Future of Walt Disney Treasures line from Leonard Maltin

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merlinjones
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Post by merlinjones »

>>Woodlore didn't host enough shows to fill a whole Treasures set and there's only a handful of cartoons he and Humphrey appeared in. That's why he'dneed to be paired with another series.<<

Actually there is plenty of material for one of their own. Hour shows: Ranger of Brownstone, Ranger's Guide to Nature, Nature's Better Built Homes and Nature's Charter Tours, plus all the shorts (around ten) and add some nature extras, such as The Litterbug, etc.
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littlefuzzy
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Post by littlefuzzy »

UncleEd wrote:, the 3 earlier versions of 3 Godfathers,
Have you seen the anime "Tokyo Godfathers?"
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Post by gkittler »

For me the Treasure Series as well as the Legacy Series are the best Disney DVD's ever.

Since 2001 we have all 120 theatrical Mickey Mouse Shorts, all 46 theatrical Goofy Shorts, all 47 theatrical official theatrical Pluto Shorts, all 3 Figaro Shorts, all 75 Silly Symphonies, and almost all (97 out of 128) Donald Shorts.

We have the complete Davy Crockett, the complete first Spin & Marty Serial, the complete 1st Hardy Boy Serial, some Rarities, Victory Through Air Power, The Reluctant Dragon, all the True-Life Adventure Shorts plus the Features and some episodes of Elfego Baca and The Swamp Fox.

What else could we (I) want?

Since I'm very concerned about the future of the Treasure Line (January 2007 - Disney stops Treasure Line/ Summer 2007 - Treasure stays, Legacy is gone) my primary wishes are to finish the started Themes especially Donald, Rarities & Elfego Baca and The Swamp Fox.
But there are some other very interesting possibilities:

Donald 4 (with 1 or both Donald Disneyland Anthology Episode)
Rarities 2 1960 - 2007 (all remaining One-Shots)

Elfego Baca (7 Episodes left)
The Swamp Fox (5 Episodes left)

Zorro (4 Zorro Disneyland Anthology Episodes)
Saga of Andy Burnett (6 Episodes)

People and Places (Since Disneyland U.S.A is already out there are 15 left)

Disneyland Special Attraction Shorts (for example: Captain Eo, Portraits of Canada, Back to Neverland, The Lottery,Cranium Command, The Making of Me)

More Disneyland Episodes (like "Disneyland: From the Pirates of the Caribbean to the World of Tomorrow", as well as some of the left out Episode halfs or introductions by Walt.
For example: 2/09/55 Progress Report, A (and) Nature's Half Acre = We have the second part but not the Progress Report ond the rest of the episode
Or: The rest of the introductions by Walt from the two Disneyland Anthology Episodes "The Story of the Silly Symphony" & "More About the Silly Symphonies" that were not included as Easter Eggs on the Silly Symphonie treasures.

If not SEASON BOX SETS of the MICKEY MOUSE CLUB, which I would prefer, at least the following:
Corky and White Shadow (MMC Serial)
Spin and Marty 2 (MMC Serial)
Spin and Marty 3 (MMC Serial)
The Hardy Boys 2 (MMC Serial)
Annette (MMC Serial)
I'm No Fool .. & You - and Your (MMC Serial)

Davy Crockett Set #2 (with the 1988 MAGICAL WORLD OF DISNEY Episodes: Rainbow in the Thunder (2-hour format); A Natural Man (1-hour); A Letter to Polly (1-hour) & Warrior's Farewell (1-hour))

and of course SONG OF THE SOUTH.

Texas John Slaughter (With 16 Episodes it would be a great Legacy Special like the True-Life Sets or a Box Set but please no TREASURE - Don't get me wrong I LOVE those Episodes)

AND Zorro - The 2nd Season as a Box Set not a Treasure.

AND MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYBODY FROM AUSTRIA
Last edited by gkittler on Tue Dec 25, 2007 1:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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slave2moonlight
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Post by slave2moonlight »

gkittler wrote:For me the Treasure Series as well as the Legacy Series are the best Disney DVD's ever.

Disneyland Special Attraction Shorts (for example: Captain Eo, Portraits of Canada, Back to Neverland, The Lottery,Cranium Command, The Making of Me)
These are some I would definitely like to see on a Disney World set or EPCOT set or whatever! Add Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, Star Tours, and anything else running right now if they actually retire them as they say they want to. And, if that Lion King film is no longer running, that should be released too (haven't been to EPCOT in a while, so not sure). I'd like to see any and all films from the park get DVD releases as they are retired, and I'm sure there are enough for a Treasures set already.

As for the Ranger stuff, if there IS enough for a set just for him, and it sounds like there is, it'd be a great idea. I think I have most of those hour ones on tape, but I had forgotten how many he hosted.

