Kermit's 50th Anniversary - Muppet film DVDs Press Release

[Edge]

Why can i so distinctly remember the love is gone being in the theatrical version.

But then again I'd also almost swear i can remember Scrooge's sister being mentioned in the theatrical version as well so maybe i am just losing my mind.

[That Announcer]

Are the audio commentaries from the original discs coming on the new MCC and MTI releases?

[Tom in North Carolina]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/tominnc/mup1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/tominnc/mup2.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/tominnc/mup3.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v299/tominnc/mup4.jpg

Tom

[Cameron]

no one seems to want to give a straight answers concerning the commentaries, buts its not looking good

[GelflingWaldo]

I was able to get in contact with William Merchan, the brand manager of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, and he passed on the following information about the releases:


The correct and final information of disc features is listed below, and is also now posted on Disneydvd.com:

The Great Muppet Caper
http://disneyvideos.disney.go.com/movie ... 55103.html
The Muppet Movie
http://disneyvideos.disney.go.com/movie ... 54703.html
The Muppet Christmas Carol
http://disneyvideos.disney.go.com/movie ... 47403.html
Muppet Treasure Island
http://disneyvideos.disney.go.com/movie ... 42503.html

These have all been restored and remastered. The sound and picture look better than ever and we have both a wide screen and full frame version of all films on a single disc. We hope fans will find these titles compelling and apologize for any confusion that might be out there.

There are some discrepancies floating around on other sites (such as DisneyDirect.com), we are working to sort out this information and get it updated. Thank you for your inquiry and we hope you and the rest of the fans enjoy these great Muppet movies.

The Muppet Movie
Bonus Feature(s):
- Pepe Profiles Presents -- Kermit: A Frog's Life
Technical Specifications:
- 1.33:1 and 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio

The Great Muppet Caper
Bonus Feature(s):
- Pepe Profiles Present -- Miss Piggy: The Diva Who Would Not Be Denied
Technical Specifications:
- 1.33:1 and 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio

The Muppet Christmas Carol
Bonus Feature(s):
- Audio Commentary By Director Brian Henson
- Pepe Profiles Present -- Gonzo: A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Weirdo
- Christmas Around The World
- On-The-Set Gag Reel
Technical Specifications:
- 1.33:1 and 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio

Muppet Treasure Island
Bonus Feature(s):
- Pepe Profiles Present -- Fozzie Bear: A Long Day's Journey Into Nightclubs
Technical Specifications:
- 1.33:1 and 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio

[Escapay]

Nice to see Muppet Christmas Carol is gonna get some of their original bonus features. Too bad Muppet Treasure Island isn't...

Escapay

[Luke]

Nice to see Muppet Christmas Carol is gonna get some of their original bonus features. Too bad Muppet Treasure Island isn't...

Escapay

I can't find any logic in such nonsense myself. Something to take them to task for on what should have been perfect and needed re-releases.

[rexcrk]

Good thing Muppet Treasure Island will be in widescreen because otherwise that would be one less DVD I'd be buying.

[Escapay]

Nice to see Muppet Christmas Carol is gonna get some of their original bonus features. Too bad Muppet Treasure Island isn't...

Escapay

I can't find any logic in such nonsense myself. Something to take them to task for on what should have been perfect and needed re-releases.

Almost makes me wanna intentionally doubledip and get the old versions just so I can have the bonus features...

Escapay

[That Announcer]

It's not a sure thing that MTI won't have the commentaries. Disney once told me that there were no DVDs planned... in September. Don't trust 'em.

[GelflingWaldo]

I talked directly with William Merchan, the brand manager of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, on Wednesday about this and he gave me that list of features. He said many things they wanted to include (such as the past MTI features and other goodies on the other films) were not possible given the space avalible on the discs (each disc holds two versions of a full-lenght movie - and if they compressed it anymore they would be un-doing all their restoration of the picture and sound quality). Sadly Disney did not see these titles to be big enough for 2-disc sets. Maybe some day down the road Disney will see that these films deserve 2-disc special editions loaded with all kinds of goodies, but I wouldn't expect that for at least another 5 years (if ever). Still you will be able to get four great movies, restored, remastered, and looking great (along with some small goodies).

[Robin Hood]

I talked directly with William Merchan, the brand manager of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, on Wednesday about this and he gave me that list of features. He said many things they wanted to include (such as the past MTI features and other goodies on the other films) were not possible given the space avalible on the discs (each disc holds two versions of a full-lenght movie - and if they compressed it anymore they would be un-doing all their restoration of the picture and sound quality). Sadly Disney did not see these titles to be big enough for 2-disc sets. Maybe some day down the road Disney will see that these films deserve 2-disc special editions loaded with all kinds of goodies, but I wouldn't expect that for at least another 5 years (if ever). Still you will be able to get four great movies, restored, remastered, and looking great (along with some small goodies).

