The Little Mermaid: Platinum Edition DVD Press Release

[The Little Merman]

*faints*

*tlm

[Disney Princess Ariellen]

I hope a gift set comes for this. If they make an amazing 2-disc set though I really would be happy with just that.

That's what I'm thinking too. "Well, maybe they'll make it so good it won't even matter!" But I still feel a little sick that it seems they're using the DVD as an excuse to sell more pink Ariel merchandise with really ugly stock-art images of her slapped on there like they did with Cinderella. At least that had some nice collector stuff like the gift set and soundtrack rerelease to balance out the campaign of merchandise with images of some yellow-blonde girl in a really dark blue version of Cinderella's dress (because Cinderella stock art looks NOTHING like her...)

[Disneykid]

...images of some yellow-blonde girl in a really dark blue version of Cinderella's dress (because Cinderella stock art looks NOTHING like her...)

Amen.

The lack of giftset doesn't bother me. I don't buy them because even though the books, drawings, and film cels are nice to have, they're certainly not worth the extra money Disney charges for them. I'll be optimistic with Ariellen and and Lucy and say that Disney's doing this because the DVD itself will be so informative that it'll render a giftset superfluous.

[Disney Duster]

Wait a minute! On the cover Triton's tail is green, but in the movie it's blue. At least I think it is.......... I'm colorblind. Anyway, what's with this Disney? Can't you get your colors straight???

Even when Triton is out out of the water, in the scene where he hugs Ariel on the wedding ship at the very end of the movie, his tail is very blue. But Triton's tail isn't the only thing miscolored on the cover. Ursula's earings were purple in the movie, but are gold on the cover. Her eye shadow was more gray in the movie but is green on the cover. Her skin was more blue-purple in the movie but on the cover it is more of a maroon-purple. Also, Sebastian's eyes are yellow on the cover, when they were white in the movie. To see all they got wrong, all you have to do is go to the official site, http://www.littlemermaiddvd.com, and watch the trailer. You can compare the colors of the characters in the trailer to the colors of the characters featured on the web site.

Why has Disney changed all these colors like that? Well, in a lot of the Little Mermaid merchandise that's been made, for some reason those colors are often done that way. Maybe it looks more visually appealing for the characters to have those colors on books, toys, and other consumer products. It's probably just more marketable...for whatever reason. They do studies for that kind of thing. For instance, it has been discovered that many people don't like the color yellow and babies will cry more in a yellow room.

[Lucylover1986]

It kinda stinks that alot of the colors are changed on the cover but as long as they don't go into the movie and start changing colors I'm not too upset about it personally. You're only going to see the spine of the DVD on the shelf.

[Loomis]

Oh no! No Gift set!

Now we'll have to appreciate the DVD for what is actually on the movie and - heaven forbid - the film itself!!



[PANIC]Jumps out nearest window pantless[/PANIC]

Seriously though, it is a shame that there is no consistency. I am a COMPLETE sucker for a gift set/oversized box on a DVD, even if it doesn't improve the quality of the disc one iota. Remember those early Warner black boxes that included scripts, lithographs and barebones DVDs? I loved them.

It is a shame, because out of all of the Disney Platinum titles, this is the one I am looking forward to the most. I would like to see it all tarted up, but I'll be just as happy with the disc as is.

[calvin101]

I can see a lot of high demand for this DVD; in the UK the special editions might not have performed *that* well just recently but I can really see this being big and can only assume the lack of gift set is to really put the movie out there with as few frills as possible.

[ichabod]

Well I probably wouldn't have bought the giftset anyway, but I'm indignant with outrage, that I can't choose not to buy a giftset!

[TheSequelOfDisney]

If anyone has the 1-disc Lilo and Stitch Region 1 DVD, look at the Teaser Trailers and go to the Little Mermaid one. If you watch it the color and stuff looks really good! Does anyone think that that will be what the new restoration will look like? It looks really good, then again they probably made that again so it would go with what they were trying to get across. But, just look at it and tell me what you think!

[Disney-Fan]

Raz,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding THE LITTLE MERMAID Collector's Gift Set. We appreciate your interest.