On the subject of Zorro though, I don't have the current boxed set of Season One, but I heard it was colorized. If that's so, then in my opinion we still need a decent release of Season One. Anyway, it should be available for anyone to purchase, not just exclusive to some club.
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Post by slave2moonlight »

UncleEd:


I agree about the Chuck Jones stuff. Some of his work I LOVE (particularly the holiday stuff), and Grinch is probably the best, but overall he is overrated to me. I also didn't care for the way he changed some of the personalities of characters, if indeed he was responsible, to the more well-known but less original personalities they have today. Of course, you have different kinds of animation fans. Say anything against Chuck to most Looney Tunes fans, and they will go off on you. Of course, these are folks who think Looney Tunes are better than Disney, so they're unstable anyway, ha. Still, like I said, I love some of Chuck's work.

The part in Small One that was changed was the bankers' song. "Clink clink, clank clank, get the money to the bank, telling little stories you can trust. We never ever fail when we go to make a sale, weeeeee simply cheat a little if we must." They changed that last part, which is so stupid. They changed it to, "We work a little harder if we must." C'mon. Of course, I'll be surprised if the original ever sees the light of day again, but it was not changed until its last Disney Channel airings so I don't know why they bothered. Someone here told me the DVD has the changed version. I have a VHS release that has the original version, though it's not a perfect copy, even though I bought it new.

That's too bad that there are so many young animators out there with no respect/interest in the classic material. I definitely met artists with that attitude when I was in college (the idea that all animation started with the Little Mermaid and Ren and Stimpy), though none of us were animation students because the school I had to go to didn't have such a program, so I was probably the biggest animation buff there (would have tried to get a Disney job anyway, hopeless as it might have been with no training, but when I finally got out of college they were in that period of firing artists rather than hiring them). However, I have met folks our age who don't want to acknowledge any animation from after the classic period too, though among young people that is probably a smaller number.

Well, I must have overlooked Fluppy Dogs on USA but I used to love that station for all the Hanna Barbera they aired. Cartoon Express was awesome! Unfortunately, I didn't have access to Global or Canadian stations though, and I don't think many of us did back then, though I can think of one guy who did, ha. During the '90's, I think I still watched Saturday morning and weekday afternoon cartoons pretty regularly, though some stuff wasn't to my taste, like Rugrats and Real Monsters, and Dragonball and some stuff like that. I had a Saturday morning falling away too, but I think it was a bit later. Still, I would check in from time to time and watch it fairly irregularly to this day. Problem was, stations like NBC stopped showing Saturday morning cartoons, ABC came up with One Saturday Morning but there was a lot of junk on that, even from Disney, and CBS couldn't decide if they wanted to air cartoons on Saturday morning or not. It was kind of a big mess, and now it seems most stations are back to Saturday morning cartoons but they have lost their knack for them. ABC mainly shows stuff Disney Channel runs daily, WB only has a couple of shows that are worth watching but are basically weak versions of their older shows (like Batman). Oh, sorry, it's CW now, not WB. And Fox is pretty crappy in general now. Nick and Cartoon Network's stuff all looks alike since they went all original and dropped the classic stuff. Though, there are a couple of good shows still. Billy and Mandy is pretty good..... maybe that's it. Even Disney Channel is a mixed bag. Unfortunately, because I don't have digital cable yet we don't get Boomerang or Toon Disney, which drives me nuts, though I hear Toon Disney has gone to pot too.

Yeah, the '80's stuff, even though it is accused of being made to sell toys or whatever, was much more intersting and original, and I think the cartoons nowadays seem more commercialized.

Well, we seem to have had nearly exactly the same experience with the Disney animation dream, ha. I sometimes think I may go back to school for it one day if Lasseter does get the 2D animation going again, though I'm not getting any younger and still don't have any training/experience. However, I too decided to get into the comic thing. I am working on a graphic novel series project with a local writer (we just went to Wizard World Texas last month to bone up on how to improve our second printing of Book One and our first of Book Two), and I'm just starting to get my own comic strip off the ground. It's just running for free in a local, free magazine right now, but when I get enough samples together I will send them off to syndicates (hopefully VERY soon). Considering my style, I guess I am probably most suited to be a comic strip artist, if I can just get into the routine of doing it daily, ha. I've had so little to do since college. After I graduated with a degree in Fine Art- 2D Studio, I didn't really know what to do and got into their all-new Master of Fine Arts program. But, the program was too knew and they were hiring idiot teachers fresh out of school, plus my heart was too into commercial art forms like cartoons and movies. So, I got halfway through that and left around 2002. I've been trying to get a real income going ever since, but there is no need for artists where I live and I can't financially afford to move, so a lot is riding on my comic and graphic novel projects now. Especially if I want to find a gal and get married before I'm 40, which I'll have to move to do because the girls around here are bleh, ha. Sorry, got off track there.

