bluetoast

Whoah, so with the Futureshop steelbooks, like for Jungle Book and Ratatouille, it comes with the regular DVD w/slipcover, and the empty steelbook? That's pretty cool.

lordzeppelin

As well as they may do at the box office, the DVD sales are where it's at. The box office, no matter how good, is not as strong as it once was - they make their real profits on DVD releases now. And obviously there is a need, whether or not it agrees with your perspective, for them to do 2 releases - because it benefits them. Technically, there's no need for Disney films to go on hiatus either, but they do it for marketing reasons. As much as I'm sure the previous feature packed films have sold well, the bottom line is, well, the bottom line. The extra stuff, for most people, gets watched once, if at all, and the movie disc gets tossed around. I know multiple families that the movie disc for Nemo never leaves the player, and some of them are on their second and third copies of it. The kids simply don't give a fuck about the making of feature. Disney is a smart marketing (well, it's debatable) company, and they know this. I'd love a feature packed Cars disc. Same with Ratatouille. But if the studio can sell, say 5 million DVDs regardless of whether or not they spend an extra $250k producing a second bonus disc, the numbers win the day. Sure, the older discs set the standard, but that was back when they were trying to get people to give up their VCRs, and now with the move to extras on new format, they're doing it again. There is precedent for the strategy here...

Look, I appreciated the link to the article, so don't take my counterpoints here personally, but it really just confirms what we all know - the companies care what you want to a point, but they are there to make money. This move makes them money strategically, and is not done for any other reason. I know we like to think otherwise, and hell, I do it to.

You're missing the point here - they are listening to the majority customer base - the majority of the parents that are purchasing the disc for their kids. You're just not getting that we're in the minority here. Hell, I don't have kids, I buy them for me to watch and I'm 29 - but I'm far off from their target market. I will sit and watch them talk to the 3rd unit director about storyboarding screens and how many hours it took to animate the rats fur down to rendering individual hairs. If you can find a non-sedated 7 year old that will sit through that for 45 minutes, then I've got a crisp $20 bill for you.

It's not like the studio just up and said "hey, fuck these guys. they'll get just the movie and like it" - there had to be numbers behind their decision.

Swarty

It cost me $45 ( tickets only ) to go and see "Ratatouille" with my family and the only bonus features I got were a bunch of comercials for real estate agents and those stupid movie trivia questions.

I paid $15 for the DVD , plus I got $5 off for pre-ordering "Pirates 3". In the end it cost me $10 for the DVD. I got deleted scenes, two shorts ( one new ), a little video about food and film and $7 movie cash. I also get to watch it over and over and over again. To me that is a tremendous value. They can keep that extra disc of set-top games and put "WALL-E" on it for me.

Plus I missed the chase scene because my son had to go pottie!!!!!!! urgh...

For $10 I am not going to complain that they are holding back on special features.

Later

Swarty

Frozenhamster

Okay. I'm just going to say the Jim Hill wasn't completely right in his assessment of why Pixar movies no longer recieve th Special Edition 2-Disc treatment.

He is right about the fact that these films are bought mostly by parents for their kids and are not interested in the features. But he doesn't seem to realize that Disney is now using this fact to push Blu-Ray. If only aficianados and film lovers and DVD collectors are the ones that care about the features, and those same people are the ones most likely to be early adopters of either HD-DVD or Blu-Ray, and even many of those people are still on the fence about either format, then holding special features exclusively for the Blu-Ray disc is a great way to get them to choose the format.

It's simple. Those collectors and such who are on the fence about switching to either format are also the ones who care a great deal about having the set with the best features. Many of them would be willing to hold off on purchasing the HD versions of Cars or Ratatouille if there was a 2-Disc version on DVD. Disney doesn't want this. They want the early adopters to make their decision. Early adopters have often been looked at unfavorably, but in reality there is a direct connection between the product that the early adopters go for and whether the product is a success.

Take a look at the HD audio formats from a number of years ago. In that war even the early adopters didn't manage to pull out a winner and the formats were never able to cross that line of being high-technology into the world of mainstream electronics. If Blu-Ray ends up winning with early adopters it will mean that there is a large, vocal group that is easily spreading a fairly unified message to mainstream consumers that Blu-Ray is not simply the way of the future, but the way of the present.

This is the reason, beyond Disney just trying to sell a couple more copies of the Blu-Ray discs, that they would keep all the features for the HD release. They are a srong supporter of Blu-Ray and this all goes toward helping Blu-Ray ultimately win the war. We'll see if their plan succeeds.

slop101

I just want to say that the 10-minute short on the history of Rats was not only the best short Pixar has ever done (and they didn't even put it in the shorts collection), but I found it, pound-for-pound, even better than the actual movie. I'm still grinning while thinking about it. The dvd's worth getting just for that short alone.

