BAMBI Platinum Edition DVD Press Release

[Joe Carioca]

Those menus are really beautiful, and I'm happy they decided to go with a more artistic aproach (like "Mulan: SE") rather than crappy CG settings (like "The Lion King" - Aladdin's menus are beautiful, though).

[Disneykid]

Very classy menus, though I hope there's at least some animation to them (I actually like CGI menus). I noticed that on the gallery's menu, there's an option under "Diaporama" to listen to a commentary track. I tried finding out what diaporama's French for, but I couldn't find anything. Is this supposed to be an Art Review?

[Isidour]

Hi:

very nice ones, but there´re just 2 "alternative" or deleted scenes?

I heard once than there where more

[Joe Carioca]

Since "Inside Walt's Story Meetings" seems to be the only bonus features on disc 1, I think it might be a lengthy all-video extra after all. That, plus the 50-minute making of should give us a great insight on how the film was produced.
Even if the extras seem to be of great quality, the quantity still seems a bit shy when compared to other Disney collector's editions. I don't get why Disney chose not to include all the theatrical trailers (it was acceptable for "Aladdin", but "Bambi" is one of the most rereleased films in history and has lots of different trailer) and I'm afraid the "Art Gallery" might be just one gallery after all (like Alice In Wonderland's gallery).

By the way, no traditional audio commentary and (fortunately) pop video clip this time.

[PheR]

those menus are gorgeous, but I don´t like the main menu so much; maybe after seeing it in full motion I´ll get to like it.

in fact, I see in the main menu that there´s two ways to see the movie; I don´t speak to much french but it says something about Walt Disney, maybe an introduction or something, perhaps the french or canadian guys here should tell us what it is.

[rodis]

Can't say I like all the menus but some of them (particularly the last ones) look gorgeous. The backgrounds are rich and I especially like how they drew the flowers in some of them.

[bluemoon86]

you guys are making me even more excited about this DVD than I already was The pics of the menus look great

[Joe Carioca]

in fact, I see in the main menu that there´s two ways to see the movie; I don´t speak to much french but it says something about Walt Disney, maybe an introduction or something, perhaps the french or canadian guys here should tell us what it is.

Actually, it's the much-publicized "Inside Walt's Story Meetings".

[Kram Nebuer]

The only thing I don't understand is that it says it premieres on DVD on March 1, 2005 but under each option it says the DVD will ship on 2/09/2005.

It says that this "item" will ship on 2-09-05, but my guess is that the Lithos and, if you bought them, the bonus plushes and pins will ship on this date.

[Mermaid Kelly]

I know I'm basically repeating everyone else, but the menus are nice. Also....thanks for mentioning that it's now available for preorder....I hope to pre-order soon to get the beautiful lithos and the cute little plush animals!

[Luke]

I've just posted 5 menus and stills from a deleted scene and "The Old Mill" short on this newly-created preview page for Bambi:
http://www.ultimatedisney.com/bambi-preview.html

[Paka]

Very nice, Luke! (And yes, I did post a piece about it at A-N! )

I know it's been said before, but those menus are just absolutely gorgeous. Very elegant and sophisticated, not unlike Mulan's menus. Bravo, Disney (for once)!

The only quibble I have, Luke, is that Bambi's cover art has been changed slightly from the initial image put out. You can see it at Amazon here. I think you may want to change the thumbnails and the preview pop-up you have in the Upcoming Art section, as well as the preview page, perhaps.

Boy, aren't I just a "helpful" little bugger? You must think I sound like an annoying English teacher half the time for correcting spelling errors... and now this!

[Disney 181]

I'm really very satisified with those menus I'm so happy, they look amazing! They really bring out Disney's spring animation and the main menu is an original look.
I'm less excited about the games, stories and personality quiz. But the featurettes that are on there sound very good and well composed seeing as they're working with material from the 40's
I'm excited for this one! Although on the previews on DVD's I hope the restoration doesn't make the colours really bright. But the footage on the trailers probably wouldnt be restored yet...would it?
-Ryan

[deathie mouse]

Cool banner Luke put on the top of the page

mmm.. I think the mini teaser of Bambi on the Mulan disc doesnt look restored, well it looks to me like a normal version cleaned up and the contrast pushed up with blown whites sometimes but with all the fiery wipes going back and forth distorting the quality is hard to tell. The CAV Laserdisc I have had a soft somewhat murky quality (compared to other later Laserdiscs) with muted natural forest colors. (it was probably done from an existing VHS/broadcst master maybe?) I think I used to push the color a bit to get a more satisfying result.

Theorethicaly with the "scan the 3 b/w Technicolor separations method" they should be able to do a very good faxcimile of the originl colors since they are all still there waiting to be released through the proper use of the original RGB filters.. i would imagine that they can get the naturalistic forest colors at the same time getting things like flowers in the spring with all their chromatic brilliance. They must have the original art cels and Technicolor reference prints that they can follow and try to improve and restore.

(Scanning the b/w separations into the computer has the portential to get even better purer colors than Technicolor prints cus they are bypassing the physical printing color dye impurities. I only hope they know prescisely what filters and colors they have to recreate )

Also since they must be using the original image on the negs they would get the sharpest, less grainiest one posible. They are also probably gonna apply the grain/noise reduction technique to even eliminate the film carrier and get the cel art animated to life look, like they've done before.

[Isidour]

Aiya:

Ok, untill this point, this DVD looks like the most marvelous and beautifull never-released Disney DVD.