Yeah, the Fluppy Dog toys were out first, which is why they were not characters from the cartoon or wearing clothes like they did on the show or anything. Not sure when they started working on the film or when they decided they were going to do a film, but the toys were around quite a while before. In the case of Gummi Bears and Wuzzles though, they were cartoons first (or at the same time rather). The Fluppy Dogs toys were a bit overly girly, though I wouldn't mind ebaying one someday out of nostalgia to add to my collection, but I do have a few of those Gummi Bears and Wuzzles toys (plush Eleroo and plush Cubbi Gummi and action figure of Cubbi, though the Gummi stuff needs to be replaced because it's a bit worn).

Well, I'd love to see Disney release a Fluppy Dogs DVD, I just doubt they would on its own or that they'd be satisfied with the sales. Another option though, would be to bring back the toys and release them with the DVDs as the Care Bears did when they came back. Maybe this time they could make Fluppy Dogs that match the ones in the film too. However, I still think it would be best as an '80's Disney Treasures DVD. Yes, there's still a lot of '80's stuff that the studios should get on with releasing. Been waiting forever for Teen Wolf the animated series. I do support reissuing stuff that is out of print or that needs a better release, or putting things together in a boxed set though. In fact, ha, I barely upgraded Rudolph and Frosty to DVD from VHS myself this year with the new boxed set, so I guess people are still buying them if they didn't already. However, lots of reissues aren't really necessary.

I was a hardcore reader of Disney comics as a kid, and Scrooge remains my favorite Disney character. One thing I loved about Soccermania (though I didn't care for the change in voice actor) was the color of his clothes and the fact that the Beagle Boys were more like in the comics too. I'm a huge fan of DuckTales of course, but I never liked that they changed his clothes to blue with red trim and red spats. Yes, Soccermania ran a few times on Disney, but not many. I have it recorded, but not a great copy.

"Yeah, but do people in our generation or into 80's nostalgia make up enough of the Treasures audience to merit it? I'd say at best we make up 20% at most. Personally I'd rather cater to the older generation first because we have our whole lives ahead of us for our childhood Disney. "

My guess of people in their 20's, 30's, and 40's who collect Treasures would be higher than that. In fact, I believe most DVD buyers are in that age range, really. Most people I know in their 50's and up don't even know how to work a DVD player, ha. Granted, there are many that do, and of course you'll find them on the internet so I hope they don't blast me for saying that, but I think there are far more people of the over 50 age range that are NOT into keeping up with technology.

No, ha, they wouldn't mention Hitler in a new Herbie flick. I believe the guy making the evil VW dropped a picture of himself into the vat. Only the flashback to Herbie's creation had characters hinting at Nazis.

I think if you saw a DVD of the Bruce Campbell Love Bug, it was probably a bootleg. Unless it is from a foreign market. Also, sometimes they make those Ebay auctions for VHS tapes look like they're for DVDs. I'll have to start checking on that again though. If there IS a DVD release of it, I'd want to snag it. Of course, I guess all we have to do is check the list of Disney releases here at UD. I'll have to do that later. If it was ever released, it should be on their list.

Wow, I never saw a Ludwig fig go that high, but I don't think I've ever seen one that complete either. I would probably be happy with just the Bootle Beetle. Herman, wasn't that his name? Yeah, between them I'd rather have the figure you got than the talking one, unless I found a good deal on one in great condition. I've decided I'd just like to have one great representation of any characters I want rather than all sorts of dinky junk and space taking stuffed animals. It's part of my plan to reduce the size of my collection and raise the quality of it. Still, it's slow going because it's very hard to part with all the stuff I've collected over the years (Disney, Superheroes, monsters, etc...).

I don't think any of the other Parent Trap sequels have come to DVD yet. The only thing that makes it hard to tell is that darn Disney Movie Club, which releases stuff the rest of us don't really know about. My main use for Disney Movie Rewards is to get those Disney Movie Club exclusives. So far, I've received the Blue Grass Special and DuckTales the Movie, and the Fighting Prince of Donegal is on its way.

It Happened One Night is a great film and I'm surprised to hear it's not on DVD yet! I haven't seen it in a while though and don't remember the Christmas aspect of it. Yeah, I know what you mean that there's a lot of unreleased Christmas stuff. I have been whining for releases of the Raggedy Ann and Andy Chuck Jones Christmas and Halloween specials forever, but I had features more in mind when I typed that, and while not all are available, soooo many are and more come out every year. Disney does sit on those Disney Channel movies, I know. They only started releasing them more frequently recently, and I'm amazed the Zenon trilogy hasn't been made available yet. Yes, I know those dollar-3 dollar public domain DVDs have some good stuff sometimes, though often the quality is awful, but it's better than nothing! One that I love having is the old Mexican film "Santa Claus," where Santa Claus goes up against a devil named Pitch, ha.

