Has Disney all-but given up on DVD?

[Disney Duster]

I think that children, and more directly their parents, have A LOT to do with the drop in quality.

I think this after discovering, from some source on here somewhere that I, and others, deemed reliable, that Disney actually has resorted to mostly 1 Disc releases these days because parents complained that they didn't want to accidently put in the wrong disc, because they didn't want to upset their child, or probably the more selfish way of putting it, they didn't want to hear their child whine when the movie didn't play. They also wanted the ease, and not to have to think twice about which disc to put in, so they could quickly drop in the disc and move on with their own lives for an hour, because you know, their kids are so awful, that's why you have kids in the first place, to avoid and ignore them.

That was my rant, but anyway, we all know Fastplay was invented to play the movie and the kiddie bonus features (and previews so kids demand more products from their parents) all by themselves, after just dropping in the disc! So, consider that I heard rumours that the restorers of Disney films were told to make the movies more appelaing to children, by making them brighter in color and probably remove brushstrokes and subtleties because kids don't want the complication of details...

And consider how you all complain about "fluffier" features. You mean like features aimed more at kids, like games and such? Yes, it's probably Disney pandering to children that's doing all this, and it's not that they're just happening to leave little room for backstage, "meaty" bonus features, but they're purposely scaling it back because, from that source about Disney only making 1 Disc releases, parents don't care for the making of's and all that other stuff that doesn't entertain their kids! An the parents obviously don't care about it either, and thus don't want it.

This probably also applies to the lack of animated menus and other signs of care and devotion to make an immersive DVD experience, because the kids, and their parents, don't care for it. The parents only see the Disney animated features as brandname kiddy cartoons, and DVDs as a great way to keep the kids quiet.

[I Love Bambi]

There has been a drop in quality, as far as some of them go. I would like to have more features on the DVDs, such as more "the making of" documentaries, and games that actually take some effort to play and win, not games that are set up for three year olds who have never worked a remote before. I also find FastPlay annoying. If you want your young child to learn how to use a remote, teach him what the "play" button is. I hate going through that "FastPlay" screen every time I watch a later disney movie.

[my chicken is infected]

The 1 disc almost always sells better than the 2 disc, so studios are starting to just produce 1 disc releases.

Why? The 1 disc costs less to make, and sells better.

So how come 2-Disc releases used to only cost about $20 at Wal Mart, Target, etc. when they only released those? And sometimes even sold for as little as about $16 the first week. I mean, when that was all that was available for a title, that's what people bought, and they didn't seem to mind paying $16-$20 for it.

But just look at Amazon's prices for Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix. The single-disc versions are $16, while the 2-Disc set is $22 - $6 more than the 1-disc, and anywhere from $2-$6 more than when 2-Disc was all that was available. Not to mention not all stores will carry both the 1-Disc and 2-Disc editions. I had to leave town to buy my Dreamgirls and OOTP 2-Disc sets.

But considering the regular OOTP DVDs are $16 and the 2-Disc set is $22, it's no wonder the 1-disc versions sell better.

[merlinjones]

There are quite a few popular Walt Disney titles missing from DVD entirely. Where are:

Song of the South
So Dear to My Heart
Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow
The Monkey's Uncle (Annette!)
Escapade in Florence (Annette!)
The Horsemasters (Annette!)
The Incredible Journey
Sammy, the Way-out Seal
Kidnapped
The Sign of Zorro
Zorro, the Avenger
The Prince and the Pauper
The Light in the Forest
Charley and the Angel
Superdad
etc.

Not to mention nearly all the TV material...

[DisneyPrincess]

I agree with all of you. I'm very disappointed in the downhill slide Disney has taken with their releases.

I am a big fan of the old Disney movies, and loved the days when they were releasing so many on dvd- but there are still so many to be released, like:

Sammy the Way-Out Seal
So Dear to My Heart
Song of the South
The Monkey's Uncle
Child of Glass
Almost Angels
Dr. Syn Alias the Scarecrow

etc.


I'd also love the 80's tv movies to be released, like Parent Trap III and IV.

