Disney Announces Changes in Platinum Collection Schedule (1 Viewer)

[Brian W.]

Thanks, Paul. Yep, it's true. Follow the link and check the audio clip exactly 11 minutes into it. Someone named Bob is speaking. I've typed a complete transcript of the relevant portion:

While DVD may not represent new, cutting edge technology, it continues to represent a substantial opportunity for Disney, especially the devices that are purchased by the mainstream family segment, a huge market that is [cool?] for our company.

To capitlize on increased penetration, we're making a number of changes to our longstanding moratorium strategy for our best-loved Platinum animation titles. Rather than ten-year release cycles for each Platinum title, we now expect to release two Platinum titles per year, in March and October, which will effectively condense the cycle to seven years. This will enable us to distribute all Platinum titles on DVD by 2007, rather than 2010, allowing for a two-year selling window and a 5-year period when the title is off the market. In addition, we plan to expand the Platinum portfolio in 2004, after our release of our next Platinum title, The Lion King, to include Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, and Fantasia.

 

[Dick]

Anyone know if the PINOCCHIO special edition that was strongly rumored to be on its way will still reach us this year or next??

 

[Brian Lawrence]

What on earth can there be to add to a Platinum edition of "Fantasia" after 3-disc "Fantasia Anthology"?

A good start would be to restore Deems Taylor's real voice, the current dvd has a newly dubbed over voice that is NOT Deems Taylor.

 

[James Reader]

a 2-disc set of Peter Pan?
it looks like I'll be upgrading!

Here's my review of the French 2 disc set (which appears to be the same as the Japanese "Peter Pan Anthology" released this May, which includes "Return to Neverland" as well).

Hopefully the R1 release will have more content added.

And here's a review of the R2 single disc Pinocchio Special Edition (which is the same as the R4 version).

Hopefully the R1 release will include ALL the Figaro shorts and ALL the I'm No Fool shorts (as well as an extensive production gallery).

 

[James Reader]

Re: Fantasia

In France, you can by the Anthology, the Fantasia disc on it's own or A 2 Disc Fantasia Set which I think only has the Fantasia supplements from the Fantasia Legacy.

 

[oscar_merkx]

great news indeed about the Platinum line indeed

 

[David Lambert]

The only thing I can see missing from the upcoming SE of Sleeping Beauty is a commentary track. Really, all they have to do is change the cover art to say "Platinum Edition" instead of "Special Edition" and it's a PE.

And you can bet that "changing the cover text" is probably all they would do, and that adding a commentary track (or any other supplements) would be a negative. While this thought that follows may not apply to Sleeping Beauty in particular (Luke's logic seems sound to me on that one), the point I am making is that we can probably expect these to be "less special" if they are picking up the pace. Any Disney "commitments" (express or implied) to PE's containing certain types of supplements would certainly be thrown out the window if they have less time to put these together.


For those of you who still want to read up on this in "the news", you can see everything Luke and Brian told you over at this Video Busniess magazine article (free registration required to view, IIRC).

 

[James Reader]

David raises an interesting point. The European 2 disc sets (Sleeping Beauty and Peter Pan) certainly aren't as polished as the Platinum Editions (although I maintain that while not being as well presented, the Sleeping Beauty release has more actual content on the second disc than last year's Beauty and the Beast release).

However, both could be classed as disappointing - especially the Peter Pan set. And the UK Pinocchio "Special Edition" seems like it was rushed released for no particular reason (the existing "Gold Collection" type R2 release was still available in some shops!).

So does this mean the new Platinum releases will be of lesser quality. I expect so. I see the original 10 Platinum Releases continuing as normal and being the "best of the best" while the new additions will be "second class" Platinum releases.

Like the Sleeping Beauty release seems to be the same as the European (and Japanese) release except for the addition of Trailers, how much will Disney add to the Peter Pan 2 disc set? Europe and Japan seem to be getting the same content. Will America really be that different? What about Pinocchio? Again Europe, Australia and Japan seem to be getting the same single disc release. Will we really get a whole disc worth of extras sourced? Will we get all the shorts featuring Figaro for example?

Personally, I see "Platinum" being a new branding for 2 disc set. It doesn't matter whats on the set as long as it's two discs. I expect the original announced Platinum titles to continue being released each October for now, with the "new additions" being released in March... not Platinum releases as such, but just "archive 2 disc sets". Not that there's anything wrong with that.

The inclusion of Fantasia makes me think I'm right. After all, all the works already been done for that release.

One final thought. Why not just add Lilo and Stitch to the list and release a 2 disc set and save face at the same time? Or announce all "new" new titles will be 2 disc? They must accept 2 disc sets sell better or why bother increasing the frequency of release (and indeed add new titles). Something doesn't add up.

 

[Jeff_HR]

I'd buy a truly uncut "Fantasia". But only "Fantasia", not the whole set.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Everyone is always saying

Very exciting news. With HD-DVD on the horizon it seemed silly to wait until 2010 to release all 10.

