Next wave of Walt Disney Treasures? Update: Future In Doubt

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TM2-Megatron
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Post by TM2-Megatron »

Big Disney Fan wrote:
Escapay wrote:That's ridiculous, we don't have a claim strong enough to even be brought to court. What would it be, The People vs. The Walt Disney Company for bringing about emotional distress due to the ending of a DVD line?

Escapay
For your information, I was being sarcastic. But seriously, there must be some way to force Disney to at least finish the Donald series. Can someone think of something? Because petitions rarely work. The reason why I sarcastically recommended lawsuits was because of this old saying: "Where reasoning fails, force prevails." Then again maybe we should write a petition, only this time we do NOT speak nicely. Maybe that's why petitions fail, because we're always because too nice. Maybe if we wrote irate letters instead of nice ones, then maybe we can get results. See, by writing angry letters instead of nice ones, we might be able to force Disney to comply. We don't need to use swear words or say any bad words to them or threaten them, just use strong words. I think (this is a big THINK) this could work. At least we'll let them know we mean business.
Weren't you the one deriding the rest of us a page or two back for wanting to petition Disney, and taunting everyone that the Treasures line was "over, finished, done with, etc."? Now you're advocating trying to force them to release the shorts?
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Post by Big Disney Fan »

TM2-Megatron wrote:Weren't you the one deriding the rest of us a page or two back for wanting to petition Disney, and taunting everyone that the Treasures line was "over, finished, done with, etc."? Now you're advocating trying to force them to release the shorts?
Well, I just thought that petitions would probably be futile; more often than not, they are. Now I got thinking the reason they're futile is probably because we are always being too nice and being a bit too considerate. Maybe we're being too soft. You go right ahead and petition if you want, but my idea is that next time, we should try not to be so nice. Instead, we write VERY irate, temperamental, sharp and strong words, almost as if we're yelling at them. Maybe we should write angry letters. However, we don't need to use swears or threaten them, just use strong words. Who knows, it just might work. We want the rest of the Donald series, so let's write angry letters, like how Donald himself would respond. :lol: Even if it doesn't work, at least we'll be able to tell Disney we mean business.

P.S., this is mostly in outraged response to their removal of several of the Donald shorts from YouTube.
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Post by MK Sharp »

Big Disney Fan(Sunday) wrote:
Lars Vermundsberget wrote:I believe you're right. A bunch of fans sending the same angry email over and over may not really be the way to go, though.
Well put there, Lars! That's the point I was trying to make all along.
Big Disney Fan (Today) wrote:Instead, we write VERY irate, temperamental, sharp and strong words, almost as if we're yelling at them. Maybe we should write angry letters. However, we don't need to use swears or threaten them, just use strong words. Who knows, it just might work.
Usually I admire people who are willing to admit they're wrong, but this is a u-turn of monumental proportions. A less charitable person than myself might suspect some trollage going on here.

Anyway, I can re-assure you from my years of working in broadcast television that angry letters will always be ignored, whilst a polite request may be successful. You achieve nothing by getting people in a snit.
Big Disney Fan wrote:P.S., this is mostly in outraged response to their removal of several of the Donald shorts from YouTube.
I don't want to be the one who says "I told you so", but, you know...
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Post by Edge »

darth_deetoo wrote:I've just e-mailed Bill Hunt at the Digital Bits website to ask him if he can publicise the plight of the Treasures on the site. They've not reported this as a news item yet, but they've obviously got an inside track with many DVD companies, and have been very vocal on other issues over the years.

To be honest, I'd just be over the moon if Disney would just relent and issue a wave 7 containing just The Chronological Donald Vol 3 and 4. At least then Donald's shorts would be complete on DVD, and I think many fans would be satisfied with that. Then we could move on to the Legacy collection, and see what that brings us in the future.
I think Donald is the big sticking point for most people (here alone it seems to come up a lot).

