‘Hear-Ye, Hear Ye’… Some interesting news has just cropped up from the land of Disney. And they’ve come in the form of long awaited release dates!
Beauty and The Beast: Diamond Edition – October 5th
Fantasia/F-2000: Diamond Edition – December 7th
During what’s so far been a hectic year for the Walt Disney Company, the majority of fans who eagerly await each new release as if it were a religious practice will find this news as something of a reason to chillax, given that the prospect of seeing Fantasia in High Definition is as mouth watering as a Tesco jam doughnut. Beauty and The Beast meanwhile has previously suffered from over-inflated re-sell prices due to the general popularity of the film, and of course the quality of the last DVD release.
The chosen films and their prospective dates will also strike many followers with a hint of confusion, and quite rightly so. At the start of the year, Disney had ticked off March 9th for the release of Fantasia: Diamond Edition, yet it wasn’t to be. Instead, the majority of Earths civilisation were treated to Dumbo: Special Edition on the 22nd, while the American sector were treated to… well, nothing!
What? We got something before America? Astounding… Some may call a consolation for this matter as their release of Alice in Wonderland: Un-Aniversary Edition, but considering this very film was only released a few years ago, and the content/restoration being almost identical, they’ll no doubt feel hard done by.
But it only cements a growing story for 2010 and the Disney Company. The original ‘Alice‘ was pulled ahead and made to look like a lovely new product in order to coincide with the brand new Alice in Wonderland (Johnny Depp) release, of which both have now already released. As for Fantasia, Disney have had the bright idea of basing a film around the ‘The Sorcerers Apprentice’ fable, as seen in the 1940 film. Sadly, they’ve made a few minor cock-ups on this one.
(A) Nicholas Cage (Mr Personality himself) has been handed the role of… the Sorcerers Apprentice.
(B) It has little (or, more accurately, absolutely nothing) do with the original fable.
Everything then begins to click in to place rather neatly. It’s not just The Sorcerers Apprentice that is conceptualised very differently to its original incarnation, but Alice in Wonderland too has been given the overly post-modern treatment for a contemporary audience. One could admire the company for attempting something quite different, but the real problem is that they are simply making sales based on the already-familiar names. It is no secret that the new Alice in Wonderland actually has very little to do with the original Lewis Carroll novel (but more for its sequel Through The Looking Glass), yet it is being wrongly marketed. I imagine the same will occur for The Sorcerers Apprentice – the only difference this time round being…
“Would anyone actually want to see Nicholas Cage making a tool of himself in such a role?”
Perhaps if Cage was made to wear a certain blue starry hat and red robe, whilst dancing wildly to Paul Dukas’s musical score, the purchase of a theatre ticket would seem a good prospect. But sadly, this isn’t going to happen.
Meanwhile, the Platinum Edtion DVD/Blu-Rays of Pinocchio and Sleeping Beauty are close to having their life cut short as the Disney ‘Vault’ re-opens it door, followed by a huge draught of fresh air and the discovery of a skeleton inside… Poor chap.
Any advice on this matter would be common sense; if you’ve yet to make a purchase, now is indefinitely the time!
