gamer51 wrote:Does anyone have suggestions for this? Would a facebook page be better than a petition or would both be a good idea? I just want something that people can easily "like" and possibly join as a "member" just to show their support. There would be no monetary exchange or gain. It would just be asking Disney to set up something like Warner Archive and sell online through a normal store (NOT like or as part of their awful movie club) where customers can pick up older shows and movies on DVD and, if possible, Blu-ray. For example, The Gummi Bears DVDs, the rest of Ducktales on DVD, The Black Cauldron on BD, Marvel cartoon seasons or series sets on DVD or BD, etc.
If Warner can release such a huge catalog without taking a huge loss and shutting it down, Disney/Marvel can certainly do it too--and they should. They are being very greedy/selfish in refusing to release stuff on physical media. Currently, if Disney is in control, forget it being released on physical media here in the US. For example, Avengers Frost Fight and Hulk Where Monsters Dwell were not even released on DVD, which is extremely pitiful.
If they set up a Warner Archive deal, maybe they can even partner with Amazon and have Amazon stock and sell products.
Anyway, helpful suggestions? Thanks!
How do I answer this? I guess I'll start out with the question, did you ever hear of Open Vault Disney or DAF Radio? The former was set up as a fan effort to get EVERYTHING unreleased released on DVD from the Disney archives while the latter has just focused on the unreleased Disney Afternoon series. And there have been some success.
TaleSpin got it's final release, and we saw the
Mr. Boogedy films come to DVD and such. While the latter is still going, the former kind of ended up retired. How do I know all of this? Because I started both of them.
For the last seven years, I've been spear-heading fan campaigns to do the very thing you are asking about. I even ended up talking under the table with people at Disney Home Entertainment in the early years. From my experience, I can tell you that it's all very much an up hill battle. I don't know if you knew this, but for a time Disney did have something like the WAC, kind of. It was called the "Generations Collection" and was sold via Amazon. It didn't last very long. They never advertised it (most people I ran into online who knew about it found out from my group or some from forums like this one) and they released some of the most obscure titles possible. I personally pleaded with some of the powers that be behind that project to use it to release slightly more known properties that they had no interest put out in retail like
Bonkers or
Adventures in Wonderland. I also pleaded with them that they just make a simple post on one of their social media accounts about it. Neither ever happened and not surprised the series died before it really did much due to "low sales." To this day I still really feel like some of the higher-higher-ups wanted it to fail. Could you image if they ever did that to a
Star Wars project? Where there was literately zero advertising and it was all word of mouth from fans? That would never happen!
The sad truth is outside of their big A-List catalog titles, Disney doesn't really care enough. They have a very different outlook than their peers at Warner. That doesn't mean all hope is lost, it just means it will go title to title and the odds are getting worse with each passing year. Current Disney CEO Bob Iger is very fixed on an all digital future, and as Leonard Maltin has pointed out a few years ago on Facebook, even that hasn't panned out so well for so many unreleased titles. I'd say Disney TV Animation has the best chance of still getting a DVD release still. That and some B-List titles on Blu-ray. These are the kinds of released the Disney Movie Club has focused on the last few years. Things like pre-Disney Marvel, Muppets and Walt-era TV is probobly over so far as new releases on physical media.
I'll tell you what I find works the best and what doesn't work at all. Petitions are useless, at least for this. What Disney wants to see is that there are so many buying customers that have bought whatever has been released and will actually buy again. Petitions don't help with this as a lot of people who sign them probobly haven't spent money and won't or signed twice or blah, blah, blah.
The best thing is getting enough fans to flood the Disney Movie Club Facebook page with requests. This is not full proof, but it is a way that the powers that be gauge interest in various titles. It's the only thing that has ever worked for me the few times it had any kind of impact. However, Disney also doesn't like to feel like they are being told what to do. There was a story that ran recently about how a Disney Shareholder went above and beyond the call of duty to get
Song of the South released on Blu-ray. It didn't go well.
http://www.songofthesouth.net/news/2017 ... -proposal/
The other issue is fans. I can't tell you how many fans have told me I was wasting my time, or they were offended that I was doing this, or that they shouldn't have to do anything becuase Disney should just know to release this stuff. In fact point blank, I find the fans can be a bigger pain than Disney many times. However, fans that are on board are normally super committed. The biggest hurtle to finding the committed fans are finding the committed fans. I'm talking about advertising. No one is going to give you a free ride just becuase your intentions are noble and there are many people who will try to hijack your work if you let them and steer it in a direction they want it to go. You have to work just as hard and spend just as much time and money as you would if you were trying to create an online business. I've easily spent a few thousand of my own dollars over the years trying to get the word out via advertising and whatever else, and despite that the most people I've ever had on board were just north of 13,000. And still only a hand full of that number actually join in the DVD campaign events. Most just like to "like" things on Facebook.
I could go on, but I hope I've given you a taste of things. You are more than free of course to try yourself to start something new or join the work I've already been doing or even just call it a day. But you should know that for a serious effort it is not a simple thing. However, despite the hard time, there have been some amazing moments as well, I've met some amazing people and had one-in-a-life-time experiences. Yes, I wish there were more unreleased titles released due to my efforts, but as bad as the bad is the good is just as good. I hope that helps.
Shoot me a PM to lead me in the right direction!