I can live with the other stuff being release under the legacy banner, but DD is the character who starred in more cartoons than any other character and to leave those shorts half finished is a damn shame to be honest with you.

Take nothing away from some of the live action features but Donald Duck is part of the big 3 and as such is deserving of a better end than a cancelation like this.

If they did even one more release with two Donald volumes and maybe one compilation set I'd be happy to say goodbye, but without that it just feels unfinished.
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Post by Big Disney Fan »

MK Sharp wrote:Anyway, I can re-assure you from my years of working in broadcast television that angry letters will always be ignored, whilst a polite request may be successful. You achieve nothing by getting people in a snit.
But neither do you achieve much by writing polite responses. So I guess all we can do is do nothing. I appreciate you guys' efforts and all, but let's face it, they will never listen. I think we should accept the fact that Donald's series will never completed. :cry: Hmm. Maybe this crying emoticon I just put up got me thinking: what if we wrote crying letters, kinda like a sob story, almost as if we're getting on our knees and pleading for them to comply. But it looks like this is our last hope, though...

Or we could try writing chain letters. Maybe if we bombarded them with enough petition letters, and by that I mean A LOT of petition letters, maybe we can eventually force them to change their minds. My reasoning here is that if we bombard them with enough letters, then there's no way they can ignore them all and they'll just HAVE to do something about it.
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Post by Big Disney Fan »

MK Sharp wrote:I don't want to be the one who says "I told you so", but, you know...
Oh, give it a rest, will ya!!! :x I'm under enough pressure as it is!
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Post by Escapay »

Big Disney Fan wrote:
MK Sharp wrote:I don't want to be the one who says "I told you so", but, you know...
Oh, give it a rest, will ya!!! :x I'm under enough pressure as it is!
:roll:

Dude, just chill. It's scaring everyone that you're flipflopping between anger and sadness so quickly.

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Post by goofystitch »

I just checked my e-mail and I got this reply from Disney:
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and concerns about WALT DISNEY TREASURES SERIES. We value your interest in Walt Disney Home Entertainment Movies and we love to hear the opinions of our viewers. We will forward your comments to our Marketing Department for their review.
So you see? Someone has already read my personal e-mail once and it is being forwarded to the propper people to be read at least a second time and possibly discussed at the next meeting. I urge everyone to write. If they have enough people hounding them about this, they will treat the topic much more seriously.

P.S: Disney feels that statisticly, for every 1 letter they receive, there are 100 people in the U.S. who didn't write a letter, but feel the same way. Meaning each person who writes a letter counts as 100 people. Now, I'm sure that 650 people won't write in, so that means they won't be under the impression that 65,000 people feel this way, but heck. Even if edition numbers for the last 2 Donalds are lower than wave 6's edition size, at least we will have them all.
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Post by MK Sharp »

Big Disney Fan wrote: I'm under enough pressure as it is!
I had noticed you're fraying at the edges a bit. Try to chill out and stop getting worked up so much about what other people are doing.

It's highly unlikely that Disney will never ever release the remaining Donalds. I'm sure they'll turn up eventually, it may just take a bit of waiting, that's all. Heck, I've been waiting 20 years to see some of the stuff on More Silly Symphonies and the forthcoming Oswald set; I'm sure I personally can withstand a few more years for the Donalds. And if it gives Disney a chance to shiny them up in the interim, well so much the better.

Optimism, like patience, is a virtue, and good for your mental health.
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Post by Big Disney Fan »

Escapay wrote:
Big Disney Fan wrote: Oh, give it a rest, will ya!!! :x I'm under enough pressure as it is!
:roll:

Dude, just chill. It's scaring everyone that you're flipflopping between anger and sadness so quickly.

