Will Disney's "Underrateds" ever see daylight?

[Tangela]

Disney has kept hidden treasures for a very long time. These movies haven't been respected only because people don't pay attention to them. But, how do they spect people to love these movies if they don't bring them up to life. Its really sad to see the Rescuers DVD hidden behind Beauty and the Beast, or the black Cauldron placed in the dishwashing detergent section. Disney shoud make Special Editions of all these movies.

The Aristocats - Robin Hood - The Rescuers - The Fox and the Hound - The Black Cauldron - The Great Mouse Detective - Oliver and Company

[Luke]

Maybe. If next year's 2-disc animated re-releases sell well (and I suspect they will), then I'm sure Disney will like to get more money from their other titles. Their animated classics are goldmines, as every animation DVD collector views them with prestige. They put very little effort into the first releases and those were 2-3 years ago for most of them.

Certainly, they wouldn't put up the types of sales numbers that a Lion King or Beauty and the Beast would...but I'm sure they'd be a profitable venture for Disney, who may need a bigger financial boost in the future, although they seem to be doing pretty fine at this year's box office.

So, I don't think it's out of the question, but I also don't think they're extremely likely.

[Cinderelly]

I would like 2-disc editions of EVERY animated classic even if they aren't my fav films. The extra information is just so interesting to me. I love the documentaries and behind the scenes info so much that i would love to have access to it, even if it were for black cauldron (probably one of the lesser disney movies, imho, but still good). The animation process is amazing to me and i like finally having a chance to see how it all was done....

[2099net]

And ironically, something like The Black Cauldron will probably have a much more interesting documentary than something like Beauty and the Beast. If Disney is willing to acknowledge it's toubled production that is...

[Matty-Mouse]

I too would love to see 2 discs for the "underated" movies as you call them. The thing is Disney just don't want to spend to money making new documentaries and looking through the achieves for the stuff from them.

I think that all though their very bare of extra's its nice to see an improvement from the Laserdisc's to the gold collection editions.

The "Masterpiece" editions in my eyes will only be for the releases that had bumper Laserdisc's which features haven't been ported to DVD.

[Luke]

And ironically, something like The Black Cauldron will probably have a much more interesting documentary than something like Beauty and the Beast. If Disney is willing to acknowledge it's toubled production that is...

They didn't really do that for TENG, so I doubt they would for Black Cauldron. "Tron" is about the closest they've come to really documenting a challenging production.

[Loomis]

I think that all though their very bare of extra's its nice to see an improvement from the Laserdisc's to the gold collection editions.

Actually, I think it is amazing some of these things are out on DVD at all.
At least Disney has actually released these 'troubled'/'flops' on DVD...some studios might choose to ignore them.

Special edition would be nice though...

[Jake Lipson]

I think that all of the Disney animated classics which had deluxe laserdisc sets with plenty of extra material there will get special edition rereleases of some kind on DVD, if only so Disney can make a few extra bucks by simply porting over what they already have and making it available to the mainstream consumer. But I don't think it's realistic for them to go back and film new doccumentaries or featurettes and whatnot for movies that didn't really do too well, since they won't be assured sales and thus might not break even, let alone make a profit. I'd like it, especially for The Black Cauldron, but doubt it will happen. What might happen, though, would be for Disney to re-release the less recognizable classics (such as The Black Cauldron) with 16x9/anamorphic enhancement and a couple new features like maybe a commentary track they can throw together on the cheap. These would still probably be single-disc versions, but it'd be better than what we've got.

Of course, once we get to HD-DVD, 16x9 will likely be a standard, so it'll be a moot point.

[catNC]

i agree that a 2 disc SE set would be nice for every animated release. however, some are underrated, some just are not as good as the more well known films. i think there should be some distinction between the movies and their respective dvd releases. it would be nice to have a certain amount of special features added to these "underrated" movies, but don't make their dvd releases all the same, because the movies are by far not all the same

[Choco Bear]

i thought oliver and company was a goodd dvd

[Prince Phillip]

What they could do, if they are weary about the sales, is just make a limited amount that way they are sure to sell out, but make enought that they will fill up the shelves for the first month. Then they wouldn't have to worry about over producing and losing money...

[catNC]

overproduction (as in actual number of discs pressed) is probably not the problem. the overhead (all the other costs besides the actual cost of the discs and cases) of producing a 2 disc set is way more than actual cost of manufacturing dvd's..

