The Official Disney Movie Club Blu-ray Exclusives Thread (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

If I'm not getting it on disc I would rather watch the HD versions they show on TCM since it is included in my satellite packing but I understand what you are saying.

I would direct any further discussion about Disney HD downloads here, and keep this thread about DMC exclusive Blu-ray releases.

For sure. I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to hijack the discussion. I merely wanted to point out that while we wait and hope for our favorite titles to come out on disc (or to be shown on TCM) that if one absolutely can't wait to see a certain title, it may be possible to see it. Not everyone is necessarily aware of this and I just wanted to throw that information out there with the intent of being helpful. If the information wasn't helpful, I'm not sure what else I can say.

 

[Mark-P]

Still waiting on THE PARENT TRAP.

That will be the catalyst that causes me to rejoin the Disney club.

We will all be happy when that title gets released. It was looking really hopeful when the Club released Old Yeller, Pollyanna, Swiss Family Robinson, and The Love Bug, and we thought they were finally getting to the good stuff, but then they backslid and stared up the junky titles again... All in good time. I'm sure they are coming eventually.

 

[Thomas T]

we thought they were finally getting to the good stuff, but then they backslid and started up the junky titles again...

One man's junk is another man's jewel!

 

[Tom St Jones]

WHAT's the deal with Disney these days? Not all that long ago, they had no problem sublicensing their product to Anchor Bay, but now they won't license to third parties? Why don't they start an MOD program like most other studios have?

 

[Josh Steinberg]

They haven't licensed to Anchor Bay for what, ten years? Fifteen? That's been over for a long time.

But they do have an MOD program for DVDs, it's called Disney Generations and Amazon carries them as well as the Disney Movie Club.

 

[RobertSiegel]

They haven't licensed to Anchor Bay for what, ten years? Fifteen? That's been over for a long time.

But they do have an MOD program for DVDs, it's called Disney Generations and Amazon carries them as well as the Disney Movie Club.

Wow I just looked at the MOD titles through Amazon and being the movie nut I have been all of my life, I had to laugh that I had never heard of a single one of them. I will never figure out their strategy regarding their club releases or MOD. All I know is there are great titles not released on blu-ray, and the titles offered in the club seem to be down the list of popular movies.Don't get me wrong, I have purchased almost all of them. Disney films are always an "honored" section in my collection, but for God's sake where is 20,000 Leagues, Parent Trap, Happiest Millionaire, Bedknobs and Broomsticks restored cut, Great Locomotive Chase, One and Only Genuine Original Family Band (OK I admit it, it's not a well known title but I am so in love with Sherman Brothers scores).

I really wish they would use Anchor Bay again, that is who released The Happiest Millionaire the first time on DVD. You would think a studio would want their titles to be available and make some profit on them rather than sitting in the vault and only available on DVD. And until I can get blu-ray quality, I will not download or watch on demand anything

We have got to get Disney to stop this Dolby Digital calamity. So far, almost all of the club exclusives are mono films, but if they release The Happiest Millionaire with Dolby Digital-only, I think I'll cry. PLEASE evey one, even if you have already done it, please write to the club requesting lossless audio and keep doing it. I write once a week, it's on my calender. Let's make it so they really take notice. As a collective effort, maybe we can persuade them.

 

[bigshot]

One man's junk is another man's jewel!

Million Dollar Duck is a real gem all right!

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Wow I just looked at the MOD titles through Amazon and being the movie nut I have been all of my life, I had to laugh that I had never heard of a single one of them. I will never figure out their strategy regarding their club releases or MOD. All I know is there are great titles not released on blu-ray, and the titles offered in the club seem to be down the list of popular movies.Don't get me wrong, I have purchased almost all of them. Disney films are always an "honored" section in my collection, but for God's sake where is 20,000 Leagues, Parent Trap, Happiest Millionaire, Bedknobs and Broomsticks restored cut, Great Locomotive Chase, One and Only Genuine Original Family Band (OK I admit it, it's not a well known title but I am so in love with Sherman Brothers scores).

I really wish they would use Anchor Bay again, that is who released The Happiest Millionaire the first time on DVD. You would think a studio would want their titles to be available and make some profit on them rather than sitting in the vault and only available on DVD. And until I can get blu-ray quality, I will not download or watch on demand anything

We have got to get Disney to stop this Dolby Digital calamity. So far, almost all of the club exclusives are mono films, but if they release The Happiest Millionaire with Dolby Digital-only, I think I'll cry. PLEASE evey one, even if you have already done it, please write to the club requesting lossless audio and keep doing it. I write once a week, it's on my calender. Let's make it so they really take notice. As a collective effort, maybe we can persuade them.

