Is Europe for Disney a secondary market?

[leuchtmuschel]

Hi fans,

A special greeting to all our foreign member and foreign guests of this board!

If you are belonging to the casual people in Europe, who only want some fun with the magic of Disney, you are happy. You can get your DVDs in your own language. You can stay at Disneyland Paris, or become a member on the local Homepage of Disney.

But if you are reaching the level of a Disney fan, you get in serious trouble!

Disney DVD program
I collect DVDs for watching Disney in my own vault. American or Canadian people got a nearly complete Disney-program on DVD. There exist only a few films these people can’t get. It’s mostly only a question of time they appear in the States too. In Europe however you can only get approximately the half of films Disney puts on DVD. With nearly every film from the Disney Company, you are annoyed because the European DVDs mostly don’t have the same quality in getting extras and quality in sound as their counterparts on the other side of the Atlantic. Only a few Disney treasures were appeared in Europe for example. You need the American market to gain a solid collection!

Synchronisation of films into German
Disney has done beautiful translations from the English originals into German. But suddenly Disney put them into the forbidden vault and replaces them with synchronisation with lower quality. Why?

Radio Disney
Internet radio is fine. The web makes the receiving of local terrestrial radio station worldwide possible! I got information that Disney has established Radio Disney in the web. I put on my computer and I entered the address from Radio Disney. A beautiful homepage appears. I could make a look into America. I clicked the button to receive the program. A list appears with played songs. But then I hear in an endless loop: “We are sorry, but you must stay in America to listen!”.

I am forced to use special software and a special web service that makes my computer stay in America. The quality of Radio Disney was a big surprise. I got a lot of information and good ideas in ordering DVDs from Disney!

I don’t understand that Disney makes no link on their European homepages to this offer. This program is one of the best advertise for Disney! The only thing they have to do is to localise the homepage for the customer’s language. The music however can be the original. In Europe we are familiar to hear music in English.

I think there is no copyright trouble. Disney has the power to stand alone against the RIAA! It is time that Disney must fight against people that stays in marketing principles of yesterday!

Disney reward points and Disney disc replacement
There is no reason that I couldn’t enter into these offers. The reward points are only for entertainment in getting a few nice things. But the disc replacement is an important insurance if one disc has got an accident.

Getting a member on the official Disney website
You have certain advantages if you are be a registered user of the official website from Disney. On my registration at Disney.com, I was forced to register me on the homepage of my country in Europe. I haven’t done it because I live with the much better Disney program in the “States”.

Conclusion
Disney should treat the fans with more love and not with marketing strategies. The most trouble comes from believe of the marketing experts into the system of exploitation chain.

[Barbossa]

You guys do have one plus over us on this continent, they released Song of the South there.

[KubrickFan]

You guys do have one plus over us on this continent, they released Song of the South there.

I don't think they have, at least not to my knowledgde.
But the dvd releases in The Netherlands, particularly have been bad. There are several releases with French DTS (I don't even speak French, The Netherlands is not a part of France, then why?) aspect ratios cut up (Sleeping Beauty, Atlantis: The Lost Empire and Brother Bear) but mostly bonus features are left off of releases. They think 'little kids don't watch them, so why should we put them on the discs?'
Oh (and this is the best part) all responsibilities from our distributor gets passed on to the US. 'No, it's not our fault. The Company says we must do this and that'. So they won't have to take the blame for anything.

[Barbossa]

You guys do have one plus over us on this continent, they released Song of the South there.

I don't think they have, at least not to my knowledgde.

I believe they did, in the UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... tedisne-21

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Well, SotS WAS available for years - but on VHS, not DVD.

As for material for the more serious Disney fan: True, much of it has not been released in Europe, such as most of the Treasures. But it is possible to order "out-of-region" DVDs and I do just that - not much of a problem, really.

[Major Fatal Moebius]

Have they actually ever released Mickey's Christmas Carol on a dvd (I had it on vhs as a young boy) by itself? I know it comes as a bonus on the mickey in living color volume 2, but surely it deserves a separate release, it's one of the best and touching disney films ever made. Any plans?

And yes, us Europeans do get overlooked now and then, c'est la vie.

[KubrickFan]

Have they actually ever released Mickey's Christmas Carol on a dvd (I had it on vhs as a young boy) by itself? I know it comes as a bonus on the mickey in living color volume 2, but surely it deserves a separate release, it's one of the best and touching disney films ever made. Any plans?

And yes, us Europeans do get overlooked now and then, c'est la vie.

No, I it hasn't been released by itself. Maybe it will be released (a lot of cartoons on the Walt Disney Treasure have been released with other feature films) so maybe on a special Christmas-themed one.

And I wasn't supposed to sound negative in my first post. Come to think of it, we got some better releases than you guys. Think of The Lion King with DTS, Lilo and Stitch 2-disc and The Nightmare Before Christmas with anamorphic picture (although it has been released anamorphically the second time in America).

[blackcauldron85]

"Mickey's Christmas Carol" is also available on Volume 9 of the Classic Cartoon Favorites: http://www.ultimatedisney.com/ccf9-holidaystories.html

[Major Fatal Moebius]

Hoi, ik woon ook in nederland, kubrick hehe.

