The Gang of Five

The Land Before Time => 1988 Theatrical Release => Topic started by: dino-doug on August 09, 2010, 02:35:45 PM

Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: dino-doug on August 09, 2010, 02:35:45 PM
You know, the 25th anniversary is coming up in three years. What better way to commemorate this grand event than with a Hi-Def Blu-ray release? Here are some special features I would like to see on it:

-5.1 Surround Sound
-Isolated score by James Horner

-"Back To The Land Before Time" - Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, James Horner and maybe some of the writers and actors reunite to reflect on the making of and the legacy of the movie.
-Never-Before-Seen Footage with intro from Don Bluth (Just to let us know why the footage was cut, and to warn parents about how "phsycologically damaging" it could be to their children, lol... Though in today's generation, it probably wouldn't bother them!) (Yeah, I know it's either collecting dust in an archive, and even some of it non-existent. But there are clips of them (for example, the trailers and commercials, like Ducky making a funny face at the T-rex.) and I read that an "uncut" version was on television in Finland. That's kind of weird...)
-Commentary by Don Bluth
-"If We Hold On Together" music video by Leona Lewis (she united with James Horner to perform the song "I See You (Through My Eyes)" for the Avatar soundtrack; she did pretty good with that; she could work; or maybe American Idol contestant Jordin Sparks could do it; she sang it on the show, and she did great! Made me proud that she gave props to TLBT!)
-maybe some games and trailers for the 13 TLBT sequels for the kids
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: pokeplayer984 on August 09, 2010, 04:54:13 PM
What I wouldn't give just for this to be on Blu-ray.

I'd most certainly love for the "lost footage" to actually be on it.  You don't know how many of us have been hunting for it.

Should we stuff Universal's e-mail box with this request?
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: dino-doug on August 09, 2010, 05:02:56 PM
Yes. Yes, we should.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Campion1 on August 09, 2010, 05:05:37 PM
Quote from: pokeplayer984,Aug 9 2010 on  03:54 PM
Should we stuff Universal's e-mail box with this request?
Most definitely.

And to add more to this thread! They should include a gallery of their old merchandise and deleted scenes, isolated voice acting, and heck, a another disk with all those neat special features!
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Petrie. on August 09, 2010, 05:08:59 PM
Doug, here are the issues I see with a couple of things:

Quote
-First time in hi-def widescreen (1.85:1)

While possible, the OAR of the film is 1:37 or the Academy Ratio of 4:3.  To make it widescreen you actually will lose some of the picture.  It can be done but its kind of like the ol' crop the widescreen picture so it could fully fit in a 4:3 tv.  I'm one of those purists...if it was made in 1:37 then it needs to stay that way because that was the director's intention.  Home video was definitely on the minds of Bluth and Speilberg.

Quote
-"Back To The Land Before Time" - Don Bluth, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and maybe some of the writers and actors reunite to reflect on the making of and the legacy of the movie.

If you read one of my stickies in this section, Don was actually not very happy with how this production turned out because of Speilberg's decisions to delete some footage.  I'm not sure you would get them to sit in the same room to talk about a film they had very different opinions on.  Maybe Don alone, but certainly not with Speilberg.

Quote
Never-Before-Seen Footage with intro from Don Bluth (Just to let us know why the footage was cut, and to warn parents about how "phsycologically damaging" it could be to their children, lol...

I think its been brought up...this footage is gone for good.  Extras and special features were also not thought of at this time for a video market so the footage is gone.

Quote
-7.1 Surround Sound
-Isolated score by James Horner

Both would require some extensive mixing for 7.1 sound.  It can be done, but it wouldn't be easy.  The Horner score would be nice, but I think it would be nicer for the general population to get a hold of a cd of the music first and foremost since you can't rip stuff off of Blu-ray (not yet anyway).

Blu-ray is nice, but I won't adopt the format and have to double dip on films.  I see no value in it for me while my dvd copies work just fine on a 29-inch tv. :)
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: dino-doug on August 09, 2010, 05:09:54 PM
I'm going to contact Universal right now!
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Petrie. on August 09, 2010, 05:11:53 PM
^Universal has given the shaft to practically any animated film they've released.  Don't be surprised if they don't do anything.  An American Tail was far more popular and it can't garner any special release from Universal.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: landbeforetimelover on August 09, 2010, 05:22:45 PM
I couldn't care less about BluRay.  It's just a big hyped up ripoff.  But I would be glad to see that maybe Universal still cares about LBT and might be willing to continue it.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Petrie. on August 09, 2010, 05:23:16 PM
For those pushing for that "widescreen release", Bluth and Goldman did this for the 25th anniversary of Secret of NIMH when MGM offered them the chance to clean up the print and release a new dvd...

