Fantasia Platinum Ideas?

[Jake Lipson]

I got the Fantasia and Fantasia 2000 discs today, and while the anthoelgy is beyond my reach for its priciness, these will do for now and at least I've got them on DVD before they go out of print, which is better than I did with the Toy Story discs back in May. I *still* don't have those, truth be told. Anyway, just browsing through the extras, I'm amazed at how much quality stuff they got on these discs and apparently this only scratches the surface of what's on disc three in the box set. So it got me wondering, what can they possibly do to top this for the Platinum Edition when that cometh? Not much, I'd imagine.

Still, here's one idea. I've heard that there's some zooming-in to avoid political incorrectness in one segment (not sure exactly where that is), but other than that, the DVD preserves the original uncut roadshow version of the movie. And I'm not complaining about that -- it's the definitave version and I'm glad to have it on DVD.

But...several edits were made to the movie later on, introductions were cut, etc. and that edited version is the version that most people remember. It's the one that's seen dozens of rereleases and it's the one that was made available on VHS in 1991 and sold something like 20 million copies. So, unlike say the IMAX cut of The Lion King, while it might not be the defenative cut of Fantasia the edited version is a significant cut, is fermilliar to many people and will be remembered by many people. So, even if I would watch the uncut roadshow version rather than the edited one, it would be kind of nice to have the edited version show up on the Platinum DVD just for archival purposes and for completion.

Now I'm not saying that I want this to be the *only* cut on the Platinum DVD. By all means the reconstructed roadshow version is the defenative version and should be included as the main cut. But the edited one could probably be included by seamless branching, more or less. Plus, we all know how much Disney seems to love having multiple cuts of movies on their Platinum DVDs - just look at either BATB or TLK for an example, especially TLK, where the new material was created just for the sake of having something new.

Well, here's a movie where there are two significant cuts of the movie and where including multiple cuts is actuallly valid. So it would be nice to see the other version, just because it's the one a lot of people are more accustomed to and because it has emerged as a significant version. And why not take advantage of the capabilities of DVD to provide both cuts? As I mentioned, Disney seems to love doing so on titles that don't stand to benefit from it so what about one where the DVD will benefit from two cuts?

Again - given the option I would most likely always choose the uncut Roadshow version present on the current DVD, but it'd be nice to have the other one there for the sake of it being there and for completion if nothing else. Your thoughts?

Otherwise I can't think of much they'd be able to do with this for the Platinum to top the Antholegy. Any other ideas?

[Joe Carioca]

Well, the 1991 version of "Fantasia" actually is available on DVD... but it was only released on the international market. Even though I have the Fantasia Anthology on DVD, I wouldn't sell my DVD of the 1991 version of the movie.

As for ideas for the Platinum edition... well, by coincidence, the very first message I posted here on this forum was about ideas for the future release of "Fantasia".

Just a quick "copy-and-paste"...

Some of the things I'd like to see on the future Platinum edition of "Fantasia":
-The Uncensored roadshow edition (with the "Pastoral" famous scenes and everything)
-A newly restored print (I know the film has already been restored in the 90s, but it would be nice to restore it again, now digitally to the level of "Snow White" and "Sleeping Beauty").
-The "Destino" animated-short with an audio comentary by Roy Disney and the director (maybe the short will end up in "Fantasia 2006" anyway).
-They could re-design the galleries and make them easier to navigate (the galleries on the current DVD are very tiresome to navigate - you can't go from fullscreen image to fullscreen image. You have to go to the menu and select the one you'd like to see next).
-They could include the 1982 version of the film, wich had an all-new track, recorded by famous conductor Irwin Kostal.
-I know most of the Deems Taylor dialog has been lost, but they could make a special track with the remaining material.
-Hmm, what about the trailers from each decade, just like the "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" DVD?