Future of Walt Disney Treasures line from Leonard Maltin

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humphreybear
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Post by humphreybear »

Donald #4

Ludwig Von Drake world of disney episodes
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Post by UncleEd »

Let's talk about film restoration as a factor. I don't believe Disney restores the live action Treasures at all other than making the shows as complete as possible. There are always artifacts though. But saying Disney sees the Treasures as a pain because then they HAVE to restore it brings up this situation. Does Disney just restore these films on their own to perserve them or only when they want to release them? I also don't see why they would need to restore films that have been restored for DVD or LD already. Are they just restoring on top of restorations? You can only get a film so pristine then you're actually taking away from it's quality. At some point the restorations will have to stop because once they're digitally stored in their restored states what possible reason is there to keep restoring them over and over again? I think they only do it so it can be posted on the packaging as a selling point to people who already have the films on DVD already, in some cases multiple times.

We all held out for a delay in May that one year because supposedly the DVD duplicators were full up with Nemo and Lion King and everything was fine with consumers. I personally feel Disney holds a distain for the Walt Era stuff. The people running the Disney Channel and Disney Home Video see little to no value in 90% of this stuff because it's old. Heck, I'd even wager that most of those junir execs don't even know of 90% of the material Walt made. If you look at what they push and what they hold back you can see what Disney sees value in. Right now it's just the animated features but even the sales of those are waning. I predict that with the current mind set there will come a day when even the classic animated features will be tossed aside and ignored. When DVD first came along Disney seemed to have it on the right track. They had lines geared for collectors and film buffs and lines for the rest. Now they only seem to be concerned with the rest. We've seen them drop quality in archival content over the years and according to Jim Hill the reason for single disc releases of Pixar films is so the parents don't put disc 2 in by mistake. How come other students can put out 2 disc sets for collectors and 1 disc sets for the general audience but Disney can't? When they do make 2 disc sets lately they're just the crappiest features. That World's End set was all crappy features. In fact compare the sequel 2 disc sets to the Black Pearl set and it's disturbing at just how shabby the latter two were handled.

I wouldn't be surprised if an all live action wave were to kill the line off once and for all. The Legacy line last year seemed to attempt that but failed. This could be round 2. I say that Disney should either handle their classics with respect and dignity or let someone else do it. And that did happen until Anchor Bay made Disney a laughing stock so Disney terminated the deal. It's funny how Disney would never put the care into their own DVD releases that another studio would but get jealous over it.
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Post by Lars Vermundsberget »

UncleEd wrote:They had lines geared for collectors and film buffs and lines for the rest. Now they only seem to be concerned with the rest. We've seen them drop quality in archival content over the years and according to Jim Hill the reason for single disc releases of Pixar films is so the parents don't put disc 2 in by mistake. How come other students can put out 2 disc sets for collectors and 1 disc sets for the general audience but Disney can't?
Interestingly enough, when Disney released laserdiscs (the 90s) several of the animated classics would come in two different releases - one set for the collectors and one single-disc for... the general audience...?
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Post by UncleEd »

Yeah, it's funny how they could get it right with a bulky, hard to produce, expensive, small consumer base laser discs yet it's supposedly too expensive to handle DVD releases the same way. I be there are many times more the amount of consumers who buy Disney collector's DVDs than ever bought the LD counterparts yet it's not worth making them for us.
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Post by disneyfella »

I thought of another good set they could release in the next Treasures wave.

What about a "Moochie" collection? There were four episodes in total of the Moochie of Little League and Moochie of Pop Warner Football. They could also put in a feature documentary concerning Kevin Corcoran (or even the whole Corcoran family's work at the Studios). I think this would make a solid addition to the Treasures line.
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Post by Mr arrow »

I sincerely hope they consider a People and Places set. I still recall watching 16mm versions of these films in school.
Initially when the title cards came on there was the ubiquitous groan indicating an assumption that we were going to get another sleep inducing visual narcotic. But uncle Walt delivered every time. The films always seem to have the same pacing and humor that the True Life Adventures did.
Very nostalgic by todays standards and I would imagine very collectible.
Still I hope they continue the series!
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Post by Chernabog_Rocks »

I think (and stress on think) that it might not hurt to put out some of the more recent cartoons in the Treasures waves, considering since they are newer they may not need to be restored and could be out sooner. I mean, Goofy alone could have a Volume 2 considering he appeared in (roughly) 46 cartoons. 8 of which were cameos and 2 others being Mickey's Christmas Carol, and Prince and the Pauper. So let's take a look at what he starred in from 1983-2002. I'll leave out the cameos however since they wouldn't really be on the set right?

