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I've been meaning to post a few comments a few friends and I
have received from Leonard Maltin concerning the future of the
Walt Disney Treasures line.

The first was concerning which of his ideas for Treasures were rejected by Disney.



Leonard "Hi... I am brimming with ideas, and not all of them coincide with those of the folks at Disney Home Video, but I'm grateful for every one of these Treasures that I get to do. If I had my druthers I'd just keep digging through the TV shows (including Mickey Mouse Club and Zorro) and of course I'd want to do a compilation of the educational shorts. But, the series is still alive, and while it's alive there's still hope. Keep your fingers crossed... cheers, Leonard Maltin"


Another message replied to:


Leonard "I wish I had more control over the plans of the folks at Disney Home video... but once again, we're hoping to get to DR. SYN next year. Keep your fingers crossed! cheers, Leonard Maltin"


I have a few more, but I'll post one more for now.



Leonard "I'm grateful that the folks at Disney have said yes to another year of Treasures, but they haven't shown any interest in another animation collection---yet. I'm still hoping to do one and include some of the titles you listed. Keep your fingers crossed... cheers, Leonard"


The best news I've heard from him is that Disney has indeed green lighted another set of Walt Disney Treasures waves.
I will be very disappointed if the last Donald set is not in the upcoming wave.
I don't want to take any chances of them canceling the series without releasing all of his shorts.

Leonard has kept quiet on a Destino release, where they could also release a few more Disney Rarities shorts.

Has anyone else heard any rumors or announcements?
It will be interesting to see what announcements are made in the future.

I really, really hope that we will see Dr. Syn next year (in a combo with Guy Williams Prince of the Pauper please!), and as for Zorro I thought it would have been one of the first treasure sets out, but it still hasn't. Anyway, good to know the treasures will continue.

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Thanks for the news. Finally something worth discussing.

I am really disappointed about the educational shorts but I can also understand that maybe they are not the most marketable thing around.

I am glad to see People and Places not listed as the rejected as this is my number 2 request behind Donald Duck Volume 4.

I am just totally scratching my head at the Donald Volume 4 thing. I cant believe it would not be a big seller.

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We wouldn't need to have a Zorro set, the first season is already on DVD. I would like to have another legendary heroes set, to get more of the Elfego Baca episodes. Educational shorts would be great...of course another Donald set. What I would like to see is just more of the rare, obscure kind of stuff. I'd love to get a set of all the commercials made by that Disney commercial unit. Of course we'd all love to see Song of the South as well!

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What we definitely NEED is first and foremost the rest of the DD and a few more theatrical shorts. Anything less would be like an encyclopedia from A to S.

Here is my question. Why would Disney say no to animation titles yet greenlight a 2008 wave when it seems that the live action Treasures are shelf warmers? You have to seriously wonder what's with Disney these days. Greenlight another wave yet not finish Donald, one of their biggest animation stars to this day. What morons....


Has anyone asked him on finishing up El Fago Baca and Swamp Fox? I'd like to see that happen before he starts anything new. I'd like to see Donald 4, Educational shorts, Elfago Bacca, and Swamp Fox since we will have 4 slots next year. More Disney Rarities would be good too to finish up the Alice comedies and the other independent shorts not yet released to the series. If that were the final year it would go out on a happy note finishing up all started series.

My question is why can't Maltin get Mickey Mouse Club, Zorro, and Disneyland out in proper sets? You can easily do Disneyland in themed subjects. That's the only way that makes sense. It weeds out the episodes that are just the movies and it gets out the original material. Those Treasures that have done this are very successful. I'd love to see more of this but in larger sets done. Zorro should have season sets in B&W and Mickey Mouse Club could come in bite sized volume sets like Disney Afternoon shows. It's funny that even the biggest anti Disney people tell me they should do things like this yet Disney is against the idea. Weird....

Can't wait for Dr. Syn to come out, if it does next year. I would also like to see a Hardy Boys Volume 2: The Mystery of the Ghost Farm.