DROP THE DAMM FULL SCREEN VERSION AND GIVE US MORE BONUS FEATURES!

[Luke]

DROP THE DAMM FULL SCREEN VERSION AND GIVE US MORE BONUS FEATURES!

I'd probably use lower-case letters too, but express the same frustrated sentiment. It's not like these Muppet movies are 2.39:1 CinemaScope productions. They're 1.85:1 and the black bars will not be noticeably larger than any of Disney's 1.66:1 "family-friendly" widescreen productions, <i>Toy Story</i> or <i>Herbie: Fully Loaded</i> (which are both offered only in widescreen). Most customers are only going to go for either widescreen or fullscreen, and a simple introduction showing them how the Muppets suffer from cropping would probably have been sufficient to aid them in their viewing decision. Which makes the whole other format a waste of space for that viewer. It just baffles me why Disney, who is totally okay with releasing their animated films exclusively in widescreen (even ones they deem "preschool" like Winnie the Pooh films) has this desire to chop up the Muppet movies for the public. I'd MUCH rather have the MTI "hidden treasure" commentary, making-of, and sing-along and MCC making-of than the fullscreen versions of those films, as I think other widescreen fans and apathetic customers would too, given a choice. As it is, I'm "glad" I have the first set of botch-ups, if only now for the supplements (and probably better menus).

[Abacab]

I'm really mad that MCC and MTI won't have their making-ofs, and MTI won't have the commentary (one of my personal favorite commentaries). I will sell my two copies of the Columbia TMM and GMC, though. I'll maybe make a "two-disc" special edition of the two later films.

The worst part is that Disney could have easily chopped the "Hidden Treasure" bits out of the MTI commentary and slapped the thing on there as an additional audio track, which of course requires no extra space. And they could have scrapped the "Pepe" thing for MCC (and the rest of 'em) and the "Christmas Around the World" feature for MCC as well, and then put in a NEW documentary. Even a 5-minute featurette would be enough to placate me. Or, they could do what every damn Muppet purist wants them to do: dump the "full screen" (read: butchered) version and simply load the bloody disc with stuff. Documentaries, A/V commentaries, featurettes, everything. Why is it that Disney releases their "kiddy" films in OAR only ("Home On The Range", "Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Hercules" et cetera) and butchers the more adult films (the Muppet stuff)?

[disneyboy20022]

Will the new version of the Muppet Christmas Carol have the song When Love is Gone at all in the film or will it be cut? Does someone have the info on that part?

Michael

I was on the Tonight show w/ Jay Leno Woohoo!! Click the link below to view screenshots of my Tonight Show Debut!!


http://www.planetbeans.com/MichaelsTonightShowDebut.htm

[JiminyCrick91]

If you look back a few you can see that the one disc will have both Wide and Foolscreen versions of the film. BUT only the Fullscreen version will have "when love is gone" in it.

[brick74]

Look at it this way: Disney's training the kids to want widescreen.

[2099net]

I can confirm that the UK reissue of Christmas Carol (out today) does not have the commentary track on it from the previous release.

[Luke]

I've updated the first post of this thread with 13 screencaps of the menus from the new DVDs. These should answer most questions that people have had. All of <i>Treasure Island</i>'s old extras are gone - but the inspired menus from it and <i>Christmas Carol</i> are retained. All four are definitely 16x9-enhanced. <i>Carol</i> contains two versions of the film and the commentary only appears on the extended fullscreen version - kind of a drag. It's missing only the making-of documentary from the old DVD. There is no "Much More" as far as <i>Movie</i> and <i>Caper</i> are concerned - each only contains the new "Pepe's Profile Presents" featurettes.

[That1GuyPictures]

Carol contains two versions of the film and the commentary only appears on the extended fullscreen version - kind of a drag.

I didn't know that there was an extended version of the film!
Do you have any info on a new running time, or what might be included in this new cut? This is the first that I've ever heard about it.

As for the discs themselves, I'm glad they are presenting all four films in Widescreen & Fullscreen. I think it's great to present both options for families. I like Widescreen, but the rest of my family prefers Fullscreen.
This way we are both satisfied. I just wish that they would have allowed more disc space for the films and features by making them all 2-disc sets.
Since all the films are under 100 minutes, it would have been more than possible for both versions to be contained on one DVD, without significant quality loss, and to add a second disc for special features. Or even better yet, the could include the fullscreen version on one disc with some features, and the widescreen version on the other disc with the rest of the features. What I'm worried about is that if the two versions are paired with the bonus features on one disc only, there could be quite a significant amount of compression artifacts. Either way, the picture is still bound to be far better than the awful full frame only releases.