The Official Disney Movie Club Blu-ray Exclusives Thread (2 Viewers)

[holtge]

While browsing the "Coming Soon" section on the "At Home" page on Disney Movie Rewards, I discovered that The Nutcracker and the Four Realms is scheduled to be the next big Disney 4K release.

If Disney is planning to release any exclusives, we probably won't hear about them until at least mid-January.

 

[Arthur Powell]

FWIW, I looked at previous pages of this thread and found that the first three 2018 releases were announced on Jan. 1 and 11. So, we might be getting close but, of course, we don't have any guarantees at this point. I'd better temper my enthusiasm a bit because Disney might just (once again) announce a couple of 1990s or 2000s films I have no interest in acquiring. I'm not saying that those more recent films shouldn't be released (they have their fans too), but I'd like to see Disney do a much better job in mixing the vintage titles along side of those more modern films.

 

[David Norman]

So, it has been several months since we've had any new DMC announcements. Is it safe to assume we might be hearing some rumblings in the next week or so concerning January releases? I'm still rooting for some great Walt-era classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Happiest Millionaire, The Shaggy Dog, Summer Magic, and unedited versions of Make Mine Music and Melody Time to be announced for blu-ray releases. Also, citing the precedent of that last Ducktales DVD release, I wouldn't mind seeing full releases for Elfego Baca and the Swamp Fox.

We can only hope. Last we go a little lucky in someone getting some inside information on several of the Jan to April releases. So far no such luck this year. FT cycle reboots next m/T/W depending on how they work the holiday so maybe, but often enough Exlcusives don't get much notice so it couple be late January -- assuming of course Disney doesn't change the entire program rollout again

 

[MatthewA]

So, it has been several months since we've had any new DMC announcements. Is it safe to assume we might be hearing some rumblings in the next week or so concerning January releases? I'm still rooting for some great Walt-era classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Happiest Millionaire, The Shaggy Dog, Summer Magic, and unedited versions of Make Mine Music and Melody Time to be announced for blu-ray releases. Also, citing the precedent of that last Ducktales DVD release, I wouldn't mind seeing full releases for Elfego Baca and the Swamp Fox.

I wonder how many of those are getting saved for Disney+. Either that or yet another licensing deal for titles like those if they don't want to bear the costs of pressing and releasing discs alone.

 

[Arthur Powell]

I wonder how many of those are getting saved for Disney+. Either that or yet another licensing deal for titles like those if they don't want to bear the costs of pressing and releasing discs alone.

I have also been wondering about that. It may come down to how Disney regards DMC in light of the streaming service. If DMC is perceived to be an internal form of competition for Disney+ (in other words, taking away potential subscribers), I wouldn't be surprised if the DMC were to be slowly phased out, and that would likely mean an end to the niche catalog blu-rays. However, if DMC is perceived as having a more negligible impact upon streaming, then we might see these releases continue. My guess is that Disney probably perceives DMC and streaming as two separate forms of revenue that don't necessarily cut into one another - at least for now. I could be wrong though.

 

[Brian Kidd]

If Disney is withholding Fantasia 2000 because of the allegations against Levine, I'd be surprised. Honestly, outside of Classical Music buffs, nobody knows who he is and many of them, I'm sure, poo-poo the film anyway, since it really is a pale imitation of the original. Heck, the original film was derided by "serious" music aficionados during its initial release since they felt it took too many liberties with its visual and even technical interpretations of the music. Bill Cosby did far-more-terrible things, is going to prison for them, and has fame that stretches across decades and all swaths of American society. You can still buy The Cosby Show and Fat Albert.

I highly doubt that Levine would make much, if any, money from such a release, anyway. Residuals are pennies in most cases. I honestly just don't think that Disney sees a market for another release of the film. I don't have any direct empirical evidence to back up this theory; however, often the simplest answer is the correct answer.

I sure would love a 4K disc of the original, provided that they refrain from overboosting the colors and removing every bit of film grain like they did on the current Blu-ray. Then again, this is Disney. Their current modus operandi is to do everything possible to mask the age of their animated output, even if it means loss of detail and texture.

