What Platinum Edition is Your Least Favorite?

[TheSequelOfDisney]

Only thing I'd really say is missing are potentially a couple more music video's and a gallery, but what there is is great.

There is a gallery. Haven't you seen the menus for the Platinum Edition DVD that lighthousemike posted?

[darth_deetoo]

I have the DVD, I just hadn't noticed the gallery. I'm just going to have a look actually.

[BATBfan1]

Sadly it's probably The Little Mermaid... Even though It's my favorite Disney Movie...

WOW, it was that much of a let down? What don't you like about it? We got you don't like the transfer lol. How is it on bonus features?

[darth_deetoo]

The bonus features are great. There's a nice documentary. A good piece on Hans Christian Andersen. A nice visual effects featurette. A great new animated short in The Little Matchgirl. A CGI realisation of the planned theme park ride, with a nice featurette and commentary on the Imagineers. Deleted scenes. A gallery. Music video. It's a great set. Certainly far from being the worst platinum edition as some would have you believe.

[BATBfan1]

The bonus features are great. There's a nice documentary. A good piece on Hans Christian Andersen. A nice visual effects featurette. A great new animated short in The Little Matchgirl. A CGI realisation of the planned theme park ride, with a nice featurette and commentary on the Imagineers. Deleted scenes. A gallery. Music video. It's a great set. Certainly far from being the worst platinum edition as some would have you believe.

So they just added Ashley Tisdale's video and that's it?

[darth_deetoo]

That's the only music video on there.

[disneystarsfan]

the other music videos are on the new 2-disc soundtrack.

[goofystitch]

Actually, there is only a making of the new "Kiss the Girl" video, which is very short and very pointless, and the Jonas Brothers' "Poor Unfortunate Souls." I know for sure there was a video for Raven's "Under the Sea" which had clips of her in the recording studio and I think there might have been one for Jessica Simpson's "Part of Your World," but I could be wrong. They also didn't include the Jodi Benson video from the 1997 VHS release. And someone said something about another version of "Kiss the Girl." I don't remember if they said if that had a video.

[Super Aurora]

The mermaid one was great1. I love it. I'm also surpise at the amount of people saying the Lion King DVD was bad. I have the PE and it didn't come off bad to me at least. I heard some said the way they made the layout was too confusing but I didn't have trouble.

Only thing I can agree with is putting the pointless Morning Report. They should of inserted "Shadowland" or "Where the Starlight Gone". Either of those two would made the movie really powerful.

[totallyminnie86]

I agree that the TLM PE was far from being disney's worst, but it certainly is a bit of a let down, although like 271286 It is my favrorite disney movie too. Perhaps its just that we're too big of fans and demand more? I think overall Aladdin has the most going for it in terms of bonus features. The 2 commentaries and 2 hour panel session are among some of the most in-depth on any PE, I wish mermaid would've gotten some of the same attention.

[disneylover2006]

my least favorite PE:


dumbo
lion king
cinderella

[lord-of-sith]

my least favorite PE:


dumbo
lion king
cinderella

Dumbo is not a PE. It is simply a "Big Top" Edition, or in other words a "Special Edition"

[disneylover2006]

my least favorite PE:


dumbo
lion king
cinderella

Dumbo is not a PE. It is simply a "Big Top" Edition, or in other words a "Special Edition"

ok i forgot thanks for telling me

here is my least favorite list

lion king
cinderella
lady and the tramp

[PixarFan2006]

The Little Mermaid is not the worst PE IMO. I also agree that The Lion King Platnium was not that great either. I disagree that Lady and the Tramp is one of the worst. I liked the restoration of the movie.

[lapniappe]

I don't really not have one that is the least favourite. But i have to say I don't like the edited versions of Lion King or Beauty and teh Beast - I can't remember now, its been a while since i've actually vegged out on Disney movies, but I don't think you have the option of seeing the movie w/the new scnes or without said new scenes.


human again annoys me, as the morning report....(shudders).

and I actually saw the deleted scenes of Aladdin, and I remember thinking, most deleted scenes are actually filmed and what not, and its so weird that in disney, its just the animated drawings that are.

