Press Release BVHE Press Release: Disney 100 Years Anniversary Editions (Blu-ray) (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

The material is also not essential to the plotline, such as it is.

If anything it’s just contrary to the plot line. Early 20th century racial minstrel tropes didn’t exist at the time of Ancient Greek/Roman mythology that the sequence is meant to be set in. It was arguably out of place from day one and probably a certain amount of credit should be given to Walt for realizing that.

 

[bujaki]

Walt himself approved that alteration and his vision for Fantasia specifically was that it would evolve and change to fit the times - he wanted it to be work that transcended time instead of it being work of a specific time. As such, I have no issues with the alteration. The removed footage is so dated and inappropriate by the standards of at least the past half century that I genuinely believe its inclusion would only have the effect of taking the audience out of the picture. It’s one thing to watch and see a grainy shot and know something is missing and it’s another thing to actually see what’s missing while trying to watch the movie as entertainment (vs as an academic exercise).

Sometime in the early '80s I acquired a VHS of Fantasia with all the excised footage intact. It came from the Disney vault and long before Fantasia was ever officially released. My source had connections within the Disney organization and got me all the classic animated features and some that were never officially released until compact disc days. My kids forever appreciated their now late, lamented "uncle".

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It also aired on Disney Channel sometime in the 1980s when they inadvertently aired it by showing a 1950s Disneyland episode that had the intact sequence included. It’s not hard to find for people genuinely interested in the historical/academic nature of the footage.

 

[Indy Guy]

"Alice" is a passion project for one of the key legends involved in the 4K restorations. They also know Sleeping Beauty is the most capable of benefiting from a 4K upgrade of its 70 mm size Technirama negative. After that I think it boils down to what condition the negative are in, and how much digital clean up can be tolerated in 4K. How the 4K version of Snow White turns out will say a lot about the potential for other pre 1950s classics.
The Bambi negative is particularly dirty since the cels suffered during wartime conservation efforts to wash and reuse when possible. Much effort was done on the Bambi Blu ray to remove dirt and debris baked into the original negative.

 

[Arthur Powell]

Walt himself approved that alteration and his vision for Fantasia specifically was that it would evolve and change to fit the times - he wanted it to be work that transcended time instead of it being work of a specific time. As such, I have no issues with the alteration. The removed footage is so dated and inappropriate by the standards of at least the past half century that I genuinely believe its inclusion would only have the effect of taking the audience out of the picture. It’s one thing to watch and see a grainy shot and know something is missing and it’s another thing to actually see what’s missing while trying to watch the movie as entertainment (vs as an academic exercise).

Just curious if you have a source for Walt approving the changes to Fantasia. If my memory is correct, those changes were introduced for the 1968 reissue which was close to two years after the gent's death. He may very well have approved them as he did approve the changes to The Three Little Pigs in the late 1940s.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Just curious if you have a source for Walt approving the changes to Fantasia.

I think it was in a text supplement on the DVD edition of Fantasia, but honestly, I’ve read so many books on the film and listened to the commentaries so many times that I can’t say for sure.

 

[Arthur Powell]

I think it was in a text supplement on the DVD edition of Fantasia, but honestly, I’ve read so many books on the film and listened to the commentaries so many times that I can’t say for sure.

Probably the Fantasia Anthology bonus disc. I might have to take a look at that, but I'm afraid to because that disc is always a time sinkhole for me.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Probably the Fantasia Anthology bonus disc. I might have to take a look at that, but I'm afraid to because that disc is always a time sinkhole for me.

One of my all time favorite box sets. It’s one of the few DVDs I held onto after upgrading to BD.

 

[Stephen_J_H]

One of my all time favorite box sets. It’s one of the few DVDs I held onto after upgrading to BD.

Same, because Disney had the boneheaded idea of making the extras on the BD online-only, and they are no longer accessible.

 

[Alex...]

 

[richardburton84]

If true (like Fantasia), I must say I wasn’t expecting this film to actually get a 4K UHD, especially after Disney reissued the botched Blu-Ray through the DMC earlier this year. Still, it would be nice if the 4K transfer making the rounds on digital and Disney Plus actually gets a physical release so I do hope this does turn out to be true.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Edit up top: I didn't intend when I started this post for it to have so many pictures, but I went on a bit of a comparison between various editions and things and wanted to illustrate the differences. I tried with varying degrees of success to find images that aren't huge and inserted the thumbnails instead of the full images here. Anybody reading this post on a phone or on a computer that is slower to load, just be aware of several pictures coming.

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The Disney 100 steelbooks now seem either sold out or very close to being sold out because Best Buy slashed the prices to $9.99 each. I know there has been discussion of this sale in other threads. But I did a forum search for "Disney 100 steelbooks" and this is the thread that came up first, so I'll just put this message here.

Best Buy's website told me there was one copy of The Lion King left within 250 miles of here so I grabbed it. Fortunately, it wasn't actually that far away, but I felt proud of myself for snagging it. I thought perhaps it might be the only one left because it had an obvious dent or scratch or something to that effect, but it was good. So I got lucky on this.


Although I stand by my general opinion that the cover design for the entire Disney 100 steelbook line is a bit too plain, The Lion King has been my favorite design out of this lineup since I first saw what it looked like. Simba just looks cute on it, and he is on model. Some of the other characters on the other steelbooks have not looked right. But Simba feels like Simba to me here. I also think this is the only title in the entire Disney 100 steelbook lineup where this image is an improvement over the previous steelbook editions from a few years ago, which says a lot about why I skipped those. It is also the only one in the Disney 100 line that I had any interest in maybe getting.