 

[BobO'Link]

I've not done DMC in many years but availability of certain titles has me interested again.

I entered the 61749 Coco Blanket enrollment code, which I understood to be a "7/2 code," on the site, BUT - it only gave me 5 titles on the enrollment selection portion. Do the other 2 choices become available *after* entering CC information? I did find information on those bonus titles elsewhere so the selection isn't an issue as I'll use that list to doctor the first 5.

Another concern is the list of enrollment titles has both DVD and BR titles with the choice of format made as you enter "checkout." One of the FAQs says all are available on DVD or BR but they have titles available for selection that I know don't have a BR release at this time (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for example). I assume they'll ship only BR titles if that's what you select for your format. I have zero desire in any DVD titles from Disney but don't want to get stuck having to return/swap selections due to their misinformation.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

If Disney is withholding Fantasia 2000 because of the allegations against Levine, I'd be surprised.

The only reason that I considered this as a possibility was due to how Disney has responded to the James Gunn controversy. They fired the director Gunn from a film franchise where the two previous films have made the company over a billion dollars, and where there were absolutely no allegations of actual wrongdoing whatsoever, but rather, an inappropriate and failed attempt at making a joke about child molestation that had been posted on Gunn's Twitter account nearly ten years before he was hired by Disney. So, if they're willing to fire Gunn for making a bad joke about child molestation long before he even worked for the company, it wouldn't surprise me if they'd feel the need to take some kind of action in response to Levine, who was accused not of making a bad joke but of actually molesting young boys and assaulting young men during the time he was working for Disney.

 

[Jake Lipson]

it wouldn't surprise me if they'd feel the need to take some kind of action in response to Levine, who was accused not of making a bad joke but of actually molesting young boys and assaulting young men during the time he was working for Disney.

I agree with this. I think it might have been why we didn't get the Fantasia films released again in the run-up to The Nutcracker's theatrical release, which is what I expected would happen. However, as I've said in the thread before, I don't understand why they need to lump the original Fantasia in with 2000. If Levine is in fact the issue, then they should be able to release the original film on its own, since he had nothing to do with it. Even though they have paired the two films together in the past, Fantasia could sell on its own (although the absence of 2000 would be noticed, but still.) If they think they can make money with such a release, I wouldn't allow the original to suffer for issues related to the sequel.

If Levine is the issue, they'll have to decide if they want to release an edited version of 2000 excluding his on-camera appearances, or if they want to ignore the film in its entirety like they do with Song of the South. I think there's a lot of really good stuff in Fantasia 2000, so I would find it unfortunate if none of that is ever seen again, but of course I don't make decisions for Disney. If I did James Gunn would be shooting Vol. 3 in the spring.

 

[Chip_HT]

I entered the 61749 Coco Blanket enrollment code, which I understood to be a "7/2 code," on the site, BUT - it only gave me 5 titles on the enrollment selection portion. Do the other 2 choices become available *after* entering CC information?

Yes.

Another concern is the list of enrollment titles has both DVD and BR titles with the choice of format made as you enter "checkout." One of the FAQs says all are available on DVD or BR but they have titles available for selection that I know don't have a BR release at this time (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for example). I assume they'll ship only BR titles if that's what you select for your format. I have zero desire in any DVD titles from Disney but don't want to get stuck having to return/swap selections due to their misinformation.

If you select Blu-ray as your format, but some of the titles you select don't have blu-rays, then you'll get the DVD for that title. The setup for the initial order sucks, so if you want to make sure you get the proper format, you'll have to do the research beforehand.

 

[BobO'Link]

If you select Blu-ray as your format, but some of the titles you select don't have blu-rays, then you'll get the DVD for that title. The setup for the initial order sucks, so if you want to make sure you get the proper format, you'll have to do the research beforehand.

Thanks! The new sign up site is horrible and inferior to the one I used for several prior memberships. On the old one you could select the format you wanted for the disc and also select the club default disc format.

