Walt Disney Treasures Wave 5 DVDs Press Release

[Bill W]

Did anyone have trouble taking the stickers off the tins??

My Ranties tin has sticker resedue but the donald one came off just fine, and I am sad

Yes, all four of mine left sticky goo after I peeled the stickers off. I used Thoro Spot Remover to clean them off. You can also try nail polish remover, rubbing alcohol, or even lighter fluid. Luckily its pretty easy to clean the sticker goo off of metal tins. Its a bigger problem on cardboard slipcovers.

[dvdjunkie]

I have watched the "Rarities" two-disc set in total and didnt notice any abnormalities other than source material. The black and white is crisp and clear and the color is amazing. I was impressed totally with the offerings of the "Rarities" set.

Have watched only the first disc of the "Donald Duck Vol. 2", but so far I haven't noticed any foreign anomalies that some people have spoken of. Maybe they just got a bad disc or they are using inferior reproduction equipment (DVD player, computer DVD-Rom, etc.) The color is crisp and brilliant, and Donald has never looked better. Will be watching disc two later today.

As far as the stickers go, my tins that I purchased at Best Buy didn't have any stickers on the tins themselves. Each tin was double-shrink-wrapped and when i got the wrapping off my tins were clean.

[TM2-Megatron]

The only stickers my tins had on them were the strips that normally go along the top of DVD cases, and it came off cleanly. All the other stickers were on the shrink-wrap.

[Super Leviathan]

Both the Chornologcial Donald and Rarities set have gotten at least one negative review on Amazon.com for restoration (or lack therof).

[TM2-Megatron]

There isn't a product known to Man or God that hasn't had at least 1 (usually alot more) bad review on Amazon, lol. The majority of the Donald ones, as I said, can't be that bad. And some of the stuff on the rarities tin is so damn old, what do they expect? Or maybe they just hate the windowboxing done to some of it. Who knows? It will never be, though, that everyone is satisfied.

[MikeyMouse]

I've only had a chance to watch Rarities so far. I've been impressed with what I got a chance to view, especially considering the age of some of the early source material. Considering the red flag that some people seem to be raising about the Donald discs, I'll probably pop one of those in tonight while we're putting up our Christmas tree and see if the gripes are valid.

Other than the titles that have already been mentioned, I seem to remember watching a great many Disney-produced educational films in elementary and middle school that were hosted by Ludwig von Drake. I could be way off base here, but I'm pretty sure of it. If there were enough to fill a disc or two, that's probably something that not everyone has had exposure to. Also, being relatively young, I never got to watch the original Wonderful World of Disney or Disneyland shows...I'd like to see some of them, too. I'm sure there are color masters of the shows that were broadcast in B&W.

[Little Red Henski]

I also don't have a problem with the restoration work on these Treasures. I'm impressed by how nice the Alice shorts look. Disney even gave them all brand new soundtracks! I haven't watched Donald yet so I can't comment on that one yet.

[Class316]

Worst treasures packaging ever.

The cardboard on the back simply falls off

The tape leaves residue on the tin

And they cheapened out the inside of the box. No more double box.

At this rate wave 10 will be in Styrofoam boxes

[Luke]

I've gone and written another review! Read it here:

Elfego Baca • The Swamp Fox: Legendary Heroes
http://www.ultimatedisney.com/legendary ... lfego.html

[MickeyMousePal]

Great Review Luke!!!

I can't wait to get all four next week from Amazon!!!!

Gargoyles S2 V1, Rescue Rangers and DuckTales are on it's way!!!!!

[Scaramanga]

You know ... to be honest I'm a bit disappointed in the restoration work on the 7 non-Vault Donalds on the first disc of Volume 2. It really does look like they weren't restored when compared to the ones from the Vaul (read: copied from the Front Lines set) or the ones from Volume 1. It doesn't look bad at all, but compared to previous animated treasures it just doesn't look as good as I'd expected.

On the left the one as seen in the wartime short as restored for the Front Lines set, on the right the title card from the first "new" short on Volume 2, Disc 1:



And just compare these 2 screenshots, one from one of the "new" shorts, one from the earlier restored wartime shorts:





I can't really explain it but there's just something wrong with the top one ... it lacks definition, contrast, colour, ... all kinds of things wrong with it.

I'm glad to have em but I just wonder why they look less good.
Still have to have a look at Disc 2.