Look at the screenshots on this review:

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/secretofnimh.html (http://www.ultimatedisney.com/secretofnimh.html)


That is why you don't want to matte a full-screen film.  One of the pictures has some of Brisby's head cut off for the closeup. :neutral  There are quite a few closeups on LBT so I'd be very concerned with the cropping that would need to be done.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: dino-doug on August 09, 2010, 05:29:28 PM
Quote
QUOTE 
-First time in hi-def widescreen (1.85:1) 



While possible, the OAR of the film is 1:37 or the Academy Ratio of 4:3. To make it widescreen you actually will lose some of the picture. It can be done but its kind of like the ol' crop the widescreen picture so it could fully fit in a 4:3 tv. I'm one of those purists...if it was made in 1:37 then it needs to stay that way because that was the director's intention. Home video was definitely on the minds of Bluth and Speilberg.

But... I thought it was originally widescreen!

Quote
-"Back To The Land Before Time" - Don Bluth, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and maybe some of the writers and actors reunite to reflect on the making of and the legacy of the movie. 



If you read one of my stickies in this section, Don was actually not very happy with how this production turned out because of Speilberg's decisions to delete some footage. I'm not sure you would get them to sit in the same room to talk about a film they had very different opinions on. Maybe Don alone, but certainly not with Speilberg.

Hmm... You've got a point there... Bummer!

Quote
Never-Before-Seen Footage with intro from Don Bluth (Just to let us know why the footage was cut, and to warn parents about how "phsycologically damaging" it could be to their children, lol... 



I think its been brought up...this footage is gone for good. Extras and special features were also not thought of at this time for a video market so the footage is gone.

Well... That stinks!

Quote
Blu-ray is nice, but I won't adopt the format and have to double dip on films. I see no value in it for me while my dvd copies work just fine on a 29-inch tv. 

Well, maybe they could include a DVD in a combo pack or something.





Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Adder on August 09, 2010, 05:34:17 PM
Quote from: dino-doug,Aug 9 2010 on  04:29 PM
Well, maybe they could include a DVD in a combo pack or something.
Like The Land Before Time and The Pebble and the Penguin? Or The Land Before Time and The Rats of Nimh? Those or any other of Don's films that resemble animation wise?
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: f-22 "raptor" ace on August 09, 2010, 05:37:45 PM
the DVD combo pack sounds good.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: dino-doug on August 09, 2010, 05:38:25 PM
Quote
Well, maybe they could include a DVD in a combo pack or something. 


Like The Land Before Time and The Pebble and the Penguin? Or The Land Before Time and The Rats of Nimh? Those or any other of Don's films that resemble animation wise?

No, I meant they could include a DVD of TLBT with the Blu-ray packaging for TLBT!
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Petrie. on August 09, 2010, 05:49:37 PM
The only film Don Bluth made in widescreen was Anastasia for Fox Studios in 1997 (and probably Titan AE but never saw it to confirm it).  Everything from the 80s and early 90s has a full-screen OAR.  Widescreen TVs were not the norm in these days and these films would likely be seen on tvs at home, so hence the 1:37 ratio.  Anyone who tells you these were in widescreen are pulling your leg and don't know what they're talking about.  Yes, they appeared widescreen in theaters but they were matted and cropped so they looked that way, but that wasn't the picture from the animator's or director's intentions.

Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: pokeplayer984 on August 09, 2010, 08:02:56 PM
They could include a 4:3 option.  Wouldn't be that hard to do.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: WeirdRaptor on August 10, 2010, 03:31:56 AM
Even if we do get Universal to do something for the 25th An., there's still the problem of getting Spielberg and Lucas into the same room as Bluth. Good luck.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Kor on August 10, 2010, 09:18:31 AM
1 or more of them may do a commentary but they may be separate cometary tracks if they dislike each other, or only 1 or 2 of the may be willing to do a commentary.  Maybe with 1 or more of the voice actors, animators or some other who worked on the movie also in some capacity.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: dino-doug on August 10, 2010, 09:57:15 AM
Well, Spielberg doesn't do commentaries. He wouldn't do them for the movies he directed, much less an animated movie he produced. Lucas does do commentaries, but I doubt he'd do one for TLBT. The best bet is that Don Bluth himself would do one. Now, what other features could be on the Blu-ray?
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Adder on August 10, 2010, 09:58:52 AM
Quote from: dino-doug,Aug 10 2010 on  08:57 AM
Now, what other features could be on the Blu-ray?
Trailers for all thirteen movies and the tv series? Screenshots from the movie in a slideshow format?

