Disney rarietys treasure news

[Tannerman]

This is some good news to read

[Tolhurst]

You all really think that the Goofy driving films, It's Tough To Be A Bird, etc. won't be part of an Educational shorts treasue down the line?
Should I assume the Figaro shorts will be in the next Pinnochio DVD? I'd like to see those here.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

The Figaro shorts should definitely be included in the Treasures some time. The "rarities" set seems likely, but how about Pluto vol 2? Pluto and Figaro appear in the same short at least twice.

Has anyone actually heard "official rumours" of an "educational shorts" Treasure, or is that only wishful thinking at this point?

[skeletondancer]

the shortest of the nine animated Disney Treasures I have is roughly 3 ¹/² hours long and three or four are 5+ hours long. So a running time of 4 ¹/² hours for the shorts themselves is not impossible. Last year, the Treasures were up for pre-order in August and the contents up not long after. We'll know for sure in about a month, perhaps less.

There's enough for two sets, counting the post-1968-69 material. I want all of it-the older shorts and the new stuff, like Redux Riding Hood, Destino and Lorenzo.

Chip 'n' Dale aren't one shots, the Figaros aren't one shots, the Humphrey aren't one shots and, technically, Melody and Toot, Plunk, Whistle and Boom are part of a series, so they aren't really one shots either.


Robert Reynolds
Tucson AZ

[Tolhurst]

An Education Set seems quite logical as there is a ton of material that can be used for it. The rarities set itself was no more then speculation as to what can come out in the Treasures line up to a few months ago. I'm tired of waiting for Silly Symphonies vol 2 set, myself.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

The C&D, Figaro, Humphrey and Music shorts may not be "one-shots", but I hope and believe they will find their place somewhere in the Treasures eventually. I guess it's no less likely that they (or some of them) could be included in the "Rarities" as in any other set (DD, Pluto). At least the two Adventures in Music belong in this set, IMO.

I always expected a set like the "Rarities", since the "one-shots" we're talking about here can be counted among the theatrical shorts. The various educational titles don't belong to that group. But no doubt there is a lot of material that could be used for such a set. Some more of the films made for the army during WWII could be included. It would probably be a somewhat boring, but nevertheless interesting set.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Another thing, why is it only a "handful" of silent Alice comedies and not all of them? It's not like it would be hard to put all of them on DVD

It certainly would be hard for one particular reason: Quite a few of the silent films are not known to exist anymore, unfortunately. But if we count only the ones that can be found: They are in the public domain - neither Disney nor anyone else has copyright for these films, so Disney is probably not going to spend all that much on a collection of Alice comedies since pretty much anyone else could release the same titles. Besides, they are quite boring. So I guess a "handful" will be all right.

[MK Sharp]

They are in the public domain - neither Disney nor anyone else has copyright for these films, so Disney is probably not going to spend all that much on a collection of Alice comedies since pretty much anyone else could release the same titles.

It depends. A very nice looking copy of "Alice's Tin Pony" is an extra on the new mk2 DVD of Buster Keaton's "The General", and Lobster Films are claiming copyright on it as a restored version. Whether that's upholdable is another thing, but if it is, it could well open the way for Disney to give all the surviving silents a spit and polish and retain copyright over the new versions.

Besides, they are quite boring.

Boring is in the eye of the beholder! I've just watched a whole bunch of them for the first time in the last few days, and I've found many of the later Alices (and the Oswalds) hilarious - and very interesting historically. The only tedious Alices IMHO are the very early ones that are predominantly live-action.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

I was a bit fast there, I guess. Copyright on restored versions may not be out of the question.

I must admit I haven't seen that many of the "Alice Comedies" and probably none of the later ones, so I shouldn't be too categorical. I can certainly agree to the "historically interesting" part.

I haven't seen any of the Oswalds. I don't think Oswald has been mentioned as a possibility for the Treasures. In the case of Oswald, there would be copyright troubles.

[2099net]

They are in the public domain - neither Disney nor anyone else has copyright for these films, so Disney is probably not going to spend all that much on a collection of Alice comedies since pretty much anyone else could release the same titles.

It depends. A very nice looking copy of "Alice's Tin Pony" is an extra on the new mk2 DVD of Buster Keaton's "The General", and Lobster Films are claiming copyright on it as a restored version. Whether that's upholdable is another thing, but if it is, it could well open the way for Disney to give all the surviving silents a spit and polish and retain copyright over the new versions.

Besides, they are quite boring.

Boring is in the eye of the beholder! I've just watched a whole bunch of them for the first time in the last few days, and I've found many of the later Alices (and the Oswalds) hilarious - and very interesting historically. The only tedious Alices IMHO are the very early ones that are predominantly live-action.

While restorations can be copyrighted, it is hard to uphold in reality. The restoration has to have alterations made to the original print in order to "prove" that a copy had been taken from that particular restoration. This is why the Rocky and Bullwinkle restorations have the ident on each cartoon for the first few seconds.

Even then, people can zoom in, copy over or randomly edit out the bits that identify the restoration and claim it is their own. Of course, this will look suspicious in court, but it does happen. Perhaps nobody would want to do this on a Disney restoration, what with Disney's army of laywers, but I can't really see Disney wanting to take the time and money to do a restoration that they couldn't 100% guarentee ownership of in the first place.

As for them being boring, I think that they are if you want to look at them from a narrative point of view, but from an historical point of view, they are facinating. That said, I still think I could only watch a couple or so at a time.

[Little Red Henski]

The only tedious Alices IMHO are the very early ones that are predominantly live-action.

I actually think the early live-action Alices are a lot more entertaining than the later ones. A few years back when the Disney channel was a real Disney channel they aired a few remastered Alices Comedies.

[maxeythecat]

Yeah, but what about LORENZO????? C'mon, is this EVER gonna come out on DVD or whathaveyou?? I've really REALLY been dying to see this, but so far I've come up dry! Anybody got any answers?