WHAT gives? I can tell you what gives in three small words: cold, hard cash! They'd rather you spend money to watch the films.kyler28 wrote:I think what saddens me more than anything is this:
If you walk into a BestBuy store's TV series/boxed sets section, you'll see older, obscure, minor, even C-level later edition TV shows with full season releases and boxed sets, i.e., "Dukes of Hazzard Season Five" or "The Doris Day Show."
Yet films made by Walt Disney himself, arguably the 20th century's most beloved genius from the entertainment world, are virtually NOWHERE to be found, save a few Treasures sets that they'll stock every December. Why no Season Seven or Season 12 of "The Wonderful World of Disney," a show so highly rated that it ran for 29 YEARS?!?!?
Moreover, Turner Classic Movies or the Fox Movie Channel will play beloved classics from their libraries on their own vintage-themed cable channels, such as "Gone with the Wind" or "MASH," but then they also screen the lesser-known works of Bette Davis or obscure B-films shown largely for historical interest - if you like Ginger and Rogers' big hits, you can see their minor films, too.
But on TV, WHERE you can see Disney films, most of which performed better at the box office and drew more interest because of the Disney name? Who shows Academy Award winners such as "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"? Where will you see one of the biggest box office hits of 1960, "The Absent-Minded Professor"? When TCM devotes a day to the films of Brandon de Wilde, they HAVE to leave out "Those Calloways," because it's a Disney film, but where else will this critically lauded Disney drama be shown? Or when a day is devoted to Glenn Ford, "Smith" is omitted, but it's never shown by Disney, never released to DVD by Disney.
Universal released big horror hits such as "Dracula" and "Frankenstein," but then they also released minor B-horror films from the same vein, even though they're not as well remembered, but for completists and historical value, they're of interest to SOMEBODY.
But the Walt Disney Company, with a stable of films that consistently were top box office draws, NEGLECTS its library. When these films are forgotten and become obscure, how can Disney EVER expect to obtain future revenue from them? If Fox can release a largely forgotten Lucille Ball film, "The Dark Corner" as part of its Film Noir series, does Disney expect me to believe THAT movie will sell more copies than Disney would sell if they only released "So Dear to My Heart"??? And WHY is that film available in Europe but not here, where it was produced and intended for American audiences, with its Americana theme?
Finally, how does Turner's "Flintstones Season Five" merit a release, but Donald Duck Treasures Volume 3 or 4 NOT deserve a release?
At this rate, I fully expect to see on the shelves a complete season of "My Mother the Car" or "Cop Rock" before we'll ever see a full season of "Zorro" released to the general public (and a vanity-run, exclusive Disney Movie Club colorized release doesn't count in my book).
So, call me disillusioned, but as a Disney fan, I've been consistently let down, first with the Disney Channel morphing into Nickelodeon Lite, then Vault Disney being relegated to 1 a.m. and then gone altogether. ESPECIALLY when Nickelodeon's primetime fare proved so popular that the company started TVLand to show other vintage classic shows. "Wonderful World of Disney" beat "Green Acres" in the ratings - why does "Green Acres" get to be seen, but not the Disney anthology series?
Disney executives, especially from the home video division, will NEVER, EVER address ANY of these complaints. To be a "good, loyal" Disney fan, I used to buy everything, but the last few years, I've stopped buying the crappy "Cinderella II: Electric Boogaloos" and "Fox and the Hound 4's" and so on, lest my purchases be misconstrued as a vote of support for that kind of fare. Instead of keeping BVHE profitable enough to subsidize releases of releases that I actually WANT to see - the original "Incredible Journey," for example - evidently my thinking was misguided and in vain.
I'd like to see less Disney apologetics on this board - yes I'm appreciative that SOME things got released - but why should they expect ANY brand loyalty from us? WB or Fox doesn't have people who LOVE WB or Fox the way people love Disney, so WHAT gives???
Maybe we should murder all the executives, hang them, put them in front of a firing squad, knock 'em over a cliff, behead them, burn 'em at the stake, do something! Let's just get rid of 'em!!! Better yet, why don't we destroy Disney altogether!!!!
(*breathes heavily*)
Okay, maybe I'm ranting here, but I do agree they want you to part with as much of your cash as possible.
But look at the bright side: when you actually do part with the cash and take the DVD home, YOU get to decide when the show will be on, YOU have no worries about commercials and YOU can watch those movies whenever and as much as you want. And that goes for anyone without digital cable or even just basic. And this principle goes for ANY DVD, not just Disney.
As for TV shows, maybe if we ask them nicely, we could start to see the films on DVD in seasons, though that would take a whole boatload of discs. Plus, some are starting to be put out on the members-only website, Mousebits.com. If you sign up on that site, you can view them.
So you see, there are advantages of Disney shows not on TV: if you spend the money, you can watch them at your own leisure and you decide on when they're on. Besides, they would probably be severely edited as they usually are if they were on TV.