That's all I could think of.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: dino-doug on August 10, 2010, 10:20:18 AM
Maybe they could include the pictures of the deleted scenes. I've seen them on this website. The scene where Spike is lured out by Ducky with the berries seemed to be fully animated, and I read that it aired on T.V. in Finland. If the full scenes could not be put on the Blu-ray, at least put the still-frame pictures of them on there!
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Spiketail on August 12, 2010, 06:03:52 PM
If Don Bluth and Gary Goldman were to do a commentary for this movie, it would be no-holds-barred. They have a tendency to criticise their own work in their other commentaries, so I think they would be more than happy to explain the struggles they faced while making this film. Plus, as some of you already know, Spielberg and Lucas do not record (or possibly even listen to) audio commentaries, so there is a chance of Bluth and Goldman criticizing Spielberg and Lucas's more childlike vision of the film.

Yes, dino-doug, maybe they will include those pics in a promotional materials gallery. Speaking of galleries, maybe some behind-the-scenes photos could be shared as well...
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Amaranthine on August 12, 2010, 06:23:59 PM
It would be nice if this was on blue-ray huh?  

I personally don't want to get blu-ray players. Sure I could get it and still play my DVDs, but I don't see the point buying this expensive player if my DVD player gives me good image on the screen and I enjoy just my DVDs. It still works very well.

Also, now that we have downloads and can watch our stuff on on the computer and convert it to MP3s, I don't see the reason for blu-rays other then make them like test drives for something that's going to be better.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Belmont2500 on August 12, 2010, 09:34:41 PM
If they had to release it on Blue-ray they should at least release it on DVD as well, after all Blue-Ray is almost pointless compared to DVD. Maybe they could release a limited edition on VHS and Laserdisc  :lol
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: landbeforetimelover on August 12, 2010, 09:50:24 PM
I do like the concept of VHS over an optical type media like DVD or blu-ray, but the better picture of DVD is what sold me there.  But I really do hate disks...
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: WeirdRaptor on August 12, 2010, 10:43:28 PM
Actually, George Lucas does record commentaries. He has one for each Star Wars film.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Spiketail on August 14, 2010, 09:59:30 AM
My mistake. Though I do wonder what Spielberg has against commentaries...

Was there a making-of special made during the movie's release? Maybe that could go on the Blu-Ray.
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: Pikkutassu on August 14, 2010, 10:07:29 AM
Quote from: Spiketail,Aug 14 2010 on  08:59 AM
My mistake. Though I do wonder what Spielberg has against commentaries...

Was there a making-of special made during the movie's release? Maybe that could go on the Blu-Ray.
yeah there's something like that on the laserdisc
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: dino-doug on August 23, 2010, 11:12:40 PM
What was the making-of featurette on the laserdisc like? What else was on it? Details, please! (Oh, and I edited my first post; I took out the widescreen feature, since it was apparently originally full screen; I geuss those of us with widescreen TVs have to watch the stretchy version, or watch it with the black bars on the side, which is just weird looking. And I added more people for the "Back To The Land Before Time" featurette.)
Title: This should be released on Blu-ray
Post by: dino-doug on August 25, 2010, 02:39:04 AM
You know what other animated franchise should have a Blu-ray/DVD re-release? An American Tail and Fievel Goes West! In 2011, it will be AAT's 25th anniversary, and FGW's 20th! Here's what the features could be:

An American Tail
Features:
-Full Screen (1.33:1) (Yep, no widescreen for this one, neither!)
-5.1 surround sound
-Isolated James Horner score
-"Somewhere Out There" music video featuring Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram
-Trailers
-Publicity gallery (for posters, merchandise, etc.)
-storyboards, art galleries, etc
-Games
(I don't believe there was a making of featurette or deleted scenes... If so, they should be included too)

Fievel Goes West
Features:
-Widescreen (1.85:1) (Yes, this one was actually filmed in widescreen! And it has yet to be released on DVD here in the U.S. I read it was in Australia)
-5.1 Surround Sound
-isolated James Horner score
-"Dreams To Dream" music video featuring Linda Ronstadt
-Trailers
-Publicity gallery
-Art and storboard gallery
-Games
-And if there was a making of featurette and deleted scenes, they should be included