DMC Exclusive Disney Blus

[Ben]

B-b-but, this *isn't* a licensing deal. Like the Anchor Bay one was and the Mill Creek one was/is. Where Disney provided a package of pre-picked films.

Here, Sony is undertaking Disney's entire physical media business. They'll be choosing titles, working out how to maximise the library, and going hell for leather on getting back revenues to Disney to show this is a worthwhile concept for both sides.

If Sony think they can launch a "Disney Classics" line of live-action titles and make them attractive by way of good editions with Wonderful World Of Disney episodes as extras, in matching "collection" packaging that makes us buy them all (again) then they will. This is Disney's Warner Archive…as long as the unit as a whole is making profit they’re not going to question the thinking.

Added to this is a better commitment to new titles and prestige releases of the crown jewel titles. Expect all the animated classics again, maybe even more in 4K. Grover Crisp over at Sony is a switched-on guy, on the George Feltenstein level. Jerry Beck has been involved on past Columbia animation releases and, by extension, Leonard Maltin could be consulted. I’ll bet those two are already having conversations.

Yep…this is very good news. We might not get The Shaggy DA exactly, at least not immediately, but I’ll bet those Disney "exclusives" are among the first to get wider reissues. Everyone knows the Disney library has been woefully under-tapped lately, and someone like Crisp, whose ear Jerry and Lenny have, will be rolling around in the sandbox not knowing what to pick first.

As for Mill Creek…well, maybe this is the reason that has been silent. There's obviously a connection between Sony and Mill Creek, since from the start Sony has been "sponsoring" them with catalog product for low-cost vanilla discs. And they’re not afraid to take a Mill Creek title selling well and put out a better, Sony-branded edition, sometimes in 4K or at least with extras.

So maybe the Mill Creek announcement with Disney was the start of this negotiation. Maybe the reason the Mill Creek titles haven’t appeared yet is because this new "arrangement", which is a better word to use than "deal", supersedes that idea.

Whatever else, it isn’t just licensing, and I think classic Disney and classic 20th fans, especially under Crisp, have a LOT to look forward to.

[Randall]

This all remains to be seen. There's a lot of wishful thinking in there, but I hope you're right. We'll see if Sony really has full access to the vault, but I'm skeptical.

[Ben]

No ifs or buts. It’s simply not a licensing deal…they’re taking over Disney's whole physical business because Disney isn’t interested or has become too bureaucratic to bother. So it’s not a package of films that Sony will release, it's Disney's full physical output. Of course it’ll be up to Sony what they release, largely, but they also know there's a rabid demand for the right kinds of untapped titles.

[Randall]

The next big question is... What about the rest of he world? The deal is only for the US and Canada. More deals yet to be announced?

[Ben]

Not a stretch to see that it’s a Titanic-type scenario, where Paramount and Disney shared the same disc between their two regions. Sony will author and package in the US, local houses will just take the basic disc, like Warners does, and repackage them for local markets. Many Disney discs are distributed through smaller local companies already (often Warners affiliates in Europe), most of which feed off the US masters with tweaks. Since the heavy burden of that work will be undertaken for them already, they still won’t have much to do.

[Dan]

Bunch of stuff has already gone out of stock on DMC, which ruined some plans of mine. Focus will now be on upgrading titles to 4K.

[Daniel]

Some of the exclusives are now going for more on eBay, naturally.

[Ben]

Natch.

[Daniel]

Update from Digital Billy:

I’ve continued to check in with our many industry sources over the last week or two. And I have learned a couple of things that should help to clarify the picture a bit for consumers.

The bad news is that the Disney/Sony deal does not mean a return of Disney product to Australia or other regions where the studio has recently pulled out. Our sources are telling us that this distribution deal applies to the US and Canada only. The studio operation in each individual market is making their own decisions about whether to release physical product there or not, and this deal doesn’t change that.

The good news, on the other hand, is that I’m told Disney remains committed to physical media distribution. And while Disney will continue to make the decisions about which titles get released on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD, those decisions will now be made in partnership with Sony, with the goal of maximizing availability based on consumer and retail interest.