Not sure if I recall Tinkerbell's hosting gigs as much of a big deal. In fact, only one comes to mind that we might already have yet. Of course, I'm a huge fan of Tink and Ariel, so anything about Tink sounds good to me.

Well, I realize stuff has already been released that could be referred to as Adventureland, Frontierland, etc..., but there's plenty more that could fall under those headings so though ought to use them since they've used the Tomorrowland name, especially for episodes of the anthology that were oneshots but could fall under these titles. For example, the Moby Duck episode could be part of an Adventureland set.
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Post by UncleEd »

Well then Woodlore has enough to fill a set. Before your post only 2 shows had been recalled, hence why he was being combined with the Cricket. Any idea on the satus of Jiminy Cricket or the Magic Mirror episodes?

Nope. Never seen Tokyo Godfathers. Is it a Christmas or a mafia film?The films I was refering to are based on a story that was VERY popular in the teens that set the Nativity story in the old west. A gang of three outylaws murder some people and rob a bank but on their escape find a dying woman who just gave birth to a baby in the desert. They promise her on her death bed they will be the godfathers of the child and see that he gets to her family in New Jeruselum. The only version of it on DVD is a white washed version with John Wayne in the lead. The other film versions were darker and more true to the story. I'd love to see them.

Another Christmas film not on DVD with a huge fanbase is John Denver's the Christmas Gift. And speaking of John Denver, that's another Muppet Christmas special not on DVD. John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together. I'd love to see that one too. But see, there's a ton of Henson/Muppet Christmas content Disney owns that could make a decent box set but they just sit on it. There Muppet Holdings company is doing just that, holding the Muppets hostage from their loyal fans.

Can you fit 7 and 5 Disneyland episodes on a 1 disc Disney DVD or do they just choose not to do it?

Slave - You're the first animation person who has agreed with me on Jones. For some reason he's untouchable to criticize any of his work. The man knew more than I do about animation but I see nothing there that makeshim better than any other animator. I tend to enjoy Ward Kimball's work a bit more but that's just personal taste. The other thing with Jones is he did not create most of the Looney Tunes characters but he's treated as if he did. The same people who feel this way often slam Walt for taking underserved credit away from other animators. What's the difference?

The one thing I got bashed most for in college was espressing a love for all of those 60's animated Christmas specials. Everyone from the faculty to the students mocked me but there is just something about those films that's very warm and very endearing. It was an alien concept to them that you don't HAVE to be well animatedto create a good project. But some of them are surprisingly well animated. Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol falls into that category and I LOVE the design work on Rudolph and Frosty. Those characters all have very real personalities and their stories were folksy and wonderful. Burgermeister Meisterburger may not be as well animated as the Grinch but he is certainly a more menacing but fin Christmas villain. And you can't argue with success. The general public couldcare less how well animated these cartoons were. They see through to the characters and songs and sometimes story. These are proof positive that animation alone does not a good project make. And look at all of the recent well-animated Christmas projects that were terrible,

I don't get why they would change that word in the banker's song. Does anyone even care enough about The Small one to be offended? I doubt those sorts of people even know it exists. Maybe it was all the micro managing executives who took offense? He, he, he...I'll check my LP but that's the song with the most skips.

"I definitely met artists with that attitude when I was in college (the idea that all animation started with the Little Mermaid and Ren and Stimpy),"

That's EXACTLY it! And I'd bring out Ub Iwerks and George Pal and they'd complain about how it sucked. They taught us in class that 1920's and 30's animation is supposedly unwatchable but I think some of the best shorts ever were produced then. Those early Mickey's have some great moments. He can be really naughty (Come on, in one he's breaking out of jail! You must have done something really bad to be in there) but have tender moments (like in Mickey's Good Deed. Those Oswald cartoons have some fun animation too. I just see it as another style of animation. not some crude, early stuff that never deserves to be known again. I remember bring in a DVD of George Pal's Tubby the Tuba, which was an Academy Award Winning short, and the whole class complained. They couldn't see how remarkable the Puppetoon technique was or how endearing the short was. They saw no value in it and they saw no value in my work but I was one of the first of the class, if not the first, to get attention from industry professionals on what I was doing. I'm not tooting my own horn, I'm just expressing my frustration with how narrow minded current animation students as a whole seem to be. There was a motto in my school that all the films had to feature a sexual joke, pornographic reference, homo-eroticbehavior, or end in death. My stuff was always all age safe material and they scorned it. One of my first films was a mad scientist mixing a concoction, it had some great acting moments and the punchline was he wasn't a made scientis, just a guy who REALLY gets into doing his laundry. I got zero attention from the faculty or the students. The film that got the most attention that semester was an 8 minute epic by one of the clique group of students about a pig having a sexual relationship with a dead cat. It was film after film like that in my school. Even after I started working with some industry people on my first book I still got no recognition from my professor. He wouldn't even allow me to show my final film in my final class and thought so little of me he lost 3 copies of it I turned in over a month in advance. I have a VERY low opinion of a lot of animation schools because it seems when Disney let the animators go many of the mediocre ones went into teaching and because they have the Disney credentials the schools wanted them. Now they're a big fish in a little pond. But I say even the janitor can say he worked at Disney but he was still only the janitor.

