The New DVD and Blu Thread
Re:
Ben wrote: ....
But they have Movie Rewards points, so that was a nice "bonus". In a way I'm disappointed not to be able to line them up with the other two original releases, but in another they more closely match the later single-disc Apple Dumpling and Witch Mountains, so it's no great shakes. I'm just glad to have those two titles on DVD at last!
Funny you mention Witch Mountain, Ben.
One of my teachers at the last college I attended was Jerome Courtland, producer of both those films and Pete's Dragon --- http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0183857/
I think I mentioned him in the past. He was in his early 70's when our paths crossed. Very nice guy. Got to hear a few stories from him about Walt Disney.
(Confirmation: Yes, the Studio was notorious penny pincher but a very good place to learn the art of producing from one of the best in the business! Walt Disney was definitely one of his mentors...)
******
And, on that note...!
Best Buy is running $5 off certain Blu ray titles if you trade in a DVD. Offer's good through June 4th.
Given how much you usually get for a used DVD, $5 isn't bad for a piece of plastic you might not want anymore. Restrictions -- no pornography or burned DVD-R's accepted.
There are some good BD's out there I haven't gotten that are covered by the offer including both Cars Blu rays, Alice in Wonderland (the good Disney film, not Burton's "Joan d'Heartless"), and Bambi.
I have a quite a few DVD's I could live without and wouldn't mind saving some cash on good BD's...
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Exciting disc day today, with the arrival of the Sound Of Music deluxe 45th anniversary box set (thanks to some big help from James!) with the movie looking really, really nice on Blu-ray and a healthy selection of supplements. 
I was also really pleased to take delivery of a recent eBay buy: the alternate Academy "full-frame" edition of Lady And The Tramp on LD! I've been after that disc for years, having picked up the CinemaScope only CAV collector's edition in the mid-1990s, not realizing at the time that Walt had ordered two versions of the movie to be visually composed: the intended 2.55:1 widescreen edition, and a standard 1.37:1 framed edition for theaters that did not yet have the wider screens in 1955.
Years before Pixar pulled off the same trick and recomposed the frame of A Bug's Life, this just-as-valid 1.37 version of Lady And The Tramp basically is a TV-shaped edition as shot through the camera: it's not a pan-and-scan copy as seen on the last Platinum release, but a complete version of the film framed at 1.37, with recomposed shots and character placement so it works for the squarer frame.
In 1955, a variety of films were produced "twice", with such titles as Brigadoon and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers actually being shot twice: with the same actors and scripts, but once for widescreen and once for the older square Academy frame. It's fun to compare some of these due to differences in timing, delivery of lines and performance changes, but they're essentially the same films. With L&TT, the soundtrack is obviously the same, but the framing is different, and is a valid alternate version that has been composed for the tighter frame.
Much of it is a basic version of pan-and-scan, but it's been shot to film this way, with camera movement taking place instead of actually cropping the image, and so is much more sharper than blowing up a widescreen frame to fit. When this came out in the 1990s (in three editions: A CAV widescreen, a CLV widescreen and the CLV Academy disc), I only picked up the CAV edition for the widescreen and bonus features. Soon after, I read up on why the Academy disc was also much chased after, and I've been looking ever since. I've missed out on a couple but stumbled on to one last week, and am glad to say it arrived this morning.
It might not be any big deal to many fans, but to me it's an interesting and authentic piece of Disney history, and a disc I should have purchased the first time around. It was a shame the last Platinum disc didn't include this version as the full-frame option instead of the pointless pan-and-scan (especially when the Academy master had already been restored), but with Blu-ray reissues dropping pan-and-scan options on widescreen titles, I can't see the Academy L&TT turning up on the eventual Diamond Edition.
The Academy version went unseen for 40 years before the LD restoration: with widescreen being the defacto choice now, I would guess that it may never be seen again, so I'm pleased to have finally been able to grab one.
I was also really pleased to take delivery of a recent eBay buy: the alternate Academy "full-frame" edition of Lady And The Tramp on LD! I've been after that disc for years, having picked up the CinemaScope only CAV collector's edition in the mid-1990s, not realizing at the time that Walt had ordered two versions of the movie to be visually composed: the intended 2.55:1 widescreen edition, and a standard 1.37:1 framed edition for theaters that did not yet have the wider screens in 1955.
Years before Pixar pulled off the same trick and recomposed the frame of A Bug's Life, this just-as-valid 1.37 version of Lady And The Tramp basically is a TV-shaped edition as shot through the camera: it's not a pan-and-scan copy as seen on the last Platinum release, but a complete version of the film framed at 1.37, with recomposed shots and character placement so it works for the squarer frame.
In 1955, a variety of films were produced "twice", with such titles as Brigadoon and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers actually being shot twice: with the same actors and scripts, but once for widescreen and once for the older square Academy frame. It's fun to compare some of these due to differences in timing, delivery of lines and performance changes, but they're essentially the same films. With L&TT, the soundtrack is obviously the same, but the framing is different, and is a valid alternate version that has been composed for the tighter frame.