[PeterPanfan]

I think with Peter Pan out and The Jungle Book almost out,we can elaborate a little more on our choices.

As of now(may change when I get TJB) The Lion King is the WORST Disney Plainum on DVD. The changed animation in "Just Can't Wait to be King" and "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" was useless and "Morning Report" didn't need to be included..it wasn't even that good!

I had a hard time trying to locate all the special features and eventually just gave up with them. Yes...I'm admitting I haven't even seen them all.

Many members say Cinderella was the worst or close to the worst. I liked it. It was great the the "original" Cinderella came back for interviewes,and I liked the featurette on Mary Blair. I didn't watch the ESPN stories but I think they did that so men would want to watch it.

Lady and the Tramp wasn't horrible,but it definitly could have done better! For some odd reason,I like the DisneyPedia on the dogs xD.

I have Bambi,but I have yet to watch it. I got it used at Game Stop in March or April and it's just been sitting on my shelf for no certain reason. I'll watch it this upcoming weekend.

The Little Mermaid was pretty good. I liked the cover art and the bonus features. I loved the Art Galleries and it was fun seeing how much the charectors adapted and changed in looks.

Peter Pan-I am glad Kathryne Beaumont came back but it needed more than carried over supplements from the 2002 Special Edition and all these boring games. I was overall dissapointed in this as it's my favorite Disney film.

I still don't have Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Beauty and the Beast but from what I've heard,they're the best so far.

[Disneykid]

I went back to my first post in this thread, and all of my answers still hold true except for bonus material. As expected, that honor goes to Peter Pan, now. This had the potential to be something really astounding. The improvements the set needed were:

* A new documentary with some of the 15-minute "making of" edited in. Heck, I wouldn't have minded if they totally scrapped those and conducted new interviews since pretty much all of the comments from the featurette appear in the commentary.

* The Walt Disney Christmas Show. I simply don't understand what happened here. The ONLY excuse I'll accept is that the footage is completely gone and/or deteriorated beyond repair. I refuse to believe that, though. I wish we could get a representative from Disney over here for a Q&A session. This will be one of my top three questions (the other two being, "Why were so many stills and audio features left off of Alice," and, "Why don't Cinderella and Alice have commentaries?").

* Trailers. Like the Christmas Show, I don't understand how they got left out, and I don't believe they've been lost. Apparently this is becoming a habit with the Platinums, now (see DVDTalk's review for The Jungle Book). As far as I know, there should be a theatrical trailer and five re-issue trailers.

* The inclusion of "Never Smile At a Crocodile." After "If I Never Knew You," I'd say this is the most famous deleted Disney song. No demos or storyboards appear on the DVD, though. Outside of being briefly mentioned in the commentary, no reference is even made of its existence. A featurette on the song's history and why it was cut (followed by a presentation of the song itself) would've been welcome.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The Disney Archives could've been searched for live-action reference footage, there could've been a storyboard-to-film comparison, a restoration featurette, and loads of other things.

So as it stands, Peter Pan is the weakest Platnum Edition and all because of the freaking Tinker Bell movie that ended up in development hell, anyway. If Fantasia and Sleeping Beauty port over all their previous DVD features for their upcoming Platinums, they'll definitely be among the best in the series. That leaves 101 Dalmatians and Pinocchio up in the air.

I'm going to be honest and say that Dalmatians is not even close to being in my favorite Disney movie list, so a good-but-not-great release of that won't bother me. However, if Pinocchio is treated the same way Peter Pan was, I *WILL* be ticked. Thankfully, there's nothing to cross-promote Pinocchio with, so I expect Disney will take their time giving the film the treatment it deserves.

[Escapay]

Peter Pan-I am glad Kathryne Beaumont came back but it needed more than carried over supplements from the 2002 Special Edition and all these boring games. I was overall dissapointed in this as it's my favorite Disney film.