I would definitely look forward to a release of Dr. Syn, Hardy Boys 2, Further Adventures of Spin and Marty, Legendary Heroes vol. 2, People and Places.

What about a Texas John Slaughter set, or a Gallegher set?

Maybe a Native American set with "Smith!" and "Tonka"!

How about a "Daniel Boone" set (not the Fess Parker one...that wasn't Disney, but the Dewey Martin one was Disney!)?

Maybe a "Ludwig von Drake" set?

There is so much stuff.....I would hope that these things aren't all waiting for a Treasures release....I mean, it would take years to get all this stuff out there......what about just releasing them in a standard DVD release?

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As usual, it's great to see Leonard Maltin being so interactive with the public, with candid responses at that. Hard to fathom that Disney would release an all-live-action wave of Treasures, so I'm thinking they'll green light one soon. If not, it will be interesting to see what kind of live-action title they feel strong enough about to anchor the wave with.

-Aaron

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'Disneyfella - My problem with your list of suggestions is that a lot of this stuff would take more than one set to get them all out. I don't understand why these things should be in the Treasures line when they would be much better served as their own stand along release. Texas John Slaughter has a ton of episodes. That would make a better box set than being cut up on Treasures. I think that the Treasures should just be for series that can be best served and completed in that format and material you couldn't really release any other way.

Look at the True Life Adventures. I'm so glad that they were released in 4 volumes together instead of in the Treasures line. Look at how people are always saying "When will they finish Swamp Fox, El Fago Baca, and Hardy Boys?" Who'd want to introduce the TLA to that mix. But that's my point. Why should any series be part of this that we'll likely only ever get a small sampling of?

I'd love a Ludwig von Drake set but I'm told it would take 2-4 sets to complete him and include Moby Duck. I'd rather see that done after Donald is completed.

I feel we will always have at least 1 animation set per wave in the future since we always have in the past. It seems we typically get 1-2 each wave but never none. So I'm not fretting yet. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's not Donald given how Disney is...

What's the remaining Maltin comments?

Zorro actually began life as 4 hour long specials on the Disneyland anthology series. After this, it got a full season of 30 minute episodes commissioned. So actually a Treasures DVD with the first 4 hour long episode would be a good choice.

So those episodes are actually different than the full season episodes? Sort of like an extended pilot episode then, in a way?

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Sorry, I must have completely gone bonkers, I don't know why I wrote that about Zorro starting on the anthology series. It didn't.

It's a long story, but basically during the legal trouble which Disney had with ABC in the late 50s over the ownership of the television programs "Disneyland", "Zorro" and "The Mickey Mouse Club", Walt decided to pull the "Zorro" series from the air at the end of the 2nd season until the legal troubles were sorted.+

But to keep the character in the public eye, he commissioned 4 hour long episodes for the Anthology series.

So these 4 episodes were double the length of the usual episode and did not air as part of the Zorro series, but on the anthology series. So these 4 episodes actually came at the end of the series.

Sorry, I've known that for years. God knows why I typed that before, put it down to having something worth discussing on here for a change!

I hope Donald makes 2008, since outside of a few one-shots, the remaining ones are the only sizeable portion of Disney cartoons left to release.

I'm probably in the minority on this one, but If Donald Vol. 4 is included, I'd really, really like to see the uncut Clock Cleaners on it as a special feature.

Speaking of treasures, I'm grateful for the replacement disc program offered for last's years Silly Symphonies set, and only wish the 2005 sets could get that same reconciliation

If that is the case with Zorro than a one shot would make sense. But please, don't start anything else until those series started get finished and whatever is started is likely to be finished too.

I'd still say a solid 2008 wave, if it is to be the last, would be Donald 4, More Disney Rarities (or Educational films), Elfago Baca, and the Swamp Fox. I'd like Dr. Syn as well but we'd have to get another year to get them all in. I mean stick Syn with the educational shorts and an Alice comedies set, if they didn't all fit on More Rairities, and you'd have 2 years worth of solid material alone. Then there's Hardy Boys vol. 2 and some more Disneyland sets maybe. But I hope we can finish what is started before leaving more loose ends.