[IggieKuzco]

Disney has kept hidden treasures for a very long time. These movies haven't been respected only because people don't pay attention to them. But, how do they spect people to love these movies if they don't bring them up to life. Its really sad to see the Rescuers DVD hidden behind Beauty and the Beast, or the black Cauldron placed in the dishwashing detergent section. Disney shoud make Special Editions of all these movies.

The Aristocats - Robin Hood - The Rescuers - The Fox and the Hound - The Black Cauldron - The Great Mouse Detective - Oliver and Company

wasn't the great mouse detective just rereleased?!

[IggieKuzco]

Oh.... just a question.... did anybody even think about voting 'no'?

[2099net]

^^

Well, if Pete's Dragon is one of the list... perhaps (No Pete's Dragon fans, I take that back)

Seriously why would anyone not want 2 disc sets? I'm a firm believer that every Disney animated films should get a 2 disc set. Heck, Disney even gave Clerks: The Animated Series a 2 disc set. (Not that it didn't deserve it, but that was a television series that only screened two( or three?) of it's episodes!).

Like Clerks even if available supplements are not plentiful, a 2 disc set could contain:

1) A commentary. Perhaps some of these disney films could do with - gasp - 2 comentaries.

2) The Animatics - although I'll admit these are normally a view-once supplement I still think that the animatics for any films are worth watching.

in addition every 2 disc set can also have

3) Publicity - ALL the trailers, posters and tv/radio spots used to promote the films. In addition lots of Disney films are written about in the new Disney magazines or (for older films) normally had a special comic published. Why not show all these too? And here's a radical idea - show the trailers from other countries, especially if the film was marketed differently overseas.

4) A documentary. I don't care what the film is - no matter how slight - every film can have a decent 30-45 minute documentary made. It takes years to make an animated movie. Are you saying they can find enough to say about it to fill half an hour?

5) Galleries. As we all know Disney has a vast animation library, containing many hundreds (if not thousands) of pieces of artwork for each of it's animated movies. Any Disney film with animation could have extensive still galleries.

I'm not that fond of some of these films, but they all deserve better. Especially when companies like Big Idea and Columbia can do 2 disc sets for films like Jonah (Good film, but not commercially successful) or 8 Crazy Nights (bad film. Period).

[STASHONE]

i have enough dvd's to worry about that i dont already own. im satisified with these releases, i dont think every single film has to be given a royal treatment. as long as the films are presented polished in their oar with nice transfers and a couple of supplements (an extra short, a tv episode, etc) than theyre fine by me. if every single film were released as 2-disc sets, it would be impossible to ever afford every new release.

[IggieKuzco]

Seriously why would anyone not want 2 disc sets? I'm a firm believer that every Disney animated films should get a 2 disc set. Heck, Disney even gave Clerks: The Animated Series a 2 disc set. (Not that it didn't deserve it, but that was a television series that only screened two( or three?) of it's episodes!).

You bet your ass it deserved it! But that's the point!!!

Maybe Disney only feels it would be worth while for them to distribute 2disc DVD's of things that they feel deserve it!!! (and make a ton of money!)

[2099net]

But Kuzco, Disney didn't think Clerks:TAS deserved a 2 disc set. They only made one on Kevin Smith's insistance. Look at the facts... they didn't even think the series deserved to air on television! They absolutely did not think it deserved a 2 disc set. They only agreed to Kevin's request for a DVD release in the first place because they thought they may get some of the money back that they spent on the unaired episodes.

Reportedly Disney are absolutely shocked at how many copies of the Clerks:TAS DVD sold and are now kicking themselves that they axed the TV series before it had time to 'settle'. But the same is also reportedly true with Fox and sales of the Family Guy and Futurama sets. None of them can understand how so-called 'underperforming' television shows could have sold so many copies.

Notice that since all three went to DVD and sold well there's

1) A Clerks Animated Movie in the works (for DTV release)
2) A New Seth McFarland TV series in the works (American Dad)
3) A Family Guy Movie in the works (for DTV release)
4) Rumours of a Futurama Movie (for, one would assume DTV release) being discussed.

If all that can happen from sales of so-called 'failed' TV cartoons, simply because they got decent DVD releases, why can't something similar happen to Disney movies? No matter what they spend on the sets (within reason) they're almost certain to get their money back in spades (especially as the sets would be released in all international territories).