Walt Disney Treasures Wave 5 DVDs Press Release

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

Well I wasn't originally interested in this tin, but after reading Luke's review, I REALLY want this set!

Great review Luke!

[Zoltack]

Yeah I'm compelled to buy it too after reading Luke's Review. Hey you know I have nothing like that from Disney so why not?

[Super Leviathan]

Luke's review almost compelled me to NOT buy the Rarities set. You owuld think that Disney wouldn't have been as booishly stupid and negligent as to not enhance the 'scope cartoons for Widescreen TVs. What a crock.

Because of the issues with the scope cartoons, Noah's Ark, and Golath II, This years wave of treasures is now the worst of them all (followed closely by last year's)

This is also ironic (if not hypocritical) in comparison to Leonard Maltin's very recent lament on the quality of DVD releases: (http://www.leonardmaltin.com)

[Joe Carioca]

Wow Luke, you did turn out a really excellent review in really short time! Congrats!
I've always planned to buy all the volumes, but just by reading your review I can see this is indeed the weakest of all the waves - this "Rarities" set was the one I was expecting the most, but just by looking at the screen caps you took it is obvious that the cartoons have not been restored the way Disney restored the cartoons in past waves (and I'm not talking about the prehistoric Alice shorts). And I'm also disappointed that the widescreen cartoons feature no enhancement for 16x9 sets.

I's still looking forward to these sets, it just seems they have become not so special.

By the way, I´m plannig to buy "Rarities" and "Donald" this December and wait until I go to Walt Disney World in February to get the other two. Do you think they are still going to be widely available?

[Wonderlicious]

Thanks for the review, Luke.

I have to agree that whilst this wave is a weaker one (in all honesty, I think they're scraping the barrel a bit due to all the obvious stuff being covered), this set looks like it's nice to own. I'm getting it for Christmas, along with Donald. I'm quite excited for it now!

[creid]

Because of the issues with the scope cartoons, Noah's Ark, and Golath II, This years wave of treasures is now the worst of them all (followed closely by last year's)

I have been collecting the animated treasures since the beginning and each Wave has gotten worse from the one before it. However, this is expected because they cherry-picked the Treasure releases and diminshing returns was inevitable. Too bad the poor release of transfer.
Even with that, I am dieing for the Rareties as this Treasure will be the last great animated release. All that is left for Treasure release are decent Donalds, Plutos, Silly Symphonies, and Alices. (Let the debate continue about where C&D and Figaro end up.)
And Amazon has not even "prepared to ship" for me yet.

[Wonderlicious]

Even with that, I am dieing for the Rareties as this Treasure will be the last great animated release. All that is left for Treasure release are decent Donalds, Plutos, Silly Symphonies, and Alices. (Let the debate continue about where C&D and Figaro end up.)

For Chip and Dale and Figaro, there could possibly be a "favourite character" release. Remember, these, along with various other things like the Winnie the Pooh featurettes (some completists would like to see them outside of the Many Adventures format) and shorts using stock characters (Scrooge McDuck and Money etc) haven't made their way to the Treasures. Also, there are a number of other Rarities from after Walt's death still left, so they could fill a Rarities Volume 2 release...

[TM2-Megatron]

Just out of curiousity, how many future Pluto and Donald shorts should we be worried about Disney screwing up by not anamorphically enhancing them? The only one I actually know of that's widescreen is "Grand Canyonscope", a Donald short. Are any of his other shorts in Widescreen? And are any of the remaining Pluto shorts, the Goofy Freewayphobia/etc., Scrooge McDuck & Money, or any other potential short in widescreen?

I really hope the letterboxed transfers on the Rarities tin don't represent a future trend. As many people as possible should e-mail/fax/phone/write Disney to let them know we're not happy about this, and the same mistake shouldn't be made on future Treasures. You'd think they'd realize the only people interested in buying the Rarities tin would be collectors, and that such people would be much more likely to own a 16x9 television. I can't stand watching letterboxed widescreen transfers on a 16x9 screen.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Only very few of the classic shorts were made in a widescreen format. Right now, I can't remember any other than Grand Canyonscope and those on the Rarities set.

[Anders M Olsson]

Are any of his other shorts in Widescreen? And are any of the remaining Pluto shorts, the Goofy Freewayphobia/etc., Scrooge McDuck & Money, or any other potential short in widescreen?