THE LITTLE MERMAID is tentatively scheduled for release October 3, 2006. We have no details regarding a Collector's Gift Set at this time. Feel free to contact us closer to the October release date for further details.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Regards,

WDHE Consumer Relations

US and Canada

There ya have it... Nothing of use!

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Raz,
Thank you for your e-mail regarding THE LITTLE MERMAID Collector's Gift Set. We appreciate your interest.

THE LITTLE MERMAID is tentatively scheduled for release October 3, 2006. We have no details regarding a Collector's Gift Set at this time. Feel free to contact us closer to the October release date for further details.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Regards,

WDHE Consumer Relations

US and Canada

There ya have it... Nothing of use!

That's exactly what I got, the exact same words, too. That's stupid. Awhile ago I asked them questions, and they would give me answers. But now they aren't telling us anything. That's crap!

[kbehm29]

I emailed them and asked for a gift set as well.

I also yelled at them for having the Lady & The Tramp's DVD slipcover NOT open like a book.

I am all about consistency.

[Luke]

The more important part of contacting Disney is what you tell them, not what they tell you. They rarely will tell you anything you wouldn't already know from reading this site. As usual, calling is preferred to e-mail because people can e-mail from a bunch of different addreses, whereas they'd be less likely to make up different names and voices on the phone. Though the latter would definitely be more entertaining.

[MickeyMousePal]

The Little Mermaid with no gift set. Nooooooo!!!
This was the first gift set I was actually going to buy.
Now, I must call them and tell them that.

[Disney Princess Ariellen]

Oh no! No Gift set!

Now we'll have to appreciate the DVD for what is actually on the movie and - heaven forbid - the film itself!!

am a COMPLETE sucker for a gift set/oversized box on a DVD, even if it doesn't improve the quality of the disc one iota.

Agreed! I'm disappointed because TLM is my favorite movie and so I was looking forward to having the book and art to complement the disc, but if it's a good DVD (I'm really hoping for a good restoration and good bonus features; I have the LI version, but the picture quality is old-VHS-quality and there's no fun extra features to learn even more about this wonderful movie!), then that's just fine. I'd rather a 2-disc without a gift set than no 2 disc TLM at all. I'll get it in whatever form it ends up reaching us in.

[BrandonH]

The more important part of contacting Disney is what you tell them, not what they tell you. They rarely will tell you anything you wouldn't already know from reading this site. As usual, calling is preferred to e-mail because people can e-mail from a bunch of different addreses, whereas they'd be less likely to make up different names and voices on the phone. Though the latter would definitely be more entertaining.

Since they ask for an address and phone number when you call them, you would also have to make those up. Of course, this is moot if they are using Caller ID.

[Luke]

Since they ask for an address and phone number when you call them, you would also have to make those up. Of course, this is moot if they are using Caller ID.

You are right about the first part - I forgot about that part. (It's what helps make the phone calls taken more seriously.) But as for the second part, you're only right if a person's number isn't private or made private with a simple *67. Not that I'm trying to give people ideas!

[BATBfan1]

To be honest the fab four should all have Giftsets!

The Little Mermaid,
Beauty And The Beast,
Aladdin (It has one already)
The Lion King (Got one as well!)

I do not understand why disney didn't want to give a giftset to Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid?!?!?!?!

[Escapay]

I do not understand why disney didn't want to give a giftset to Beauty and the Beast and the Little Mermaid?!?!?!?!

They didn't start doing giftsets for Platinums until Lion King, which is why Beauty and the Beast didn't get one.

Also, did anyone ever think that maybe the giftsets just weren't selling well enough for them make another? AFAIK, Disney hasn't released sales figures for the collector sets, while they proudly say how many regular copies they sell. Perhaps the giftsets simply aren't selling as much as Disney had hoped, and finally pulled the plug after Cinderella (which itself wasn't the greatest Platinum DVD, so it'd be a harder sell for the giftset).

Escapay

[Lucylover1986]

So can someone tell me what's going on exactly with amazon.com? I was going to pre-order The Little Mermaid but now they list the price as $29.99 so now it's going to be at that price until the DVD comes out? I really don't understand why Amazon has jacked all the Disney DVD's up to regular price.