So as to not steer off on a tangent in the "My Blu-Ray Copy of Snow White" or whatever it's called, I'm quoting something goofystitch said and talking about it in this thread regarding next year's release of
Beauty and the Beast...
goofystitch wrote:With the theatrical release [of BATB 3-D] no longer a conflict for the Home Entertainment division, they were free to rearrange the schedule. The real reason for switching Beauty and the Beast to Spring was to spend more time on Fantasia's restoration. While this is great news for Fantasia, it sounds like it's going to be really bad news for Beauty and the Beast. My source tells me that now this release is being rushed in such a way that there won't be much new in the way of bonus features.
I'm not gonna touch the whole "original theatrical edition" versus "IMAX edition" versus "Work in Progress edition" because my opinion on that is already found in other threads and I'm talking about the bonus features here.
I'm slightly upset that they have to not only rush the BATB release now, but that if there will be new bonus features, they won't be much. If anything, the only thing I'm really worried about is the making-of documentary. Everything else in the 2002 Special Features is quite excellent. But the Documentary is something that I really hoped could be improved upon.
For starters, the documentary is only 50 minutes, which to some may seem fine...if it's only focused on 3 or 4 aspects of the film and has less than 10 people talking (look at the excellent "Adventure in The Making" documentary on
Swiss Family Robinson). But when you consider that the 50 minutes is broken up into 18 different featurettes (only 11 of which are actually about the movie), then you really end up with a lot of quick talking about one subject before moving to another just as quickly. Beyond the directors and producer, most everyone has very little airtime in this doc, as there are 29 people interviewed for the documentary (most were recent, though Jerry Orbach's, and I think Glen Keane's were from 1991). People you think would have more to say actually only get a couple lines in the whole 50 minute affair (Chris Sanders has like, less than 30 seconds in the entire thing).
So I was really really hoping that when they revisited
Beauty and the Beast for Blu-Ray release and DVD re-release, that they'd have a documentary that was longer, so that the more people in it have more time to discuss what they're talking about. And if not longer, then at least have less people in it in a "main" documentary, while specialized featurettes (about 10-15 minutes each) can focus on other aspects that get glossed over. For example, they could have a 15-minute featurette about adapting the story, and just interview the story team and Linda Woolverton. Or they could have an entire featurette about the computer animation and the backgrounds, with just people like Ed Ghertner, Lisa Keene, and the directors. It's like how
The Little Mermaid has a "Storm Warning", which is all about the Special Effects Unit, or how
101 Dalmatians has a piece all about Cruella de Vil, or how
Peter Pan has "In Walt's Words". It's a simple formula: one main documentary that runs 40-50 minutes, and additional featurettes related to the film. Instead,
Beauty and the Beast squeezes it all into one documentary, and their additional featurette was a (IMO) near-useless "Story Behind the Story" in the Mrs. Potts section. I always felt that kind of stuff would be better off included on the DVDs of the movies they're covering, instead of having a broad range of movies condensed into 6 or 7 mini-features.
But anyway, back to
Beauty and the Beast. I was really hoping that the Blu-Ray could present a newer documentary and additional featurettes, if only to give the various aspects of production their due rather than providing a CliffsNotes version that runs less than an hour.
At the same time, the fact that they don't have much time to come up with (and film) special features could be a good thing. They've already got a lot of material from the Platinum that can easily be carried over, and if all they have time to shoot is one new documentary in HD, that's better than nothing. The art galleries alone already outshine most other Platinums and little needs to be added to that (though I'd love for some Production Photos and Behind the Scenes stuff).
However, if Disney has less time to prepare special features, and wants to include more than an HD documentary, here's a few suggestions that shouldn't take too much of their time:
1.
A Longer Documentary - they can either edit in more interview material from 1991 and 2002 to make 50 minutes turn to 75 or 90. Or, if they want to shoot new stuff in HD, be more selective about who talks.
2.
The 1991 TV Special - doubtful, but hey, they're rushing, so they might as well see this and think, "Hey, here's 25 minutes we dont' have to worry about!". It was on one of the laserdisc releases, so it should've made the jump to DVD in the first place. The TV Specials for
Pocahontas and
The Hunchback of Notre Dame were carried over to their DVDs (in R1 at least).
3.
Additional Featurettes that altogether amount to less than an hour - just like
Peter Pan's Platinum Edition!
If they're just gonna keep the 2002 documentary in an effort to cut costs and because they're pressed for time, the least they could do is offer some additional features that shouldn't take too long to make:
--A 20 minute featurette about the life and career of Howard Ashman. Seriously, the 3-and-a-half minute one is not enough.
--A 10-15 minute featurette about the non-musical version that was supposed to be directed by Richard Purdum. It can be like "The
Beauty and the Beast that Never Was" or something, with Purdum, Glen Keane, and Don Hahn discussing sequences they planned before Purdum left the project (or was fired, I forget) and it became a musical. And I think they shot some research trip footage in Europe.
--A 10-15 minute featurette, even if it's just Paula Sigman and John Canemaker talking, about Walt's aborted versions of the story. And include concept art for that in the galleries.
--A 10-15 minute featurette about the Broadway show. Because I don't want to know about that in a main documentary about the movie. Give it its own feature.
4.
Additional Deleted Material - Stuff like the Prologue (before it was shortened to stain glass windows), Maurice searching for Belle (showing how he has no sense of direction), storyboards and/or rough animation (if it exists) for the extended bit of "Gaston" that you hear on the soundtrack, and the allegedly alternate "Ice Capades" version of the Ballroom Dance (according to Jim Hill) that they had as a back-up if the traditional/CGI hybrid version wouldn't be done in time.
albert
, it's probably for the release, very pretty...