Whenever I give animation talks to elementary schools I try to bring with me an example of each sort of animation and each step of the process. It always takes a long time to go through it all because I need to change so many DVD's, skip the previews, etc. Now I'm trying to find out how I can edit my own custom DVDs with all the clips I use on one disc. It's the only way to get hrough the material effectively. And you'd be amazed at how interested the kids seem to be seeing how animation is made and in each style and method. CGI is the only form alive? I don't think so! They actually respond to stop motion most but maybe because it's building the characters and sets in real lie. Anyway, I teach animation the way it should have been taught to me in college. It's sad that I'm not even a real professor and I do a better job...

I LOVED Cartoon Express. Do they still show that? I grew up with so many 70's cartoons with that. I'd love to get Boomerang for the same reason. I grew up around the Great Lakes and Canada was only 15 miles across the lake so any of us kids who grew up in the North East or along their border got their stations. That could be as many as 1/3 of the country, depending on how far south that signal could have gone. We could bring them in with a simple rabbit ears. The only Nicktoon I think I ever liked was Doug. It figures it's the one most often bashed. But there was some unique stuff in there. I've never been a fan of the gross out cartoons and even stuff in Shrek turns me off. I don't know if they even have Nick Toons anymore? The cartoon network shows in that vein turned me off too. I still call CW the WB too but you bring up a good point I've often expressed with my friends. Was there really any need to keep reinventing Batman the Animated Series? They got it right the first time but have redone that show 3 or 4 times now and redesigned it that many or more. Now it's too designy and has been since the late 90's. But one thing I prefer in the Batman over BTAS is the new Catwoman. She looks more like a cat now and the old one looked like a female Batman. I also find some of their choices with the villains strange. Poison Ivy is now a teenage eco terrorist who was Batgirl's best friend? That's so wrong for that character. And Mr. Freeze has gone from being a desperate scientist trying to revive his wife at any cost to just some big bad a** who freezes stuff. It's like the character arcs have been completely discarded and the current staff just doesn't get these characters. I'm not even a comic book buff and I get them more than the people making this stuff. That's just sad...

What's great about the times we live in is it's VERY easy to do animation yourself without a studio. You can buy the software for almost a song and get several books and train yourself. I actually knew more about the animation process from studying it since age 6 than they taught me in college. I felt sorry for the kids who had recently decided to go into it. If you want to give it a try I'd reccoment Richard Williams' book, Frank & Ollie's book, and believe it or not the famous Preston Blair book. That would provide you with a great background if you ever decided to go back to college for animation.

It sounds like you've been discovering what I have about printing. It's very ecconomical to print your own work for the first time ever in history. I'm currently working with an artist on a Christmas comic book for next year and it will be in full color. This is very exciting because it will be my first full color work. I've found the comic book artists and writers are very helpful and well-versed. Many even know more about animation than people who went to school for it. I have one friend who writes for the Simpons and he always asks me any question he has on animation properties because I seem to usually be the only one he knows that can talk about it. And he shares our setiments on Chuck Jones too. Ha! The comic book industry just kind of found me but that's okay. I look at it like this, now I'm developing my animation projects as comic books and novels and they can always be animated later. The important thing is I flesh the stories out. You should post a liink to your work here and get our feedback. Feedback from people who know what they're talking about is always the best feedback to have. And you are not alone. I'm in the same boat as you in the post college world.

I always thought the Fluppy Dog toy was representing them in their native land form.

I got a complete set of Applause Gummi Bears PVCs MIB on Ebay for 12.00 this past summer. I was shocked! Always meant to get the Wuzzles and Gummi poseables too. I've been working on finishing up Teddy Ruxpin first though.

I was a bit disappointed by the Care Bears DVDs. Now I only ever got 2 but one was the Nutcracker they showed on the Disney Cannel for years and they edited it! The opening bumper with the Russian dance is cut and the fade outs/fade ins are now abrupt cuts. I'm so disgusted that I'm going to have to find my old VHS copy and burn it to a DVD for myself.

You know someone should outright ask Leonard Maltin if an 80's television release is possible.