You know if there are any plans for some new walt disney treasure releases over here, kubrick?

[Barbossa]

Have they actually ever released Mickey's Christmas Carol on a dvd (I had it on vhs as a young boy) by itself? I know it comes as a bonus on the mickey in living color volume 2, but surely it deserves a separate release, it's one of the best and touching disney films ever made. Any plans?

I don't know how it is in Europe, but Mickey's Christmas Carol is also on Classic Cartoon Favorites Volume 9 Classic Holiday Stories along with The Small One and Pluto's Christmas Tree.

[KubrickFan]

Hoi, ik woon ook in nederland, kubrick hehe.

You know if there are any plans for some new walt disney treasure releases over here, kubrick?

There are still some small rumors about that, but I wouldn't count on it. But The Complete Pluto and The Chronological Donald vol. 2 have been released in Austria, Australia and Germany with dutch subtitles. So you could get them from those countries.

[2099net]

The problem is, Europe is a bigger market than the US, but there's all those languages (not to mention local content laws). I'm not 100% sure of all the various populations of European countries, but taking the UK as an example:

It has a population approx. 1/6th of the US. So straight away, the potential for sales are lower. It's good that almost everyone speaks English as their first language (a plus over other countries in Europe), but everything has to be certified by the BBFC (which can result in local enforced content edits).

I also suspect European Disney companies can only toe the US Disney company line. That explains why so many "so-stupid-they-make-no-sense-whatsoever" decisions can be made by Buena Vista Home Entertainment UK.

The decisions about which films can be released, and the timing is more than likely dictated by Disney US. Thus we get head scratchers like High School Musical being released on DVD twice in full screen only, despite the fact it has been shown in widescreen on the BBC, and it is clear that it was shot and filmed with widescreen compositions in mind.

[Jack Skellington]

Why isn't there a Song of the South DVD ?
I mean in Gone of the Wind, colored people have a very bad social position ( i.e my favourite character named Mamie ) and that didn't stop the movie from being released on DVD in the U.S !
Why would it be offensive ?
We can't eradicate the shame that was present in the past, we just have to accept it and move on with our lives.

[KubrickFan]

Why isn't there a Song of the South DVD ?
I mean in Gone of the Wind, colored people have a very bad social position ( i.e my favourite character named Mamie ) and that didn't stop the movie from being released on DVD in the U.S !
Why would it be offensive ?
We can't eradicate the shame that was present in the past, we just have to accept it and move on with our lives.

I guess Disney is very ashamed about that. Of course, Gone With The Wind was never banned or anything, so there was no hype or something about it. If you try to hide it, the hype around it gets bigger and bigger. The same goes for the Pastorale sequence in Fantasia.

[Jack Skellington]

I guess Disney is very ashamed about that. Of course, Gone With The Wind was never banned or anything, so there was no hype or something about it. If you try to hide it, the hype around it gets bigger and bigger. The same goes for the Pastorale sequence in Fantasia.

Was it banned for the African servant or beacause of the nudity ?

[akhenaten]

be grateful europe. u can still get 2-discers from france with the most beautiful covers on earth. but what do we asians get? zero disney exposure with japan being the only exception. its like its a whole other planet with japan.

[KubrickFan]

Was it banned for the African servant or beacause of the nudity ?

No, only the servants were cut out. But if they hadn't done that, nobody would have had a problem with it. But to cut it out, it makes a bigger deal out of it than it is.

[leuchtmuschel]

Hi fans!

A special greeting goes now to the Board of Directors and the cast members of the Disney Company!

Disney should make a worldwide access to the whole American program on DVD and Blu-ray possible. There should be no region codes anymore. I see no licensing troubles with it. It needs a little bit more time and efforts to solve this, but this is the reason Disney has its lawyers. There is no trouble to establish an international Disney Store in the web!

Disney can make an affordable Disney life to reasonable prices for everyone possible. I see no conflict from any local national DVD program with any coexisting access to the original American DVDs, peoples in the whole world can order too!

I have a strong suspicion that the marketing experts at Disney have forgotten some things Walt said:

“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.”

“You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality.”

“You reach a point where you don't work for money.”

“Laughter is America's most important export.”

I knew that a lot of the staff at Disney follows his dreams, but it should be all of them!

[Jack Skellington]

Was it banned for the African servant or beacause of the nudity ?

No, only the servants were cut out. But if they hadn't done that, nobody would have had a problem with it. But to cut it out, it makes a bigger deal out of it than it is.

I see what you mean, I watched the clip on Youtube and there's nothing really racist about it, besides there were attractive African women Zebras as well anyway.

[Kossage]

Well, at least we Europeans have a great market for Disney comics, as evidenced by the popularity of the comics in countries such as Finland, Norway, Italy and France to give a few examples.

It's quite unfortunate that despite several attempts Disney comics haven't really gone mainstream in the US in recent times although publishers such as Gemstone are doing their best to get more publicity to the comics.