[Randall]

No surprise there. The deal was only about the US and Canada from the very first reporting. And Disney is still calling the shots. So, we'll just have to wait and see what kind of influence Sony will really have on what comes out.

[James]

Last few days to get in your final DMC orders!

The wife knows I put mine in but was smart enough not to ask how much it was!

[Ben]

I know that feeling!

End of an era for sure. I never did get a chance to peruse the US version of DMC, as Rand always kindly let me see his account to look through. A bit crazy that you have to login to see their wares…you'd think having it "open" would entice more people to join up having seen the treats inside. From what I understand, the offerings between the US and Canada were pretty much the same, save for the crazy bilingual sleeves. Luckily the Exclusive titles were always English-only, so no probes there!



Semi-talking of which, we did a double feature of two Disney sequels the other night, one of which was a DMC Blu. We’d done The Absent-Minded Professor and The Shaggy Dog last year as part of my Disney100 run, but for obvious reasons I didn’t include their follow-ups at the time. Well, Saturday I had a slot open up and those have been on stand-by for a while…

To say we’re were disappointed would be an understatement. I know I’ve seen these, but long ago. I have vague recollections of seeing bits of Son Of Flubber on TV in the early 80s, and we saw so many clips of The Shaggy DA in specials around the same time that I must have seen the whole thing at some point as it was all so familiar. However, I’ve clearly deleted both from my brain as I’d pretty much forgotten them! Now I remember why!

Now, of course I know that a two-decades late 70s Disney comedy where Dean Jones badly transforms into a dog isn’t going to be the height of cinema, but I hardly expected it to be the *better* film than an almost direct Flubber sequel! The Absent-Minded Professor was a fun, clever, well-made diversion, but its sequel was almost anything but. Almost no good effects sequences, and even the end football game didn’t make any sense even within Ned Brainard's world. Which 60s kids want to go to a Disney film where people their parents' age stand around talking about government bureaucracy and tax issues!? Just what was Walt thinking!?

Which left some hopes that The Shaggy DA would at least be a bit more fun, and it was, though random story mechanics and a general lack of finding things for the characters to do seemed to get in the way. More than anything, I kind of felt bad for the likes of Jones and Robert Stevenson, who had just ten years before been helming things like Mary Poppins and had been, for a good long stretch thanks to multiple Disney films, the most commercially successful director in Hollywood, before a certain whippersnapper named Steven Spielberg came along…!

So both films seemed quite a comedown for all of those involved. I guess they proved why Walt never wanted to make sequels in the first place, especially in Flubber's case, while Shaggy is perhaps best used as a pointer in the case against Disney's 70s live-action output for those that want to ignore the genuinely better stuff. I can’t even say the doggie effects were that good, or even in that acceptable "hey, they didn’t have CGI" way, though the way they made them talk was not bad, and there were a couple of fun stunt shots.

Both Shaggies never made it to the DMC — rumor was they may have been on the way — but the Brainards did, and even though its unlikely I’ll revisit the second anytime soon, the 1.66 widescreen print is much nicer than the original cropped DVD. At least Shaggy's DVD was anamorphic 1.85 so we got the full frame, but it would have been nice to have Walt's original first film in HD too (D+ is standard def, or at least it was here when we ran it last year).

Farewell, DMC. You were loved, you were needed, and you'll very much be missed!

[Dan]

Last few days to get in your final DMC orders!

The wife knows I put mine in but was smart enough not to ask how much it was!

Yep. Pretty much finished with my main orders. Focus is on 4K upgrade at this point since some of the exclusives I would've liked have long been made out of stock.

Heck, a title went out of stock while it was sitting in my cart.

[EricJ]

And since I was away from my computer for a week, I missed the deadline, and am now going to be the proud owner of their last monthly release, the SW: Obi-Wan S1 steelbook.

Anyone who wants to buy it off me, last dibs, although I'm probably donating my similarly-in-error Wish copy to the library.

[Ben]

Anyone…anyone…anyone…?