Disney's OOPs movies(The Jungle Book and The Lion King)

[Amit Patel]

Does Disney has any plan in future to make ‘The Jungle Book’ limited edition (1967) animated and the ‘The Lion King’ on DVD ?. These movies are OOP( Out of Print).

Thanks

 

[DavidBL]

Jungle Book has already been released as a bare bones DVD. You can find used copies around on Ebay, etc., maybe even some online places.

Lion King will be next year's mega-2 disc platinum series like Snow White last year and Beauty and the Beast this year.

They will probably redo Jungle Book in a deluxe form several years down the road.

 

[Amit Patel]

I do have a original Video of The Jungle Book, but the quality of the picture is not that sharp. I wonder how good quality of the picture would be in bare bones DVD of this movie as it is not made by Disney it self.

 

[Matt Pelham]

Somewhere there is a list of every Disney Platinum title to be released over the next 10 years. I seem to remember Jungle Book being on there, although I don't remember when.

 

[Seth Paxton]

The Jungle Book first release looks pretty good. I compared it to my Laser Disc and it was a nice improvement in sharpness at least, colors being equally vibrant to me (I thought the LD was very solid).

But I held off buying it since the LD is so excellent and I assume a better JB DVD is coming down the road in a year or two. However, if I had no copy I would have bought it right away and just prepared to rebuy later.

 

[Steve Y]

As mentioned above, you can still find The Jungle Book via online auctions and special "shop sales" at places like Amazon.com.
The Lion King is currently slated for Fall 2003;
The Jungle Book is currently slated for Fall 2006.
This information taken from The Ultimate Guide to Disney DVD, prepared by one of our fellow HTF members:
http://www.angelfire.com/mi2/HomeImp...imateintro.htm
Steve

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Here's the current list of Disney Platinum titles:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Already Released)
Beauty and the Beast
The Lion King
Aladdin
Bambi
Cinderella
The Little Mermaid
Lady and the Tramp
101 Dalmations
The Jungle Book
The following have already been released to DVD in a "bare-bones" format:
The Little Mermaid
The Jungle Book
Lady and the Tramp
101 Dalmations
This means that after Beauty and the Beast arrives this Fall, only these Disney animated classics will remain without any kind of DVD release:
Sleeping Beauty : (Expected this Fall or next Spring as a CE)
The Lion King Expected Release: Fall, 2003
Aladdin Fall, 2004
Bambi
Cinderella
That's not too bad at all, compared to, say, Lucas's classic catalog title output ...

 

[LukeB]

Don't forget The Rescuers, Joseph.

 

[Enrique B Chamorro]

I am very concerned about the US release of Sleeping Beauty.

The French R2 edition is 2 disc WS SE with French DTS.

The UK R2 edition is 1 disc P&S.

We need to let Disney know what we want.

 

[DarrenA]

I'm not worried about Sleeping Beauty being available on widescreen when it arrives on DVD. After all, Disney has always released the Animated Classics in Region 1 in their OAR.

I do wonder though if Sleeping Beauty will have an aspect ratio of 2.20:1 from the 70mm print, or 2.35:1 from the 35mm print?

 

[LarryH]

Good grief! Six and a half more YEARS until the Platinum Edition of Little Mermaid comes out. What is Disney's target audience for this program? Everybody ages 10 years through this cycle. Is a 16-year-old going to be interested in the same movies as a 6-year-old? I think they are windowing themselves outside their audience.

 

[Philip Hamm]

This means that after Beauty and the Beast arrives this Fall, only these Disney animated classics will remain without any kind of DVD release:

Sleeping Beauty : (Expected this Fall or next Spring as a CE)

The Lion King Expected Release: Fall, 2003

Aladdin Fall, 2004

Bambi

Cinderella

Wow, I have all those as LaserDiscs (including both B&Bs, movie and rot free WIP on CAV). Acually all my LDs are the CAV SEs or box sets except Alladin (P&S ugh!). Sometimes it's cool to be ol' Skool.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Good grief! Six and a half more YEARS until the Platinum Edition of Little Mermaid comes out.

Well ... At least, unlike, say, LucasFilm, Disney did break moratorium on this title long enough to give us a bare-bones DVD.

The first Little Mermaid DVD was a letterboxed, non-anamorphic, 1.66:1 presentation, with a very nice DD 5.1 audio mix. There were NO EXTRAS on the disc. Just the FOUR-STAR MOVIE.

Since I came over to DVD straight from VHS, I really appreciated this disc (as well as all the other bare-bones inital Disney Animated Classics DVDs. I still wish that they had at least anamorphically-enhanced the 2.35:1 Lady and the Tramp, though.)

I now own a FPTV system, and this presentation of The Little Mermaid looks very nice on it. The same could defintely not have been said for its VHS counterpart.

As far as having to wait on the Platinum Collection iteration of the disc: Well, that's just Disney's marketing strategy for their titles. For years they were on a 7 year moratorium cycle with almost all of their animated features; they've now gone to a relaxed release policy for most animated features, with only the 10 desginated Platinum titles going through moratorium cycles. Disney reserves the right, of course, to rotate titles in and out of "Platinum status" as needed, based on current market demands.

THE BOTTOM LINE is that after Fall of this year, about 85% of all Disney animated classics will have been made available to the DVD format in some form or fashion. Believe me when I tell you that that's astonishing for a format only five years old when dealing with a studio that traditionally releases features on a 7 year cycle!

 

[Joseph Bolus]

Don't forget The Rescuers, Joseph.

And, of course, Song of the South ... *sigh*

 

[Amit Patel]

Pardon me for my ignorance but which is ‘bare bones’ DVD means ?.

Thanks

 

[LukeB]

Pardon me for my ignorance but which is ‘bare bones’ DVD means ?.

"bare bones" means that a DVD has few or no extras.

 

[MarkBurton]

Yes, unless otherwise announced, at the end of this year, the only 4 Animated Canon films that have not had a release on DVD will be The Lion King, Aladdin, Bambi and Cinderella.

Currently, The Rescuers and Sleeping Beauty have been released in R2 and R4. And as previously mentioned, Sleeping Beauty was released as a terrific double disk Special Edition in 2.35:1

However, if we are speaking of R1 releases only, then all of the 6 films above have not had a DVD release.

Song of the South is not part of the Animated Canon, but it has not been released on DVD just the same.