This is great news! Now they'll all be out before HD-DVD

think, is that Sleeping Beauty and Fantasia, for instance, won't be treated as Platinums until the 'next cycle', which the plan is to start again once HD-DVD is launched

Don't any of you recall how hard it was to get many major titles on DVD? Do you really think, with well under 2% of the US owning a digital television, and SD-DVD being less than 6 years old that the studios are eager to Cannibalize their market? It's not going to happen. 2012 is the earliest you're going to see any Disney HD-DVD titles, it's a simple fact that until 60-70% of the US have HD capable sets, there is not going to be any major push for it.

 

[todd s]

John Kilduff,

I was going to ask if you had a picture of Sherri Stoner to see how what she looked like. But, I found this one.


It is funny. She was also in the 80's movie "Reform School Girls".

 

[Jonathan Perregaux]

I thought Deems Taylor's voice was dubbed when they reconstructed the original Fantasia roadshow interstitials because portions of the original audio were damaged and/or lost.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Don't any of you recall how hard it was to get many major titles on DVD? Do you really think, with well under 2% of the US owning a digital television, and SD-DVD being less than 6 years old that the studios are eager to Cannibalize their market? It's not going to happen. 2012 is the earliest you're going to see any Disney HD-DVD titles, it's a simple fact that until 60-70% of the US have HD capable sets, there is not going to be any major push for it.

I think you are being over pessimistic. They might support HD-DVD much earlier than 2012.

Let us not forget that not only did Disney (through Image) support LD well, they even supported DTS LD. LD was a much smaller niche than HD will be over the next couple of years.

On the other hand, those who expect any meaningful studio support for HD-DVD in the next couple of years are being way too optimistic.

In my opinion, of course.

 

[Brian Kidd]

A good start would be to restore Deems Taylor's real voice, the current dvd has a newly dubbed over voice that is NOT Deems Taylor.

Jonathan is right. After its initial "Roadshow" presentation, FANTASIA was edited down for general release. The edits were made in the Deems Taylor sections. When Scott MacQueen was restoring FANTASIA to its original running time, it was discovered that the Deems Taylor audio for these cut sections could not be found. Since switching back and forth between original dialogue and newly dubbed dialogue would be distracting, (at times it would have been every other sentence) MacQueen went with an entirely re-recorded narration. It was unfortunate that the original stems couldn't be found, but I know that Mr. MacQueen cares deeply for these films and did the best job he knew how to do. If the stems are ever relocated, (doubtful) then I'm sure he'll put them back into the picture. As it stands, though, the only way we'll have the Roadshow version is with the new track.

As for the Centaurettes, who knows? Disney did allow footage in THE RELUCTANT DRAGON featuring a maquette of one of the Black Centaurettes to be released on the BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS set. Of course, you really had to know what you were looking at to notice it.

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Quote:

"A good start would be to restore Deems Taylor's real voice, the current dvd has a newly dubbed over voice that is NOT Deems Taylor."

---

How could they be expected to restore something that's gone, that cannot be found?

However, they could of course include an alternate track with the sound switching between the dub and the existing pieces by Deems Taylor.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

How could they be expected to restore something that's gone, that cannot be found?

Deems Taylor's voice tracks are available for everything but the extra bits from the "roadshow" version that they tried to recreate for the DVD. They could quite easily present both versions via branching since only select narration segments would be different.

Regards,

 

[DaViD Boulet]

So, does this mean we get a sleeping beauty SE now and then a year from now it gets re-released again?

-dave

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

Like any of us really care how they brand anything as long as we get SEs of great films with excellent A/V presentations sooner rather than later. [This space reserved for gripes about Beauty & the Beast bit-starved compression].

Regards,

 

[Larry P]

If this Stoner chick was the live action model for The Little Mermaid, then what was Alyssa Milano? Just the inspiration? I believe the film wasn't rotoscoped (and it shows) so it isn't as important as it would be in those films anyway.

I hope the Mermaid Platinum is pushed up to next year then! It's my second favorite Disney animated film, although I have huge problems with it, it was just so refreshing and different from what Disney had been giving us for the previous 30 years. It's also the only time on film I've seen mermaids done convincingly. Nice to see Disney recognizing it's impact with this Platinum edition.

On a sad note, I have resigned myself to the apparent fact that Disney is never going to give us a great Alice in Wonderland disc though. Although they did put out that awesome laserdisc box set around '95 or so. That film has been in constant rotation since 1982, as far as I know. If I remember correctly, it was their first animated film on VHS, for sell through at least, I think, but it still doesn't get any respect.

 

[Craig Beam]

Larry, I believe PINOCCHIO was the first Disney sell-through VHS title... a film that later appeared (presumably for the sake of tradition) as the first Disney DVD. But which Disney animated film was the first to appear on LD? Anyone?

I'm just happy that BAMBI will be released sooner than planned. Here's hoping we get a revised schedule SOON.