HAPPIEST MILLIONAIRE Nothin and error!! (1 Viewer)

[Joe Caps]

Got the new disney Happiest Millionaire today. Same Transfer as Anchor Bay - no anamorphic, no 5.1 nomaking of, not even a trailer. Disney has really peed on this movie. Also has a editing erropr.
Original film order
1l. pre screen Overture.
2. Buena Vista Logo
3. Main Title
New dvd order
1. opening buena vista film logo
2. prescreen overture
3. Main Titles.
not good.

 

[Ernest Rister]

The Anchor Bay version didn't have the "logo", either. Not before the overture, nor before the main titles. It has black leader between the two chapters where the distribution card would have gone. Not that big of a deal for me. As for Disney peeing on the movie by not giving it a proper SE, that's what happens when critics and the public pee on a movie themselves for 30 years.

 

[MatthewA]

schiz·o·phre·ni·a (n.)

Any of a group of psychotic disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from reality, illogical patterns of thinking, delusions, and hallucinations, and accompanied in varying degrees by other emotional, behavioral, or intellectual disturbances. Schizophrenia is associated with dopamine imbalances in the brain and defects of the frontal lobe and is caused by genetic, other biological, and psychosocial factors.
--

Did they restore the end of Act 1 (what exactly was missing on the AB disc)?

None of the Anchor Bay Disneys I have contain any reference to Buena Vista on them. I imagine Disney wanted to disassociate themselves from titles being released by an outside firm.

Disney themselves removed all references to the studio in all videotapes and laser discs (and most TV masters) from 1985 to 1991. It was frustrating considering many of these contained music. For some of the animated films they actually removed part of the main title music and picked up on the "Walt Disney (Productions) Presents" card. Since then they are pretty good about keeping the Buena Vista (and, where applicable, RKO) notices. Even short cartoons have them. Bizzarely, the early Disney videos, though many featured horrid transfers, had the BV on them (and even MPAA ratings tags on some).


Not like the film has gotten much of a high profile since it came and went in theatres, was pulled and re-edited, and the studio didn't promote the film at all when they restored the cut scenes. Not like any live-action films except for the most popular ones, plus the live-action/animation hybrids (except for the one they don't want us to see...) which are lumped in with the animated classics, have been promoted well as actually existing by the studio in recent years.

"Millionaire" had a making-of special in the works to be aired on the weekly Disney TV show that was dropped when Walt died. Greer Garson even shot some footage, and that may or may not exist. There's always a little thing called DVD-18 or DVD-14, and a little thing on the horizon called HD-DVD.

Disney won't shell out for proper SEs of any title that doesn't contain animation anymore. I have no idea how the "Vault Disney" discs sold, or how the three "Vault Disney Lite" titles did. But it's bizzare the way their minds work. How do they decide what's to get an SE or even a new transfer and what doesn't? They supplied Anchor Bay with 16x9 masters of The Devil and Max Devlin and the Watcher in the Woods, which were flops, and are not that well-known or well-regarded today, but they still went through the trouble to remaster them properly. Tron was a flop but has a 2-disc SE. Those Calloways, which Ernest has championed here, came and went when it came out but gets properly remastered.

Follow Me Boys, on the other hand, did very well at the box office, but has a pretty suspect DVD. Blackbeard's Ghost was one of the top box-office draws of 1968 but has an early 80s video transfer ported to DVD.

Not that all flops (in the commercial sense) and hits are treated equally. The differences between the DVDs of Tron and Midnight Madness are astronomical.

And furthermore, some titles they promised would be jam-packed SEs had very little (Freaky Friday '77 and The Three Lives of Thomasina come to mind). And the upcoming Disney reissue of Watcher in the Woods will actually drop some of the extras from Anchor Bay's disc.

Do these people truly see no difference between DVD and VHS?
--
To clarify, the Vault Disney titles:

Old Yeller
The Parent Trap '61
Pollyanna
Swiss Family Robinson

and 2 which did not carry that banner but had Vault Disney insignia on disc menus:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
The Love Bug

the Vault Disney lites, which were one-disc sets marked as generic "Special Editions" but had Vault Disney menus:

The Apple Dumpling Gang
Escape to Witch Mountain
Return from Witch Mountain

 

[Doug Bull]

Thanks for the info Joe.
I had been looking everywhere to find out about the specs on this new release.
Looks as if I will just hang onto my copies of both the standard and Roadshow Anchor Bay versions.
Saved myself some money and anyway for non-anamorphic discs the Anchor Bay releases still look pretty good.

Anchor Bay was going to release a few other British made Tommy Steele films.
Anybody know what the situation is?

 

[Ernest Rister]

"schiz·o·phre·ni·a (n.)

Any of a group of psychotic disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from reality, illogical patterns of thinking, delusions, and hallucinations, and accompanied in varying degrees by other emotional, behavioral, or intellectual disturbances. Schizophrenia is associated with dopamine imbalances in the brain and defects of the frontal lobe and is caused by genetic, other biological, and psychosocial factors."

Would you care to explain why you prefaced your last remarks with a definition of a mental disorder?

"Disney won't shell out for proper SEs of any title that doesn't contain animation anymore."

I would have thought Disney's strategy was transparent by now. This live-action dump is similar to their Gold Collection and Limited Edition content dump, and similar to how they used to release their mega-loaded laserdisc box sets. Disney starts by releasing largely vanilla versions of titles, and then Disney waits a few months or a year or two, and then releases "SE" versions of certain titles later. They've been doing this since the 90's (on LD, anyway).

Why should their strategy change for their live-action titles? Why sell a live-action film to a rabid Disney fan once, when you can release it again with some interviews, a trailer and a commentary track, and get the exact same fan to shell out for the exact same movie later? *Especially* the more obscure titles, and *ESPECIALLY* the obscure titles that were flops and critically panned to boot?

 

[MatthewA]

It is transparent. I just wanted to remind anyone who didn't already know (both of them).

And the definition of schizophrenia applies because of the lack of consistent effort in their releases. I don't care if it's a well-known film like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or an obscure B-film from 1973. They should at least put some "elbow grease" into it.

Perhaps I am overreacting to the fact that they try to sel poor-quality releases to a public that demands more.


Why not? Are they hurting anyone? If I don't like a title (and that applies to many titles, and double or triple to a few) I don't buy it, and I leave it to those who do. Even if the release is not "deluxe" it should at least be a competent presentation.

 

[TedD]

Just got this today.

WARNING WARNING WARNING

Stay far far away from the Disney release of this film!!!!

Disney has screwed up this transfer royally with probably the WORST EE since Outlander.

The interesting thing is it only affects the horizontal dimension. There are at least 3 distinct lines at the edge of the letterbox bars.

IT IS UNWATCHABLE on anything bigger than a 19" TV.

The sound also has no high frequencies any more.
The audio on the Disney release is flagged as 5.1, but it the same Dolby pro-logic with the high frequencies rolled of drastically.

Keep your Anchor Bay releases, they are far superior in both picture and sound quality then the Disney abomination.

Ted