Much of it is a basic version of pan-and-scan, but it's been shot to film this way, with camera movement taking place instead of actually cropping the image, and so is much more sharper than blowing up a widescreen frame to fit. When this came out in the 1990s (in three editions: A CAV widescreen, a CLV widescreen and the CLV Academy disc), I only picked up the CAV edition for the widescreen and bonus features. Soon after, I read up on why the Academy disc was also much chased after, and I've been looking ever since. I've missed out on a couple but stumbled on to one last week, and am glad to say it arrived this morning.
It might not be any big deal to many fans, but to me it's an interesting and authentic piece of Disney history, and a disc I should have purchased the first time around. It was a shame the last Platinum disc didn't include this version as the full-frame option instead of the pointless pan-and-scan (especially when the Academy master had already been restored), but with Blu-ray reissues dropping pan-and-scan options on widescreen titles, I can't see the Academy L&TT turning up on the eventual Diamond Edition.
The Academy version went unseen for 40 years before the LD restoration: with widescreen being the defacto choice now, I would guess that it may never be seen again, so I'm pleased to have finally been able to grab one.
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I too skipped the old 4:3 LD, though I knew exactly what it was. I just couldn't justify buying two verisons of the same film at a time that I was still catching up on older LD releases. The optimist in me still hopes Dis will place both versions on the BD set.
Congrats on finally getting your LD! I know what it's like to score that elusive buy.
Congrats on finally getting your LD! I know what it's like to score that elusive buy.
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Thanks!
Like you, I think I went for another title over getting the CLV Academy disc. I would like to hope they put out this one on BD, but I'm not holding my breath ever since they dropped any sort of pan-and-scan from Sleeping Beauty's Diamond debut.
The rightful place for it was on that Platinum DVD...d'oh!
Like you, I think I went for another title over getting the CLV Academy disc. I would like to hope they put out this one on BD, but I'm not holding my breath ever since they dropped any sort of pan-and-scan from Sleeping Beauty's Diamond debut.
The rightful place for it was on that Platinum DVD...d'oh!
.....AAAANNNNNDDDDD the 1980s series that changed all our childhoods and shaped us all into the bad-@!% macho dudes we all became is finally here on DVD
===> http://www.wbshop.com/Chuck-Norris-Kara ... html?cgid=
Yes, Chuck Norris and his Karate Kommandos are on DVD M-O-D!
Don't like the series? Fine! You can still use the DVD's as shuriken and ninja stars in your pretend battles ---- they're that sharp-edged! If Chuck Norris' show won't break your heart, his DVDs can still break your bones!
*******
<SIGH> What could have been...! We couldda had a great Bruce Lee animated action series, too. "Bruce and His Kung-Fu Kommandos!" OR, "Bruce's Jeet Kune Do Jet Aces!"
The nightmares and tackiness that were avoided...
(A Bruce Lee "Kung Fu" TV series still would have been neat, though...)
===> http://www.wbshop.com/Chuck-Norris-Kara ... html?cgid=
Yes, Chuck Norris and his Karate Kommandos are on DVD M-O-D!
Don't like the series? Fine! You can still use the DVD's as shuriken and ninja stars in your pretend battles ---- they're that sharp-edged! If Chuck Norris' show won't break your heart, his DVDs can still break your bones!
*******
<SIGH> What could have been...! We couldda had a great Bruce Lee animated action series, too. "Bruce and His Kung-Fu Kommandos!" OR, "Bruce's Jeet Kune Do Jet Aces!"
The nightmares and tackiness that were avoided...
(A Bruce Lee "Kung Fu" TV series still would have been neat, though...)
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Since LDs came into this a few posts back, someone has uploaded this hysterically brilliant video that has Leonard Nimoy explaining the benefits of Magnavox's Magnavision players, the early version of LaserDisc.
From the way the camera caresses the player to the dated info and delivery, this is honestly one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen! Nimoy (on there presumably as an inquisitive quasi-Spock interested in the new technology) even speaks to a chunck of space rock. "Yes, I can understand you. I’m Leonard Nimoy!" – And he had the audacity to say "I am not Spock"! ;o)
I love the name Magnavox Maganvision too! I wonder why it never took off!? Nimoy is just great value here, playing it pretty straight while wearing that ‘tash without a hint of irony, and I love how he’s got his hands all over the discs and treats them and the player with all the delicateness of a sledgehammer (watch has he slams the lid down)!
The index is great too: "All I have to do is write that number down…", haha. He ever preempts Madonna's use of Abba's track she sampled in Music!
Watch him get excited and technical about stereophonic sound, too, and the wealth of (very boring!) titles already available. Where are the movies for this home video revolution, or "gourmet video" as Nimoy has it!
There's also a great bit of information on the clip in the details section there, and fun to remember when Walt Disney Home Video was called Walt Disney Telecommunications And Non-Theatrical Company!
For a more serious and slightly technical look at LaserDisc, this Pioneer video is worth a look too, though again the host doesn't seem to care about the way he's holding the discs!