I also think this is the the first time that they've actually used the kid version of Simba on the front cover instead of the adult version.

The original VHS -- which is still my favorite cover art for this movie -- had Rafiki holding baby Simba. (I know young Simba is on the back of this version with Timon and Pumbaa, but I'm just talking about the front covers here.)


(1995)

Baby Simba and Adult Simba are both on the Platinum Edition.


(2003 Platinum)

Everything else since has used the adult version and never the kid.

(2011 Diamond)


(2011 DVD only)


(2017 Signature)


(Signature DVD-only -- and hey, Rafiki and baby Simba are far off in the distance on Pride Rock here too for double appearances for those characters)


(2018 4K Signature)


(2023 Disney 100)

It is an interesting choice to have kid Simba on the front cover of the new steelbook for a change and breaks with Disney's most common way of releasing this. Even the new Disney 100 slipcover edition at other retailers (which is just a new slipcover over the 2017 Signature case) has the adult version. I wonder who made the choice to go with the kid Simba on the steelbook. Although some of the images of adult Simba have looked better than others, I've never had a problem with the decision to go that route. But I really like that they went with the kid here in this specific case.

Anyway, believe it or not, I didn't originally intend this post to be about The Lion King history or I would have put it in a Lion King thread. What I actually came in here to say before getting sidetracked with that observation is that I wonder what lessons Disney will take from the sales of the Disney 100 steelbooks this year. We know it doesn't matter much for Best Buy because they are checking out of physical media next year. But Disney will see what happened here.

They've been rolling out these Disney 100 steelbooks all year. Unlike most steelbooks for new releases, it seems like Best Buy has had them in continuous stock up until just recently. They priced these at $29.99 each for most titles. And they've just had stock sitting there and sitting there. Now, close to the end of the year, it seems like most are finally sold out or close to sold out. So they did or will sell out. But the reason that people started jumping on these all over the place is the price cut. It took slashing the price to $9.99 to get them out the door. Top shelf Disney titles like this don't often drop that low even on Blu-ray or DVD, much less in a premium collector's item like a 4K steelbook.

I wonder how they will interpret that and what it will mean for their future steelbook and/or collector's market releases. I would hope that one of the lessons is that the umpteenth repackaging of the same titles shouldn't be priced as high as new stuff. I also hope that if they're going to do more steelbooks in the future, they go for more dynamic artwork. Although I like The Lion King one that I have, I do think the concept in general could have been better executed. Disney still knows how to do full artwork for the cover when they want to for their new film steelbooks like Strange World and Elemental, so it was clearly a style choice to go minimalist on the Disney 100 ones.



I hope Disney does not take the lesson that people don't want steelbooks at all unless they're $10, which would be misreading the situation. Disney tends to overprice their new releases too and I'm not saying a price cut wouldn't be welcome. It absolutely would, and I did notice that these were higher this year than they have been in the recent past.

But I am saying that charging a premium for Elemental because it is at least new makes more sense than charging $29.99 for the umpteenth repackaging of The Lion King or whatever. I would probably be willing to buy more good steelbooks from Disney for more than $10. But how they will interpret the sales of these recent ones is just something I would be interested to know. I don't think we will know, but I'm curious.

 

[Robert Harris]

While I have nothing against steelbooks, and acknowledge that some are beautifully designed,I had refrained from upgrading many of my Disney animated features from 2 to 4k, as I had no need of those steelbooks, especially at $30 at BB.

When I discovered, albeit a bit late, the $10 sale, I ordered on line and picked up six of them - all newer titles. One, Beauty and the Beast (animated) eluded me.

So I checked Amazon re-sellers and eBay, and found everything, generally with close to list (or above) asking prices, as they’re all now “rare collectibles.”

Seems that when the sale hit, the same folks who buy sneakers, video game consoles and steelbooks by the pound took over the marketplace.

What’s interesting, in this time of a downturn in sales, there are bottlenecks in the production lines domestically. I’m told that a new facility is going on line.

 

[Jake Lipson]

So I checked Amazon re-sellers and eBay, and found everything, generally with close to list (or above) asking prices, as they’re all now “rare collectibles.”

That happens a lot with steelbooks even when Best Buy is not having a sale. These Disney 100 reissues stuck around a lot longer than most steelbooks tend to before selling out and ending up on eBay

I like steelbooks, but I'm pretty selective about what titles I get in that format, especially as the prices have gone up in the last few years. I've never gone to a third party seller for any of them. If I miss one that I wanted, then I just opt for the general release version and call it a day.

I had intended to get the steelbook for the live-action Beauty and the Beast back in 2017, but it sold out in less than an hour of my store opening. So I just got the keepcase version. A year or so later, I ended up getting my keepcase version autographed by one of the actors in the film, which wouldn't have been as easy to do or protect with a metal case. So I ended up with something more special in the end. That felt like the best revenge for missing the steelbook.

What’s interesting, in this time of a downturn in sales, there are bottlenecks in the production lines domestically. I’m told that a new facility is going on line.

That is good news. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Best Buy has raised the prices on the remaining Disney 100 steelbooks to $22.99 as of this writing.

That's still cheaper than the $29.99 most of them started at, but I can't imagine raising them again will help them clear out any remaining stock that they were unable to sell for $10.