If nothing else, I wish TCM would show more of the Disney films- like the ones that aren't on dvd, so that I can actually record them, since Disney won't show anything that doesn't have Hannah Montana or Raven Simone in them.

[disneyfella]

Now, I know that when the DVD format first began most of the Disney DVDs were overpriced and VERY low quality. But after about 5 years, Disney started to release high quality DVDs. They revolutionized the format with the release of "Snow White Platinum Edition", and started the Platinum Edition line. They released "The Ultimate Toy Box", "The Fantasia Anthology", as well as several high calibur DVDs such as "Atlantis 2 disc Collector's Edition", "Dinosaur 2 disc Collector's Edition", "Tarzan 2 disc Collector's Edition", as well as the entire 'Vault Disney Collection' line. These DVDs went behind the scenes as well as gave contemporary interviews with the stars and shared some rare Disney materials from the archives. They had trailers and commentaries, and basically put these films into perspective.

Major catalog titles were up for similar treatment, when slowly the content began to decline. The 'Witch Mountain' movies and 'The Apple Dumpling Gang' were announced as 2 disc sets a la 'The Vault Disney Collection' and supposedly material was recorded and remastered which would fill the set with content. Catalog titles were released without ANY form of remastering, or special features. People's favorite titles which were announced quietly became nonexistant (i.e. "Mr. Boogedy", "Child of Glass", "Tiger Town", "So Dear to My Heart", etc.).

For the past several years the only quality Disney releases of catalog titles have been through the Platinum Line and The Walt Disney Treasures Line; and the general feeling is that even the content offered on those sets is declining as well (specifically certain Platinum Titles with only moderate bonuses).

Why is this happening and how do we make it stop?

I have several theories on this. First of all, there is a format war out there. Blu-Ray has the full support of the Walt Disney Company as the next generation format. FULL support! The problem is that the Blu-Ray players allow you to play your regular DVDs as well as the Blu-Ray discs. Therefore, if Disney releases some of its catalog content on regular DVD (especially stuff that has been unavailable on VHS or extremely rare on VHS), then no one will feel the necessity to upgrade AND buy the Blu-Ray format of the same program......they oversaturate the market with redundant content. However, if they release lackluster DVDs then there might be a reason to upgrade to a Blu-Ray disc when it gets a release on Blu-Ray in the future. Essentially Disney is giving us a reason to "double dip". Even though Blu-Ray has been on the Disney releases for over a year or two now.....there have been NO simultaneous Blu-Ray releases of the Platinum Line discs on Blu-Ray and DVD. With finishing the Disney Platinum Line on regular DVD, they can add so much more content on the Blu-Ray discs and the demand for such discs remains high.

My second thought, is the response of the avid Disney collector to DVD purchases. It is in this forum member's opinion that 'Soccer Moms' are more involved in the Disney survey process. When you get those cards in your DVD cases asking you to fill it out and return it to the Disney Studio, how many of you actually do it? When you want a Disney film to be released, how many of us call the company and let them know there is a market for it (petitions anyone?)? When we get a DVD release we like, how many of us call Disney and complement them on their quality and content released in that DVD? I'll bet not as many as the 'Soccer Moms' who call and complain about the double disc releases saying "I don't know which one is the movie". In other words Disney is hearing an overwhelming voice and it is NOT the Disney collectors who prize their Disney DVD collections.

In short (sorry for the length...I promise to get off this soapbox soon), I feel that the Disney DVD quality has gone down for two reasons 1) a strategic move made by Disney Home Entertainment to create a demand for the same films and 2) the louder voice of the 'Soccer Moms' that Disney hears because the Disney DVD collectors (myself included) haven't been complaining to the right people about the quality and content on Disney DVDs.

Well, are there any thoughts on this? I mean, I have seriously been thinking about this for a few weeks and this is what I came up with. I'm probably way off, or it might be combination of several things, but I figure that if we can figure out why the quality has gone down on Disney DVDs then maybe we can find out what we need to do to fix it.

[Escapay]

Already discussed here:

Has Disney all-but given up on DVD? by netty, created September 29, 2007

But I do agree with everything you said.

I had written the following in November 2006 (in this thread), but updated it with some reflections now that Blu-Ray has been pushed more by Disney....