As a DMC Member, twice over, I've been calling and writing to DMC Customer Service asking for the titles you listed (and adding in The Black Hole (1979) and The Ugly Dachshund (1966)) to be released on Blu-ray. I also requested and was promised that my requests would be forwarded up the Disney chain of command to those who make the release decisions (sure wish I knew the names of those folks along with email & snail mail addresses).

Nothing in return so far!

 

[Tom St Jones]

As a DMC Member, twice over, I've been calling and writing to DMC Customer Service asking for the titles you listed (and adding in The Black Hole (1979) and The Ugly Dachshund (1966)) to be released on Blu-ray. I also requested and was promised that my requests would be forwarded up the Disney chain of command to those who make the release decisions (sure wish I knew the names of those folks along with email & snail mail addresses).

Nothing in return so far!

The studios and their various home ent. divisions are mostly run by beancounters these days, many of whom are not all that familiar with the very product/ brands their studios are known for. I wouldn't be surprised if there are people at Disney who've never heard of Donald Duck! These people know what they see on their spreadsheets, but unfortunately not a whole lot more...

 

[Mike Frezon]

Wow I just looked at the MOD titles through Amazon and being the movie nut I have been all of my life, I had to laugh that I had never heard of a single one of them. I will never figure out their strategy regarding their club releases or MOD. All I know is there are great titles not released on blu-ray, and the titles offered in the club seem to be down the list of popular movies.Don't get me wrong, I have purchased almost all of them. Disney films are always an "honored" section in my collection, but for God's sake where is 20,000 Leagues, Parent Trap, Happiest Millionaire, Bedknobs and Broomsticks restored cut, Great Locomotive Chase, One and Only Genuine Original Family Band (OK I admit it, it's not a well known title but I am so in love with Sherman Brothers scores).

I really wish they would use Anchor Bay again, that is who released The Happiest Millionaire the first time on DVD. You would think a studio would want their titles to be available and make some profit on them rather than sitting in the vault and only available on DVD. And until I can get blu-ray quality, I will not download or watch on demand anything

We have got to get Disney to stop this Dolby Digital calamity. So far, almost all of the club exclusives are mono films, but if they release The Happiest Millionaire with Dolby Digital-only, I think I'll cry. PLEASE evey one, even if you have already done it, please write to the club requesting lossless audio and keep doing it. I write once a week, it's on my calender. Let's make it so they really take notice. As a collective effort, maybe we can persuade them.

It's like I wrote this post myself...

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

The studios and their various home ent. divisions are mostly run by beancounters these days, many of whom are not all that familiar with the very product/ brands their studios are known for. I wouldn't be surprised if there are people at Disney who've never heard of Donald Duck! These people know what they see on their spreadsheets, but unfortunately not a whole lot more...

Just noticed too that Disney whiffed on a 50th Anniversary release for The Ugly Dachshund (1966).

And now with the 40th coming up for Star Wars (1977), and the hopes we get the original unaltered version on Blu, ahh don't want to jinx anything

 

[Randy Korstick]

Million Dollar Duck is a real gem all right!

Day 1 purchase for me. And so would any unreleased Dean Jones or Hayley Mills Disney film on Blu.

 

[Mark-P]

Day 1 purchase for me. And so would any unreleased Dean Jones or Hayley Mills Disney film on Blu.

How about both of them together in That Darn Cat?

 

[skylark68]

I watched the old DVD release of Snowball Express again for the 1,000th time. What a fun movie. The transfer itself looks pretty good, but it's full frame unfortunately. Dean Jones is just wonderful in that film. Harry Morgan too. Jones yelling at the top of his lungs going down the ski slope is hilarious. Would love to see this on blu.

 

[Joel Arndt]

That Darn Cat is one of the funniest movies ever made IMHO. Would love to see it on Blu.

 

[Randy Korstick]

Yep I would definitely be in for That Darn Cat (1965) and Snowball Express. And while we are at It Both the Shaggy Dog 1959 and The Shaggy DA

 

[jra66]

Snowball Express is one of my all time guilty pleasures. It is just a fun movie that I never expect to see on Bluray. But with half of these Disney Exclusives being movies I've never heard of, I won't rule it out. Anything with Dean Jones would be welcome addition to my Blu Collection.

While we are throwing out requests, anyone else remember 'The Blue Yonder' (1985) with Peter Coyote?

