Superdaddy

Well, Fantasia Blu-ray is now in my hot little hands. Mailman brought my Disneystore.com pre-order today, three days before release. Planning on watching it tonight.

darkhawk

In the Santa Paws BD, the booklet shows Dumbo's 70th Anniversary Blu-ray coming in 2011. Does not mention the season or month.

Superdaddy

Just watched Fantasia on BD. Very impressed with what I saw and heard. Aside from the detail and texture of the image, the biggest difference between this and older home video versions is the color. I remember reading about how they tried to improve the color for this restoration and bring it back to the way it should look. It is an eye-opening experience if you know this film well. One thing that struck me was how scenes that feature radiant reds, or characters with halos around them (like the fairies in the Nutcracker sequence) had those bright colors looking smeared on the older video versions. But on the BD, these are rock-solid.

The audio is the best I've heard at home for this film. The 70 year-old tracks have always been problematic, but they've been well cleaned up for this release. There's a richness to the sound that wasn't there before, and previously obvious distortion has been pretty well hidden. It's not perfect, and never will be, but I think most will be pleased. The subwoofer even gave me a few jolts during bass-heavy passages in the music.

There are previews for Cars 2 (short, with no apparent footage from the film), the upcoming BDs of Bambi and The Incredibles, among a few others. The enclosed Disney Movie Rewards code yields 200 points. Redeeming it brought me exactly to the 1225 points needed to get the Narnia BD.

Can't wait to watch Fantasia 2000.

Drexl

The HD certainly helps a lot, but also remember that this is the first time Fantasia has gotten the kind of special cleaned up treatment that Disney has been giving their classics. That started in 2001 with the DVD of Snow White, so Fantasia missed the cut because it had been released a year earlier. The DVD wasn't bad, per se, but it didn't have that wow factor that Snow White and later titles had.

Let us know about Fantasia 2000. The DVD had some edge enhancement that I assume won't be in this BD.

Superdaddy

That's certainly true.

I think once you see this BD, the DVD image will look murky by comparison. For me, the "wow factor" was there, in spades.

jrsl76

Someone let me know when they get to Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Maybe Robin Hood as well.

dsa_shea

Go ahead and get in your stasis chamber and we'll wake you in lets say 5 years or so.

animefan

I'm getting so excited about this release

Just one more day!!!

Too bad about the DVD extras being in BD-Live. But I guess it is better than not having it at all (I'm just little upset that I sold my DVD set )

Also it would have been great to have the edited scene in the extra with Leonard Maltin or whoever explaining about the time and situation like he did with Treasures DVD, but I can live without it.

BUT I am little afraid that if we just let this go without any complaining, then Disney won't ever release the "Song of the South" or the missing segment from "Make Mine Music." When I originally saw the Treasures DVD with Leonard Maltin, I though we were finally going to see it released on DVD. But still waiting...

Superdaddy

Okay just checked out Fantasia 2000 a while ago. Looks really good but with a few minor flaws here and there. There seem to be some brief shimmering and edge enhancement in the Rhapsody in Blue sequence. The shimmering was extremely brief but the EE seemed noticeable a number of times, particularly on the stark vertical lines common in this segment. Could have something to do with my TV, but I typically keep all visual "enhancements" (sharpening, DNR, etc.) off. I got right up to the screen to check it out and it looked like it to me. Maybe someone else can confirm.

The Carnival of the Animals also seems to have some minor bandlike anomalies in the sky.

These are not, IMO, deal breakers by any means as 99% of the film looks gorgeous.

The audio is pretty much demo quality. Crisp highs, thunderous bass, and all your speakers will be busy. (I love how Mickey's voice bounces into the surrounds when he's looking for Donald just before Pomp and Circumstance starts). The music just fills the room. A wonderful listening experience.

I just started to check out the extras and haven't watched Destino either. Maybe I'll update later if I get to do that.

Giles

I'm thinking I should hook up my two extra speakers to hear this in 7.1

Superdaddy

It is worth it. I have a 7.1 setup and this movie sounded phenomenal.

kstublen

So the promotional booklet contained in Fantasia/Fantasia 2000 lists Dumbo as coming out in 2011. Hopefully we actually get it this year.

And man, I can't wait to see Alice In Wonderland in High Def.

Giles

ah man! trying to be cheap at Best Buy nearly resulted in a fist fight between the manager and myself - she initially didn't allow the Toys' R US price ($26.99), but after much persuasion she relented, another manager (thankfully) had to the help the cashier apply the addition $10 coupon - ugh, talk about major hassle.

The Monkees

I always have problems using those coupons at Best Buy, never really had a HUGE problem or anything, but their systems obviously are not set up to accept those coupons. I bought this at Target for $17.99 after the coupon and was just fine with it, lady scanned the coupon, no problem whatsoever.

Giles

the big problem was the fact that the advertising in the Toys R' Us ad was that the bluray isn't really featured it's nestled right behind the DVD which it makes look the pricing is only good for the DVD, but anyone with a high school education or higher would know that the advertising is for both the DVD and bluray editions (and their respective pricing) - the varying online comments on the Best Buy employees (and managers) at the Tenleytown (DC) location note that they really come across as dumb as dirt - I agree

JoeyOhhhh

Is there any truth to the fact that Fantasia is going to be vaulted this January? I saw it posted on Ultimate Disney's forums but that is the first I've read it

dsa_shea

I already jumped over my copy.

Pillowhead

Very nice.

Giles

supposedly some folks over at Blu-ray.com are having problems with the bluray players booting the disc to play, I'm not having a probs with my LG player.

animefan

Finally got the blu-ray Last one at the store. Three other stores I went to were sold out!!

Didn't watch all of it yet, but overall, picture looks very nice. There is noticeable aliasing in the "Rhapsody In Blue" in Fantasia 2000, but still is good enough.

My main problem of course is the DVD extras in LIVE. Can this be shown in full-screen?? I guess buffering takes too long if video is any larger but it's not even half of the TV Hopefully I just don't know how to work it.
I'm getting really annoyed that they couldn't put this in Blu-ray or at least provide us with separate DVD for it. Of course it would be far worse if they didn't even have the LIVE option, but... ok complaining way too much.
I just want a definitive version so I don't have to upgrade again

Oh, while I'm complaining. Is anyone also annoyed that when you hit menu, the movie we are watching gets real small, and the menu screen takes most of the screen? Every other movie from other studio have little menu pop up so I can check the scene selection, extras, audio while still watching the movie but in every Disney animated films, I can't enjoy the movie while checking out selections. Minor minor thing, but still little annoying.

Drexl

It sounds like your TV is set a pixel-mapped mode. You're seeing black bars all around the image, right?

If you're just seeing black bars on the sides, that's normal.

The Monkees

The BD-LIVE extras are weird, I checked out the trailer for the first movie and it's a really small screen on the right side of the screen of the TV with all the menu on the left side of the screen, it doesn't have black bars around it, it's just off to the side, which kind of sucks because there's plenty of stuff I've never seen since I never owned the Legacy box set, just the movies themselves.

Giles

if that's true, than I might hold on to my second copy and sell it later when the titile goes out of print.

Big Worms

The commercial for it said it was going to be out for a very limited time so sounds like January may be it.

riotinmyskull

and with that i place my order via amazon