"Fievel Goes West" (1991) & "Balto" (1995) - Walmart Exclusives (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

I checked another local Wal-Mart last night. No dice. While the July 4 wide release date isn't too far off, I have to wonder again: what is the point of designating these things Wal-Mart exclusives if Wal-Mart doesn't have them available? I'm not going on a wild goose chase and will just keep my Amazon pre-order for July.

 

[B-ROLL]

I checked another local Wal-Mart last night. No dice. While the July 4 wide release date isn't too far off, I have to wonder again: what is the point of designating these things Wal-Mart exclusives if Wal-Mart doesn't have them available? I'm not going on a wild goose chase and will just keep my Amazon pre-order for July.

These were in my Wal*Mart store on the bottom of the rack on the left side of the endcap where the NEW releases are in front. MacArthur was in with the new releases. On Friday they were gone and MacArthur was part of a Father's Day endcap that was on the other end of the front new release endcap ...but our is a Wal*Mart SUPERSTORE so we may be special that way !

 

[Jake Lipson]

I'm bumping this thread jut to remind everybody that these two titles are now in general release. Since I could never find it at Wal-Mart here earlier, Amazon delivered Balto to me this afternoon.

As I said before, I grew up on this film and it is the only movie ever that I wanted badly enough on disc to tolerate buying a pan & scan DVD when that was released in 2002. I don't know when I last watched that, but I would guess it's been years, because I could no longer bear it after we finally upgraded to widescreen TVs in 2007. Also, prior to this afternoon, I had not seen this film presented in widescreen since its original theatrical release in 1995.

I was absolutely delighted to see it again and found it held up as well as I remembered it did, and it looks fantastic.

However, there doesn't seem to be any logical reason this same disc couldn't have been released 10 or 11 years ago. It plays at startup and doesn't even return to a menu when the movie is over, just starts it over again as soon as the credits and logos finish. You can get to a basic language selection menu by pressing pop-up menu, but that's it.

I wasn't really expecting to get anything more than this, but as basic as it is, the insane delay in receiving it makes even less sense.

But at least it's here now and it's still great entertainment. If you want it and you're on the fence, allow me to gently nudge you off the fence and toward a purchase.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

The only Don Bluth production I am now hoping for on Blu-ray is Fox's TITAN A.E. Hint hint.

Thumbs up for this. I've been wanting this one since blu became a format. I remember back when the DVD came out it was the go-to disc for audio demos with the ice crystal scene. I've given up hope that it will ever come to blu though....