Disney's current apathy towards bonus features?

[milojthatch]

I once asked my Disney Home Entertainment contact about this issue, more specifically for non-animated vintage titles. He was very blunt in telling me that there will be no more extras for those kinds of releases as there is no more money in the budget for them.

I think one of the big issues with Disney films is that people are guaranteed to buy them, regardless of the treatment they receive. Basically, Disney doesn't have to put a whole lot of effort into them, because only a very, very, very small margin of fans will choose to not purchase based solely on bonus content. The movies are big sellers regardless, unfortunately.

I think this issue carries over into anything Disney touches. Case in point, Disneyland can push their prices up to the point you have a take out a second mortgage on your home to afford to take the family, and the park will still make record profits. I think Disney as a company is starting to get to the point where they are getting complacent in some areas and not putting out as much efforts as they might have once upon a time ago because they know they don't need to. The customers will still buy their crap because they are Disney. I'll admit I'm guilty of this at times, I think most of us here are at some point.

Would you all be willing to pay more for better editions of these DVDs/Blu-Rays? Maybe they could release these films in two ways: with (mountains of) and without bonus features.

Depending on what is on it, YES!

Would you all be willing to pay more for better editions of these DVDs/Blu-Rays? Maybe they could release these films in two ways: with (mountains of) and without bonus features.

There was a time when Warner Brothers used to do this in the pre-Blu-Ray age. They would release a bare-bones DVD for a movie and a slightly higher priced two-disc special edition as well. But I think that died down once they began paying more attention to Blu-Ray.

It wasn't just Warners, it was all the major studios, even DIsney. I remember having to pick between the barebones DVD of "National Treasure 2" or the 2 disc edition for that same film. You would be right however, Blu-ray killed that off.

[estefan]

It wasn't just Warners, it was all the major studios, even DIsney. I remember having to pick between the barebones DVD of "National Treasure 2" or the 2 disc edition for that same film. You would be right however, Blu-ray killed that off.

Oh, right. I also remember having to make a similar decision, regarding Wall-E (I ended up picking the special edition). I think Up was another title that gave you that option.

[SWillie!]

milojthatch, have you asked your friend why it is that even if they can't make NEW features due to the budget, why they don't at least transfer all the already existing features to new releases? That's the biggest part that doesn't make sense to me.

Also, I'm definitely guilty of the "I'll buy it regardless of quality because its Disney" thing as well. It's a vicious cycle.

[buffalobill]

milojthatch, have you asked your friend why it is that even if they can't make NEW features due to the budget, why they don't at least transfer all the already existing features to new releases? That's the biggest part that doesn't make sense to me.

I'd like to know this too. Even if they didn't remaster them in high def I'd still love to have ALL the old features ported over to the blu ray releases on blu ray discs. One of the biggest selling points (besides the obvious of picture, sound, scratch resistance. etc...) was the immense capacity of blu rays so we get 75-90 minute animated movies with 10 minutes of features when they could put a couple of dvds worth of features in standard def on the disc too & not even have to dig up new material. I sell off (or give away to relatives with kids) all of my old dvds when I buy blus as I just don't want a house filled with duplicate boxes of titles just for features but would love to have them included with my blu rays.

[Disney's Divinity]

The customers will still buy their crap because they are Disney. I'll admit I'm guilty of this at times, I think most of us here are at some point.

Also, I'm definitely guilty of the "I'll buy it regardless of quality because its Disney" thing as well. It's a vicious cycle.

I'm glad I don't have this problem.

[cms382]

What really pushed me over the edge was Rescuers/Down Under. There's an AMAZING narrative there to be told with bonus features, but we got nothing. A lot of the other non-Diamond films it would either be a bit of a stretch or a retread of previous material, but exploring those two could have covered a lot of interesting ground.

It's quite a revelation looking at Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and Fantasia and comparing them to the later Blu-Rays.

[Widdi]

I must admit that my desire for bonus features has gone down significantly in recent years. In theory I would love to have discs jam packed with interesting extras but at this point in my life I am lucky if I even get to watch the films I buy once let alone a bunch of bonus features. I buy the movie for the movie. The bonuses are just that; bonuses. Im still going to buy regardless because above all else what I want is the finished film

[GreatGreg]

I agree with the post above. I'm lucky if I even have time to watch the feature, not to mention the bonus features.

If the bonus features are there, I might watch them once, as opposed to the feature which I might watch several times.

It all comes down to costs. It costs extra to add them on and especially now that we have more markets in different languages, it doesn't always make sense to include Bonus features on discs.