Muppet Christmas Carol on DVD?

[smcguire]

Originally posted by Luke
Yeah i understood that the more general 800 numbers and customer relations addresses would give you a generic reply and just get filed away but it's important to give people the official address - some people don't like writing direct to people they don't know. I however, don't care - they get paid thousands upon thousands anyway ! LOL !

Obviously i'd strongly suggest writing, faxing or calling people where specific names have been given. I don't have the office number for BVHE in the states but i'm sure you could find it through the operator in the states if people wanted to call them. David Jessen in particular is very helpful in these kinda cases, and trying to contact the president of BVHE will likely get you forwarded to someone important. As for the press office guy, just hassle them and they'll likely bring it up at some meeting or another - after all this is all bad press for them so tell them the site address and ask them if they realise the rap they are taking.

On the other hand, there's no point writing to addresses that can't do anything to help you and may toss the letters. I can't say if that's the case for any of the addresses above; what I do know is that the 800 numbers and the disneyinfo@disneyhelp.com e-mail address are the two that were given out on DVD forums and Disney themselves as the ones to use for feedback. But if you know the snail mail addresses above will result in the message getting to people who can act on them and won't get annoyed by a (possible) deluge of letters, then by all means use them.

I really don't think "hassle" is what you want to do here; you want to send polite and firm feedback. If you "hassle" by calling or writing repeatedly and angrily, they'll just write you off as a wacko and may assume everyone else is just a wacko too.

I just agree with everything thats being said, i don't think it would take much for them to offer it in widescreen and theres probably still time to change their mind. It seems weird that these are the only current crop being presented in full frame format - could it be Henson who are insisting on this format for some reason ?

Unfortunately for Muppet Treasure Island, it may already be too late, at least for the initial release - DVDs have enough lead time that the discs have probably already authored. The best we may be able to hope for is that Disney will decide to make an supplementary widescreen release later (as Warner Bros did with "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"). It's probably not impossible for them to reverse direction at this point if they really wanted to hurry and fix it, but it seems unlikely. If they need to make a new anamorphic transfer of the film (the previous widescreen laserdisc was not anamoprhic), that takes time. But for Muppet Christmas Carol, there's definitely still time.

And I seriously doubt it's Henson's decision. These two are being done differently simply because they're being released by a different company (all the other Muppet movies were released by Columbia Tristar). It might not hurt to let Henson Co. know that you aren't happy with this either, but unfortunately I've learned that often the movie's creators have surprisingly little control over video releases.

Disney may have said to Henson, "we're doing fullscren releases or none at all, which do you chose?" And what would you do if you were Henson in that case? That's complete speculation, though.

I hope that this could be well supported on the main site as well - i think for this to really work you need a lot of attention and a thread on the forum clearly isn't going to be enough. If MC is a site where people go to buy products then Disney need to see that the fans are being told that they are being given a poor deal - if you just add a link to amazon they are getting exactly what they want and the majority of people won't know any different.

I believe something for the main site is in the works.

--Scott McGuire

 

[smcguire]

Just to clarify, I'm not calling anyone here a wacko. We just want to avoid appearing like wackos. It makes it easier for them to dismiss us. We want to appear to be concerned customers (and Muppet fans).

And probably letters to the president will get routed to some sensible location, I may have been being too cautious there.

And finally, while Disney may have already done the work on Muppet Treasure Island, that doesn't mean it's not worth trying to get them to change their minds about it!

--Scott McGuire

 

[Luke]

Hey Scott

When i said "Hassle" i was using Luke language that people here are usually pretty used to - i didn't really mean for them to stage all out naked protests in the Buena Vista offices .... although it would be quite an acomplishment for me if they did ! ;-)

I think writing directly to a few people might help make a difference. Usually if you are writing to the main 'official' addresses you will just get a standard pre-worked and sugar coated reply UNLESS they get thousands of emails or calls that make them sit up and take notice. If however you write to someone directly higher up the ladder it only takes a few letters or calls to get them to at least sit up and take notice, and hopefully make some enquiries. At least if someone in the know wrote and told us the definitive answer as to why this has been done, and if there is a remote chance it could be changed then it's all worth it. I'm guessing that a post here on the forum or a mention on one muppet site isn't going to result in thousands of emails so i figured the direct approach was the best one given the circumstances and also the time factor. Of course people are free to write who they like and now they have all the info whichever path they choose to take.