 

[David Norman]

I've not done DMC in many years but availability of certain titles has me interested again.

I entered the 61749 Coco Blanket enrollment code, which I understood to be a "7/2 code," on the site, BUT - it only gave me 5 titles on the enrollment selection portion. Do the other 2 choices become available *after* entering CC information? I did find information on those bonus titles elsewhere so the selection isn't an issue as I'll use that list to doctor the first 5.

Another concern is the list of enrollment titles has both DVD and BR titles with the choice of format made as you enter "checkout." One of the FAQs says all are available on DVD or BR but they have titles available for selection that I know don't have a BR release at this time (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for example). I assume they'll ship only BR titles if that's what you select for your format. I have zero desire in any DVD titles from Disney but don't want to get stuck having to return/swap selections due to their misinformation.

The bonus selections come up after you enter all th information and click submit.

You are given the option to pick 1-2 bonus titles, but only 40-50 choices on the initial list to scroll through and a 5-10 minute timer. If you don't want any of those, you should be able to call/chat and pick or change those selections to something you'd rather have. You should have a day or maybe two to change your picks. I think Ant-man and the Wasp and Celebrating Mickey and I'll Be Home For Christmas are eligible for enrollment now

If you go to the Main DMC thread on bluray there is a spreadsheet with the catalg numbers you can enter on the Signup site instead of the name -- this should guarantee which version you are signing up for. Same thing as with the bonus picks -- if your confirmation email indicates the wrong version you have a short period of time to call in and change to the Bluray or substitute another item if the one you want aren't available in your format . If you choose 20000 Leagues for one of your initial 5, on the next screen you choose BLURAY then a screen should pop up and alert you that this item is DVD only and give you a chance to change


The last "Bonus BD Title" List is below is from mid December -- these do change a bit every few weeks though usually only 2-3-4 at a time

Spoiler

101 Dalmatians (animated) --new DMC Exclusive without Digital
Avengers: Infinity War
Hocus Pocus
Jungle Book (2016)
Nightmare Before Christmas
Ratatouille
Wall-E

A Bug’s Life
Alice in Wonderland (animated) -- 60th Anniversary no digital
Ant-Man
Aristocats
Avengers Age of Ultron
Avengers
Bambi
Beauty and the Beast (animated)
Beauty and the Beast (live action)
Big Hero 6
Black Panther
Brave
Captain America Civil War
Coco
Doctor Strange
Finding Dory
Finding Nemo
Fox and the Hound 1 & 2
Frozen
Guardians of the Galaxy
Guardians of the Galaxy 2
Inside Out
Lady and the Tramp
Maleficent
Moana
Monsters Inc
Peter Pan (anniversary edition)
Pinocchio
Pocahontas 1 & 2
Princess and the Frog
Snow White
Tangled
The Good Dinosaur
The Incredibles
The Lion King
Thor Ragnarok
Toy Story
Toy Story 2
Up
Wreck it Ralph
Wrinkle in Time
Zootopia

 

[MatthewA]

FWIW, I looked at previous pages of this thread and found that the first three 2018 releases were announced on Jan. 1 and 11. So, we might be getting close but, of course, we don't have any guarantees at this point. I'd better temper my enthusiasm a bit because Disney might just (once again) announce a couple of 1990s or 2000s films I have no interest in acquiring. I'm not saying that those more recent films shouldn't be released (they have their fans too), but I'd like to see Disney do a much better job in mixing the vintage titles along side of those more modern films.

The more recent ones are less likely to need restoration. That said, some of the restorations of the older titles look spectacular. Old Yeller was a revelation. I owned the late 1980s white clamshell VHS, the late 1990s 40th anniversy THX laserdisc, and the Vault Disney DVD, but not one of them looked anywhere near as good as the Blu-ray despite the laser and DVD extras getting jettisoned. All the color has been restored so it looks vivid and life-like, and whatever dirt and scratches are gone while film grain is still there. By contrast, the animated classics get oodles of extras but the picture often gets shortchanged. One wishes the "do no harm" restoration philosophy for live-action carried over to animation. Paradoxically, the hybrids have suffered the least amount of de-graining.