The lack of quality in <strike>Platinum Editions</strike> Disney DVDs after the spectacular-but-underselling release of Aladdin:

1. DVDs are too mainstream now for Disney to justify having <strike>a family-friendly edition and an uber-collector's edition, it's simply cheaper to put the best of both into one release and call it a day.</strike> an edition that's worth collecting on DVD when they can simply re-release it on Blu-Ray with a few hi-def exclusive features.

In 1999, Disney had *just* joined the DVD bandwagon with their Animated Classics, but released horribly over-priced and under-stuffed discs that went away after two months. 2000 brought the good-on-paper-bad-on-shelves Gold Collection that again was overpriced and could hardly justify an upgrade from VHS. However, like laserdisc, Disney knew there would be a collector's market out there, and gave us truly kickass stuff like the 2-disc CE's (Tarzan, TENG, Dinosaur, A Bug's Life, Atlantis) and totally awesome boxsets like Fantasia Anthology and Ultimate Toy Box. Platinum used to mean something for releases like Snow White and Beauty and the Beast.

Then, DVD got big. Like, really big. I think they pinpoint 2003 as *the* year when DVD finally became the big mainstream thing it is now. 2003 was when more people would pick up a DVD over the VHS, when the studios finally had a stronghold on the consumers that they'd take whatever they'd give to them.

So Disney, sensing this, started slacking. They gave us smaller releases for Lilo & Stitch and Treasure Planet. They offered a complicated navigation system for The Lion King, believing it to be creative. They figured 45-50 minutes was the cut-off time for any documentary to be made for DVD. And what did that leave us? Pretty good releases, but few and far between. When's the next time we'll see a non-Platinum title get a two-disc set? When's the next time we'll see a documentary on a Disney disc go beyond 60 minutes?

Addendum: Well, we've obviously seen the Platinums, Treasures, POTC films, National Treasure, and Princess Diaries get two-disc sets, but aside from the first two POTC films and Treasures the two-disc sets are actually pretty light. A case of quantity not really equating quality, despite the "clout" that the name "two-disc special edition" can still get. The last time I was fully satisfied with a two-disc set was December 2006's DMC2 and that was only because BestBuy had a third disc.

Compare a new Disney release from 2006 to that of 2002. What's changed? Less animation in the menus. Less substantial bonus features. Trailers disappear. Commentaries on anything before the 1980s might as well be non-existant. FastPlay and EasyFind (which I have nothing against except being a total insult to the intelligence of the viewer).

Addendum: Sadly...it's the same today. All of the above still occurred in 2007, although they seemed to hit the "slack off" button a few times too many. And as much as I complain about lack of trailers, the fact that they'll appear 10,000 times on DVDs that come out before it hits theatres/shelves really voids the argument. Still, it'd make more sense to have a trailer for a film be on the DVD of the film. And I've learned to love FastPlay on occasion, sometimes I wanna have a Disney movie play in the background, and FastPlay allows me to slip the disc in and pretty much ignore it for 10 minutes then listen in to the movie while doing something else.

The days of a Vault Disney release, two-disc special edition (non-Platinum), and even solid single-disc editions are gone. After all, Disney's not marketing it just for the families on one side (a nice single-disc fluffy edition with fluffier slipcover) and collectors on the other (a packed multi-disc set in a sturdy box with a book). <strike>It's easier for them just to put the two together and expect it to be distributed peacefully between the two parties.</strike> It's easier to appeal more to families who don't care for multi-disc sets, especially ignoramus parents who get confused as to which disc in a multi-disc set contains the feature film...despite all clues on the disc such as the number 1, the word "feature film", and the fact that it's the first disc you see when you open the case.

2. With high-definition <strike>looming ahead, Disney's saving good stuff for a future release.</strike> already here, Disney is making their DVDs seem rather substandard with a few exceptions, knowing that some fans will eventually rebuy the same product in the hi-def format.