1983: Mickey's Christmas Carol
1987: Sport Goofy in Soccermania
1990: Prince and the Pauper
1999: How To Be A Waiter, Roller Coaster Painters, Organ Donors, How To Be A Spy, Around The World in Eighty Days, Sandwich Makers, How To Ride A Bicycle, Donalds Dinner Date, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Nutcracker, How To Haunt A House, Mickey Foils the Phantom Blot, Goofy's Big Kitty

1999 Extreme Sports Shorts: Skating the Half Pipe, Paracycling, Rock Climbing, Wakeboarding

2000: How To Be A Baseball Fan, Locksmiths, Goofy's Radio, Car Washers, Donald's Halloween Scare, How to Take Care of Your Yard, How To Wash Dishes, How To Be A Gentleman, Mickey's Answering Service

2001 House of Mouse Shorts: Hickory Dickory Mickey, How To Be Groovy, Cool and Fly, Donald's Goofy World, Pit Crew, Big House Mickey, Mickey's April Fools

2002: Mickey and the Color Caper

Of course, since Mickey, Donald and Goofy appeared together in a large number of the shorts in Mickey Mouse Works, it might be just as easy to put out one or two Mickey Mouse Works sets......just an idea, I'll now step aside and wait for the inevitable critiscims sure to come my way :P
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Post by thatartguy »

1983: Mickey's Christmas Carol
1990: Prince and the Pauper

These were on Mickey Mouse in Living Color Volume 2.
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Post by ichabod »

Chernabog_Rocks wrote:I think (and stress on think) that it might not hurt to put out some of the more recent cartoons in the Treasures waves, considering since they are newer they may not need to be restored and could be out sooner. I mean, Goofy alone could have a Volume 2 considering he appeared in (roughly) 46 cartoons.
I think that it would kind of defeat the purpose of the point of the Treasures somewhat. The odd recent production has been included for the sake of completeness, but the Treasures line is supposed to be for classic material and I would be bitterly disappointed if Disney gave us a Treasure set of Mouseworks shorts. I mean how can they be called Treasures?

I think the best thing all round would be for Disney to get off the arses and bring shows like that in sets of there own.
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Post by UncleEd »

Here is what I don't understand. Why couldn't their Legacy series come out in May or June and the Treasures in December? It's more collector friendly that way and we'd be more likely to get all of the things we hope to see. People and Places would make a great Legacy edition and if they did ut like the TLA we'd get them all in one shot. This is why I wonder if Legacy was meant to kill the Treasures on purpose.

I think that the Treasures should NEVER include any of that made for TV stuff from the 80's on because in most cases it was done cheaply over seas. This is not the venue for that. We should only see the work released theatrically or made by the Disney animators who worked in the studios that made the animated features so the Walt Era TV animation is different. I want to see the Small One make it onto a Rarities 2 set as well as It's Tough to be a Bird. Dad, can I borrow the car should be included as well.
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Post by RyougaLolakie »

humphreybear wrote:Donald #4

Ludwig Von Drake world of disney episodes
Ludwig Von Drake DEFINATELY needs a treasures set. What more do you want with this kooky professor? :lol: I'm SOOOOOOO definately praying for that. But its up to Disney whenever or not to decide which stuff that needs to be included.

Anyways, if Disney plans to put Donald #4 in next year's treasures, THEY BETTER BE INCLUDE either "THIS IS YOUR LIFE, DONALD DUCK" nor "YOUR HOST, DONALD DUCK" as bonus material or I'm about to be insane. :angry: Oh well....a girl can't dream, huh? (And I know that "This is Your Life, Donald Duck" was uploaded on Youtube but just in case) :P

My next guess is the Jiminy Cricket set which I'm definately praying for. :roll:
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Post by UncleEd »

I was told it would take 2-3 sets to do the complete von Drake and the one Moby Duck. I'd hate for them to start it and not finish it though.

How many shows did Ranger Woodlore have? Maybe he could piggy back on von Drake.

Jiminy Cricket's No Fool Shorts would hardly fill a Treasures disc. How many episodes of Disneyland did he host? I know of the Christmas show and the one where Walt has him call Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in to do a show. Are there any others? If there are enough of those then maybe a Jiminey/Woodlore set?

I could have sworn I have watched the von Drake Wonderful World of Color introduction episode on DVD before but I can't find it. I've driven myself mad trying to find it again. Is it on a DVD or did I imagine it?
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Post by ichabod »

UncleEd wrote:I could have sworn I have watched the von Drake Wonderful World of Color introduction episode on DVD before but I can't find it. I've driven myself mad trying to find it again. Is it on a DVD or did I imagine it?
It was all a dream, and you were in it, and you were in it...