FOR THE LOVE OF COMPLETIST NERDS, JUST FINISH DONALD, PUT THE THREE CHIP AND DALE SHORTS ON, AND I'LL BUY SLEEPY HOLLOW FOR SUSIE AND WHICHEVER PACKAGE HAS CASEY BATS AGAIN

sorry for the caps lock, Im in the midst of law school finals and I am on edge

Given the general ambivalence we've seen displayed by Disney towards the Treasures line in the last couple of years, I'd be very concerned about a wholly non-cartoon wave for 2008. Since live-action Treasures seem to sell less well than their animated counterparts, poor sales across the wave as a whole could lead us back to the line being cancelled before the shorts are completely out on DVD.

The frustrating thing here is to be so tantalisingly close to a complete set of Golden Age Disney shorts on DVD, but with still some uncertainty as to its completion.

Unlike UncleEd, I don't hold out much hope of seeing the rest of the Alices on Disney DVD; but then I never thought a complete set of Oswalds was likely either, and look what's about to plop through my letter box in the next few weeks...

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"I hope we never lose sight of one thing - that this was all started by a little girl and a cat. And a rabbit."

You know, maybe, just maybe they're having to restore the shorts first?

Restoration on films takes months, and Disney has at least two films restored per year for the Platinum editions.

A typical Treasures tin is the same as two or two and a half animated movies. But the materials are probably each in different conditions. Its probably harder to track down definitive originals.

You all moan when restoration is not done or subpar, and you all moan when animated stuff isn't being released. Probably that's one of the reasons Disney isn't too enthused over the Treasures. They're limited edition, so produce a limited income at best, and nothing they do seems to please their target audience. I'd probably loose enthusiasm if I was in charge of the range.

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Most of my Blu-ray collection some of my UK discs aren't on their database

Yes, I can see how this would have snuck up on them and taken them by surprise - they've only been doing this for seven years...


Given that (a) a large part of the point of the range is to release the animated shorts; (b) live action sets sell worse than animated ones; (c) there's been concerns with the range not selling well anyway; and (d) it has been long suggested that the eighth wave would be the last, I think it's valid to be concerned that the range could come to a halt prematurely.


I'll wager they don't get a tenth of the crap from their audience that 2|Entertain gets over their Dr Who releases, yet you don't see them giving up while there's a buck to be made.
Anyway, most of the quality control concerns have been echoed by Leonard Maltin and co, so it's hardly just a bunch of whining fanboys.

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"I hope we never lose sight of one thing - that this was all started by a little girl and a cat. And a rabbit."

Well, maybe, maybe not. Its a question of priorities perhaps? When the line first came out, were they doing two Platinums a year? Did they still have their in-house restoration department or not? Was the Oswald set always planned, or could that have changed priority on something else?

I can't actually be bothered to look it up. But the point is, restored theatrical shorts don't just grow on trees, work does need to be done. And if work isn't done, Disney fans complain.



I would like to think the line could survive a year or more with NO releases (almost like it did with the late Wave 3) than put stuff out simply because it was December. So you may have a point. But then again, you may not.



Oh I'm sure of that. But Disney is a much bigger, multinational company than 2|entertain or the BBC. What's worth doing to 2|e is not necessarily worth doing for Disney. They could defer the restoration work on the shorts for a while so that they can concentrate on a more profitable Sleeping Beauty restoration/release for example. Being as Sleeping Beauty is coming to Blu-ray, I suspect (but don't know for sure) it will have a whole new restoration - especially as the colours on the previous restoration tended to flicker.



And I'm sure Maltin et al were correct. But it was probably a situation of restoration and a later release or no restoration and a timely release. Personally I think (like I said earlier in the post) the contents and audience are both mature enough to warrant a delay for higher quality product.

But companies like regular releases... it helps with their accounting etc.

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Most of my Blu-ray collection some of my UK discs aren't on their database