But this have happened whit many others and on the very last minute something spoils all the effort and illusion of it. I hope Bambi´s Dvd be the exception, and I really hope it, but I´m a little pesimist.

Someone´s knows if this DVD will have the originall Dubbing, and I mean not only the english one, also the spanish and the one made on Argentina??

[deathie mouse]

Well on Luke's preview page it says: All-New 5.1 Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mix, Dolby® Digital 2.0 Original Mono Theatrical Mix, English, French & Spanish Dolby® Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, THX-Certified with Optimizer tests

That sounds to me like the Spanish and French tracks will be the refurbished ones so I wouldnt set my hopes too high of they being the original original ones. But who knows! 7 or 8 soundtracks?
If it's a modern one they may make one with Spanish accents for R2 and one with Latin American accents for R4.

Apparently at least we'll get the original English mono. (Altho now i''m not sure if that one will be the exact untouched unremixed mix, or a remastered mixing-in of the superior quality music element with the dialogue and effects elments to mono, now that I've read the recently posted article about the sound restoration process. mix mixmix mix..

la la la

The aspect ratio of Bambi is 1.375, but if Disney follows the pattern it has been doing lately, Bambi might be in 1.33 very slightly pillarboxed within the 480 x 720 DVD frame, like Alice was, and IT SHOULDN'T it should fill the whole 720 width. but that's nitpicking.

(Tho there's no reason they shouldn't do it the correct way. Maybe they need to stop looking at DVD boxes that say "This DVD is presented in it's original 1.33 Aspect Ratio" and get a clue ;P)

But I do expect something like the Snow White and Pinocchio restorations, which will greatly benefit its forest imagery with its cel art/background clarity.

We should know in about 9 and a half weeks

[orestes.]

I'm finally posting on this topic! I haven't read any replied yet but there are sooooo many so I had to make my own reply first.

I can't wait for this and I do hope that as time goes by and the release date comes closer that details of even more and better special features materialize.

Is there any word on a Collector's Edition like Aladdin and The Lion King? If there is a CE I will purchase it. I'm now going for any CE even if I didn't get The Lion King one, which I kinda now regret.

[orestes.]

A few aditional comments:
1- Unfortunatelly, it seems there is no Gift Set this time. I wonder if Disney will only release gift sets for the Platinum editions released in October?"Or only the newer movies are going to get the special box treatment?
2- It is surprising that Disney is including both a regular DD5.1 track and a DEHTM track. Since this movie was originally released in mono, I guessed there was not much they could do with the remixing, so the Enhanced Mix track comes as a surprise. Let's hope they don't make it too "modern", otherwise it will be kinda betraying the origins of the movie.
3- It's definately going to be a new "making of" featurette. The original one was called "Bambi: The Making of a Masterpiece". Let's hope it is at least 40-something minutes long, like the other Platinums.

I seriosuly hope there will be a gift set. I called it a Collector's edition in the last post I made but I meant giftset. I'm hoping they will release one and they just haven't come forward with details on it yet.

[orestes.]

Boy - and Amazon already has it uploaded on their pre-order page and everything!

Well, considering the crappy track record Disney's been having with its cover art, I think this came out as good as we can hope for.

Like Disneykid said, it's mostly a cut-n'-paste of the Masterpiece Collection art (click here for that image), but I can live with that, since the characters are on-model anyway. What interests me is the color scheme and the presence of an actual background, as opposed to a solid color. I don't like how simplistic the title is, either. I really liked the proposed round, foresty-themed title that glenn showed us here about a month back. The solid black of this current title looks a bit out of place with the rest of the cover because everything is so light. Happy greens and golds and sky blues. I think I may have preferred that they did something akin to the Masterpiece Collection VHS and had a forest green background with impressionistic tree patterns.
What depresses me the most about the background, though, is just thinking of what could have been. Wouldn't it be great if the cover had been just the background? With the Great Prince looking over a beautiful misty forest like that? Of course, that would just look too abstract and obscure for most common consumers, wouldn't it?

I have no real complaints with the cover but I do wish they did something a little more eye-catching like the Masterpiece Collection as you mentioned.
Y'know the idea you have of just the background and the Great Prince is exactly the first image that popped into my head for what I would have wanted for a cover. Exactly... and the thought that it would be too abstract for average retlairs donned on me too. Great minds think alike I guess.

Overall not a bad cover but they could have done SO MUCH MORE! Maybe if we so get a giftset like I hope we could get great box art. I like the Lion King and Aladdin's boxes.

[orestes.]

Well, it's late and I'm bored, so I whipped up a quick idea of what I think would be a nice cover for Bambi. Just click here -

http://www.geocities.com/uthabiti/bambi.htm

- obviously, I used the existing art, plus the nicer title from the European trailer for the PE; the one that glenn posted here about a month ago. I know it doesn't match up to the "Platinum style" of main character(s) with sidekicks encircling them, but I'm a fan of more abstract, less in-your-face promotional art.

Now, I don't claim to be any kind of artist... and I only have very basic art programs on my ancient computer (try Adobe PhotoDeluxe... ). So, the art ain't perfect! But I just adore that background on the existing cover, so I wanted to see if I could fashion a custom out of it.

Yes that is pretty much what I was thinking but I never really have envisioned the logo. I don't know what I would go with. I like more of the abstract covers too since they are much more visually appealing to me.
Good work there.

SORRY... for all these posts but I'm only getting a chance to reply now and I can't wait to post everything at the end so I'm replying as I go along. I hope I don't post too much more but I'm really enjoying this thread.