Nice Disney Laserdisc boxset collection. Right now I'm thinking about getting a few Disney Laserdisc box sets of my own like the Fantasia boxset, the Toy Story Deluxe CAV edition with bonus features, and the Japanese letterbox Special Collection Laserdisc of Aladdin where it includes the Aladdin documentary: The Making of Aladdin: A Whole New World hosted by John Rhys-Davies as well as a book talking about the making of the movie.
I think the only thing that we have today that comes close to the physical appeal of a Laserdisc Box Set is the Blu-ray+DVD mediabook release. Usually a super sweet artwork, carboard-plastic mix and with lots of wonderful book pages that act as the printed supplement material of a Laserdisc Box release. It really is the only thing nowdays that gives me this Laserdisc vibe.
Even though I'm out of love with Disney these days, I have both the Pinocchio and Fantasia sets, and love them both. A few years back, I had a double bill of this Fantasia edition w the Definitive Collection edition of The Empire Strikes Back with the stereo cranked. It was a warm summer night and the windows were open, and I'm sure the neighbors were pissed, but oh well😆
Nice collection, your birds-eye visual presentations are always terrific, too. Great to see someone who isn't over the age of 50 appreciating vintage classic Disney. Even though they are masterpieces of their medium, I rarely see young collectors talk about Snow White, Pinocchio or Fantasia. I'm 30, and my favourite Walt era is the 1940s and 50s.
Thanks for the praise!! I’m with you on the early era. For me everything pre-Disneyland is the key Disney material and then 60’s-80’s is the company struggling to survive but still with their identity. Then came the dark times of the corporation. If I had to single out one thing as my overall favorite I would be Pinocchio for the animated features and the Zorro series as best overall.
As far as I understand regarding the digital restorations of the older Disney pics, they first tried to be as accurate as they could be back then with the original coloring and such (they couldn't do much besides cleaning them up and printing them back to film), but they got crazy when the digital techniques became more commonplace (like for the Platinum edition DVDs). The original animators who were alive for the '93 and '01 restorations of Snow White liked the first one, and said that de second one was not the film they animated (and both come from the same original files), which is part of the reason they took a step back regarding the colors for the Diamond edition in '09.
While most of my collection has moved on, I still have many of my box sets: Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dances with Wolves, Rocky Horror Picture Show (all came with Soundtrack CD’’s), Star Wars Trilogy CAV box, Golden Age of Looney Tunes 1-5, Nightmare Before Christmas (Touchstone logo), Beatles Anthology, Toy Story, Compleat Tex Avery, and several titles with exclusive content that never made it to DVD or BR (other than some licensed Criterions like Spinal Tap, Robocop).
Your laserdisc videos are awesome. I love all the information you cover ... it makes it well worth the watch. Huge thanks for sharing your passion for these.
Thanks so much! I tried to keep these succinct and informative but I could ramble on and on about this stuff for ages. You start out simply trying to find out a few things and suddenly could write a book...Nice to know that people are getting something from my admittedly long uploads.😁
I've watched the first squeeze Anamorphic Terminator 2. The one that was Pre-THX. Couldn't afford the second release its way too much. Just like i finally found a copy of TWINE, had to pass on it it was 400 dollars. Mint without the OBI.
I just found out all the films since 1994 have been put through digital alteration, the so called restorations of classic catalog films if you can call them restorations have been reanimated digitally. Backgrounds scrubbed of dirt and grain and the character animation separated then added back. Using a digital process of mattes and layers. They've been recomped the same way the special effects were on the star wars special edition. So that means the last time i saw Snow White was in 1983- 1987. Every version since 94 is not original.
That’s the sad truth. Some were messed with more than others and certain titles made it through mostly unscathed. But starting with Snow White in 1994 they’re all suspect. That’s why the LDs even are a mixed result and thus having the earliest editions is important. For this reason I’ve tried to get the first CAV editions as well as the boxset editions. For most the LD was the last mostly accurate version they received. Some of the dvds are good and it’s really hit or miss when Disney decides to go crazy or hold back.
The only one that comes to mind is the 20000 Leagues making of vintage tv special. I think most things were ported over so LDs are more about the transfer than exclusive extras.
