Walt Disney Treasures

[GeorgeC]

Anyone venture out and got both Zorro sets? Evidently they're already hard to find, most places sold out. Of course places like eBay have dozens, but some are going crazy up. I hate when people do that. In some cases, okay, but these are so limited, y'know? Which makes me wonder why Disney didn't think enough to increase this years Wave amount instead of decreasing! There's certainly an audience. If something lesser know as Dr. Syn can sell out almost instantly, certainly Zorro could do the same. Ugh.

Depends on where you live... I doubt they'll sell out that fast in Ohio-land at $45 a pop --- even at Best Buy which is the only place I've seen these sets.

(Nonetheless, I stuck to my guns and got anime instead... It was cheaper this week! I felt the really big release video release of the week was North By Northwest on Blu ray. Yet another title I can't afford to pick up now...)




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Okay, Dann-o.

You broke me!

I'll buy 'em this week!

It's not as if there are other Hispanic superheroes that I can really enjoy!

(C in my name IS Hispanic so I can crack this joke. Darn political correctness.)

I could care less if Guy Williams (Zorro in the Disney series) wasn't Mexican or Latino, period. He was Italian -- close enough!

(He was a good Zorro and certainly the most memorable TV Zorro and among the best of the bunch. I liked the sense of humor he had and he very good at fencing on the show.)



Nah, Zorro's cool... Without him, there wouldn't have been Batman and I doubt Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. would have been as memorable in another role.

[Daniel]

Wow, talk about a fast turnaround!

For fun, I just checked Best Buy's website and one of the seasons is sold out at my local store, and two locations further from me are sold out of both. Don't underestimate the man with a black mask!

[Ben]

Ironic that the six-disc sets are skinnier than the 2-disc ones.

Only the inner case, to allow space for the pin. The tins are the same as usual, only black, thus making them only the second and third volumes of the WDT line to alter from the standard "film can" silver.

[Daniel]

Oswald's freebie wasn't that fortunate!

[GeorgeC]

6 DVDs have always been able to fit into that small a space.

It's not until recently with the premium being placed on shelf space that companies have bothered to package them this way.

I've picked up my share of re-releases of anime series that came packaged like (the inner) Zorro packaging.

It's long past time this was done.

I've seen recent reprints of older TV series like Buffy and Angel being repackaged into older "twin DVD set" cases, too. Of course, there are at least 3-4 DVDs in those so-called "twin sets."

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So, now that the Disney Treasures line is more or less officially dead, what's up next? When is Disney finally going to release the single-shot theatrical shorts like "Lorenzo" and the "Destino" special on home video?

Lots of people have been waiting on Destino for years.

Lorenzo's another short that deserves more exposure than it got.

[Ben]

I wouldn't be surprised if next year's Fantasia sets contained more than just the two main features.

[Ben]

So here’s a bump! And don’t get excited…but, no, the Treasures are not coming back or coming to Blu-ray. (Though I was right about then then-upcoming Fantasia Blu including "more than just the two main features": more on that below…)

However, there has opened up an intriguing mystery…

In his recent-ish memoir book Starstruck, Leonard Maltin writes a couple of pages (which I had seen posted on another forum, I don’t have the actual book) about his time on the WDT line, from suggesting the series to Dick Cook (a big "yes!"), to when the line was faltering and he was having trouble getting the remnants of the home entertainment division to get excited about releasing Zorro (the biggest seller in the series was On The Front lines, the lowest were the more obscure TV episodes, somewhat understandably).

However, he’s very pleased with what was achieved, summing it up as "nine years and 37 DVD sets later, it came to an end, coinciding with the firing of Dick Cook" and no-one there (then or now) to champion them. Now this we know, but that number, 37, intrigues me, for this reason:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_Treasures

Count 'em — 30 releases, right?

The WDT is a go-to collection for me with our movie nights. Often I’m looking for a "companion" short to run with a feature (last night, Mickey's Trailer prefaced Nomadland) and naturally the WDTs come up trumps with something. I was pretty sure I had a copy of every set, so counted them up and, yep, apparently I have all 30 releases.

So where does Maltin get the extra seven from?

We do know a few were ostensibly in development or production, such as the heavily rumored but never actually confirmed A Disney Education, and possibly the "travelogue" films. We also know that The Disneyland: Secrets/Stories release was originally intended as a non-Treasures standalone, before the anniversary documentary was folded into the larger-encompassing WDT.

And we know that the line somewhat swapped names to become the Roy Disney endorsed Legacy Collection, which announced several Treasures-like titles, including Secrets/Stories and the Oswald collection, before those too appeared as Treasures. And the Destino short and feature documentary was announced as a Legacy Collection title before basically become the second disc in the Fantasia Blu-ray reissue…

So towards the end, there’s a fair blurring of some lines. But even given adding the four Legacy sets to the WDT line, that’s only 34. The education set makes 35 and a couple of other possibles, including Destino (which I’m sure must have started life as a WDT idea, perhaps for another rumored collection of "Rarities" and more modern shorts) can sort of make it to 37, but I’m not totally convinced these are what Maltin is talking about.

He definitely states the number as 37, and is referring to final, released sets. So I’m intrigued. Is he just misremembering, which seems an odd thing for him not to know or fact check. I mean 37 is also a pretty definite figure; not "over 30", or "around 35", or "almost 40". Nope, he’s pretty certain on 37.

As I say, I’m very intrigued… Any ideas?

[Randall]

Was he involved with the 4 True Life Adventures (Legacy Collection) sets?

[Ben]

I think not, but as explained there was definitely overlap between the Treasures and Legacy sets in later years.

[ohmahaaha]

Maybe when he said "37" he slightly misremembered by thinking of a couple of future waves that he had in mind? He probably had a "People and Places" set in mind, some of the other "mini-series" from Walt Disney Presents i.e. "Texas John Slaughter" or "Daniel Boone" ...? They are/were an excellent set and I would have loved to see them continue.