Disney Announces Changes in Platinum Collection Schedule (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

PINOCCHIO was also the first Disney animated feature to appear on laser dsc. And speaking of PINOCCHIO, I'll repeat my question from an earlier post in this thread: is the rumored special edition of this film still coming soon, or does its new inclusion as part of the Platinum series mean we'll be waiting four years?

 

[Brian W.]

is the rumored special edition of this film still coming soon, or does its new inclusion as part of the Platinum series mean we'll be waiting four years?

No one knows. Nothing has been announced yet as to how this will affect the order of the release of the Platinum titles. Disney may now change the release order completely. Pinocchio could well be the March Platinum release for next year, with Little Mermaid retaining its currently scheduled Fall 2004 release date. In fact, I'd say that's probably more likely than upping the release date of a previously scheduled DVD by six months.

And Aladdin still won't come out until after its presumed IMAX release in December of 2004 (Little Mermaid is getting an IMAX release with a new song added this December), so we're looking at March 2005 for Aladdin at the very earliest.

 

[James Reader]

People don't loose fact that Disney are doing this for one reason - Money. It has nothing to do with HD-DVD, after all they could release the later Platinum releases on DVD and HD-DVD couldn't they?

Sometimes members on this forum get so worked up about the technical they simply ignore the obvious

If it was simply about getting the discs out before HD-DVD, why increase the availability to 2 years instead of the current 3 months. Why add additional titles to the collection?

Movies Help Disney Overcome Q2 Weakness in Other Areas

Operating income for the parks-and-resorts segment tumbled 45% to $155 million, as revenue fell 2.6% to $1.49 billion. Walt Disney World had lower park attendance and hotel occupancy, which Disney blamed on international concerns, the weak economy and Easter falling in the year-earlier fiscal second quarter. Meanwhile, hotel occupancy and attendance rose at Disneyland.

If you're expecting uncut Fantasia, or radical reworkings of exiting international 2 disc DVD sets I think you will be disappointed (but I too, hope that Disney do more).

Disney needs to get it's films out sooner, and get people to rebuy films they already own - Disney's only aim is to cash in.

 

[Joe Caps]

I know you guys have heard me bitch about this before, but I can't resist one more time.
At least Alice in Wonderland has a picture that looks great and has the right colors.
Now - how about really great transfers of Pinocchio and Peter Pan. The special edition of Peter Pan was yet another dissapointment. Colorful and sharp, but it looks nothing like Peter Pan. To me, the pinocchio is horrid beyond belief. And we have NEVER had good sound for Pinocchio. Always those terrible fake stereo things. Just once could we have the original mono on a back up track. We at least had the original mono for Peter Pan on the last CAV laser disc, sadly attachd to the WORST transfer Peter has ever had. Now that Disneys restoration buy, scott Macqueen has left Disney, I'm really worrid about quality. Scott did a restoration of Peter Pan that is gorgeous. Disney home vid did not use his restoration for the vid. Sad.

 

[MatthewA]

Joe, I sent you an email weeks ago asking who replaced Scott at Disney? I admired his work and hope the standards he helped maintain are continued to be held.

Anyway, Pinocchio deserves Platinum status, IMO. Here's hoping for a better DVD of this, perhaps Walt's best narrative feature of all time, and Peter Pan (which isn't one of my favorite Disney animated movies but still deserves a better DVD).

I may pick up the Alice DVD and keep the LD for the extras based on Joe's recommendation.

 

[earl_roberts]

I was hoping for Dumbo too :frowning:

How is the current DVD?

 

[LukeB]

Dumbo's picture quality is pretty disappointing, particularly compared with Snow White, Fantasia, and Pinocchio. The supplements are pretty good, though not quite as exhaustive as Snow White and Fantasia.

 

[David Lambert]

And Aladdin still won't come out until after its presumed IMAX release in December of 2004 (Little Mermaid is getting an IMAX release with a new song added this December), so we're looking at March 2005 for Aladdin at the very earliest.

Sorry Brian, but I think you've got it backwards:

* "2002": Beauty and the Beast was released to IMAX on 1/1/2002.
* "2003": The Lion King was released to IMAX the following year, a week earlier, as an experiment to see if more Christmas dollars could be captured. The 12/25/02 release was considered a failure...people didn't drop their Christmas activities to go see the film.
* "2004": Because of that, the Imax release of Aladdin is back to New Year's Day. Expect to see it on 1/1/2004. This was advertised in the trailer just before the IMAX presentation of Lion King - Special Edition.
* "2005": The Little Mermaid is *rumored* to be the Disney IMAX film for release on 1/1/2005, which made sense considering that before the change in Disney's Platinum schedule (which is what this thread is about, after all) the Aladdin PE release was next, and then Little Mermaid after that (recall Ron's recent post on the subject, which of course is all water-under-the-bridge now).


Anyway, that's the latest information I have on the next two IMAX releases, anyway. If you have different info, please let us know. Cheers,

 

[Tony-B]

Nice! I really like that idea. Definitely better than the previous plan that would take forever.

 

[Vincent Matis]

Fresh from "The Digital Bits", Disney plans to release 2 (two) Platinium titles per year !!!