From the way the camera caresses the player to the dated info and delivery, this is honestly one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen! Nimoy (on there presumably as an inquisitive quasi-Spock interested in the new technology) even speaks to a chunck of space rock. "Yes, I can understand you. I’m Leonard Nimoy!" – And he had the audacity to say "I am not Spock"! ;o)
I love the name Magnavox Maganvision too! I wonder why it never took off!? Nimoy is just great value here, playing it pretty straight while wearing that ‘tash without a hint of irony, and I love how he’s got his hands all over the discs and treats them and the player with all the delicateness of a sledgehammer (watch has he slams the lid down)!
The index is great too: "All I have to do is write that number down…", haha. He ever preempts Madonna's use of Abba's track she sampled in Music!
Watch him get excited and technical about stereophonic sound, too, and the wealth of (very boring!) titles already available. Where are the movies for this home video revolution, or "gourmet video" as Nimoy has it!
There's also a great bit of information on the clip in the details section there, and fun to remember when Walt Disney Home Video was called Walt Disney Telecommunications And Non-Theatrical Company!
For a more serious and slightly technical look at LaserDisc, this Pioneer video is worth a look too, though again the host doesn't seem to care about the way he's holding the discs!
)This news was broken a few weeks back but bears being repeated --
http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com/2011/08/h ... iblis.html
The next Blu ray releases in the Studio Ghibli library are Howl's Moving Castle and Tales from Earthsea. In addition, Japan gets a new edition of Ponyo which includes the English soundtrack for the first time (on Japanese BD). Howl's and Earthsea are being released in Japan on November 16th complete with the English dub produced by Disney.
The earliest they can be expected to be released in the US on BD is maybe first quarter 2012...
http://ghiblicon.blogspot.com/2011/08/h ... iblis.html
The next Blu ray releases in the Studio Ghibli library are Howl's Moving Castle and Tales from Earthsea. In addition, Japan gets a new edition of Ponyo which includes the English soundtrack for the first time (on Japanese BD). Howl's and Earthsea are being released in Japan on November 16th complete with the English dub produced by Disney.
The earliest they can be expected to be released in the US on BD is maybe first quarter 2012...
Re: The New DVD and Blu Thread
The Rocketeer returns on Blu ray in December!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005JZBP4Q?tag ... amp=211189
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005JZBP4Q?tag ... amp=211189
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Yay!! You just know that a few of us on the Forum here are excited to have this release confirmed. Obviously, a 20th Anniversary (!) disc of a period adventure film from the director of Captain America was too sure of a thing to pass up.
I had a hunch they'd really make a mess of the cover art (see: Tron), but they did good here. Hopefully we'll get a retrospective, but we'll see. List price is a little low for Disney, so it may be bare bones.
I had a hunch they'd really make a mess of the cover art (see: Tron), but they did good here. Hopefully we'll get a retrospective, but we'll see. List price is a little low for Disney, so it may be bare bones.
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Yay, too!!
That panel session earlier this year was a good indication that something might have been coming, but good to get confirmation like this.
$26 isn't too cheap for a Disney catalog title (not like the $10 licensed-out 1980s Touchstone titles!) and so there's room for a few supplements: if nothing else than the theatrical trailer, "Excitement In The Air" TV special and a potted edition of the filmed panel passing as a retrospective/reunion, that would please me enough.
Thankfully, they basically haven't messed around with the cover art and just stuck to the original VHS, LD and DVD reframing of an original theatrical poster, but this finally means I can watch the movie "properly" again, after sticking with the letterboxed, interlaced LaserDisc for so many years!
Hopefully Dick Tracy, Roger Rabbit and Evita aren't too far behind...
That panel session earlier this year was a good indication that something might have been coming, but good to get confirmation like this.
$26 isn't too cheap for a Disney catalog title (not like the $10 licensed-out 1980s Touchstone titles!) and so there's room for a few supplements: if nothing else than the theatrical trailer, "Excitement In The Air" TV special and a potted edition of the filmed panel passing as a retrospective/reunion, that would please me enough.
Thankfully, they basically haven't messed around with the cover art and just stuck to the original VHS, LD and DVD reframing of an original theatrical poster, but this finally means I can watch the movie "properly" again, after sticking with the letterboxed, interlaced LaserDisc for so many years!
Hopefully Dick Tracy, Roger Rabbit and Evita aren't too far behind...
Re: The New DVD and Blu Thread
Yay!
New and improved SNAFU! I love those World War II films... They can go ahead and stuff PC -- it's ruined pop culture and conversation in general.
(BTW, the stuff the Germans and Japanese did -- as bad or worse than the American propaganda...)
Nice to hear SOME of the World War II films have survived in the National Archives.
I was kind of thrown by the previous Bosko release and had a hard time believing that NONE of these films were available in better form.
I love it... The Thunderbean DVD release is up for buying later this year. Not something I'm going to skip.
New and improved SNAFU! I love those World War II films... They can go ahead and stuff PC -- it's ruined pop culture and conversation in general.
(BTW, the stuff the Germans and Japanese did -- as bad or worse than the American propaganda...)
Nice to hear SOME of the World War II films have survived in the National Archives.
I was kind of thrown by the previous Bosko release and had a hard time believing that NONE of these films were available in better form.
I love it... The Thunderbean DVD release is up for buying later this year. Not something I'm going to skip.