Dumbo Blu-Ray/DVD for Feb. 2010 (See Poster)

[TonyWDA]

<a href="http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m105 ... ddumbo.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m105 ... ddumbo.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

Well... here it is.

This came straight from the folks at PlanetaHD.com. Dumbo was confirmed by Disney for a Blu-Ray release sometime back in August, but they claimed it was NOT to be a part of the new Diamond line, but instead just a Blu-Ray/DVD re-release. Here's the poster to confirm the news.

I feel this film deserves such a treatment. This film not only saved the Disney Studios from bankruptcy back in 1941, after the box-office failure of Pinocchio and Fantasia (go figure), but its a masterpiece, for crying out loud! It even managed to garner a 97% "Fresh" rating from Rotten Tomatoes.

All I'm hoping is that the picture is much better than what it was in the "Big Top Edition". The colors seemed to be a little paler than I remember, and some of the footage around the aspect ratio was actually missing (see that the Pink Elephants that march around a confused Dumbo and Timothy in the 1.33:1 AR actually have their feet/toes cut off from sight).

So... any thoughts from you guys?

[DisneyJedi]

This might be moved to a similar thread. But, I am hoping this one gets a similar treatment to the Platinum/Diamond Editions now on BD.

[goofystitch]

The thing I'm most excited for is the restoration. Since Dumbo is coming to Blu-Ray, Disney is going to have to give it the same immaculate restoration treatment that they gave to Snow White, Pinocchio, and Sleeping Beauty. Disney has an amazing reputation when it comes to their Hi-Def releases and I'm sure they don't want to tarnish that with this release, so Dumbo should finally have the restoration it deserves.

I'm assuming that most of the DVD bonus features will be ported over, especially all of the Backstage Disney content (Celebrating Dumbo, commentary, Walt Disney TV introductions, and art gallery). I'm assuming they will do a new making-of documentary since one doesn't already exist, and if they do it in the style of the Platinum/Diamond Editions, it might even be as long as the film itself. I think a Toby Bluth Disney View will probably be done for the Blu-Ray as well. It would be neat if they did a new commentary with Cine Explore, but I think we can rule that out since they didn't do one for Snow White. Maybe they will do a featurette about how Dumbo has inspired so many modern animators and how many claim it as their favorite. I would be floored if Disney put trailers on here, but since they don't seem to care about promotional nostalgia, I doubt that will happen. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they also throw us the pilot episode of Dumbo's Circus and maybe a featurette about the popular theme park attractions based on the film (Every Magic Kingdom-style Disney park has Dumbo's Flying Elephants and Disneyland has a Casey Jr. ride). This last one probably won't happen, but if Disney wanted to restore The Reluctant Dragon in HD, that would make a great bonus feature since much of it pertains to the making of Dumbo (and to a lesser extent, Bambi).

[jpanimation]

I'm sure any extras Dumbo gets will be better than its current set. Its Snow White and Aladdin that currently have fantastic extras on DVD that you have to worry about as they'll probably be losing some on transition to Blu. I wish they would just do what they did with Lilo and Stitch and keep all the old extras while adding a ton of new ones. Excited for Dumbo but worried about Aladdin (will probably have to hold on to my Platinum version of that too).

[goofystitch]

I'm sure any extras Dumbo gets will be better than its current set. Its Snow White and Aladdin that currently have fantastic extras on DVD that you have to worry about as they'll probably be losing some on transition to Blu. I wish they would just do what they did with Lilo and Stitch and keep all the old extras while adding a ton of new ones. Excited for Dumbo but worried about Aladdin (will probably have to hold on to my Platinum version of that too).

While Snow White is losing lots of bonus features from the Platinum Edition for the Diamond Edition, a lot of new material was made that caused recycling some of it to be redundant. But some of the features that were left off should have been included, like the addition deleted scenes and abandoned concepts.

As for Aladdin, it will not be part of the Diamond Edition line, and as a result won't be given as extensive of an overhaul in terms of bonus features when it comes to Blu-Ray. So when that day arrives, I would expect to see everything ported over from the Platinum Edition.

[Escapay]

The thread probably needs to be renamed, but discussion of the forthcoming Dumbo DVD & Blu-Ray is here:

Dumbo: Platinum Edition- Discussion

and here:

Dumbo 70th Anniversary Edition (BBFC classification)

albert