Luke wrote:Then again, I'd be glad if they just included the 30-minute making-of doc they already put together in '94 and aired on the Disney Channel, and that should cost very little to put on the DVD, far less than to produce a whole new doc, at least.
Well, yeah. Me too.
But Disney seem keen on selling this disc to kids and - basically - ignoring their (substantial, I must add) adult followers. And if it does come down to either or, I think I would prefer a
well done new documentary.
But ideally I'd like both documentaries on the set - an archive 'making of' to show us how the film was presented/promoted at the time and an all new documentary that could go into more detail (and also discuss the sucess of the film - something the TV special does not do). Really to me the TV special could be seen more as historical interest (I have seen it, but cannot remember it's content, but normally these things are pretty light - see the Pocahontas or Hunchback TV specials), but they also provide a good overview of how animated films are made and so are ideal for the younger viewers, while the new documentary (all in one programme, or like the Atlantis disc split up into substantial sections rather than the odd two or five minute segments found on the BatB disc *) would cover the making of in more detail for a more 'enthusiast' audience.
The Fantasia discs have wonderful documentaries that cover the making of each film to just about the right level of detail letting the user explore the third disc themselves to discover more information at their own pace. Surely the Lion King should get the same treatment? They could probably do a documentary lasting 50 minutes or so just on the Broadway show. It's not as if they can plead that they have a lack of information and/or topics to present.
Really, I would have thought it would have been a no-brainer for Disney. While there was no existing Making Of as such, the Snow White disc has archive recordings (the motion picture promotional film and radio recordings) as well as a good "all-new" making of. Why should Beauty and the Beast and Lion King be any different?
As for 15 minutes of all new animation ** - I just cannot understand why Disney would pay all that money for a feature that only has a slight link to the actual film, when that have items in their substantial archive that have stronger connections to the film. If they want new kiddie features how about spending that money to animate 2 new Timon & Pumbaa musical shorts (like their Lion Sleeps Tonight and Stand By Me cartoons)? At least Disney may have the means to reuse such footage elsewhere - something I would have thought would have been to their benefit.
It's a shame Disney don't follow their LaserDisc model anymore. A good compromise may have been to include an extra disc in the Gift Set as well as the book which could include the original TV special, plus perhaps some long(ish) talking heads interviews with key production crew - or even just the unedited interviews filmed for the regular supplements (I would imagine filming talking heads would be relatively cheap). Hopefully such a disc wouldn't put the price of the Gift Set up too much, but would mean a much more substantial release for the die-hard Disney fan base.
* If there's one thing I dislike about these discs, it's the short segments they present. While I commend their 'play all' selection, to me it still doesn't work - each section of the Beauty and the Beast DVD was far too short, resulting in documentary that never seemed to get going when this option was choosen. I think it worked very well on Atlantis as each individual segment was longer on average, and I also think it worked well on Snow White as disc one contained the documentary, while disc two was fun to explore and the information presented on the disc was, in effect, supplements to the film and the documentary.
** Horrible thought - will this Virtual Safari be CGI? The menus are, with CGI characters.
Sorry. Been ranting again.
Come on, don't you think it'll be GREAT? 
i was shocked this really sux then i asked them who would be carrying the giftset and they told wal mart which means i cant get the lithos.. unless i bought it and the giftset and didnt open the one i got from the disney store and returned it without the lithos do u think thast would work 