If Disney is withholding Fantasia 2000 because of the allegations against Levine, I'd be surprised. Honestly, outside of Classical Music buffs, nobody knows who he is and many of them, I'm sure, poo-poo the film anyway, since it really is a pale imitation of the original. Heck, the original film was derided by "serious" music aficionados during its initial release since they felt it took too many liberties with its visual and even technical interpretations of the music. Bill Cosby did far-more-terrible things, is going to prison for them, and has fame that stretches across decades and all swaths of American society. You can still buy The Cosby Show and Fat Albert.

I highly doubt that Levine would make much, if any, money from such a release, anyway. Residuals are pennies in most cases. I honestly just don't think that Disney sees a market for another release of the film. I don't have any direct empirical evidence to back up this theory; however, often the simplest answer is the correct answer.

I sure would love a 4K disc of the original, provided that they refrain from overboosting the colors and removing every bit of film grain like they did on the current Blu-ray. Then again, this is Disney. Their current modus operandi is to do everything possible to mask the age of their animated output, even if it means loss of detail and texture.

If it were only film grain that got scrubbed away, that would be one thing. But the actual film content has changed over the years. I doubt anyone who would watch Fantasia 2000 in this day and age would watch it cut. Even if you cut Levine's physical presence, the music is still his. How sad for both films to be beset by controversy.

 

[Brian Kidd]

If it were only film grain that got scrubbed away, that would be one thing. But the actual film content has changed over the years.

Yeah, aside from the, ahem, questionable character that has been removed from the Pastoral section and stands a snowball's chance in Hades of ever being reinstated, the original Fantasia has probably had more versions than any other Disney film. Heck, several of these different edits were done during Walt's lifetime. It was such a passion project for everyone at the studio that it had to be heartbreaking to not see it become the popular success that they wanted.

I know that Scott MacQueen really did his best to restore the Roadshow version of the film back in the 90's, but it's highly unlikely that the full Deems Taylor narration exists anywhere. It's sad. Disney, over the years, has done a tremendous job trying to preserve as much of their film and television output, so if it still existed, they'd have found it. I knew the guy whose job it was to take care of Disney's nitrate elements back in the 90's and he was meticulous about routinely going through every reel of film they had to check for deterioration and alert Disney immediately if there were signs of degradation. Honestly, I was envious of him being the caretaker of so many classic films. Irv is no longer with us, but he was an unsung hero for us Disney fans because he really cared about his work.

Scott MacQueen was someone else who was an absolute champion for maintaining and restoring Disney's back catalog when he worked there. I still treasure the extended Bedknobs and Broomsticks that he was in charge of. I know that some find the new voice dubbing jarring when it had to be used, but he was at least able to get Roddy McDowell and Angela Lansbury to come in and re-record their lines. Sadly, David Tomlinson was in ill-health at this time and simply wasn't able to come in. Like Fantasia, what we have isn't perfect, but it's the best possible version we'll likely ever see, barring some miracle. It kills me that Disney has abandoned the extended B&B these days. It will never be a perfect film, but the long version is, in my opinion, leaps ahead of the theatrical version. Talk about a perfect candidate for a limited DMC release, that film is one. An HD master exists, so it baffles me that they chose to go with the edited version on Blu-ray and even went so far as to remove the extended version from streaming platforms, even for people who purchased it. Goes to show that, with digital, you never own the film; you just have an extended rental.

 

[Jason Nicklin]

Pocahontas got the same shoddy treatment on blu ray as Bedknobs and Broomsticks. A key scene had been deleted in the theatrical cut because toddlers in the test screening got bored. They restored this in the 10th Anniversary Dvd, but the blu ray release went back to the inferior theatrical cut.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Yeah, that's why I haven't bought Pocahontas on Blu-ray yet. I'd love to have Pocahontas on Blu-ray if they release the extended version, but as long as it's not available, I'd rather watch the extended cut on DVD than the theatrical cut on Blu-ray.