Nope it's not on DVD at all, there's the odd snippet here and there. It on youtube though.
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Post by slave2moonlight »

UncleEd wrote:I was told it would take 2-3 sets to do the complete von Drake and the one Moby Duck. I'd hate for them to start it and not finish it though.

How many shows did Ranger Woodlore have? Maybe he could piggy back on von Drake.

Jiminy Cricket's No Fool Shorts would hardly fill a Treasures disc. How many episodes of Disneyland did he host? I know of the Christmas show and the one where Walt has him call Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in to do a show. Are there any others? If there are enough of those then maybe a Jiminey/Woodlore set?
Ah, those are two set ideas I would love! In fact, I'm going to riot if I don't eventually get a set with the Moby Duck episode on it. Never even thought about giving Jiminy his own set, but it sounds like it could work, and Woodlore could be a good one to match with him. Of course, Jiminy's shorts could work well as part of a second rarities set... There's lots of other stuff to include too.

On the previously mentioned subject of allowing more recent works into the Treasures line, and the argument that they are not really "treasures," well, I have a different opinion. Personally, I've never really felt the Treasures line was the right place for TV shows. I'd prefer to get them in season sets or GOOD chronological volumes, including the original Mickey Mouse Club. The exception would have to be the Disneyland series, because its showing of the feature films on many episodes makes it an odd case. Though, short-lived TV shows could work as Disney Treasures also if they could fit into one set.

That brings me to where I was going about the idea of more recent stuff being Treasures. I believe that, considering that we are in the 2000's now, many folks would consider '70's and '80's Disney to be Treasures. Heck, even SOME of the early '90's stuff could work IF it was rare enough (I'm thinking of stuff like "Muppets At Walt Disney World" on a Disney World themed set). I also think a way to do this later stuff could be Treasures sets themed to decades. A '70's set could feature The Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World along with some other stuff from that decade. A set called "Disney Celebrations" could work for all those birthday shows we want (like Mickey's 60th with Roger Rabbit or the Disneyland birthday where we see Ernest and Woody from Cheers as kids visiting Disneyland). Some have even recommended a Christmas themed set, and shows like Wuzzles and the Love Bug series could be part of sets of their own. I'd say that, this being 2008, they're pretty retro now.

Of course, most importantly is to finish sets that are already started. I want the rest of Donald, and I really want it to include "This Is Your Life, Donald Duck" and "Your Host, Donald Duck." Was rather disappointed that neither were on volume 3. I also want the rest of Swamp Fox and Baca (especially Swamp Fox) and several as yet unreleased shorts. Most importantly:

Scrooge McDuck and Money, the Chip N Dale shorts, the Jiminy Cricket Shorts, the What Should I Do Series, Harold and His Amazing Green Plants, It's Tough to be a Bird, Dad, Can I Borrow the Car, Small One (unedited), and Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons (among others). Oh, and Destino and a few other new ones like that (I believe a couple were in those Small World DVDs, or whatever they're called). We also still need a version of Runaway Brain with the audio in sync! Now that's one that should have had a replacement program.

In addition to that stuff and other aforementioned stuff, I am eager to get:

Sport Goofy in Soccermania, Disney's Fluppy Dogs, Totally Minnie, the Ludwig Von Drake, Moby Duck, Jiminy, and Ranger Woodlore shows, Disneyland Showtime, Carnivaltime, the EPCOT Opening Day program with Danny Kaye, Coyote's Lament, Song of the South and So Dear to My Heart, Melody Time and Make Mine Music (uncut), Saludos Amigos and Three Caballeros (unedited), Gallagher, Killroy, Dr. Syn, Andy Burnett, Daniel Boone, probably other stuff I'm forgetting, and maybe they need to release a Gargoyles Disney Treasures set too for the LOST episodes (in other words, the REST of Season 2). Another nice set would feature some of the souvenir DVDs/videos that were sold in the parks over the years, and even some of the very old promotional ones.

