the problem with Disney Treasures: Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow (1 Viewer)

[Richard--W]

I tried to add it to my cart on the Disney DVD club and no dice. It was going to be the last one I'd buy before I cancel that darn club. Most likely get Jungle Book instead. A real shame. I won't pay $90 for it. That's silly.

Dr. Syn came back to website for about three or four days in early April, then it was yanked off wish lists and shopping carts.
VIP members of the Disney Movie Club were given short shrift this time around. Right now I could buy 17 oop Walt Disney Treasures including some titles from the First Wave, but not this latest Wave, except for Annette, which is plentiful because hardly anyone wants it. No thought or consideration was given to long-time customers. Disney should reprint it for the fans who had to wait to save their money, but they don't reprint Treasures as a rule, unfortunately.
Better make Wave 9 a priority buy to avoid the same confusion. If you're into Zorro, the two monochrome sets should be an improvement over the colorized Exclusive editions.

 

[Radioman970]

I'm probably going to miss out on most of these Treasures releases. I get the sense that Disney is only making resellers happy with these. :frowning:

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

Re. Zorro: Great to finally have on DVD but a cheap attempt at pretending like the studio is pushing forward with the home video line.
This is clearly a standalone commercial release. Not a WDT entry. Why they bothered to take up the branding and cut back on a wave of potential sales is beyond me... I'm very excited to own the first two seasons of this show but a serious bummer that we're not getting any REAL Walt Disney Treasures this year. I'm still waiting for a set of Educational shorts and featurettes.

 

[Richard--W]

Re. Zorro: Great to finally have on DVD but a cheap attempt at pretending like the studio is pushing forward with the home video line.
This is clearly a standalone commercial release. Not a WDT entry. Why they bothered to take up the branding and cut back on a wave of potential sales is beyond me... I'm very excited to own the first two seasons of this show but a serious bummer that we're not getting any REAL Walt Disney Treasures this year. I'm still waiting for a set of Educational shorts and featurettes.

So are we all waiting, but this release of Zorro looks like a Walt Disney Treasure to me, and since Disney has a very busy release schedule this year of new films on DVD, there can be no doubt they are still in business.
I welcome the complete Zorro restored, remastered, and re-authored in monochrome, and I welcome it any way I can get it. It remains the best Zorro. It's going to sell out real quick, probably quicker than Dr. Syn. Your buying time may only be a mater of days.
But like most fans I wish Disney would accelerate the series. It takes them longer than forever to actually do something. Disney has been too miserly and stingy with its Walt Disney Treasures. Where's the 1961 masterwork The Prince and the Pauper? I believe that's three episodes and one feature film edit. Where's the rest of the Hardy Boys, the Swamp Fox, Elfego Baca? Where's Ludwig Von Drake? Where's The Sword and the Rose? What is Disney waiting for?
They could have issued a couple of more titles from the vaults in Wave 9.

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

My point is that Zorro should have been released on it's own as a series since we knew it was eventually coming anyways. It's a guaranteed seller and highly requested/marketable title which exceeds the niche collector market that the WDT serve to cater to. It would have been nice to see a Ludwig Von Drake set or more archival releases (Disneyland anthology series, etc) as part of the Treasures line this year instead of deciding to simply shuffle this set under the banner and pass it off as an entire wave. It's kind of a cop out to me. But I'm still excited to finally own the series in it's original format!

 

[Radioman970]

Buy all the Treasures you can. Each one is essential. It's true that Disney makes mistakes in administration, and it's true resellers have targeted the Walt Disney Treasures series for the forced-rarity-game, but that's because the fans really cherish them, and the fans cherish them because the quality is as good as the cinema gets. The content of each Walt Disney Treasure is unique and special stuff, and that comes from someone who is not easily pleased.
Buy all the Treasures you can as fast you can, then do your best to gather up the oop titles before they really do disappear.....

I've never bought one. :frowning: Dr. Syn was going to be a starter on those. You got me wanting to select one to buy when I finish off the Disney DVD club.
But I just couldn't buy those oop ones for those prices. As good as they may be... My thought is eventually a lot of this stuff will be made available by some means in the future, such as internet viewing. that's what stops me from paying $80+ for Dr. Syn and other things like it.

 

[Nick Zbu]

I'm glad I came here so I didn't join the Disney Movie Club. Otherwise I would be Syn-less and be stuck with a bunch of overpriced crappy DVDs that I would have never watched!
I'm tempted to buy the Zorro series but it's still cheap how Disney is dealing with underprinting the Syn DVDs. I want one badly, but now I'm either forced to shell out three-times the amount or get a copy through a variety of means that I would rather not bother with.
Thanks a lot, Disney. What a bunch of brainless idiots. Now I'll keep an eye out and see if I can see Syn on the shelf for its original price. I get the feeling I'm in for a long wait.