The inclusion of the theatrical cut is of course welcome, but there's no reason at all for the extended cut not to be available, particularly when the directors obviously prefer it (listen to the commentary.)

 

[Gary OS]

So I just joined the club for the first time a few weeks ago, and thanks to the group here for providing a code that gave me 5 for a $1 instead of 4. I received the 5 titles promptly and everything seems to be running smoothly, but I do have a question. A couple of days ago I ordered another title to begin working toward my commitment, making sure to order it at regular price and not a discount. The item shipped but it has not shown up online in my commitment section that one purchase has been checked off. I called Disney and the lady rep told me it sometimes takes up to 2 weeks for it to register in the system and show up on my account. Is that true? Seems like an extraordinarily long time for an online process. Just want to make sure that I'm not ripped off in the commitment process.

Thanks!

 

[Jason_V]

So I just joined the club for the first time a few weeks ago, and thanks to the group here for providing a code that gave me 5 for a $1 instead of 4. I received the 5 titles promptly and everything seems to be running smoothly, but I do have a question. A couple of days ago I ordered another title to begin working toward my commitment, making sure to order it at regular price and not a discount. The item shipped but it has not shown up online in my commitment section that one purchase has been checked off. I called Disney and the lady rep told me it sometimes takes up to 2 weeks for it to register in the system and show up on my account. Is that true? Seems like an extraordinarily long time for an online process. Just want to make sure that I'm not ripped off in the commitment process.

Thanks!

Mine took a stupid crazy long time to show up, too, a few years ago. I gave up looking and then all of my commitments got filled in seemingly overnight. I'd give it at least a week, check again and check weekly. Ya know, a watched pot never boils.

 

[David Norman]

So I just joined the club for the first time a few weeks ago, and thanks to the group here for providing a code that gave me 5 for a $1 instead of 4. I received the 5 titles promptly and everything seems to be running smoothly, but I do have a question. A couple of days ago I ordered another title to begin working toward my commitment, making sure to order it at regular price and not a discount. The item shipped but it has not shown up online in my commitment section that one purchase has been checked off. I called Disney and the lady rep told me it sometimes takes up to 2 weeks for it to register in the system and show up on my account. Is that true? Seems like an extraordinarily long time for an online process. Just want to make sure that I'm not ripped off in the commitment process.

Thanks!

Usually it does take a few days to show up, but rarely 2 weeks. Normally I find well before the item arrives the Mickey Ears/Commitment status have updated.
It seemed the last time I re-upped, it was about 48-72 hrs after the charge posted.

Did you use the 61749 code or one of the different codes?
There are so many with similar requirements it gets more than a bit confusing.


For any folks considering who don't won't to search the thread
61749 seems to be the best of the current codes

1) 5 initial items for $1 plus Free Shipping with a commitment to buy 3 more at regular price $19.95+ over 24 month
2) Up to 2 bonus items during signup. This is a bit confusing on the enrollment website since you don't see this at all until you fill out all the shipping/billing information and click "Complete " (?Submit). Then you should see an option to select the bonus items with a 5 or 10 minute time limit, but they only have about 45-50 selections. You can select any of them or decline, then call/chat with Customer Service to change or add any of the 300+ enrollment eligible items if you really wanted a different movie
$11.95 for Bonus 1 which counts as your 1st commitment
$ 8.95 for Bonus 2 which does not count as a commitment
3) Coco Blanket bonus
4) The new perk with this specific code should be Free Shipping permanently instead of waiting for Disney Monthly offers to have FS which can be only a couple times a year for those who haven't fulfilled yet. This can save up to $4 per item ($3.95 for 1st and 1.49 for added items)
5) Starting a few months ago like so many other Web retailers, DMC is now obligated to collect Sales Tax on at least 30-35 states. I haven't gone through the list since Jan 1 to see if others have been added

 

[Gary OS]

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll wait it out for a few more days.

Yes, I did use the 61749 code. I appreciated the added bonus there!