Walt Disney Treasures Wave X Discussion

[Margos]

well not apologizing for the film seeming racist, but apologizing for not releasing the film to the public in 63 years.

Oh, I misunderstood. Yes, that is something that they certainly should apologize for!

[Rudy Matt]

It hasn't been held for 63 years, the film was re-released in 1987 and has been available as a LEGAL import since the early 90's. It is not illegal to buy a legitimate pal or laserdisc Song of the South from the UK or Japan. It's only illegal to buy it from someone who has illegally duped it.

[Margos]

I guess you're right. Unfortunately, I do not have a laserdisc system, so if I want the movie, I need to buy the (illegal) DVD transfer of said laserdisc. Still, it hasn't been properly released to own on home video in the United States. It has been possible to see it, but not neccessarily convenient. I'm saying that it needs an at least moderately available DVD release, and one on Blu, as well for those who have made the switch.

[Mason_Ireton]

Sorry for askin a stupid question. but...what's Laserdisc??? the orignal dvd??

[Margos]

Sorry for askin a stupid question. but...what's Laserdisc??? the orignal dvd??

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it was basically like the father of DVD. It was a disc that was read by a laser, and it could hold bonus features as DVD did, but I think it didn't survive much as a format, because it wasn't quite good enough to beat VHS for some reason. Plus it speeds up playback, so everything's a little faster than it's supposed to be.

[Mason_Ireton]

Ok now I get it, so it held more Bonus Feats just like Blu Ray? hmm... I know DisneyKid posted a thread with Laserdisc bonus feats for nearly all the Disney Classics

[Luke]

Sorry for askin a stupid question. but...what's Laserdisc??? the orignal dvd??

The Laserdisc (LD) is a home video disc format, and was the first commercial optical disc storage medium. Initially marketed as Discovision in 1978, the technology was licensed and sold as Reflective Optical Videodisc, Laser Videodisc, Laservision, Disco-Vision, DiscoVision, and MCA DiscoVision until Pioneer Electronics purchased the majority stake in the format and marketed LaserDisc in the mid to late 1980s.

While LaserDisc produced a consistently higher quality image than its rivals, the VHS and Betamax systems, the laserdisc never obtained more than a niche market with videophiles in America. In Europe, it remained largely an obscure format. It was, however, much more popular in Japan and in the more affluent regions of South East Asia, such as Hong Kong and Singapore. Laserdisc was the prevalent rental video medium in Hong Kong during the 1990s.

The technology and concepts provided with the Laserdisc would become the forerunner to Compact Discs and DVDs.

A lot more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc

[Margos]

Wow, thanks, Luke! I was wondering a bit myself! That was a really helpful blurb!

[jlppr]

i've always wondered the same thing. i never knew laserdisc existed. as far as i knew they went from VHS straight to DVD but then all of a sudden i heard about the laserdisc. thanks for explaining what it was

[Cordy_Biddle]

LaserDisc wasn't adopted by many people at all; I think the relative convenience of VHS was a bigger plus for the majority of consumers than than having a movie on something even larger than an LP record.

[Darby]

Look what I found! Zorro and Son!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXyzQ2k_egE

I remember enjoying this show as a kid, for as long as it lasted. Didn't remember much of it though, but I thought I remembered it as a comedy. That aspect of it is kind of disappointing to me now, especially with a laugh track included, but it's cool to see again. Would have been neat if it had the original stars and was not so much of a sitcom. I would still snag it if it ever got a DVD release, ha.

Thanks for the link, slave2moonlight! It was great fun to see this show again.

Darby

[Rudy Matt]

Laserdisc was the forerunner of DVD -- the platters were the size of LPs, and a laser read information in much the same way as a vinyl record. The resolution was dramatically improved versus VHS, DVD was the next generation of Laserdisc, and the lowered cost and improved quality killed both VHS and Laserdisc as viable home video formats.

