Aladdin to get the "Lion King" crappy DVD treatment

[KevinPage]

Let me guess, they will edit out the camoes of Musker & Clements, since they were recently fired from the company. And let's have Hillary Duff sing the theme song, cause god forbid the original was so crappy and sold so poorly. And what a "shocker", they are REDOING more animation. Is anything sacred anymore?

Not to Eisner, since he's the biggest shareholder, is leaving in 2006 and is only concerned with the short term gain so the stock price is higher THEN and only THEN, so he's even richer when he leaves. Who cares about the legacy of the company when you are rich?!?!?!
(sorry to be so negative, but this is getting sickening by the day)
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'Aladdin' pops DVD cork a decade after its debut

by SCOTT HETTRICK

(Variety) After spending the past 10 years locked in a Disney bottle, "Aladdin" (and Genie) will become part of a whole new homevideo world on Oct. 5, when the Disney toon makes its debut on DVD.

Buena Vista Home Entertainment is giving retailers a nine-month heads-up to make way for Prince Ali and the big blue genie voiced by Robin Williams (news).

After generating another $120 million and $160 million in consumer spending via first-time DVD editions of "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King," respectively, the past two holiday seasons, Disney has equally high hopes for "Aladdin."

BVHE president Robert Chapek says the unusually long advance notice also allows the studio time to set up one of its biggest marketing campaigns ever and finish work on the two-disc DVD Platinum special edition ($29.99) that will feature the most advanced set-top interactivities yet.

Interviews have yet to be recorded for bonus features, but the studio is hoping Williams will be involved in the extras. Among the voice impersonations Williams provided that were not used in the movie were W.C. Fields (news), President George H.W. Bush, John Wayne (news), Sylvester Stallone (news) and George C. Scott (news) as Patton.

The 1992 film, which has been off the market entirely for 10 years, has been newly restored for its inaugural digital presentation and 5.1 surround sound and enhanced home theater sound mix.

To accommodate the sharper DVD image quality, more than 20% of the original artwork has been enhanced, with some characters redrawn to add more facial detail, and backgrounds in many scenes have been touched up for color and detail. Stars in the sky presented perhaps the biggest challenge, with a total of 92 star scenes reworked to be more believable on the TV screen.

Among the bonus features is a deleted song called "Proud of Your Boy" by Oscar-winning songwriters Howard Ashman and Alan Menken set to newly produced animation, as well as two audio commentaries.

Interactivities include a virtual carpet ride; a 3-D tour of Genie's lamp; games; an option for pop-up trivia presented during the film; musical postcards; sing-along songs; and a new musicvideo of "A Whole New World" by Disney Channel stars.
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[Sir Hiss527]

In my opinion The Little Mermaid should first come out on DVD. But then sounds like pretty good news for Disney.

 

[MrNonacho]

I'm sorry, I must have missed the Lion King debacle. What exactly is wrong with that DVD?

 

[KevinPage]

Lion King misteps

Not even close to giving you all the stuff the laserdsic version gave you

Bad 3D aniamtion as Zazu

Horrible layout of features over the discs, very confusing

Disney Channel star signing Circle of Life- what is the point? Waste of money.

Chaning of a whole slew of animation in the movie. The dust that supposedly spelling ______ taken out, allgiators mouths and birds, waterfalls. While not may be a big deal, this is NOT the movie you saw in the theatres

 

[mickey04]

Originally posted by KevinPage
Lion King misteps

Not even close to giving you all the stuff the laserdsic version gave you

Bad 3D aniamtion as Zazu

Horrible layout of features over the discs, very confusing

Disney Channel star signing Circle of Life- what is the point? Waste of money.

Chaning of a whole slew of animation in the movie. The dust that supposedly spelling ______ taken out, allgiators mouths and birds, waterfalls. While not may be a big deal, this is NOT the movie you saw in the theatres

I think your making a bigger deal out of it than it was, I thought the DVD was excellent and very true to the spirit of the movie. But everyone's entitled to their opinion.

As for the dust and the word it supposedly spelled, OF COURSE they took that out, they already got sued over it once. They'd have to be complete and utter morons not to. (which some of them might be anyway)

As far as the added scenes and Disney channel stars, those are all BONUS features, if you don't wanna watch them, DONT! The Lion King gave you the choice of the original version or the new special edition with "Morning Report" and a few hardly noticable added scenes.

