4-disc sets

[TM2-Megatron]

That's why they need to have at least one more disc, to have just as much bonus material, and both ws and fs versions of the film.

I say just let the complainers just get used to widescreen, and drop fullscreen transfers altogether. They waste disc space, they're a waste of money for the studios to create, and nearly everyone will eventually get 16x9 televisions in the next 5 or so years anyway.

[Disney-Fan]

I say just let the complainers just get used to widescreen, and drop fullscreen transfers altogether. They waste disc space, they're a waste of money for the studios to create, and nearly everyone will eventually get 16x9 televisions in the next 5 or so years anyway.

I want to hear a big amen from everyone!

A-M-E-N

[Pasta67]

I say just let the complainers just get used to widescreen, and drop fullscreen transfers altogether. They waste disc space, they're a waste of money for the studios to create, and nearly everyone will eventually get 16x9 televisions in the next 5 or so years anyway.

Amen! I agree. I really hate fullscreen. Like, with a passion. It confuses so many people. I was talking to some of my friends about movies and when I said widescreen is the original way movies today are filmed, they said "Are you crazy? Widescreen is terrible. You don't get the whole picture because the filmmakers decide to put black bars on the image. It cuts off like half the picture!" I couldn't believe it. My friends have been brainwashed! When I posted that, I just said they should put the fullscreen versions of the film on the DVD to back up my statement that Disney should release 3 disc DVDs.

[Little Red Henski]

Disc 1: feature presentation (original aspect ratio)
Disc 2: bonus features
Disc 3: Feature presentation (fullscreen)

Disney released a 3 disc set for Princess Mononike in Japan. They released it like this.

Disc 1: Feature
Disc 2: Bonus features
Disc 3: International versions

[Pasta67]

Disney released a 3 disc set for Princess Mononike in Japan. They released it like this.

Disc 1: Feature
Disc 2: Bonus features
Disc 3: International versions

That's pretty cool. But aren't international versions just like altermate language tracks? If so, why didn't they just put that on the same disc as the feature?

[Little Red Henski]

All I know is the International disc has the film in 8 languages and has trailers from all over the world.

[Pasta67]

All I know is the International disc has the film in 8 languages and has trailers from all over the world.

Oh, okay. That's pretty cool.

[Jayden]

3 or 4 disc sets are a huge stretch for most Disney films. How much extra material can you really watch anyways, I doubt there's much more out there than is on the current releases. Adding that extra disc or 2 would unnecessarily heighten the cost of the set and add little to the overall experience.

In regards to including two versions of the film? Total waste of space. Why include half the picture when you've already got the full one? I really feel that pan and scan should die quickly and widescreen only releases take over. People NEED to be educated on the issue, whether they like it or not. I've always said "Would you look at the picture of Whistler's Mother with it's head missing?", and every answer has been "no". This is the same thing really. Film-makers, stop compromising the integrity of your films and insist on widescreen only releases. Again, the inclusion of the fullscreen copy on another disc would really unnecessarily raise the cost of a dvd set. I would avoid those releases like the plague because I really don't agree with that (I have the Pixar ones, but that's because they're on two disc sets, and aren't that pricey)

[chaychay102royal]

Jayden, as usual, you have made interesting comments that I agree with.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Well, of course not all movies are supposed to be in widescreen - don't forget that. But apart from that I totally agree. Including P&S versions is a waste of space.

About 4-disc sets, I'd say the apparent coolness factor should not overshadow the fact that it would be hard to find interesting material for most of the titles to fill all those discs. Might work for a few, but hardly for most of them.

The extended versions of the LotR movies are very long movies in themselves and extra material for the DVDs was obviously made as they went along. That project was made for 4-disc DVD sets from the start. Few other movies are.

[calvin101]

I can't see that any more than 2 discs is necessary...LOTR were big movies with loads of interesting effects and relations to the books to be added.

