NO more 2-Disc SE's of newer Disney animated films (1 Viewer)

[Brandon Conway]

I original read this here , and though tgrund does not provide a link to the original source, past history tells me this is very reliable.
Read on:
No Special Edition for Lilo & Stitch DVD
The extra special collector's edition of Lilo & Stitch will not be released on January 28, according to Jim Hill. "Michael Eisner himself earlier this year pulled the plug on the 2-disc deluxe collector's edition of Lilo & Stitch. And worse than that, the Walt Disney Company is supposedly toying with completely abandoning the 2-disc collector's edition format for all of its future animated titles. These proposed cutbacks of any additional features to be included in future animated releases from Buena Vista Home Entertainment are coming because the Mouse is trying once again to economize. According to Disney's own market research, only 8% of the DVD buyers out there are interested in adult-aimed features (i.e. extras such as directors' commentaries, character design galleries, deleted scenes, etc. ) on their discs. The other 92% of DVD buyers are kids and parents who just want the movie. Who are perfectly happy with a DVD that just shows the film and nothing more. Disney's cost savings--should Buena Vista Home Entertainment actually opt to go forward with adopting just the single disc format for all the future DVD releases of the company's animated classics--could be considerable. Reportedly saving the company as much as $7 million in worldwide production costs per title." Which means we'd be missing Lilo & Stitchi extras like a 20-minute tour of the Florida animation studio, 7 long deleted scenes from the film, full galleries, a directors' commentaryand a 45-minute long "On Location with the Directors" featurette.
:frowning:
*NOTE - the IGN boards are subscribers only, but trust me, it's there*

 

[Tom_Bechet]

well biggest mistake ever, If it is true. Anything really official yet on that story?

 

[TheLongshot]

The source is www.jimhillmedia.com.
Jason

 

[GlennH]

Michael Eisner strikes again. When will this guy move on and stop running Disney into the ground?

 

[Joshua Clinard]

This sounds horrible. From the article, it's hard to tell if it's just for new animated titles, or catalogue releases as well. To me, it sounds like it inlcuded all titles, even the ones scheduled for the Platniu status. If true, this is the worst news for the format I have ever heard.
Please tell me I'm jumping the gun here!

 

[Randy A Salas]

I think that $7 million cost for extras is funny math, especially since on a recent title like Lilo & Stitch, many costs of producing background material are built into the film's production budget.

 

[Dan Brecher]

Funny, the commentary for Treasure Planet was passed by the UK classification/censors board just this week as you can see here.
At least this may be a sign they wont do away with nice features like commentaries, although if they are willing to ditch an already recorded Lilo & Stich commentary then...
God help us if they are going to compress future single disc releases to hell with average Beauty and the Beast style transfers and all the extras and audio tracks they can cram onto two layers of a DVD.
Dan

 

[Eric Peterson]

Well, I obviously wasn't included in these statistics. I buy these movies almost primarily for the extras, because personally I think Disney's recent movies really bite. I haven't been able to bring myself to even watch some of them that I already own. If they're going to eliminate the extra content, then they've lost a customer.

 

[ChuckDeLa]

I think it always sucks to lose extras, but I kinda see their point.... producing a ton of extras when 92% of their audience isn't interested certainly doesn't make good business sense. Save the lavish deluxe editions for the "Platinum Series", which have broader appeal. Later on, if Lilo & Stitch or other newer movies have attained a level of "classic status", they can revisit them with a Platinum Edition.

I buy these movies almost primarily for the extras, because personally I think Disney's recent movies really bite.

You realize that's insane, don't you?

 

[Joshua Clinard]

I don't trust that 92% figure. I know a lot of people that like extra features a lot. I figure at least 3 out of 10, so that's 30% that like extra features. Maybe 4 out of 10 even.
Maybe they put the survey in the movies that come out only in pan and scan. Since none of use are buying those movies, we don't get a change to participate. That's bias!

 

[NickFoley]

Stupid move by Disney.

 

[Ricky Hustle]

My take on it, seen 5 or 10 disks worth of Disney extras, seen them all. I dont even watch the extras anymore. My kid only cares about the movie also.
They are just cartoons, for cryin out loud. For all I care, they could put P&S on one side, WS on the other, and forsake the disk-art.
I own every available animated Disney DVD, btw.