 

[KevinPage]

Mickey04,

I don't want to make the biggest deal over it, but it seems the trend is going to continue with every movie they rerelease. Is anything sacred anymore?

Why do they have to redo parts of the animation or change it all together?

Don't you also see the problematic trend of EVERY classic now coming with an previously UNUSED song in it? (B&B, LK, now Aladdin).

Wasn't it painfully obvious The Morning Report was BAD quality animation compared to the regular movie?

Disney stated before the release that the ORIGINAL version of the movie untouched was what you were going to get an option of viewing and they failed to live up to that promise.

I haven't seen any positive review of the Lion King DVD from any source that knows what it is talking about.

And you may say those are only bonus features, but they are clear examples of marketing schemes and NOT quality content.

Same thing goes for putting carnival games in AK- under your feelings, they are OK since you are not forced to play them. But it cheapens the overall product.

 

[MerHearted]

Ugh.. ok, now this is just complaining going too far. Give it a rest. I loved the Lion King DVD and I'll love the Aladdin DVD. I love the song Proud of Your Boy and I'll look forward to finally seeing it used. Sometimes I think you people have nothing better to do than complain.

 

[ISTCrew20]

For real...Why are you going to complain the Circle of Stars thing? It was a bonus, and I enjoyed it. The more bonuses, the better. If you dont like those Disney Channel bonuses, you may not like the next dozen DVD's coming out.
--Lion King 1 1/2 has a (VERY GOOD) Raven Song
--Haunted Mansion will have a Raven Song
--Aladdin will have Circle of Stars song
--Teacher's Pet has a Christy Carlson Ramano song

And there is bound to be more...Home on the Range has the Bue (?) Sisters, and while not on Disney Channel, it will prob. be featured on the DVD...

And I love the Lion King dvd...Im actually watching it right now (Im still hyped from Lion King 1 1/2). Whats the problem with this Aladdin DVD...it sounds great to me

 

[hardcard]

Originally posted by Sir Hiss527
In my opinion The Little Mermaid should first come out on DVD. But then sounds like pretty good news for Disney.

Ummmm. Little Mermaid is already out... Granted it's not a 2 disc set, but it's been out for some time now.

 

[MrNonacho]

Originally posted by hardcard
Ummmm. Little Mermaid is already out... Granted it's not a 2 disc set, but it's been out for some time now.

The Platinum edition is likely to be released in October of next year, according to http://www.ultimatedisney.com/comingsoon.html.

 

[KevinPage]

True, there are better things to complain about, it's just a little disheartening. Nor do I plan on buying any of those other DVD's listed.

The Circle of Stars is just the cruddy icing on a butchered cake. I wouldn't care so much about that if they didn't "alter" the movie so much from it's original version (I want the original, warts and all). But when you add it all up it makes it even more of a dissapointment.

It's like saying you don't have to ride the Magic Carpets of Aladdin if you go to the MK. That's all fine and well, but adding something like that decreases the luster of the area/park.

I've also read that sometimes not being able to USE certain extras/bonus material that is on the laserdisc already is more of a copyright issue than an omission, but I have never seen any reason/proof to back that up.

Anyone else know anything about this?

 

[ISTCrew20]

Originally posted by KevinPage
True, there are better things to complain about, it's just a little disheartening. Nor do I plan on buying any of those other DVD's listed.

You will want to buy Lion King 1 1/2...Trust me, it was great

 

[KevinPage]

Out of principle I will not even consider Lion King 1 1/2. Just the look of the animation alone you can tell it is an inferior product.

Same thing goes for Lilo & Stitch 2 (in 2005), Jungle Book 2, Cinderella 2, Tarzan 2, Mulan 2, Peter Pan 2, Hunchback 2, etc.

These things are direct to video for a reason.

 

[ISTCrew20]

Originally posted by KevinPage
Out of principle I will not even consider Lion King 1 1/2. Just the look of the animation alone you can tell it is an inferior product.

Same thing goes for Lilo & Stitch 2 (in 2005), Jungle Book 2, Cinderella 2, Tarzan 2, Mulan 2, Peter Pan 2, Hunchback 2, etc.