 

[Richard--W]

Under-printing Dr. Syn and playing cat-and-mouse with the inventory is only half the problem. The other half of the problem is that once you get your hands on the DVD set, the day-for-night scenes which are about 50% of the film are completely screwed up in the digital remastering. A film in which you can't see who's talking to who or what's going on is difficult to enjoy. I'm surprised the DVD set passed quality control inspection. Or maybe I'm not surprised. The oop VHS gets the timing right, but it is no less expensive.


Quote:



Originally Posted by Radioman970
I've never bought one. :frowning: Dr. Syn was going to be a starter on those. You got me wanting to select one to buy when I finish off the Disney DVD club.

But I just couldn't buy those oop ones for those prices. As good as they may be... My thought is eventually a lot of this stuff will be made available by some means in the future, such as internet viewing. that's what stops me from paying $80+ for Dr. Syn and other things like it.





Some of the cartoon short are being farmed out piecemeal in the new Walt Disney Animation Collections. Same transfers. Each disc contains 4 or 5 classic cartoon shorts. At the present rate, it will take a couple of decades and thousands of dollars to match the 30 or so cartoons in each Walt Disney Treasure. So even at the greedy prices, the oop Walt Disney Treasures remain your best bet.

You should join the Club, pay full price for four or five titles to become a VIP member, and then buy all the rest at half price. Right now there are 17 (out of 28) Walt Disney Treasures offered to me at 60% off / $12.98 each:

Adventures of Spin and Marty
Chronological Donald, volume 2
The Complete Pluto, volume 1
The Complete Pluto, volume 2
Davy Crockett
Disneyland USA
Disney Rarities and Celebrated Shorts
Elfego Baca and The Swamp Fox
The Hardy Boys
Mickey Mouse Club
Mickey Mouse Club Presents Annette
Mickey Mouse in Black and White, volume 2
Mickey Mouse in Living Color, volume 2
More Silly Symphonies
On the Front Lines
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Tomorrow Land

There are also 3 out of the 4 Walt Disney Legacy Collections: True Life Adventures offered to me at 60% off / $12.98 each, and if you haven't seen these ground-breaking documentaries, you're really missing something:

volume 2 - Lands of Exploration
volume 3 - Creatures of the Wild
volume 4 - Nature's Mysteries

All of the above are, I believe, out of print at retail and online stores. There is also a 40% off option with free shipping when you buy 1 DVD at regular price. This also applies to the Disney Exclusives, which brings the price down to about $10-11 each. Some of the titles are:

Big Red
The Bluegrass Special
The Boy Who Flew With Condors
Condor Man
Donald in Mathmagic Land
Duck Tales the Movie
The Fighting Prince of Donegal
The Horse Without a Head
The Incredible Journey
Jumping Ship
Kidnapped
Legend of Lobo
The Monkey's Uncle
Moon Pilot
Rob Roy the Highland Rogue
Scandalous John
Smith!
The Tiger Walks
The Wild Country
Zorro -- colorized

So, even if you can't buy everything through the Club, you can still buy the Treasures for less than on ebay or the amazon marketplace. Speaking of amazon, the Walt Disney Treasures that are oop at the Disney Movie Club are:

Chronological Donald, volume 1
Chronological Donald, volume 3
Chronological Donald, volume 4
The Complete Goofy
Disney Land: Secrets, Stories, and Magic
Dr. Syn and The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh
Mickey Mouse in Black and White
Mickey Mouse in Living Color
Silly Symphonies
Your Host, Walt Disney

and
Walt Disney Legacy Collections: True Life Adventures, volume 1 - Wonders of the World

all of which are going to be expensive on amazon marketplace, ebay, or half.com . The chance of finding the oop titles in a brick and mortar store somewhere aren't very good, and not all of us have the time to go hunting.

But right now the Club is offering new and old VIP members plenty of bargains.

 

[Radioman970]

Good points Richard. I'll have to research about 95% of you list to remind myself about them.
It's good to know what will happen when I finish that club out. I was going to cancel the club. I'll hang on a bit and see if I can get some better prices on the things I want. I have 1 more to buy before I become a VIP. That final one might be Jungle Book. Jungle Book, Totoro and the 2 original Shaggy Dog flicks are probably a definite. Maybe Treasure of Matacumba, I always liked that one. After that I'll finally get around to collecting these rare ones. :frowning:

 

[Josh Steinberg]

In addition to all of the exclusive or out of print titles Richard mentioned, Disney Movie Club members can get the exclusive DVD release of "Ducktales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp."
(OK, so maybe that was only exciting to me.)

 

[Joe Lugoff]

I wondered why movies like "Moon Pilot" weren't out on DVD ... now I know.
How long will those exclusives BE exclusive? Won't they ever have regular DVD releases?

