Toby Tyler (1960)

the Moon-Spinners (1964)

...and why on earth top titles like 20,000 Leagues and Parent Trap haven't been released long ago is a complete mystery to me...

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Brad here. This title, along with 4 others is in my DMC Cart awaiting my next quarterly bonus for purchasing. The others are:
Blackbeard's Ghost
Snow White
Tomorrowland
Duck Tales 3 (DVD)

I'm buying Tomorrowland at full price and getting a hefty discount on the others.
==============================

Disney Titles I'm waiting for Blu releases:

Song Of The South (1948)
The Black Hole (1979)
The Parent Trap (1961 original and 1998 remake)
The Parent Trap II (1986)
20000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954).
Six Days & Seven Nights (1998, Touchstone).
Three Men and A Baby (1987, Touchstone)
Three Men and A Little Lady (1990, Touchstone)
Captain Ron (1992)

 

[John Hermes]

Wow wow wow! This has been at the top of my Disney classics on Blu wish-list for years. Its another title that's going to surprise a lot of people when they see it in HD. My favorite line: "Oh for ten toes!"

I figured that Disney would have the original 3-strip Technicolor negatives, seeing as how they retain basically everything ever created - UNLIKE CERTAIN OTHER STUDIOS WE COULD MENTION **coughFOXcough** - which means that a meticulous Wizard of Oz / Gone With The Wind type of restoration is at least theoretically possible.

Note that, so far as I am aware, this is the first full live-action feature produced by Disney (previous features like SOTS intermixed animation). The reason that it was made - and in the UK - is because following WWII, Britain had draconian laws in place blocking foreign companies from taking their profits out of the country. Disney used some of their accumulated UK profits to film this feature there, which they could then take it out of the country instead of cash, and release globally. They ran into major legal tangles by using non-Brit actor Bobby Driscoll, and barely got away with it.

Just ordered it from eBay for $23, no problem; I've purchased previous Disney releases of this type this way.

My Blu Disney wish-list:

Song of the South (1946) Technicolor

the Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952 UK) Technicolor

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) CinemaScope

Tonka (1958)

Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)

Third Man on the Mountain (1959)

the Parent Trap (1960)

Toby Tyler (1960)

the Moon-Spinners (1964)

...and why on earth top titles like 20,000 Leagues and Parent Trap haven't been released long ago is a complete mystery to me...

Excellent wishlist. I hope they are released too.

 

[David Norman]

Overall the DMC Exlusives series have had stellar PQ on their releases. The audio hasn't always been lossless, but for the most part I doubt it would have mattered. The main issues with the actual disc themselves has been the lack of extras that were often part of the DVD release so for the most part I just keep the DVD and essentially end up with my own Deluxe Combo Packs

I would strongly suggest that for folks wanting/considering joining DMC to read at least the first couple pages and last couple pages of the HTF thread and the Bluray dot com DMC thread(mainly the FAQ) before sending in an order.

The main advantage is to join with the best deal -- currently you can get your initial 6 (or 7) for $13 ($22) with only 2 additional purchases over the next 24 months which is a substantially better
deal than the routine requirements of 4(5) up front with 4 or 5 required at full price. Essentially after all purchases you'll end up with 8 (or 9) items for $75-85. Also for those want to buy tons of Disney quickly to buy there is no restriction on quitting and rejoining almost immediately with the same promo code.

 

[Robert Harris]

Would I be right in saying that only Disney and Chaplin knew how to store, maintain and preserve their OCN's better than any other studio?

You would not.

 

[Bryan^H]

I'm waiting for 'Never Cry Wolf'.