Escapay, back in June wrote:Perhaps come September, I'll eat my words once more. Perhaps the jam session, the memoir, the Walt piece, the recording sessions... perhaps all those will be worthy supplements that soften the blow of "losing" a lot of great content from the past. Perhaps the sneak peek will truly get me excited for a film that I've literally waited 25 years to see. Perhaps I'll actually watch this "25 Fun Facts" thing and learn something I haven't. Perhaps this is all a dream, and I'll wake up in a world where your home media releases have consistently gotten better and better as the Blu-Ray format gets older and older. You know, as opposed to the past ten years of me bitching and moaning about one thing or another. Yeah, I know that my physical media bias has shown in this past, and that digital is the future that you're pushing on us. But perhaps I'll learn to embrace that. Or perhaps you'll realize that physical media is still a viable product.
Disney, prove me right. I double-dare you.
Albert
So...
Throughout both 2015 and 2016, I'd been going to Disney Screen at Cinemark, seeing various Disney films - animated and live-action alike - on the big screen as they were meant to be seen. I pretty much bought a season pass whenever each quarterly calendar was released. When
Beauty and the Beast finally showed up on the schedule, I was overjoyed. At last, I could fulfill a 25-year dream of seeing this film in theatres.
The question, of course, would be which version Disney Screen would... screen.
And, by some miracle, they screened a version of the film that most accurately represented what viewers saw in 1991. Natural, earthy colors. Beast stuttering, "You wan-you wanna stay in the tower?" The correct background for the closing shot of "Something There." No "Human Again," so all the backgrounds still looked dirty and unkempt. Belle's reflection in the glass was gone. And Cogsworth had that muscle spasm as he proclaims "Why?" This was the
Beauty and the Beast I grew up with. And at last, I could see it the way it was meant to be seen.
Then you released the
Beauty and the Beast Signature 25th Collection Anniversary Whatnot Edition.
And it's the same exact encode you used in 2010.
What the fuck, Disney?
You gift theatre-goers with the most perfect version of the film. The Disney Screen version was also used for D23 events and other limited engagements in 2016. You could have proven me wrong by actually putting that version on the disc, since you've offered the film in so many different versions over the years. But, instead, you actually just go back to the same 2010 encode, only now it's sharing the disc with about 40-odd minutes of new features. I mean, I wouldn't have minded updating my word document that tracks just how many editions there are of this film across 25 years. Putting a note in that the 25th Anniversary Blu-Ray is the best one for the film would have been really nice. Instead, it's just another notch on the belt, another edition to hoard.
And hoard it, I did. Because I really can't see myself revisiting this disc for much. And, gasp, I probably won't have to put the disc in since I find myself actually using Disney Movies Anywhere sometimes. But let's go over these new features and why they're making me less likely to want to revisit the disc:
It's always funny to compare the "Walt tried to make this" bit in every subsequent home media release. It literally gets passing reference in the 2002 documentary, gets expanded a bit more in the 2010 documentary, and now is its own full-fledged featurette here... all for the one, surviving piece of concept art. But the whole story behind how it survived is fascinating, because this particular unmade chapter in Walt's history always fascinates me. And to finally see what could have been, even in such an early form, just makes the whole piece worth the price of admission. THIS is the kind of stuff Disney should be making as bonus features. It's pretty much Criterion level, and shows they still have a few tricks up their sleeves if they put their mind to it.
Unfortunately, it's kind of downhill from there.
The jam session re-iterates most everything from the previous "Composing a Classic," but adds in some well-meaning fanboy/girl moments. I want to say negative things about this, but I can't. The only negativity I have is that I wasn't in the room where it happens. Clearly, this discussion ran longer than 20 minutes. And I would have been a fly on the wall the entire time.
You know what else likely also exists longer than what's on the disc? The recording sessions. What's the point of presenting a manic mash-up in a three-minute compilation when you could probably provide longer sessions as some sort of occasionally-showing-up picture-in-picture track? It's obvious that all of "Belle" and "Be Our Guest" exist - especially given that they were shot for 20/20's news report. And the other rough footage hints at much more. And Angela's legendary one-take recording of "Beauty and the Beast"... come on, Disney. We deserve at least that.
And Paige O'Hara deserves more than two local-production theatre people trying to interview her for a hot minute. Fortunately, she just talks to the camera herself, saving them and viewers some secondhand embarrassment. I'm glad this runs as long as it does - eleven whole minutes and some change. It's pretty much on par with the Howard Ashman featurette (13 minutes) of 2010. Part of me does wish we had a similar Robby Benson featurette to run in tandem with this. But I bet the budget for that had to go to the Disney Channel kids.
Fun fact, both Disney Channel kids (Gus Kamp and Kayla Maisonet) were only three years of age when
Beauty and the Beast was first released... to DVD. It's the only NEW fact you'll learn, and not even one that they address in their five minutes of harmless hosting. The 25 facts they regurgitate with the usual Disney Channel pomp and circumstance were covered more extensively in pretty much every bonus feature that's now a digital exclusive. All of a sudden, Disney Movies Anywhere seems more appealing.
Finally, that sneak peek is less than 90 seconds. Just... go.
Disney, I don't care if I'm right or wrong anymore. I'm just disappointed.
Albert