 

[smcguire]

Hi Luke,

My apologies, I admit I am new here and I'm not familiar with Luke-speak. I'm a regular and longtime poster on the Muppet newsgroup, and after seeing my post about the DVDs there, Phillip suggested I check out this forum thread. And yeah, chaining ourselves to the Buena Vista offices would get there attention, and be a very Muppet sort of thing to do as well. Well, at least, a very Gonzo or Animal sort of thing to do.

And you're absolutely right, you never know what will happen if the right letter gets through to the right person - which is why I followed up my post and said I was probably being too cautious in that regard.

According to Disney (according to the DVD websites), they've decided to take the full-frame approach based on complaints they've received on the customer feedback phone line, so it seems like maybe they do listen to that.

But heck... call 'em, e-mail 'em, and write the Presdient too!

 

[Luke]

Hey Scott

Great to have you here and no apologies needed at all - i should have been more clearer.

Heck i'm an advocate of doing what you can whether it's call the customer line, write to the president, bribe the CEO with home made cookies - i guess everything helps. I work with TV companies myself and i know just how much the public gets ignored when it comes to this kind of thing yet blagged off in a way that makes them think that the companies really care. Obviously though as you say - people need to be polite and show what widescreen deserving Muppet fans we are !

I can understand what is being reported about people calling the customer care line and asking for full frame stuff - the average mom or dad will probably still have a full frame TV and i guess a small kid may well not like a smaller letterboxed picture. Obviously though DVD's are meant to be for collectors too and the whole idea is that you can see the film in its original format so they should really include both formats - its not like it costs them that much more to do.

It does seem wierd though that the Muppet DVD's are the only ones (from memory) in the current crop of releases that are full frame. I guess its just laziness and them cutting costs down to a minimum that they just transfer their original full frame video cassette version over to DVD.

 

[frogboy4]

Dick Tracy will also be full frame. I like the film and have waited years for a DVD release - a widescreen one at that - the art direction is half the film! But Disney has seen fit to release a crummy version of this Warren Beatty film.

One of my friends who is a huge Madonna fan won't be buying the DVD and he buys the same CD four times if there is a slight color variation on the cover art! Actually he'd buy eight - four to open and four to keep wrapped. Surprising that even he won't touch this disrespectful release. LOL!

But on a serious note - this is a film with top stars and directed by the Academy Award winner, Reds. I just don't get it. Chris Carey (Disney exec) stated in the recent article mentioned earlier that having both versions on a disc makes the DVD difficult to navigate, it degrades the quality of the image and if there is double side printing there can be no silkscreen (which bite anyway). Argh, so frustrating and really not entirely true. It’s just his way of excusing the company from being cheap and brainless.

 

[kustomboy]

CAPTAIN RON GETS WIDESCREEN?!?!?!?! and the muppets get FULL FRAME??!?!?!?!??! something has gone terribly wrong.

 

[smcguire]

Actually, the Muppet movies aren't the only victims... Disney just released "Snow Dogs" as full frame only, and reportedly the upcoming "Max Keeble's Big Move" will be full frame only as well. Both of these are "family" titles too.

"Dick Tracy" is something of a special case; apparently Warren Beatty filmed it with the intention of it being 4:3 aspect ratio (and thus full frame on a TV), intending for the movie to look like old-fashioned movies. But it was cropped to the widescreen aspect ratio for its theatrical release. So the 4:3 version of "Dick Tracy" actually has more information than the widescreen version. The question in this case is, should a movie be released as it was in theatres (as how people remember it) or as the director intended?

At least that's better than the case with these two Muppet movies, where full frame is neither what the director intended nor what we saw in movie theaters.

Luke: I have no illusions about how much the entertainment conglomerates really care about what the customers think (that is, not much). I've worked with some folks who produce TV shows, and that's how I know how little control the producers may have over how their creations get released on video.

And yeah, I'm guessing partly they didn't want to spend time and money doing a new transfer of the two Muppet movies.

 

[frogboy4]

When the two films were released on Laserdisc several years ago, thwy had widescreen versions. I am sure that a new transfer would not have to be made. It must already be somewherer in digital form wating to be zapped on a DVD. Argh! Never knww that about Tracy. Are you sure? Where does the info come from?

 

[Luke]

Jamie

Were the laserdiscs actually released by Buena Vista Home Entertainment ?