Many are already saying that either one format wins, or both lose, or that one wins but it won't be as big as DVD, and more like laserdisc. I'm pretty sure Disney's expecting all those options, and to prepare for a reason to upgrade, we're not seeing the *good stuff* until there's a definite chance that it'll be worth putting out on market in the dominant format. Not much to say here because this idea is fairly new. After all, in 2001, many expected Snow White to be the be-all end-all release of the film, and yet here we've got The Little Mermaid with barely less than half the material that Snow White has, and many speculate it's because they'll save the good stuff for Blu-Ray. Or, simply for a DVD re-release in the chance that neither Blu-Ray or HD-DVD is a success, and Disney will need a reason for 2011 DVD consumers to upgrade from the old 2006 DVDs.

3. The average joe who likely outnumber us collectors 10 to one don't give a rat's ass about bonus features.

It's sad, but true. Many people simply don't care for bonus features. And so, Disney decides to cater to many people rather than uber-collectors. It's cheaper that way. So what do we get? Games. Talking Head shortform documentaries. Deleted Scenes. A report once found out that the bonus feature of choice is the deleted scenes, which is why you'll often see those marketed first and listed first on the back of cases. And why smaller releases only seem to have them as a bonus feature. Average Joe doesn't want an in-depth commentary or a 90-minute look behind the scenes. He wants the movie and what was cut from the movie, regardless if it was necessary or unnecessary.

Addendum: *sigh*...more paragraphs that still holds true today. On the plus side, we finally saw the release of "Secrets, Stories, and Magic"! But at the same time...that shoddy re-release for Peter Pan nearly doomed the Platinum line, and the fact that there's an hour's worth of games on 101 Dalmatian doesn't bode well either.

Scaps

[disneyfella]

Sorry about the new thread (I'm not quite sure how to merge it, if anyone feels free to).

If this is the problem, though, what can we as a large collector fanbase do to improve the Disney release quality? I'm not sure phone calls would do the trick......part of me is resigned to take whatever I can get, you know? I'll just roll over and buy the next Disney DVD release no matter how crappy it is simply because I live-an-breathe Disney DVDs......sad but true..

[Escapay]

Sorry about the new thread (I'm not quite sure how to merge it, if anyone feels free to).

A mod (such as my partner in crime Ceej) will likely merge it.

If this is the problem, though, what can we as a large collector fanbase do to improve the Disney release quality? I'm not sure phone calls would do the trick......part of me is resigned to take whatever I can get, you know? I'll just roll over and buy the next Disney DVD release no matter how crappy it is simply because I live-an-breathe Disney DVDs......sad but true..

goofystitch once said that for every phone call and/or e-mail that Disney receives, it reflects the opinion of 100 other people who chose not to make a phone call or send an e-mail. So writing e-mails once a week would be great. Of course, at best all we'll get back is form letters saying "thank you, we will forward this to such-and-such". But Disney does pay people (likely interns and temps) to sit and read nothing but consumer e-mails and scour Disney boards to see what fans are really saying.

(And Disney, I'm more than certain you're reading this now, given that you've got your own BVHE-Rep who chimes in once in awhile. Please for the love of god get back to the good ole days of 2002-2004 when catalog releases were treated with some kind of respect. An anamorphic and restored edition of The Rocketeer with a few retrospective documentaries and a director/cast commentary would be a great start, don't you think?)

Scaps

[Flanger-Hanger]

(And Disney, I'm more than certain you're reading this now, given that you've got your own BVHE-Rep who chimes in once in awhile. Please for the love of god get back to the good ole days of 2002-2004 when catalog releases were treated with some kind of respect. An anamorphic and restored edition of The Rocketeer with a few retrospective documentaries and a director/cast commentary would be a great start, don't you think?)

Scaps

AGREED! well said Scapsta. And could Mr. BVHE-Rep consider a release of The Fighting Prince of Donegal too? And stop this nonsense with Disney Movie Club only releases.

[Sloppy Moe]

A point that most of you are missing is the fact that we all have to have 'new Digital-ready' television sets by the year 2009 or we won't be able to see regular television. All television channels by government decree will be digital and your regular analog television won't be able to receive the signals unless you are with a good cable or satellite company, who will offer conversion boxes for those who are still too stubborn to make the switch.

That only affects antennae broadcast. You can still watch these programs using cable on CRTs