Escapay
Well, sorry for being so emotional. Look, it's nothing personal; it's just that I'm like this a lot, no just on the Internet, but in life itself. First, the Treasures line is liable to end and now YouTube had to remove the Donald shorts from after 1947. Can't you understand my emotions here? Lots of people here are affected in different ways and in my case, it's a very hard pill to swallow, even with water.
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Post by 2099net »

I'm sorry Goofystitch, that's just a form reply, which means nothing. I've written to them asking for House of Mouse many times (on different email adressess) and got the same reply each time.

As for a petition, it won't work because Disney already know how many sets of Donald v1 and v2 they sold. Getting a petition won't convince them v3 (and if needed v4) will sell in any greater numbers.

I really don't think a petition will do anything at all. They know the numbers. TV shows have partly been restarted from petitions, because the petition indicates additional revenue is possible (DVD sales, syndication once enough episodes are made and merchandise sales).

The only way to convince Disney to continue the line is to threaten to boycott all their other releases. But I suspect Disney wouldn't believe a dedicated Disney fan who collects the Treasures line would have enough willpower to boycott their other DVD releases.
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Post by TM2-Megatron »

2099net wrote:The only way to convince Disney to continue the line is to threaten to boycott all their other releases. But I suspect Disney wouldn't believe a dedicated Disney fan who collects the Treasures line would have enough willpower to boycott their other DVD releases.
Unfortunately, you're probably right. Although most discriminating consumers (a minority, I know) wouldn't have much difficulty boycotting current Disney releases, considering how incredibly lacking most of them are in terms of bonus content, etc.

If only we could foster this attitude in more Disney collectors, instead of tasteless, indiscriminate completism.
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Post by MK Sharp »

2099net wrote:As for a petition, it won't work because Disney already know how many sets of Donald v1 and v2 they sold. Getting a petition won't convince them v3 (and if needed v4) will sell in any greater numbers.
The pressing amounts for Wave 6 seem to suggest that even 65,000 copies is viable for Disney to release with turning a vast loss. I can't imagine that either of the first two Donald sets sold less than that, otherwise there'd be over 100,000 unsold Chron.Don.Vol.1 sets warehoused somewhere.

Unless, of course, the decision to drop/replace the Treasures line was made well before the end of the year, and a desultory release of Wave 6 was put out in order to help cut their losses on work already done. That would explain why the Legacy Collection turned up in the Treasures' usual release slot.
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Post by 2099net »

MK Sharp wrote: Unless, of course, the decision to drop/replace the Treasures line was made well before the end of the year, and a desultory release of Wave 6 was put out in order to help cut their losses on work already done. That would explain why the Legacy Collection turned up in the Treasures' usual release slot.
But what would be the point of that? The Legacy Collection could easily be future Treasures? Why kill one to start another? And, lets face it, the True Life Adventures will never sell the numbers of a Donald Duck cartoon release.

The only difference in the lines is the packaging. I do suspect the tins caused some problems for the Treasures releases (dents being sent back) but I feel the Legacy Collection has (IMO) even sillier packaging.

As Terrance Dicks wisely said: "Never confuse conspiracy with incompetance"
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Post by MK Sharp »

Isn't that a riff on the old classic "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity?" But then Uncle Tewwy always stole from the best... :D

Nevertheless, the modern day equivalent is probably "Never attribute to malice or stupidity that which can be explained away as a flaming pointless rebranding exercise to make everything seem fresh and new and exciting when it actually isn't." Not as pithy or elegant as the old one, admittedly, but the results of change for the sake of change rarely are.
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Post by 2099net »

Yes, thinking about it, you're probably right in that the new packaging makes the Legacy set appear "different" and "new" and may spike sales (much like comics usually have sales surges on issue #1s - when everyone knows its issues #3 and #4 that are normally the hardest to find due to the advance ordering system dealers have to abide by).

But then, I still can't see

[a] why they wouldn't release proper numbers for Treasures Wave 6 if they did do the work. Surely they would want to get as big a return on their investment as possible?

why the Legacy set couldn't be held back a year or released mid-2007 so as not to clash with these Treasures.