Disney comics were hard to come by when I was a kid.

"Most people I know in their 50's and up don't even know how to work a DVD player, ha. "

Funny you mention that. My 80 year old grandparents in Arizonia called me a few weeks ago telling me how every DVD they buy is broken because it won't play and they'd keep returning them. So I asked them what the problem was and here they didn't know you needed the remote to select play. They thought you hit a button like a VCR. I'm sure they're not alone.

"Only the flashback to Herbie's creation had characters hinting at Nazis. "

They did more than hint, didn't they? He he!

I think I saw a Bruce Campbell Love Bug at Wal*Maret in 1999 or 2000 though. I could have sworn it.

I was trying to remember the beetle's name too and I think Herman is correct. I bet my Disney PVC collection is near 2,000 figures released all ovver the world. My biggest boast is I have every Hercules PVC ever released world wide except some of the Famosa ones from a few years ago. Still looking on those.

I use my Disney rewards the same as you. I'm saving for Kidknapped and Zorro. Even if Zorro is colorized it's better than no Zorro at all.

I may have gotten the title wrong but the It Happened One Night I'm thinking of had Fred MacMurray and Barbera Stanwick in it. This Christmas had the fewest new releases ever. There was finally a good release of the Alastar Sim Scrooge, several restored versions of silent and old Scrooges, The House Without a Christmas Tree, the Flintstones Christmas Carol, Th Pink Panther, and Opus all came to DVD this year. There wasn't a whole lot. Last year was the year of the special edition with It's a Wonderful Life, Holiday Inn, Laurel and Hardy, and Miracle on 34th Street all getting one. This year was the year of the Scrooge I guess. I'm also finding earlier DVD releases of some of the Christmas cartoons are better picture quality than the newer ones. This is true for the Rankin/Bass stuff from both Classic Media and Warner Bros. The picture on the new releases is too dark and cuts not cut on the 2000 Rudolph release are cut now. Strange. Marlo Thomas' version of It's a Wonderful Life, I think called It Happened One Christmas is also not on DVD either. There's a tonof popular stuff not out there yet...

I'm just not so sure that they made themed shows for the other lands as blantent as they did for Tomorrowland.
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Post by UncleEd »

I thought of another one. The Smurf's Christmas isn't on DVD either. You'd think that WB would start packaging all the Christmas stuff they own onto boxsets and get some obscure HB stuff on there like PacMan's Christmas too. There has to be enough to fill up several box sets. Plus they have more than enough in the vault to do a huge Rankin/Bass set too. Given how great Ted Turner is about releasing old films it's amazing this hasn't been done yet.
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Post by gkittler »

slave2moonlight wrote: On the subject of Zorro though, I don't have the current boxed set of Season One, but I heard it was colorized. If that's so, then in my opinion we still need a decent release of Season One. Anyway, it should be available for anyone to purchase, not just exclusive to some club.
You're absolutly righta about that one, just forgot that it's a Club Exclusive in the States; since I live in Europe for years now I got my Zorro Box here. But I think that the colorized version isn't that bad cause if you want to watch it in B/W you can always ajust the color of your TV or Home Cinema to it and as far as I can remember the original one, the colorized Season is uncut too, so you can enjoy it either with a nostalgic feeling or not. like I sometimes do.
slave2moonlight wrote: 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 totally agree with you that the 70's and 80's stuff should be released too but not as a Treasure yet for the simple reason that for me "Treasure" & "Legacy" mean Walt's involvement in the production.

I too would love to see "Muppets At Walt Disney World" but since Disney releases "The Muppet Show" anyway why not but it on Season 3 or 4 as a special?
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Post by UncleEd »

So Zorro was realeased on DVD in the UK in a season set in B&W? If so we stateside boys have been slapped again by the mouse!

There are plenty of Muppet specials left and only 3 season sets to go. That's the problem. There's The Muppets Go to the Movies, The Miss Piggy Show, The Muppet Movie featurette, The John Denver Christmas Special, the UNCUT John Denver Rocky Mountain Holiday, The Muppets at Disney World, the MGM Studios film,The Muppet Family Christmas, and I know there's more. They can't put them all on the season sets at the rate on 1 per set. If HIT were doing these we'd get a bonus disc with 3 of them a pop and Jim Henson Hour featurettes. Disney has said Muppets Tonight will be released if all 5 Muppet Show Seasons sell strong. I hope they put the segments of the Muppet cast from Jim Henson Hour on that set as well. It only makes sense. Disney limits the bonus material on these sets because they're only 4 discs. HIT has 5 discs on the Fraggle Rock Sets.
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Post by gkittler »