Unfortunately, Kathryn Beaumont didn't come back for any of the new Platinum features. All her input was old material. The 2002 commentary was culled from outtakes for the 1998 featurette, and she has no part in the four new featurettes ("Lost Song", "In Walt's Words", "Tinker Bell", "Peter Pan That Almost Was"). We did get a few brief and new soundbites by Margaret Kerry, though. Still, I have to agree that Peter Pan is the most disappointing of the Platinums, if only in terms of quantity.

Anyway, my thoughts on the Platinums are pretty much the same as I said in this post from the "Loss of Quality..." thread:

Top-Level Platinums: (Most Fulfilling DVD Experience)
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Aladdin

Mid-Level Platinums: (Great and Informative Material, but not quite as exhaustive as previous Platinums)
Beauty and the Beast
Bambi
Cinderella
Lady and the Tramp

Lower-Level Platinums: (Good Material, still feels rather lacking, deserves better treatment in a future release)
Peter Pan
The Little Mermaid
The Lion King

But for the sake of this thread, I'll go into detail about some...

Least Favorite - Film and DVD 1: The Lion King, obviously. It's hard to want to sit down and watch bonus features for a film that I completely and utterly dislike. Granted, I did watch all the material at one time. But I rarely ever even watch the movie, much less the bonus features. The continental navigation is one of the stupidest ideas Disney had for DVD. I don't mind the "Journey" arrangements, as they're focused on one topic (Story, Production, etc.) But all the featurettes are far too segmented and can't really flow well from one to the other. Also, there is literally NO input from the voice cast, and half the time, the people in the featurette are more on the praising/backpatting side rather than the explanation/here's-some-interesting-tidbits side.

Least Favorite - Film and DVD 2: The Little Mermaid. There was a time, years ago, when I enjoyed this film. When I actually liked the characters and the stories and would hum or sing the songs. Over the years, the film has not aged well with me, and I count it as my second least favorite after The Lion King. Unlike The Lion King, however, the DVD presentation is very straightforward and much more balanced between praising and educating. Unfortunately, at the same time, what's offered just is...well, boring for me. I watched the documentary once, and didn't like it. I watched it again a few months ago, and still didn't like it. I can't put my finger on what it is about the doc that I don't like. I'm sure I said it somewhere else, but I don't feel like looking for it again. Of the other materials on the disc, the only ones that I really got excited for was "The Little Match Girl" and the virtual ride-thru. Nothing else really grabbed my interest, not even the audio commentary.

Most Disappointing: Peter Pan. Essentially, it's the SE with only about 40 minutes of new material and a few hundred more stills. I absolutely love the film, but the DVD is just so disappointing. So many missed opportunities here. I mean, honestly, they couldn't be bothered with creating a new documentary or extending the old one with new/vintage interviews? 16 minutes is NOT a documentary! I'm grateful we at least have the commentary, which I consider the true documentary on the disc. But again, there are so many missed opportunities here. Where the hell is the Christmas show? Why aren't there any storyboard-to-film or live-action-reference-to-film comparisons? And what's the logic in having two songs in the Deleted Songs section, but not including the two that have almost always appeared on the soundtrack CD? And goddammit, where is my THEATRICAL TRAILER??? There's so much that should have been included besides the stuff I already mentioned, but instead Disney chose a dumbass repeat-the-movie-in-lower-quality-on-the-second-disc English Read-Along. WORST. PLATINUM. BONUS. FEATURE. EVER.

Better Than I Initially Thought: Cinderella. I have to say, I used to call this the fluffiest of the Platinums (I even said it in page 2 of this thread!) based mainly on the stupid Princess Royalty Room or whatever it's called, along with the lousy music videos and the still-headscratching Cinderella Stories. But I recently gave the Backstage Disney section of the bonus disc a once-over and was pleasantly surprised at how much actually is offered. The documentary really wasn't up my alley, it seemed more focused on (again) praising the work behind the film rather than offering a really in-depth discussion about it. But there were still a lot of nice gems to be found, especially in all the vintage materials (song demos, tv shows, trailers, etc.). The two other featurettes (the nine old men and Mary Blair ones) were good, too. I would have preferred additional live-action footage (beyond the stills in the storyboard-to-film comparison), though.