Here are the shorts I know were made in cinemascope:

Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom (1953)
Grand Canyonscope (1954)
Bearly Asleep (1955)
Beezy Bear (1955)
Chips Ahoy (1956)
Hooked Bear (1956)
How to Have an Accident in the Home (1956)
In the Bag (1956)
Disneyland U.S.A. (1956)
Lapland (1957)
Grand Canyon (1959)
Disney's Timon and Pumbaa in Stand By Me (1995)

I can't guarantee that this is the complete list. Additions to the list are welcome.

[TM2-Megatron]

Thanks for the list. Hopefully, if we send our input into Disney now, they won't make the same mistake on these future shorts.

It occurs to me, though, that two of those on your list (that I know of) have already appeared on DVDs other than the Treasures line. Unfortunately, I'm not in a position to get at my DVDs to check and won't be until Friday.

I've checked numerous reviews and can't find anything on it, so if anyone here with the DVDs can check, Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom was also included on the Fantasia 2000 DVD. Does it appear in anamorphic widescreen on that disc? Or is it the same transfer?

Also, Grand Canyonscope is in the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea DVD. That may give us an indication of how Disney intends to treat the few future widescreen Donald shorts that will probably appear on Volume 3. If it's non-anamorphic, we all better get our letters off to Disney soon and let them know we want anamorphic widescreen, where applicable, on all future Treasures.

[Wonderlicious]

Those two shorts are indeed presented non-anamorphically on previous DVDs I have Fantasia 2000 and the UD review for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea states that the short is non anamorphic, so that's how I found out.

[TM2-Megatron]

That's quite unfortunate. It makes sense from a financial standpoint that the "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" transfer from the Fantasia disc was recycled. However, hopefully we'll be able to influence Disney's decision whether or not to make the same mistake with future Treasure installments. There are at least 3 pure Donald shorts that could be improperly presented (more, if those Humphrey the Bear shorts with Donald would qualify for one of his tins), and a few other assorted things as well.

I've tried sending an e-mail to Leonard Maltin, as he seems to reply personally every once in a while (at least from what I've seen here), and has some input into the Treasures line. Hopefully he'll be able to pass our thoughts along to those in charge of the line at Disney. If he actually replies, I'll post it up here.

[Maerj]

Just popped both discs of Rarities and the Donald set in my Toshiba SD-2109 and none of them would play at all. It is an older player. My Apex player seems to be playing them, although it did mess up in the middle of the Noah's Ark short. Hrumph.

[Anders M Olsson]

There's another flaw in Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom that's perhaps not so obvious. It's presented in stereo, but only in two channels. As an early cinemascope production, it must have been made for theatrical presentation with a four channel soundtrack that should have been preserved on the DVD.

Question is though, were the Humphrey cartoon originally made with a stereo soundtrack? They are presented in mono on the DVD, but since they are cinemascope shorts, it's not unlikely that they were made in stereo.

[Mayhem]

All mine have now been shipped from Amazon, so maybe I'll get them before Xmas

[Super Leviathan]

A MEmber on the DVDToons Vorums says that the shorts on the Donald set look even worse than the Rariites set (No Sail is singled out in particular

[Joe Carioca]

There's another flaw in Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom that's perhaps not so obvious. It's presented in stereo, but only in two channels. As an early cinemascope production, it must have been made for theatrical presentation with a four channel soundtrack that should have been preserved on the DVD.

It seems it is presented exactly the same way it was presented on the "Fantasia 2000" DVD, unfortunately.

And it's too bad hearing about the Donald cartoons, considering how good they looked on the first volume (not as pristine as Mickey, Pluto and Goofy cartoons, but very good nonetheless).

[ZOOMBOOM0688]

Did anyone have trouble taking the stickers off the tins??

My Ranties tin has sticker resedue but the donald one came off just fine, and I am sad

[TM2-Megatron]

A MEmber on the DVDToons Vorums says that the shorts on the Donald set look even worse than the Rariites set (No Sail is singled out in particular

While I haven't got a chance to watch mine yet, I honestly don't see how they can all be that bad since many of them were already restored for the Front Lines tin, and looked pretty good there.