These things are direct to video for a reason.

Can I ask, what clips of 1 1/2 did you see? I thought the animation was really good. What Im not understanding is how this went to video. They could of made so much more if they had it put in theaters. Atleast rent it...you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[KevinPage]

TV commercials, trailers online, etc. It's hard to miss. I'm sure they did something on the Disney Channel as well.

Based on reviews they said adults will be bored, kids will like it and it's done well for what it is

 

[xfkirsten]

I'm gonna have to side with Kevin on this one. While I will buy the Aladdin DVD because it's one of my favorite Disney movies, I gotta agree with most everything he pointed out. Now, if Proud of Your Boy is included as a bonus as many are speculating - great! Put it in! I'd love to see it! I do not, however, want to see it integrated in with the film with no option of seeing the original film alone.

As for the Morning Repoprt stuff... I agree. Icky. Besides the fact that they had to change Simba's singing voice, the animation itself was shoddy in comparison to the rest of the film. Look at the character outlines throughout that scene, and compare it to those in the rest of the film. They didn't even bother to vary the outline color as they normally do. Add to that the fact that the animation on Zazu just did not look right to me. Above all, Morning Report was an entirely unneeded song. There was no reason to put it into the film other than marketing. It didn't add anything to the storyline, and was never originally planned as part of the film (as Human Again was)

And personally, I don't think Disney should have taken out the stuff in the dust. Yes, I understand completely why they did it, but it makes me sad that they change the film because a few people with way too much time on their hands and the lawsuit-freaks out there made a stink out of it. It's not even that visible, for crying out loud!

And I am also sick of the Disney Channel Stars. I think Christy Carlson Romano does have a great voice, and that's wonderful - however it does get old when Disney won't go find a variety of performers. I would much rather see the original "A Whole New World" music video on there.

As for "if you don't like it, don't watch it," well, that would work just fine, but as Kevin mentioned, it brings the overall quality of the product down. Why not use the space on the discs for more quality features instead? Dig up something really juicy to put on there!

Just my take on it!

-Kirsten

 

[KevinPage]

Kristen,

It's nice to know there is sanity left in this world

If anything I always try to be positive and look at the glass half full with all the negativity going around. Heck, when the problems with the Lion King DVD were being talked about, I had already ordered it and WANTED to think that everyone was just complaining to be nit picky.

But you gotta call a spade a spade eventually. I'll probably end up getting the Aladdin DVD, but it's far enough off that we'll have more info on it by the time it comes out.

The thing that annoys me the most is that they should just do it right from the get go. Look at the way Pixar does their DVD's. Talk about showing the difference in quality between the 2 companies, Disney comes off as laughable. Who needs all these pointless games that I'm sure 99.9% of the people don't even bother with.

I have NO use for celebrities who have absolutely nothing to do with the movie, singing a song and a music video. It's there purely to slap on the Disney Channel and get more people to buy the disc, since it is an older movie.

 

[xfkirsten]

Yup, I tend to be the same way. Never had an interest in the computer games on the discs at all. And I feel bad for those who do not have DVD-ROM, they kinda get cheated out of some stuff. And the celebrity stuff is really unneeded, it's just another marketing ploy. Give us more production stuff! Behind the scenes stuff. Video of recording sessions. More production art. That sort of thing!

-Kirsten

 

[bartman454]

Out of all the things about the Aladdin DVD that has irked me my # 1 irk would have to be Disney's refusal to release the film on IMAX, just imagine how cool the carpet race would have been in IMAX. As for the DVD its all fine and dandy if you want to make a special edition of the film but give us the original thats the one we love.

 

[JBSLJames]

Originally posted by KevinPage
These things are direct to video for a reason.

I think you are right. They are "Direct-to-video" for a reason. . . to make a good profit. There is alot less time and money spent producing a "DTV" release and with the distribution channels, they stand to make a lot of cash.

Bottom line, for me, is that Disney Animated Features are for Kids. Mine have really enjoyed the "DTV" releases so far and will continue to do so. You look at it for waht it is. They tried to do Toy Story 2 as a DTV, but ended up with a theatric release. Good choice, I think.