 

[GrantM]

yep, stoopid!!!!
I'm MUCH more inclined to buy a great SE than a bare-bones disc. I haven't seen many of the newer disney movies in the theater, but i was persuaded to buy the Atlantis SE due to reviews and the special features, but i doubt i will buy Lilo & Stich. I was hoping for a nice SE of Treasure Planet, but if there is not one, i will not buy it either.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Why not just charge enough for the 2-disc collector's editions to justify the cost? That way you can produce bare-bones discs for regular folks and the collectors can have (and pay for) their special editions???

I mean...if they could turn a profit selling laserdisc box sets to collectors, why can't they with DVD? If anything, the size of the collector "market" has increase dramamtically with DVD over the size it was during the days of laserdisc. Sounds like plenty of money to make...just price it right.

I'd gladly pay $35 for a collector's set done right of my favorite animated titles. I always thought it odd that such "collector's editions" were always priced just a few bucks more (if even that) than their single-disc bare-bones counterparts.

Just another example of how the "suits" at Disney can't see the bigger picture and how it can earn them money *and* make the true film collector a happy cutomer...

-dave

 

[Gunnar Syren]

Hm, according to Digital Bits, about 40,000,000 DVD Players have been sold in North America. That doesn't mean that there are actually 40,000,000 DVD buyers, but still.
Let's assume that there are 12,000,000 DVD buyers (not counting all us bloody foreigners who aren't supposed to buy R1, but do).
If 8 percent of those are interested in these discs, that makes it close to 1,000,000. Even if only 1 out of 5 of these actually buy the disc, that's still 200,000.
If it's profitable to release W D Treasures limited to 150,000 and 125,000, then why do think that they can't make money from those 2-disc features?

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

They are talking about NEWER features, which I personally have no interest in, SE or not.

They had better keep dishing out the older, classic films in special editions.

 

[DaViD Boulet]

Grant, totally agree. I bought it (and many other animated DVDs) having never seen them in the theater but was tempted by the great SE DVD and thought it would be neat to add to the "collection".

 

[LukeB]

This information agrees with the information I got this past summer with regards to Lilo & Stitch and future animated films. I don't understand why everyone on DVD message boards seems to be under the impression that a 2-disc CE for Lilo & Stitch is in production and definitely going to be released next year.

 

[Elvie]

Umm, perhaps this is a rather obvious comment but to add to what David Boulet posted ... I know that I paid a bit more for my CE 2-disc editions of Tarzan, Bugs Life, Dinosaur, etc. Or perhaps that was just Disney's way of making more cash up here in Canada
I'm hoping this is an error in reporting (I can hope) but now I don't know if I should wait ... just in case ... for an SE/CE version of Lilo & Stitch now :frowning:
phooey!

 

[James Reader]

I don't understand why everyone on DVD message boards seems to be under the impression that a 2-disc CE for Lilo & Stitch is in production and definitely going to be released next year.

Because the film's directors have mentioned it themselves more than once? No offense, but I'm more inclined to believe the filmmakers than Internet rumours.

That said, I don't doubt this news. It's telling that a commentary has been passed by the BBFC for Treasure Planet (which admittedly could be for a single disc only release) but the Lilo and Stitch supplements passed match those on the R1 DVD.

I was hoping that a 2 disc CE would be released in "summer 2003" at the same time as "Stitch's First Movie".

Disney is wrong to do this. As long as they get some profit from the 2 disc sets (which they must) the positive publicity outweighs the need for greater profits. Let's face it, those 8% (a figure I find hard to believe myself) are likely to be Disney's biggest customers in general. And those people will remember any bad publicity more than any good publicity - that's the way it is.

To me, the answer would be to make every release 2 disc like R1 Monsters Inc. Keep the 'child friendly' supplements on the first disc with the movie and put the in-depth supplements on disc 2. Maybe even come up with a special case design which would enable the movie disc to be removed while still being protected so this on it's own could be given to children.

That was everyone is happy, the authoring costs are spread out over more discs so become less of a factor.

But what do I know? I'm not paid the millions upon millions of dollars per year that Eisner is!