The Lion King 2 disc set has loads on and I can't see how much more can be added. Outtakes and stuff are interesting but in the case of Aladdin, would anyone actually sit through 3 hours of ad-libs?!

The only things that could perhaps be added would be any documentaries or shows dedicated to the films as they were released (I'm sure ones like The Lion King must have had features, perhaps even just Elton John on a chat show discussing the music and the film?) but seeing as you'd have to pay for the rights and I guess give some of the profits of the DVD sales to wherever the features came from it's more sensible that they keep any extras to things that they've made themselves.

[Jayden]

Well, of course not all movies are supposed to be in widescreen - don't forget that. But apart from that I totally agree. Including P&S versions is a waste of space.

That is why I said "Pan and Scan" should die, Full Frame movies (or TV show) that are meant to be that way are not panned and scanned, and thus not covered by my comments

[Pasta67]

What I don't get is why Disney releases some of their widescreen movies in pan and scan only and then releases some of their fullscreen movies in widescreen only (Aladdin and the King of Thieves).

[Disney-Fan]

The Lion King 2 disc set has loads on and I can't see how much more can be added. Outtakes and stuff are interesting but in the case of Aladdin, would anyone actually sit through 3 hours of ad-libs?!

The Lion King did not have loads... Some of the features were too fluffy to even be considered behind the scenes. A lot of features just played like a broken record calling The Lion King a phenominon and a classic for all times. We all ready know that! It was also missing ANYTHING that implies that human voices had anything to do with the movie. Trailers were also missing, and they could've atleast added some TV spots or seeing original responses to the release.

[calvin101]

True, something relating to the human voices could be used...I think the thing that's hard is re-assembling the cast, or even flying out to do interviews of this sort (I'm sure if they had them then they would have been used).

The thing we need to remember is the films that get this sort of treatment are either big epic films like LOTR...or they are limited to perhaps a series of 1 or 2. With Disney films there are so many that if you do it for one then it's going to be expected of all. It's no good doing something like this for one because every DVD is going to be tame in comparison and there are so many Disney films that can you imagine the cost of paying for the actors' time to give interviews or commentaries for each film?

I would love to have stuff like this, the cheapest way to do it I guess is to record intervews and features like this at the time, when the cast and crew are in the same place, but DVD wasn't around then so I don't think there would have been any relevance for them.

That's why I think, all things considered, The Lion King is pretty good. However if we're talking of Disney having endless stacks of cash (and we know at the moment, certainly lacklustre movie-performance-wise that isn't true) then I would personally prefer them to scrap using work-in-progress scenes (like the bonus song on Aladdin, or Timon's verse in 'Hakuna Matata') and have them fully animated but there are limits.

[Disney-Fan]

I remember seeing footage of the actors long before the era of DVDs. Digging up material from the archive is not that hard. And what about those trailers and the premier? That certainly doesn't take much effort to include!

[Wonderlicious]

There was a lot of bonus material footage from the time of release, I must add; in the USA, a laserdisc release (the laserdisc being a record size DVD predecessor that was around in the 80s and 90s) contained lots of footage on the making of the film made during the actual production. It was the same with Pocahontas; the recent 2 Disc release's documentaries are all taken from an earlier laserdisc release.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Oh yeah - there was bonus material on LD quite a while before the introduction of DVD and several years before we got Special Edition DVDs from Disney. A few of those LDs are still preferable to their DVD counterparts in the extras department, IMO.

[calvin101]

I remember seeing footage of the actors long before the era of DVDs. Digging up material from the archive is not that hard. And what about those trailers and the premier? That certainly doesn't take much effort to include!

I agree about stuff like that...I'm just saying some stuff is hard/expensive to come by. I didn't feel dissatisifed at The Lion King though...fair enough if you did.

I think (probably correctly) the film is the selling point of most DVDs...I'd love to see more stuff on the DVDs but whereas I think stuff like LOTR has a genuine selling point of so much behind the scenes stuff, I don't think Disney movies do so much, other than perhaps to people like the people here who have more than a passing interest in the films.