 

[Traveling Matt]

The other half of the problem is that once you get your hands on the DVD set, the day-for-night scenes which are about 50% of the film are completely screwed up in the digital remastering. A film in which you can't see who's talking to who or what's going on is difficult to enjoy. I'm surprised the DVD set passed quality control inspection. Or maybe I'm not surprised.

I haven't seen Syn for myself, but according to DVD Talk's review, it's a photography issue rather than a remastering one.
Nevertheless, Disney has made me very wary in regards to QC on anything they release to home video. While the last couple Treasures have looked great (mostly), I still haven't forgotten - four years later - the mistreatment they gave the Donald 2/Rarities wave.

 

[Richard--W]

The Walt Disney Treasures are rapidly disappearing, so get'em while you can as fast you can from the Disney Movie Club.

I haven't seen Syn for myself, but according to DVD Talk's review, it's a photography issue rather than a remastering one.

I respectfully disagree with DVD Talk's reviewer on several points. It is a timing issue, not a photography issue. I've seen the film before, and on VHS, where the day-for-night scenes are properly graded. Further, Paul Beeson knew what he was doing. Nothing wrong with his night reel. He was one of England's finest dp's. Just look at the day-for-night scenes in all his other films. The DVD should look much different and much better than it does.
What's the story with the 2nd Wave?

 

[Traveling Matt]

What's the story with the 2nd Wave?

It was the ball they dropped in the remastering department. Not one Donald short, except the previously-released wartime films, was cleaned up. No Sail, in particular, looked like a third or fourth generation VHS dupe. I had never seen such shoddy work on a classic animation DVD before, and haven't since. Same story with Rarities.
I seem to remember the following wave being a significant improvement, but it took awhile to return to the standard set for the series at the beginning of the decade.

 

[Richard--W]

Here's a question for U.K. members of HTF.

When did DR, SYN: ALIAS THE SCARECROW open theatrically in England?
This was the feature-film edit that screened around Christmas-time 1963 on a double-bill with THE SWORD IN THE STONE.
What is the exact date of the opening, how long did it play, and which film was at the top of bill?

The fact that THE SCARECROW OF ROMNEY MARSH was shot both as a feature for the U.K. / Europe and as a mini-series for the USA is well-documented in all Disney histories as well as in the supplements on the Treasures tin, but nowhere is an actual date of release supplied. There's no entry for the theatrical release on the imdb, which is a particularly glaring omission. The feature film DR. SYN, ALIAS THE SCARECROW was released in the USA in the mid-1960s and again in late 1975. I saw it several times in late 1975 and bought the newly published paperback novelization (which I still have).

 

[DouglasBr]

It should be noted (for those who have multi-region players) that some of the Treasures not available here are still available in the UK. I recently got Silly Symphonies and Mickey in Color Vol. 1 for 5.98 and 4.08 (GBP) respectively, from amazon.co.uk. I believe SS is higher now, but Mickey is still pretty cheap.

 

[Douglas R]

Originally Posted by Richard--W /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Here's a question for U.K. members of HTF.
When did DR, SYN: ALIAS THE SCARECROW open theatrically in England?
This was the feature-film edit that screened around Christmas-time 1963 on a double-bill with THE SWORD IN THE STONE.
What is the exact date of the opening, how long did it play, and which film was at the top of bill?
The fact that THE SCARECROW OF ROMNEY MARSH was shot both as a feature for the U.K. / Europe and as a mini-series for the USA is well-documented in all Disney histories as well as in the supplements on the Treasures tin, but nowhere is an actual date of release supplied. There's no entry for the theatrical release on the imdb, which is a particularly glaring omission. The feature film DR. SYN, ALIAS THE SCARECROW was released in the USA in the mid-1960s and again in late 1975. I saw it several times in late 1975 and bought the newly published paperback novelization (which I still have).

I saw THE SWORD IN THE STONE when it was first released at a London suburban cinema but it wasn't as a double bill with DR SYN. I think there was only a short shown with SWORD. If DR SYN was theatrically released in the UK it must have been a fairly limited release because I don't recall it being advertised. I saw the film for the first time when I got the DVD.

 

[kenNew]

Doctor Syn and The Sword in the Stone were generally released together on a double-bill around the UK's cinemas on 22 December 1963, mainly on the Rank circuit like all Disney films at that time. I first saw it in early January 1964.

Dr Syn's running time was 98 minutes and Sword in the Stone was 80 minutes.

Hope that helps.

 

[Richard--W]

Many thanks.
That's the information I was looking for.
I assume you checked the ad-mats or the release certificate or something.
I'll try to upload the theatrical release info to the imdb.
"The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh" is listed on the imdb as three episodes of Disney Wonderful World of Color, but Dr Syn Alias the Scarecrow is not listed, not as a feature.

 

[kenNew]

Actually I lifted the information from the F. Maurice Speed Film Review Annual for 1964/65 which, a little confusingly, lists all films released in the UK from 1 July 1963 to 30 June 1964.