Yeah, I'm sure I forgot some stuff, and there are so many episodes of the Disneyland series to be released, but there's a good taste of what I still am waiting for.
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Post by TM2-Megatron »

UncleEd wrote:Let's talk about film restoration as a factor. I don't believe Disney restores the live action Treasures at all other than making the shows as complete as possible. There are always artifacts though. But saying Disney sees the Treasures as a pain because then they HAVE to restore it brings up this situation. Does Disney just restore these films on their own to perserve them or only when they want to release them? I also don't see why they would need to restore films that have been restored for DVD or LD already. Are they just restoring on top of restorations? You can only get a film so pristine then you're actually taking away from it's quality. At some point the restorations will have to stop because once they're digitally stored in their restored states what possible reason is there to keep restoring them over and over again? I think they only do it so it can be posted on the packaging as a selling point to people who already have the films on DVD already, in some cases multiple times.
Indeed. Most smart studios started making HD digital transfers of their material several years ago when working on it for a normal DVD release; they knew HD was just around the corner. For the Platinum titles already released, I would hope that Disney had the foresight to do this. It would save them a great deal of time and expense.
UncleEd wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if an all live action wave were to kill the line off once and for all. The Legacy line last year seemed to attempt that but failed. This could be round 2. I say that Disney should either handle their classics with respect and dignity or let someone else do it. And that did happen until Anchor Bay made Disney a laughing stock so Disney terminated the deal. It's funny how Disney would never put the care into their own DVD releases that another studio would but get jealous over it.
Yeah, it does seem weird. Is it really that challenging, even for MBAs and other executives, to just look at the numbers of sales for past Treasure lines and discover... "wow, the animated sets sold much better!!!" :roll:

It's almost as if they're looking to give themselves a reason to cancel the line, as they wanted to last year. I know executives can be petty, but I don't know if they'd really resent having their judgment overturned that much last year. However, it's hard to see any other rationale behind such a decision.

I've picked up any of the live-action sets that had Disneyland episodes, or focused on Walt/etc. (Behind the Scenes, Disneyland USA, Tomorrowland, Your Host, and the latest Disneyland set.) however other than those I've avoided the live-action sets like the Mickey Mouse Club, Hardy Boys, Davy Crockett. I actually might've got Crockett if I'd gotten into Treasures back when it came out, but I only started collecting around Wave 3, and obtaining a few of the other titles from the previous 2 waves in Tins in perfect condition was hard enough without adding that one to them, lol.

What about that Destino set that was going to be released in the apparently defunct Legacy Collection? Why not turn that into a Treasure for Wave 8 alongside Donald V4 and 2 live-action sets (if they must, lol)?
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Post by Mr. Toad »

TM2

1) Entertainment Excecutives and MBAs are not exactly the two smartest breed of human beings. I have dealt with plenty of both throughout my career. With one exception every MBA I have ever met has incredible amounts of knowledge and a total inability to apply that knowledge to real world situations.

2) Cancelling the series after next year really would not matter as long as they did Donald Duck Series 4. Oh well, there a couple of shorts that are not remastered - most notably Suzie and Casey but the animated shorts would essentially be complete.
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Post by slave2moonlight »

Cancelling the series after next year really would not matter as long as they did Donald Duck Series 4. Oh well, there a couple of shorts that are not remastered - most notably Suzie and Casey but the animated shorts would essentially be complete.
No way! Not without Scrooge McDuck and Money and the Chip N Dale shorts! They could include them, but I also feel the Jiminy Crickets and at least a few I mentioned before would have to be released somehow too.

As for canceling the series after releasing Donald v. 4 (and hopefully with Scrooge and Chip N Dale at least), it still would not sit well with me unless they finished off Swamp Fox too.
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Post by TM2-Megatron »

Mr. Toad wrote:TM2

1) Entertainment Excecutives and MBAs are not exactly the two smartest breed of human beings. I have dealt with plenty of both throughout my career. With one exception every MBA I have ever met has incredible amounts of knowledge and a total inability to apply that knowledge to real world situations.
Which is precisely what I was implying by saying it can't be that difficult, even for them, lol.
Mr. Toad wrote:2) Cancelling the series after next year really would not matter as long as they did Donald Duck Series 4. Oh well, there a couple of shorts that are not remastered - most notably Suzie and Casey but the animated shorts would essentially be complete.
Yes, as long as they did Donald V4. From what Leonard Maltin said, though, they don't seem inclined to release any animated sets in the next wave.
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Post by skippy »

Unfortunately, I don't think we will ever get all the Cartoons on DVD.

Basically, at that point, we have no reason to upgrade our collections to super-duper, better than real life. ultra hydroponic, superVHDVD mini on a chip.

If you really want to see these things, find a way to get your hands on them in other ways. If they eventually make it to Treasures, the better picture is just a bonus.

I learned a long time ago, not to depend on Disney to do the right thing by their films.
Where's the rest of Elfego Baca and the Swamp Fox?
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Post by Sloppy Moe »

TM2-Megatron wrote:From what Leonard Maltin said, though, they don't seem inclined to release any animated sets in the next wave.
Perhaps, but good sales of the animated shorts in this wave may convince them otherwise
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