Duality

This ploy won't force anyone to upgrade to Blu-ray. If anything, I'm less inclined to choose Blu-ray because of these tactics. Like approximately 99% of the public, I will not choose High Def until there is one format and *all* movies are being released on that single format. Personally, I hate Sony and their region coding. There was no reason to do that with Blu-ray.

Regarding Ratatouille, I happily bought my SD DVD copy last night and received a collectible chef hat and apron.

PatrickMcCart

Big thanks to Disney for putting Ratatouille on DVD only in widescreen. Brad Bird is the king of 2.35:1 animation!

Frozenhamster

I 100% agree with you. I don't think this kind of ploy is a good way of dealing with the transition to HD, nor do I believe the format war is a good thing. Although I must admit that I have decided that certain specific titles that I know I want to have in HD I will not buy now in SD. And It sounds as though I'll be getting a PS3 for Christmas, in which case I will end up with Blu-ray. I am generally a supporter of Blu-ray anyway, but I wouldn't mind having both systems. The only problem is that here in Canada the prices on HD-DVD players don't come close to $100 and seldom below $300. If the average price is $350 and my other option is a PS3 that costs $50 more and can also play games then I choose a PS3.

Games+Better film catalog+Price=Blu-ray FTW

darkhawk

On the regular dvd it has Deleted Scenes. The Target bonus disc, one of the features on it says "Deleted Scenes Never-Before-Seen". Weird.

Drexl

Never before seen, eh? You'd think that somebody would at least glance at them to make sure they aren't porno.

lordzeppelin

So...is it the same scene?

TomOpus

The Ratatouille disc has 3 deleted scenes: "Chez Gusteau", "Meet Gusteau" and "First Day". The Target bonus disc has 1 deleted scene: "Heist/Fantasy".

All the deleted scenes are in animatic form.

hunterofthetosk

Anyone not mailing away for the blue Lighting McQueen car?

I don't have Blu Ray, but I read about the CARS "Blu" Lightning McQueen mail away voucher inside the new Blu Ray versions of the CARS DVD.

My son and I collect these Disney Cars, and I was wondering if there is anyone on here who isn't planning on redeeming their voucher, and if they'd be interested in either giving or selling me their code for the mail away car.

Please email me if you can help at [email protected]

Thanks for your time.

Hunter

hotsexyboi

I don't see the point in getting this collection if you have all the pixar dvd's like I do. But it is great for people who don't have all the pixar films on dvd, though. I seen this earlier today at my local Bi-Lo grocery store for 19.99 when I bought Ratatouille I of course didn't get it though..lol

Yoda

Hey Guys,

I just picked up the ST DVD of Rataouille this week from best buy. the disc loaded fine and I skipped all the previews. When I got to the main menu I selected "play movie" and hit enter. After I did this I got the disney dvd logo and then the film pauses on a black screen. It sits like this unless you hit play. Once you hit play it goes to chapter 1, counts 1,2,3 and then the dvd locks up and cycles back to the original black screen and pauses itself. I can't seem to play the movie. If I go into the scene selection and select scene two I can rewind the film to the beginning and watch it. Other than that I can't actually play the movie from the set up screen (where it says to return to film) or from the main menu. The dvd player that I am using is a Sony DVP S-7700. I am just wondering if anyone else has been experiencing this problem? I tried both the disc I purchased and the disc my sister purchased and both have the same issue playing on my player (both bought at different stores and locations).

Duality

It sounds like your player is the culprit.

BTW, I finally got to seeing Ratatouille on DVD yesterday. The film looked great -- I just always wonder why some films have the rolling credits practically unreadable on a standard TV in Widescreen mode. Other than that, I was shocked to see the return of the paper chapter insert! Yes!!! Thank you Disney -- this is one aspect of the DVD experience I've watched disappear for too many titles. I hope you bring it back on all your releases.

Rooked

This might have already been asked, if so, forgive the repeat here. When you throw the disc in, a Disney montage trailer comes up first. The big question - what is that music they are using during the montage? I know that I know it... Thanks!!

manicsounds

The PIXAR short films disc is coded for both Region 1 and 2 NTSC.
If you have your DVD player set up to "Japanese", Japanese menus, audio, and subtitles are selectable.

If your DVD player is set to anything else, all of the Japanese options are totally locked out. Very unusual. I've never seen that on any other titles.

bahgee

Anyone know where I can obtain a CARS steelbook?