However, many titles released on DVD by the Disney company have yet to match the features of their laserdisc counterparts. Alice in Wonderland, The Three Caballeros, Bambi, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, and other titles came to laserdisc with bonus features never replicated on DVD, such as isolated sound and score soundtracks, expansive archival material, and exhaustive documentaries. In fact, many early Disney DVDs simply ported over the laserdisc master to DVD, while excluding the bonus features (with the obvious goal of re-releasing the DVD at a later point with the documentaries and bonus features restored, or re-created).

Song of the South was released throughout the world on home video, the Japanese laserdisc was easily available as an import in the early 90's. If you want the film, you can legally purchase it as an import. You can even watch the thing on YouTube, Disney has strangely turned a blind eye to that fact and hasn't suspended those streams.

[Flanger-Hanger]

Song of the South was released throughout the world on home video, the Japanese laserdisc was easily available as an import in the early 90's. If you want the film, you can legally purchase it as an import. You can even watch the thing on YouTube, Disney has strangely turned a blind eye to that fact and hasn't suspended those streams.

I'm sure Disney has turned a blind eye because a) they know they can pretty much never make a profit on the film by refusing to sell it a b) they might figure those who watch it will feel more inclined to by merch based on the film that Disney does make.

[Margos]

You can legally purchase it as an import.... if you have a laserdisc player. I don't think most people do......

But personally, I don't see why they don't release it. Controversial as it may be, they stand to make a lot of money on any release of it, money that is currently going into the pockets of pirates.

[Mason_Ireton]

I rather have fully Disney approved release of this classic rather then owning a bootleg of it.

[estefan]

It's not just Song of the South. Disney is incredibly lax on any of their films being shown on YouTube. Pretty much any Animated Classic is available for viewing on that site. Though, because I don't like watching films chopped into bits (plus, it's illegal), I would rather get the DVD. Hence, why like most people, I haven't seen Song of the South yet.

[Barbossa]

Laserdisc was the forerunner of DVD -- the platters were the size of LPs, and a laser read information in much the same way as a vinyl record.

Just before Laserdiscs, there was also a fomat known as Capacitance Electronic Disc. The CED system worked much like a phonograph, where a needle read the disc. The actual disc was just like a vinyl record album. One annoyance was that every movie was split in half, because you had to flip the disc around when one side finished up. The disc was stored in a plastic case (caddy). The player would open the caddy up and slide the disc out into itself.

I remember we had one of these. The picture on the CEDs was actually better than a VHS, but because of the size of the media, it didn't take off. I remember watching a bunch of Disney movies on CEDs. Here's the story about it on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitanc ... ronic_Disc
CEDs were then replaced by Laserdiscs, and eventully by DVDs, which is slowly getting replaced by Blu-ray, which will evenutally be replaced by... I dunno, maybe solid state?

[Rudy Matt]

Yes, the family across from us had the "videodisc" system. Disney home video was aggressive in that format, and when I was 8-12 years old, I saw titles like "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" and Ludwig Von Drake TV specials on that format. We watched Rocky III on CED so much we ruined it.

Although for some reason, as kids we found the videodisc of "Last Tango in Paris" placed on a very high shelf. It's almost as if the parents were trying to hide it from us or something.

[slave2moonlight]

Perhaps this has been posted before, but has anyone heard about this D23 Expo discussion about Disney Rarities? Just reading some of the comments from Expo attenders here on the comments for the Lorenzo trailer, it seems like we MIGHT see a new Disney Rarities Treasures tin after all... I certainly hope so! Here's the link (read the viewer comments):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXBw8Hkm-_M

Of course, I guess it may also be a bonus on the Fantasia blu-rays, which someone sort of implied. Perhaps that is already a known fact, but I hadn't heard anything new about Lorenzo in a while myself.

[zuzu]

I wrote to Leonard Maltin two month ago and this is what he said :

"There have been many changes at the Disney Company and I don't know the future of the Treasures."

Do you think, with the departure of Dick Cook and the death of Roy Disney, that there will be another wave of Walt Disney Treasures ?