Most Straightforward: Lady and the Tramp and Bambi. These two stand out not as Platinums in the Snow White or Aladdin sense, but are really outstanding ones nonetheless. Both offer a 50+ minute doc that (surprise surprise) is informative first, entertaining second, and praising third. I especially love the "Disneyland" excerpts for Lady and the Tramp, and the reliable multi-plane camera excerpt on Bambi. Unfortunately, both still have its drawbacks. Lady and the Tramp is commentary-less, a big bad mistake that Disney made. And while we get some excerpts of rough animation and storyboards in the doc and "Disneyland" featurettes, it would have been more interesting to see them on their own as well (either as production progression reels or as side-by-side comparisons). And Bambi's deleted scenes are very paltry, especially when it's known that there's so much more (even beyond the graphic ones, there's other deleted scenes/storyboards that could have been included). Also, there are obviously more than just the one theatrical trailer for Bambi, and as much as I loved "Inside Walt's Story Meetings" (they should do this feature for all the Walt-era films), I would have also loved an audio commentary, perhaps with John Canemaker and Dickie Jones (animation historian and voice of Bambi).

A Lot, But Still Not Enough...: Beauty and the Beast. A couple weeks ago, I gave the entire set a whole viewing, but only focused on the production stuff (so no "Break the Spell" games or music videos for me!). And I have to say I felt hugely disappointed. The documentary is comprised of 18 featurettes that range from really-well-done-but-shorter-than-I'd-like ("Strength of Character" and "Animation" stand out for me), to not-long-enough-to-cover-sufficient-ground ("Finding the Story", "The Stage Is Set", "A High Profile Preview") to just-too-short-and-glossy ("Bringing the Story to the Screen" and "Awards"). All in all, the 50-minute doc really is more of an overview of production rather than a nice meaty in-depth piece. Then there's the other brief featurettes and vintage materials that I'm glad are included, but again, I'm upset at the exclusions. Where's the storyboarded (and likely temp-voiced) Extended Prologue? Why don't we get storyboard-to-film comparisons or original song demos? Surely there could have been some production progression reels? I won't even get into the whole offer-an-even-more-truncated-version-of-the-documentary-in-the-Mrs.-Potts-section.

Best: Aladdin and Snow White. Both are obviously the most exhaustive, and Aladdin benefits from having a unique design to the presentation of their bonus materials. It can be watched either in a straightforward way (of 110 minutes) or picking-and-choosing, thus allowing people to skip around to what they want to see. I remember someone said there wasn't as much vintage materials/interviews as they'd like, and I partly agree with that sentiment. I would have liked seeing the original tv special in its entirety instead of having it re-edited and split up among the new featurettes. Also, the "Rough Stuff" really is the only main place to see animation tests and live-action reference footage, and can be rather lacking. The still galleries also aren't as exhaustive as they could be, but they do benefit from the Art Review featurette. For Snow White, the second disc really is a boatload of materials, and all of it is definitely worth going through several times over. I'm still not fond of the film itself, but I actually enjoy watching its bonus features.

Scaps

[Jack Skellington]

The Little Mermaid and The Lion King are my least favourite Platinum editions, but I think there still enjoyable, just not as much as Aladdin, and Beauty and the Beast for me.

[Ariel'sprince]

The Lion King Platinum Edition,it's full of thousends of stupit games,Ugly menus and not a lot of intersting things.
Aladdin had some boring things and games here were incredibley dumb (what Timon is doing there? i was afraid that in the Cinderella Platinum Edition we'll see Rafiki open Cinderella carrige and Pumbaa swim under the sea in The Little Mermaid Platinum Edition,The Lion King is a very overrated film,i like it but i think Disney have way better films).
Cinderella-agreed with Escapay about the Sport stories that i have no idea what it's doing there and i agreeed about that stupit House Of Royalty with that annyoing little girl but expet that i think it's a wonderfull DVD.
I think The Little Mermaid was the best Platinum Edition,no stupit games (actually the Enchanted Tales's games are nice),just intersting things about the movie.