UncleEd wrote:So Zorro was released on DVD in the UK in a season set in B&W? If so we stateside boys have been slapped again by the mouse!
Nope, sorry, I didn't intend to misled anybody. It's the same here as well, color too, What I meant was just the fact that you can adjust your TV or Home Cinema, to B/W (fade all [RGB] to zero and it has the same effect since the process usually used to colorize B/W films in the 90ies used a similar approach just in reverse, as far as I know. So the picture looks just like the old B/W Zorro, without any shade differences.
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Post by UncleEd »

Now I've been told that when you do that to a colorized movie the B&W tones are still off because the original tones were changed so much with the colorization.
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littlefuzzy
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Post by littlefuzzy »

UncleEd wrote: Nope. Never seen Tokyo Godfathers. Is it a Christmas or a mafia film?The films I was refering to are based on a story that was VERY popular in the teens that set the Nativity story in the old west. A gang of three outylaws murder some people and rob a bank but on their escape find a dying woman who just gave birth to a baby in the desert. They promise her on her death bed they will be the godfathers of the child and see that he gets to her family in New Jeruselum. The only version of it on DVD is a white washed version with John Wayne in the lead. The other film versions were darker and more true to the story. I'd love to see them.
Tokyo Godfathers is an anime based on that story (although they aren't bank robbers,) and it is set in modern day Tokyo at Christmas time. The three characters are all homeless, and one is a drunkard, one is a drag queen, and one is a teen-age runaway.
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Post by merlinjones »

I must say, the mastering on the Wonderful World of Color episodes was excellent this time around. Very happy to see it.
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Post by slave2moonlight »

Well, as for your college experiences, they do say that those who can't "do," teach. It does seem that way. I wasn't too impressed with a lot of the faculty while I was in college. Oh, there were some great ones here and there, but very few and far between. I have no doubt that your animation talks are better than those in the schools. It's tragic how the industry has changed. Let's hope that it all comes back around, as they say.

That PVC collection sounds awesome. I have quite a few myself, though I doubt I have anywhere near that many. Problem is, most of them are stored away and their paint can react badly with each other. Some of my toys have ruined each other. I don't care much for bendables, but I have a few near ones, and those are the worst for having bad chemical reactions when stored with other toys or even each other. What I mean basically is the paint of one melting the paint or plastic of another. I used to always by some PVCs when I'd go to Disney World, especially the Germany part of EPCOT, but they don't seem to have them anymore (also always came back with 2 plush toys, though I'm trying to switch to the more adult collectibles, but haven't switched over completely yet).

We seem to have had a different film in mind. I was thinking of the Clark Gable comedy "It Happened One Night." Haven't seen the MacMurray film. I'll have to add it to my "must watch" list. Well, to me that seems like a good number of new releases since I can only afford to pick up so many DVDs per month, ha. This year (as far as Christmas is concerned), I finally got Jingle All the Way, along with the Rudolph/Frosty/Santa Claus Is Coming to Town collection, The Nativity, that new 2-disc Christmas Carol, and a dollar DVD of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (with a nice cartoon about Clement Moore called "The Night Before Christmas" and a Fleischer short) which I bought yesterday on Clearance for a quarter. For me, that's a heck of a lot of new Christmas DVDs to get in a single year, ha. Of course, I got the Christmas Carol free from Amazon.com to write a review for it.

Not sure if they did more than hint at the Nazis in the Love Bug sequel with Bruce Campbell. I haven't watched it in a while, and I think it does show Nazis, but I don't think it shows swaztikas (sp?) or anything like that, like they are trying to be vague about it. I was amazed that they had a German Soldier action figure among the Disney World Indiana Jones line that had a swaztika on the box with the Ark in it. Meant to get that one but never did. I wonder if they're still selling it like that. I've only gotten a couple of Indys so far. As action figures go, they could be much better sculpted.

Oh no! I hate to hear that about the Care Bears Nutcracker! I've been meaning to get it eventually (well, I still will probably, but it's a shame!). I was always a big fan of the feature films, incidentally, though I still only have them on VHS. I do have one Care Bears DVD that has episodes of the TV show that someone sent me.

I'd like to finish up my Gummi Bears plush and action figure collections myself. Wuzzles too. Haven't got the space or cash at the moment though, and with the Gummi Bears, as I said, I'd probably start from scratch because my Cubbis were well played with. I also have a PVC of Sunni from a cereal box.