If I didn't know any better I'd think the 2nd one was sourced from film elements and the first one from video ... the things I see in it are just consistent with what you see on tv-shows transferred from video. Actually ... think Ducktales if you know what I mean.

[TM2-Megatron]

After going through the non-Vault Donald shorts, I have to admit they aren't quite as well-restored as past Donald cartoons. They still look pretty good, especially considering their age, but it's obvious Disney didn't do nearly as much work on this set.

I guess it was inevitable as time went on, that Disney would see fit to do less work. After establishing a customer base that would definately buy future releases, they probably figured they could get away with lower quality.

If I didn't know any better I'd think the 2nd one was sourced from film elements and the first one from video ... the things I see in it are just consistent with what you see on tv-shows transferred from video. Actually ... think Ducktales if you know what I mean.

I'm not sure I'd go that far. I'd think Disney might have more trouble finding some of this on a video source than the original film. And if it had been transferred from video, it would probably look absolutely horrible.

[Scaramanga]

I'm not sure I'd go that far. I'd think Disney might have more trouble finding some of this on a video source than the original film. And if it had been transferred from video, it would probably look absolutely horrible.

It wouldn't necissarily look awfull, industrial video can look pretty good, but once it ages you get the exact same kind of distortions I tend to faintly recognize in the non-vault shorts on the first disc.

You know if someone like Leonard Maltin were to tell me the quality difference is simply because of the fact the source material was in very poor condition I'd have no problems accepting that and be glad they still look so good. That being said, after x number of gorgeous looking and perfectly restored cartoons in the treasures series it sounds kinda weird.

[TM2-Megatron]

It wouldn't necissarily look awfull, industrial video can look pretty good, but once it ages you get the exact same kind of distortions I tend to faintly recognize in the non-vault shorts on the first disc.

Maybe. I would've liked to think Disney wouldn't be so cheap (at least not on sets they know are going to be purchased primarily by those who'd notice quality) on the Treasures, but I guess we've all seen examples of their cost-cutting before. Perhaps someone could e-mail Martin, asking about it. I've already e-mailed asking that he pass along our thoughts on the lack of anamorphic enhancement on the Rarities set.

[Scaramanga]

Just checked out Disc 2

Some of the transfers on it are downright awfull IMO, especially when compared to the previous sets. Dirt, scratches and other kinds of unwanted things seem to be omnipresent. I'd expect this kind of thing for the likes of Tom & Jerry (no negatives to go back too), but Disney ... no ... never thought I would see such things. Some of the shorts were even interlaced

2 examples ...

[Scaramanga]

A comparison between the Ben & Me I had on one of the Disney Fairy Tales discs and the Rarities set. The version I had on the Fairy Tiles disc was the extended version of the short, which is at least 5 minutes longer. I'm assuming the version on the rarities set is the original theatrical version which was only roughly 20 minutes long ?







Also compared the 2 versions of Lambert I had, no quality difference there. I got the impression the version on the older dvd was a bit sharper, but that could just have been my eyes playing tricks on me

[dvdjunkie]

I really think that is what I call "nitpicking at its ugliest". I have watched both discs of the "Chronological Donald Volume 2" and I think that they are absolutely wonderful. I looked and even went back and looked some more for the anomalies that you mention and I couldn't find any. I thought all the colors looked brilliant, and on my Hi-Def Front Projection system I thought that the shorts all looked just like they did in the theaters.

The "Rarities" you mentioned (Lambert and Ben and Me) are both in wonderful condition and I thought they looked really sharp and brilliant.

Don't know what you are expecting, but I am totally satisfied with what I got. I just wished that they hadn't gotten so cheap with the quality of the tin packaging.

[Scaramanga]

My god ... if you can't see the HUGE quality difference between this set and Donald's first volume then you need to have your eyes checked.

If noticing these serious flaws is nitpicking then let's all ditch DVD and go back to VCR ... after all that didn't look that bad either

So what was I expecting: the same quality as the previous treasures, which is NOT what we got. Doesn't mean I'm not satisfied though, just a bit disappointed because they're not as good quality wise as the rest of the lot. (The Mickeys, Goofy, Pluto and Donald Vol. 1)

[Luke]

Scaramanga, thanks for the great comparative screencaps! Am I right in assuming the Fairy Tales caps are on the left in your post?

[Scaramanga]

Whoops ... forgot to mention that
Yes, they are the ones to the left.