The Princess and the Frog

Post by **droosan** » January 18th, 2010, 8:28 am

Personally, I take video 'piracy' extremely seriously .. and I have never understood how anyone who actually makes their living in the entertainment industry can condone it. Though, many do; especially the younger 20-somethings just now entering the business (not to be 'age-ist' .. just my observation).

Disney does place their 'Do Not Copy' notice in the middle of the picture, four or five times throughout the movie. There is also (supposedly) a digital 'watermark' which can trace any copies back to that specific disc.

Many studios ask that screeners be destroyed after use. I'm actually surprised some haven't utilized the DivX-style discs which scramble themselves after 'X' amount of viewings. :idea:

Post by **eddievalient** » January 18th, 2010, 10:51 am

It depends on your definition of "piracy". There are plenty of cases where something simply isn't available legally and finding it online is the only way to see it and personally, I don't think that counts (although if something then becomes available, I'm more than happy to buy the official release).

Post by **Ben** » January 18th, 2010, 3:04 pm

Oh don't get me wrong droo - as an erstwhile also-member of the biz, I hated standing by and seeing people bootlegging videos of current films, but what are you going to do...shop in your friends? I would have nothing to do with it and still do not accept copies of current movies if I hear they are "doing the rounds".

The trouble is the younger generation, as you say, and I have literally seen them handing them around as some kind of "cool status" to their friends, either giving them away, loaning them out or doing a few copies here and there. The real problem is when that copy starts getting duplicated on a large scale...I don't know anyone now that actually does that with all the watermarking that is in place, but back in the VHS days there was a guy in our neighborhood that just churned out tape dubs.

Post by **eddievalient** » January 18th, 2010, 8:15 pm

Remember, Ben, that when VHS was in its infancy, many films hadn't yet been released officially and such dubbing was the only way to aquire something. For example, I had (poor quality) copies of Snow White and several other Disney films years before their first official VHS releases. This debate is nothing new.

Post by **Ben** » January 19th, 2010, 11:04 am

Nope, nothing new...but totally missing the point I was making.

Post by **Macaluso** » January 26th, 2010, 12:31 pm

One disc for the Princess and the Frog? The "combo" pack doesn't count since it just sounds like they are shoving the DVD and Blu-ray into a case.

So seriously one disc? I was all ready to get mad about the Blu-ray getting two discs, but they don't even get that. So whaaa?

Post by **Dacey** » January 26th, 2010, 12:50 pm

Blu-Rays store more stuff, though. From the sounds of things, it still sounds like you're getting a pretty nice package.

Post by **droosan** » January 26th, 2010, 1:08 pm

It's not the quantity of bonus features that ever interests me; it's the quality.

Unfortunately, Disney's idea of bonus features often extends into laughably-easy 'trivia' quizzes, or music videos by their pop-star du jour.

As long as there's at least a half-hour-long 'making-of/behind-the-scenes' featurette, and a decent smattering of production art in a browsable gallery .. I'm happy. And often, it is possible to fit those onto a DVD -- alongside a 90-minute Disney movie -- without spilling-over onto a second disc.

Post by **Ben** » January 26th, 2010, 2:09 pm

The (somewhat) underwhelming box office for the film will have made some influence on how they release this. Since it didn't break the bank, it doesn't look like we're going to get a massive feature packed edition, but something that isn't too shabby either.

I can see the frustration in a single-disc DVD...they're obviously going to put out a 2-disc later on with much of what's on the BD.

What interests me, though, is the Magic In The Bayou feature. Is this a documentary on the making? Or is it a Cine-Explore option? While "Musker and Clements take a freewheeling, behind-the-scenes look at the making of Disney’s newest animated film" sounds really cool, is it maybe not just the audio commentary with added picture in picture info?

What could be worse is that the additional BD featurettes (most, if not all, I might add, of which were shown online) could be weaved into this "behind the scenes" tour. Ultimately, it may sound quite a bit of content, but it's not much we might not have seen before.

And - sigh - as usual, there's next to nothing on the soundtrack's voices, songs and score.

Post by **estefan** » January 26th, 2010, 2:29 pm

Macaluso wrote:One disc for the Princess and the Frog? The "combo" pack doesn't count since it just sounds like they are shoving the DVD and Blu-ray into a case.

Or they might also pull an Up deal, where the DVD with the digital copy had more bonus feature than the one without.

It should be noted that The Disney Legacy, The Making of a Princess, Disney's Newest Princess, Conjuring the Villain and The Return to Hand-Drawn Animation were all online featurettes released on the official website prior to the film's release. So, those aren't new and can be widely seen on the Internet (unless they add more footage to them).

GeorgeC · Post by **GeorgeC** » January 26th, 2010, 3:51 pm

So I take it the box office is why this film is being pushed onto home video in March?

I don't think I've ever seen a Disney animated feature show up on home video so quickly...

Post by **Dacey** » January 26th, 2010, 4:59 pm

It doesn't surprise me at all, given how quickly movies come out these days. And I'm not sure if box office has anything to do with it. After all, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" came to DVD less than four months after it came to theaters, and it was a big hit.

Post by **Ben** » January 26th, 2010, 6:42 pm

estefan wrote:It should be noted that The Disney Legacy, The Making of a Princess, Disney's Newest Princess, Conjuring the Villain and The Return to Hand-Drawn Animation were all online featurettes...

What? This wasn't clear enough?

Ben wrote:...the additional BD featurettes (most, if not all, I might add, of which were shown online)...

Post by **Randall** » January 26th, 2010, 7:50 pm

The Blu-ray sounds pretty good, I think:
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/ ... ealed/4129

The option to play the movie with "Work in Progress" sounds like a winner to me, and regardless of whether the other featurettes have been "previewed" online, they're still good to appear on the disc. (If they weren't on disc, wouldn't we be complaining?)

Post by **Ben** » January 27th, 2010, 9:16 am

I wasn't actually complaining, just pointing out.

And...how odd! The press release we posted on our front page didn't list the Work In Progress option at all (though we did post the artwork!) and didn't mention there were two BD editions!?

Interesting, too, that their version of the artwork has a yellow border, when the BD/DVD/DC combo is blue in the Disney press release.

BTW, yep, darned right we would complain if those online featurettes were not included - but a disappointment that there's nothing along those lines that's new or exclusive. Then again, the WIP option could be the Magic In The Bayou feature, like a glorified Cine-Explore.

Whatever, it sounds like this is going to be a pretty nice disc compared to other recent Disney releases.