Unfortunately, no, USA no longer has Cartoon Express. In fact, I don't think they show any cartoons there at all. I agree about NickToons for the most part as well. I only liked Ren and Stimpy and Rocko, and I sorta liked Doug. At least, I thought it was okay, if a bit bland. There were far too many Doug copycats when Disney started One Saturday Morning, and even on Nick I guess. A few of the newer shows have me curious, but I haven't gotten into them yet, like Danny Phantom. The stuff that really turned me off there was stuff like Aaah! Real Monsters (can't stand that artist's style) and Rugrats (don't like his style either, or much of what is done on NickToons and Cartoon Network now). Cartoon Networks first original stuff was a mixed bag, but much better than some that followed. I loved Dexter's Lab and Powerpuff Girls, and I even enjoyed the bizarre Cow and Chicken, but later stuff like Ed, Edd, and Eddie, My Gym Partner's a Monkey, and Camp Lazlo just do nothing for me, and I hate made for TV CGI most of the time, though some of it is getting better, like the preschool stuff. Foster's and Billy and Mandy aren't bad though. And I know exactly how you feel about the Superhero stuff. Haven't had a chance to check out that new Catwoman though, and I've been wanting to. That whole thing about Mr. Freeze though, that really ticked me off when I saw that episode! If you're going to change a character, why make it weaker? At least they're tying it into the new movies a bit, adding characters like Lucius Fox. Like you though, ha, I never followed the Superhero comics (loved superheroes, but mainly from movies and TV; only read Disney comics and '90's Star Wars and Indiana Jones comics for the most part, only dabbling in some other books if they had cute girls on the covers).

Thanks for the book suggestions. I'd love to hear your software recommendations too. One thing I always figured would befuddle me in animation was the timing of lip movemement for speaking, and I guess all the synchronizing with the sound and timing of stuff in general. You know, the little details you wouldn't likely get from watching all the Disney behind the scenes stuff. Anyways, I don't think my comic strip appeals to most of the UD crowd, as it is a bit crass at times, kinda like Cartoon Network's Adult Swim, though not usually that bad, ha. I have a My Space page for it at http://www.myspace.com/monty_moonlight . I also have my art gallery at http://www.slave2moonlight.deviantart.com , though it badly needs to be overhauled now, ha, and this is the myspace page for the graphic novel we are working on: http://www.myspace.com/the_tinne . The images there are from our first "rough cut" printing that we have been selling locally to make money to print the redone, all color version and Book 2 as well. Also recently got a gig in the roleplaying game industry, but I'm not allowed to talk about it. Trouble is, like all projects I'm currently involved in, it's a deal where you get paid from the profits as they come, but I gotta take what I can get right now.
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Post by thatartguy »

One thing I always figured would befuddle me in animation was the timing of lip movemement for speaking, and I guess all the synchronizing with the sound and timing of stuff in general.
When animation is created, the dialog, sound effects, and music are created first. Then an "x-sheet" is made. This is a sheet that lists which sounds are playing at that specific time or frame in the animation. Basically, there are people that sit and listen to audio all day slowly writing down w, a, l, r, u, and s sounds so animators can draw the lips to make "walrus" appear on screen.

It's great for timing too. It's much harder to time things without a soundtrack.
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Post by Barbossa »

It occured to me, the WDT The Complete Goofy isn't so complete anymore with the release of How to Hook up Your Home Theater. What is Disney have in mind with the new shorts? Are they going to release them on DVD (or whatever format is available in the future [Blu!])? Perhaps a Treasures set with the new shorts?
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Post by Lars Vermundsberget »

New shorts - a new chapter, so to speak. That hardly makes the collection of classic shorts less complete. But I hope there will be enough new, GOOD shorts to fill a whole DVD set and more eventually. But would those belong in the WDT line? Both yes and no...
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Post by Maerj »

Barbossa wrote:It occured to me, the WDT The Complete Goofy isn't so complete anymore with the release of How to Hook up Your Home Theater. What is Disney have in mind with the new shorts? Are they going to release them on DVD (or whatever format is available in the future [Blu!])? Perhaps a Treasures set with the new shorts?
I think that the Treasures sets are supposed to be made of footage an subject matter dealing with "Walt's Era" rather than modern things. So, the Goofy set would still be complete if we are only dealing with the classic era. That said, Runaway Brain was included on the Mickey set, probably for completeness sake, so who knows?
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Post by Atomobile »

Since the Treasures focus on Walt's Era, the following would be amazing:

-Saludos Amigos with The 3 Caballeros
-Make Mine Music with Melody Time
-Song of the South with So Dear to My Heart
-Fun and Fancy Free with Ichabod and Mr. Toad
-More DISNEYLAND specials
-Donald Duck 4
-Any other animation shorts not yet released.
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Luke
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Post by Luke »

Barbossa wrote:It occured to me, the WDT The Complete Goofy isn't so complete anymore with the release of How to Hook up Your Home Theater.
It already wasn't so complete. I won't go as far to say that the entirety of "Goof Troop" was missing (which it was), but <i>Sport Goofy in Soccermania</i>, <i>Freewayphobia</i>, and <i>Freeway Troubles</i> (which all remain perplexingly absent in Region 1) would have been sensible inclusions.
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