Cheers,

Vincent

Edit: Now I look really stupid as this news in mentionned on the first page. I thought this was an old thread about some titles switching spots (where has that thread gone?). Never post at 2 am in the morning !

 

[Brian W.]

Thanks, Dave. I did wonder while I was writing that if I had those two reversed.

But, whew, am I relieved! If I hadn't been for that one little mixup, I would have been so perfect that physical reality would not have been able to contain my presence, and I would have just disappeared from the universe!

 

[Brian W.]

Fresh from "The Digital Bits", Disney plans to release 2 (two) Platinium titles per year !!!

Really?!?!?!?!?

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Dumbo's picture quality is pretty disappointing, particularly compared with Snow White, Fantasia, and Pinocchio.

I beg to differ. Yes, it's got some abundant film-grain...but this is the way the film *looks*.

Snow White has been digitally filtered out the wazzoo...and lacks definition and detail on a big-screen projection system. I'd take more detail and inherent film grain over a "clean" but filtered "digital" looking presentation.

-dave

 

[Craig Beam]

Agreed. SNOW WHITE looks a bit too "sanitized" for me. DUMBO, on the other hand, looks just about right.

Film grain is our friend!

 

[Mark-W]

LarryP-

If this Stoner chick was the live action model for The Little Mermaid, then what was Alyssa Milano? Just the inspiration?

I saw a bit on Stoner way back when The Little Mermaid became such a smash, and it seemed like
Disney had a good luck thing with mermaids.
(Touchstone's Splash helped their marketshare ealier.)

It's obvious that the Alyssa Milano thing falls
into the same catagory as
Marilyn Monroe being the model for Tinkerbell:
a legend that has no basis on fact,
but people like the idea of,
so the misinformation,
despite ample evidence to the contrary, doesn't die-off.

Mark

 

[Reagan]

What was so bad about the video in Pinocchio? Sure it had tons of grain, but under the heading "grain is good", that's to be expected.

BTW, all those who bet against the 10 year window being enforced for Snow White, get ready to collect your money.

-Reagan

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Ok, don't want to start a whole new thread so please someone help me understand:

Two family favorites are coming to DVD as special editions from Buena Vista Home Entertainment later this year, the film that made the VW bug famous The Love Bug and the hip mouse duo The Rescuers. Both will be getting two disc special editions later in the year.

Now...are the versions coming out *this month* these 2-disc versions? Or are we getting single-disc versions in May and then getting *separate* 2-disc SEs later in the year? I've preordered both but now I'm not sure what to do as dvdreview.com (where I got the quote from) has me all confused. This month doesn't seem "later this year" to my understanding and I wasn't aware the the rescuers would be a 2-disc affair.

Help!

 

[James Reader]

What was so bad about the video in Pinocchio? Sure it had tons of grain, but under the heading "grain is good", that's to be expected.

Don't worry, there's actually very little difference between the old and newly restored transfers. But Kudos to Disney for investing in preserving their animation assets.

 

[Ken_McAlinden]

I haven't watched it in a while, but IIRC, the problems with Pinocchio had to do with odd varying grain patterns depending on scenes and location in the frame that were an artifact of the video "restoration" process. The last set of Bambi remasters seemed to have a similar problem with the grain structure.

The other complaint was that the color scheme, although not as inconsistent as, say, the Peter Pan transfer Joe mentioned, was not an accurate representation of what was intended by the filmmakers.

Regards,

 

[Joe Caps]

A bit earlier in this thread, someone asked what is wrong with the current Pinocchio?
The color is bright and sharp and bland, bland bland. Everything is turned into a sea of orange and brown and no detail in the dark areas (of which there are many). I wish I could do screen shots to show you, but I haven't a clue.
I can lead you to a disc that can show you. Several years ago, Pinochio was releasd in a CAV Boxed set laser.
look at the final scene of the film on the DVD (wich, BTW is the same transfer as the RED box laser set.
Go to the final scene when Pinocchio is dancing with Mr. Gepetto. Look at how bland it looks,with not a wide range of color. Look at the wall of the cottage behind them - a sea of brown. Look above their heads - a wooden beam of the ceiling that dissapears into nothing.
Go to the Red box laser set. Disney has a Technicolor 1984 reissue trailer thats in good shape. In that trailer is the scene with Pinoc and Gepetto dancing. Look at the WIDE RANGE of colros in the triler compared to the dVD transfer. Look at the detail in the wooden beam and all the detail in the ceiling that can be barely seen on the dvd.
This trailer nearly matches the FIRST laserdisc which had better color (and even worse sound than the new transers).
Frankly, I think that a lot of the transfers of the Disney classics are not that great. Are there any really good ones?
Yes - the laserbox set of Alice in Wonderland- I have not seen the dVD but I suspect its the same transfer.
Also the laser box set of Cinderella is fantastic and even includes the originl mono soundtrack. I hope it looks and sounds this good when it arrives on dVD, but I can already see the hype - new film transfer, restored 5.1 sound. Restored to what - and from what? Glad that Walt is not alive to see all this crap going on. He'd fire everyone in minutes.