Personally I think this Legacy Collection wave would have been better as an 8 disc boxset priced around $49.99-$69.99, perhaps with a book thrown in to make it appeal to collectors. I'm sure it would sell better than 4 individual releases. That would have allowed the Treasures to continue too, with Oswald etc perfectly fitting into Wave 7.
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Post by MK Sharp »

2099net wrote:But then, I still can't see

[a] why they wouldn't release proper numbers for Treasures Wave 6 if they did do the work. Surely they would want to get as big a return on their investment as possible?
The only thing that springs to mind is that the sales were dropping off in previous years, so they tried to reduce the manufacturing costs by only producing as many as they thought they could sell.
why the Legacy set couldn't be held back a year or released mid-2007 so as not to clash with these Treasures.

Personally I think this Legacy Collection wave would have been better as an 8 disc boxset priced around $49.99-$69.99, perhaps with a book thrown in to make it appeal to collectors. I'm sure it would sell better than 4 individual releases. That would have allowed the Treasures to continue too, with Oswald etc perfectly fitting into Wave 7.

I think we're in fierce agreement here.
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Post by Big Disney Fan »

MK Sharp wrote:It's highly unlikely that Disney will never ever release the remaining Donalds. I'm sure they'll turn up eventually, it may just take a bit of waiting, that's all. Heck, I've been waiting 20 years to see some of the stuff on More Silly Symphonies and the forthcoming Oswald set; I'm sure I personally can withstand a few more years for the Donalds. And if it gives Disney a chance to shiny them up in the interim, well so much the better.

Optimism, like patience, is a virtue, and good for your mental health.
But if they are gonna stop doing the Treasures, then maybe they will release all but a small handful of the Donald shorts, but they will be probably be released in compilation packages that also have shorts that were ALREADY released on the Treasures sets.

And just so you know, I have a few of the post-47 shorts on DVD through CCF 4: Chip 'n' Dale, FF 4: Huey, Dewey and Louie and even the Swiss Family Robinson DVD (which has the 1949 Donald short "Sea Salts").
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Post by Lars Vermundsberget »

I suggest: No anger, no petitions. Write "snail mail" letters to the right people - be reasonable and polite, but also convincing and persistent.

As for my own collection, I've pretty much got the majority of the later DD shorts on laserdisc, fortunately - but this is still unfinished business; it doesn't look good.
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Post by MK Sharp »

Big Disney Fan wrote:But if they are gonna stop doing the Treasures, then maybe they will release all but a small handful of the Donald shorts, but they will be probably be released in compilation packages that also have shorts that were ALREADY released on the Treasures sets.
Yes, that's my concern too. I'm very disinclined to buy a large number of compilation discs with stuff I've already got; partially because I object to paying for stuff twice, and partially because I don't need the extra burden on my shelf space.

The ideal solution would be for Disney to finish restoring all the Donald shorts, then release them over four Legacy double DVD sets in one hit (like the TLAs), whilst keeping the same content divisions that the Treasures have had so there's no need for Treasures collectors to double-dip on the earlier volumes unless they want to upgrade Vol 2.
They could call it Donald Duck: Redux (or even Reducks... :wink: )

Or maybe Disney could release the outstanding shorts on one four-disc set called There, Now You've Got Them, Go Away And Leave Us Alone!". :D
And just so you know, I have a few of the post-47 shorts on DVD through CCF 4: Chip 'n' Dale, FF 4: Huey, Dewey and Louie and even the Swiss Family Robinson DVD (which has the 1949 Donald short "Sea Salts").
As I've observed previously, I've got all but two of them; but most are on VHS, so they're a bit tatty looking and inconveniently spread over a large number of tapes.

Annoyingly, one of the ones I'm missing is The Litterbug, which I'd love to see as an adult - although I did see it many times at school when I was very small. This is back in the days when we'd assemble in the school hall and be shown films on 16mm by a teacher who barely knew how a 16mm projector worked. I'm starting to feel old now...
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