 

[KPmusmag]

I watched the old DVD release of Snowball Express again for the 1,000th time. What a fun movie. The transfer itself looks pretty good, but it's full frame unfortunately. Dean Jones is just wonderful in that film. Harry Morgan too. Jones yelling at the top of his lungs going down the ski slope is hilarious. Would love to see this on blu.

That's so funny, I watched Snowball Express yesterday myself. Not only a fun movie, but great nostalgia for me. My grandmother took me to see it in 1972 and we laughed so hard when the steam engine smashed through the hotel. I always watch it zoomed to 1.66, it works well. For the first time yesterday (don't know how I missed it) I noticed it was based on a book called Chateau Bon Vivant which I would like to read, but it is very expensive on amazon at the moment.

This and That Darn Cat are definitely much desired by me on blu.

 

[Dick]

That's so funny, I watched Snowball Express yesterday myself. Not only a fun movie, but great nostalgia for me. My grandmother took me to see it in 1972 and we laughed so hard when the steam engine smashed through the hotel. I always watch it zoomed to 1.66, it works well. For the first time yesterday (don't know how I missed it) I noticed it was based on a book called Chateau Bon Vivant which I would like to read, but it is very expensive on amazon at the moment.

This and That Darn Cat are definitely much desired by me on blu.

I am also anxious for these two. I've seen dozens of spectacular HD masters of as-yet unreleased Disney films on Blu-ray, but these two were not done, that I am aware of. Well, on the other hand, knowing Disney's preservation policies, almost its entire catalog (if not all of it) has probably been scanned at 2k or 4k, but they're withholding dozens of wonderful films from Blu-ray release for which the nostalgia attraction will dwindle as those of us who saw them as kids grow old and die. Many of these 60's-70's live-action films are going to lose their appeal for the public at large -- many of them have dated badly. With some exceptions (20,000 LEAGUES, etc.) live action films from the studio would not have the same appeal as their animated films, which they continue to milk to death while leaving THAT DARN CAT, SNOWBALL EXPRESS, THREE LIVES OF THOMASINA, THE WILD COUNTRY, FIGHTING PRINCE OF DONEGAL, SWORD AND THE ROSE, DR. SYN, DARBY O'GILL, THIRD MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN, IN SEARCH OF THE CASTAWAYS, and dozens more languish and therefore make no money for the studio. How much sense does that make?

Oh, well, now that Disney is one of the top-earning corporations with their seemingly boundary-less Theme Park empire, they can afford to turn their pin-striped backs on their consumers, who put them where they are in the first place, keep about 50 fine catalog films hostage on the inferior DVD format, while dropping their support of 3D and never, ever participating in online forums or explaining anything to us, or even answering our email or phone inquiries with anything other than insulting form letters and patronizing answers from "Cast Members," which itself is a denigrating label to put on those in low-paying positions in call centers. Everything has to be Disneyfied, in the way that everything in that horrible fast food franchise has to begin with the prefix "Mc." Brand recognition. More accurately, brand overkill.

Wow...I just re-read this post and can see how I started out fairly low key and grounded, and rather quickly escalated as I became angrier thinking of how I have come to truly disrespect Disney. It was, truly, a magical company while its namesake was still alive, and provided this (then)-child endless hours of sheer, memorable pleasure. But the slow-slide toward suit mentality that began in1967 or so, after THE JUNGLE BOOK was released, and ended up in Eisner's lap and then in Iger's. Thank God for John Lassiter who tried to keep animation alive by producing THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG but unfortunately almost abandoned cell animation thereafter (WINNIE THE POOH followed).

Disney still makes fine animated films, all of them cgi now, but well-made. Cell animation has been relegated to Studio Ghibli and other European or Asian countries, but at least it's still a happening thing somewhere. Disney used to do it better than anyone and could do so again, but they seem to have come to the conclusion that it isn't profitable enough. It would take them years to bring the cell animation dept. back up to speed, and would require a lead time of years before a project would ever make it to the screen. But, shit! Keep the format and the art alive, you dimwits! It's your legacy!

Anyway, I'm getting off the track. Rant over.

 

[MatthewA]

Wow...I just re-read this post and can see how I started out fairly low key and grounded, and rather quickly escalated as I became angrier thinking of how I have come to truly disrespect Disney. It was, truly, a magical company while its namesake was still alive, and provided this (then)-child endless hours of sheer, memorable pleasure. But the slow-slide toward suit mentality that began in1967 or so, after THE JUNGLE BOOK was released, and ended up in Eisner's lap and then in Iger's. Thank God for John Lassiter who tried to keep animation alive by producing THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG but unfortunately almost abandoned cell animation thereafter (WINNIE THE POOH followed).

I don't know how to disagree with anyone else's criticisms, and I don't want to know because I agree with them. The Disney I loved is gone.

Walt's been dead 50 years and I missed him, being born in the last full year of his immediate family's control of the company. In that time I have seen the company turn from an off-Hollywood also-ran doing everything in its power to drag itself kicking and screaming into the present and remind the public what they liked about it in the first place (despite pockets of resistance to change) to a heartless, bloodsucking, greedy media empire that can only see things in terms of dollars and cents. It's like Alonzo Hawk took over Medfield College and turned it into a nationwide chain of fly-by-night diploma mills in order to "save" it. They have more money now than they've ever had at any time in their history, but when fans wonder why their favorite films are unavailable and argue that too many remakes*, too much marvelstarwars and Princess-centrism is not good for the company's image, and you ask why so many wonderful DVD extras on top-tier live-action films didn't make the jump to Blu-ray, and why so many so-called "restorations" of animated films (*cough*Swordinthestone*cough*)are so oppressively ugly, all you get is the silent treatment. It didn't used to be that way. They were always inconsistent in their presentations, but the good ones were and are really good. And I used to get personalized letters in response to my inquiries, but those days are long gone. Their website scrubs all criticism, even if it's constructive, because they refuse to tolerate any form of negativity. That form of denialism is toxic.

Disney stopped caring about its history as anything other than remake fodder when Roy E. Disney died. Notice how those wonderful Disney Family Foundation documentaries have slowed down to a halt? And why do the releases of other high-demand films get held hostage to remakes that go in and out of development hell for the better part of a decade? Disney won't answer these questions because they refuse to explain anything.**

And I have become numb to the prevalence of CGI. Sure, it's more advanced than it was 20 years ago, but when things start look more detailed than real life, then they look creepy, not charming. I prefer animated movies that look like drawings, paintings or sculptures come to life than video games you can't play.

*You are not only merely dead but really most sincerely dead to me if you dislike Pete's Dragon (which in 37 years of home video releases has never, ever, ever had a truly uncut video release in any nation on Earth) and like that in-name-only travesty that dares usurp its name. Right after it came out and so-called critics took yet another opportunity to sacrifice the original at the altar of That Woman (which, quite frankly, and I say this with no sarcasm or irony, should have been withdrawn PERMANENTLY instead of Song of the South) while conveniently ignoring any similarities to any other of the studio's films before it, especially while ignoring all That Woman lifted wholesale not just from Song of the South and My Fair Lady but from Gigi, Dumbo, and Babes in Toyland as well, they announced remakes of Aladdin and The Lion King remakes to go with the already endless stream of remakes of which Beauty and the Beast is next, which I will never see under any circumstances. Perhaps they should actually take the advice of Helen Reddy and leave them alone. I seriously wish they could unmake all the remakes with no exceptions. None of them are worth the effort, and all the attempts by semi-literate columnists to gaslight readers into disliking the originals, just as That Woman tried to gaslight those two horrid little brats in her care by lying about that horse race she cheated at to "win" (at least My Fair Lady, which also had a horse race, didn't condone cheating taught me the word "arse" instead of stealing someone else's made-up word), make me hate them even more than I already do. And that whole subgenre wouldn't even exist without Song of the South. You know it, I know it, and the studio knows it, and none of the excuses for keeping it away hold any water. They didn't 20 years ago and the water they didn't hold has long since evaporated. But as of 2017 it's still unavailable while its two 1970s successors remain incomplete, even more insultingly so when one of them already was restored. If they're waiting for everything to be satisfactual for them to change their minds they'll be waiting awhile. But how much worse do things have to get before Disney realizes how big of a mistake they made? And if you want me to be perfectly frank, Song of the South is the only Disney hybrid (of the 2d kind) that treats people of color as anything other than tokens.
**Just like That Woman. My hatred for the works of Helen Lyndon Goff in any media, as well as her as a person in general, not just the cinematic bastardization of books that weren't any good to begin with or the theatrical bastardization of said bastardization, knows no bounds, and the more the studio puts it on a pedestal it does NOT deserve to be on, especially when that glorification comes at the expense of other, superior movies that use the same technology and have overlapping personnel, the more my contempt for it grows. I hated it as a kid, I hated it as a teen, and I hate it even more now as an adult. No version of this cloying, annoying, manipulative, heavy-handed, sanctimonious, hyperactive, rambling mess in search of a story has made a convincing case for why she should be allowed near children, or why we should care about ANY of the characters for any reason whatsoever. The only thing that will make me stop hating it is for it to retroactively cease to exist.